I’ve been using Fiverr for a few years now. If you don’t know, Fiverr is a service where freelancers offer their services for $5 (plus .50 for some BS service fee or something that Fiverr gets). Now, $5 or £3.52 isn’t much money. But don’t let that put you off from the site. Let me give you an overview of how it works. And yes, even though it’s called Fiverr, it still is popular in the UK.
What service do you want done? Fiverr freelancers offer everything from voicemail greetings to short video production to just general virtual assistant work. Typically the service is quite basic. The freelancer will record your voicemail greeting via MP3 for $5, for instance. But things get more complicated.
Like any profitable sales website, there are upsells. For a fiverr, yes, you can can a voicemail greeting. But if you want the best quality, that’ll be an extra $5. Upsells are endless with some freelancers. With some gigs, you may end up needing to pay $50+ to get your ideal outcome.
Though I rarely go for the upsells. I usually just want their basic service done. The more you get upsold, the less value you get. Pretty soon, you may as well hire someone from a site like Freelancer or Upwork.
How are the services so cheap?
Overall, the services are very cheap. That’s because the power of the globe. $5 to you or I may not seem like much. But for a stay at-home-mom in the Philippines, $5 is a serious amount of money. Thus, Fiverr is usually about developing countries helping developed countries.
It’s also made cheap because some things are just cheap and fast to do. For instance, a university student may have access to a green screen and state-of-the-art videography equipment. He can shoot a video for you in just a few minutes. If you were to get the equipment yourself, it would be quite the undertaking. That’s why it is worth paying the person who has access to the equipment $5 for a few minutes of time.
Another example is if someone buys a powerful piece of software. You may want to try it out. Or you may only need it for a few small jobs. With Fiverr, you can find someone who already purchased the software. They can use it a few times on your behalf. They’ve already paid so it’s free for them to run. And you don’t have to buy the software itself, so it’s okay if you’re paying him money to do something that is free for him to do.
First Steps
Buying on Fiverr takes some skill. I should know. I had to cancel probably my first 5 orders because they were horrible. This has taught me to do a few things:
- Sort by highest rating
- Message them first if you’re not sure if they can complete your task
- Someone with good English skills is handy. This way, if you need a correction, it will be easy for them to understand.
- Give yourself time. True, the gig says it will be delivered in 2 days. But what if it’s a day behind? And what if you need multiple corrections? What if you have to choose a new freelance? I like to allow at least a week before I see a finished product. Plus, the good freelancers are always super busy.
- Save people as your favorites for later. If you ever need a transcriptionist, let’s say, you’ll be able to easily hire that person again in the future. A quality fiverr seller is a name you want to hold onto.
- Be extremely clear with your instructions. Most people on Fiverr aren’t good with English. This means you should be clear with what you say. Make your instructions as easy as possible. Remember, you are the brains of the operation. The person you are hiring is meant to carry out your plans. Don’t make them think/guess/struggle any more than necessary. Everyone will have a better experience if you take a little upfront time to set clear expectations.
- Leave feedback. Leaving feedback helps other buyers. While you may want said freelancer for yourself, that’s a poor way of looking at it. If they did well, sing your praises. It’ll help make the Fiverr community a better place. It will also mean the seller can stay on Fiverr since more and more will buy from them.
- YOU must be the creative one. Fiverr is so cheap, the seller really doesn’t have time to both be the creative brains and the worker brains. Don’t expect to give them a picture of a horse and tell them to do something “magical” with it. Tell them you want a purple unicorn. Be clear.
I Used to Hate Fiverr but Now That I’ve Learned It, I like It
Fiverr may seem like a magical place. It’s not. It’s just a place where you can find reasonably priced labor. If you think it’s magical, you’ll be sorely disappointed as I first was.
Enjoy your search on Fiverr.
Bonus: Probably the BEST Fiverr sellers are ones who just want to use Fiverr as a jumping off platform. They are those who are willing to work hard for little money so they can get their name out there. These are especially university students who are extremely skilled – they just haven’t proven it to a mass audience yet. These are the BEST sellers you can get.
Bio:
Will Lipovsky is a personal finance freelance writer and internet marketer. His most embarrassing moment has been saying to a Microsoft executive, “I’ll just Google it.” You can get in touch with Will at FirstQuarterFinance.com.
Couple things:
1. Thanks. I have been thinking of using Fiverr and will bookmark this page to refer to it later.
2. Have you ever used any of the traffic buying services — the people that claim they can deliver a certain number of visitors to your site? Do they work? They just seem too good to be true…
ESI Money recently posted..My Current Asset Allocation
They send automated traffic so I guess it only helps you get pageviews for your CPM but I wouldn’t count on it to get subscribers.
I use Fiverr all the time! It saves me money and time.