terrygrantvo

Pfft, for me that's food for three months... ... but I did just eat mac 'n' cheese straight out of the pot with a wooden spoon, so...

My guess is that a small fraction of the buyers willing to leave a public review would also leave a private review. (and that group in total is but a fraction of the total buyers you'll work with) Which means that even one less than 100% glowing private review has the ability to tank your business for indefinite periods of time, which is so asinine that it would be comical if it weren't also such a serious problem. Add to that the fact that the way the private review system is designed (vague surveys, 1-10 scoring, outsized weight given to them, hounding the buyer multiple times, etc) slants it in favor of negative experiences, and... well - here we are. It's honestly hard to see how anyone in charge ever thought this was truly the best way to handle this, which kind of makes you think. But seriously guys... even if SMs were here in the forums all the time... participating in conversations, answering questions, etc. - what do we really expect them to say? What insights do we think they're holding back from us? Surely they don't think this makes any sense either, but they can't say that because unlike us - they actually work for Fiverr. I want transparency, too. I want accountability. I want a fair review system. I want to not feel like I'm lighting $80 on fire every month (between Seller Plus and Promoted Gigs), but yelling at our SMs doesn't appear to be moving the needle. Trust me - I've been doing it off and on for like, a year now. 🙂

I'm probably going to opt out of both promoted gigs and seller plus. My march was $41 spent and zero returned. The month before that was $37 and $25 returned, but that 25 was a one line pickup for an order that was a month old, so.. whatever. Promoted gigs has never been much use, over here, and there has to be a tipping point beyond which it's just not effective anymore, and maybe we're there. As for seller plus, ehh - the buyer stats are nice and request to order seems like it'd be helpful, although I'm afraid to turn it on and end up buried in the search. Honestly, the only reason I haven't already cancelled both is that 1)- I write all this off anyhow, and 2)- I don't trust that there wouldn't be some retribution from the algorithm for having done so. Nothing would surprise me, anymore.

As I understand it, any work from a buyer who found you thru a promoted gig counts as 'promoted' for a 30 day period. I'm not at all surprised we're all getting conflicting info from our SM's and CSA's.

My thoughts are that the title of this thread should have been 'I Am Actively Trying My Best To Make Sure That AI Voice Overs Replace Me'. 🙂 Kidding aside, I am not so much worried about AI replacing human creativity as I am that it will (in very short order) be able to create a dull facsimile that is just good enough that most people simply won't care. Sort of like that ridiculously annoying TikTok/Instagram Reels voice, only... you know, probably better.

My gut says both, probably. Being intentionally obtuse about how things actually work so they can 'spread it around' in a more efficient manner, combined with the unintentional effects of silo'd dev teams each of whom are responsible for only a small part of the ecosystem. I mean heck - the iOS app has had, what - five updates in the last week? That can't be good. My current main gripe is with the Custom Order Request Form thingy. Currently, when a buyer views my page there are two buttons you can click to get a hold of me. One says 'message me' and the other says 'get a quote'. They both do effectively the same exact thing, and go to the same place (inbox). The only reason fiverr would go to the trouble of separating them is if one of them is being used as a measurement - namely how many Custom Order Requests you convert to actual sales (and probably how quickly you do it too). The problem with this, is that people can choose 'get a quote' and then just ask any old random question they like. The number of Custom Order Requests I've received from people who aren't anywhere near ready to actually buy anything is alarming. I mean, some of these buyers don't even have a script written yet. None of this would bother me all that much if I didn't already believe Custom Order conversion probably mattered quite a bit. At the very least, if you choose the 'quote' option for messaging a seller, you should be required to upload an attachment of some kind, and they should probably allow us (as sellers) to choose what the requirements for asking for a quote even are, since we'll all have different needs there. This would prevent all the people who are just 'kicking the tires' on an idea from inadvertently messing up our ability to make money, when they should have just messaged us through the other button. BRB - gonna have to build another soapbox as this one is getting rickety.

The volatility with impressions has been way more pronounced these last couple of months than I can ever recall seeing before. I'll have a three day stretch where it shoots up steadily, and then a four or five day stretch where it just plummets. It's like someone just flipped a switch. It makes it all the more frustrating to see Fiverr continually highlight sellers who work for a tenth of what they're worth and hence have a ton of small orders. Seeing the same four guys at the top of every search, working for 10 bucks, is driving me up a wall. 🙂

Too late - I found a 13 year old half way around the world who was willing to do it for $5.

Is it too early to start drinking?

Agreed. The only thing it would be any good for is a very broad and basic 'Hi it's the middle of the night and I'm not available right now' message, which you'd have to remember to turn on and off anyway.

Also important to note that it doesn't count as an actual 'reply', so you'll still need to actually reply to them in a timely manner in order to keep your stats in check.

Wait - are the people who create & host webinars and other educational events not compensated?

I have nothing of value to add, I just want to say that this whole thread is awesome.

Do they pay in advance (as happens normally)? I'm curious what happens if a buyer no-shows, or no-shows and then comes back later expecting you to carve out more time for them since they already paid for a call.

Agreed. If you need to get a hold of Rick quick, there are better ways to go about it. 🙂

They just need to go ahead and change the name to 'Buyer Vaguely Worded Message About This Thing I'm Kicking The Tires On And Just Want To See How Expensive It Will Be To Have Done' because that's how most of them read. Calling it a 'brief' sort of implies that it's a clear, concise, and organized outline of what they need done and why they need it, which these never seem to be.

TIL that Harry Potter was a real boy who could actually fly around on a broom. 🙂

This is essentially what I say as well. I think it's important to reinforce the idea that their budget is the issue, not how much I charge, and if they'd like to pay less they can surely find a newer seller here who works at lower rates. I'm always available in the future whenever the budget allows for it. All of these are subtle hints that they can cut corners if they want to, but that is, in fact, what they're doing. I find that the kind of buyer I want to work with tends to see the light, eventually. That said, I also have a pretty short leash for this kind of thing, so if they continue to attempt to haggle, I usually just cut them loose.

With all due respect, you don't actually think that's better than being called 'new', do you?

'I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's the best they're going to feel all day.' - Frank Sinatra

How many sellers come in a batch anyway? 5? 50? 100? It's gotta be 5(er) right?

Right, and I agree fully with all of this (srsly - bring it on), but that whole 'force 2/3 off' thing is exactly why they'll never do it. But man oh man, if they do? I hope they sell tickets to the next shareholder meeting after, because I'll buy one - VIP courtside - just to listen to them explain to shareholders why their user base just dropped by 2/3rds. 🙂

I realize this is one of those 'your mileage may vary' sort of things, but I don't know that all the other features put together are worth thirty bucks if the Success Manager isn't a part of the deal. The 'advanced analytics' are... nice (I guess?), but I don't need a flow chart to tell me when I'm doing well - my bank account does a good job of that. The keywords thing is helpful, but you get the bulk of the benefit there by just doing a search yourself. 7 day payout is killer if you're not already TRS (but a lot of us are). And as for this resembling a paywall - a paywall will only work if it is site-wide and mandatory. This is really more like those monthly subscription boxes you sign up for, where one thing in it is sort of worth the $$$ and the rest are basically stocking stuffers. Again, just my 2 cents.

Technically, that's a thing already, but it's still far better to just do it manually. And yeah - you never realize just how much 'junk' there is in normal speech until you have to take it all out.