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whildebrand

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Everything posted by whildebrand

  1. I wasn't aware of that. If there is 0 sales, there is no invoice. If you have no invoices you have a non-issue. I was highlighting the situation as it could present itself to freelancers on the platform if they live in the EU and are only invoicing one company. I think we all agree that we want to be independent freelancers and also strive to make it work for us. I cannot speak on behalf of Fiverr as I am not a lawyer and that is also not my concern.
  2. Regarding your statement "It's just like Uber or Bolt, or any other similar apps/services." Actually, remember when the UK banned Uber in London? They came to some form of license agreement in the meantime, which is valid for 18 months as I recall. But it hasn't been as straightforward as you suggest. Ubers legal team is definitely a very big department within the company and I am sure they are hard at work to exploit any loophole they can find.
  3. Let's agree that we disagree on the employment status. But I can tell you, that I had to learn the hard way.
  4. @donnovan86 - Regarding employment status. The employment status is not dependent on a contract. There may be some jurisdictions where contracts override employment law, but in most European countries and jurisdictions, employment law takes precedence over any contracts. In Europe, the employment status is not decided by Fiverr, a contract, or what you as a freelancer belief your status to be. It is determined by the tax authorities when they examine your invoices and the overall nature of your work relationship. The United Kingdom and Ireland may be different, as they have a highly contract-based legal system, and their employment laws are some of the more liberal and deregulated in the Western world. Many EU countries have very high employment costs. As a result, many companies have decided not to employ workers directly but instead engage them as freelancers. This is a well-known practice. However, since this has been abused in the past, employment laws have become stricter in Europe, and most countries have precisely regulated when an individual is considered a "freelancer" and when they are deemed an employee. This determination is not made by a company contract (though it can carry some weight) but is evaluated during tax audits. I know this from experience, because I have been in a similar situation before. It is especially risky if you, as a freelancer, only invoice one company, say Fiverr. If there is a tax audit, that is when alarms could go off, and they will scrutinize your invoice history and then determine whether you were employed or genuinely freelancing. Again, in Europe you do not determine or control this situation, nor does the company. The government does. This, of course, will then have tax implications, among other consequences. The situation becomes more complicated when you are living in an EU country and are working for a company residing in a non-EU jurisdiction. I suppose the first question would be your status, the second who has jurisdiction, the third question would be how your status will impact your tax situation. Also keep in mind, that the government doesn't really care if you interact with many clients. They only look at who you send invoices too. So you may be working with many clients on Fiverr, but at the end of the year, after you receive your Statement of Earnings from Fiverr, you only send one invoice to Fiverr. How many clients you have, is not determined by who you interact with, but who you send invoices too. So for the government, you only have one client not many clients. And if you only have one client over a period of many years, the government may suspect your freelance work relationship is an attempt to bypass employment laws. Since every country has different laws, it is best to consult your tax advisor and ensure you are not operating in any grey zones that could come back to haunt you later. If you live in an EU country and want to play it safe, ensure you invoice more than one client and avoid working for just one company. You could also contact Fiverr support for more insights, but my guess is, they would refer you back to your tax advisor. I would recommend one that has experience with international jurisdictions.
  5. 1.) Your idea: "If buyers don't spend a cent on Fiverr, the platform and its sellers would become useless." That is correct. However, if sellers don't offer any services, any money spent by buyers would be useless just the same. Hence, both parties, sellers and buyers alike, are equally important. So I'm not sure why you keep coming back to this one-sided notion that only buyers are important. It's simply not true. 2.) Your statement: "Well, we are not hired by Fiverr." I'm afraid you haven't thought this through properly. You are, in fact, working for Fiverr. Maybe you want to hold onto the idea of being a freelancer, which is understandable, but you are not really a freelancer on this platform. Let me break it down for you (and, I may add, this in fact closely aligns to how most western legal frameworks define employment): a) You get paid by Fiverr! b) You invoice Fiverr at the end of the year after receiving a statement of earnings. You don't get paid by clients but by Fiverr! c) You don't "own" any of the clients; Fiverr does! d) Fiverr has a time tracking system, and you are expected to work regular hours. Fiverr lets you know exactly which tasks you have to complete and when. People who spend more time on the platform get promoted, while those who spend less time get demoted. e) Fiverr has a bonus/penalty system to ensure you behave appropriately towards their clients. f) There is even a clause in Fiverr's Terms of Service preventing you from advertising your freelance services on Google Ads for any similar services you offer on Fiverr. So you may not "freelance" outside of Fiverr in the proper sense of the term, similar to what any employer would demand of you. You can look it up in Fiverr's Terms of Service. g) Most "Freelancers" on the platform actually have one major client only, which is Fiverr. There is a difference though, as other employers typically don't ask you to refund 20% of your wage to them. Perhaps you could argue that it is part-time or irregular employment, but Fiverr is certainly not a freelancer platform in the classic sense of the term. Instead, it's more like a giant agency that has a lot of irregular or part-time employees engaged with Fiverr's clients in a competitive work environment. You can leave the platform any time, but you can also end any other employment at any given time. If you look at how the EU (to name an example) differentiates freelancing from employment, the characteristics listed above from point a) to point f) are all major markers that point to what your status legally seen really is. I won't go into more details, but to say "You are not hired by Fiverr" is false on many levels. 3.) Reviews. Many of the things you mention regarding reviews may hold true for gigs that are small and have a high transaction rate. For instance, if you offer copyediting for $15 per order, and you complete 10 orders per day, then one bad review or one more revision is not a big deal. However, if you have a major business website with e-commerce integration and possibly a significant website migration worth over $1,500, an order that may take a week or longer to complete, the situation quickly changes drastically. In such a case, the transaction rate is much lower, and every client weighs much more than in smaller gigs. Just do the math: One out of four reviews a month as opposed to one out of potentially 100 reviews a month. One bad review can be irrelevant in the latter case, while one bad review can completely destroy the performance of your gig in the former case. It remains to be seen if the new system will actually bring an improvement here (judging from what people have stated above this could be the case). 4.) Difficult clients. Fiverr knows exactly which clients are difficult and which ones are easy to deal with. They measure metrics such as the number of revisions a buyer demands, certain keywords that come up in the message thread, and, of course, the very obvious buyer-side cancellations and refunds (to mention just a few metrics). Should these clients be weighted differently when they post negative reviews? Let's spin this further: What happens if Fiverr sees in your seller metrics that you are especially patient and good with difficult clients? Does the algorithm then shower you with tough clients? This is just one of many "fairness" related considerations that Fiverr will decide in their algorithmic alignment. These algorithmic decisions are made by Fiverr on a daily basis and should to be aligned with moral, ethical, and safety considerations (= AI Safety). If these principles are not transparent or made public to all parties involved, it is difficult to determine whether the system is fair. These principles also need to be balanced equitably, ensuring that the interests of both sellers and buyers are considered equally because both are equally important on the platform. I hope Fiverr succeeds and it is my firm believe that only a fair system will be sustainably and successful in the long-run.
  6. "Just do your best and try to keep people happy. There's nothing else to do at this point." Interesting point you make and Fiverr support keeps making exactly that same point. But keep in mind that any economic transaction is based on a system of give and take. We are not in the business of philanthropy. It is not a one-sided transaction as you seem to imply. We are not in the business of making people happy. We are selling a service. We provide services, for which we expect to get paid by the buyer. We don't work for free. We never signed up to work for free. If you want to make people happy (which is an honorably thing to do if you can afford it), the salvation army is the place to be. We pay Fiverr 20% of every transaction in return for a fair and balanced work environment. That is a service that Fiverr owes to us. Sellers pay Fiverr a lot more than buyers do btw, yet we get treated a lot harder by the algorithm. Judging from the many comments in this thread, sellers are feeling overly burdened by the system. I appreciate that you want to explain how the system works, but the concern on this thread does not seem to be how the system works but why it works the way it does. Why is there such a bias towards buyers at the expense of sellers? The algorithm and system is aligned by Fiverr's management team. It can be changed and many of us believe it should be. I, as I am sure many of you, have worked extremely hard for Fiverr in the past years (at 120% performance) and I have always been loyal to the company. I have always paid my fees to Fiverr and in return expect that I and you as sellers and freelancers on the platform are treated on equal terms with buyers. But that does not seem to be the case. If the system only values freelancers that give away free services to make buyers happy, then the system is seriously flawed, unbalanced and biased in a very big way. To expect newcomers on the platform to offer more for less is one thing, but to make that into the prevalent business model for all, is a whole different ball game. It is the path that ultimately leads to workforce extortion and I really hope that this is not the goal of the leadership at Fiverr.
  7. I couldn't agree more. My main reason for choosing Fiverr as a seller was efficiency. I won't get into the value for sellers in terms of monetary gain, because for many that was never the real reason to be on the platform. But without efficiency, what are we left with? Some weird algorithms no one understands (including Fiverr support) that keep increasing the burden on sellers?
  8. In fact, the review in question is for one of my relatively new gig offering of mine, not the best-selling one that has consistently received excellent feedback and which suddenly dropped in performance. I've been in contact with Fiverr for several months now, and the introduction of the new rating system hasn't helped but made things worse. I usually get a cut and paste answer from Fiverr support, not really anything I can work with. Concerning the one 3-star review among many hundred 5-star reviews: The client was initially pleased with the website I delivered. However, the client then continued to request additional features post-completion. I accommodated these requests for a while, adding services worth 800 Euros in total as a gesture of goodwill many days and weeks after completion, before informing the client that further work would necessitate a new order. Subsequently, the client left a negative review out of spite, only to later express regret and a desire to revert their feedback. I told the client to contact support (which I also did), but unfortunately, Fiverr declined to alter the review, despite it being a clear case of retaliatory criticism unrelated to the quality of the work delivered. It appears that clients from continental Europe, without referring to any specific country, may not fully grasp the gig-based model. They are more accustomed to traditional, contractually obligated web design and IT services, expecting ongoing revisions even after project completion. The review you mentioned was posted long after the order was marked as completed by the client (I believe a significant 20 days after finalizing the order), which was surprising as I was under the impression that the review period was limited to 10 days. It seems Fiverr frequently implements changes without notification, but I may be wrong and may have misunderstood the review process. Many clients are attracted to Fiverr's competitive pricing but still anticipate comprehensive agency-level support, including continuous updates, long after a project is concluded. This expectation is particularly prevalent in web design and markets unfamiliar with the gig economy. I find myself dedicating hours each day to responding to support inquiries, with Fiverr offering little in the way of protection. This lack of support from Fiverr is remarkably unfair and inefficient for sellers. I've noticed that clients from the US and the UK have a better understanding of the gig model and for this reason, I'm considering removing my second language proficiency from my profile in hopes of attracting my original US-based clientele. The current situation is far from fair. Navigating these new markets for Fiverr feels like I am used as an icebreaker vessel cutting through hard and dense ice, especially as I educate customers from newly targeted EU regions about the platform's operations, personally absorbing the hits when they are in fact unhappy not with my service but with how the Fiverr system operates. Also, these clients often expect multiple Zoom calls even before placing an order. For those working with German-speaking clients, a more forgiving rating system would be beneficial, given the increased difficulty and time investment required. If I were given a choice, I would simply opt out of such regions all together. If there is a way to do that, please let me know!
  9. I was top rated seller (plus Fiverr Choice) with 5 star reviews for many years now, but with the new rating system all my gig performances have dropped to zero. I haven't received any orders from new clients for many weeks now. Zero. Occasionally I get some jobs from existing clients, which isn't enough to sustain my presence here on Fiverr. If this continues and nothing changes, I will have to migrate all my primary selling offerings elsewhere.
  10. It seems that Fiverr has silently introduced a new price display (some time back) and is now "hiding" its own buyers fee's directly in the seller's offer price instead of showing them only in the checkout process. As a result, I have had some complaints from my clients, that after we agree on an offer price the actual price on my offer is now higher than what we have agreed upon. After sending screenshots back and forth and investigating the matter further, we found that Fiverr is not being transparent about its own fees in the first impression the client has. Fiverr Fees should be visible & transparent immediately, not just at checkout. Why? If Fiverr "hides" its own buyers fees in this manner, it makes the seller look like he/she is overcharging in their custom offers. But that is not all. When you are selling to Euro Market (or any non-dollar market), there are 4.5% extra fees. Fiverr charges hidden currency conversion fees that are not transparently displayed as such to the buying client. These are not shown at all. Example: 1370 USD (agreed offer price / seller price) 1386 EUR (offer as seen by buyer) At todays currency conversion rate, 1370 USD should be 1259 Euro. Yet Fiverr is asking for 127 Euro more. 72 of which are buyers fee. 55 Euros are (probably) currency conversion fees that Fiverr does not display as such in any way (that's a whopping 4.5 % conversion fee). All these fees are displayed in such a way, as to give the impression that the amount was part of the clients offer (again, it looks as if the seller is overcharging). Also, since I live in the Euro Zone and the client lives in the Euro zone, why is there any conversion from EUR > USD > EUR going on in the first place? Apart from the fact that Fiverr fees of almost 30% on the total transaction are very high compared to other platforms, the fact that these fees are not transparently shown to the buyer and then tugged away into the sellers offer is a bit disturbing. Fiverr should be transparent about ALL the fees it charges and it should not "hide" them in the buyers offer. What do you think?
  11. It would be great, if we as sellers could have an A.I. driven SDC chatbot that uses an LLM, our orders and client conversation as a dataset from which it can then answer questions about previous client messages / orders (not to be confused with a seller rep chatbot for buyers). Example: As a seller, I remember that I had a conversation with a buyer previously regarding solar calculators. Another client is asking the same question. I already answered all the same questions, but I have no idea where the information is. If you have many clients and threads, it is hard to find. With an AI chatbot that falls back on my client's messages and order information, all I would have to do is ask the bot a question: "Find all my conversations relating to solar calculators and create a summary". It would save us sellers a lot of time and I am sure most of us would be willing to pay a monthly fee for it. Fiverr could probably implement a SDC beta version with the help of the API from OpenAI in a couple of days. The newly released developer API from OpenAI offers advanced functionality including some enterprise features that offer custom training and privacy for datasets, so implementing this feature technically should'nt be a problem - scaling is of course a different issue). If Fiverr is looking into it and needs a beta tester, please consider me. I would also provide and help with valuable feedback. Cheers
  12. @smashradio PayPal and Payoneer present significant drawbacks: 1.) Payoneer's debit card requires a minimum top-up of 500 USD (to the best of my recollection). In contrast, other banks and payment providers like PayPal automatically deduct the transaction amount from the available main currency balance, making it far more convenient for freelancers. However, 2.) PayPal imposes exorbitant USD to EURO conversion rates that can climb as high as 3.5%. For EU residents, this effectively results in a loss of around 13.5% (comprising fees and exchange rate differentials). 3.) While PayPal supports instant transfers, the same functionality is not as effective in Payoneer (at least in my personal experience). 4.) My attempt to employ Payoneer as an intermediary for transferring funds to my local bank or Revolut proved less than ideal. To start with, Payoneer lacks support for instant transfers, causing delays of several days (this after a two-week wait on Fiverr). Furthermore, free transfers are confined to the currency of your country of residence. Any attempt to transfer USD to a European bank or services like Revolut incurs a 2% charge from Payoneer. 5.) The well-remembered Payoneer incident during the Wirecard collapse (a company Payoneer relied upon) when our funds where frozen, significantly damaged my trust and was a shocking experience. Trust is paramount in the banking sector and trust has eroded as a result of the incident. In essence, the existing transfer framework ensures that either PayPal, Payoneer, or Fiverr profit from currency exchange. There's no cost-free avenue to channel your PayPal USD funds to a European bank. This central issue affects all Europeans or individuals residing in countries with non-dollar denominated currencies. Superior fintech banks like Revolut or Wise are more tailored towards freelancers in many regards. Take Revolut, which offers great interbank rates for currency conversion (surpassing the exchange options on Fiverr, PayPal, or Payoneer by far). Additionally, they grant the flexibility to choose the local ATM currency for your debit card — a feature valued by digital nomads. Comparatively, companies like Payoneer and PayPal appear antiquated and restrictive. Wise is also a good option. I personally speculate why Fiverr confines transfers to PayPal and Payoneer as exclusive options; there may be some kickback deal agreements in place, or it helps sustain their currency exchange business's competitiveness. Incorporating Revolut would likely diminish the reliance on Fiverr, PayPal, or Payoneer for currency exchange, as Revolut's xchange rates are very, very good. Since this is our hard-earned money, the notion of begging for the ability to transfer funds to our own banks seems unreasonably. Such discussion shouldn't even be necessary. In some countries it is even unlawfull to restrict transfer options (from employer to employee). An urgent solution is needed to directly channel USD to our banks (be it Revolut, Wise, or local banks in our country of residence) without incurring excessive fees. Fiverr already profits from each transaction, charging buyer and seller fees, alongside benefiting from the unfavorable exchange rates. It's uncertain if they also receive incentives from Payoneer and PayPal, but that is really not the issue here. They deserve it, but they should'nt restrict our transfer option as a result of it. Once approved, the funds are supposedly ours, but this really only holds true if we can independently decide our own preferred bank for transfers—eliminating the burdensome cycle of recurring fees. Personally I don't think Fiverr will ever act or make any changes to its current fund transfer policies (sorry to disappoint), as they are subject to profitability and share-holder scrutiny. Things will probably only change if there are laws in place that warrant that "employees" are allowed to tranfer to their bank of choosing directly. But that also seems very unlikely, because there are complicated jurisdiction issues: Both Fiverr and Payoneer are companies with HQs in Israel, so US or EU laws most certainly don't apply. I guess that is one of the drawbacks of working with a non-US or non-EU platform.
  13. For your average European seller, a $100 Fiverr earning equals €33 real income. How is this possible? - 20% Fiverr fees - 2% Deduction Payoneer for Transfer or Exchange or 3.5% Paypal fee for USD / EUR conversion - USD / EUR arbitrage loss aprox. 10% 33.5 % is lost by the time funds arrive at the local bank account. Of what is left, aprox. 50% is deducted by social security and income tax. By the time we Europeans go shopping, 100 USD Fiverr earnings has been reduced to 33 Euros. That's about 1/3 of what we make as freelancers and amounts to a 66% effective deduction. $100 Fiverr Earnings = €33 real income Certain deductions cannot be changed. But I think its time that Fiverr give us a better way to transfer money, so at least we are not burdened by excessive currency conversion fees. Paypal has the worst currency rates in the industry. Payoneer gets you when you convert or when you transfer USD to USD (as then they charge a fee). Fiverr could introduce a currency hedging and arbitrage system that would fairly spread currency risk across all parties including buyers, sellers and Fiverr. Since Fiverr is not a financial institution with arbitrage expertise, we can assume this will not happen in the near future... ...but please at least add the Freelancer Bank Revolut as a possible withdrawal bank directly in Fiverr - at least do so for EU citizens; it would greatly benefit most of us EU Freelancers, as we are dealing with very hard and burdensome USD > EUR conversion losses. Most other international countries (like the Asian or American continent) have no issues, because their currency is either denominated in or pegged to the dollar. Not so Europe / UK. We carry the full burden as a result of conversion loss. Thanks.
  14. As a seller, I find myself spending an excessive amount of time explaining to my clients how they can add extras and upgrade their orders. The list containing these options is incredibly hidden within the sales pipeline. Seriously, there's just a "Show more Extras" link? I have never come across a sales pipeline where upsell items are concealed from the buyer's view. It's comparable to walking into a store with empty shelves and instead finding a note saying, "Please call the manager to see what you can buy." Clearly, this aspect was not well thought out. When clients place an order, most of them are completely unaware that they can enhance their orders with extras (upsells). Consequently, I often have to manually explain to each client: - That there is an availability of extras for their order. - Which ones are necessary. - How to add the extras to their order. This situation is frustrating for both buyers and sellers. Moreover, the inability to include images with upgrade options is highly disappointing. Additionally, the character count for optional item descriptions is severely limited. While this might suffice for smaller gigs, it is inadequate for large web projects. Consequently, I find myself repeatedly explaining each optional item, over and over again. Why? I kindly request that you make upsell items visible, just as they are in any proper sales funnel on other platforms. If I can add a proper image and description then I dont have to re-explain optional items continuosly. It may be beneficial to send the Fiverr UI/UX team to a workshop that focuses on implementing best practices for sales funnels and emphasizes how UI/UX experience can either hinder or drive deal velocity and upsells. Both buyers and sellers are wasting valuable time. Many upsells opportunities go unfullfilled, because order options are hidden from view or there is not enough space or attractive real estate in the UI to explain them properly. As a result, Fiverr and its sellers are losing revenues. It's a classic lose-lose situation. Cheers!
  15. @mart_gart - I am struggling to understand your buyer's concerns: You seem to forget that Fiverr is the equivalent to a low-cost carrier. If you book a $45 flight on Ryan Air, Easy Jet, India Express or JetBlue, you don't get to re-schedule your flight as you see fit. You don't even get peanuts. On some flights, you don't even get water any more. Period. But the ticket will cost you 1/10th of any regular fare. If you're one pound over the luggage limit, you pay. If you want to re-schedule your flight, you will loose your ticket, or you pay. The only way airlines can survive, is by efficiency and by charging extra for extra services. There is no "but I want to extend, I want a steak, I want champagne. I want to fly two days later, I want, I want, I want and I want it all for free!! Imagine you call the airlines and ask them to re-schedule a flight for free, because your corporate decision making process is so slow, you won't make it to the airport in time? Or because you need to play golf on the weekend? Really? How much can you expect when you're paying $ 45 for a flight and how much more do you expect from a 10 dollar logo gig here on Fiverr? Why should we as sellers, being paid a lot less than what your classic agency is charging, concern ourselves for the interest of large wealthy coorporation and their time schedule? If buyers require agency-style corporate treatment, they can pay 3000 dollars for a logo at an ad agency, where they can sip champage and extend deliveries as much as they like. If Fiverr wants to start handing out champagne and candy to buyers, they can do so, but not at the seller's expense. Pay for extensions, yes. Hand out freebies at the sellers expense, no thank you! If Fiverr takes "efficiency" out of the equation and keeps squeezing sellers hard, then Fiverr will not remain an attractive option for sellers; The best sellers can properly afford to leave first. The platform will loose quality services and eventually become a trashy spam platform with no real quality left to attract any buyers. As Freelancers, we get paid a third and in some cases only 10% of what we would get paid as an agency. But Fiverr also deducts a 20% commission from the seller. The only reasons this can still makes any sense (although barely) is efficieny and a system that properly manages buyers expectations. If you keep giving buyers more and more, and keep squeezing sellers harder and harder, the system will eventually fail. Fiverr is breeding a new generation of high-maintainance buyers who keep wanting more for less, while Fiverr will struggle to keep sellers and good services on the platform.
  16. When a buyer now extends the review period, I don't even get notified by Fiverr any longer! Fiverr just silently updates the message "seller has until _______ to approve this delivery". Fiverr adds 5 days and that is it. I get no notification! No message! Nothing! I am being treated like I don't exist! Since this feature is very unpopular among sellers, it seems like Fiverr is trying to be very sneaky when the review period is updated. How would buyers feel, if sellers just extended the delivery date by five days without consent and then don't even get notified about the change? Sorry, but how is this treatment "balanced" - as suggested in the introductory paragraph? What a disservice and total disregard of the seller community here on the platform. I am just speechless; this is just so bad, and just getting worse and worse! When our freedom and our concerns are disregarded in such a way, what still seperates us from being digital slaves? Nomen est Omen. Fiverr. Five days extension. Never ending story ...
  17. Regarding the "extended review" test phase and possible long-term integration into the system, I would like to suggest a compromise, that could work well for Fiverr, for buyers and sellers alike. I would like to post it here for general discussion to my fellow sellers (who I dearly respect and cheerish, given the fact that our common work enviroment is becoming more challenging by the day)! From my experience, revision abuse, revision violation or prolonged revisions are more likely to occur in basic gigs. My suggestion (based on my experience only): 1.) Fiverr should offer "extended review time" in the premium version of our gigs only! This will motivate buyers to "up the ante". It will also minimize abuse where it occurs more frequently, which is (from my experience) most likely to occur in the lower tier and basic gig versions (Fiverr should be able to verifiy this easily). Should buyers that spend less, get the same features as premium buyers? Propably not. Two benefits: More incentive for revenues, less for abuse. 2.) The "extended review time" should be limited to a one-time affair, as sellers need to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel and also uphold some time management standards. Buyers can then buy an optional "review extension" if they need it. 3.) Opt-out: Sellers need to have the chance to opt-out of the "extended review" plan entirely, especially for larger and time-consuming gigs. Fiverr can decide if they want to rank them differently, but we need to have this opt-out for high-end gigs. Fiverr will risks becoming a 5-dollar gig platform again, as the current system incentivizes low-tier gigs, as they carry less risk for sellers. I'm currently assessing to drop my high-end gigs completly for that reason. Extension of the review period for a 15 USD gig is not the same as a review period extended for a 1000 USD gig. High-end gigs will start to become a serious liability for sellers. Let's not forget, it takes a lot more time to complete large orders, and those large chunks of unpaid days can prevent sellers from meeting their own financial obligations at the end of the month - no electricity bill paid, no work for Fiverr! In comparison, Amazon's treatment of its merchants hasn't really turned out well for them - see below). Fiverr shouldn't repeat such costly mistakes for minute short-term gains. 4.) Quid Pro Quo: If buyers get an "extended review time" without requiring mutual consent, then Sellers should be able to receive a free "delivery extension" as well. Fairness is the best guarantor for loyalty. The opposite is true as well! There is a negative precedent: Amazon's treatment of merchants has resultied in a big backlash for the company, as merchants are leaving their platform and regulators are spilling out large fines. I truly hope Fiverr does'nt makesimilar mistakes. This is not a sustainable way forward. There has to be a fair balance. Future backlash is something that metrics and AI cannot properly measure or predict. To look at short-term numbers only, without seeing long-term relationships, most likely will be a big mistake. Most of Fiverr's revenues come from the 20% deducted from the Seller's income. Buyer's only pay a small fee. They are also attracted to the platform, because of the services sellers offer. The important revenue stream Fiverr receives, it receives from the sellers. We sellers are in fact the juice, that makes this place work, and we are the actual clients of Fiverr. You need to treat your clients well. I also doubt that over-engineering a platform, one that has worked well so far, is a very good idea. The negative risks far outweigh the minute surplus Fiverr's management may be able to squeeze out of the system. You milk a cow to hard, it will get sick or die. In the case of sellers, a life outside of Fiverr could start to become a lot more attractive again! Is this really in Fiverr's interest? PS: As Sellers, we should also be concerned how our data is currently being used. For instance: is our creative work currently being used in datasets to train new Fiverr A.I. models? Models which could eventually be used to replace us? A big elephant in the Fiverr room I know, but one that also needs to be discussed (;
  18. Great tips for embedding. Thank you! But a badge is not really a profile embed. It's too minimalistic. Also, for some reason Fiverr is using an image in the banner badge that I did not upload anywhere on Fiverr (not my profile pic, not my gig pic). Text cannot be changed. The badge itself lacks useful information. It has zero information that would inspire anyone to click on the badge / banner. It says "Seller" and "check out my gig". How is anyone supposed to know what I am offering? This solution is half-baked and too minimalist to the point of being utterly useless. What would be awesome, is if we could create an iframe embed of the actual profile with all the gig badges / blurbs / cards on it. That would be helpful. Is anyone actually using the minimalist badge that Fiverr is offering now? Surprise me please... Fiverr developers should check out other social sites to see how to embed information. Good examples are "Spotify", who offer both link and player embeds which are top notch and easy to use or twitter and the like. The current badge looks a bit like a failed copy of their affiliate solution. To get serious we need: 1.) Full profile iframe (with all gigs) - This is important for freelancers to showcase their gigs on the website 2.) Embed of single gigs. 3.) Enquiry form embed linked to Fiverr (maybe). Also, why cobble together an unfortunate looking badge with irrelvant information, if you can simply embed the gig cards which we spend hours creating and optimizing already anyway? I love the Fiverr system 95%, but things like gig or profile sharing, as well as the seller dashboard UX need serious overhaul and improvement. The seller dashboard in general feels more like a buyer dashboard (one example, when I click on a client Fiverrname link, I am taken to their reviews. As a seller I need the Fiverr name URL to link to the message thread. I look at reviews once a month but need the message section many times daily). Anyway, just some ideas. Cheers, Walter
  19. I had some time to assess Fiverr's new roll-out over the holdays. For larger projects like websites and other more complex orders, my guess is, that Fiverr will not be a suitable platform for sellers any longer (unfortunately). It’s already been very borderline in those areas. My conclusion for sellers: Rather than having few large orders, that can impact your liquidity greatly if they get stuck in endliess revisions, focus instead on smaller gigs with higher quantities, which will help you offset any orders stuck in endless "extended" review loops. Fiverr has already introduced many features that have led to a decrease in seller liquidity and there is no real reason to assume this trend will stop. Who knows what will come next, payments only at the end of the month? Here is what is already hurting sellers: 1.) The amount of revision we offer in any gig are pointless: Buyers can keep asking for them and Fiverr won't stop it. Buyers can ask for 200 revisions and then cancel the order, with no questions asked. 2.) Most companies will have holiday boni for their employees. At Fiverr, our payments are deferred over the holidays. So, our liquidity decreases at a time when sellers need it most. 3.) With their newest "extended review time", seller liquidity is cut even further. For larger projects, this can become a real existential problem for many. Since buyers pay Fiverr immediately, I understand that all these measures help Fiverr's liquidity as a company and will improve its standing vis-a-vis shareholders. But it happens at the cost of sellers. Since this has become a trend, I am assuming this to get worse before it gets better (for sellers). Sellers have no way to stop it. If Fiverr insists on the new roll-out, I predict that sellers will start to look elsewhere to offer their larger gig projects (e.g., websites projects and the like). They will move to platforms that have more favourable terms for sellers. Fiverr will return to where it originally came from: Five-dollar deals (which I assume may still work well for sellers, even under these very unfavourable conditions). This transition won't happen overnight, but as a seller I would start thinking seriously about creating smaller deals, focusing primarily on higher quantities. Start preparing now and plan ahead, so you don't get stuck in the liquidity trap. It's a bit like the extincion event of large dinausours. In rough conditions, only the small mamals survived. Fiverr will remain a great platform for small gigs, sellers who adapt could still manage to survive even in this climate that keeps getting rougher. Go small, go quantity. Stay away from larger gigs and you may just be fine.
  20. Here are my reasons why I believe this is a terrible idea: 1.) The main reason I was attracted to Fiverr as a seller was efficiency. Not because orders pay more, since they actually pay less than what I would get anywhere else. But efficiency helps my workflow and helps me save time, which translates to a more likely profitable outcome. Clients had three days to review orders; many clients asked for a "Revision" at the end of the third day without actually handing in revisions. Which gave them six days. With another extension of 4 days this would amount to a total review period of 10 days. This would push me over the edge. Again, my main argument to be on Fiverr was always EFFICIENCY. If that is lost, I am gone. I am not interested in a no-win, lose-lose situation. 2.) I don't see how this will benefit Fiverr? If sellers leave the platform, because they continuosly get disenfranchised in favour of buyers, then this will also hurt buyer satisfaction in the long run. If there are no more good sellers on the platform, buyers will leave and look elsewhere too. 3.) I don't see how deferment of payment will benefit anyone? Fiverr will loose, sellers will loose, buyers will not understand why sellers are struggling with the new system and deeply unhappy. Will this help to make buyer-seller relationships more friendly or will this introduce more friction. I think it will be the latter! 4.) Why is there no fair and balanced treatment of buyer AND seller interests? If the seller gets four more days for review (without seller consent), why do sellers not also get the possibility to extend an order deadline by four more days (without buyer consent). Where is the fairness? Pretending to be fair, and being fair is not the same thing. 5.) To-date, the Fiverr system has educated buyers to review orders in a three day period. Buyers often extended that for another three days out of courtesy. This timeline was good and worked well. With the new system, Fiverr is most likely encouraging procrastination. We are all human, and we all know what happens when you relax discipline. This is a pandoras box that has just been opened and it will lead to a dashboard full of incompleted orders. 6.) If you have many orders waiting to be completed, it is already very hard to juggle order completion with revision requests. Keeping revisions within a three day period has helped sellers time it all well. If review periods are now extended, this will become alot more difficult and chaotic. When assessing the feasibility of this new feature, Fiverr should also look at the following metric: "Are buyers leaving the platform because of it". If Fiverr insist on keeping this new feature, my guess is they will. This feature is a mistake on many levels and I truly hope that Fiverr will rethink it's position and keep the system feasible not only for buyers, but for sellers as well.
  21. I am very surprised that this was introduced now and buyers were not informed. I just found out about this now when a client extended the review period for 4 days on an order due for completion today without my consent (the client also told me he will extend for another two weeks into January). I was neither contacted by Fiverr nor the client about this in advance. Buyers always had the possibility to demand an extension through the resolution center. But it does mean that they have to ask the seller. It means that in a contractual relationship mutual consent is upheld, as the buyer has to agree. Also, I am sure many sellers would agree to extend the period if they are disembursed for the delay of payment. Delaying payment without consent is another disenfranchisement of sellers of Fiverr. If this becomes policy, I will leave the platform. Cheers
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