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melissaharlowvo

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Everything posted by melissaharlowvo

  1. Same here. I noticed all the sellers on the first page have also had their rating dropped. Very few 5 star sellers now. Definitely frustrating and confusing.
  2. I made a simple mistake in my initial chat and the person seriously thought I was from Russia lol!! Buyers are so afraid of getting “chatted” that the initial chats need to be very authentic. He also said that I responded so fast, he thought I may have been a bot. Oh dear!!
  3. Julia, Congrats on your new gig. Once you get an order, your dashboard and order will guide you through it. The most important thing is to respond quickly, be professional, kind and have solid order requirements so your buyer knows what you need. You should read all the Fiverr help guides that you can. You should find them easily at the bottom of the website in the footer. Fiverr is an amazing platform and gives you so many tools to succeed but it starts with you.
  4. From a seller’s perspective, I agree about messaging that seller. When a buyer reaches out to me and doesn’t engage with me or have a willingness to answer my questions, then I always feel this buyer won’t work with me as a collaborator. Since Fiverr is an online platform, we have to collaborate to get the best result for the project. We have chat or video so we have to use either. Otherwise, I always feel revisions are coming my way. Because the buyer did not communicate with me. Rarely do I not have at least a question after I get an order. You have to communicate with your seller…period.
  5. Wow everyone! And @cyaxrex you ARE an amazing writer. Although my gigs are voice over, I take the same stand. I say that “this is not an audition platform, rather an order platform.” I think asking for FREE work on Fiverr should be against the Terms of Service. That is what a great portfolio is for.
  6. This is the perfect reason why you need to be vigilant about checking your stats and overall account. I check at least 10 times a day! I have spotted things and when brought to Fiverr’s attention, they swiftly take care of it. Thank you @breals for adding your scare to the forum! My heart would fall right out of my chest if I saw that!! I appreciate that you told us your situation because if I see this on other gigs or my own, I will report it ASAP!
  7. For the first time since 2018 I fell below a 5 star rating on a new Pro gig. I only have 6 ratings because the gig was new. After this new rating system, I received a custom request and they insisted on a directed session which takes at least an hour. Plus editing and delivering the file. It was all amazing and I even added some takes of my own for free. It took hours to edit the file and deliver it how she wanted it. I charged a directed session fee of $100 because this is VERY time intensive to conduct a directed session. I can make $100 in about 10 minutes so my value for the money was VERY LOW on my end as the seller. I proceeded anyway with a great and positive attitude. The buyers narrative review was glowing and perfect, but she gave me a 3.7! What? Ughhhh! Shocking! The value for service was average (3) So the challenge now is, my gig now says 4.8 and that is unacceptable for me and to be honest embarrassing in my Pro status. I even asked what I could have done to improve my work…and crickets. She even said she would be coming back. I don’t think so! No more custom offers from me. My public response was, “part of growing is trying to listen and foster honest feedback.” So yes, this makes me very nervous!
  8. I think over time people will start knowing what a ChatGPT script sounds like. I already get orders to re-do an AI voice because it sounds so terrible. It’s a real skill to take a ChatGPT script and make it sound conversational as a voiceover. Now everyone thinks they are clever by using chat when in reality unless you know and understand prompting, then you will just get a regurgitation of everyone else’s script. I wish more people would chime in to this conversation but thank you!
  9. I am seeing more and more scripts sent to me that have been created by chat gpt. They are cliche and wordy and no one talks like that!!! I’m going to start charging to edit a chat gpt script. The buyer will say, “feel free to edit” and in my head I am thinking, “so you want me to make this conversational with cliche wording and sentences that are meaningless and sound like everyone else’s wordy stupid scripts?” I don’t mind a word or two but seriously, these scripts are so bad. “Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed?” ”What are you waiting for?” ”Take charge of your destiny!” Need I say more? How are other creatives working around the awful ramblings of Chat GPT?
  10. @chelseavo yes And so far, I have not had any issues. Go to the NAVA website as it’s a huge help! You do not have to be a member to get the AI rider.
  11. I added a few phrases in my order requirements to challenge this issue of people using my voice for other purposes or outside of the project they paid for. Although it would be difficult to enforce, I think it slows down and prevents someone who wants to steal my voice. I think it makes them nervous to agree to such statements. The first statement is: You agree to not use or extend usage to any party of any recording or performance of Melissa Harlow VO, in order to train machine, learning, and The second statement: You also agree to not create any synthesized or digital double voice, or likeness of Melissa Harlow VO from this order. The buyer cannot move forward to order without agreeing to these statements. Also, thank you for NAVA and the industry work it’s doing on behalf of all voice artists. Some of the wording was taken from their contract rider. They give open permission to use any and all parts of the rider. www.navavoices.org
  12. I frequently use music that I have the rights to use. However, it clearly states in most music services that you cannot just sell the song. It based to be used as part of a project. So if you were sold anything except an original work by that seller, you may have been sold something that was not permitted. The seller may not know this so if he/ she doesn’t, they are about to learn a valuable lesson in music copyrights. The seller should also be able to provide you some type of statement of copyright use if it’s from a service but it won’t stick unless it’s used in a project… NEVER ON ITS OWN.
  13. What an interesting question. No not really. I admit that I need to listen to more music. I get stuck in news. What can you suggest?
  14. Your writing is pretty clever. Yes the Whisper room is so heavy it’s ridiculous! But all that weight makes it very stable. The chirping isn’t an issue it’s mostly low frequency rumbles. We have so many dogs and wildlife and it’s not an issue but live right under a flight path to a small airport so the planes fly low. We also live about 30 miles from Camp Pendleton and I have to stop recording for the c-130 planes! ✈️ You can disassemble the WR but not planning on it anytime soon. if your space works who cares!
  15. @mandyzines there are many sounds that can run through walls and floors.. even with a Whisper Room, planes, trains, tractors and jack hammering are still sounds that travel through the best of treated recording spaces. Yes, Bill Dewees has a Whisper Room. You learn to watch the sound waves for any low frequency sounds. Many times the human ear can’t hear these low frequency sounds but they will be obvious in the wave as you record. Some of the noise can be filtered out but you run the risk of making your recording sound artificial. Having a clean recording is like taking a good picture. If you don’t have the right light to begin with and then try to photoshop everything, you spend way too much time trying to make a Picture look right rather than just take a good picture to begin with. Same with a recording. Just start with a clean recording. After a while, it becomes instinct and you know what sounds to stop and wait for until they pass. Be aware that when you are new as a voice artist on Fiverr, that you really must have a quiet and clean recording space before you can expect to get the high paying orders. The platform is now very competitive and certainly not what it used to be. But with that said, we all started out with one order at a time.
  16. Ok this drives me crazy!! A translation file larger than 2G??? Yeah right! Fiverr allows 2G of file transfer per message! That’s more than enough to pass any creative file within the Fiverr platform. Recognizing and reporting spam is critical for any online activity. Don’t waist your time and energy with spam, trust your instincts and just report it.
  17. The plumbing went out in the ranch house where I live and they were literally jack hammering 10 feet away from my recording space. So temporarily I had to use our RV as a makeshift studio. Ughhh it was awful lol! I could not make it work in my environment. After that experience, I saved up for a whisper room and never looked back! @ericwrightmusic You are a rockstar for making it work!
  18. I would love to see Top Rated Sellers highlighted, similar to a Fiverr’s Choice but on a deeper level. Hand pick a Top Rated Seller and ask them questions to uncover honest and thoughtful answers. I don’t think the community truly understands what being a Top Rated Seller means. It would be lovely to hear raw and honest stories from a TRS to empower other sellers to be kind, hard working and empathetic towards everyone on Fiverr. Not just how to improve ratings and get more sales but uncover the stories that promote authentic people who have families, hardships and still manage to make it work despite difficult circumstances and trauma. These are the stories that inspire me to keep working hard because I value the worldwide presence of Fiverr and would love to know more about overcoming the challenges of life. We all have families and different reasons for freelancing and learning about other TRS would be so empowering. Grinding through the grit of life is what drives many to be a Top Rated Seller. I was on a Zoom call with a wonderful buyer who lives in Israel. His daughter was home and I saw her in the background because it was too dangerous to go to school. Despite the insurmountable hardship, he was still trying to work and create projects even in the midst of daily trauma. I think of this often and it keeps me going when I think I am having a rough day.
  19. To be honest, I love seeing what tests and courses people have taken. It’s more of a curiosity but somehow it helps me feel confident in the seller. I am not a great test taker but those of you who are, should always show your test skills.
  20. The one thing that would concern me is you say he “privately messaged you” so does that mean you went out of the platform to communicate? Somewhere there is a breakdown of procedures and TOS? When you work outside the protections of Fiverr and go against the TOS, then you may open yourself up to people trying to take advantage. Nothing is private on Fiverr… that’s the beauty.
  21. I have been a seller since 2018 and I have seen huge drops here and there. The challenge I have is taking time off because it takes a toll on impressions etc.. Fiverr does an amazing job giving sellers the tools to be on the first pages. Although promoting is a bit tricky because the more you promote the newer your buyers and it can be difficult to reach the “buyers keep retuning” badge that gets you top status on the front page. My guess for the drops is a mix of everything. But pulling out of Fiverr is like investing in the stock market, the minute you start panicking and take all your money out, that’s when the market takes a shift upward! Be in it for the long haul and just ride the wave. I look inward at what I may be doing to cause the drop and try to adjust what I have control over. I make less now than when I first started despite being a pro and TRS but I also lived through Covid, more sellers on the platform, politics, more unplugged travel and family priorities. This response may not help you but it’s at the top of my mind every week. I feel it’s my own life circumstances that may be causing the dip, not my lack of kindness, quality work or 100% with a 1 hour response. But there are those sellers just like me with top notch ratings and stats but don’t take the time off to unplug. So my dip is on me… not Fiverr.
  22. There is no reason to exchange files outside of Fiverr. You are able to exchange up to 2g of file size. The platform is very strict with taking business outside of Fiverr and your protections are gone and you risk your profile getting banned. Buyers can be very tricky so stick to your rules! You may lose an order in the beginning, but you will gain many more in the future if you stand by the platform rules. You should read the Terms of Service https://www.fiverr.com/terms_of_service?mobile_app_web=true
  23. Such a wonderful milestone! May I offer some advice? The English on your thumbnail is not correct. It’s just some simple fixes like: “I Offering You” should say, “I am offering you” I would eliminate unlimited revisions if I were you. Also, you may want to change the phrase “money back guarantee” to, “satisfaction guarantee” These are just small suggestions. Please reach out if you need to.
  24. This new extension time is still way better than any other platform which makes you chase down the money! I don’t work on other platforms because of this reason. I don’t have time to keep hounding people for payment. I think this option is a good thing for buyers. Put yourself in their place. If the 3 days is looming and you are afraid it will pass because perhaps you are new on the platform… and you aren’t sure if the seller will even help you once it’s completed. I personally tell people that I will work with them until it’s done! So perhaps Fiverr and sellers were feeling a bit “left out to dry” and needed a professional way to extend some reassurance to the buyers. It would be great if there were caps on the amount of days like no more than 3 days or 2 extensions. So as a seller, you should define your revision policies in your order requirements so the buyers feel confident going in. I do like the idea that we can extend the days to through the use of a button but buyers have deadlines. If there is a seller abusing this new feature then report it to customer service.
  25. I agree with the logic. You MUST be logical as a freelancer. If you are spending 30 minutes on Zoom for a $20 order and the order takes you 2 hours, your hourly wage drops to $8. The US just raised its minimum wage to $20. You have to do the math. Just saying.
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