Have a website for your gig? [Modified by Moderator]

[talethia]

Do you use a website to help sell your gig? What do you use to help build your site? Have you been finding it helping you market yourself? Let’s share our websites and help eachother by giving feedback!



Here’s mine for my VO gigs:

http://www.fragglesrock



Moderator Note: Since most personal websites include contact links, they are not generally allowed on the forums. Your post had to be modified to keep from encouraging sellers to share links that are not permitted. If you want to show links to your samples a few typically safe places are YouTube, Flickr, and Soundcloud. This still depends on the contact information and is not an inclusive or exclusive list.

[willpower_hk]

Basically off-Fiverr external links for the sake of self promotion are not allowed in the forum.

[talethia]

It’s not for self promotion. I’m more curious on the webdesign people have made to help sell their gigs. I thought this would be a good place to discuss what works for people and what doesn’t. I guess i wasn’t very clear in that. i will edit my post now

[misscrystal]

I was told by CS that there are about five sites where you are allowed to place a link to your gigs. I was looking in TOS just now for information on that but did not find it. You can put a link on a blog site, FB, Twitter, and a couple of others. I’m not sure about a site devoted to your fiverr gigs. I would ask CS first before I did that. People would possibly be able to contact you directly that way which is a big violation.

Outside links in the forums are not allowed whether for self promotion or not.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @misscrystal: Almost any external site is somewhat questionable on the forums due to the contact issue although the ones listed in the Moderator Note have been considered acceptable for quite some time as long as there is no email or contact form, etc.

Fiverr has recently become a bit more relaxed about which hyperlinks can be shared on gig descriptions and that is reflected in the latest version of the ToS. I’ll see if I can spot it and edit this post with it shortly.

On the forums, technically there is even more leeway since now they allow some posts with links to tips that could be useful, credit for shared tips, etc. The problem is that a moderator generally has to have time to check a site to see if it is allowed and doesn’t have malicious content, so personal websites would rarely be approved and in many cases the link will just be “fragglesrocked” or “starred *****” out due to moderator time constraints. Thanks for helping keep the forums clean and safe!

Edited to add: I just checked and the list of new links that I recalled is no longer in the ToS. My guess is that the new list led to new problems or was in a help file other than that one. I will also mentioned that for a long time Facebook and Twitter and other social media sites were disallowed for sharing since you can change the contact message on the fly, so I would still not recommend them either.

[sincere18]

Reply to @talethia: but you do not sell your gigs on a personal site. Some freelancers naturally have their own portfolio and business websites having nothing to do with Fiverr, but here on Fiverr you cannot share that personal portfolio link.

What works for sharing your Fiverr gigs is posting a link on other sites, like social media sites, facebook, twitter, etc.

And you cannot ask people to share their personal webpages as personal contact outside of Fiverr is against the terms of service.

[sincere18]

Reply to @fonthaunt: I also alway found it interesting that social media sharing is allowed, because by default you would have a way to contact that person through facebook directly.

[misscrystal]

Reply to @sincere18: Yes and one seller here has had a problem from using his real name and having someone contact him on facebook. It is against terms of service to use your real name on fiverr.

Fiverr provides links to your gigs and I would like to see an official list of sites that are acceptable. I know there is one particular blog site that is allowed.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @sincere18: Have you (or anyone) seen something in writing saying that social media links can be shared? The last information I recall for forum guidelines did not offer permission for it. It was the usual “you can share Fiverr links on social media but not social media links on Fiverr.”

I have been working with some of the current documentation that is given to moderators to aid in forum judgement calls which is why I know there will be less of a strict rule against all external links. Overall, though, external links are still removed unless it is a fast, easy way to determine acceptability. For me, that usually means removal of social media links.

[misscrystal]

Reply to @fonthaunt: There is one seller in my catagory who has her blog link in her profile on fiverr. On her blog she has a link to a fiverr gig and oddly enough is selling her gig from that link for $30. CS told me this was not allowed but still her link and blog is there. The mystery continues.

[sincere18]

Reply to @fonthaunt: no, I am saying the same thing as you, that “you can share your Fiverr gig on social media”. Of course you cannot post your social media site here on Fiverr.

But if you share your gig on social media, anyone who sees that post on Facebook or Twitter can simply contact you directly on your twitter page or facebook page too, so in essence there is a way to contact a seller directly outside of Fiverr by default when someone promotes it on their social media site. That’s all.

If you posted your gig on your facebook page, and one of your friends “shared” your link, who happens to be one of my friends and I see your gig on Fiverr and go look at your work, what’s to stop me from sending you a message to your facebook page, and/or look at your facebook page and look up your name to see if you have a real website and then go contact you there? If someone only works on Fiverr, that’s one thing they would say, well go buy my gig on Fiverr if you want to work with me. But if you are a freelancer, as many sellers are, and have your own direct website and list it on your facebook page and I see your gig and then go to your website first, then Fiverr is legitimately out of the loop.

[julipalmer7]

@sincere18 but isnt it contradicting of Fiverr then to say post your Fiverr links on other social media platform to drive sales to your gigs, because if someone notices a seller gig on a social media platform and sees the seller’s name, how would they explain that a seller has violated the TOS if Fiverr recommends you do social promotion on other platforms.

[sincere18]

Reply to @julipalmer7: yes, that is the paradox. I do not think there is 100% way to prevent someone from contacting a Fiverr seller outside of Fiverr if a seller has their own busuienss and full website and uses their real name for promotions. I think it’s just a way to cut down in general by saying that. So that the seller will not try to do it and only try to ecourage people to come buy from them on Fiverr.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @sincere18: No doubt, but as no rules are broken it’s all legit that way. One tidbit on a personal note - I’ve had people approach me that way and I used to do some outside sales but I’ve actually found that for me, it’s not really worth the extra 20% and I turn down outside sales anyway right now.

There is something comforting to me about the anonymity of Fiverr as well as the clock reminding me of a solid deadline. I’m sure it’s not true of everyone, but I kind of like the options of a platform like this.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @julipalmer7: I know exactly what you are saying, but Fiverr doesn’t have a lot of threat from that in my opinion. Many sellers who have avenues for outside sales can’t sustain them even with the boost offered by Fiverr. It’s expensive to host a domain, it’s complex for some people to create a website, and it’s harder than many think to manage these kind of sales outside.

It isn’t really a ToS violation for someone to see a link outside Fiverr, approach a seller and ask if they want to do business. (As far as I understand the ToS.) It’s a violation for a seller to use the Fiverr system or attachments to give contact info (email, s***e, website, phone, etc.) It’s a violation for a buyer to ask a seller to contact outside by exchanging contact information via the Fiverr system.

Off-Fiverr, as far as I know, if someone contacts directly and the service sold off-Fiverr is altered enough to mean that a gig is “exclusively on Fiverr” (not difficult) there really isn’t anything stopping people. The thing is, if there are communication issues, payment issues, or anything else - the buyer is at greater risk and the seller has some risk too. There is little concern about reviews, chargebacks are free game, and so on.

There is no absolute deadline so buyer and seller take risks on timing as well. For many people and even some teams, it isn’t going to turn out to yield the kind of income opportunity and protection that they expect. If it all breaks down, granted, the lack of reviews can be beneficial for the seller but the buyer may not return. So, unless there is a very professional setup and understanding of how to do business, the outside situation is more likely to tank and drive people right back to a platform setup like this.

[julipalmer7]

Reply to @sincere18: thank you for answering.

[julipalmer7]

Reply to @fonthaunt: yes I totally agree with your answers thanks and best wishes.