[Do you believe that Fiverr is becoming an unstable freelance marketplace now!]

So many great and loyal sellers losing faith in the platform should be a major concern for Fiverr. 

[Where have all the buyers gone?]

2 hours ago, rabihumakhan said:

Sorry for being a bit ambiguous! 

I mean that the month of December 2022 was the best for me when it comes to doing business on Fiverr. In addition, since this new system has been implemented, I earned closer to what I earned in December 2022, in April and now in May. 

Surprisingly, it's obvious that the other platform I'm talking about is though a bit different, yet implemented similar ways to squeeze money from the freelancers. More surprisingly, despite all the freelancers complaining, I got a $25k gig recently. 

$25k! that's impressive. Especially on fiver. The 20% cut must have hurt though?

[Where have all the buyers gone?]

3 hours ago, dponzio said:

As per last April I suddenly had more enquiries, including more serious ones than usual, which lead to actual orders. But my score has been dragged down twice, in spite of early deliveries, happy clients etc. I feel in good company here though 😉 

Yeah, there seems to be a disconnect between what we are actually doing and what the scores are reflecting. It doesn't make sense to have happy clients and decreasing level metrics. Thank you for sharing.

[Where have all the buyers gone?]

3 hours ago, rabihumakhan said:

I dunno the 'new math'. However, fortunately and surprisingly, I got some traction after this new system has been implemented. I accept that Fiverr has never been my primary focus and despite the fact that I have been a level two seller for around a year now, I didn't concentrate on my account. As a result, my business was off and on but recently, I have been getting orders frequently after December 2022. 

I'm not a tech savvy and don't know what's happened,  I can only wish y'all and myself good luck. 

On the other hand, on another platform, where I'm a top-rated plus freelancer with greater credentials, money earned, success score, etc, freelancers have been complaining lately that things are getting colder and due to their new (and vicious) business system, high paying clients have disappeared and now the marketplace has become a casino where you pay to win projects (or lose some time). 

Interesting, it seems that the new level system has left the Fiverr platform divided. Some people are seeing progress and others are taking a couple steps back. I think the main issue is that in trying to make things more transparent they completely made things worse. Nobody can point to one thing that they can say is the reason for their recent success or failure. The "new math" is a mystery for sure. We are all in the dark tweaking everything and anything in hopes that it will fix our problems.

[Where have all the buyers gone?]

3 hours ago, mandyzines said:

For me, the recommended cost per click has more than doubled since March and I've only had one order through paid promotions this month, even with a Fiverr's Choice label on one of the gigs. Half of my earnings on that one order have been eaten up by the total CPC for all gigs so far. 

I don't know if Fiverr changed how 'they' determine who to show my gigs to.

I thought for a while that maybe I was being punished by the almighty AI, even though my scores all enable me to qualify for Top Rated, but over the past couple of weeks I've been monitoring other Voice Actors with a similar voice print and they aren't doing very well, either. Maybe the market shifted and demands bubbly, higher-pitched, youthful female voices. I don't know. But, my impressions are a little less than half of what they were at this time last year.

People reaching out to contact me has trickled down to almost nothing, but at the same time my conversion rate's been on the decline as well. I used to get contacted by people who were looking for what I have to offer pretty frequently but then around March it began being more for AI training, cloning my voice, obvious scams, and a flush of middlemen wanting custom auditions without being able to explain the sound they're looking for or their budget. I can see where turning all of these down might've affected me.

But, there are so many moving parts. I'm very much at a loss, honestly. 

The only order I have had over the past week is from a return client who lets things auto-complete and doesn't leave reviews, and I anticipate that will also result in some sort of punishment. 

Hmm, I wonder if it's a niche thing. I've noticed a few people in the Music and Audio category sharing the same issue regarding not recieving new Clients and relying on repeat work. I also started to see a decline in inquiries somewhere in March. The spam thing is also an issue. The messages I did receive were from people that would initiate a conversation then go silent or it was someone from another platform looking for work. This never happened before the new system was introduced. Thank you for sharing. It makes me feel a little better knowing that I am not the only person struggling at the moment.

[Where have all the buyers gone?]

Hi, does anyone have a clue how the new rating system works or where all the buyers have gone? I noticed a massive decline in new inquires. I have some theories of my own.

1. Fiverr has provided more people with access to the promotion feature. More people promoting their gigs may mean that all the work is going to the highest bidders.
2. Fiverr is switching to paid promotion and is phasing out or limiting organic reach. This may be a plan to increase revenue by pushing more sellers to use the promotion feature
3. There may be a disconnect on what your performance metrics are showing verses what is actually happening on your profile. In the old system I could see how the algorithm reacted to me completing an order. Regardless of the final outcome, whether it was good or bad you could see the impact your work had. Now nothing moves the needle. This may be a back end problem. I don't know its just a theory
4. This is temporary and the algo is trying to collect more data before everything is back to normal. I hope it's this, I really do.
5. There's a button that's not working so new buyers can't reach me. This one is a stretch but at this point I have no clue what's happening.😅

These are just theories and I hope things improve over time. My niche doesn't get the most traffic (Music and Audio). Before the new system I managed to get a handful of jobs every week but In the past 30days I've completed 1 job. No new inquires? I know as freelancers we go though periods of ups and downs but this time I'm concerned because it feels like a button was turned of over night. I've never been a forum guy but recently I've been spending more time here everyday hoping I can find a reason to why things are going down hill. Anyway, enough from me I would love to hear your theories on where all the buyers have gone? Or perhaps you've seen an uptick in traffic let me know?

[Fiverr steals your tips]

In a perfect world filled with perfect people we would  keep 100% of our tips. Unfortunately, some people will exploit such a system.  That's why Fiverr takes money from all your earnings. Hope that helps.

[Success Score and New level system is the WORST change in Fiverr ever, agree?]

Yeah, I've also noticed a decline in new orders recently. I find my self reducing prices to try compensate for low inquires. I recently became a TRS and have not seen any major growth. In fact as I have mentioned, things have slowed down.

[Major Problem with Briefs]

11 hours ago, rawque_gulia said:

The 'Last Seen' and 'Online/Offline' status in the inbox never work for me either. In my case, the status on the Order Page is always correct. Or if I have to check if any client is online or offline (if I do not have any active order with them), I just click on the 'message' button on the header and with the small popup, it will show me the correct online/offline status. I won't be able to check the last seen, though.

Fiverr has million dollars to spend on creating AI algorithms that mess with many people -- but they won't spend a single effort in fixing these small issues. I know and understand that these small bugs are not stopping us from working with clients, but c'mon, ever heard of 'user experience'?! This 'Last seen' bug in the inbox has been there for me since the beginning (I guess 2021 or 2022), but no fixes yet. Also, no security measures on recent scams that are going on (buyers coming with the official Fiverr logo in their profile and scamming sellers).

Ahhh, looks like there's no benefit to rant here. Anyways, no one is listening to us.

 This is so true. Fiverr really needs to spend some time on fixing the little things. It will really go a long way in helping us provide a better service. Don't get me started with the scam messages. Ever since I started using the promote feature, I've been receiving more scam/spam messages. The Algorithm is doing a poor job at filtering them out.

[Major Problem with Briefs]

14 hours ago, charlsmcfarlane said:

I don’t put much stock in the “last seen…” labels. I often get order messages and  open the order within seconds and it then says the buyer was last seen three hours ago or something.

Either, as you suggest, there’s a massive delay in the message notification coming through or maybe the “last seen…” counter takes some time to update.

I really hope they look into this. It would be great if we got notified in real time. It makes working with briefs and communications a lot easier for us.

[Major Problem with Briefs]

On 3/24/2024 at 7:34 AM, Alex.M said:

I don't know how it is but I noticed that no one responds after sending an offer for those briefs... I rarely get orders from briefs after sending a custom message related to the job... I usually get 1 or 2 orders from briefs each month and I respond almost instantly to every brief that I receive ( the ones that are legit at least ) 

This is true. I've never received a response from briefs. I haven't been lucky with them. I think fiver should implement a system that notifies us sellers when a brief has been booked. Or perhaps they can go as far as disabling the ability to create an offer once the brief has been booked with another seller.

[Major Problem with Briefs]

Hi I'm Pro seller on Fiverr and I have noticed a concerning issue with briefs. 

Whenever I receive a notification for a "new brief". I tend to check when the buyer was last seen or if they are currently online. I've noticed that even when I receive a new notification from Fiverr for a brief, all the buyers seem to have been offline for hours sometimes more. This means that I am only seeing the supposed new brief  hours after it was submitted by the buyer "sometimes it's more than a day late?". This is very odd. Are there sellers who get priority. I've never received a response from a buyer which leads me to believe that by the time I send a proposal the buyer has already communicated to sellers that saw the brief first. What is the point of notifying me about a new brief if it's been active for hours. Has anybody else noticed this?