cyaxrex

I actually dominated the world some time ago. Giving people their own world domination maps was just something Fiverr did to prevent mass panic.

I will suggest that to avoid any complication, register on payneer and have your own account. It wouldn’t take much time for payneer to approve your account. This is excellent advice. Payoneer is bound by the same Know Your Customer requirements as regular banks and financial services providers. Using someone else’s account is against their terms of service and will inevitably just lead to an account being suspended. Open your own account. Wait for it to be confirmed, and only then attempt to deposit your earnings into it.

Finally, your very own tax-free office with 24/7 free booze. You’re living the dream Miss C! Though, I do think you can get a tax deduction by declaring a space in your home your office too. :thinking: You might want to look into that before you end up with what’s basically a $700 a month substance abuse problem.

This doesn’t make sense, tbh. The international sanctions that strictly forbid any sort of business/financial dealing with people from certain countries is something that came into effect only 2 months ago. So, there was no way for Fiverr to know beforehand that some day in the future, citizens of such countries would no longer be allowed to work on Fiverr due to international sanctions. So, it’s impossible for Fiverr users from such countries to have been forewarned right when they were creating their Fiverr account. The OP had been on Fiverr for a few years before the international sanctions against his country came into effect. So, how could have the OP been warned while registering their account, say, 2 years ago? It’s not like Fiverr could have warned them of something that was going to happen 2 years in the future. What they could have done, however, was let all Fiverr users know (as soon as the sanctions came into affect) that Fiverr has to abide by the international sanctions, too (as they are a registered business in the US) and that they will have to, unfortunately, suspend accounts of Fiverr users who belong to certain countries (the list of countries should have been mentioned in their ToS). Oh, we do know the actual reason. This quote ⬇️ is from a Fiverr staff: I don’t think someone should be discriminated against just because they don’t have a fixed place of abode. Just saying… It also goes against one of the fundamental reasons why a lot of people go freelance in the first place. There are entire coworking networks like coworker.com which exist solely to serve the likes of digital nomads.

If that’s the same free content on your blog, you might reap more rewards by having some of it proofread. 😉

Thank you. This is perhaps how I should have summarized my post. I have had a similar experience, though, not ordering written content. I ordered a voice over just after Christmas from another freelancing platform. The person I ordered from had hundreds of reviews and was the equivalent of a TRS. That said, I ordered from them because of the quality of their samples and the fact that they were Amerian. What I eventually got back was a VO in a British accent which sounded like it had been recorded on a potato. After a bit of digging, I realized they were outsourcing most (if not all) of their work. In this case, the samples I had listened to meant absolutely nothing. The scammer/reseller issue is, of course, the main reason why I am reluctant to give out samples. However, you have also reminded me of my first ever bad experience with a reseller. On my old portfolio site, I had an example sales copy for a bespoke online jewelry store. Back in 2015, just after I started on Fiverr, someone placed a $5 order, sent me this article, and asked that I rewrite it in a way to make it relevant for their business. I had never (knowingly) communicated with this person previously. In this case, I assumed that they were someone who had asked me for samples previously. They had got a sample, kept it on file, then forgotten where they got it from and ordered from me using a different account. The cheek! Of course, not all people who ask for samples are like this. However, as a seller, there is no way to identify who is asking for samples for legitimate reasons and who isn’t. I’ve had this exact experience. People whom I refuse to give samples but who return and order from me anyway, are always people who I politely tell why I don’t offer samples. While I can’t quantify it, I assume that this is because they value my honesty and/or later end up being let down by sellers who do provide samples. All that said, I stopped offering samples completely on Fiverr, due to people asking for specific samples. I could have a person ask for health and fitness article samples. I would send them a link to a diet and nutrition book I have published on Amazon. Then, though, they would ask for a sample in a different tone or which targeted an even more specific niche. Naturally, you are going to lose some buyers by not offering samples. However, I’m fine with that if it lets me avoid timewasters, a few unscrupulous resellers, and people I might just not be a good match for.

No. Some people do. Two people don’t want to but do want to self-promote. I did already clarify that I was not opening a thread in the tips category to have a conversation or debate about whether giving samples was a good idea. This post received 15 likes and does seem to have been appreciated by people who have considered some of the points raised. Either you or @manucornel are more than welcome to create your own tips post for buyers explaining why buyers should never buy from sellers who don’t offer samples. If you do, just make sure to add genuinely helpful information like how to reduce the chances of samples being plagiarised. i.e: And make sure to mention what a huge faux pas it can be directing buyers to things like personal blogs, without properly proofreading what content you make available.

Yes, but sadly not everyone CAN READ. Nor (apparently) can everyone say why they do not agree with someone else, while clearly and succinctly listing their reasons. It is clear to me, that you may have a rudimentary understanding of human psychology. "Wait a minute," a little light in your subconscious has said. "If we try to insinuate that the OP and anyone like him who doesn’t give samples is a talentless crook, we’ll be able to shamelessly self-promote ourselves in the process!" It’s a nice try, but it’s very predictable and very poorly executed. You failed the second you used caps and started shouting like a child having a tantrum. It is very good that you offer samples. I too would want to see some if I was ordering from you. 😉

I don’t know, to be honest. In samples I have from people like a Texas law firm, I change the firm name to an imaginary one and remove all links. I just prefer to err on the side of caution. However, it depends on what you have agreed with your buyer and how you share your samples. The best way to share your samples and cover all your bases might be to use Google Drive: Source I do this to occasionally share samples with off-Fiverr buyers. It prevents downloading and copying content. However, technically someone could screengrab your work and use an OCR reader to steal it. They would just have to be pretty determined. 😉

Under GDPR, you are not allowed to store or distribute personally identifiable information concerning individuals. At least not without, letting those individuals know how you intend to use this information and who you will share it with etc. To explain why this is important, here’s a working example: One of my main repeat buyers operates a major SEO and web development firm in Canada. They outsource the content needs of clients they have worked hard to acquire themselves. Recently, I was approached by someone operating a similar agency, who asked for samples. If I had consent to share samples from my existing buyer, I could have impressed them with samples covering a variety of industry sectors. However, if I had done that and not redacted specific business names and brand mentions, I would have essentially just handed over the contact details of all my existing buyers clients to one of their direct competitors. Because my buyer is Canadian, this isn’t really a GDPR issue. However, it does demonstrate how you can involuntary breach the trust of clients (and potentially damage their own business) by issuing non-redacted samples to just anyone. - And most of the time, you have no way of knowing who is asking for samples or what their motives are. From a copyright perspective, it is even easier to understand. I have (and I think this will apply to most writers) experienced cases where people have used sample content I have provided in their own portfolio and elsewhere. If content which I have provided to one client ends up published elsewhere without a canonical tag, they can get penalized from an SEO perspective for publishing duplicate content. If the original client were to look into this matter, a person hosting a duplicate copy of their content would only have to show that this was delivered by me via a message, to show that they had not simply ripped content from my original clients website. (Basically, they can legitimately pass the buck). At that point (and unless I have explicit proof of consent from a buyer detailing that I might send work they allow me to use for sample purposes to others, which also stipulates how content may end up getting used online by a third party) I could then be found in breach of Fiverr TOS. If the client is based in the EU, I could also be found to be in breach of the upcoming EU copyright directive. In short, anyone who does get permission to use work from clients as a work sample, must make it clear how they intend do use this and guard against problems like those outlined above. As I see it, the only way to legitimately do this is to host sample content on a blog where content can’t be copied, printed, or downloaded.

I have done this too. However, given the likes of GDPR and new copyright laws, I would argue that it is also important to remember to redact any mention in such articles of specific brands and businesses. Also, I’m not comfortable with this myself, due to the fact that a lot of people who do ask for samples, do so with the express intent of stealing content. Like @maitasun, I have been burned by people like this in the past. The most recent case involved a person who did order from me after I send them a link to my blog, but who also copied several articles from my blog to use on their own. (I’m guessing it was not really theirs but a site which belonged to their client.) I don’t feel comfortable asking buyers if I can use their work in my portfolio for this reason. That said, when I do source samples this way, I do occasionally use them when applying to other writing platforms which ask for writing samples, or which allow users to upload samples into protected areas where they can not be copied or downloaded.

It seems that people are missing the point of this post. If I wanted to have a discussion about whether samples are a good or bad idea, I would have started a conversation thread. As it is, I wanted to point out the 100% logical reasons why some sellers do not offer free samples. As well as that, I think it is important that all buyers on Fiverr know how to check any work for plagiarism. - This and understand that if a seller does give samples, it may be the case that any work a buyer orders may be shared by a seller with anyone who asks for samples in the future. To me, these are valid concerns which every buyer should consider before ordering from anyone. So far, the majority of responses here ignore the advice I have given. Instead, they focus on a non-quantifiable ‘feelings’ based argument, that proposes that sellers who don’t offer samples are just stubborn. If that is how you feel, that is fine. However, it kind of misses every point raised in my original post by about two football fields.

As I stated in my post, sellers can do this. However, as I also stated, I find that doing so is ultimately loss-making. When I started freelancing, I created a dedicated portfolio website which featured articles covering a variety of topics. I also have a folder full of Yoast-SEO optimized articles covering several topics which I send to non-Fiverr buyers when they ask for samples. Topics cover everything from cosmetic dentistry to sales copy pieces for Forex trading bots. Sadly, experience has taught me that buyers on Fiverr (and to a certain extent elsewhere), usually respond by asking for more specific samples. This makes creating samples a largely loss-making marketing endeavor. Worse, the majority of people who ask to see samples, are resellers who usually have an ulterior motive for requesting samples in the first place. And how does a buyer know they get a REAL sample from you without paying for it? As well as that, how does a non-paid for sample show how a writer adapts to different sets of requirements? You can’t demonstrate the latter unless as well as a sample, you provide details of the order brief you were issued within the first place. Yes, I hear they gave away a lot of free samples in the beginning. Tough time back then. Especially for poor Picasso, who painted all of his life for free and didn’t make a dime until he was dead… :thinking: Again, we are back to the legitimacy issue. I’ll bet that the vast majority of writers on Fiverr give away samples. Personally, though, I’d prefer it if a seller I was asking for samples politely declined my request, while also letting me know a thing or two about how to check for plagiarism. (Even though I might decide not to order.) As it is, on Fiverr at least, about 50% of people whom I refuse to give samples order anyway Of these, most become repeat buyers. The other 50% usually let slip that they are resellers and to be honest, I prefer not to work with too many resellers anyway. No. I think that when sellers get over 200+ predominantly 5-star reviews, there is a case to be made that those reviews might mean something. If I charged as much for an article as it would cost to build a new website or have a new fitted kitchen installed, I would probably be more flexible when it comes to samples. 😉

The problem here is that this is still work. Also, if you did this for everyone, you would never have time to get any paid work completed. More importantly, if you have samples in your portfolio already, why does anyone need to ask for a sample? Either people ask you for specific samples so they can use these as their own, or your buyer has said to their end client. "how about I get you samples from several VO artists, any you choose which one you like best?" In both cases, you are working FOC for a type of buyer with a higher likelihood to cause problems if they do place a paid order. It’s simply not worth it. At least not in my opinion.

Let me guess. You have arrived here because you are looking to hire a writer on Fiverr, but some of the people you have been messaging won’t let you see examples of their work. Why is that? Are they ignorant? Untalented? Best to be avoided? As a freelance writer, I get a lot of people asking to see samples of my work. Whether it is on Fiverr or elsewhere, everyone wants to try before they buy. As it stands, though, I politely refuse every request. When people ask why, I then end up repeating the same information over and over. In this case, I’ve decided to summarise all of my reasons here. This post may also help some people start shopping a little smarter on Fiverr. I say this as many people whom I refuse to give samples, return days or weeks later to order anyway. Why this happens is simple. Potential clients go on to message other sellers who do provide writing samples. However, after placing paid orders, some then find that sellers aren’t capable of delivering the kind of quality they expect. (Despite having been rigorously vetted beforehand.) In short, reading this post in full could help you save precious time and money. 😉 The Best Writers on Fiverr Do Not Provide Samples - Here’s Why If you are looking for a writer on Fiverr, you might think that it is perfectly reasonable to ask for a writing sample before placing an order. As you see it, good writers will have completed lots of orders for past clients. They should, therefore, be able to send you some examples of their recent work. Alternatively, they should be able to link you to articles published online. However, it is important to think logically. How Do You Know Samples are Genuine? As a writer, I work with hundreds of different clients. In no case, though, do my clients have any obligation to credit me as the author of work I produce. This is thanks to the fact that Fiverr terms and conditions stipulate that as soon as an order is complete, all rights transfer to my clients. What this means, is that when you ask for a sample, I could copy and paste absolutely any article from the Internet into an MS Word document. I could then send this to you (or send a link), and say that I am the original author of the article in question. You will never be able to prove otherwise. Conversely, if you were to place a test order with a seller, you would be able to verify that delivered work is genuine. All you would need to do is use a free online plagiarism checker to check delivered content. An article curated only for you, will not already be published elsewhere online. Best of all, if you were to find that a piece of content has been ripped from the Internet, you can dispute an order and get your money back. Sellers Who Give Samples, Don’t Care about Copyright or Client Confidentiality In the past when I have presented the above argument to potential clients, some have rubbished the idea that sellers might resort to such tactics to fulfill writing sample requests. However, many buyers open themselves up to precisely this kind of skullduggery. Typically, people who want writing samples want specific samples. However, the more specific a writing sample is, the more likely it is to have been ripped from online. It is far easier, after all, for a faux writer to plagiarise an article, than it is for a decent writer to sift through thousands of past articles in delivered work folders in search of a suitable sample. Seasoned writers often have negative experiences working with people who ask for samples. More often than not, people who ask for samples are professional resellers who end up presenting samples as their own to their clients. Good writers rarely give free samples to anyone for this reason. People asking for samples, therefore, start gravitating toward lower quality writers who will oblige requests. (Which defeats the objective of asking in the first place) Most importantly of all, sellers who provide samples of work created for past clients, break copyright rules and breach client confidentiality. Let’s say that a client pays me to write a blog post about their hair salon. Now let’s assume that a different client comes along later, asking to see samples of blog content related to the haircare and cosmetics industry. I don’t know who this person is. Nor do I know what their real intentions are. They might take the post which by rights belongs to my former client, and reuse it in some way. If they did this and the original client found out, I could be accused of plagiarism. Worse, even if the original client did not find out, their SEO ratings might suffer as a result of their content being reused. There is No Such Thing as a Free Sample When potential clients on Fiverr message me to request samples, I try to explain all of the above as succinctly as possible. In response, some people suggest that in this case, I should have a blog which I can direct them to. At face value, such a request is reasonable. What is more, I do have a blog. I also have five published books on Amazon and the Apple iBookstore. However, as already mentioned, most people who ask for writing samples want specific writing samples. Today, a writer might get asked for a beauty blog post sample. Tomorrow, the same writer might get asked for a writing sample related to the automotive industry. Writers, therefore, find themselves in Catch22-like situations, where they need to continually create new sample content for little (if any) return on investment. To get around the above inconvenience, writers can include caveats in gigs, which state that they reserve the right to use delivered work in their portfolio. Sadly, this can deter people from ordering. From a data privacy perspective, all such articles would also need to have references to client brands and businesses redacted, before being provided to anyone else as samples. In short, there is no such thing as a free writing sample. Good writers know this. They will, therefore, often invite new clients to place test orders. This way, writers don’t risk their professional integrity. At the same time, they can dedicate more time to already underway projects from paying customers. But How Can I Asses the Quality of a Writer if I Can’t See Samples? When I politely decline to offer free samples to prospective clients, I inevitably get the same response. A potential buyer will seem shocked. Often, they will also make some sarcastic comment along the lines of, "there are thousands of writers on Fiverr, your loss." The question you need to ask yourself, though, is would you be happy with someone redistributing work you pay for to other people without a second thought? As it stands, no purchase made online or in the real world is ever without risk. On Fiverr, you can mitigate risks involved with purchases by looking at seller reviews. You can also send sellers a message to ask if they would be happy to work on your project. Asking sellers for samples might seem like a logical way to reduce risk further. In reality, though, things simply aren’t as black and white as that.

Did you miss this bit? I assumed it was now clear that Fiverr DOES allow people to verify their identity using IDs not linked to the country where they are currently in residence. The caveat being that Fiverr can not permit some people of certain nationalities to work on the site at all. There was never any evidence to suggest that the OP was a scammer. Nor did anyone make such an accusation. This thread did threaten to become quite heated and the OP is quite obviously upset, as I am sure you would be if Canadians were suddenly prohibited from working on Fiverr. However, Fiverr chipping in and clarifying the situation, has helped to diffuse that. It would also seem that no party is at fault here and no party actively attempted to scam anyone. Sadly making comments like this after things have been clarified just seems a bit needlessly inflammatory.

Not really. I would like to know if I may not be able to work on Fiverr, if I decide to live elsewhere. It’s a pretty big issue for a lot of sellers. Some kind of official guidelines or statement is simply a reasonable thing to expect. - Regardless of who a person is, what they do, or where they are from.

I don’t see that coming. Fiverr can ban who it wants. It is a private company and doesn’t have to explain why it banned someone at all. And this isn’t like that voice actor who was so well known. There might even be things we don’t know about. And that’s part of the reason why it still has such a dog eared reputation among non-Fiverr freelancers. It costs nothing to be open and transparent. When people and organizations aren’t, it’s usually because they do fear some kind of backlash.

Yeah, and hence again it all comes back to a transparency issue. This situation could have been completely avoided if Fiverr had posted clear notice of ID verification requirements and barred nationalities upfront. Instead, they have let a user waste time working when they could have just passed over Fiverr and focused their energy on more sustainable endeavors. I can think of reasons why Fiverr might not want to let details like blacklists for certain countries or the need for ID documents to match countries where users are located out of the bag, However, I can can also see a pretty huge negative PR storm brewing because of such obfuscation also… :thinking: I mean what if Wyclef Jean only has his Haitian passport on hand when he gets asked to verify his identity? This has been a recurring issue for over a year now. It really is a bit of a joke how there are still any questions at all concerning ID verification.

I assumed it was because many in the U.S. speak and write in a dialect not recognized as proper English, and not understood widely even in much of the U.S. Sorry, what was that? 😉

They have a dedicated site for the U.S. 😉

One way of solving this issue could be asking the town hall where you reside, to provide you with the census (I don’t know if I said it right. In spanish: empadronamiento en el ayuntamiento donde resides) Or Fiverr could just get with the times and clarify things like some other freelance sites already do: I guess what we really need is to hear from someone who has already verified their account or (finally) some official guidance.

Yeah, it is a bit of a tricky situation to advise on. It also links to the VPN issue. i.e. Does Fiverr explicitly ban VPNs? As this might be the only way some sellers might be able to get around this problem. It is also a bit worrying for me. Theoretically, I would be okay using a Maltese ID card, even though it says not for identiy purposes/use as a travel document. However, if I were to move to a country in the EU or elsewhere which does not issue IDs to foreigners, I would be in the same shoes as the OP…😦

They might think they know what work for hire means. However, this does not mean you have to deliver source files unless you explicitly say you do in your gig. Whenever I get asked for source files, I simply say no, followed by something like: "I do not provide source files (nor say I do in my gig), as I have my own video style which is made possible by using several propriety and opensource Linux media applications, As a result, even if I were to deliver source files, you would not be able to make use of these without first investing in several different software applications." Your buyers don’t know what your creative process is. In this case, they can’t really expect you to deliver source files, unless you explicitly say you do. Of course, this can’t help your current situation.

If I were you, I’d just avoid working with this buyer. However, to answer the point in question, if you deliver by uploading a file and sending it via the Fiverr delivery system, you are not classed as working for hire. I offer writing. Where I am based (and in most other tax jurisdictions, I am obliged to pay VAT on any document I physically or electronically deliver to a client. This is because I am creating and delivering something of value. Conversely, if I offered to work with buyers onsite and typed an article directly onto their website rather than delivering a file, I would not be obliged to pay VAT on that order. This is because I am not delivering a physical item, I am providing a service and essentially “working for hire.” Throw that at your buyer and see how they like it 😉. (Don’t really.) As for how this applies in practice to Fiverr TOS, the last time I looked, Fiverr does say that all work belongs to buyers on delivery. However, TOS also states that some sellers may charge commercial rights extras for some services. While your buyer may decide to blow smoke through their ears and argue they don’t need to pay for commercial rights, it is likely that they would not pursue this matter in court (given your prices). If I were you, I would simply avoid working with this buyer, as you don’t really know what they are trying to maneuver you into by acting the way they are. My guess would be that even if they do purchase necessary rights, they may come back later insisting that they now own the rights to the overall illustration style you have used in their project. As such, they may ask you for a refund (because you are obviously still offering similar style drawings to other buyers), or they may even insist that you stop offering your service altogether. Refuse to work with them, cancel if they do order, and block them. That’s what I would do.