Do you Use The "Overbooked" Option?

[silberma1976]

I sometimes have that busy time where orders come in at once or that big order comes in, and I want to concentrate on that. I never make my Gigs overbooked, paused, or go into the vacation mode for a short time.

I am afraid I will lose business.

Do you every pause your gigs, go limit your que, or go on a short vacation mode to catch up or work in vacation mode?

Curious how others handle situations like this.

[mjakkerman]

I limit my queue as I am freelancing next to a job. I have never had any problems with it. The only problem is that I need to tweak it sometimes. A job counts as a job. Sometimes I have 3 orders of $10 and then I am ‘overbooked’. Sometimes I have one order of $500 and then I am not overbooked.

Of course, you will lose business when you are overbooked, after all, then you are not visible in the search, but I have the feeling it doesn’t harm your ranking in the search.

[writer99025]

I have put my proofreading gigs on “overbooked” although they have zero orders…can’t have any proofreading orders coming in over the next 30 days when I am so busy with my articles gigs.

[writer99025]

Having said that, I should stop visiting the forum for the next 30 days. See you in April, folks!

[emmaki]

Having said that, I should stop visiting the forum for the next 30 days. See you in April, folks!

Liar. You’ll be back within the next week!

EDIT: he lasted less than 24hrs

[fonthaunt]

I use limit gigs often. I prefer it to vacation mode or pause unless I’m going to be off a long time or I intend to delete or heavily edit a gig. When I’ve used pause or VM, it has taken days to get my gigs rolling again. When I use limit and it goes overbooked, once I deliver an order my gig is usually displayed in search normally in a very short time and it hasn’t affected my sales.

Of course, if you want to you can limit them so much that you’ll be displayed in search little but can still be used for custom quotes. I do that on purpose with one gig and I don’t take orders on that gig unless someone messages me about it. If you do that, certainly that could affect sales on gigs that are limited.

[psychicbunny]

No lol, I heard it messes with your rankings

[eoinfinnegan]

I wish the limit orders (and every other thing on Fiverr) was based on value of gigs rather than the number of orders. I have never had more than 12 orders at one time and it wasn’t a problem. The thing is though, I have some orders which are 10 mins of work and others which are 2-3 weeks of work. How can I decide how many orders I can take? At least by going on total value of orders there should be some correlation with the amount of work involved.
It amazed me that they brought in the system in the current mold when they were already pushing packages to everyone, it seems short sighted or badly thought out.
To answer the OP, no I don’t 🙂

[wpspecialist24]

No i don’t use this feature cause i think, if i use it then my gig will be lost ranking.

[silberma1976]

I was able to get through this period of time without using any of this. I did negotiate with customers on new custom orders for start dates a couple days from now so I can catch my breath. Been a record breaking month for me in a number of areas. Just adjusting to all of that while working a full-time job is hard. Fell out of balance with life, and trying to bring the balance back.

[capitalquality]

I use limit gigs often. I prefer it to vacation mode or pause unless I’m going to be off a long time or I intend to delete or heavily edit a gig. When I’ve used pause or VM, it has taken days to get my gigs rolling again. When I use limit and it goes overbooked, once I deliver an order my gig is usually displayed in search normally in a very short time and it hasn’t affected my sales.

Of course, if you want to you can limit them so much that you’ll be displayed in search little but can still be used for custom quotes. I do that on purpose with one gig and I don’t take orders on that gig unless someone messages me about it. If you do that, certainly that could affect sales on gigs that are limited.

if you want to you can limit them so much that you’ll be displayed in search little but can still be used for custom quotes

Doh! Why didn’t I think of this. Brilliant.

[capitalquality]

I don’t limit gigs because my gig sizes vary too much. On one occasion I went on vacation mode when things just got blatantly ridiculous, but mostly I just adjust my delivery times.

My life balance got screwed too, and as a result I’ve paused most of my time-consuming gigs, and am adding some other short gigs. Shorter gigs are easier to fit in to life, I’ve found.

[selfors]

I’m only 45 days in, so I’m ignorant, but…,

I had 11 orders in my first week - too many to handle - but I heard that vacation mode permanently killed your rankings. (I’m not saying it’s true, just that it’s said.) So I raise my price to $50 figuring I wouldn’t sell anything until I dropped the price back down, giving myself time to catch up. It didn’t work. My sales actually went up, with a couple of customers ordering quantity 10. When I hit 16 separate orders, I panicked and raised my prices to $75. Within 12 hours I had four more orders. I’m still at $75 for my basic gig.

This is advice from a newbie to newbies: if you figure out something that works and you get too busy, raise your prices first. (Don’t pause your gigs, limit your orders or go into vacation mode.) Once you have a bunch of repeat customers, it won’t be so easy to experiment with pricing because you could be chasing off repeat business. Only one of my original eleven $5 customers is still a customer; the others couldn’t afford to stick around. Once you have a couple of hundred customers you will not be able to afford to lose 91% of them. So mess round with your pricing early and see what the market will bear.

[fastcopywriter]

I’m only 45 days in, so I’m ignorant, but…,

I had 11 orders in my first week - too many to handle - but I heard that vacation mode permanently killed your rankings. (I’m not saying it’s true, just that it’s said.) So I raise my price to $50 figuring I wouldn’t sell anything until I dropped the price back down, giving myself time to catch up. It didn’t work. My sales actually went up, with a couple of customers ordering quantity 10. When I hit 16 separate orders, I panicked and raised my prices to $75. Within 12 hours I had four more orders. I’m still at $75 for my basic gig.

This is advice from a newbie to newbies: if you figure out something that works and you get too busy, raise your prices first. (Don’t pause your gigs, limit your orders or go into vacation mode.) Once you have a bunch of repeat customers, it won’t be so easy to experiment with pricing because you could be chasing off repeat business. Only one of my original eleven $5 customers is still a customer; the others couldn’t afford to stick around. Once you have a couple of hundred customers you will not be able to afford to lose 91% of them. So mess round with your pricing early and see what the market will bear.

I think $60 is the right price. As someone with two vending machines, I’ve had to hire vending locators for my business, they charge $45 to $60 per location. So your prices are reasonable. Now, if Fiverr is your full-time job, I would lower it to $30, then if you get 10 orders, that’s $300 gross.

But if you’re happy at $60, that’s more important. Question, what happens if your telemarketing fails? Do you refund the order? A pay-for-performance offer can get lots of orders, but it can cost you.

[selfors]

I think $60 is the right price. As someone with two vending machines, I’ve had to hire vending locators for my business, they charge $45 to $60 per location. So your prices are reasonable. Now, if Fiverr is your full-time job, I would lower it to $30, then if you get 10 orders, that’s $300 gross.

But if you’re happy at $60, that’s more important. Question, what happens if your telemarketing fails? Do you refund the order? A pay-for-performance offer can get lots of orders, but it can cost you.

Almost everyone texts me first. I can tell from what they’re offering if it will work or not. (I’ve been at it for 20 years.) If it won’t work, I asked them not to order.

Just today, I had an order I had been working on for a while and I didn’t think I would be able to get an appointment for them. I put in a cancellation request, and five minutes later I got a call back and set the appointment. So I canceled the cancellation request and completed the order. Close call. 🙂

[fastcopywriter]

Almost everyone texts me first. I can tell from what they’re offering if it will work or not. (I’ve been at it for 20 years.) If it won’t work, I asked them not to order.

Just today, I had an order I had been working on for a while and I didn’t think I would be able to get an appointment for them. I put in a cancellation request, and five minutes later I got a call back and set the appointment. So I canceled the cancellation request and completed the order. Close call. 🙂

That’s an awesome experience. So people don’t even give you a sales script? They just tell you what they want and you make it happen? Amazing.

[selfors]

That’s an awesome experience. So people don’t even give you a sales script? They just tell you what they want and you make it happen? Amazing.

Everybody’s got at least one thing they’re good at. 🙂

[fastcopywriter]

Everybody’s got at least one thing they’re good at. 🙂

True, I’m just happy your cold calling skills are paying you so well. What do you do outside of Fiverr? Are you a Realtor, stockbroker, car salesman, telemarketer? Salesmen always fascinate me because I’m the type of guy that can’t sell a glass of water to a dying man in the desert. I can’t even close a front door. LOL

[selfors]

When I started, I had just turned in my notice and was supposed to start a new job as a territory sales manager three weeks later. I put up my cold calling gigs on Fiverr to polish up on my skills, since I hadn’t done any cold calling in a couple of years. Then things blew up, and I never started the new job.

[writer99025]

When I started, I had just turned in my notice and was supposed to start a new job as a territory sales manager three weeks later. I put up my cold calling gigs on Fiverr to polish up on my skills, since I hadn’t done any cold calling in a couple of years. Then things blew up, and I never started the new job.

A real pleasure to read stuff from true professionals like @selfors and @fastcopywriter here. Such a refreshing change from the “mek my sel” types.

[mudasiransari]

Yes!
Maximum 10 orders limit

[tanja_ru]

Yes, I also rise the price when overbooked.
And I actually go into vacation mode when really on vacation or have a flu (twice this year already!). I don’t know about the messed up ranking, but for me it seems like my visibility and the number of clients were approximately the same before and after the vacations.