Fiverr?

Unicorn

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I recently heard about fiverr.com as a place to sell freelance services. Anyone have experience doing any sort of writing on this site? How did it go? Is this actually a viable way to generate income or just a waste of time (due to only making $4 on each "sale")?

Thoughts?
 

cornflake

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I recently heard about fiverr.com as a place to sell freelance services. Anyone have experience doing any sort of writing on this site? How did it go? Is this actually a viable way to generate income or just a waste of time (due to only making $4 on each "sale")?

Thoughts?

Four dollars to write what? Unless it's like four words, my reaction would be: Fuck you [not you you], pay me.

Note: I'm not the author of the blog. I simply agree with him, and don't either get or, frankly, appreciate writers selling their services for pennies on the word or less. It doesn't help anyone, imo.
 
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Angie

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Fiverr is probably a great site for people working in third-world countries where a dollar stretches a lot farther. For a freelance writer in the U.S. who wants to actually keep a roof over their head and food on the table? Forget it. I think you'd be even worse off than on a content mill, and I *loathe* content mills. ;)
 

greendragon

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Most of the services on there offer 'upsells' for $5 or $10. For instance. 'I'll write a press release for you for $5. For $15, I'll write....X" *shrugs*. I've dropped $5 a couple of times to have my book promoted on facebook or twitter. I've gotten more traffic and several sales (nothing huge) after each time. It's paid for the investment and a bit more.
 

DavidTShank

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I know Once! seemed to have a good experience with buying a book cover from Fiverr. He paid a bit extra (a whopping $21) and ended up with a pretty decent result. He makes a good point that the people he purchased it from probably have an office of people doing these things around the clock with templates and such so they don't have to stretch too far to produce a cheap result.

He wrote about it here: https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/04/29/cover-me-im-going-in/
 

Angie

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And here's the opposing viewpoint: Why Fiverr Sucks for Freelancers.

Rationalizing it by assuming they have an office full of people doesn't change the fact that those people are working for peanuts -- after Fiverr's fees and Paypal fees, the article I referenced says you're actually making $3.58 out of that $5.

If you're a buyer, Fiverr's great (provided you can find the rare gem who actually delivers high-quality work for such a paltry fee). If you're a freelancer, you're better off standing on a street corner with a sign saying "Will write for food."
 

lance.schukies

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There are people in third world countries who only make $20 a week site's like fiverr, helps local entrepreneurs give jobs to people who need work. I have used fiverr for gifts and other non essential tasks.
There are people who sell books for $5
 

Helix

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Fiverr hosts people who are happy to supply fake* testimonials. (See the thread about Raider Publishing International's 'UK' offshoot, Green Shore Publishing.)

* Also illegal, depending on your jurisdiction.
 

Once!

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As Guitarshank says, I've been happy with using fiverr for covers. But, this comes with a huge caveat...

The basic premise of fiverr should not work. As a customer you shouldn't be able to get a decent piece of work for $4 (that's how much the seller gets after fiverr takes its cut). And as a vendor you aren't going to pay the bills on $4 for a job.

So it shouldn't work. It really shouldn't. And yet it does. How come?

I did a bit of research before placing an order, and this is what I found. Many of the sellers at the lower end of the popularity ratings are poor quality. I looked at over 100 cover designers, starting with the most popular and working my way down. In many cases, their showcases of previous covers were either just bad or not for me. I ended up with a very short shortlist of sellers who seemed to be worth the money. Buyer beware - there are some chancers there who may have less experience than you do.

Most gigs don't cost $5. That's the basic entry price, but you will soon want addons. Sure they will make you a cover for $5, but you will want the PSD file for another $5. If they find a photograph that's another $5, and so on. It's still good value, but my guess is that the sellers don't make any money from the $5 gigs.

As a seller you need to complete gigs fast. We are talking a matter of minutes, not hours. So it needs to be a task which can be automated or partly pre-prepared. If you can't do that, then I don't see how fiverr can be a place to make much money.

The way I think that fiverr works is by selling a few minutes of expertise. A professional designer with photoshop and a huge library of templates can produce a decent book cover in minutes. It will look a damn sight better than anything I could do because they know what they are doing and I don't. And if I am happy with the result I will use them again and give a tip.

The other secret to fiverr is that many of the sellers are from countries with a lower standard of living than the people they are selling to. I haven't got a problem with that. In fact, it's one of the attractions for me. But it is part of the explanation for how fiverr works when it looks like it shouldn't.

There are scammers and sharks on fiverr. Google "how to make money on fiverr" for a glimpse into a sometimes shady world of selling not a lot for very little as many times as possible.

Overall verdict on fiverr? Yes, it can work provided you go into it with your eyes open. As a buyer you can get a good result if you choose your provider carefully. As a vendor you would need a slick and lean operation to keep costs down and get jobs done as quickly as possible.
 

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I looked into oDesk, eLance and Fiverr (amongst others) and came to the conclusion that I'd have to work for next to nothing for months in order to build my reputation, without any guarantees that I'd manage to land better gigs later. For that amount of work it made sense to hit the local businesses here which yielded a lot more jobs at much, much higher rates.

Thus, unless you're living in low income countries, or can provide reusable content (i.e. you don't write the content from scratch each time but cut-and-paste blocks or sentences), or can get away with offering a $5 per X words rate, then I'd look for business elsewhere.
 

mbuhmann

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Interesting this should come up as I just used it this past weekend to help promote my book. Here is my experience:

Both services, after upsell, cost me $42 ($21/each). One woman promised three days of ads on her Facebook and Twitter accounts totaling 100k visits. She ran it Fri. - Sun. for me. Another seller, who promotes ebooks exclusively on his Facebook, Twitter, and book promotions site on Sat. He has says he has 4800+ ebook readers subscribed.

Fri. sales = 3
Sat. sales = 63
Sun. sales = 2

Based on the numbers and the sales per day, I don't think the woman I used generated much, if any, sales since I also promoted on FB and Twitter myself. I can't be sure those 5 sales came from her. Sat. was the one day I used the other seller and did pretty well, I think.

Would I use Fiveer again? Yes, so long as the person promoting has a track record with ebooks. My advice would be to research the seller (take the sellers positive reviews lightly). Instead of breaking even I may have made $20.
 

Patrick Murtha

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Hello! I'm new here, and I'll offer a bit of a more positive view on Fiverr. I've had a blog-writing Gig posted there since April, and I have done fairly well with it, earning about $700-800 per month. That's mostly on Custom Offers and upselling; the $5.00 jobs are just come-ons, and I look at them as samples that earn me revenue.

Fiverr's commission is indeed high, but it is a very popular site that gets a lot of visits from potential buyers. So I figure I'm paying for the marketing. Also, the money that is going to be paid to me goes into escrow the second an order is placed, so I KNOW I'm getting to get paid and won't have to pursue my fees. I think that's pretty huge.

Of course, I'm looking to expand my business beyond Fiverr, but it has been a good way to get started.

I've also been doing contract editing and freelancing for a company that pays decently, but I'm not going to continue with that because I've found that I simply don't like editing very much and am not that great at it. The company I work for handles mostly academic editing, so there is a lot of persnicketiness about comma placement in APA style, etc., which I can't bring myself to care about. Much of the writing is ESL, too, and it's excruciating to try to wrangle those pieces into acceptable Standard English.

I live abroad, and can squeak by on $1,200 / month, live decently on $1,500 / month, and live very nicely on $2,000 / month. In many cities in the U.S., I'd barely be covering my rent and utilities on those amounts. So if you can swing it, I heartily recommend freelancing from abroad.

After a couple of months dabbling with Fiverr and the editing company while I was also working for a language school, I was able to start freelancing full-time at the beginning of June. (I don't name the editing company because they are super-secretive and tight about information; those of us who work there are only allowed to identify ourselves by number, even to each other, as if we were spies! "Agent 99" on Get Smart or something like that.)

I kept several private language students, which is nice supplemental income.

Now I need to keep growing. I've answered a number of ads that have come my way through FreelanceWriting.com's Morning Coffee eNewsletter or ProBlogger, but haven't turned up solid work that way yet. Ditto for Elance and Fiverr Buyer Requests (which is the the part of Fiverr that is set up like Elance and oDesk).

I just read another thread here about sending LOIs to trade publications and other potential sources of work. This has good ideas for me:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?91969-Asking-for-work

My writing at Fiverr has covered a wide variety of subjects for business blogs and websites.

I write reviews of indie books and films at my blog, and would be delighted to do some similar work for pay, but paid reviewing gigs seem to have dried up quite a bit in recent years. I'm always looking, though.

Here are links to my two blogs, the first focused on reviewing and culture, the second on my life abroad:

http://bookthemdanno.blogspot.mx/

http://queretaroencantador.blogspot.mx/

I am wide open to ideas!
 
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Melanii

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It seems odd to use Fiverr for writing. I think it's more suited for things like... art, music, a voice over for something, etc. Something quick and simple, but still takes someone's time.

I use it for my art, but i'm not successful (only because I haven't promoted enough since I started during a busy month for me). Also, I chose it, due to be desperate for money.