vickieito

I didn't really expect to be on the forum today, but somehow I found myself here. Then I came back (because that's what the forum does to you). I "liked" a post. I answered a question. Then I answered more because it's so much easier to deal with other's problems than your own. 😊 Especially when you know the answer. Several weeks ago, my husband (Jun) passed away very suddenly. Apparently, his aorta burst (due to AAA), so death was almost immediate. It was completely unexpected and was a huge shock to me and the kids. I wasn't prepared. I'm still not prepared. I'm still trying to process everything. I really don't know what to say, other than I'm going to miss him terribly. I also didn't want to make this a sad post, because Jun never liked how sad people got when people died (he unfortunately lost many family members growing up). So I just wanted to resurrect these two, fun posts from last year that mentioned lessons that I learned from Jun. ⬇️ Jun was a big-picture kind of guy, while I'm more like the title of this post - I get laser-focused on what's in front of me and tend to lose sight of what's really important: Jun always reminded me to take time to stop, be present, and enjoy the moment. He didn't like to put off "fun" today, for tomorrow (because tomorrow never comes). He also made me laugh every day - so hard that tears would come out and my belly would ache ... and the laughter would go silent because I was laughing that hard. Jun was also big on self-care and would call meetings to discuss it: Self-care is something I often forget about it or procrastinate. I think we, as freelancers, tend to do that. But it isn't worth it to jeopardize our health worrying about our seller stats, gig visibility, or monthly earnings. We will be better equipped to handle our orders if we do take the time for self-care. Just being on the forum (after being away for several weeks) tells me there are others like me who are having a hard time "seeing the forest for the trees." It might be a good time for a priority check. Before life throws one at you. Are you enjoying the moment (or just on survival mode)? Getting your daily dose of deep laughter (or just a small "heh")? Taking time for self-care (or hardly caring)? Right now, I'm not really doing the three things mentioned above but I am carving out more quality time for my kids and those I love. I think that's a first step to getting my priorities right.

Hi @aqsariaz540 - I was using two-factor authentication and my Fiverr account still got hacked. The hacker withdrew all my Earnings and shut down my Fiverr account (luckily Fiverr was very helpful and restored my account for me). 1. Check any files/links before downloading them - I clicked on malware that allowed the hacker to access the account of any open windows that I had. 2. Use reliable antivirus software to catch any malware that may be downloaded when you are on the internet ... and don't rely on it. You should be aware that hackers are social engineers, so they will try to get you to do something that you wouldn't normally do (usually clicking on links from apparently reliable sources, such as a reputable company, a legitimate buyer, or an acquaintance of yours). Mine was a buyer who seemed to be an ordinary person wanting me to check out their resume. So be on the lookout to spot these socially engineered setups (and avoid them). 3. Use unique passwords for all your accounts. Hackers are lazy so they will try the same password on several accounts. They are hoping you are lazy, too.

Hi, @bst_digital - Are you having a problem just with your Response Time? If so, having it at 8 hours won't affect your seller stats. It might affect a buyer who's deciding whether to reach out to you in your inbox, but I wouldn't worry about that. I choose not to do business with a buyer who can't wait 8 hours for a response. Sellers should take care of their health and get proper rest and sleep. If you are also having problems with your Response Rate, that would be a concern. This metric is a part of your dashboard and does affect your seller stats. If your response rate is less than 100%, it means that you aren't responding to some of your buyer messages. If that rate is less than 90%, it could affect your ability to move up a seller level (and once you are a leveled seller, it could cause a demotion).

Hi @luisjoselugo, You can keep requesting extensions using the "Extend delivery date" link located in the top right section of your order page. My longest project was extended 5 times and lasted 8 months. Currently, you can extend your order for 60 days at a time.

I know Fiverr does reward sellers more when they are closing orders (and if they are delivering much quicker than the delivery date) - so that's a good sign for you! It looks like you'll probably get an influx of inquiries once you start clearing away those orders in queue!

Why do you keep thinking that I'm treating you as a newbie? I'm really not trying to do that - I'm very conscientious of that since you mention it to me every time. I actually tried to avoid responding directly to you because I know I do irk you for some reason. I don't like doing that. I was just trying to be helpful and called over @Trisha_Fiverr to provide answers to you and over 10+ other Seller Plus members who have been in limbo since Fiverr started making updates to the Early Payout feature. Just wanted to let you know that you have my greatest respect - I'm very aware that you are one of the longest-standing sellers active here on the forum. I'm sorry that my comments always seem to rub you the wrong way.

@Lena, can you help @pramodchoudh188 and his friend?

I don't think it would be that - I started with $5, $15, and $30 prices and aggressively increased my prices when I got 67 orders in one month (with an average of $15 per order). Having that many orders helped me to grow from New Seller to Level 2 within four months since I already had a "seasoned" buyer account. I wouldn't have been able to grow so fast if Fiverr placed an 11-order limit on me. This is the first time I've ever seen Fiverr place a limit for someone doing "too good." It shouldn't happen. I've only seen Fiverr reward sellers for good performance. Can you show a screenshot of what that agent said (blocking out their name)? I'd like to see that limit removed for you.

@Trisha_Fiverr - There are many Seller Plus members in limbo right now because there hasn't been an update on the Early payout. The last we heard was this feature was that several Seller Plus members would lose access to this feature for a short amount of time (2 weeks in July). I reached out to @noahd_success in August and he said that we would get an update as soon as new information was available. At that point, it was understood that our access to this feature was related to our performance (again, it was believed to be a temporary thing as the Early Payout feature was being updated). However, it is now September, and I've seen many Seller Plus members on the forum saying that they still don't have this feature and they are wondering if they will ever get it back (or if there is a new, permanent rule that paying Seller Plus members may not be eligible to have this feature due to performance). Can you provide an update clarifying what will happen with this feature? I understand that Fiverr can make changes at any time: However, even though "prior notice" is only required for program changes, Seller Plus members should at least be notified of changes to features that are included in the program, so that they can be aware of these changes.

I wonder if the kid hacked into his dad's Fiverr account ...🤔

These are both myths, as pointed out by @coerdelion. The TRS badge is based on seller performance - there are a lot of quality metrics that you have to hit as a seller that are not visible on your dashboard (such as your Buyer Satisfaction Rate (BSR), which depends heavily on the private reviews that you get but never see). If you don't hit those hidden metrics, your account won't even be considered for TRS. I've met all the requirements and haven't even been considered for TRS because my BRS was affected by one cancelation (so Fiverr wouldn't even consider me for TRS for another 3 months ... but by then, even though my BRS was great, another hidden quality metric was affecting my eligibility to even be considered for TRS). So if it wasn't one thing, it was another - and Fiverr requires that you show improvement before you can even qualify for Fiverr's team to manually look at your profile. Fiverr already made an official statement that there are no benefits for your gig by being active on the forum:

That would do it - when my account was shut down by a hacker, even though all visible stats were restored, I didn't qualify for the Seller Plus program for another month (and my Early Payout feature was also affected up until last month - so 4 months total). Most likely they will say what I just told you - that it's based on your eligibility and can change on a daily basis. This is the template response that CS and Seller Plus managers are using in their responses since July 7th: This is what is on the Help Center: (courtesy of @donnovan86) We requested an update from Fiverr on August 11th and they said they would provide an update as soon as they hear anything new (so nothing new yet).

Hi @lutfor13 & @maria_kassimova - Your eligibility for the Early Payout can change on a daily basis and is based on your seller performance. I had it off and on for the whole month of August due to hidden quality metrics that were affected when I had my account shut down by a hacker. All visible seller stats were 100% and my Success Manager told me my Buyer Satisfaction Rate (BSR) also looked good. August was also my best month as a seller since I started on this platform, with several Fiverr's Choice and Promoted orders, so I'm not sure what hidden quality metrics disqualified me from having the Early Payout. I had it one day and then didn't the next day (in the months of July & August). The last several weeks have been looking really good, and I haven't seen the Early Payout feature disappear yet.

Buyers only have 14 days to cancel an order, so if it's after 15 days, they will have to have a really good reason to cancel (or do it the "wrong" way - via chargeback - and get banned). In any case, if the order is canceled, it will show up as canceled on the seller's profile (and the amount will be deducted from the seller's Earnings). If there aren't any Earnings, it'll show up as a negative balance.

This is because they have zero reviews. Some sellers may have completed orders, but if no reviews are showing, no one rated that gig. I'd rather buy from a new seller with one 5-star review than with a seller with none. Offer services that will keep your buyers coming back. I found out my first buyer (for proofreading) also wanted data entry and virtual assistance. So I set up those gigs and immediately got 2 more orders. Then another buyer came and ended up ordering 6 back-to-back orders for data entry. Other buyers requested editing and writing instead of proofreading, so I started offering those services as well. From listening to my buyers, I have been able to consistently average 3-5 orders for new buyers with that amount repeated on a monthly basis for my long-term, repeat customers. This is awesome advice - @filipdevaere is right. If you are always thinking of your next order, you will always be in business.

That's odd! I know I've had over 30 orders in queue on one gig at a time and my impressions were not dropping (and I was wishing that it would!)- 11 seems like a low number, especially since you have nothing but 5-star reviews. Are you sure that there isn't an order-in-queue limit set on your gig? I always have this feature turned off.

You can't - this information is used to help build buyer trust (or help buyers know which sellers they should be careful of).

You should be able to do it using the method on the Help Center: https://help.fiverr.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011329498-Account-and-profile-settings I was able to change my phone number by submitting a Help Desk ticket with CS - my account was in restricted mode until I could verify my account with a valid phone number (note: VoIP phones don't qualify).

Hi @jobayerhossa775 - In 6 places on your gig, you mention that you are a "Google Ads Camping" expert. You also have a lot of blatant spelling errors that need to be corrected for buyers to trust you. Buyers will want to make sure that you can spell their keywords correctly.

Sounds like it's time to get out the "honeymoon" phase! 😉 The minute I posted my first gig, I realized that I had to roll my sleeves up and get to work. Fiverr is a business, and you have to put in effort in order to become self-reliant. However, it is possible. I was able to replace my teacher income and freelance full-time on Fiverr after my first 2 months on Fiverr.

Hi @seorankworld - If you have good impressions but low clicks, that means buyers see your gigs (so Fiverr is showing your gigs to buyers) ... but buyers aren't interested enough to click on your gigs. Your gig gallery (thumbnails, gig video, gig images, and 2 PDFs) play a huge role in making your gigs attractive enough so that buyers will click on your gig and visit your profile. You don't have gig videos or PDFs to showcase your services, so use them. Your thumbnails have too much text (and buyers won't read them all) - so reduce the text to 2-5 words that clearly describe your services.

Hi @abi_naaim, are you on Seller Plus Premium? If so, you can ask your Success Manager to put some pressure on the people approving your Top Client. With the help of my Success Manager, I got two clients approved in 2 days. Previously, I submitted 3 clients back in June of 2022, and one was approved within 3 weeks. The other 2 were never approved. They were in "pending" status for over a year. Then, Fiverr changed the Top Client requirements and stated that clients needed to be on their dropdown list in order to be added as Top Clients. When I reached out to CS, they told me those 2 clients would never be approved. So I deleted them and added the 2 Top Clients that were approved within 2 days. @abi_naaim, if you aren't on Seller Plus, you can try to reach out to CS to speed up the process if 3 weeks go by and your client is still in "pending" status.

Hi @yonatansegev, Trust plays a huge role in business. If it isn't ratings, you will have to gain their trust in different ways, such as through your portfolio, gig videos, and client testimonials/pictures. Buyers can be open to exploring new sellers who might offer great services (but that is a gamble and can cost the buyer a lot of money - I went that route and it didn't work for me). It cost me money because I didn't have the heart to cancel those orders (and also didn't leave reviews on those orders). I think you are offering services that aren't really in demand. If I look up "Fitness Plans" on Fiverr, only 1,048 services show up ...and most of them include "fitness plan + meal plan." On the first page, there were 52 gigs shown, and only 5 were "fitness plans only" - the rest were "fitness + nutrition" and business-geared gigs (brandable workouts). So less than 10% of the gigs offer custom fitness plans without nutrition. That is only 100 gigs (and 2 of them are yours). When I looked at the type of sellers offering fitness plans, this showed up: The only Top Rated Seller offers a "Fitness + Meal Plan." Of the 61 Level 2's, there were only 3-5 that were offering fitness only (some had optional meal plans, so I'm not sure if I should count them in the totals). I'm guessing the 48 Level 1's are similar, and the remaining 40 fitness-only gigs (including your 2) are with the New Sellers. With numbers that low, it might be some time before you get your first order. Most of the sellers had less than 50 orders (only averaging 0-3 orders a month), but the ones that had hundreds of orders were the ones that also had images of women in their portfolios. It appears that these high performers average 15-25 orders each month.

Yes, but it took 2 days for CS to respond to each message I sent them - so it was a total of 6 days when I received compensation for my loss, and my seller level and stats were restored. It took 1 month to qualify for Seller Plus again, 2 months to get the Early Payout feature back, and a total of 4 months for my account to fully recover.

The skills where you have a competitive edge over other sellers offering the same skills. The first gig I published was for proofreading. After a week, I still couldn't find myself in search and tried to find my gig using "Vickie" and "proofreading" as the keywords. Even that didn't pull me up ...I found out there was a another Vickie out there offering better proofreading services ➡️ @vickiespencer Luckily, I had some inquiries by then and that gave me inspiration to start up other gigs that capitalized on other skills that I had to offer. The sellers who are capitalizing on their strengths to stand out in the marketplace (note: this may not necessarily be what's "trending"). Soon after my proofreading gig was up, I noticed 'Presentation Designs' was a trending gig (and one that you, @gurgenbenashvil, excel at). 😊 However, I took down that gig last month - only 50% of the orders were being rated/closed by buyers, so many of them were auto-closing with no further feedback from my buyers. And feedback is one thing that I need to know how my services are performing in the marketplace.