Introducing myself and Business Ethics

[thomaslener]

Hi,

My mother tongue is German. I apologize for spelling mistakes.

I am Tom Lener, 34, from Austria. In 2017, my first Fiverr Gig (about Translation) was not successful. Last week I gave Fiverr a second try and started to work on my second Gig (about Logo Animation). This Gig got two orders and one promising inquiry the first week, with about 150 views (2.000 impressions). Not too bad for a new seller with little experience Working on Fiverr is so much fun and motivating; therefore I want to participate in the community.

The Topic for today is Business Ethics on Fiverr.
(I am aware of the fact that most of the sellers here on Fiverr and especially active Forum members work in compliance with Fiverr Terms of Service and respect them.)

While googling on topics how to improve Gig performance, I stumbled upon various sites explaining Review Exchange (groups of people arranging orders between each other giving 5-star reviews) and how to work with multiple accounts to push one’s Business (against Fiverr Terms of Service).

Further research lead to various blogs where people make fun of Fiverr: they ordered Logos from sellers with a 5-star rating, blogging about the bad quality of the products. They wonder why someone delivering poor quality has a 5-star rating. They blogged about stolen logo designs. About Fiverr Gig Previews using copyrighted material, claiming it would be their work (proofed with links to the original third party creators).

Fiverr is a great place to offer Freelance Services to customers all over the world. It is one of a kind. It is our (the sellers) responsibility to uphold the reputation of this platform.

As a first step I set a “Note on Business Ethics” in my FAQ:

The first sentence is important to me personally, but may not be for everyone. However, a clear commitment to work with fully licensed software and products and to not participate in Review Exchanges should be relevant to every seller on Fiverr, in my honest opinion.

Previews should not give the impression that it is one’s own work, even though the author is another. For example, I used Logos from freepik for my Logo Animation Preview. Freepik allows people to use some of their logos in exchange for an attribution. My plans are to design own Logos for the preview in the future, but for as long as I am not using my own logos, the attribution is visible in the first line of the Gig description.

To keep this platform as great and trustworthy as it is right now, it’s important that we (the sellers on Fiverr) respect these ethic norms and values further on.

Thanks for taking the time to read this

Have a nice day,
Tom

[eoinfinnegan]

You see, the issue is that those who would take part in the type of thing you are talking about will never read something more than 3 sentences long.
They see something that says “Make money quick”, read the simplistic and outdated advice given by the “guru” and then they try to do it. For example, some gurus tell people to post on the forum as this will help sales and we get lots of rubbish posts on a daily basis that are clearly following that advice.

Further research lead to various blogs where people make fun of Fiverr: they ordered Logos from sellers with a 5-star rating, blogging about the bad quality of the products.

I have seen plenty of those blogs about various categories.
eg. the ones criticizing logo design spent $5 on a logo and then act surprised when they received something rubbish.
Similarly with a translation blog I saw a while back; they hired various sellers offering translation services but of course they hired the cheapest they could find. So they hired people translating 1000-5000 words for $5 then dismiss the whole site because they got rubbish. Meanwhile, those translators charge $60-120/1000 words so their comparisons are worthless.

I would suggest you take no notice of such blogs, gurus and whatever else there are. Pay attention to your own services and make YOUR service the best it can be. Trying to rid Fiverr (or any platform) of poor quality and scamming sellers is not something sellers can really take on.
In the end, it is up to buyers to learn how to discern between good and bad sellers, and many of them do.

[thomaslener]

Hi @eoinfinnegan,

thank you for your reply. Your posting gives me a more relaxed view on the topic.

Pay attention to your own services and make YOUR service the best it can be.

Thank you, this is a very good advice