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I have a problem with "Buyer Request"


mtz1996

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Buyer requests are worthless most of the time. Don’t waste your time on them.

I’m a Pro, TRS seller (so, basically the best profile you can have on the platform in terms of trust / social proof) with over 100 5 star reviews. I write correct, straight to the point pitches. It stands to reason I should be well above average in converting BR’s, since my profile is much better than 99% of the other people applying. Over the years here I’ve gotten maybe 2 or 3 deals out of over 100 BR’s. If those are my numbers, most sellers are totally screwed lol.

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@visualstudios, I am agree. In some cases it will be hard to find good orders.

@mtz1996, although I am new there, I think that you can publish your GiG on forum. But if you want to find customers on buyer request, you can create a creative offer that will be attractive and very hard to refuse. I think I helped you. Good luck! 😀

Publishing your gig on the forum won’t help you get any orders.

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So, if you are Pro, from what will you recommend to start? It will be interesting to know.

The entire idea behind Fiverr, and what separates it from other freelance platforms (upwork is now starting to copy the model) is that you don’t apply to jobs or need to go after clients.

You set up a good profile, gigs, and portfolio, and wait for clients to contact you. That’s it. If you never get any orders or contacts, either improve what you’re offering, or maybe this isn’t the place for you. Maybe the market is saturated, maybe the competition is better, whatever.

If you are willing to keep messaging people, doing marketing, etc. you don’t need Fiverr - contact clients directly without any platform and you won’t have to pay commission since you’ll be doing all the work in terms of getting leads.

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Buyer requests are worthless most of the time. Don’t waste your time on them.

I’m a Pro, TRS seller (so, basically the best profile you can have on the platform in terms of trust / social proof) with over 100 5 star reviews. I write correct, straight to the point pitches. It stands to reason I should be well above average in converting BR’s, since my profile is much better than 99% of the other people applying. Over the years here I’ve gotten maybe 2 or 3 deals out of over 100 BR’s. If those are my numbers, most sellers are totally screwed lol.

I believe it all depends on how you present yourself and services, but also in which “Industry” you are operating. People in BR are looking most of the time for cheaper options than what can be found from search page’s top results.

It makes sense to me you do not get any fruitful answers from BR with such high profile, and probably by showing a little bit of over-confidence that might impress too much potential customers.

I personally got my second customer via Buyer Request.

The most important is to let them know that :

  • You fully understand their project
  • You have what it takes to get it done perfectly
  • You are someone they can count on anytime
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I believe it all depends on how you present yourself and services, but also in which “Industry” you are operating. People in BR are looking most of the time for cheaper options than what can be found from search page’s top results.

It makes sense to me you do not get any fruitful answers from BR with such high profile, and probably by showing a little bit of over-confidence that might impress too much potential customers.

I personally got my second customer via Buyer Request.

The most important is to let them know that :

  • You fully understand their project
  • You have what it takes to get it done perfectly
  • You are someone they can count on anytime

I understand that, but that’s precisely the problem with Buyer Requests. The budgets are totally unrealistic.

Sure, they won’t hire me because they want to pay $5 for a well edited video. But guess what? They’ll hire no one, then, because no one will do a good job at that price. The top page consists (usually) of the best you can get at competitive prices. Want to keep quality at a cheaper price? Not gonna happen, doesn’t exist. That’s my point.

Buyers that post on buyer’s requests are (again, usually) buyers no one should want. It’s a cesspool, a race to the bottom. They are either lazy and entitled to the point of not doing any research (“why would I waste my time to find a good seller, let me post this here and let the peasants fight over it”), or they have completely unrealistic expectations of finding the same quality they saw for $100 in the search page at a price point of $5. Both are terrible.

Btw, if anything budgets for requests should be higher, not lower. If a client contacts me, I don’t need to waste my time to pitch. If I’m pitching, I have to charge more to compensate me for the time it takes me to pitch. Replying to buyer requests is work, and it’s work that I’m doing with no guarantees of getting paid for it. It doesn’t make sense.

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I understand that, but that’s precisely the problem with Buyer Requests. The budgets are totally unrealistic.

Sure, they won’t hire me because they want to pay $5 for a well edited video. But guess what? They’ll hire no one, then, because no one will do a good job at that price. The top page consists (usually) of the best you can get at competitive prices. Want to keep quality at a cheaper price? Not gonna happen, doesn’t exist. That’s my point.

Buyers that post on buyer’s requests are (again, usually) buyers no one should want. It’s a cesspool, a race to the bottom. They are either lazy and entitled to the point of not doing any research (“why would I waste my time to find a good seller, let me post this here and let the peasants fight over it”), or they have completely unrealistic expectations of finding the same quality they saw for $100 in the search page at a price point of $5. Both are terrible.

Btw, if anything budgets for requests should be higher, not lower. If a client contacts me, I don’t need to waste my time to pitch. If I’m pitching, I have to charge more to compensate me for the time it takes me to pitch. Replying to buyer requests is work, and it’s work that I’m doing with no guarantees of getting paid for it. It doesn’t make sense.

That is a valid point.

But I am still convinced it is a great way for brand new sellers, with talent and desire to succeed, to get their first ever review that will help them launch their profile to the top. Taking action instead of waiting for success cannot be blamed for someone eager to achieve something.

I am a little bit surprised by your general consideration and semantic towards buyers using BR as a Fiverr Pro seller…

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I believe it all depends on how you present yourself and services, but also in which “Industry” you are operating. People in BR are looking most of the time for cheaper options than what can be found from search page’s top results.

It makes sense to me you do not get any fruitful answers from BR with such high profile, and probably by showing a little bit of over-confidence that might impress too much potential customers.

I personally got my second customer via Buyer Request.

The most important is to let them know that :

  • You fully understand their project
  • You have what it takes to get it done perfectly
  • You are someone they can count on anytime

I mean, just check this out.

1599011627_Screenshot2020-11-07at04_54_09.thumb.png.9d070bcc6987e9d8f769555fe68133b5.png
Screenshot 2020-11-07 at 04.54.092090×586 100 KB

Seriously. He’s very demanding, says each video is a lot of work. Demands constant contact, and that you be an expert in motion graphics, premiere and “elements”. Five bucks per video, fixed. But hey, if you’re lucky you can get 10 videos a month, so you’ll be making 40 bucks every month for what will turn into a full time job! Amazing!

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That is a valid point.

But I am still convinced it is a great way for brand new sellers, with talent and desire to succeed, to get their first ever review that will help them launch their profile to the top. Taking action instead of waiting for success cannot be blamed for someone eager to achieve something.

I am a little bit surprised by your general consideration and semantic towards buyers using BR as a Fiverr Pro seller…

I am a little bit surprised by your general consideration and semantic towards buyers using BR as a Fiverr Pro seller…

What’s surprising about it? And what do you mean by semantics?

The entire point of Fiverr is to get clients contacting you. That’s how it works. Buyer requests shouldn’t even exist, they are opposed to the platform’s philosophy. If you want to pitch to clients, why not use another platform with much better fees? Just go on subreddits for online work, contact people there, and pay no commission.

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I am a little bit surprised by your general consideration and semantic towards buyers using BR as a Fiverr Pro seller…

What’s surprising about it? And what do you mean by semantics?

The entire point of Fiverr is to get clients contacting you. That’s how it works. Buyer requests shouldn’t even exist, they are opposed to the platform’s philosophy. If you want to pitch to clients, why not use another platform with much better fees? Just go on subreddits for online work, contact people there, and pay no commission.

Of course there are deals that are unacceptable. But sometimes 1 review can be worth way more than any $ for starting on this platform. Especially if you are confident in your abilities into delivering an outstanding result.

Personally this is the path I chose with my client on BR, as she was a student she made clear that she will not be able to afford my regular rates. I still got paid fairly, and managed to get the precious sesame that contributed to bring visibility & trust into my profile.

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Of course there are deals that are unacceptable. But sometimes 1 review can be worth way more than any $ for starting on this platform. Especially if you are confident in your abilities into delivering an outstanding result.

Personally this is the path I chose with my client on BR, as she was a student she made clear that she will not be able to afford my regular rates. I still got paid fairly, and managed to get the precious sesame that contributed to bring visibility & trust into my profile.

I understand doing it for the first review, that may make sense. But even then, your time will be best served by improving profile, gigs and portfolio, thereby increasing the chances of getting contacted. Fiverr keeps rotating gigs in search, and gives a boost in visibility to new accounts. Everyone starts at 0 reviews, and a lot of people get their first reviews without resorting to buyer requests. If you put on a good show in your profile/gigs, clients will come.

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I understand doing it for the first review, that may make sense. But even then, your time will be best served by improving profile, gigs and portfolio, thereby increasing the chances of getting contacted. Fiverr keeps rotating gigs in search, and gives a boost in visibility to new accounts. Everyone starts at 0 reviews, and a lot of people get their first reviews without resorting to buyer requests. If you put on a good show in your profile/gigs, clients will come.

Cannot agree more on improving your Profile and general trustworthy level, it is on of the main key to success, way beyond getting desperately your first review.

I even wrote about it !

In this post I would like to share my experience and own opinion on a topic that I believe is crucial for anyone willing to succeed on this platform: building a Brand image around yourself. After regularly consulting the forum, I could see a recurrent kind of post being on the front page: “Why can I not make a first sell?” and that encouraged me into writing this post as a list of tips for anyone struggling to get any customer. When I started on Fiverr, I had the general sentiment that there we…
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Yes this is normal. Many people report ratios in the hundreds of BR submitted to one Sale. I am currently sitting at:

442:8 or 55:1

Only 50% of those completed jobs returned over $20 for several hours work when I live in a country with minimum casual wage for unskilled labor at $25ph.

BR are not a way to build a business, esp seeing most “buyers” are expecting huge amounts of often very ill-defined work for a fee that is less than the average slave would make (in the food & lodging they are given).

🙂

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It’s completely normal! And I have to disagree with @visualstudios when he says that buyers requests are worthless most of the time. While I partially agree with that thought, I also have to say that it is a very helpful section on this Platform. Actually it is the ONLY WAY for the seller to reach directly to the buyer. And this is why sellers should make good use of it and do their best to present themselves and their service in the best way possible.

Unfortunately, it is also very hard to get an order from here, because (depending on the category) one request receives hundres of offers in just few minutes. So you have to be able to make your offer stand out from the others, do not use a template and copy-paste it, don’t. I am not going to list all of the things you should note to make a good buyer request offer, because this forum is full of topics about it, you can go check it 😉

So, yes it’s hard to get an order from here. I have sent 200+ offers and about 10 have messaged me and got maybe 5 orders? But I think it’s still worth a try, specially if you’re new and have no other way to get a first order. Keep trying, Fiverr is no easy money. Work hard, no pain no gain!

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It’s completely normal! And I have to disagree with @visualstudios when he says that buyers requests are worthless most of the time. While I partially agree with that thought, I also have to say that it is a very helpful section on this Platform. Actually it is the ONLY WAY for the seller to reach directly to the buyer. And this is why sellers should make good use of it and do their best to present themselves and their service in the best way possible.

Unfortunately, it is also very hard to get an order from here, because (depending on the category) one request receives hundres of offers in just few minutes. So you have to be able to make your offer stand out from the others, do not use a template and copy-paste it, don’t. I am not going to list all of the things you should note to make a good buyer request offer, because this forum is full of topics about it, you can go check it 😉

So, yes it’s hard to get an order from here. I have sent 200+ offers and about 10 have messaged me and got maybe 5 orders? But I think it’s still worth a try, specially if you’re new and have no other way to get a first order. Keep trying, Fiverr is no easy money. Work hard, no pain no gain!

I have sent 200+ offers and about 10 have messaged me and got maybe 5 orders

So, 2,5% conversion rate. If you take 10 minutes to write a pitch (to get any replies at all you can’t just copy paste), you spent 33 hours writing buyer requests to get 5 orders. To be making $5 an hour, assuming each of those 5 orders takes you 0 time to complete, just clicking a button (which of course isn’t true), each gig must have been sold for at least $40 (taking into account the 20% fiverr gets). Now, this is assuming no work at all for each order. A more realistic estimate is probably double that.

So yeah, if you can get some orders for $100+ and if making $5 or $10 an hour is good for you, it may be worth it I guess.

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I have sent 200+ offers and about 10 have messaged me and got maybe 5 orders

So, 2,5% conversion rate. If you take 10 minutes to write a pitch (to get any replies at all you can’t just copy paste), you spent 33 hours writing buyer requests to get 5 orders. To be making $5 an hour, assuming each of those 5 orders takes you 0 time to complete, just clicking a button (which of course isn’t true), each gig must have been sold for at least $40 (taking into account the 20% fiverr gets). Now, this is assuming no work at all for each order. A more realistic estimate is probably double that.

So yeah, if you can get some orders for $100+ and if making $5 or $10 an hour is good for you, it may be worth it I guess.

Hi @visualstudios, I don’t know how long you’ve been here on Fiverr and how you started etc…, but I see you’re Fiverr Pro and I understand very well why the buyer request section seems worthless to you. If I were you, I would have the same opinion.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the privilege to be there where you are and so, yes, sometimes it requires someone more time and effort than what he/she actually earns from the order, but the beginnings are always the hardest. I have no idea how you started and what you did to get there, but I am sure that, since you are a Pro, it shouldn’t have been easy. So I think you should also consider other people’s opinions and situations before bringing them down saying that sending offers to buyer requests is useless. Or at least, give us suggestions and tips on how to be successful like you 😊

I am talking as a new seller and I have just shared what helped me get few orders. That is not the only source of orders, of course. But if I have to do extra efforts, I am willing to do that. Not everyone has it easy, but just because something’s hard it doesn’t mean it’s not worth it 🙂

Also, there are many sellers here on Fiverr who started by sending offers to buyer requests and they have now reached a point where they no longer have to. So, no, I don’t think it’s not worth a try.

But thanks for taking your precious time to calculate my conversion rate and responding to me!

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Hi @visualstudios, I don’t know how long you’ve been here on Fiverr and how you started etc…, but I see you’re Fiverr Pro and I understand very well why the buyer request section seems worthless to you. If I were you, I would have the same opinion.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the privilege to be there where you are and so, yes, sometimes it requires someone more time and effort than what he/she actually earns from the order, but the beginnings are always the hardest. I have no idea how you started and what you did to get there, but I am sure that, since you are a Pro, it shouldn’t have been easy. So I think you should also consider other people’s opinions and situations before bringing them down saying that sending offers to buyer requests is useless. Or at least, give us suggestions and tips on how to be successful like you 😊

I am talking as a new seller and I have just shared what helped me get few orders. That is not the only source of orders, of course. But if I have to do extra efforts, I am willing to do that. Not everyone has it easy, but just because something’s hard it doesn’t mean it’s not worth it 🙂

Also, there are many sellers here on Fiverr who started by sending offers to buyer requests and they have now reached a point where they no longer have to. So, no, I don’t think it’s not worth a try.

But thanks for taking your precious time to calculate my conversion rate and responding to me!

Unfortunately, not everyone has the privilege to be there where you are and so, yes, sometimes it requires someone more time and effort than what he/she actually earns from the order, but the beginnings are always the hardest.

Agreed. When I started I did a lot of work well under market rates, since I didn’t have the social proof to back my prices. The beginning is always hardest. I had the same opinion on buyer requests before I was Pro or TRS, btw. You just need to browse it for a bit and see the ridiculous requests with hundreds of people applying to arrive at that conclusion.

Or at least, give us suggestions and tips on how to be successful like you

I’ve been doing that for a while, you can check my post history. Focus on having great gigs, study the market, stand apart from the competition. Focus on portfolio, communication, presentation and your gigs instead of on buyer requests. There are no secret tips or tricks. Offer something more appealing than the competition, that’s all there is. What does that mean in practice? It means half the sellers will never get anywhere because they don’t have the skills, and they may as well go do something else. The platform is overcrowded with meksells. People don’t like to hear the truth, so they ignore it.

Can BR’s be good to get your first review? Sure. But once that’s done, it’s not really a productive use of your time. Buyers on BR’s are generally worse, more demanding, will leave worse reviews, etc. It’s a gamble even if you do get the deal, it’s not a good strategy. Not to mention the totally overcrowded market, every meksell is replying to buyer requests, and it just makes them that much worse. I see a ton of ridiculous buyer requests, like asking for 10 hours of highly skilled work for $5, and they have 10, 20, 30 people applying. It’s absurd. If people stopped doing that, buyer requests would improve substantially. The scammy buyers would eventually learn their lesson and stop posting crap there if they got no replies, thereby improving buyer requests as a whole. Then they may be worth it.

But no, the mantra seems to be “send 10 buyer request every day”. There aren’t even 10 buyer requests worth applying to per day. It’s insane. And yet half the posts on the forum seem to be about Buyer Requests, when that’s a niche feature that’s buried in a menu, that’s not how Fiverr is supposed to work.

The whole idea behind Fiverr is having clients contact you, not the other way around. If you want to apply to jobs, go to subreddits for online work (and pay 0% commission), or to other platforms with lower fees that are designed for that type of work. Fiverr is not designed for that.

The idea behind a buyer request is to ask for things you can’t find on gigs, not to just avoid looking for a seller. That’s not what’s happening. I say buyer requests are a bad idea for the same reason I say “sharing your gig on social media” is a bad idea - 99% of the people that do it, do it wrong. It screws up the market. So stop giving that advice to people over and over.

But thanks for taking your precious time to calculate my conversion rate and responding to me!

And I thank you for the snarky condescension.

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