Buyer Requests VS Search on Fiverr

[happyspace]

What is best? To search for a gig you need on Fiverr or to post a request on the Buyers Request page?

I would be interested to know what your experience with Buyer Requests is. Here is my own experience as a buyer during the last 5 years on Fiverr:

A) SEARCH on Fiverr

• The PROs
  Usually I love to search on Fiverr. I find the variety and the quality of the gigs exciting. One can find what one needs for sure! If one has lots of free time…

• The CONs
  Too many Gigs, too many pages, so limited time. Some buyers might get confused at this point.

B) BUYER REQUESTS

• The PROs
  You post, you wait, you get offers. And if you click on the right upper part of your screen at your request page you can sort the offers you received by: Date, Price, Delivery Time, Rating (of the Sellers), Reviews, Seller Online. Awesome. And you also have the option: Remove Offer. So you can keep only the best offers. Seems easy but…

• The CONs
  You only get immediate responses from those who are online. You probably miss very interesting and talented Sellers who could do an amazing job.

You think that this is easy and quick? Well, please read my experience below. But, if you don’t have much time to read the whole story these are My Tips for Buyers who Post Requests :

When you post a Request

1. Stay online
2. When sellers send you messages with offers, write clearly that YOU will contact them IF you select them and ask them to please NOT send you any more messages.

This will save you lots of time! Hopefully… Because here I my short story with Buyers Requests:

Recently as I needed a service done in 24 hours on behalf of a colleague and as I had NO TIME to search, as I usually do, I decided to post a request. If you are wondering why I wrote ‘No time’ in capital letters, I am not shouting, you will see why if you read the story.

The Buyer Request option was not as easy and quick as I expected! In less than 3 minutes my inbox got around 30 messages of sellers’ responses to my request. I rushed to click on the ‘pause’ button. Luckily I didn’t just post my request and go offline! If I had done so, I would probably find my inbox full with hundreds of messages when I would get back. And, as I wrote above… I had ‘No Time’!

It took me more than 2 hours to sort out the requests and send a ‘thank you for your offer’ message to every Seller who responded and something like: I will show it to the person who will decide from whom to order and get back to you if you are selected. Because I thought that this way they won’t send more messages.

But that is not the end of the story. Can you imagine what happened next? Although that was a 24 hours job request for days I kept receiving messages from most of those Sellers like:

‘Did you select me’
‘Is there a job for me ma’am?’
‘Do you have a new project?’

And… although I had ‘No Time’ I had to keep answering politely again and again. So, for a simple project I lost too much time.

The way some of the Sellers who responded kept messaging again and again, even days later, was quite annoying. Actually that brought the opposite result, as these messages were rather spammy.

I have attached below screenshots of 3 typical conversations for you to see what I mean.

PLEASE SELLERS

• When you respond to Buyer Requests, please keep in mind that probably most Buyers on Fiverr are not directing an office that is hiring people every single day 😀

• Please keep in mind that (especially when one is not only a Buyer but also a Seller on Fiverr as myself and so many other users here) one’s inbox is a tool where one needs to primarily contact with one’s active or potential customers.

I don’t know about you, but next time I will think twice before posting on Buyers Requests. Because if I had used my limited free time to search as I usually do on Fiverr and use all the helpful tools like: Category, Subcategory, Seller Levels, Stars Rating, and read some previous buyers Reviews, I would have probably done my job much more quickly.

Well, is my experience unusual or do you also have a similar story with the Buyers Request page?

What is your favorite way to find the Gig you need?
Own search or Buyers Requests page?

I would be interested to know and learn any tips and advice you have to offer.

Here are the attachments of the conversations. Please read
I hided their profile images and usernames so each one has a different color.

Here is the Yellow seller from April 10 to April 24:

Here is the Red seller from April 10 to April 16

And 2 screenshots for the Orange seller from April 10 to May 1

[miiila]

On 5/5/2018 at 5:04 AM, happyspace said:

What is your favorite way to find the Gig you need?
Own search or Buyers Requests page?

Search, definitely. Especially being a seller and people being able to contact me without me contacting them first. If I was “only” a buyer, maybe I´d give BR a try because only people I contacted first would be able to contact me, but still, with all my experience and knowledge from being a seller, I think I´d always prefer search. 

One important of several reasons being that many good sellers don´t bother reading BR in the first place. 

[happyspace]

What is your favorite way to find the Gig you need?

Own search or Buyers Requests page?

Search, definitely. Especially being a seller and people being able to contact me without me contacting them first. If I was “only” a buyer, maybe I´d give BR a try because only people I contacted first would be able to contact me, but still, with all my experience and knowledge from being a seller, I think I´d always prefer search.

One important of several reasons being that many good sellers don´t bother reading BR in the first place.

many good sellers don´t bother reading BR in the first place

Of course, you are right! That is one point I missed to mention. Thanks!

[chillyrabbit]

99% of buyers dont send responds to offers, so you are not obligated to do that and it wont look weird. For all time I`m on Fiverr, only one buyer did that.

And, if you dont send the response, the sellers who applied will not be able to message you. They have the option just to send you the offer, and if the buyer doesnt respond it they have no option to message they after that. And your full name is hidden until you respond them.

Hope this helps 🙂

[happyspace]

99% of buyers dont send responds to offers, so you are not obligated to do that and it wont look weird. For all time I`m on Fiverr, only one buyer did that.

And, if you dont send the response, the sellers who applied will not be able to message you. They have the option just to send you the offer, and if the buyer doesnt respond it they have no option to message they after that. And your full name is hidden until you respond them.

Hope this helps 🙂

Good point and thanks for sharing. Apparently my ‘mistake’ was that I was trying to be polite, then. Sometime ago (long time ago maybe), when a buyer posted on buyers requests, the buyer’s profile was accessible. Things change on Fiverr every now and then, so you never know 🙂

[archinerd]

I guess searching on fiverr is a better option. Most of my orders I have got from searching. Plus in that way, you get the clients, that are looking for the Quality of the end product

[tanerxun]

99% of buyers dont send responds to offers, so you are not obligated to do that and it wont look weird. For all time I`m on Fiverr, only one buyer did that.

And, if you dont send the response, the sellers who applied will not be able to message you. They have the option just to send you the offer, and if the buyer doesnt respond it they have no option to message they after that. And your full name is hidden until you respond them.

Hope this helps 🙂

yes.that is correct. sometimes there is misunderstanding because of this.

[lawseph]

You’re right. It’s better to use the search option than to post on buyer request. I’m also a seller, but I’ve bought a number of gigs from other sellers. Many atime posting on BR is a disappointment especially when some sellers submit their offer without reading or understanding your request.

[mariamughal]

I can understand the situation that you faced because I’m both a seller and buyer. I wish all the buyers out there are as much polite, understanding and co operative as you are. And all the sellers show a mature and professional behavior. The Fiverr world will then become a better place…