[GUIDE] How to write actionable answers to buyer requests

[smashradio]

In the past, I’ve written a few guides like [Guide] How to Rank Your Gig for Better Results on Fiverr here on the forum. It turned out to be quite popular. This time, I’ve decided to tackle the responses to buyer requests on this great platform, simply because they’re a part of the experience that’s not quite so great as the rest!

I’m both a seller and an active buyer, so I can perhaps give some insight into both sides of the requests, and how you as a seller can write actionable answers that lead to more sales and less work. Yes, I believe that’s possible.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Which requests to answer and the ones to ignore

This might come as a surprise to some of you, but answering fewer requests might get you more sales with less work. Think about it; if you respond to every request that becomes available to you, you’re likely to spend less time on each request. That means your replies will be less focused, and you’ll probably be answering some requests that are simply not worth your time.

If you carefully consider each request in your category, and you pick out the ones with the most interesting projects at the right budget, you’ll likely be spending more time on each request. And that’s the trick here; the idea is to not pump out as many answers as possible, but the best possible answers you can craft on the best possible requests you can find.

Let’s say you’re responding to 10 requests per day. Of these 10, maybe 3 of them have a budget of more than 20 dollars. If you’re gonna take the time to carefully read each request and then craft a perfect, individual response (more on that later) to all of them, you’re likely spending a lot of time every day, while not getting much in return.

But if instead, you pick the top 3 requests (the ones with the best budget, requirements for your skill-set, and well-written instructions) you can instead spend a bit more time to craft a great response to those particular requests.

That will increase your chances of landing the best orders, that pay more while spending less time sending requests that will be filtered out anyway. As a buyer, I know this; 9 out of 10 answers gets filtered out when I’m going through the answers! That brings me to the next part:

Write laser-focused responses

The #1 reason that I filter out replies to my requests is because of copy-paste answers. As a buyer, I almost instantly know if the reply has been copy-pasted or custom written for me. So don’t do it. Not if you want to land a sale, that is. Spend time crafting a personal response to each request.

Let me provide some examples (real examples from real requests!):

The wrong way:

Me (buyer): I’m looking for someone to write a skyscraper article on How To Become a Voiceover Artist. My minimum requirements are a native level of English, and the article length is 5000 words. My name is Leo, and I run a voiceover blog. The goal of this article is to beat every other guide on how to become a voiceover; in essence, creating the ULTIMATE GUIDE on the subject.

Seller response: Hello dear sir… 🙂 I can be your perfect ebook writer for all your projects and I also do web design to make SEO stand out! Let me be your man for the job! I’m certified SEO and also offer backlinks and have worked on hundrests of perfect projects.

---

Ok. So there’s a ton of problems with this response. I’ll get to the grammar, punctuation, and spelling issues later. You could also check out my guide Why grammar is super important for us sellers.

For now, let’s focus on the fact that this seller never even read my request. If he did, he certainly didn’t care! The reply is copied and pasted to every request this seller can find. First of all, I never asked for someone to write an eBook, nor did I ask for a web designer. It took me less than one second to determine that this response wasn’t written for me and that the seller doesn’t care for a second about my project. So why would I hire this seller?

The right way:

Me (buyer): I’m looking for someone to write a skyscraper article on How To Become a Voiceover Artist. My minimum requirements are a native level of English, and the article length is 5000 words. My name is Leo, and I run a voiceover blog. The goal of this article is to beat every other guide on how to become a voiceover; in essence, creating the ULTIMATE GUIDE on the subject.

Seller: Hi, Leo! I’ve read your request for an author to write your ultimate guide on how to become a voiceover artist. I would love to work with you to create this guide. Let me tell you a bit about me and my work, so you’ll be able to decide if I’m the right guy for this project. I’ve been working as a writer for more than 10 years, and in that time I’ve written thousands of articles on various subjects ranging from tech news to lifestyle content. I’ve worked with both large and small companies to help them stand out in the crowd of online content. I pride myself on being on-time, every time, and I believe the quality of my work speaks for itself. Here are some examples:
(buyers lists some examples).
Let me know if you have any questions! I’d love to hear from you.

---

So what did this seller do right? Well: everything. First of all, he proved in the very first sentence that he’d read my request all the way through. How? Noticed I used my name in the request? This seller noticed and addressed me by my name in the beginning. Not every buyer will do that, but if you take the time to read and understand the request, you’ll notice that there’s almost always something you can mention early on in your response to show that you’ve taken an interest. You’ll also see that the seller mentioned the project itself (ultimate guide etc…) and proved that he knew what this project was about.

Second of all, the grammar is great. This seller proves by his response that he has an understanding of the English language, punctuation, and grammar. If a buyer is looking for a writer you’re almost guaranteed to be filtered out before they even read the first line through to the end if your reply is full of grammatical errors. If you can’t spell, don’t try to be a professional writer until you’ve learned the language properly.

As a footnote: the seller didn’t call me “sir”, “madam” or “dear”. This is usually an indicator that the seller isn’t very knowledgeable about the culture or language.

Read more about that in my guide: How to communicate across cultures and countries when doing business on Fiverr.

Wrapping up:
When crafting your responses to the requests, write unique and tailored responses to each one. Don’t copy-paste, especially in the introduction! Don’t mention skills that are not relevant. Be polite, and make sure your response is made up of relevant, grammatically correct content. Be personal: try to find elements of the request that you can use as an identifier right at the start to prove that you did read the request before responding. Respond to fewer requests, but spend more time on each request. Pick the ones with a good budget.

As a bonus tip: I’d recommend to not massively underbid. If the buyer lists a budget of 100 dollars, don’t offer to do the job for 10 dollars. First of all, the buyer probably won’t take you seriously. If someone is willing to write 5000 words for 10 dollars they probably aren’t very skilled, and if they are, they certainly don’t know their value. By picking low-end jobs you’re undervaluing yourself, and you’re inviting “bad buyers” to the table. And they can be difficult to handle, believe me. I’ve written a guide on the Top 5 Communication Skills You Need When Dealing With Difficult Buyers too, so be sure to check that out!

I hope this guide helps you out with your responses! Have you tried using these tips to craft actionable answers to buyer requests? Let me know how it went!

Stay safe!

Leo

[part_789]

Hi Leo,

Thanks for the guides on buyers request. Learned a lot from this post. I need some suggestions. Say the buyer budget shows 50$, but reading the query I find this could be at least 80$ for my nature of performance and detailing work. What should be my approach to get the order ? Just to know. Thanks.

[marinapomorac]

In the past, I’ve written a few guides like [Guide] How to Rank Your Gig for Better Results on Fiverr here on the forum. It turned out to be quite popular. This time, I’ve decided to tackle the responses to buyer requests on this great platform, simply because they’re a part of the experience that’s not quite so great as the rest!

I’m both a seller and an active buyer, so I can perhaps give some insight into both sides of the requests, and how you as a seller can write actionable answers that lead to more sales and less work. Yes, I believe that’s possible.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Which requests to answer and the ones to ignore

This might come as a surprise to some of you, but answering fewer requests might get you more sales with less work. Think about it; if you respond to every request that becomes available to you, you’re likely to spend less time on each request. That means your replies will be less focused, and you’ll probably be answering some requests that are simply not worth your time.

If you carefully consider each request in your category, and you pick out the ones with the most interesting projects at the right budget, you’ll likely be spending more time on each request. And that’s the trick here; the idea is to not pump out as many answers as possible, but the best possible answers you can craft on the best possible requests you can find.

Let’s say you’re responding to 10 requests per day. Of these 10, maybe 3 of them have a budget of more than 20 dollars. If you’re gonna take the time to carefully read each request and then craft a perfect, individual response (more on that later) to all of them, you’re likely spending a lot of time every day, while not getting much in return.

But if instead, you pick the top 3 requests (the ones with the best budget, requirements for your skill-set, and well-written instructions) you can instead spend a bit more time to craft a great response to those particular requests.

That will increase your chances of landing the best orders, that pay more while spending less time sending requests that will be filtered out anyway. As a buyer, I know this; 9 out of 10 answers gets filtered out when I’m going through the answers! That brings me to the next part:

Write laser-focused responses

The #1 reason that I filter out replies to my requests is because of copy-paste answers. As a buyer, I almost instantly know if the reply has been copy-pasted or custom written for me. So don’t do it. Not if you want to land a sale, that is. Spend time crafting a personal response to each request.

Let me provide some examples (real examples from real requests!):

The wrong way:

Me (buyer): I’m looking for someone to write a skyscraper article on How To Become a Voiceover Artist. My minimum requirements are a native level of English, and the article length is 5000 words. My name is Leo, and I run a voiceover blog. The goal of this article is to beat every other guide on how to become a voiceover; in essence, creating the ULTIMATE GUIDE on the subject.

Seller response: Hello dear sir… 🙂 I can be your perfect ebook writer for all your projects and I also do web design to make SEO stand out! Let me be your man for the job! I’m certified SEO and also offer backlinks and have worked on hundrests of perfect projects.

---

Ok. So there’s a ton of problems with this response. I’ll get to the grammar, punctuation, and spelling issues later. You could also check out my guide Why grammar is super important for us sellers.

For now, let’s focus on the fact that this seller never even read my request. If he did, he certainly didn’t care! The reply is copied and pasted to every request this seller can find. First of all, I never asked for someone to write an eBook, nor did I ask for a web designer. It took me less than one second to determine that this response wasn’t written for me and that the seller doesn’t care for a second about my project. So why would I hire this seller?

The right way:

Me (buyer): I’m looking for someone to write a skyscraper article on How To Become a Voiceover Artist. My minimum requirements are a native level of English, and the article length is 5000 words. My name is Leo, and I run a voiceover blog. The goal of this article is to beat every other guide on how to become a voiceover; in essence, creating the ULTIMATE GUIDE on the subject.

Seller: Hi, Leo! I’ve read your request for an author to write your ultimate guide on how to become a voiceover artist. I would love to work with you to create this guide. Let me tell you a bit about me and my work, so you’ll be able to decide if I’m the right guy for this project. I’ve been working as a writer for more than 10 years, and in that time I’ve written thousands of articles on various subjects ranging from tech news to lifestyle content. I’ve worked with both large and small companies to help them stand out in the crowd of online content. I pride myself on being on-time, every time, and I believe the quality of my work speaks for itself. Here are some examples:

(buyers lists some examples).

Let me know if you have any questions! I’d love to hear from you.

---

So what did this seller do right? Well: everything. First of all, he proved in the very first sentence that he’d read my request all the way through. How? Noticed I used my name in the request? This seller noticed and addressed me by my name in the beginning. Not every buyer will do that, but if you take the time to read and understand the request, you’ll notice that there’s almost always something you can mention early on in your response to show that you’ve taken an interest. You’ll also see that the seller mentioned the project itself (ultimate guide etc…) and proved that he knew what this project was about.

Second of all, the grammar is great. This seller proves by his response that he has an understanding of the English language, punctuation, and grammar. If a buyer is looking for a writer you’re almost guaranteed to be filtered out before they even read the first line through to the end if your reply is full of grammatical errors. If you can’t spell, don’t try to be a professional writer until you’ve learned the language properly.

As a footnote: the seller didn’t call me “sir”, “madam” or “dear”. This is usually an indicator that the seller isn’t very knowledgeable about the culture or language.

Read more about that in my guide: How to communicate across cultures and countries when doing business on Fiverr.

Wrapping up:

When crafting your responses to the requests, write unique and tailored responses to each one. Don’t copy-paste, especially in the introduction! Don’t mention skills that are not relevant. Be polite, and make sure your response is made up of relevant, grammatically correct content. Be personal: try to find elements of the request that you can use as an identifier right at the start to prove that you did read the request before responding. Respond to fewer requests, but spend more time on each request. Pick the ones with a good budget.

As a bonus tip: I’d recommend to not massively underbid. If the buyer lists a budget of 100 dollars, don’t offer to do the job for 10 dollars. First of all, the buyer probably won’t take you seriously. If someone is willing to write 5000 words for 10 dollars they probably aren’t very skilled, and if they are, they certainly don’t know their value. By picking low-end jobs you’re undervaluing yourself, and you’re inviting “bad buyers” to the table. And they can be difficult to handle, believe me. I’ve written a guide on the Top 5 Communication Skills You Need When Dealing With Difficult Buyers too, so be sure to check that out!

I hope this guide helps you out with your responses! Have you tried using these tips to craft actionable answers to buyer requests? Let me know how it went!

Stay safe!

Leo

So what did this seller do right? Well: everything .

Will he get job: NO, probably not since by the time he wrote all this 70 other sellers typed their premade response and buyer will probably select one of those that is written well.

It is very rare to find buyer that is willing to read beyond 40+ offers.

[smashradio]

Hi Leo,

Thanks for the guides on buyers request. Learned a lot from this post. I need some suggestions. Say the buyer budget shows 50$, but reading the query I find this could be at least 80$ for my nature of performance and detailing work. What should be my approach to get the order ? Just to know. Thanks.

Hi!

That depends. Usually you should try to find requests that match your rate. But there’s nothing wrong with quoting above their budget, except that you risk getting ignored. Most buyers will add their budget in the request and stick to that. It’s a balancing act. I rarely respond to requests unless I feel that the buyers budget is aligned with my rates, because I feel it’s a waste of time.

[smashradio]

So what did this seller do right? Well: everything .

Will he get job: NO, probably not since by the time he wrote all this 70 other sellers typed their premade response and buyer will probably select one of those that is written well.

It is very rare to find buyer that is willing to read beyond 40+ offers.

How long does it take you to read a request and write a great response? You don’t have to write it from scratch, as long as you tailor it to the request. It takes me about 2 minutes to read and understand the request, and 2 minutes to write a response. Here’s a template:

Hi, [name]! I’ve read your request for [insert what the project is about here]. I would love to work with you to create [insert project]. Let me tell you a bit about me and my work, so you’ll be able to decide if I’m the right guy for this project. I’ve been working as [insert work experience directly related to the type of project]. I’ve worked with both large and small companies to help them [insert buyer’s problem and the fact that you solved it]. I pride myself on being on-time, every time, and I believe the quality of my work speaks for itself. Here are some examples:

[insert examples to relevant projects here]

Let me know if you have any questions! I’d love to hear from you.

[marinapomorac]

How long does it take you to read a request and write a great response? You don’t have to write it from scratch, as long as you tailor it to the request. It takes me about 2 minutes to read and understand the request, and 2 minutes to write a response. Here’s a template:

Hi, [name]! I’ve read your request for [insert what the project is about here]. I would love to work with you to create [insert project]. Let me tell you a bit about me and my work, so you’ll be able to decide if I’m the right guy for this project. I’ve been working as [insert work experience directly related to the type of project]. I’ve worked with both large and small companies to help them [insert buyer’s problem and the fact that you solved it]. I pride myself on being on-time, every time, and I believe the quality of my work speaks for itself. Here are some examples:

[insert examples to relevant projects here]

Let me know if you have any questions! I’d love to hear from you.

😃I have template too that I modify as per client request but in my category 4 minutes = 80 offers

[maitasun]

How long does it take you to read a request and write a great response? You don’t have to write it from scratch, as long as you tailor it to the request. It takes me about 2 minutes to read and understand the request, and 2 minutes to write a response. Here’s a template:

Hi, [name]! I’ve read your request for [insert what the project is about here]. I would love to work with you to create [insert project]. Let me tell you a bit about me and my work, so you’ll be able to decide if I’m the right guy for this project. I’ve been working as [insert work experience directly related to the type of project]. I’ve worked with both large and small companies to help them [insert buyer’s problem and the fact that you solved it]. I pride myself on being on-time, every time, and I believe the quality of my work speaks for itself. Here are some examples:

[insert examples to relevant projects here]

Let me know if you have any questions! I’d love to hear from you.

How long does it take you to read a request and write a great response? You don’t have to write it from scratch, as long as you tailor it to the request. It takes me about 2 minutes to read and understand the request, and 2 minutes to write a response. Here’s a template:

Poor buyers… 😰

Every single one of them will now be receiving the same type of offer! 😬

You had no mercy on them!!! 🥺

[smashradio]

😃I have template too that I modify as per client request but in my category 4 minutes = 80 offers

Maybe the buyer requests functionality needs a re-think, too! I actually spend the time to go through requests. I filter out 90% of them, and when I’m left with 4-5 candidates I carefully screen then before buying. But then again, my requests usually have a budget of 100-1000 USD. Maybe the cheaper buyers act differently.

I work a lot as a VO talent both here on Fiverr and other platforms. What I’ve noticed on other platforms is that you’re matched with requests, and the platform only invites a few sellers to actually participate in each round. That keeps the amount of requests down, and the quality of the responses higher.

[smashradio]

How long does it take you to read a request and write a great response? You don’t have to write it from scratch, as long as you tailor it to the request. It takes me about 2 minutes to read and understand the request, and 2 minutes to write a response. Here’s a template:

Poor buyers… 😰

Every single one of them will now be receiving the same type of offer! 😬

You had no mercy on them!!! 🥺

Yeah now all of Fiverr will copy that template! LOL!

[creativeartgirl]

Good suggestion thanks for sharing

[benedictrm]

Maybe the buyer requests functionality needs a re-think, too! I actually spend the time to go through requests. I filter out 90% of them, and when I’m left with 4-5 candidates I carefully screen then before buying. But then again, my requests usually have a budget of 100-1000 USD. Maybe the cheaper buyers act differently.

I work a lot as a VO talent both here on Fiverr and other platforms. What I’ve noticed on other platforms is that you’re matched with requests, and the platform only invites a few sellers to actually participate in each round. That keeps the amount of requests down, and the quality of the responses higher.

I agree with you Mr Radio

requests usually have a budget of 100-1000 USD. Maybe the cheaper buyers act differently

You are super lucky. My BR are mostly people expecting a guaranteed #1 Hit that wins Grammy Awards for $15. Even then, they very rarely share their song so I must assume that they have the vocal prowess of a drunk camel.

If I write a well, presented, professional response, I am guaranteed being ignored or a demand to do 10 such songs for half the price of one.

🙂

[part_789]

Hi!

That depends. Usually you should try to find requests that match your rate. But there’s nothing wrong with quoting above their budget, except that you risk getting ignored. Most buyers will add their budget in the request and stick to that. It’s a balancing act. I rarely respond to requests unless I feel that the buyers budget is aligned with my rates, because I feel it’s a waste of time.

Hi Leo, thank you for the response. I have got my next step.thanks.

[smashradio]

I agree with you Mr Radio

requests usually have a budget of 100-1000 USD. Maybe the cheaper buyers act differently

You are super lucky. My BR are mostly people expecting a guaranteed #1 Hit that wins Grammy Awards for $15. Even then, they very rarely share their song so I must assume that they have the vocal prowess of a drunk camel.

If I write a well, presented, professional response, I am guaranteed being ignored or a demand to do 10 such songs for half the price of one.

🙂

First of all, I do love when people call me “Mr. Radio”! Haha.

I empathize with your situation. If I was in your situation I would probably raise my rates just to avoid the people expecting a Grammy Award for 15 dollars! If a well-presented, professional response will get you ignored, I wonder what a bad and unprofessional response will get you? The idea isn’t to write an essay, but to address the buyer properly, having grammatically correct content in the response, and showing the buyer that you’ve understood their request. That would involve simple things like not offering them an eBook when they’ve asked for a blog post, not mentioning irrelevant work experience, and adding proof that you’ve read their request from beginning to end.

But I get where you’re coming from. I used to offer voice overs for 5USD, and it attracted a lot of bad buyers. I raised my rates a bit, and that seems to filter out the worst projects.

[benedictrm]

First of all, I do love when people call me “Mr. Radio”! Haha.

I empathize with your situation. If I was in your situation I would probably raise my rates just to avoid the people expecting a Grammy Award for 15 dollars! If a well-presented, professional response will get you ignored, I wonder what a bad and unprofessional response will get you? The idea isn’t to write an essay, but to address the buyer properly, having grammatically correct content in the response, and showing the buyer that you’ve understood their request. That would involve simple things like not offering them an eBook when they’ve asked for a blog post, not mentioning irrelevant work experience, and adding proof that you’ve read their request from beginning to end.

But I get where you’re coming from. I used to offer voice overs for 5USD, and it attracted a lot of bad buyers. I raised my rates a bit, and that seems to filter out the worst projects.

Thanks Mr Radio 🙂

I have tried all sorts of prices up & down from $0 - $550 with no dice past a few $15 scraps - one of which returned 5 Stars + 19.500+ views on YT for a good singer but no further work follows.

 

I even struggle to get people to let me mix for them for free/exposure in my Mix Walkthrough series. So either the biblical-donkey responded to in the vid below was right that I have pooptacular skills (I think he just wanted me out of his puddle as his work was limited at best).

 

Perhaps I just don’t get exposed to the right buyers for what makes me good at what I do. In which case maybe I need to try adding another zero to make a Mix start at $5,500, but that feels hard without a few better credits?

🙂

[smashradio]

Thanks Mr Radio 🙂

I have tried all sorts of prices up & down from $0 - $550 with no dice past a few $15 scraps - one of which returned 5 Stars + 19.500+ views on YT for a good singer but no further work follows.

 

I even struggle to get people to let me mix for them for free/exposure in my Mix Walkthrough series. So either the biblical-donkey responded to in the vid below was right that I have pooptacular skills (I think he just wanted me out of his puddle as his work was limited at best).

 

Perhaps I just don’t get exposed to the right buyers for what makes me good at what I do. In which case maybe I need to try adding another zero to make a Mix start at $5,500, but that feels hard without a few better credits?

🙂

I don’t know much about the mixing and mastering market, but I do know there’s plenty of automatic tools out there used by a lot of artists, meaning there’s less work for people who aren’t already well known within the industry. It’s a difficult climb. Keep working on your Youtube channel, maybe put in some other types of content as well, free advice for mixers and artists etc.

Keep up the good work and you’ll get there! 🙂

[dreamad]

In the past, I’ve written a few guides like [Guide] How to Rank Your Gig for Better Results on Fiverr here on the forum. It turned out to be quite popular. This time, I’ve decided to tackle the responses to buyer requests on this great platform, simply because they’re a part of the experience that’s not quite so great as the rest!

I’m both a seller and an active buyer, so I can perhaps give some insight into both sides of the requests, and how you as a seller can write actionable answers that lead to more sales and less work. Yes, I believe that’s possible.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Which requests to answer and the ones to ignore

This might come as a surprise to some of you, but answering fewer requests might get you more sales with less work. Think about it; if you respond to every request that becomes available to you, you’re likely to spend less time on each request. That means your replies will be less focused, and you’ll probably be answering some requests that are simply not worth your time.

If you carefully consider each request in your category, and you pick out the ones with the most interesting projects at the right budget, you’ll likely be spending more time on each request. And that’s the trick here; the idea is to not pump out as many answers as possible, but the best possible answers you can craft on the best possible requests you can find.

Let’s say you’re responding to 10 requests per day. Of these 10, maybe 3 of them have a budget of more than 20 dollars. If you’re gonna take the time to carefully read each request and then craft a perfect, individual response (more on that later) to all of them, you’re likely spending a lot of time every day, while not getting much in return.

But if instead, you pick the top 3 requests (the ones with the best budget, requirements for your skill-set, and well-written instructions) you can instead spend a bit more time to craft a great response to those particular requests.

That will increase your chances of landing the best orders, that pay more while spending less time sending requests that will be filtered out anyway. As a buyer, I know this; 9 out of 10 answers gets filtered out when I’m going through the answers! That brings me to the next part:

Write laser-focused responses

The #1 reason that I filter out replies to my requests is because of copy-paste answers. As a buyer, I almost instantly know if the reply has been copy-pasted or custom written for me. So don’t do it. Not if you want to land a sale, that is. Spend time crafting a personal response to each request.

Let me provide some examples (real examples from real requests!):

The wrong way:

Me (buyer): I’m looking for someone to write a skyscraper article on How To Become a Voiceover Artist. My minimum requirements are a native level of English, and the article length is 5000 words. My name is Leo, and I run a voiceover blog. The goal of this article is to beat every other guide on how to become a voiceover; in essence, creating the ULTIMATE GUIDE on the subject.

Seller response: Hello dear sir… 🙂 I can be your perfect ebook writer for all your projects and I also do web design to make SEO stand out! Let me be your man for the job! I’m certified SEO and also offer backlinks and have worked on hundrests of perfect projects.

---

Ok. So there’s a ton of problems with this response. I’ll get to the grammar, punctuation, and spelling issues later. You could also check out my guide Why grammar is super important for us sellers.

For now, let’s focus on the fact that this seller never even read my request. If he did, he certainly didn’t care! The reply is copied and pasted to every request this seller can find. First of all, I never asked for someone to write an eBook, nor did I ask for a web designer. It took me less than one second to determine that this response wasn’t written for me and that the seller doesn’t care for a second about my project. So why would I hire this seller?

The right way:

Me (buyer): I’m looking for someone to write a skyscraper article on How To Become a Voiceover Artist. My minimum requirements are a native level of English, and the article length is 5000 words. My name is Leo, and I run a voiceover blog. The goal of this article is to beat every other guide on how to become a voiceover; in essence, creating the ULTIMATE GUIDE on the subject.

Seller: Hi, Leo! I’ve read your request for an author to write your ultimate guide on how to become a voiceover artist. I would love to work with you to create this guide. Let me tell you a bit about me and my work, so you’ll be able to decide if I’m the right guy for this project. I’ve been working as a writer for more than 10 years, and in that time I’ve written thousands of articles on various subjects ranging from tech news to lifestyle content. I’ve worked with both large and small companies to help them stand out in the crowd of online content. I pride myself on being on-time, every time, and I believe the quality of my work speaks for itself. Here are some examples:

(buyers lists some examples).

Let me know if you have any questions! I’d love to hear from you.

---

So what did this seller do right? Well: everything. First of all, he proved in the very first sentence that he’d read my request all the way through. How? Noticed I used my name in the request? This seller noticed and addressed me by my name in the beginning. Not every buyer will do that, but if you take the time to read and understand the request, you’ll notice that there’s almost always something you can mention early on in your response to show that you’ve taken an interest. You’ll also see that the seller mentioned the project itself (ultimate guide etc…) and proved that he knew what this project was about.

Second of all, the grammar is great. This seller proves by his response that he has an understanding of the English language, punctuation, and grammar. If a buyer is looking for a writer you’re almost guaranteed to be filtered out before they even read the first line through to the end if your reply is full of grammatical errors. If you can’t spell, don’t try to be a professional writer until you’ve learned the language properly.

As a footnote: the seller didn’t call me “sir”, “madam” or “dear”. This is usually an indicator that the seller isn’t very knowledgeable about the culture or language.

Read more about that in my guide: How to communicate across cultures and countries when doing business on Fiverr.

Wrapping up:

When crafting your responses to the requests, write unique and tailored responses to each one. Don’t copy-paste, especially in the introduction! Don’t mention skills that are not relevant. Be polite, and make sure your response is made up of relevant, grammatically correct content. Be personal: try to find elements of the request that you can use as an identifier right at the start to prove that you did read the request before responding. Respond to fewer requests, but spend more time on each request. Pick the ones with a good budget.

As a bonus tip: I’d recommend to not massively underbid. If the buyer lists a budget of 100 dollars, don’t offer to do the job for 10 dollars. First of all, the buyer probably won’t take you seriously. If someone is willing to write 5000 words for 10 dollars they probably aren’t very skilled, and if they are, they certainly don’t know their value. By picking low-end jobs you’re undervaluing yourself, and you’re inviting “bad buyers” to the table. And they can be difficult to handle, believe me. I’ve written a guide on the Top 5 Communication Skills You Need When Dealing With Difficult Buyers too, so be sure to check that out!

I hope this guide helps you out with your responses! Have you tried using these tips to craft actionable answers to buyer requests? Let me know how it went!

Stay safe!

Leo

Hi smashradio,

Have a great day! I’ve read your tips. Really, this is very important for my career. I will apply this. I hope it will working for my successful career. So thank you. Good Luck!

Regards,

Sunny.

[smashradio]

Hi smashradio,

Have a great day! I’ve read your tips. Really, this is very important for my career. I will apply this. I hope it will working for my successful career. So thank you. Good Luck!

Regards,

Sunny.

Happy I could be of help!

[creativeartgirl]

First of all, I do love when people call me “Mr. Radio”! Haha.

I empathize with your situation. If I was in your situation I would probably raise my rates just to avoid the people expecting a Grammy Award for 15 dollars! If a well-presented, professional response will get you ignored, I wonder what a bad and unprofessional response will get you? The idea isn’t to write an essay, but to address the buyer properly, having grammatically correct content in the response, and showing the buyer that you’ve understood their request. That would involve simple things like not offering them an eBook when they’ve asked for a blog post, not mentioning irrelevant work experience, and adding proof that you’ve read their request from beginning to end.

But I get where you’re coming from. I used to offer voice overs for 5USD, and it attracted a lot of bad buyers. I raised my rates a bit, and that seems to filter out the worst projects.

Useful tips ,thanks

[joy_bahadur]

I have learned many things from this post. Thank you so much!

[jahir4u]

Thank’s 🙂

[designnuts]

wonderful article, thank you. 👏

[mahinul_mahi]

Very informative. As a new seller this post will help me doing better for the future. I will try to read your all post .

Thanks and Regards,

Mahinul Mahi

[cutout_experts]

Thanks a lot for helpful informetion with us.

[visualstudios]

In the past, I’ve written a few guides like [Guide] How to Rank Your Gig for Better Results on Fiverr here on the forum. It turned out to be quite popular. This time, I’ve decided to tackle the responses to buyer requests on this great platform, simply because they’re a part of the experience that’s not quite so great as the rest!

I’m both a seller and an active buyer, so I can perhaps give some insight into both sides of the requests, and how you as a seller can write actionable answers that lead to more sales and less work. Yes, I believe that’s possible.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Which requests to answer and the ones to ignore

This might come as a surprise to some of you, but answering fewer requests might get you more sales with less work. Think about it; if you respond to every request that becomes available to you, you’re likely to spend less time on each request. That means your replies will be less focused, and you’ll probably be answering some requests that are simply not worth your time.

If you carefully consider each request in your category, and you pick out the ones with the most interesting projects at the right budget, you’ll likely be spending more time on each request. And that’s the trick here; the idea is to not pump out as many answers as possible, but the best possible answers you can craft on the best possible requests you can find.

Let’s say you’re responding to 10 requests per day. Of these 10, maybe 3 of them have a budget of more than 20 dollars. If you’re gonna take the time to carefully read each request and then craft a perfect, individual response (more on that later) to all of them, you’re likely spending a lot of time every day, while not getting much in return.

But if instead, you pick the top 3 requests (the ones with the best budget, requirements for your skill-set, and well-written instructions) you can instead spend a bit more time to craft a great response to those particular requests.

That will increase your chances of landing the best orders, that pay more while spending less time sending requests that will be filtered out anyway. As a buyer, I know this; 9 out of 10 answers gets filtered out when I’m going through the answers! That brings me to the next part:

Write laser-focused responses

The #1 reason that I filter out replies to my requests is because of copy-paste answers. As a buyer, I almost instantly know if the reply has been copy-pasted or custom written for me. So don’t do it. Not if you want to land a sale, that is. Spend time crafting a personal response to each request.

Let me provide some examples (real examples from real requests!):

The wrong way:

Me (buyer): I’m looking for someone to write a skyscraper article on How To Become a Voiceover Artist. My minimum requirements are a native level of English, and the article length is 5000 words. My name is Leo, and I run a voiceover blog. The goal of this article is to beat every other guide on how to become a voiceover; in essence, creating the ULTIMATE GUIDE on the subject.

Seller response: Hello dear sir… 🙂 I can be your perfect ebook writer for all your projects and I also do web design to make SEO stand out! Let me be your man for the job! I’m certified SEO and also offer backlinks and have worked on hundrests of perfect projects.

---

Ok. So there’s a ton of problems with this response. I’ll get to the grammar, punctuation, and spelling issues later. You could also check out my guide Why grammar is super important for us sellers.

For now, let’s focus on the fact that this seller never even read my request. If he did, he certainly didn’t care! The reply is copied and pasted to every request this seller can find. First of all, I never asked for someone to write an eBook, nor did I ask for a web designer. It took me less than one second to determine that this response wasn’t written for me and that the seller doesn’t care for a second about my project. So why would I hire this seller?

The right way:

Me (buyer): I’m looking for someone to write a skyscraper article on How To Become a Voiceover Artist. My minimum requirements are a native level of English, and the article length is 5000 words. My name is Leo, and I run a voiceover blog. The goal of this article is to beat every other guide on how to become a voiceover; in essence, creating the ULTIMATE GUIDE on the subject.

Seller: Hi, Leo! I’ve read your request for an author to write your ultimate guide on how to become a voiceover artist. I would love to work with you to create this guide. Let me tell you a bit about me and my work, so you’ll be able to decide if I’m the right guy for this project. I’ve been working as a writer for more than 10 years, and in that time I’ve written thousands of articles on various subjects ranging from tech news to lifestyle content. I’ve worked with both large and small companies to help them stand out in the crowd of online content. I pride myself on being on-time, every time, and I believe the quality of my work speaks for itself. Here are some examples:

(buyers lists some examples).

Let me know if you have any questions! I’d love to hear from you.

---

So what did this seller do right? Well: everything. First of all, he proved in the very first sentence that he’d read my request all the way through. How? Noticed I used my name in the request? This seller noticed and addressed me by my name in the beginning. Not every buyer will do that, but if you take the time to read and understand the request, you’ll notice that there’s almost always something you can mention early on in your response to show that you’ve taken an interest. You’ll also see that the seller mentioned the project itself (ultimate guide etc…) and proved that he knew what this project was about.

Second of all, the grammar is great. This seller proves by his response that he has an understanding of the English language, punctuation, and grammar. If a buyer is looking for a writer you’re almost guaranteed to be filtered out before they even read the first line through to the end if your reply is full of grammatical errors. If you can’t spell, don’t try to be a professional writer until you’ve learned the language properly.

As a footnote: the seller didn’t call me “sir”, “madam” or “dear”. This is usually an indicator that the seller isn’t very knowledgeable about the culture or language.

Read more about that in my guide: How to communicate across cultures and countries when doing business on Fiverr.

Wrapping up:

When crafting your responses to the requests, write unique and tailored responses to each one. Don’t copy-paste, especially in the introduction! Don’t mention skills that are not relevant. Be polite, and make sure your response is made up of relevant, grammatically correct content. Be personal: try to find elements of the request that you can use as an identifier right at the start to prove that you did read the request before responding. Respond to fewer requests, but spend more time on each request. Pick the ones with a good budget.

As a bonus tip: I’d recommend to not massively underbid. If the buyer lists a budget of 100 dollars, don’t offer to do the job for 10 dollars. First of all, the buyer probably won’t take you seriously. If someone is willing to write 5000 words for 10 dollars they probably aren’t very skilled, and if they are, they certainly don’t know their value. By picking low-end jobs you’re undervaluing yourself, and you’re inviting “bad buyers” to the table. And they can be difficult to handle, believe me. I’ve written a guide on the Top 5 Communication Skills You Need When Dealing With Difficult Buyers too, so be sure to check that out!

I hope this guide helps you out with your responses! Have you tried using these tips to craft actionable answers to buyer requests? Let me know how it went!

Stay safe!

Leo

Good ideas overall, but I disagree with the example you gave of a “perfect” reply.

Me (buyer): I’m looking for someone to write a skyscraper article on How To Become a Voiceover Artist…

Seller: Hi, Leo! I’ve read your request for an author to write your ultimate guide on how to become a voiceover artist.

That’s literally copying a sentence of the original request. It’s inorganic, stiff. Sounds robotic. Personality > everything else, and that reply just doesn’t show personality. I would much rather go with someone who was more original and didn’t copy and paste an entire sentence from my request. Just the word “request” is weird in this context. You need to stand out. Bamboozle the client. Make him curious. Make him contact you, and take it from there. You don’t even need to address the request directly in most cases, you just need to entice them to contact you.

This, of course, if the buyer request was worthy of an answer. They rarely are.

[arefsaddam]

Thanks for suggestions.