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Deleting a Gig to Create a Similar Gig and Hide Bad Reviews

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#1

Would this get me in trouble?

A while ago, I created a travel writing gig. It was very different to my existing writing gigs and priced considerably higher. Sadly, I had the worst luck with my first buyer. They left a 3-star review and stated something which was untrue in that review.

I don’t want to go into detail about why the review was unjustified, but it was. Imagine someone asking you to write an article about Cuba, before complaining that you haven’t mentioned anything about Mexico. - That kind of thing.

I did get another buyer on this gig. They were great to work with. However, they left a review at the time of the dreaded 4.7 star review bug. In this case, I just decided to cut my losses and pause the gig.

Lately, I have had quite a lot of orders on my other writing gigs for travel-based content. In this case, I am considering creating a new travel writing gig. I won’t reactivate the old one, I’d create something completely new. I’d be doing this as I doubt a gig with just 2 reviews, one of which is awful, is going to get sales. The only question is, would Fiverr interpret this as review manipulation?

#2

I don’t think you should delete that gig or create a new gig. You can give a reply to the review and tell viewers about your perception. There is a less chance that they will read your review but at least that what I would do.

I am not aware about whether deleting the gig on the basis of bad rating will get you in trouble or not, but whether you delete the gig or not, the review will be their under your profile so I think anyone will see it.

#3

I did reply to the review. Also, I know that deleting the gig will not remove the review. I’m fine with it being on my profile. I am not attempting to remove the review. I want to relaunch the whole gig for several reasons:

  • It is not possible to edit the gig URL, despite the fact that I would like to rank for stronger keywords and target a more niche market.
  • Typically, gigs which have been paused for a long time do not perform nearly as well as a new gig launched for the first time.

I am wondering whether Fiverr will interpret recreating a similar gig as review manipulation. As it is, I might just forget about the whole think as it is too risky.

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#4

Surely if it has different keywords, a different title and a different description, that will be a completely different gig. Imo.

Delete the paused one first, then create the new one.

Or you could ask CS …

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#5

I don’t understand why would you pause that Gig instead of deleting it if you no longer intend to use it?

Fiverr won’t interpret anything. You, as a seller, have the freedom to choose whether to keep, delete, pause and/or create new Gig(s). Reviews belong to your profile, they will stay there forever so, no, deleting and creating a new Gig about the same thing cannot, and will not, be considered as manipulation.

I agree with @coerdelion.

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#6

I initially paused it as I had to as a result of being demoted. :slight_smile:

Right now I have several paused gigs and some live gigs which I am planning to scrap, revamp, and create alternatives to in the expectation of leveling up this month.

#7

I don’t think this should be an issue. I went over the terms again just in case and I can’t find anything that even remotely applies to this but then again Fiverr does work in mysterious ways.

Since the reviews can’t be removed I don’t think it should count as any form of manipulation at least.

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#8

Don’t know, I’m so practical…

If I have had the obligation of only keeping n-1 Gigs, and that 1 Gig was as terrible as you are describing, I would have deleted it right at that moment. Why keep something that only brings you pain?

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#9

I deleted quite a few gigs a while back, both “used ones”, including one with a nice number of only 5* reviews whose time simply was up, some which never sold or I never really had active, and some still unpublished ones which I never got around to finish, do, apparently, they didn’t inspire me enough to be worth taking up space, to “declutter” and to not pick up old stuff that might be borked from the start/not up to date, distract my focus from.really new ideas, just because I’d worked on them already … think sunk cost fallacy.

If you don’t like the gig anymore, get rid of it and focus on a new one that you’ll like, it won’t be the same gig anyway, you’ll have a different url, different pricing, different target clients, etc., right?

I can’t imagine Fiverr has anything against sellers trying to relaunch, revamp, reset, whatever you may want to call it.
As someone already said, the reviews remain on your profile, so they aren’t “manipulated away”, also it doesn’t affect your star rating, and actually, if they wanted everyone to keep their gigs for eternity, we’d most probably not be able to delete gigs ourselves in the first place. I don’t think anyone cares if and which gigs you delete, especially not if the brand new gig will be better and sell, why should they.

Building a better gig portfolio should be a positive and if one gig doesn’t fit in anymore, I can’t see a good reason to expect sellers to keep it around, even the gig slot limits seem to say don’t keep gigs that don’t sell, and “offer unique gigs” implies creating new gigs from time to time because unique gigs in many cases won’t stay unique for too long, so you need to delete old ones to make space.

Would anyone fault anybody who’d delete a gig with some not so good reviews instead of one with only 5* reviews to make way for something new and potentially better? Don’t think so, unless they are jealous for some reason perhaps.

I’d take that opportunity to go through all gigs in paused and draft state, keep only the ones that make sense to keep to you, and start the gig you imagine on a fresh canvas.

Of course, that’s just my take and if you want to be sure about potential side effects, ask your doctor or apothecary.

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