Does Fiverr management know?

[Guest reinier01]

I know the issue of drastically reduced sales across the site has been done ad nauseam, but the question is how long will this last? I cannot believe that Fiverr management is not aware of the problem, since they should by now have noticed their drastically reduced revenues. While we lose maybe hundreds or thousands of dollars, the site must be losing millions.



How long can this decline last? But more to the point, what is causing it? I have not been able to find figures on the current traffic to Fiverr, or any reason for a decline of traffic if such a decline exists, so what is happening?



Can the mere introduction of a new feature cause declining sales across the entire spectrum of the site, as has been suggested by some? I do not think so, since sellers with hundreds of clients have proven reputations for reliability and speedy responses, and how many buyers take notice of the response meter anyway?



I work on other sites as well, and I have not noticed a decline in sales there. The problem seems to be confined to Fiverr, and it is an open question how long this decline can be sustained. When I started on Fiverr a few months ago, things started with a bang, and I thought I was on to a GOOD THING, which sadly, now does not seem to be the case anymore.



However, victory always goes to the bold, so I will stick it out as long as I can afford to. With some luck, the code whizzes will figure out what went wrong and get it fixed before long. Until that happens though, I can’t help but wonder about the feelings the owners of this site must have while they watch the money disappear at a hectic rate.

[inspiredtony]

i feel you bro…this month has been terrible

[mehdivir]

I noticed a big decline too, can someone give any explanations or maybe let us know the reason behind this decline, maybe the community can help!!

[infinityplusone]

My housemate had that issue. Once she added languages to all her gigs again her stats popped back up.

[deepakkochhar]

I got 50+ orders in first month after joining and now not even a single order since last 6 days. I wander what the hell is going wrong??? Can any one tell me the reason?

[yukihyou]

Figures that just when I return to Fiverr after a long hiatus, sales are going down. Nobody seems to have any clue what is going on.



Is anybody having poor luck responding to buyer requests? I’ve sent out a couple dozen offers over the past few days and gotten one reply/sale. Previously I’d send out maybe 2-3 a day and get at least one response. Guess I’ve lost my charm.

[topaz_muse]

Maybe the site is starting to become crowded with sellers offering services in highly saturated categories. Or maybe buyers are getting frustrated with trying to find the right fit for their project because they can’t seem to find a seller that is capable of holding up their end.



Who knows… This could just be a phase the site is going through for the time being. Just keep doing what you’re doing and the orders will eventually flow in again like high tide.

[yukihyou]

Reply to @topaz_muse: I was thinking the same thing. My gigs are in categories with crazy high competition. Months ago, before I left, I could find my gigs fairly easily via search. Now searching for “WordPress” brings up 8825 results. Even more specific searches like “Fix WordPress theme” brings up 6k+. I don’t know how even the best new seller can stand out among thousands of results.



I’m going to have to brainstorm more original services.

[steveeyes]

Hmmm, a bit puzzled. Are you basing Fiverr’s performance on how well your gigs are doing? I realize there are a number of posts saying sales are down but I’m not sure that means sales for Fiverr is down. I think the increase in membership is the issue.



If one person gets 20 sales or 20 people each get 1 sale, it still equates to 20 sales for fiverr. I doubt if Fiverr cares how they get the sales, from a few or from many, just so they get them.

[sincere18]

Reply to @steveeyes: That’s what I was wondering, if they were skewing things a bit to let all the little sellers get some gigs for awhile. I wonder how many new sellers in the past several months have joined and dropped out because they made no sales? "And for their profits, a sale is a sale. If their move was not working they would take a huge hit and surely would have nixed the idea if their sales dropped.



I do also agree with @topaz_muse and @yukihyou that perhaps the site has gotten saturated more recently. Each year technology and apps get better and better and more people look to make money off of things and jump on the band wagon.

[joeyperezwest]

GUYS!!! Man I’m getting tired of seeing "BLAH BLAH WAH WAH MY GIGS ARE DOWN"



Work on those sales techniques and bringing people to fiverr if you want more sales on fiverr and upsell your gigs to bring in the bigger bucks per order. Don’t rely on fiverr’s search engine alone. Just yesterday I had 27 orders, the day before that 7, day before that day 5, a week before that and after that are 0 only because I took off all my best sellers to slow down a bit to do other work I needed to do.



You should set yourself up with some outside marketing directed to your fiverr gigs and main page! Upsell your gig extras, don’t just let buyers clickly click click on your $5 dollar prices, talk, chat, impress them, talk to your buyers and old buyers!

[yukihyou]

Reply to @joeyperezwest: That’s some great advice, but the sudden influx of complaints (including from top sellers who are clearly experienced in marketing themselves and upselling) is worrisome.



Personally, I don’t promote my gigs outside Fiverr. My outside promotions go directly to my websites, where I get 100% (ish) of the profits. If Fiverr takes 20%, it’s for the platform they provide. I am paying them for customers. I can, of course, understand why other people do it, and the great success they’ve had. Different strokes.

[joeyperezwest]

Reply to @yukihyou: I have to say that for everything you do in business management, in each individual departments you must have a plan, be it loss prevention, marketing calendar, customer retention, you get the idea, always, always, always have a back up plan or back up resource and tools. If you are making money on fiverr and paying some bills with that money, you need to have your back ups in order otherwise I would consider you an amateur.



The difference between an amateur and a professional is a professional will always have a back up for every single thing that makes that person a professional in the business niche they are trying to keep alive in. That includes everyone in their own food chain, you build a rock solid platform for yourself and you are going to succeed.



If you take a step back and look at what you stated as far as you “paying” for customers by commission, that’s not how real business works. You are paying fiverr for the customer service they provide, for the maintenance of the website that brings you into a world wide transactional community marketplace and gives you a little spot… man oh man, I wish it was “easy” for someone to PAY for customers to come your way, the world of business would be a different place…



let me put it to you this way and for all those here reading this to make your tunnel vision go away and to open your mind…



when I go to a flea market, I don’t go buy customers, I sell to them or I give people flyers to come visit me at the flea market while its on going. This is the whole reason why flea markets are successful. Not only will they buy from me, they might buy from my friend next to me or across from me, but the more people we bring to the market, the more chances of us selling.



Think about a shopping mall, it changed the experience of what constitutes a comfortable shopping experience, it also gave a place for people to gather and hang out, that is the same thing with fiverr… you as a seller should build an interesting advertisement to capture today’s online shoppers, fiverr is part of a rise of the online service microjob industry, always metamorphosing but one thing stays the same, you put three sellers next to each other, people will shop at one of the three, so If I am bringing in people from outside of fiverr to fiverr to help fiverr then you should too, and that’s one of the main reasons I am telling all of you to do something about it.



We are all competing against each other but we must do things that will help each other too, there are billions of people out in the world ready to buy what you have to sell if you are a good and exciting seller, the WORLD is a huge place, a VERY VERY BIG place and there is enough to go around!



The secret to making us all sellers succeed is we need to focus on these things:



Comfort,



make it client buyer on fiverr comfortable, and make it a fun and pleasurable experience…



International Diversity,



we are so lucky because we have wide range of sellers on fiverr from all over the world selling different things, market that within your gigs, don’t hide your language or try to speak in english if you can’t, make it known you can’t speak english well but that you are a great logo artist, a great video producer with cool unique whatever to sell, use what is different to your advantage and go around town and talk about it, in russia, china, india, u.s.a, mexico whatever! Google international business and build your advertisements based on demo and psychographic data you learn from! Learn the difference between negotiating a sale with someone from india vs mexico vs united states, learn why people who are a certain culture like to deal with people with a certain culture!!!



Luxury services and high standards on fiverr!,



just because you sell your gigs for whatever price shouldn’t mean you don’t pay attention to details, take the extra seconds and make them count for your buyer and tell them, you did this and that to make sure you got a A+ quality product!!! that when you are dealing with a person seller like you that the buyer knows that they will experience the same experience they will get from the bigger companies! If the buyer asked you to prove it, well ask them what they know about the bigger companies who offer what you offer at 1000x time the price!



Fiverr marketplace essence!

your gig boils down to branding along with the fiverr experience, buyers are seeking a fiverr experience that makes them feel comfortable, encourages them to keep on viewing other gigs, and since its media you are dealing with, advertisements with videos, pictures, text and sounds then fiverrentertain them with your gigs, joke with them while you are selling to them, focus on making them enjoy the time and give them a sense of accomplishment with their ultimate goal! What do you think fiverr is doing with all these upgrades, fiverr’s wireframing of the website and its graphical user interfaces! they are crafting for us a relaxed environment that allows fiverr buyers to take a memorable experience with online shopping for services! again and again, and that includes all the elements a person who spends money online can relate to.



convenience,



this can cover a number of things that only you know as your product or service, make it as easy as possible for your buyer to get what they want from you, fast ,easy and in less then 2 steps, is there sufficient information in your gig data requests to know that you can’t guess what they want or need? This will help you automate your process too and lower your micro buyer management, do you have instructions to handle multiple orders and avoid gig crowding or slowing down? Can you utilize OTHER sellers within your products and still make a profit to offer a bigger bonus on top of what you offer and does that meet the needs of the buyer profile you will run into who needs your services???



to sum it all up because I have to get back to work on fiverr! lol, what makes modern online marketplaces successful is the sellers, not the marketplace. Understand that YOU as a seller can convert an undifferentiated, unattractive online marketplace into active buyer friendly destination. so get your butts to market your gigs outside of fiverr to get them TO fiverr and YOUR fiverr page, and encourage your fellow seller to do the same because just like a person passing out flyers letting someone know that they will be at the fleamarket or trade show, the same concept and its a strong one, applies hERE!



Your Top Seller Friend.

[joeyperezwest]

and can one of the FORUM admins please change my icon on the fiverr forum to TOP seller icon, it still says level 2…



THANKS!

[yukihyou]

Reply to @joeyperezwest: I appreciate the lengthy and thoughtful response. You have some great tips for customer service that really deserve their own thread to gain more exposure.



You are, however, making a great deal of assumptions. I do not depend on Fiverr income for anything. I understand that people use Fiverr as a primary means of earning their living, and if that were the case with me, of course I’d put more time and effort into it. This is a hobby for me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t try to do my best work. I do everything I can to make my buyers happy, and have always gone above and beyond (to the point other sellers here have chided me about not enforcing limits).



Somehow, every time someone mentions not having buyers, people assume it’s because they’re not good at their work, instead of accepting that getting noticed among thousands of other gigs is pretty tough. Hence, the need to find more original gigs, to offer something beyond the competition, to find some way to stick out.



I’m not whining about the lack of sales. I’m wondering, along with other people, what has changed. If your gigs are just as lively as ever, that’s fantastic, but it doesn’t mean that other top sellers aren’t having problems. Painting them as whiners with no business sense (and assuming they have no backup plan) is a little rude.



I just returned from a long break (really, I’m on Fiverr a few weeks at a time, maybe twice or thrice a year), so I expect sales to be slow. What surprised me is seeing thread after thread claiming their sales dropped off very suddenly in the past month. So what has changed, and what can we do about it? If the search or ranking algorithm is different, if the customer base has shifted, if some update has penalized certain gigs, then we need to know how to evolve with each update. Something has changed since the last time I was here, and other people notice it, too. It’s not just about providing great work and customer support and retaining buyers—that’s a given. It’s about being found by new buyers.



As for paying Fiverr for customers, yes, that’s not exactly how it works. Fiverr is charging for the general services they provide. [Edit: In fact, I said this in my previous post, saying Fiverr took 20% for the platform they provide. We’re saying the same thing.] I was trying to convey why I wouldn’t spend time and effort driving traffic to Fiverr: in my mind, the only advantage Fiverr has vs freelancing on my own means is exposing me to a greater customer base. I have no problem managing my own websites (it’s what I do for a living), handling payments, and dealing with customer support, thus these services aren’t vital to me. I make more in a single job outside of Fiverr than I’ve made in my entire Fiverr career. If I’m going to tell people about my work, I’m sending them to my own website. If I’m going to pay for ads, I’m directing them to my own website. You can, in the whole flea market sense, call it selfish.



But as I said, different people use the site in different ways. I’m not about to make Fiverr a full-time job. But I would like to know if a recent change to the website has made past techniques obsolete, or if I’m just going to have to accept that sales are going to be slow from now on.

[joeyperezwest]

Reply to @yukihyou: I don’t understand if its part time people complaining then why are people complaining about it then, because it is what it is, call me rude or what ever, there shouldn’t be any tricks of the fiverr searches or tricks of the trade to get more customers via fiverrs search engine alone, that’s one of the reasons google got rid of people like that on their own search engine, if someone else has another source of income like you do then this marketplace should not hold so much value to you, and if you are just using fiverr to divert traffic to your own outside website, that is selfish, against terms of service and not helping the fiverr marketplace at all. In other words, a leech that has to be a part of something to be something of the total sum of what they are not but wish to be.



One of the things that fiverr vs a flea market differentiate from is that in flea markets or trade shows one (a company) can pass out flyers to people to GO visit them OUTSIDE the fleamarket or tradeshow or visith their OWN website and it wouldn’t hurt the flea market or trade shows become it has another source of income, the source of income for fiverr to stay alive is to get buyers and sellers to do business with and make commission on that, it doesn’t charge you a log in fee, it doesn’t charge you a space to rent that has either prominent or small placement on the website, everyone has equal visibility.



Eventually selfish people like that will be filtered out of fiverr one way or another as it evolves just like those types of sellers were expelled out of e bay,ama zon and google, I think that is what we are seeing here going on, I might sound rude, but to me what you described as “selfish” sounds like people are complaining that they can’t leech off fiverr as much as they use to. The problem with situations like this, that depending on the system being used online, it can ruin it for the rest of us who actually are trying to succeed given the tools by others who want to succeed themselves.

[yukihyou]

Reply to @joeyperezwest: That is not at all what I said. I said that if I am marketing myself outside of Fiverr, I am sending people to my own website. I know perfectly well that stealing customers from Fiverr is against the TOS, and have denied every single time a customer has asked me to work with them outside of Fiverr. But if I’m buying adspace to get customers, I’m sending those (NON-FIVERR) customers to my website, not to Fiverr. Surely, failing to devote time to sending customers to Fiverr isn’t leeching the system?



As for the search engine, you once again seem to misunderstand what I was trying to convey. I’m not talking about sleazy clickbait. There is nothing wrong with trying to take advantage of clean tricks. For example, it’s long been said that Fiverr favors gigs with videos more than gigs without videos. Fiverr encourages people to do this to rank better. So are people who upload videos trying to game the system?



High-quality gig images, express service, well-spelled titles and gig descriptions likely inspire buyer confidence. Using variations of your keywords—so people can find you—in your title, gig article, keywords field is important. One thread has Fiverr support admitting that keywords aren’t currently working: http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/65517/gigs-currently-not-searchable-by-tags-as-per-fiverr-support



What exactly is the problem with trying to optimize one’s gigs? If Fiverr—using a crazy example—decided tomorrow that every gig with a red image was going to be removed from the search results, wouldn’t it be smart to change your gig image?



And no, it’s not just part time people complaining. Part-time or full time is irrelevant in terms of “complaints” or how much value people place on their Fiverr income. I explained I was part-time because you seemed to assume I didn’t have a backup plan and that I wasn’t putting enough effort into it; it’s a diversion from the topic. The topic was whether or not something in the Fiverr system or community has changed in the past month which has made sales for prominent (and not-so-prominent) sellers drop.



They haven’t dropped for you. That’s great. But they’ve dropped for some people. Here’s a quick sampling of threads I’ve found, including many Top Rated Sellers and great Level 2 sellers:



http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/66061/trs-with-featured-gig-40-in-sales-in-may

http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/66219/massive-order-drop

http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/65517/gigs-currently-not-searchable-by-tags-as-per-fiverr-support

http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/66208/traffic-is-dropping-on-all-gigs

http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/44315/my-gigs-have-been-removed-from-fiverr-search

http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/65758/is-fiverr-having-issues-with-tags-and-searches

http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/65234/is-response-rate-affecting-my-sales



If you want to say that all these people have, together and overnight, lost their mojo and now suck [edit: this was not a swear word. “uck” with an “S” in front], well, I’m not going to argue.

---

[msjag416]

I’m enjoying reading this post. I had a great 2013 to mid 2014, and left Fiverr to pursue other interests. Now I’m back, and it’s like starting over - now that I got to Level 1. I haven’t made a single sale in the last two weeks I’ve come back online, but I am looking at the analytics and I see some interest. I think buyers are looking for bargains, especially when you work the basic gig angle, and then dangle the gig extra’s - they don’t seem to want to bite. At least in my case. I was a buyer a few weeks ago, and although I finally got the design I asked for, it was painstaking to deal with the buyer. His commitment to giving a detailed and precise replica of a business card was abysmal. He had the design done in 2 hours and it looked nothing like the original card. About four days later he produced a product I could actually show. So my point is, I expected excellence for $15, and that’s what others are probably looking for in my gigs, but don’t want to even spend that amount. I’m willing to be patient however, and change the little details in my gigs that will attract the right clientele.

[idwithin]

It is interesting now to see so many people complaining about lack of sales. I had been using Fiverr to pay my main bills (Fiverr is not my main source of income) and then all of a sudden over the last month I have had a decline in sales. I thought it could of been a saturated market with my products I was selling. I currently noticed some people have stolen my idea several times. Although even some of my products that would normally sell every now and again as these were just new gigs to test and see if they sold (which they did). Have not had a sale in weeks. Even though they didn’t get that many sales, they were still getting them. Now nothing.



I seem to have lost out on a lot of impressions. Even though I am promoting my gigs through social media, which I believe Fiverr loves?



So yeah I’m a bit concerned how all of a sudden my sales dropped, even though I promote outside of Fiverr. Especially with other people complaining. Which makes it a very interesting topic.



I’ve tried things like going on and off vacation mode just to see if it would make a difference. I will be trying different promotional techniques, even fiddling about with my fiverr profile/settings/tags/titles etc. So I will report and see if my time and work will eventually pay off to give me more impressions.



I suppose we will just have to wait and see, or move your products to a different platform…?