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Helloooo all, Tips welcomed for dealing with people asking for freebies please

audreyod

By audreyod
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audreyod Newbie

audreyod

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Hi, I’ve just registered on fiverr and have already had three people asking me for freebies in exchange for good feedback! Is this the norm? Of course, I’m not going to participate with them but it’s really annoying, any tips?



Thanks

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landongrace Apprentice

landongrace

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I did $25.00 of work for $5.00 when I started. For my offer that meant I was spending 2-4 hours on each gig. Sounds kind of insane! This strategy along with 24 hour deliveries, fueled my orders. I completed 100 orders in the first 60 days. I knew I was giving a tremendous deal and later after I had the orders under my belt and the 100% reviews, I was able to change my offer. I traded the labor in the beginning for a faster track to success.



I would entertain the communication. Don’t be annoyed. You have to use your gut to decide how you deal with the offers. Just respectfully and kindly decline if you are not interested. I would much rather be given an opportunity to make a deal, than to not have a conversation at all. It will take about 100 jobs to get your gig off the ground. This will probably get you about 60 reviews.

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genuineguidance Mentor

genuineguidance

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I think when she says “freebies” she means they want the ENTIRE gig for FREE with the promise of “good” feedback. I may be wrong, but, that is how I read it.



Obviously, if someone is asking you to do work for free (meaning they do not even pay for a $5 Gig) they cannot rate you! Now, if they are asking you to do this and that and throw in your first born as well, that to me is ridiculous. Your Gig should outline what you WILL do for $5. If you want to field messages asking you to do hours of work for what essentially will be under $4 your take, go ahead, but, you will just become burnt out and annoyed that you are selling yourself short. Set parameters for how much you will do and stick to it.



I have never had anyone write to me (not yet!) and ask me to do “free” stuff in order to get a “better” rating or even a rating at all. Everyone from day one that I have been here has paid for my service, and that is the way I like it and how it is supposed to work! $5 is a STEAL for what I provide to people here compared to the per minute rate I charge on a variety of other websites and those who buy, KNOW this! Now, I do over deliver in that I may throw in extra stuff they didn’t ask for - BUT that is up to ME - I decide if I am feeling benevolent that day to give them an extra without them paying for it. It’s those who demand I do this or that (meaning extra “stuff” they should be paying for via Extras!) that I become annoyed with, and they typically will get a cancellation from me. Luckily, this has only happened a couple of times in my two years here.



It doesn’t sound like you were going to play their game anyways, so good for you! Being that you are in a writing type of category, you

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genuineguidance Mentor

genuineguidance

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Odd! I got cut off, and kept getting a message that Fiverr had blocked me because I typed a phrase that they felt was an “attack” on their site? LOL So, the other half of my message has been cut off and lost… oh well!



I was going to say, you are probably getting these types of messages because you are in the writing category - many new writers here get abused horribly by people who set out to take advantage of them - lying to them saying, if you do this or that, we will order 100s of articles or whatever. It’s all a ploy to get you to do free work thinking that free work will get you a rating. It will not, they have to pay the $5 to rate. Period.



I think though with your Gig, you may be setting yourself up to become annoyed or frustrated: the way I read your Gig is as if you will do revisions until they are happy - just read the forums of other writers who have had this nightmare occur when they did not put parameters on what they would revise and how much. Also, your writing Gig to write someone’s college essay or even thesis (!) is well, academic fraud. It is one thing to tutor someone or edit what THEY wrote, but to do the assignment for them not only does nothing to help them when they get out in the real world, but, it’s just wrong. Anyways, I know this sort of fraud goes on all sites that have writers or those who claim to be tutors. I just wonder about these kids who have others do their work. When and if they do get a job, how on earth do they perform it if they really didn’t do the work to get there?



Anyways, doing stuff for free will not get you a rating, so don’t entertain that type of person. Unless, you have nothing better to do I guess! LOL 🙂



GG

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itsyourthing Contributor

itsyourthing

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audreyod said: Hi, I've just registered on fiverr and have already had three people asking me for freebies in exchange for good feedback! Is this the norm? Of course, I'm not going to participate with them but it's really annoying, any tips?

 

Thanks

Nope, it's not normal, but it happens. Unless you break the Fiverr terms, you can't do work for free, the gig is paid for in advance so the only way a buyer can give any feedback is if they pay in the first place. And there's nothing to say they would ever leave feedback at all. IMO, I'd report them. It's against ToS and as you say, it's just annoying.

 

@landongrace makes a reasonable point that you can potentially leverage the communication into some sort of sale, but that depends entirely on the exact messages you are receiving. The way you describe it, It seems like these aren't good opportunities for that, but as @genuineguidance says, if you're really bored (and there's nothing in the messages that will get you in trouble!) you can always ask for more details and see if there's any benefit to continuing.

 

Just a quick question, with your background, why are you selling generic writing gigs? That category is beyond saturated. You'd be better off crafting some gigs that focus on your unique strengths. :)

 

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landongrace Apprentice

landongrace

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Reply to @itsyourthing: you’re right about recognizing saturated markets. I suspended my voice over gig because the space was too crowded. Most of the jobs were $5 and I really like a gig to be about 25% $5 gigs and the rest larger orders. For voice overs and videos, it is hard to spend less than 15-30 minutes on a $5 gig.

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itsyourthing Contributor

itsyourthing

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Reply to @landongrace: without any real stats to back it up, I’d estimate about 70% of new gigs are created in “popular” categories and are gig re-hashes just because they’re popular. Not to sound like I’m waiting for fantasy land, but the entire Fiverr marketplace would improve if sellers would stick to what they can actually do, streamlined and looked at how to maximize their earnings.



Casting a broad net here just leads to clutter, confusion, more work and wasted time for everyone.

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itsyourthing Contributor

itsyourthing

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Reply to @sincere18:

sincere18 said: I think you are right, though part of the concept of Fiverr is that anyone can sell anything.
You might want to be careful saying things like that! Next thing will be gigs offering children, votes and heroin!

FOR ANYONE WHO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND SARCASM: There are rules about what can be bought and sold here. Please read the Fiverr Terms of Service. :)
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