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I have been fortunate enough to have been a buyer on 5r since before the "transaction/admin fees" were instituted. Yes, that is correct, there was a time when 5r did not charge buyers a fee to buy here. 

During those times, it was quite a deal of trial and error to find sellers that offered great products at a very reasonable or even low low price. Even though this platform has changed quite a bit since the early days, there are still plenty of great seller's among the newbies. Although, I can not guarantee you will land one of the professionals, you can minimalize your chances of being swindled. 

It's going to take some time on your side, but here are my tips in finding that "Diamond in a black cole" among new sellers: 

1. 5r rotates new sellers constantly so feel free to skip to page 5 or 10, by limiting yourself to page 1 or 2, you could be missing out on a great newbie that just signed up 

2. Take a look at the profile picture. Stock images are okay but not if they are selling logos or illustrations, they should be displaying their original work. Right click and do a google search to see if it's stolen. If yes, move on. 

3. Once you click the gig image, take a look at their description. Is it well written, is it full of grammatical errors? Is it short, is it long, is it hard to read? 

Regardless of what is being sold, the seller should have a nicely written, bullet points on what he/she will provide for you 

They should have a Q&A section, for any questions they feel the clients (us) may have - not always needed, if they captured it all in the description 

There should be no spelling or punctuation errors, the sentences should be coherent and make sense 

My definition of an expert is someone who has spent at least 1000 hours on a subject outside of school or training. So many newbies tout they are an "EXPERT" without any means to verify their abilities. After buying for a while, you will get what I mean here 

Stay away from all sellers that state (or similar to): 

I will give you unlimited revision until you are satisfied 

Note: All those notes above are redundant. Time is money. Ask yourself these questions: 

Would an expert in his/her field really need to state the obvious? 

Doesn't an expert photographer (as an example) always do their best work? 

As an expert, why would you give unlimited revision? You are an expert, your work should reflect it. 

No expert or not, can guarantee happiness. This is subject to interpretation. 

You, as the buyer, will find great sellers and professional, on this platform, do not offer unlimited revisions or guarantee satisfaction, because they know better. It may sound good on the surface, but there is a reason why they may be offering such a good deal. 

Take the time to actually READ the description box to see what the seller's requirements are for that gig. They may not do what you are seeking. Inbox them if you aren't sure. 

Give the sellers 24 hours to respond inbox quarries. They aren't robots and they could snoozing soundly with pleasant dreams on the other side of the word. 

Read their response carefully for grammar and sentence structures; especially if you are buying an article or any writing material. They should be responding with clear concise answers, well written and professional. 

I found some respond with short answers because they do not have the ability to write and will give me a plagiarized article - yes, it has happened to me. 

Don't use emoji's to communicate on your initial contact. After working for a while and you have a friendly relationship, then it is acceptable. First contact should be strictly professional. 

4. Separate your forum relationship with 5r platform relationship. Forum is for fun and the site is for business, just because you know someone from here doesn't mean you are entitled to a freebie, special discount or anything else. I have bought gigs from a few sellers I've met on this forum and have always followed their gig requirement. 

5. If the seller has a great gig, nice profile, well written description and you have communicated well - then take that leap of faith; however, I strongly advise you to buy a lower price gig for say $10 to $20 as a test run. Don't ever rush into a large project until you have worked with a newbie at least once! 

6. Never buy from someone complaining about not getting any orders from this forum. [This one will be controversial and I'll probably get flack for it but, I don't care. This is my opinion - feel free to follow or not.] There may be a reason why they aren't making sales. 

I've gotten some really great work from newbies at rock bottom prices. Many of them are now senior sellers and have raised their prices to 10x or even 50x higher than when I worked with them. So don't dismiss a newbie too quickly!! 

Finding a REAL EXPERT among new sellers

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