edc_lab

Yes, that's right! But features aside, is the algorithm designed to give more exposure to TRS sellers rather than SP members or not? I think it is, but correct me if I'm wrong. That's why I wrote about people giving more effort than ever to reach (or reach again) the TRS level, because of the thin gaps you have between levels targeting the extra exposure it gives.

Sure, but I think they wanted to remove all these 5 starts not only for trustworthy reasons but also to increase their service quality, let me explain why. Later, all these 5-star profiles probably will be considered gems among many (beautiful) rocks. Having a so tight span between level 1 and TRS will encourage many people to provide more and more to get reviews closer to 5.0 (trustworthy or not, this is everyone's goal, I guess) and dream about a TRS status. So, what should you do if you want to increase your value for money and reach the desired TRS level? It's easy, you need to act like that TV advertisement where initially they offer you pots, then they add knives, and after a few minutes with the price of 8 pots you'll get 4 pans, 12 knives, 24 plates, a smartphone, a television, a mattress and then you'll be like "oh, that's a great deal", that's value for money at his best. So, if sellers put in 110% effort, and provide more than what the buyer is expecting, sellers have higher ("higher", not "guaranteed") chances to get rated as "exceptional" in the "value for money" tab (which I think is the real needle of the scale for perfect ratings). This means that most of the sellers will work putting in more effort than ever, maybe because they want to recover the lost level or simply they want to achieve the TRS status. Fiverr will benefit from this behavior because they will have a platoon of workers that Fiverr can be proud of and maybe use to show new customers/leads how good Fiverr is. For them, it's all about the experience that customers have with Fiverr, not with the [insert seller's name] service. If sellers lose levels because of the value-for-money rating they start seeing fewer clients because of the new downgraded level, well, that's definitely scary. If they want to use this type of rating to lower all the 5.0 ratings, it's understandable, people will keep in mind that, but if this leads to a lowering in seller's exposure, that's a bit scary to be honest, because if the algorithm isn't designed properly, people could hardly recover from it. And for that reason, if many people are worried about it and ask questions, Fiverr should reassure them by clarifying their doubts. This is a working platform and they should keep in mind that they are playing with the financials of many people. I really hope that they designed this update in the best way possible.

You know what? Sometimes, when I need to learn or study new things I put some visuals on the screen to help me figure out the situation in a better way. So, I decided to make a simple overview of the new level system based on what I read so far. In the following graphic, I designed 4 rating bars, where you can see, from top to bottom, the one related to a perfect score of 5.0, and below that you can see the required score for Level 1 (4.4+), Level 2 (4.6+), and Top Rated Level (4.7+). On the "new pathways for success" page they said that a 5-star rating isn't considered trustworthy for most (I deduce) of the buyers. They also wrote that the most trustworthy range is between 4.0 and 4.9. So in the top left graphic, 0.9 represents the "safe area", while 0.1 is the "risky zone" for sellers having a 4.9 rating. If we move to the right side we can see another graphic that represents the gap between two levels. It's 0.2 between Level 1 and Level 2, and it's 0.1 between Level 2 and Top Rated. So in the span of 0.4-0.7 points, a seller can move from Top Rated to New Seller status (or, apparently, the so-called Level 0). In the third graphic, the bottom left one, you can see how much Level 1, Level 2, and Top Rated sellers can grow without falling in the "risky area" of a 5.0 average rating. So, with the proper efforts you can jump from Level 1 to Top Rated, but at the same time, you need to be careful because if you offer a too good service you reach the 5.0 risky area. In the fourth graphic, the bottom right one, you can see the sizes of New Seller Area (4.0), Trustworthy Area (0.9), and Not Trustworthy Area (0.1). So my questions are: Do the Top Rated sellers with a 5.0 rating appear more trustworthy than the New Seller level with a 4.0 score or not? Is this "trustworthy issue" a real problem or was it just used to comfort people about the new changes? I'm aware that when you talk about average numbers, the more you want to have a perfect score, the harder it is to get it, but isn't the 0.3 span between Level 1 and Top Rated too thin? I know, there is a grace period before losing a seller's level and you can use it to try to fix it, but could this thin spread bring a sort of volatility in terms of people frequently changing levels? Sorry for the long message, but even if I'm new here I want to understand if spending time on Fiverr to grow a profile is worth it or not because I'm always trying to offer the best service possible to my clients, and I guess for most of us, lowering our service quality to adapt to a new system isn't a viable solution. I hope this graphic can help other people detect something we haven't noticed so far and make this discussion even more constructive. P.S. The 5.0 rating bar is 500px long, so to represent a 4.4 rating I simply made a 440px shape, this means that the bars represent the actual sizes, gaps, and balances of the new 5-star rating system.

Great, finally! That's a big win, congratulations @vickieito

Hello, thanks for pointing out this. I always thought they referred to back-end activities that lead to more serious security problems, I never thought that accessibility tools weren't allowed too. This TOS part can be considered as a kind of gray area, because yes, they don't want you to change anything on the screen, but accessibility issues are real. Some people may find difficulties during the navigation because of wrong color contrast and saturation, wrong font type, size and weight, missing alternative text for images and audio, and so on. So, having accessibility issues and getting warned or banned because of it hurts ten times more. Accessibility must be always considered and taking action in this direction is almost mandatory in my opinion, so dark mode would be a good starting point. But I got your point, it's better to be safe than sorry. Bye!

This "value for money" score impacting the seller's rating is incomprehensible. When a buyer's price expectation meets the seller's offer, the deal is done, and that's the reason why I think value for money should be always considered positive. Yes, it can be slightly above or below buyers' expectations, but a real entrepreneur thinks about goals and if his/her budget allows the buyer to purchase the service, the only thing he/she wants is to fix his/her problems. This platform is made to connect buyers and sellers to solve buyers' issues, nobody forces buyers to hire that specific freelancer with high rates. In my opinion, that statistic could be used just to understand what people think about my prices and the service that I offer, but without impacting any statistics. For instance, if people keep hiring you, leaving many five stars, but you have a low "value for money" score, this simply means you're a sort of premium seller ("he's expensive, but he works amazingly!"). On the other hand, if you have low ratings with a high "value for money" score, this could mean you're not offering exceptional results, but considering the money spent, the buyers cannot complain much. This rating should be part of the seller's private reviews, where this and a couple of more tips are suggested to help the sellers understand which skill they need to work on to improve the quality of their service. So, In my opinion, a buyer cannot rate sellers as "very poor" just because he/she considers the price to be too high. I know, it's not possible to talk about reviews with a client, but I imagined a conversation like this: * work completed * 🐼 Did I solve your problem? 🦊 Yes, I also rated your quality as "exceptional". 🐼 Oh, many thanks, but why did you give me a "very poor" rating under "value for money"? 🦊 You did a great job, I solved the issue, but $1000 is too much for me / my business / the world's economic situation / my cousin, etc., you could have made it for less, I'm sure. 🐼 Ok 🦊 Ok 🐼 Bye 🦊 Bye * blocked * P.S. No animal emojis were harmed in the making of this film.

Nice idea @vickiespencer I believe, people who are really interested in improving their knowledge will find this useful, so it's a good topic to link when someone thinks it's needed. By doing that, maybe a smart person could reconsider his/her English level, especially when few people suggested re-evaluating it. Making a wrong self-evaluation is acceptable, but purposely trying to fool buyers is not. I almost completed two months here on the forum and I learned many new things related to this platform. To be honest, when I joined the forum I stumbled upon some replies that I considered to be a bit rude, and I wasn't really happy to read it because I was expecting a more relaxed and professional place where people were helping each other. But then, day by day, I got the reasons behind these replies, and I started to agree with most of them actually. While I'm still waiting to get my first gig here I'm also trying to help people on topics where I can share my "outside platform" experience, but what I found is a very "funny" thing. Some people open topics just to complain and steam off. They ask for tips and never implement the given suggestions, seems like they want just the secret sauce served right away, but if you give 'em all the ingredients and the steps to try to replicate it, they won't do it cause it takes too much effort. I don't know why they do that, maybe they are just influenced by video games where if you use a specific combination of keys you have infinite money, but here it doesn't work like that. I think I made like 10 pretty long posts and in some cases, I never received a single reply, neither a "I don't think this is gonna work for me, thanks anyway". So, to sum it up, if you are a professional, you're going to like these informative topics, otherwise, just keep showing that you are a lazy unprofessional seller who only likes to complain. I don't know if I ever succeed on this platform, but the only thing I know is that I'm putting 100% of my efforts into it by reading and implementing the tips I read here, so thanks to the ones that are sharing their knowledge for free.

Hello @markksantos, I agree with you, the dark mode would be a nice and useful feature. In the meantime, my suggestion is to add a browser extension to replicate the dark mode effect. Just open your browser's web store and check for a "dark mode" extension, install it, refresh your page, and then you'll see the outcome. Of course, a real dark mode would be better if designed properly, but at least you can relax your eyes until they implement it (if they ever do that!) I hope this helps, bye!

This is not the first time I have seen this kind of topic made by sellers with few sales (or new forum users), but I cannot figure out what's the purpose of doing that. Seems like they read or watched a video of someone telling them "If you do that, you'll get exposure on Fiverr and exposure means money". I'm really curious, @shamim_gorib can you please tell me why you decided to open this topic? Also, if you read somewhere on the internet that this is a good thing to do, can you please share the source? Thanks!

Hello @meatballthepug As @vickieito suggested, customer support is the way to go, just open a ticket and attach the evidence and they will evaluate the situation. About the work: We have heard one side of the story so we cannot figure out who's to blame here, but if you want to share some more info (not private ones, just something related to the project's scope) we could give our opinion and some advice on that. Based on what I read here seems like the budget was attractive both for you and the seller, maybe you read also some good reviews and you decided to hire him/her. But probably you've asked something that doesn't reflect the real seller's skillset, he/she knows it and didn't want to renounce on project's money and started to delay it to figure out what he/she has to do. When you hire a freelancer keep in mind that investing time in finding the right person is very important, some people will tell you they can do everything just to grab your money. So, if you get your money back, spend a bit of time researching the good one, nightmares are always around the corner and you need to dodge them! I hope this helps, bye!

Hello @mrs_bristy Personally, I think you should look at the sentence "share on social media" from a different point of view. Sharing just the links will not benefit much, maybe you can give a little boost to your views, but what you need are sales and if you reach the wrong audience, you will hardly convert these extra impressions into sales. In my opinion, the only way you could benefit from "sharing on social media" is by building and growing a social media profile (showing your works or making tutorials) and then you can tell your followers that you have some services on a platform (Fiverr, in this case). For instance, if you increase your online reputation on Instagram you could benefit from sharing your gigs there because their algorithm could reach interested people, not just your followers. I hope it helps, bye!

Wow, I have the same shiny N/A, I've never been so close to a Pro TRS status as I am today! I think I'm gonna make a celebration topic too.

Nice, that's a cool castle! By the way, since New Zealand and Bhutan ruined these records, I suggest a new one, if I may. Gareth Bale, the first football player to be transferred for 100 million Euros. Later, the petrodollars came heavily and it changed a bit the perspective, but it was a shocking transfer at that time, he broke a kind of barrier. It reminded me of Dragon Ball too! Also, the balls have the same color as the Bhutan flag. So, to recap: that one is Dragon Shenron with 4 out 7 dragon balls. Well, now I don't want to listen to different stories because that's the one I want to believe in! The research continues! 🐉

A flag created with the colors of our most-used ingredients. A place where hand gestures form never-ending loops. A booth-shaped, stylish and historical, territory. Some people label it as pizza-land, others brilliantly name it Eataly. But I simply call it... Italia! 💚🤍❤️

As a new seller, I didn't have any idea about it! We should have a topic for "first gig management guide" focused on basic and important things like the one above, basically a list of "be aware of..." or "keep in mind..." tips. Luckily we have this forum which is a nice place to learn platform's things. Thanks for sharing this!

Hello! I'm a new seller, but I will try to analyze the situation with you until someone with more Fiverr experience gives you better tips. What I notice here, if we compare your stats with mine, is the spread between impressions and clicks. You have 26 times more impressions than me, but in terms of clicks, you have "just" 5 times more. So, your clicks/impression rate is 1 click every 196 impressions, while on my side it's 1 click every 43 impressions. I know, we are in two different categories and, probably, I have rookie stats, but I think having an average of 4.5k impressions each month is a huge result. So, after that, two things come to my mind: - Buyers aren't interested because you reach the wrong audience. - Buyers aren't interested in your gigs because of your service quality. I think the quality/price ratio is good, you also have two reviews demonstrating it, so maybe the problem is with the audience. If they aren't your real target, you can hardly convert them into sales, even if you reach 5k impressions every month. If your views come only from Fiverr, try to optimize your SEO to more related categories, otherwise check the way you sponsor your gigs outside of here, maybe you're just attracting people who are not really interested in purchasing, but they got attracted by your thumbs for curiosity reasons (which is still good because your mission is to let people click on it!). By doing that, you could decrease the number of views, but you can increase clicks and, hopefully, sales. Other than that I would make the profile picture more professional to match the gig's thumbnail style (i.e. glow background). Also, the portrait is cut, I would move it a bit down to give some space above your head. These are my suggestions. I hope it helps, bye!

Impressive numbers, congratulations @abdheshkjha

The previous main color was fresh and gave some fun-relaxed vibes, now it looks more like a serious environment like Customer Support. So, let's assume they wanted to switch from a fun to a serious mood, what I notice are two different mistakes. The first one, as pointed out by others, is oversight errors: I don't want to believe they purposely placed dark green text on a black background. The second one is accessibility errors: If you go to the main forum page, and check the dark green tab of a section (i.e. "From the Community") you can see what I mean. On the right side, there is a chevron arrow with a lighter green. Well, their color contrast will not pass any accessibility test. I know, designing UIs with a tone-on-tone style is beautiful, sites like Dribbble are full of amazing examples, but when it comes to a real product, accessibility must always be considered. Also, based on what I read here, a day/night mode option would be very useful. So my suggestion here is to list all the oversight errors and fix them all, and then look at the color contrast ratio and improve it. These are my two cents, bye!

A noteworthy result, congratulations!

Hello @Kesha It's nice to see that Fiverr wants to clarify some platforms' myths, so, here are my questions: Online myth: Is the "online now" filter actually used by buyers or do they find it not essential? Thumbnail myth: Does the system read the text (or images) inside of the thumbnails? If yes, does it affect the search results like keywords and metadata? That's it for now, bye!

Amazing result, congratulations on your achievement!

Congratulations, it's a notable achievement!

Great read @breals All the mentioned points are very important and I think this is something that everyone should be aware of. I like the mix between general professional tips and platform advice, especially when they come from Pro and TR sellers. Regarding point 1: Personally, as a new seller, I find it difficult to showcase my works, because I don't have the portfolio feature. Thumbnails are great to catch, but they are a bit too small to display some details so I'm working on a video to compensate for the lack of a portfolio. I think knowing how Fiverr works is really important and I'm trying to optimize my profile as much as I can. I'm also reading about managing orders properly (i.e. unresponsive clients delaying the delivery and negatively impacting my stats). If you have other topics in mind like this one, feel free to share. I'm one of those who appreciates reading this kind of topic. Bye!

Very nice topic! Well, I don't know the exact moment, because I developed this idea over the years. When I was a teenager I discovered Photoshop and I started learning it through tutorials then I made graphics for forums such as labels and skins (before the advent of social networks, forums were a big thing). During this initial formation, I realized that being a graphic designer was a possible path and I followed it by attending the artistic lyceum and later the Academy of Fine Art where I got a bachelor's degree in Graphic Design with a thesis on Web Design. I always believed in the potential of the internet so during the academy period I also worked on some web design projects found around the web and I started earning some money, but most importantly I was gaining experience (for instance, the power of saying "no" to some client's offers). During that period I was part of a startup that I opened with other people, but it didn't go well, I also delayed the completion of my studies and I decided to exit the startup. After graduating I focused all my efforts on remote freelancing. Now I joined Fiverr and I hope to add a new stream of income to make bigger things.

Hello @tiyasahmedtamim, as other people said, the first thing you can do is remove the blinking portfolio image right away because of the already mentioned issues. Then, if you like that color combination you could design your thumbnails with an improved color palette, I suggest you check the Pantone 2016 Color of the Year. Keep in mind that combining these two colors to make appealing graphics requires a good experience in graphic design. However, I think the content displayed on your thumbnails is good, but it requires better styling, positioning, and weight (also, I would get rid of your profile pics in every gig image). I saw you have more than 40 reviews on Fiverr so this means clients liked the way you work, maybe you just need to present the gigs in a better way (other than checking keywords, metadata, and gig's description). If you can, make a little investment by hiring a graphic designer and letting him/her design your thumbnails, maybe your gigs will benefit from it. Bye!