visualstudios

Just imagine, in any other type of service, having a 4.7 average review being considered bad, or grounds to being deplatformed, demoted. No other business can get screwed and lose money badly because of one idiot client. But here? You better be god, or else. But hey, even god didn't appeal to everyone, his son was crucified. I'm screwed, then.

We are overreacting? When they clearly state first time buyers are clueless, and if they are unhappy for reasons we can't control, that "can have a significant impact on your Gig’s visibility "? When they don't say exactly what's wrong, so we can't know what to improve? When this only serves to fester paranoia? I'm tired of being treated like a criminal. My buyers are happy. This is nonsense.

Nope. A first time buyer satisfaction drop. Crucial difference.

10:31 here.

Just got it. If everyone is getting it, it's meaningless. Sure, remove all the pro and trs from the search results. Leave the new buyers to go with an ever rotating roster of meksells. If this is how things are, I'll outright refuse to work with any new buyer from now on. The sheer audacity of the e-mail, btw - "Make sure to offer revisions to the Buyer so they know you can address any issues they may have Have patience! New Buyers are unfamiliar with Fiverr so it is crucial they know you are there to help them throughout the process" I have my policy revision very clear. Extra revisions cost TIME. That costs MONEY. Fiverr doesn't care. I'm not a baby sitter. I'm not CS. I'm a video editor. I don't want to be handling clueless new clients that can tank me. No thanks. Good luck fiverr, you're digging your own grave with these attitudes. I revamped my upw profile, I'll look more into getting direct clients outside platforms, and look into other platforms. I'll also sell my Fiverr shares, I don't trust this company or its management. If they keep going this route, I may actually short it. It's heading down the drain.

@donnovan86 Yes, I was aware of that as well. I've seen people here saying things will never change, again and again, for years. That 20% is a small price to pay, that Fiverr will never accept less, etc. Well, we'll see about that. Competition is good. Upw has long been considered much more professional in the industry (as opposed to the low value platform with a bunch of hacks perception that plagues Fiverr), and now it's significantly cheaper as well. If Fiverr is serious about attracting serious professionals, they have to do something. If Fiverr wants to stay true to their initial reputation as a cheap platform for cheap services, then whatever. Personally I don't think that's very smart - all low value stuff will be gobbled up by AI fast. At that point, Fiverr would be better served by just becoming an AI services company, have no sellers, and sell automated logos and copy. That seems to be their goal, sometimes - then they can keep 100%.

Upw has gone to 10% across the board. The market is shifting. Fiverr will have to adapt, or be left behind. Honestly, I'd much rather pay a fixed fee to use the platform. The % based payment always felt unfair to me - you're paying more if you make more. It's the same with taxes on work, btw. Why should success mean you need to pay more for the same thing? It shouldn't. I get the same service from Fiverr if I can sell $10000 as if I can sell $100 - same site, same cs, same marketing. Make it a flat fee, if you make more it's because you earned it.

Pointless. You can't make them read. Also, there are next to no consequences for a buyer. If they break tos, so what, they lose the account. A buyer account is worthless.

If it's your face, why would that be a problem?

You don't need to accept custom offers. You can reject them.

Well, everything will depend on the interpretation the buyer makes of the message you send. You don't control that. You can send them what you think is a perfect message, catch them in a bad mood, and be marked as spam right away. Without them even reading it, just because they were annoyed by the notification. Of course the more you know the buyer, the better command you have of the language, the better you are at marketing, the more you can mitigate that risk. But you don't control how the buyer will interpret it. If you want to risk it, fine.

One message can be spam. That's the point.

You can contact previous clients if there's a good reason for doing so. If it's to beg for work, that's no good reason to do so. If there's a chance they'll consider your message spam, there's no good reason to do so. If you have to ask, there's no good reason to do so. You can send them coupons, that's encouraged by Fiverr, and it's a reminder they can order from you again.

He provided absolutely no value. He's not doing this for your benefit. He's doing this because he thinks (wrongly) that this will help him get sales. It won't. It clogs the forum. And no, it's not best to read from a novice. They're a novice from a reason. If you go to college to study, would you rather the teacher was somebody without any schooling? That's crazy. You want the PhD. The experienced sellers know what works and what doesn't. They've done it. They've failed more than the novices have even tried. Not to mention, they have access to information new sellers don't. They have success managers. Some of them (Frank D, for example) have even been invited to go to Fiverr's HQ to discuss ideas in person with the CEO. You realize half the people on this thread were in a zoom call with Fiverr headquarters just yesterday, talking directly to the people who work there, about how the platform functions? I didn't see any "novice seller" there.

Want a review? Here you go: I've seen a lot of bad shoppify gigs over the years, but yours manages to stand out. That's pretty impressive, but probably not for the reason you'd like.

I know, but that wasn't my point. On UPW, you pay for bids that may not convert. Now, on Fiverr, you pay for promoted gigs that may also not convert. It's the same principle. The fact that someone clicks on your gig doesn't mean they'll buy it, you'll also have to "bid" in a way. You have to chat with them, and they may not go with you. The fact that is the costumer initiating instead of you doesn't change the fact that you need to "bid" on every project. At least I do - I do not do direct sales from my pages. I don't even allow it. A conversation always takes place first. A conversation where I have to sell, and usually with people who are also having that conversation with other vendors. So it's in effect also a bid, just by another name. Sure, if you want people to go to your page and order straight from there, without asking you questions, comparing you to other quotes, etc., then it's different. No high ticket sales work like that.

Oh, so it's just like promoted gigs, just better (since you won't spend money on spam)? Interesting.

This is not totally accurate. That's one of the cases, yes, and was the only option... before. UPW also has profiles and clients contacting you directly, just like Fiverr. They also have retainers (so, keep getting paid on a fixed schedule, so the bid argument is way less relevant, since it's recurring revenue once you land them), etc. They keep introducing new features. Competition doesn't exist only among sellers. It also exists among platforms. You can't simply put a fixed % commission because it's competitive at a certain point, and expect that to last forever.

That would make some sense if the pay per click actually worked. If I'm paying per click and get spam, people asking for work, and people requesting things I clearly state I don't do, I ain't paying per click no more. I don't want (or need) thousands of impressions and clicks per month. I need 5-10 impressions and clicks per month. The right ones. Unqualified leads are nearly worthless.

Yep, that's the key. It's not worth it because of that. Direct clients outside the platform pay upfront, and if they aren't reasonable, that's it, I get paid either way - I did spend my time and effort. I obviously try my best to make them happy, but if they aren't happy, they aren't happy. That's life, you pay for things you end up not liking, some times. It is what it is. On Fiverr, it's always up to the client if you get paid, no matter what you do. Not to mention a disgruntled buyer outside the platform can b*tch all they want, if they are rare it doesn't matter, won't affect my business at all. On Fiverr? A single crazy buyer can tank you. That's not ideal.

If you bring them to the platform, you do get the 20% back under the affiliate program. The thing is, even then, it's not worth it. Why would I subject myself to a review that can potentially jeopardise my business, be exploited with endless revisions, and wait a month for the affiliate commission, when I can get paid upfront, and do business on my own terms?

This was also talked about in the roundtable. Upw... has a 10% fixed commission now. Not to mention options for hourly rates, retainers, removing selected reviews periodically, etc. Fiverr needs to step up their game, specially for people selling for higher prices, otherwise they'll just bleed top talent. It already has a pretty bad name in the industry, as a low value, exploitative platform. They should do whatever they can to move away from that, otherwise they may well go back to being the place where you hire Jesus to sing you happy birthday for 10 bucks.

I can't easily classify "slumps", because I'm a low volume seller. I can have a great month with 2 orders, if I happen to land 2 big ones. It's much harder for high price low volume sellers to know if it's a market thing or just luck. I've had great months with low impressions, because I landed a couple big deals, and bad months with a ton of impressions, because it was all low value stuff.

Now at least they can't claim they don't know what the issues are, not only with that, but with a lot of systems on Fiverr. Pretty much all the pain points referred to by everyone were unanimous. If they'll do anything about it is a different story. I'm not holding my breath.

Yeah. I find it very helpful to have a call prior to order start, much easier to judge their attitude that way.