[Welcome & Intros 🎤]

Hello,

I’m a classical pianist and composer. Although I am waiting until I’m a little more confident on Fiverr/have access to better recording equipment to post any music gigs, I have been passionate about classical music for a long time.

The story behind my discovery of piano is a bit lengthy, but I’ll try to keep it short. Even though I have always loved classical music since I watched an orchestra on television at 6, I had special needs that restricted me from being able to learn to play. I finally was able to start music at 14 (after working really hard, my special needs have been compensated for), but something didn’t click as I tried to do more pop-based genres. Fortunately, some videos reintroduced me to classical music, and I have made some surprising progress. I am at RCM Level 8 after 4 years (including starting at 14), and I am working on Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude as of now.

Alright that wasn’t short at all… sorry haha.

That’s a lovely story Elliclaire. I’m not a lover of classical music, but I can appreciate the level of skill needed to write it let alone play it. Congrats on your achievements so far and best of luck on your musical and Fiverr journeys.

[Welcome & Intros 🎤]

Thanks.

Actually, I have and I left that out as I didn’t want to sound like I was self-promoting myself.

I currently have 7 titles (e-Books) that I sell at a popular online e-Book platform.

I have also self-published a volume of poetry of mine.

I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting.

My profile at another business-oriented social network listed all of my work.

I self-published a number of booklets related to local history.

I think I’ve completed a total of 16 titles including the e-Books.

As you can tell, I don’t really keep track of it…lol

That’s really cool. You obviously love the written word and actually make a living from it. That’s a win win 🙂

I like history that’s close to home too, it’s great hearing about the major events, but I love the normal day to day stories of the people that lived where I live. What their lives were like etc.

[Welcome & Intros 🎤]

Hmmm.

Where do I start?

I’m George and I have 40+ years of experience in Media.

I have spent 20+ years in Broadcasting (DJ, news reporter, morning show host, advertising sales, advertising voice over and production, advertising script writing, music director, janitor, transmitter level reader, coffee maker, etc.) and ended that career as the Assistant Manager of the radio station in the community I have settled in, in Southern British Columbia, Canada.

My second career started in 2000 when I was hired as the Advertising Sales Manager for a small local weekly newspaper. That involved all aspects of print advertising including graphic design, etc. In 2004, I bought the paper and became the President/Publisher/Owner. That included all the activities you would expect of a business owner plus all editorial duties. I also took a lot of photos for the paper. My wife assisted with all the clerical work.

I started my third career quite by accident. In 2014, when things were getting hard for the newspaper, I turned to the internet looking for some way to generate some extra income. I eventually came upon the idea of doing some freelance writing on the side. Since I was already doing this in my business, why not have some fun writing blogs for other people online?

I found a lot of success doing that an became a full-time freelance writer in 2016. We ended up closing the newspaper business down shortly before that.

I’ve been freelancing since.

Other stuff about me: I’m heavily involved in my local community as a volunteer. I’ve been either the President or Vice President of many of the non-profits that operate in our community. In 2016 I was honoured by the Rotary Club with a Paul Harris Fellowship - the highest honour Rotary issues to members or community leaders.

As if I’m not busy enough, in October 2018 I was elected to our local Town Council and am currently serving a 4-year term as a local civic politician.

That should be enough of an intro on me.

Wow, you’ve had, are having an interesting life.

Just wondering if you actually write for yourself? Fiction, non-fiction?

[DO This, Not That! (Part 3 of the Seller Tip Trilogy)]

On 1/18/2021 at 2:52 PM, zreine said:

1- Add a gig video even if what I do as nothing to do with video editing or things like that.

• First, I can show more than the 3 sample pictures Fiverr allows.
• Second, it shows Buyers I’ve put time in my gig, so it looks serious and more professional.
• Third I was able to add some sketch and work in progress in my gig video, as well as some traditional paintings which shows I’m not lying about my artistic background. “I’m the real deal, you won’t get scammed.” Is what my video tell Buyers.

2- Stay online 24/7, I’ve tried it, refreshing regularly and keeping open the Fiverr app on my phone. I did that for two weeks, didn’t get a single order. Then one day I forgot to charge my phone and went to sleep. After 10 hours off line I woke up to an order. So I gave up on that, it’s clearly useless to stay online all the time, it even seems to have the opposite effect!

3- My video have been on my gig for around a month (not sure) and since it’s been there I’ve receive double de messages I used to receive before. I didn’t take all of them as a Job, but the positive impact exceeded my expectation by a lot. It costed my 50$ for a Seller to make my video and since it’s been up I got 5X my money back.

Great tips, and you even created work for a fellow Fiverrer 🙂

On 1/18/2021 at 2:56 PM, looseink said:

Well, it took over a year before I got my first job here. In the time it took, I became a Buyer and hired a handful of Sellers for small jobs. It taught me a lot about how to best present my Gigs if I expected to get any work here.

So I started with a $5 Gig. After getting a crazy amount of business, I added more Gigs and raised my prices to $10.

I still got a crazy amount of work.

So I split my Gigs and started running tiered pricing. So, for different options in one Gig you would be paying $15, $20 and $25 depending on the options.

I was still busy.

It was at this time I started increasing my rates every six months.

It kept working until the pandemic flooded Fiverr with tens of thousands of newbies looking to get rich.

What advice DID NOT work?

Promoting myself on Social Media.

That is a waste of time.

Excellent advice again, very informative.

Getting the perspective of the buyer is a great idea too.

[DO This, Not That! (Part 3 of the Seller Tip Trilogy)]

On 1/18/2021 at 2:20 PM, mvrphotodesign said:

1. Increase your price and decrease your amount of revisions, it changes the way buyers view you: a little more exclusive. Ofcourse this totally depends on what kind of work you deliver. I myself put in A LOT of time and effort. Offering absurdly low prices and unlimited revisions makes it very easy for buyers to take advantage of you.

2. Saying yes to every buyer request you get. Decide what buyers suit you or not, otherwise you might end up overworking and getting major headaches.

3. So far I’ve completed 14 orders and I’m currently working on another 4. I think I started implementing the advice after my 12th order or so - rather late! So I can’t say anything about consistency yet. Because not following this advice eventually messed up my mental state a bit.

Excellent stuff. I had a friend who started a business painting houses, he decided that he had to undercut the competition and work fast 🙂 He was the cheapest in the local area, but got very little business as people assumed his cheap rate was a reflection of the quality of his work. any business he got he did well, but the income wasn’t enough to give him a good return. He increased his rate and ended up getting more work that he could handle.

On 1/18/2021 at 2:28 PM, vibronx said:

It would be interesting to hear from someone, but I suspect that most people who ask for tips on the forum are not able to comprehend the advice they are given - either because of language barriers, unwillingness to accept and apply criticism, because it is too much work, or because they simply do not have the necessary skills to apply them.

Also, I suspect that some of the sellers requesting tips are not really looking for advice but are just posting random threads because they have heard that posting on the forum will bring them sales (which is not true, by the way). Many say “thank you for your valuable tips” when you point out that their gigs are breaking ToS, something that should require immediate action, but if you look at their profiles weeks later, they still have the very same gigs up. Again, I think many simply do not comprehend what we are telling them.

Of course, this does not apply to everyone. Some genuinely do want help. In fact, I have seen a few people I have helped on the forum gain sales after applying my tips.

Personally, since I started reading the forum, I have stopped offering “Unlimited Revisions” after hearing all the horror stories. I never had any issues, but at least now, I never have to worry. It was also useful for me as a new seller at the time to hear that not all buyers are necessarily good people. Sometimes they are out to trick you or hurt you.

Good points. It seems odd to seek out advice and then to ignore it, so it does point in the direction of not actually wanting advice or being too lazy to follow it 🙂

On 1/18/2021 at 2:32 PM, katakatica said:

Not just on fiverr but in life in general as well.

Choose your battles. I used to butt heads with buyer’s when I first started (I admit it was a little silly) and often still lost - sometimes it’s easier to cancel an order when it’s obvious that things aren’t going to work out (or when someone is driving you mad.) But do fight for yourself when you need to (buyers requesting extra without paying, etc. Etc. Just don’t… Stress over it too much.)

And of course, the ever-so-true only offer something you are good at! It might be obvious but some people still need to learn it. (And I also took my time finding what I was decent and and what is something I don’t enjoy / struggle with).

(And sleep. Don’t stay up 24/7 waiting for miracles. Whether you’re awake or not doesn’t matter.)

Great advice 🙂

This is all turning out to be the kind of a stuff our parents would tell us, which we ignored 🙂 Which we then told our children and they ignored 🙂

[DO This, Not That! (Part 3 of the Seller Tip Trilogy)]

3: How long ago did you implement the advice, and has it been consistent?

Good point :).

No takers so far.

[DO This, Not That! (Part 3 of the Seller Tip Trilogy)]

I’m newish to the forum and Ive noticed a lot of people asking for and receiving advice on improving their gigs/sales.

My question is to the people who followed the advice. 🙂

1 What advice actually worked for you, when it didn’t seem likely?

2 What advice didn’t work, even though it seemed like a great idea?

[Your preferred DAW?]

I’m another Logic user. Great value for money, if you own a Mac 🙂 I’ve been using it for years and am still learning new things about it.

I used a 4 track back in the 90s so I appreciate how lucky we are to have DAWs in our lives 🙂