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Offer Your Own Services!
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Fiverr | Offer Your Own Services!
Monday, August 05, 2013Teenchips
If you're a teen with a special talent in graphic design (flyers, posters, facebook banners, book covers--or even photoshop manipulation), writing, or even translating (know more than one language?) then you might make some nice extra cash at Fiverr.
So what is Fiverr?
Well Fiverr is a site (or marketplace) where you can offer any service you want (as long as it isn't illegal, and follows the TOS) for as little as $5.00! You'd be surprised at what services people would offer at Fiverr, and be even more shocked when you learn people actually pay for these services (at first I laughed, but then it really sunk in).
What are the levels at Fiverr?
At Fiverr there are about 3 Levels, and each one adds more benefits to your gigs.
- Level One: To be a level one at Fiverr you have to be active on the site for at least 30 days, and deliver 10 orders. Your feedback, and ratings though must be in good standing. When you're a level one at Fiverr you will have the ability to add gig extras to your gigs so you won't just earn that small $5.00, and have something to boost your earnings. You can offer to deliver your gig extra fast for a fee (so instead of you delivering it in 7 days you can deliver it in 2), or add extra features to it in the fixed amounts of $5, $10, and $20 (you can't offer higher amounts until you reach higher levels). You can only have a max of 4 gig extras per gig.
- Level Two: To be a level two at Fiverr you have to deliver at least 50 orders or more within the past two months, and have a good track record (ratings, feedback, and all). When your a level two at Fiverr you can add a max of 8 gig extras, and raised it up to a max of $40. You will also get priority support.
- Top Seller: You aren't automatically promoted to being a top seller like the other two levels above. Instead you have to be manually chosen by Fiverr editors. This is based on really high ratings (basically 100% positive feedback), great customer service, number of sales (they have to be steady every month or else you will lose the top seller promotion--yes you can be de-promoted as a top seller if your sales are no longer in their usual high standings), seniority, and leadership (in the community that is). As a top seller you get V.I.P. support, early access to beta features, better sales tools, and add up to 20 gig extras and raise the prices up to $100.
Note: The prices of $10-$100 are only for gig extras. It only applies to gig extras. Your actual gig can never be more than $5 just the additional features that you can add on to your gig.
For example, I used to offer to design Power Point Presentations at Fiverr where 1 gig ($5.00) = 5 slides. If the buyer has more than 5 slides, then they would have to buy additional gigs to pay for their extra slides. This way they are paying $5.00 per 5 slides. Gig Extras on the other hand are additional services that you would do on the gig, and in turn the buyer would have to pay the price you set on the Gig Extras in order to get them. For example, I offer to add voice overs, my own videos, and pictures to the Power Points for an additional $80.00 total ($20 for voice overs, $40 for videos, and $20 for pictures). So if a buyer had 20 slides, they would have to pay $20.00, and an additional $20.00 for my gig extras.
Does Fiverr charge any fees?
Yes Fiverr does charge a fee, but it isn't to join. Joining Fiverr is 100% free. When you're a seller at Fiverr, Fiverr takes 20% from each of your sales. So when you sell a gig for $5.00 Fiverr takes 20% out of that $5.00 gig, which will leave you with $4.00. Though, to give it to you straight, you will not be cashing out $4.00 to PayPal. PayPal would charge its own fees which would then leave you with $3.92, meaning PayPal took a good old $0.08 from you while Fiverr snatched out a nice $1.00.
The best way to cash out of Fiverr would be to cash out when you hit higher amounts so the 20% has less of an impact (but then again cashing out $100.00, and having $20.00 taken away feels worse than cashing out $10.00, and having $2.00 taken away). The max Paypal can ever charge for withdrawals is $1.00 so cashing out $100 at Fiverr will leave you at $99.00 (you have sold 25 gigs and have gotten $4.00 each after Fiverr fees. This leaves you with $100.00, but when you cash out to PayPal you will get $99.00. It will not be shown as a Paypal fee though, from your net pay--just look at my payment proof below). So make sure you cash out when your orders accumulate to $50.00 or more.
Is there a wait period before my funds are released at Fiverr?
There is a waiting period at Fiverr before you see your hard earned money reflected on your PayPal account. It's a waiting time of about 10-14 days to ensure that no issues occur once you have delivered your product, and the buyer has marked it as completed. Sometimes it might take an extra day if the buyer has not marked it as complete, and so Fiverr's system itself has to do it automatically.
BEFORE MOVING ON...A few tips to get you started!
1. GIG IDEAS:
Before you even think of going any further you need to figure out what kind of gig you're going to be selling at Fiverr. Think of something that you're really good at. Are you a fast thinker, and great at providing relationship advice? Are you a social media junkie who wouldn't mind getting a few bucks by promoting other people? Are you a talented designer or writer? Or are you a master at Photoshop or Illustrator? Do you think out of the box, and do the weird and bizarre? Whatever your talent is jot it down, because it could be your key to success at Fiverr.
2. DOING THE UNDONE:
The next step is doing something unique with your talent. At Fiverr, it is extremely hard to sell a gig that someone else hasn't done before, but is it impossible? No. You can try to be an innovative thinker. Look around the site, and see what other people are doing that is related to your profession. See what there is too much and not enough of. This way you can see what you can add to your gig to make it stand out from all the others.
3. NEVER SELLING YOURSELF SHORT:
How much time are you going to be dedicating to your gig at Fiverr? 15 minutes? 1 hour? 12 hours?
When you're a seller at Fiverr, you need to know what you are worth. Don't do 8 hrs of work for a simple $5. Buyers will not hesitate to take advantage of you, and ask you to do way more than what is required. Do not ever fall into the trap of overworking yourself for a gig. Your life is time, and your time is money.
4. THE BEST WAYS TO PROMOTE YOURSELF:
- If you're creating a Gig at Fiverr, you better have a video. It's one of the easiest ways to let your personally show through, and gain a little bit of trust from your buyers. Buyers at Fiverr can also get a little glimpse of what your gig has to offer. Sure you can show those sneak previews by uploading some pics, but wouldn't be better to see your gig in action rather than see it through a still image (this does not apply if you are drawing or painting)?
- You've already heard this a million times, but I must say it again: Social Networking sites. Depending on how active you are on social networking platforms (twitter, Facebook Reddit, blogger, etc) you might or might not get a lot of gig orders. If you want to have a shot at this through social networking site then you have add the main ingredient--get social. Start branching out, and talking to other people. You could even do this at forums which leads us to the next step.
- Using the Fiverr forum to your full advantage. Being active within a community is one of the best ways to get feedback, and tips on how to improve your gigs and make the most out of it. You can also find out better ways to promote yourself, and learn from other member's experiences at Fiverr.
5. DON'T LET NEGATIVE FEEDBACK GET YOU DOWN:
- Avoid negative feedback whenever possible. When offering your gig make sure you are very clear about what you will do for the buyer. They will expect the best of the best from you. They want top notch perfection for the $3.92 that you will receive. Until you reach level one where you can charge them for that Top notch perfection you will need to make this very clear to them: they will get what they paid for. They will not get $150 worth of work for $3.92.Tell your buyers to contact you before requesting your gig (say this in your description) so that you know what they want, and they know what to expect from you, and you also know as to whether or not you will be able to do it. This is a great way to avoid getting negative feedback from buyers at Fiverr.
- If you do get negative feedback learn from it, don't let it get you down. You will never see a highly ordered gig with no negative feedback. No matter how amazing your work on your gig is there will always be those buyers who will want to scam you or will never be satisfied. Some will try to get your gig for free by telling you it didn't suit their taste so they should get a refund. If you don't give them a refund they will leave you with hateful negative feedback, and if you do give them their refund you will avoid the horrible feedback but you basically did your work for free. If you strongly feel that you tried your best to suit the buyers needs, and did everything that was agreed upon, do not give them a refund. If you, and the buyer communicated, and you both agreed on certain guidelines for the gig which you have met you should not give them a refund if they still are not satisfied. You did what you agreed upon end of story. It is not a matter of taste so no refunds.
If negative feedback was left genuinely by a buyer at Fiverr then learn from it. You had to deliver a gig in 5 days, but delivered it a day or two late? The buyer gets angry, and leaves negative feedback. It's okay you can bounce back from that. Your life, and your gig is not over. This will just teach you to have better time management when delivering your gig. Even if you make some mistakes on your gig, and only realized it after delivering it, it's okay. You're human, you're not 100% perfect.
You can offer to appease the buyer's anger by offering to revise, and edit it for free or add on some additional features (this works most of the time). If not then give yourself a pat on the back for trying, and move on to the next buyer. You tried your best. No need to beat yourself up over it. Not only that, but buyers will be able to see that you are an actual human being and not a robot! They will see that you do not manipulate your ratings by giving refunds just so you can keep them high (yes, a lot of sellers at Fiverr try to keep 0 negative feedback by doing this. I don't advise giving refunds just to get higher ratings. Only give refunds if the fault was actually on your part).
Doesn't it seem a little fishy when a high rated seller has no negative feedback? I mean even Apple, Google, Amazon, and food get bad reviews, and they offer better services!
UPDATED: Fiverr's 5 Star Rating
Some cons that still exist:
- Sketchy Buyer: from time to time you will have some buyers that will try to underpay you or get a gig for free--avoid working them when you see any warning signs.
- Extreme Competitiveness: It is extremely hard to sell something that someone else is not offering on fiverr--especially if it is something popular like voice over services, video testimonials, banner design etc. You will have to be really good at what you do in order to stand out or else you may go months without getting any orders.
Payment Proof:
