A Frank Discussion About Prices and Next Steps (voice over gig, if it matters)

[sixthsea]

Hey, Fiverr Forums!

Though I’ve been active on Fiverr for a few months now, things only got rolling in the last month when I updated my gig page and put myself out there. I’m providing a link to my voice over gig here: https://www.fiverr.com/share/akwdga

I’ve never had such success in freelancing before. I don’t mean to sound boastful when I say that I am receiving enough orders and inquiries that I am just shy of feeling overwhelmed – thirteen completed voiceovers in the past two days. I rank highly in Fiverr’s search algorithm. I enjoy the success and the excitement of unique and interesting tasks.

The question of pricing gigs isn’t a new one, and it’s been asked time and time again on the forum. I’ve read several topics on the matter but people seem to give conflicting advice and answers. I’ve read that editing your gig can cause you to lose search ranking, or maybe it doesn’t make you lose search ranking. I’ve heard jacking your prices is great, I’ve heard that it’s terrible.

It’s intimidating to swim in the same pond as voice over giants–I’m not there yet and I know it, but my question is, if one kindly took a look at my gig page and listened to my situation–high on the search algorithm and receiving considerable attention, not wanting to lose this attention but also wanting to grasp an opportunity–would you take the leap to increase prices?

Additionally, are there any other critiques that you might give me for continued success?

Thanks for your time and energy, wishing you the best.

[ritaec]

I do like how specific you are with your gig: American English, midwestern, male. I also like that we can get a sample of your voice too. You do sound very professional because you are. I don’t know if my comments help you to decide to raise your price or not.

[sixthsea]

I do like how specific you are with your gig: American English, midwestern, male. I also like that we can get a sample of your voice too. You do sound very professional because you are. I don’t know if my comments help you to decide to raise your price or not.

They help! Thank you for your critique. Everything is new enough to me to feel a little bit frightening and kind words are encouraging.

[visualstudios]

As a frequent buyer of v/o talent for my own work, I think it depends on if you’re being outsourced or not. I simply don’t get to hire sellers above certain pricepoints (even if I wanted to) because that will eat into my bottom line.

If dealing directly with the final client, and if you are good and can differentiate yourself, raising prices is almost always a good idea.

[frank_d]

Congratulations on your success so far.

I do understand the feeling of wanting to increase prices just because the traffic is there.

However, you should keep in mind that editing your gig right now by increasing your price will probably affect the current number of sales you are enjoying.

Your gig will be taken from the results page once edited and when it returns you may find yourself in a different position or page.

Even if you land in the same exact spot, an increase in price probably means that some of your existing clientele, the percentage that purchases based on pricing alone, may stop finding your gig as appealing.

I am an advocate of value based pricing and as long as your plan is to make more through less orders then raising pricing is a no-brainer.

You need to be sure that the timing is right though. Maybe wait till the momentum dies off a bit? Or if you have returning customers you can slowly prepare them for a price increase by keeping them in the loop.

[sixthsea]

Congratulations on your success so far.

I do understand the feeling of wanting to increase prices just because the traffic is there.

However, you should keep in mind that editing your gig right now by increasing your price will probably affect the current number of sales you are enjoying.

Your gig will be taken from the results page once edited and when it returns you may find yourself in a different position or page.

Even if you land in the same exact spot, an increase in price probably means that some of your existing clientele, the percentage that purchases based on pricing alone, may stop finding your gig as appealing.

I am an advocate of value based pricing and as long as your plan is to make more through less orders then raising pricing is a no-brainer.

You need to be sure that the timing is right though. Maybe wait till the momentum dies off a bit? Or if you have returning customers you can slowly prepare them for a price increase by keeping them in the loop.

You need to be sure that the timing is right though. Maybe wait till the momentum dies off a bit? Or if you have returning customers you can slowly prepare them for a price increase by keeping them in the loop.

The entirety of your post is very good, appropriate advice. Thank you very much! I think I will do what you have suggested and wait until a lull.

[cyaxrex]

Hey, Fiverr Forums!

Though I’ve been active on Fiverr for a few months now, things only got rolling in the last month when I updated my gig page and put myself out there. I’m providing a link to my voice over gig here: https://www.fiverr.com/share/akwdga

I’ve never had such success in freelancing before. I don’t mean to sound boastful when I say that I am receiving enough orders and inquiries that I am just shy of feeling overwhelmed – thirteen completed voiceovers in the past two days. I rank highly in Fiverr’s search algorithm. I enjoy the success and the excitement of unique and interesting tasks.

The question of pricing gigs isn’t a new one, and it’s been asked time and time again on the forum. I’ve read several topics on the matter but people seem to give conflicting advice and answers. I’ve read that editing your gig can cause you to lose search ranking, or maybe it doesn’t make you lose search ranking. I’ve heard jacking your prices is great, I’ve heard that it’s terrible.

It’s intimidating to swim in the same pond as voice over giants–I’m not there yet and I know it, but my question is, if one kindly took a look at my gig page and listened to my situation–high on the search algorithm and receiving considerable attention, not wanting to lose this attention but also wanting to grasp an opportunity–would you take the leap to increase prices?

Additionally, are there any other critiques that you might give me for continued success?

Thanks for your time and energy, wishing you the best.

I’ve read several topics on the matter but people seem to give conflicting advice and answers. I’ve read that editing your gig can cause you to lose search ranking,

Someone told me a while ago that gigs only disappear from the search when you modify descriptions-- not prices. I don’t know how accurate this is, though.

As for pricing, take your $5 price outside, shoot it, and bury it in a shallow grave. I can not stress just how abysmal the offerings are of most people who sell at $5 and even $5 to $30.

I discovered this to my detriment with my crypto writing gig, Initially, I priced it at $15 and I was one of the first crypto writers. Shortly afterward, I noticed some people reselling my gig for $70. They ordered from me whenever they got an order and made $55 profit. Then came a flood of new sellers charging starting prices averaging $30.

I bought some gigs from other sellers. I was also able to be nosy and read content other sellers were providing to some of my buyers who were shopping around. EVERYTHING was universally awful.

I have even read whitepapers written by sellers who charge $400+ a pop that read like someone with learning difficulties and a bad lisp trying to explain what Bitcoin is while choking on a hard boiled egg.

Naturally, this leads you to wonder how on Earth these sellers stay in business? However, the simple fact is that a lot of buyers looking for cryptocurrency content don’t know a thing about the space. Sometimes they are re-sellers. Many aren’t proficient in English. Others are people with no crypto knowledge trying to cash-in on crypto affiliate marketing opportunities, by creating a crypto blog.

When these people buy content, they scan articles for buzz words they are familiar with like ‘decentralization’ and ‘blockchain.’ If they see them, they assume the content they take delivery of is fantastic.

Literally, the only way these people determine the quality of a seller is by looking at pricing. When this is the case, lower prices imply that a seller isn’t confident enough in their ability. By comparison. higher prices imply that a seller is oozing with confidence.

Crypto is an extreme case. However, the same rule generally applies across Fiverr. People’s perceptions of quality are determined by price. This is also a lesson you need to learn sooner rather than later.

You can accrue 100 reviews working for $5. In your mind, you will then convince yourself that you now deserve to charge $10. However, by this time, you have will convinced 100+ people that the quality you deliver is standard for $5. In this case, when they see you double prices to $10, they won’t think "well, that’s fair, I’ve been getting a bargain all along." Instead, many will feel like they are being ripped off because they are paying more, but not getting any more than they did before.

As an example, an old buyer sent me a custom order request yesterday. For $30, they wanted me to write 6 x 500-word articles. I thought it was a joke. However, then I saw that the buyer had last ordered from me in 2016. Back then, I did still charge $5 per article.

Politely, I said that I was sorry, but they should maybe look for another seller. My prices have increased quite a lot and there was no way I could work for $30. To my surprise, the buyer said it was okay. They loved my work last time and wanted more. In this case, I sent an offer for $120.

Sadly, this buyer had only been expecting me to quote them $35 or $40. (They hadn’t looked at my current prices.) This resulted in them making a few borderline nasty remarks and we went our separate ways. The problem in this case, was exactly as I stated above. Buyers like this simply can’t reconcile themselves with the fact that what they got for $5 last time, they got as a bargain.

Remember too, that a lot of budget buyers assume that you do what you do as a hobby or because Fiverr makes you start at $5, or because you are someone from a poor country who can remodel your house with a few precious American dollars.

In short, when you start selling at $5, you will lose most of your regulars the second you increase prices to $10. This will happen again when you go to $15, then again when you go to $20.

Every time this happens, you will get fewer orders. This will send your gig position falling because Fiverr likes to see gigs making regular sales. If your gigs don’t, they will put someone in your place who will.

By comparison, when you get over the $20 mark, people don’t seem to care as much when you add $5 to your prices.

If you do not rely on freelancing to make a living, I’d say go straight to $20 or $25 asap. You have 38 awesome reviews and you won’t have core regulars yet. In this case, everyone will assume that you have always charged $20 to $25. At the same time, create some sleeker gig visuals and upgrade your profile pic. - Sorry, but it puts me off.

You might lose sales. However, all you do then is find ways to showcase the quality of what you do and experiment with creating new gigs. You are allowed 7. Go crazy.

If I could go back in time to my first year or two on Fiverr, this is the advice I would give myself. Either that or I’d pistol whip myself and push myself off a high-rise building as punishment for all the time wasted pursuing the "I’ll sell at $5 to build reviews" Fiverr seller strategy.

I can also say sincerely that I would not do it all again. This meaning that if I could go back in time to when I first found Fiverr, I wouldn’t even sign up. The years spent building up reviews with the idea of eventually charging a reasonable rate for my services were definitely years wasted.

Knowing what I know now, I would start selling straight away at $25 or $30. However, it would be a case of go high or go home.

[cubittaudio]

I won’t add to what other’s have already said in terms of timing your pricing changes, as you’ve already had some great advice there.

What I will do is share with you how we price our gigs. We’re constantly torn between the two extremes - wanting to price high in order to get fewer, but higher value jobs, and wanting to price super low in order to capture as much work as we humanly can (there’s one pretty well known US female VO Fiverr provider who does just this, and she always seems to have 50 odd orders sat in her queue, which boggles my mind…)

We’ve tried comparing our prices to others in the market before, but honestly that will just give you a headache. For every person charging a decent whack of money, there’s someone who’s comparably good, charging peanuts.

The way we found our current pricing was to figure out a desired hourly rate. In other words, if we were doing this 8 hours a day, Monday to Friday, what would we want to earn as an hourly wage to keep us happy? We then started time-tracking all the time we spent recording and editing in post production (we use Toggl for this, but there’s loads of options out there). We’ve been doing that for about 6 months, and that’s allowed us to establish that our hourly rate for what we do is pretty much where we want it to be, so therefore our pricing must be correct for us also.

This is good as it strengthens resolve when we sometimes get tempted to drop our rates, but it also stops us from getting greedy. A little $10 order might not feel like much, but if it takes you under 5 minutes to complete, it’s actually pretty great money (a basic voicemail for example - we’ve got them down to a fine art now). And like others have said, clients on Fiverr are still price-aware, at the very least.

That being said, in Voice Over, you do have a USP - your voice! And I must say, your’s is excellent! Clients will often pay a bit more to get the right voice for their job, so don’t be afraid to price accordingly.

Good luck!

[audioboon]

That is some good advice @cyaxrex

I’ll share my experience:

I’ve started quite good six months ago, offering low prices for the service I offer (sound design and music). SO orders started popping in, I received orders without stop the first 2-3 months, everything was well. Then, i increased my prices and it became silent. No orders at all. Just after I increased the prices, I needed to cancel an order. So that gig just stopped getting me orders, and still it doesnt. I try with creating new gigs at the moment and orders slowly come back, but still…that gigi is not bringing orders. And that is actualy my best offer so far. I guess the order completion rate made its mark, but the time when it stopped bringing orders was right after I increased my prices.

I still have no idea what to price and how, I just change often the prices, increase, decrease. Fo this gig, nothing seems to work. This advices are gold.

But I think you shouldnt go so low, think in terms of time it takes you, and adjust the gig accordingly. I think we should all have an hourly rate in mind when we create the gig. So if it takes 5 minutes to complete the gig, then 5$ is ok 🙂 (I am just giving an example).

On the technical side @sixthsea , what kind of EQs do you use when you record? It seems to me that it is just a bit dark, you may need to increase the high mids/lower the low mid frequencies to make it clearer. Just my opinion.

[ritaec]

That is some good advice @cyaxrex

I’ll share my experience:

I’ve started quite good six months ago, offering low prices for the service I offer (sound design and music). SO orders started popping in, I received orders without stop the first 2-3 months, everything was well. Then, i increased my prices and it became silent. No orders at all. Just after I increased the prices, I needed to cancel an order. So that gig just stopped getting me orders, and still it doesnt. I try with creating new gigs at the moment and orders slowly come back, but still…that gigi is not bringing orders. And that is actualy my best offer so far. I guess the order completion rate made its mark, but the time when it stopped bringing orders was right after I increased my prices.

I still have no idea what to price and how, I just change often the prices, increase, decrease. Fo this gig, nothing seems to work. This advices are gold.

But I think you shouldnt go so low, think in terms of time it takes you, and adjust the gig accordingly. I think we should all have an hourly rate in mind when we create the gig. So if it takes 5 minutes to complete the gig, then 5$ is ok 🙂 (I am just giving an example).

On the technical side @sixthsea , what kind of EQs do you use when you record? It seems to me that it is just a bit dark, you may need to increase the high mids/lower the low mid frequencies to make it clearer. Just my opinion.

Hello, I think you replied to me by accident. I don’t do voice overs.

[macgyverart]

thanks for your good advice

[audioboon]

Hello, I think you replied to me by accident. I don’t do voice overs.

Yes i did reply by accident, sorry. Corrected.

[dolly_donut]

It’s a tricky one. I’m also a VO artist and I’ve been here for 7 years. But my base gig is still $5. I have a lot of regular customers that I fear I would drive away to others in an already over-crowded niche if I were to double this minimum purchase price.

I will try and be flexible and judge if I’m dealing with a client direct or with an outsourcer. And I’ve also been much stricter recently about clients buying the correct rights - whether that be commercial and/or broadcast. I know that this has probably dropped my conversion figures but I’m lucky enough to be busy enough for that not to bother me.

So whilst I am busy, I’m loathe to make changes.

[sixthsea]

@cyaxrex

You’ve made some excellent points. I worry about underselling myself. Sometimes it’s already a challenge to explain why someone has to pay extra for rush delivery. Right now this is my only source of income (working on it) so I’m hesitant to tamper with something that’s working. I consistently receive comments from buyers mentioning they paid less than expected though, so??? I want to mull over what you’ve said because it mirrors many of my thoughts.

@cubittaudio Planning out the $ per hour earned from working is a great idea! I’m going to start logging my time immediately.

@audioboon I think you’re correct. I use A low rolloff that drops sharply from 100hz to 70hz. It was recommended for ACX (I’ve previously done audiobooks) and I thought to use it here, too. Sometimes I can hear a bit of lost quality and I worry. I might try playing with my existing files using what you’ve suggested–I appreciate it.

I really appreciate the time and effort and all the awesome and helpful replies.

[cyaxrex]

@cyaxrex

You’ve made some excellent points. I worry about underselling myself. Sometimes it’s already a challenge to explain why someone has to pay extra for rush delivery. Right now this is my only source of income (working on it) so I’m hesitant to tamper with something that’s working. I consistently receive comments from buyers mentioning they paid less than expected though, so??? I want to mull over what you’ve said because it mirrors many of my thoughts.

@cubittaudio Planning out the $ per hour earned from working is a great idea! I’m going to start logging my time immediately.

@audioboon I think you’re correct. I use A low rolloff that drops sharply from 100hz to 70hz. It was recommended for ACX (I’ve previously done audiobooks) and I thought to use it here, too. Sometimes I can hear a bit of lost quality and I worry. I might try playing with my existing files using what you’ve suggested–I appreciate it.

I really appreciate the time and effort and all the awesome and helpful replies.

Right now this is my only source of income (working on it)

Well, in this case, I’d hold off changing anything until you have a job. I’d also say definitely don’t try to make a career out of freelancing. At least, not immediately.

Freelancing is something you have to dip your toe into and and run in and out of in panic like a nice looking swimming pool on a cold day. Sure the water looks nice, but you can financially freeze to death before you know it.

I lived off savings for the first 2-years of freelancing (not on Fiverr.) Then I got a part time job to make up the shortfall in my earnings. Then I only quit when it was becoming impossible to manage both. Actually, I was fired for punching an old man, but I was going to quit anyway.

Even now, freelancing is still a financial roller-coaster at times. It can also be a good idea to keep a regular job going in some form. If you quit freelancing 5-years from now, most employers will just see a hole in your career history where they will assume you had a drug problem.

All that said, as soon as you have another form of steady income, shake off $5 prices and o higher. There is also nothing stopping you creating new higher priced gigs now for different niches in the VO market.

[sixthsea]

Right now this is my only source of income (working on it)

Well, in this case, I’d hold off changing anything until you have a job. I’d also say definitely don’t try to make a career out of freelancing. At least, not immediately.

Freelancing is something you have to dip your toe into and and run in and out of in panic like a nice looking swimming pool on a cold day. Sure the water looks nice, but you can financially freeze to death before you know it.

I lived off savings for the first 2-years of freelancing (not on Fiverr.) Then I got a part time job to make up the shortfall in my earnings. Then I only quit when it was becoming impossible to manage both. Actually, I was fired for punching an old man, but I was going to quit anyway.

Even now, freelancing is still a financial roller-coaster at times. It can also be a good idea to keep a regular job going in some form. If you quit freelancing 5-years from now, most employers will just see a hole in your career history where they will assume you had a drug problem.

All that said, as soon as you have another form of steady income, shake off $5 prices and o higher. There is also nothing stopping you creating new higher priced gigs now for different niches in the VO market.

Well, in this case, I’d hold off changing anything until you have a job. I’d also say definitely don’t try to make a career out of freelancing. At least, not immediately.

Good advice. I’m fresh out of school and have had trouble finding a career job. I picked up freelancing to make some cash in the interim. I think once I’ve got a position secured I’ll do what you’ve suggested–up my prices, update my gig information, and revamp my image (the lion mask is a little creepy, if cool) all at once, so I don’t disappear from search results too many times.

[miiila]

Hey, Fiverr Forums!

Though I’ve been active on Fiverr for a few months now, things only got rolling in the last month when I updated my gig page and put myself out there. I’m providing a link to my voice over gig here: https://www.fiverr.com/share/akwdga

I’ve never had such success in freelancing before. I don’t mean to sound boastful when I say that I am receiving enough orders and inquiries that I am just shy of feeling overwhelmed – thirteen completed voiceovers in the past two days. I rank highly in Fiverr’s search algorithm. I enjoy the success and the excitement of unique and interesting tasks.

The question of pricing gigs isn’t a new one, and it’s been asked time and time again on the forum. I’ve read several topics on the matter but people seem to give conflicting advice and answers. I’ve read that editing your gig can cause you to lose search ranking, or maybe it doesn’t make you lose search ranking. I’ve heard jacking your prices is great, I’ve heard that it’s terrible.

It’s intimidating to swim in the same pond as voice over giants–I’m not there yet and I know it, but my question is, if one kindly took a look at my gig page and listened to my situation–high on the search algorithm and receiving considerable attention, not wanting to lose this attention but also wanting to grasp an opportunity–would you take the leap to increase prices?

Additionally, are there any other critiques that you might give me for continued success?

Thanks for your time and energy, wishing you the best.

people seem to give conflicting advice and answers. I’ve read that editing your gig can cause you to lose search ranking, or maybe it doesn’t make you lose search ranking. I’ve heard jacking your prices is great, I’ve heard that it’s terrible.

Yes, you’ve got that right. That’s because things like

Just after I increased the prices, I needed to cancel an order. So that gig just stopped getting me orders

happen. And then, you’re left wondering whether it would have worked out if that cancellation hadn’t happened, or if it would have gone that way anyway, because the people who’d buy your gig won’t buy it at that price point, for some other reason you’re not even aware of, or for pure bad luck.

It’s all a rather intricate web, and there are so many factors at play, that you’ll hardly find anything where you’ll not get conflicting advice and stories and the only real way to find out is to try it, unfortunately.

If you get overwhelmed to the point that your deliveries suffer or you even end up delivering late, that will be counterproductive. In case you decide to not raise your prices (yet) and need an “emergency brake”, keep the “Limit orders in queue” feature in mind to not get more direct orders than you want (I use that for all my gigs and often adjust the limit, depending on how many orders and which size orders I have.)

(You could also edit your gigs for longer delivery times but, again, editing your gig might have a good or a bad effect and you’ll only find out when you do it.)

People can still contact you, even when your gigs are paused, return or regular customers usually will do that in any case, and you can send custom offers to the ones who are okay with longer delivery times. It’s possible to send custom offers even for paused gigs.