Fiverr Community Forum

Just How Successful Are Sellers on Fiverr?

Your Fiverr Experience The Ranting Pot
#1

I’m genuinely curious. Mainly due to the fact that this forum in proliferated with new users who are still looking to make their first sale. (Nothing wrong with that. I’m a new seller trying to break into the industry myself.) And I don’t know, something about offering my skills for as low as $5 is quite discouraging. At that point, I might as well work for publications that only offer their writers $1 for every 100 words. That and it seems nigh impossible to differentiate yourself from the competition.

This post is more of a vent than anything, but I’m a bit annoyed by this whole idea. At this point, I might as well work in retail or the food industry.

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#2

I started on Fiverr in 2015. I was about to deactivate my account, but I started getting orders about three months in. Over the past five years, I haven’t been able to make enough to live on from Fiverr. I also make and sell crafts, and sell vintage items. I’ve done some other misc. jobs during that time to make some extra cash. I think I earned the most income from Fiverr in 2017. After that, too many writers ended up on Fiverr.

Income was still pretty good last year, but this year it’s taken a deep plunge. I now have income from real estate/legal, fortunately, otherwise I would have starved to death if I just relied on Fiverr. That being said, most of my time here has been good. About 99% of the buyers are fantastic, and now I can usually fend off the 1% of scammers from experience.

You should definitely work in retail, just to make some extra cash. It’s not like you’ll be there for your whole life, right? Earn some income while you figure out how to sell online. Have some multi-income streams.

Good Luck!

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#3

This is probably because the forum is a place to look for help and ask for suggestions. Your observation is correct, and that’s probably because new sellers need more assistance than established sellers; therefore, I believe a greater % of new sellers (than established sellers) post on the forum.

Tbh, new sellers often have to do a lot of work for peanuts because they would first need to establish themselves as “reputable” sellers by earning themselves a couple of excellent reviews. Once you have earned a couple of positive reviews, you can increase your gig’s price to whatever you think you deserve for your work.

I am sure buyers who appreciate the quality of your work will purchase from you even then as they will be content so long as they get quality work delivered. They will probably find it well worth it to invest in your services.

You do not have to continue working for peanuts throughout the rest of your Fiverr journey. I think you can start increasing your prices as soon as you have earned a couple of positive reviews. When I started selling on Fiverr, my gig was priced at $10 (for a whole lot of words!). I have since quadrupled my prices. You can, too!

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#4

Well, would you expect sellers who are constantly busy delivering orders to spend all day on the forum? :slight_smile:

You can do that for the first few orders, and for shorter articles. You can also come up with a few more gigs (different services), perhaps there’s something else that you can charge $5 for.

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#5

Fiverr is only a portion of my income. As a contractor, I am nervous when any single income stream is more than half of my income. It is just too risky. I am not looking for a full time job with one income stream. I prefer to have 5 or 6 streams of income coming from different places.

I offer $5, $10, $25 products on fiverr that all bring in $50 to $100 per hour of income. I have built the offers so that they accomplish the hourly income that I want. I didn’t focus on this until I read an article about another seller on Fiverr that accomplished this.

I believe each gig is 100 sales from getting off the ground. This will get you about 60 reviews. You can choose to charge a regular price and have this slowly happen over 6-12 months, or you can highly discount your services and allow this to happen over 1 or 2 months. It depends on if you are in a position to invest that time to build quicker.

After a season of discounts, you will be able to move your price. You won’t be stuck. Just make sure that there is a market for your product at the price you want to end up at. Look at other buyers, their offers, their reviews, how many reviews in the last 2 months, etc.

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#6

This is solid advice.
Working on Fiverr at first can be intimidating and discouraging, but just like with any business you have to work at it a lot.

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#7

Exactly my point of view as well… Thanks for this @studiona

#8

Yeah, that’s what I’m planning on doing. Though definitely not retail since I have minimal patience for disrespectful people. haha

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#9

From my perspective, it’s just a little infuriating since I’m used to settling for less for the sake of work and experience.Tis’ all. I just can’t imagine a life like this.

#10

To be fair, I only spend a half-hour tops on the forum; there’s too much to digest. :stuck_out_tongue:

#11

I see. That’s what I honestly hope to do one day: offer some side gigs and freelance work while I work for a larger publication. Right now I just really want the clout so I can build up my portfolio.

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#12

I’ve been on Fiverr for quite some time now, and even though I have raised my prices over the years, it’s impossible for me to only rely on Fiverr income.
Having that said, Fiverr does cover my hotel/airplane fee when I go traveling,so I think I am “successful” enough in that sense.

For now, I’d say keep your prices low, get some good ratings and repeat buyers, and once you feel like you’re ready, you can raise your prices. Sadly there are plenty of people here who shouldn’t be selling, but as long as you have the right skills and know how to reach out to people, you will get buyers.

Back then I used to do several hundred words of translation for $5 ( and trust me, I thought dang, why am I offering such a low price?) , but since then I have tripled my price, and it’s going perfectly fine :slight_smile:

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#13

Fiverr is one of the great places online for freelancers to sell their services. However, the level of success you’ll attain on Fiverr largely depends on how much commitment and quality service you will be willing to put in.

Yes, some sellers have reached their milestones (and still counting) here on fiverr, some are about to hit theirs. So, you too can make it happen.

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#14

Hey Meldawn. It sounds great that how enthusiastically you flourished.Kindly share some tips to grow on fiverr as a new seller.

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#15

Fiverr is what you make of it - you need to put the effort in to make your name - but after that, if your customer service is good, you’ll easily bring in a regular income - even if that isn’t enough to live on - but it’s a nice bonus in addition to your regular job.

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#16

I started on Fiverr in 2014 because I was looking for something to do in the evenings while my wife watched TV and it was a fun way to sharpen my own skills in something I already did for fun (I work in Banking, but have a lot of experience as a hiring manager). My first year I made something like $50 on the platform.

Year 2 I got a few more gigs, and ended up netting a couple hundred bucks after it was all said and done. Year 3 broke the $1,000 mark. Year 4 closer to $10 grand. This is my fifth year selling on Fiverr and things were going gangbusters for me until about a month ago. I made as much in the first six months as I did in the entire year last year.

Then, all of a sudden, my gig tanked and I’ve been stuck on the last page of search results in my category for over a month now. I went from 2-3 orders per day to ten total orders in July. I have no idea what happened except to guess that something changed in the search algorithm and my gig is no longer ranking.

I go into a lot more detail on my history as a seller, including revenue numbers and different experiments I’ve tried with pricing in a thread I started a few weeks ago. If you want to read more, it’s here: My Journey to (Hopefully) Top Rated Seller Status

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#17

I’m a successful seller. I’ve been here over six years. There are a lot of us.

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#18

I used to advise similar to the others on here regarding pricing low at the beginning but I now believe it’s better not to. Repeat clients are vital for succeeding here is what I have found more and more. They are the ones who will bring up your conversion rate when the algorithm drops you unexpectedly, they are the ones who keep a few orders coming in when everyone else is wailing about having no orders. Getting and keeping repeat clients is more challenging if you are going to be increasing prices incrementally.

So my suggestion would be to price fairly for your service, at your normal or just below normal rate. Bring your own clients to the platform however you see fit to do that. Have them be your first Fiverr clients and give you reviews. Entice them with the slightly discounted price from your usual. Building your own traction, to me, seems to help gain additional traction in rankings. I have no proof for this however, other than my own experience of it.

And before anyone complains about giving up 20% from your own existing clients, consider that it is better than taking orders from the cheapest, most irritating and demanding clients that seek out new $5 writers. That it is a cost of business or an investment in your future. Pro makes it all the more possible to set good, realistic prices and get sales here. If you price at $40-70, you are still 30-60% cheaper than Pro writers so there will be people who try you out at that kind of rate.

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#19

You are right. We should not depend on Fiverr. We should have other ways for income.

#20

:smiley: same here , 6 years and hopefully many more to come

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