vickieito

I noticed that you are still posting/advertising on the forum, which isn't helpful for you because most of us are sellers on the platform. You are in a very competitive field, so you have to stand out from the crowd. However, I saw a newbie web designer who just started in Jan 2023, and he has 5 sales so far, so it can be done. Define who your target customers are and then tailor your gigs to them. I found your gig images hard to read due to your choice of font and the design. Your gig thumbnail design is a chance for you to show off your design skills and to catch the eye of your buyer - they will only have a few seconds to decide if your gig is worthy of being looked at. Don't make a "generic" gig and expect it to catch the eye of your buyer. There are too many other sellers offering the same thing and have similar images, offering the same USPs.

You started in Jan 2023 and you have 1 good review on your profile, so you are getting orders and you are doing better than most newbie sellers. Many don't get their first sale that quickly. 1. Please proofread and correct all of your grammar errors. You state that you are fluent in English, so your buyers will hold you to it. 2. Don't forget to tailor your bio and gig descriptions to your target buyers. Address their pain points and show how you are the solution to their problems. If they can see that, it'll be easier for them to click on the order button.

In my opinion, the Rising Talent badge isn't really helpful because it promotes those with "great potential," including those who don't have sales. As a buyer, I don't buy "potential." I buy from sellers with proven success on the platform. I used to buy from newbies with zero sales but I find that risky and it's often more work than it's worth (even if the gig is only $5). I at least wait for 1 good review before buying.

Most sellers who are eligible for the badge won't get it. This is because it is a manual badge, hand-picked by Fiverr's editorial staff. If they happen to see your gig, and decide that you should get the badge, you'll get it. Most eligible sellers aren't seen by Fiverr's staff. Those with zero reviews can become a Rising Talent. However, their profile has to meet the requirements to get the badge (see the link provided by @uk1000). Based on my review of those with the badge, those who get the Rising Talent badge are those who have considerable experience in the industry (and mention it in their profile). Simply mentioning 5 years of experience won't be enough. I agree with this! @ads_shanto007, the Rising Talent acts like the initial boost you saw when you first published your gig (Fiverr gives new gigs a boost to get exposure, so you've already experienced how it might be like to have the badge). And just like when you first posted your gig, the Rising Talent badge is a one-time boost to your gig. Once this "boost" wears off, you lose visibility again if you don't get a sale during that boost.

@samasing - You received a 2.7 star review a month ago so your buyer may have also left a negative private review. That can cause your impressions to plummet and can affect your account for 90 days or more.

Hi @creativeenamul - did you consider any of my tips that I gave you on Sunday? What are you doing to reach out to your buyers?

Knowing this⬆️ I'd have to agree with you⬆️ ...and @zeus777 ⬇️ I also hope this happens: BUT ....95% of the time the OP won't read it, or they'll just say "thanks" (or get offended). So I should be (will be) more direct/clear in my messaging. Especially since I don't like how many dishonest sellers that there are on the platform.

Not everyone. I did call out the OP on the last post I did, so I guess I'm a little more lenient with new sellers. I think my problem is that I see too much of myself in these newbie sellers. Many, many years ago when I embarked on my first business venture, my common sense was non-existent and I looked worse than most of the newbies on the platform. I had many failures and disappointments to get where I am today (and I'm still not where I need to be).

@relaxing_guru - You may have been flagged for using copyrighted materials here or on YouTube. Each of your gig shows a different biome, so it looks like it would be expensive to collect all the nature sounds needed to create the videos for your gigs. How did you create your nature meditation videos? What video and sound sources did you use? I noticed that the video/sound quality is really good, especially with your ocean videos. Your ocean video tags also include #OurBluePlanet with a direct link to BBC Earth's YouTube channel.

When I was a newbie buyer, I didn't know any better and believed a seller's profile stating that they could write. They even showed me a bunch of writing samples, so I thought they were legit. I was disappointed to find out that even the title had 5 errors in it. The article itself was terrible and the seller admitted that he couldn't write custom material - all the articles that he was showing in his profile were articles that he had purchased from others. He then asked for me to select an article to replace the one I wanted written (which was supposed to share some of my personal experiences). So none of his articles were relevant to me. I agree - there is a lot of fraud going on the platform. No, but I am giving the seller the benefit of a doubt due to the use of "we" and "us." They may be operating as an agency with different proficiencies in English. When I first started on Fiverr, I did list "Japanese" as a basic skill because my curriculum-building gig was more geared for a Japanese audience when I was teaching English in Japan. My husband and a Japanese teacher that I worked with wanted to offer their English-Japanese translating skills as a part of my gig. So I did have that as a gig extra and mentioned my team of translators in my gig video and description. It was short-lived, but others may be starting their gigs on the platform similarly, offering services that they themselves don't do, but their team members do. Some don't mention their team members on their gigs, but should. I had no idea what I was doing when I first started out, so I did try a lot of different things that might look suspicious to others (and you did call me out on the forum for). I experimented with working as an agency, team, outsourcing, and anything that I could think of. I think if you are fraudulent and dishonest seller, you'll eventually get found out. I also think there are other sellers like me who try to do things right but in the process may come off as doing things wrong, maybe entirely wrong, but correct themselves, and get better as they continue to grow their business.

Hi @nooradeel7860 - you will need to update your gig title, gig description, gig video, gig images to remove your spelling errors: You write customer "support" as "sport" and "spourt," and customer "service" as "sarvice." You don't have to be perfect at English unless you say you are perfect, so change your profile so English is "conversational" and remove the following statement from your gig description: "Are you looking for someone with good communication skills and who is awesome at composing perfect English?" Whatever you do, just be honest. I thought your gig image that said your chat services will only be live when you are live, was honest. You also mention "we" and "us," so if there are a few of you working out of your account, and some of you are more proficient in English than others, just mention it in your bio.

With the Request-to-Order feature, no one can order from me unless they contact me in my inbox first. This gives me more control because I can decline projects that I don't want to take on and I can use this feature as an Out-Of-Office tool without going out of office (it's nice because your gigs stay on the market, people just can't order from you). I also use this tool to control my schedule and I can sleep in peace knowing that no one will be placing orders when I'm running at my maximum capacity. Last month, I was able to double the number of orders, so the Request to Order feature has no negative impact on my business so far, even though buyers can't directly order from me.

Hi Yoav, you might want to read @mariashtelle1 & @maitasun's comments here: https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/298708-my-potential-buyer-not-interested-with-the-offer-after-i-be-firm-about-the-price/?do=findComment&comment=1881857 And this thread on chatGPT popped up right after that first AI webinar: https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/296623-use-of-chatgpt-on-fiverr/ There are quite a few of the many AI-related posts on the forum. I think @vickiespencer has been catching most of them if you want to see examples of what's happening on the forum (I already mentioned what I see on the platform). Just provided the above links in case you wanted to do some reading before the webinar on the 22nd. 😊

This. ⬆️ Work-life balance is the hardest thing for me and I still pull a lot of all-nighters (and rely on a lot of caffeine). I also take on more orders than I should, which is what I'm faced with now. However, my customers are awesome and they keep me going. As much as I love freelancing, it's definitely the hardest thing I've ever done - I'm constantly thinking about what I need to do to improve my business and there's no slacking off (each order has to be my absolute best work and a new PR every time). I feel guilty if I'm not working on my business and guilty if I'm working on my business when I think I should probably be spending more time with the kids. I am spending more time with them than I did when I had a day job, but I still feel guilty. @katakatica's post reflects a lot of the thoughts that run through my head throughout the day. I stare a lot at statistics that I don't like. Yesterday my response rate dropped by 1% from 97% to 96% even though I'm constantly checking my inbox, orders, and spam folders on Fiverr. It used to be perfect until I went Out-Of-Office last month (off grid camping trip) and I was contacted by several sellers asking for orders. Now it's not so great. Last month I had only 15 of the 29 orders rated (most of them auto-closed), and it affected me even though it shouldn't. I wonder if it's because my quality is going out the door or if this next order is the one where I'll fumble and drop the ball. I have 23 hours and 43 minutes to find out. @vibronx wrote a great post * [link] * that I've been using to help me try to achieve more work-life balance, but where he says "lift weights, do cardio," I'm twisting his words so that I can count "getting off of the couch" as lifting weights and "running to the fridge" as cardio. 😊 I celebrate my "wins" - yesterday it was getting on a Zoom call (a big achievement for a Zoom-adverse person) - but I'm hard on myself when a "win" also feels like a loss (I said "no" for taking on an order - definitely a win because I can't take on more at the moment. However it was a "loss" because it was to a loyal customer who I previously said no to a few weeks ago - and the only reason why I said no was because I said "yes" to take on orders that I shouldn't have). I'm happy to be in the US again, but sad that my cost of living has tripled. Happy to be freelancing and covering my expenses, but wondering how long I can sustain this. Some of these thoughts are justified, others aren't but they do pop up in my head anyways. So thank you, @katakatica for bringing up this subject again and laying it out so beautifully! It is a tough topic and one often overlooked. I joined the forum last year in May, not long after visiting the hospital due to panic attacks, heart shudders, and a number of other health problems due to staying up for 48 hours at a time (and not being able to sleep in between). I wasn't able to share my experience on the forum then, but have gradually opened up, especially when topics like this pop up. Unfortunately, I've only seen this topic pop up twice since I joined, so I would love to see more people jumping on this thread to share their experiences!

I thought it was a valid point, @jonbaas! Now Yoav has a proper "Fiverr staff" label, which will hopefully make it easier for him to get the feedback he's looking for. ☺️

Hi @rabihumakhan, when I vetted you last year, I did several test orders to see the extent of your writing ability. You did very well with technical writing and I was also pleasantly surprised that you were able to transform a boring write-up into a compelling piece of copy. When times are slow, it's good to work on your portfolio samples. This will show buyers what you can do and gives you credibility. Currently, they can't see what you can do unless they place an order. Make the ordering process easier for them by showing them first.

Hi @ghulamali665, is this to advertise your writing and editing skills for writing content on educational topics? If so, how is this related to the question that you posted in "Fiverr Questions"?

Does Fiverr have a private Slack channel? What other social media handles/communication tools does Fiverr have?

No - Yoav reached out to me on the main platform, so we have been chatting there. I think it's best to have conversations here on the forum since it isn't directly related to orders. I've also never used Slack, so I don't know much about it.

I'm really thrilled to see more of the Fiverr staff popping up in the forums (both the main forum and Seller Plus forum). This shows that Fiverr cares about sellers' experiences on the platform and are actively working on features and tools to help its sellers succeed. If you want your voice heard, speak up now, because Fiverr is listening. 😊 Feel free to also tag staff and loop them into conversations that you want to engage them in, because these conversations can be shared with other Fiverr team members who are not active on the forum. Yoav is working a lot on initiatives to help new sellers get the support and resources they need to succeed on the platform. I already made him aware of new sellers' concerns about the removal of Buyer Requests and the new Brief & Match feature.

I notice that @editors_picks now has the "Fiverr staff" label. 😊

It won't if you do it in the manner @melanielm explained - cancel the order and have the buyer accept a new, 6-month subscription order (within 2 weeks). Per Fiverr's new cancelation policy this won't affect your stats as long as the buyer accepts the new order within 2 weeks. It will only affect your account until the buyer reorders, so I like to do this all in one sitting with the buyer. if you don't want to cancel, keep the existing order as your first month's order. Then create a subscription order that starts next month and continues for 5 months. Both of these orders together will act as a 6-month subscription.

Thanks, @frank_d & thanks for everyone's patience! Yoav is already in conversations with the admin team trying to see what can be done. @editors_picks is a shared, team account that even Lior has operated out of (based on the reviews that I read on the account). Yoav might need to get an individual "yoav_marcus" account. We'll see! Agreed! The purpose of this thread was to solicit feedback from sellers that are using other freelancing platforms and to see if there were educational features being offered on those platforms that sellers were finding beneficial. Yoav also wanted to see how those educational assets compared with what Fiverr provides its sellers in terms of webinars, Help Center articles, community resources, forum, courses, and events. The title "how can we improve ourselves" is referring to Fiverr itself, and how it, as a platform, can help provide better educational resources for its community of sellers.

I have been using this feature for over 4 months now in beta mode and it's wonderful! It prevents unnecessary orders/cancelations due to multiple gig orders, as @donnovan86, always mentions. I use it for scheduling purposes - it's great to be able to control which orders I will take on and which I'll pass on. For example, I usually have my schedule planned out and full for 1-2 months. However, sometimes I have a gap in between orders and it's nice to accept a smaller order to fill that gap. I also don't want to go Out-Of-Office all the tim, and this feature prevents that - you can stop orders AND still be found in search. Don't forget that you can set hours of availability/operation for each day of the week and there is also a highlighted review section below that allows you to select which reviews you want highlighted for each gig!

Here is what the memberships offer: In addition to what's listed here, Seller Plus Premium members also have access to "Additional Features," which has included Negative Keywords, Request to Order, Video Consultation, Highlighted Reviews (where sellers can pick the reviews to highlight from each gig), and any other new feature that the product development team wants to beta test. New ideas are always being tested, so this is really nice. I find these additional features alone worth the cost of the premium membership. My favorite is the Request to Order feature. Recently the product development team reached out to Seller Plus members about the private feedback and I'm hoping to beta analytics for private feedback pop up for premium members but we'll see. Not all feedback that we give to product management on the seller plus forum discussions turns into something. They are working on a lot of features and updates, so we'll see what new feature is next!