pradeepcep

For anyone else wondering, the "request to order" feature is only available as part of the "Premium" plan... It wasn't showing up for me a few days ago, but it is.

Thanks for the input @vickieito. I am considering joining Seller Plus soon 🙂

@vickieito Wow, thankyou! I had forgotten that this exists, but I was able to find the invite from long ago in my inbox. But it looks like I'm only eligible for the "Standard" tier right now, and not the "Premium" one. I tried to see if the perk of "Request to Order" is available in the "Standard" tier, but I don't see it explicitly mentioned anywhere. Do you happen to know if I'll get the "Request to Order" feature if I just subscribed to the "Standard" tier of Seller Plus? Sidenote: while it seems ridiculous to shell out 20 USD every month on top of the 20% platform commission, I suppose it's the cost of doing business. I'm not happy about it, but the fact that this exists is atleast a consolation. Whew!

Update: After refusing to give up for 3 days straight, pleading with Fiverr Support for the very survival of my business, and asking to speak to a supervisor, my stats were finally restored. I think I got seriously lucky this time, and I don't think this will happen again unless Fiverr brings about policy changes. To avoid this scenario in the future, I've paused one of my 3 gigs, and then raised prices monumentally on the other two. I'm monitoring the impressions / clicks on the gigs, and waiting to see (what I guess will be) their inevitable spiral into the ground.

I offer software development gigs, and I have mentioned in my gig descriptions that buyers must get in touch with me before they place an order. This is because the size, complexity and scope of custom web applications can vary widely from one to the other. Currently, there is no way for me to say that the pricing is "custom", as all gigs require a price to be set. In the past, I have had a couple of instances where a buyer placed an order directly without contacting me, and it turned out that the order was placed in error (for example, let's say they wanted a desktop application and I only offer web applications; or they wanted to program in a language that was different from the one mentioned in the gig). I have then reached out to customer support to cancel the order and restore my stats. But when it happened again a couple of days ago, I reached out to Support and they now say that buyers are not obligated to contact me before placing an order, and that they will not restore my stats. I am currently a Level 2 seller, and I risk losing that if this cancellation affects my stats. I understand these policy changes are made with the intention of protecting users, and I am all for it. But my questions are these: 1. How do I create a custom software dev gig in this scenario? I've set a token price of 5 USD on my gig, but larger projects obviously cost more. Even if I were to raise my gig price or offer packages with different pricing, the problem of custom pricing doesn't go away. 2. If buyers can place an order without contacting me, how do I estimate the cost of the project without discussing the project first? 3. Even if I were to give them an estimate after the order is placed, and offered to add it as an "extra", what if they refuse? Disagreements on prices happen all the time, and it's perfectly fine. But in this scenario, if the order is cancelled, I still get my stats affected. Overall, this feels like a lot of control and options have been taken away from me as a seller, and I can't help but feel a little bit exploited. If you're someone who offers gigs that can have varying prices from project to project, I would be grateful if you talked a bit about how you deal with these problems. I appreciate any input you lovely folks can provide. Thanks! P.S: I am not trying to dump on the platform or its policies. Having Fiverr as my only source of income, and having invested over a year of my full time work into this, I am just trying to find out how I can keep my small business going.

Today I woke up to find the video call option enabled for all buyers in the Inbox, irrespective of whether they are a Business or Select buyer. I don't know if it's because I became a Level One Seller, or because if this feature is now generally available. @seven_sign Are you able to confirm if Fiverr now offers the video call feature even before an order is placed?

I think two things will help: 1. The community should aggresively move out-of-topic questions. If someone asks for "gig rank" advice on a forum topic that's meant for, say, new user introductions, then it should be moved as soon as possible to the relevant topic while notifying the poster that their post was off-topic. Or better yet, close the post down if it's off-topic. If you've been on StackOverflow, you'll see how effectively this removes low-quality content. Users can then only follow or click on topics that they actually want to read or contribute to. 2. Have a more thorough screening process. While I can see the point and advantage in making it pay-to-play, I think there's novelty in the fact that "anyone with the skills can make it" here on Fiverr. Even if it's just ten dollars, there's value in having people get in just because of their skills. And it sounds definitely less spammy when you don't ask new sellers for money. Not to mention, there are people here from parts of the world where ten dollars is a lot of money. I think the answer lies in the screening / vetting process. I've been through Toptal's screening process, and it's remarkable how this translated to the quality of the community. If you enforce and always expect a level of quality, and screen based on that, then you will end up with a quality community. I don't know if I feel this way because I am new here, and yet to experience all that you veterans have gone through — but it's definitely going to be interesting to watch 🙂

Hello everyone! 👋 I am Pradeep, a self-taught programmer from Chennai, India. I signed up for Fiverr towards the end of March 2022 and recently became a Level One Seller. I am interested in computers and programming in general, I try to read, blog, and I love motorcycles and traveling. I sometimes write too, and self-published a book of poems a couple of years ago. I am currently learning how to play the Guitar, and learning Hindi. A week from now, I will be saying goodbye to my full-time job and taking the first step in trying to build my own company. The plan is to freelance (with Fiverr as my primary source of work) to sustain myself, while I work on building some cool things that I've always wanted to. Cue shivers 😅. It's great to be part of this community, and I am loving it so far! Good luck to everyone here on their journey — I am excited to see where this leads! 🚀

A good buyer request boils down to explaining your requirements clearly, including all relevant information and setting expectations. As a seller of programming gigs, I wish buyer requests had: links to relevant documentation so that I can estimate the scope of the work if it's an existing project, a link to the code, or a description of where things currently stand if it's a new project, then the spec of what needs to be built if you expect the work to be done on a particular tech stack, then mention the tech stack expected timelines for delivery and expected cost

I've got one: This is from a poem called "Good Timber" by Douglas Malloch. Nothing comes easy. Never be afraid of putting in the hard work. Never be bogged down by obstacles. The more hardship you work through, the stronger you will be 🙂

https://www.fiverr.com/pages/promoted-gigs

I have been on Fiverr for a little over two months now, and close to completing my first goal of 10 orders. It's been good so far, but on the flip side, I feel like I have lost out on a few orders because I could not get on calls with the buyers before they placed an order. Here's how a typical scenario plays out: buyer messages me with a greeting — "hi" or "would you be able to help me" — with almost no context about their requirements first off, I ask them for their requirements; I ask them to describe what they want help with, or if they have a write up, then to share it with me. they ask if we can get on zoom call or a google meeting. A lot of buyers seem to be more comfortable with showing stuff on a screenshare and talking about it, rather than writing it out in a doc they send me a link to said meeting I tell them I cannot click on that link because Fiverr policy prevents us from talking through external channels of communication the conversation quickly dies from there, and I am assuming they found someone else who was willing to go on the call with them I understand I can initiate video calls with certain class of buyers, like Business buyers. But the vast majority don't seem to fall into this category, and it's hurting business when I can't talk to them. My questions: 1. Am I correct in assuming that getting on these calls would be a policy violation? Fiverr has no way of knowing the content of these calls, and if an order isn't placed after this meeting, how do I prove I haven't taken business off of Fiverr? 2. What other alternatives do I have to be able to get on a call with buyers from the get go? Is there a plan I can buy, or a status I can achieve? I have gone through most docs on this topic, and I can't seem to find any.