mark_sgp

Raining in torrents Wailing wind and thunderclaps I ponder within

Hi - Thank you for sharing your insights. Regarding the affiliate program, my current affiliate link promotes marketplace gigs, Fiverr Pro and Logo Maker. The current registration report also lists "FiverrCPA". There has been some change since I joined a few months ago; some of my original registrations were direct downline subaffiliates, and others were for Fiverr Hybrid. I do vaguely remember Fiverr Learn being part of the program -- and now it does not seem to be available in the affiliate option context. Regarding commissions, the earnings report does not always specifically state what service was purchased, it only tells me commission earned on a specific date and says "Bonus 1st FTB". It also gives me the country of the buyer.

I think most of the scammers make a specific point to target newcomers to Fiverr. I have received scam messages from various countries of origin - obviously fake accounts - promising lots of projects (often for services I don't even provide) and wanting to communicate off Fiverr (usually by Telegram). One was so brazen, they didn't care - or were total amateurs at scamming -- with a profile name just a nonsense string of characters and country of origin Nigeria. All the others have been Turkey, Germany, United States, etc. but essentially using the identical scam message. Most of these communications have had the accounts disabled before I even had a chance to read them -- and some were not even retained in my Fiverr inbox. The few I did contact via Fiverr were basically "Thank you for your interest. Please engage me through one of my Fiverr gigs" messages. None of them ever did, nor sent any followup e-mails, before those accounts were also disabled.

Hmmm -- that sounds a little disingenuous on the part of the buyer, and unprofessional. Maybe they were just "shopping around" for similar services -- maybe they wanted a few quotes on similar offerings, etc. If so, they could theoretically return to engage you if your gig turns out to be a better deal than others they evaluated...but it's a bit of a "yellow flag" to me.

Are these really legitimate buyers -- or just scam artists hoping you'd fall for their "sweet talk"? I routinely get dozens of messages from "buyers" wanting various services (usually generic messages including some services I don't even offer). They always want contact off the Fiverr platform (usually Telegram) -- promise the moon and other nonsense. Fortunately, most of the time, their accounts have been blocked so that I can't even answer them (which is great). The few times where I directed them to engage me through my Fiverr gig, absolutely none responded. That just screams "SCAM" in my ear, loud and clear. If you are getting messages from seemingly legitimate sources, that are discussing real projects, real scope and expectations, yet backing out without explanation -- there may be something about the gig terms that they don't like. Again, this may also be a more "experienced" scammer seeing how far they can get.

I have noticed discrepancies between the country of origin on the media report and registrations report on the Fiverr Affiliates site. What is the reason for this? For example, over the past few days: 30 Apr - 10 registrations Media report indicates: 3 Nepal, 3 Ethiopia, 2 Namibia, 1 Myanmar, 1 Kiribati Registrations report from the same day indicates: 4 Nepal, 3 Ethiopia, 1 Myanmar, 1 Papua New Guinea, 1 Eritrea 1 May - 6 Registrations Media report: 3 Nepal, 1 Oman, 1 Zimbabwe, 1 Fiji Registrations report: 3 Nepal, 1 Oman, 1 Zimbabwe, 1 Papua New Guinea I also note other oddities over the past few months -- such as .sa extension being mapped to South Africa (which is .za) -- instead of being listed as Saudi Arabia (.sa) And, my FTB commission was associated with Namibia on one report but "XX - Unknown country" on another.

I routinely receive messages from various sources soliciting business and contact off the Fiverr platform, such as through Telegram, etc. I usually ignore these but in some cases will tell them to engage me through one of my gigs on Fiverr if they are really interested (none have ever done so). In most cases, their account is already disabled before I even read their message and the message is not even available in my Fiverr mailbox -- although it was copied to my non-Fiverr e-mail of record.

OK noted - and thanks for all your insights.

Ah OK - It makes sense now - more or less. Are buyers aware of these rating implications, and do they care? Would the average buyer be inclined to give out 5 star ratings, regardless of whether or not they knew of the consequence of ratings less than 5 for the seller?

Are 4-star out of 5-star ratings considered unacceptable? To me, that seems like a successful gig outcome. Does the Fiverr platform punish 4-star ratings? Personally, I would reserve a 5-star rating for exceptionally fantastic service (and similarly, 1-star ratings for absolutely terrible, unacceptable service).

I have found that AI is useful for creating outlines/frameworks for large documents -- section by section. However, if you are creating something such as a policy or a business continuity plan document, it will still need to be tailored to specific client requirements and operational realities. AI used by a seller isn't going to be able to generate a client-specific emergency contact list with contact numbers/e-mails, nor is it going to specifically understand the key controls and failure points in a client-specific process, for example.

Congratulations - very impressive.

Congratulations - hope the orders continue for you.

Singapore

I joined as an affiliate toward the beginning of 2024, and established a seller account soon afterward. I currently have 330+ new registrations associated with my affiliate account -- spanning across almost every country on the map from Egypt to Bangladesh, several southeast Asian countries, and several African countries. My first FTB commission came from Namibia. Approximately one third of my new registrations are from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Adding Egypt and Sri Lanka, these 4 countries represent half of my registrations as an affiliate. I find it interesting that more "exotic" locations also sign up -- such as Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, and Palestinian Territory. I am even more interested to see how many FTB I actual get out of these registrations, and where they will come from...and of course, where the first buyers for my own gigs will come from. I am currently in Singapore (for the last 22 years) -- formerly from New York 🙂

Thanks, Kesha! I will be using those references quite extensively 😉

Thank you for your very inspirational response 🙂

I joined Fiverr only recently, earlier this year. So far, my experiences have been overall positive. I do find it interesting to see similarities and contrasts among the comments posted on Fiverr forum vs. those posted by presumptively active, or formerly active, Fiverr affiliates, sellers and buyers on sites outside Fiverr. While there are many success stories, there also seems to be an undercurrent of dissatisfaction about customer service, bad experiences with sellers/buyers, and references to obsolete systems of compensation for affiliate commissions, etc. -- with a general pining nostalgically for "how much better things were when they first joined xx years ago". I am wondering - has the Fiverr network really deteriorated in quality that badly, or is it because of explosive growth, increased competition, and perhaps internal staffing issues that are causing the discontent? Also - does anyone really have any genuine and reputable comparison vs. Fiverr's main competitors -- are they really any better? As a new starter in the freelancing world, I do note that it takes a lot of effort to get noticed, develop a professional reputation, and secure business -- far more difficult and time consuming than simply being the employee of someone else's company. But -- the potential reward, potential financial and personal freedom spurs me onward with optimism. I hope my decision to join the Fiverr network turns out to be a wise and fruitful one.

I signed up as an affiliate back in January; I also have a seller account with 4 gigs active. Additionally, I have made purchases of Fiverr. It appears that my seller account and buyer account are the same, there is just a hyperlink that allows me to "switch to seller" or "switch to buyer". The affiliate account seems to have a separate login and dashboard, however (fiverraffiliates.com vs. fiverr.com).

I get a lot of similar type requests -- with prospective "buyers" requesting that I contact them outside of Fiverr (usually via Telegram). I rarely respond, since most such requests are already blocked overnight by the time I receive them (any many not even officially recorded in my Fiverr mailbox). For those that I suspect are scams, but not yet blocked, I ask the buyer to engage me through one of my gigs on Fiverr, if they are genuinely interested. So far, none of them have ever done so or even replied to my messages. I never respond outside of Fiverr. Typically, these nonsense messages I receive are rife with weird, unprofessional formatting, various spelling errors, emojis, and writing style not compatible with the country of origin indicated. They also invariably come from accounts created within the past one month or two.

Hmmm - that sounds like a bug. "English" should always be capitalized.

I think the concept of "value for money" is very relative. What one person considers "value" may be irrelevant to another, or another person may regard it as "lack of value". Then we bring into the equation "managing buyer expectations" and cross-cultural nuances that may result in misunderstanding and different perspectives on what "value for money" really is -- not to mention the more difficult clients which are hard to please. It paints a very messy picture, in my opinion, unless there is widespread consensus and clear definition of how "value for money" is defined...and delivered.

Not yet -- it's been only a month since I started advertising my gigs on FB and other online ad networks. I have gotten over 300 new affiliate registrations since January -- especially from the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent region. My first commission from an FTB was from Africa - Namibia in particular.

As a relatively new joiner to Fiverr, I find the forum is generally quite useful in understanding the perspectives and issues faced by buyers and sellers alike - with some particular consternation toward metrics for how sellers are evaluated/rated. There seems to be a great deal of frustration over changes made recently. Hopefully, I can achieve some degree of reasonable sustainable success here without too much drama or complication.

Hopefully, establishing myself as a reputable seller here on Fiverr, and receiving commissions from the first-time buyer activity of some of the 300+ registrations I have amassed as an affiliate. I am hoping that this will be a viable "side hustle" for me that I can continue into retirement without getting too stressed out over work and income. If it becomes more substantial than that, cool...but since I just joined recently, I need to get buyers for my gigs 🙂