New and Kind of Frustrated

[nikkiyager]

Good morning, I’m new to Fiverr and I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or if this is normal, but I am trying to make some extra income to help support bills. I am advertising on my social media networks, using tags and I believe my prices are competitive to what is available out there, yet now bites. The few people who have reached out to me were purely scams trying to get me to reach out to them for interviews on Google Hangouts.

Are there any recommendations to promote yourself and to get those first few reviews to help gain traction? I feel like it’s the “you need the experience to work, but you need a job to gain experience” type things.

[akosijc]

Don’t stop losing yourself until you got good response and legit client.You can make it i am surely.Trust yourself and how capable you are.

[mndn_video]

Hi Nikki,

I can only take myself as an ‘‘example’’, but I have come across your profile and your gigs and I think there are some ways you can improve on.

First, you always have to post what you did in the past. I personally had to do stuff to include in my portfolio without any pay but just to be able to reach more people.

‘‘I Will Beta Read Up To 2500 Words For You’’ : Post of video of yourself reading, or at least a recording. Buyers buy what you can do, if they just see you with a book, you won’t have any chance.
‘‘I Will Accurately Perform Data Entry For You’’ : Post some work that you have done before, why not a dropbox link of different Excel spreadsheets you have worked on, buyers need to see your work, that’s the most important.

Having many gigs is great and all, but you’d rather do 1 gig very well rather than 10 gigs where you don’t have any review on yet. Specialize, specialize, specialize!

Finally, and it is just a personal take, every word you write is important. Is saying that you live with your husband and pets important? Always think that buyers don’t have time to read, so when they do, they want the most important, not the gibberish. Say what you can do and where you are proficient at, delete the rest.

Cheers!

[nikkiyager]

Hi Nikki,

I can only take myself as an ‘‘example’’, but I have come across your profile and your gigs and I think there are some ways you can improve on.

First, you always have to post what you did in the past. I personally had to do stuff to include in my portfolio without any pay but just to be able to reach more people.

‘‘I Will Beta Read Up To 2500 Words For You’’ : Post of video of yourself reading, or at least a recording. Buyers buy what you can do, if they just see you with a book, you won’t have any chance.

‘‘I Will Accurately Perform Data Entry For You’’ : Post some work that you have done before, why not a dropbox link of different Excel spreadsheets you have worked on, buyers need to see your work, that’s the most important.

Having many gigs is great and all, but you’d rather do 1 gig very well rather than 10 gigs where you don’t have any review on yet. Specialize, specialize, specialize!

Finally, and it is just a personal take, every word you write is important. Is saying that you live with your husband and pets important? Always think that buyers don’t have time to read, so when they do, they want the most important, not the gibberish. Say what you can do and where you are proficient at, delete the rest.

Cheers!

Hmm, good to know. As for the beta reading I don’t know if a video of me reading will be much different then a picture of me with a book, though I can change it to match the other items. I have multiple gigs because I’m not sure where the need is at, and I’m willing to do any of those gigs, honestly.

As for data entry, I have 10 years of experience, but I don’t have any work to show for it because it is with patient information so it is all guarded by HIPAA. I could create something that “shows” my abilities, but it wouldn’t be something I’ve worked on in the past.

I will update my bio, you make a fair point. Personally, I like to know the person I’m buying from, but I guess that’s unique in this world of over saturation.

[nikkiyager]

Hi Nikki,

I can only take myself as an ‘‘example’’, but I have come across your profile and your gigs and I think there are some ways you can improve on.

First, you always have to post what you did in the past. I personally had to do stuff to include in my portfolio without any pay but just to be able to reach more people.

‘‘I Will Beta Read Up To 2500 Words For You’’ : Post of video of yourself reading, or at least a recording. Buyers buy what you can do, if they just see you with a book, you won’t have any chance.

‘‘I Will Accurately Perform Data Entry For You’’ : Post some work that you have done before, why not a dropbox link of different Excel spreadsheets you have worked on, buyers need to see your work, that’s the most important.

Having many gigs is great and all, but you’d rather do 1 gig very well rather than 10 gigs where you don’t have any review on yet. Specialize, specialize, specialize!

Finally, and it is just a personal take, every word you write is important. Is saying that you live with your husband and pets important? Always think that buyers don’t have time to read, so when they do, they want the most important, not the gibberish. Say what you can do and where you are proficient at, delete the rest.

Cheers!

Does this sound better for the bio:

I am a college graduate with 10+ years of work experience in the call center world, including data entry, Excel, data analytics, quality assurance, and training. Additionally, I was an owner of a publishing company for science fiction and fantasy authors for a year and run a Facebook group with over 1,700 members.

[mndn_video]

Does this sound better for the bio:

I am a college graduate with 10+ years of work experience in the call center world, including data entry, Excel, data analytics, quality assurance, and training. Additionally, I was an owner of a publishing company for science fiction and fantasy authors for a year and run a Facebook group with over 1,700 members.

Yes this one is spot on!

[humanissocial]

I recommend you research lead generation on social media. It involves much more than using certain hashtags. Promotion is only 1/10th of what you need to be doing on social to get leads there.

[nikkiyager]

I recommend you research lead generation on social media. It involves much more than using certain hashtags. Promotion is only 1/10th of what you need to be doing on social to get leads there.

Good idea. Thank you for the suggestion

[techengine742]

Hi there. I am a new seller too here like you but I am constantly searching on improving my gig description. I went through some of the gigs.

I noticed the follow.

1. Your profile description is good, far better than mine.

2. At first glance, your gigs look like multiple-choice questions(just joking). I mean you can change the gig images so that they look different.

3. Your gig descriptions are too short. I would suggest you work on your gig description. As others have suggested. Maybe add examples of your work where ever possible.

4. Keep on bidding on buyers request and delivering a professional pitch such that the buyers think you are the best pro for the job.

Thank you.

Note: I ain’t a pro gig seller, I only have 8 reviews, 10 completed sales(I created Fiverr account 6 months ago, but started getting order only 2-2.5 months ago and soon will be a level 1 seller, hope so 😉 may be on 15th of this month implementing the same points as above).

[sohagalamin]

Good luck to you I wish you a speedy improvement.

[miiila]

Hi Nikki and welcome to the forum!

Don’t be frustrated, good things (can) take time.

On a first glance, your gig “I will be your author virtual assistant” caught my eye. It seems to be a classical VA gig, going by the short and long gig descriptions, the “author” in the gig title looks confusing, or is that just me? If you do both, author and VA, I’d make dedicated gigs for both.

And as was already mentioned, your gig descriptions are very short. Make the most of them, give potential customers more information, put disclaimers if needed, integrate any keywords people would search your service with in your “About this gig”.

You only use 1 gig image but you can add 3, also a couple PDFs. If possible, put something up that shows what you can do for your customers, if you don’t have actual samples to show, as long as you don’t have reviews at least which speak for themselves, do some mock-ups. Like, even if you illustrate your “give you my opinion” in your beta reader gig with a PDF of a file with your opinion of an imaginary story or book, that’s better than nothing. People love to see and not just read what you can do for them. Visual beings, we are. <(°.°)>

🍀

[nikkiyager]

Thank you guy for the advice. I have updated some of my gigs to include some of what was suggested, including increasing what is offered for the price to be more competitive with the market. I noticed that I was offering less for the same price as others, and while ultimately I would like to be at those prices I know it will be easier to get people to buy if I offer more for less at the beginning.

[hasantashlim]

Thank you guy for the advice. I have updated some of my gigs to include some of what was suggested, including increasing what is offered for the price to be more competitive with the market. I noticed that I was offering less for the same price as others, and while ultimately I would like to be at those prices I know it will be easier to get people to buy if I offer more for less at the beginning.

Sounds good! Best of luck!

[coerdelion]

Hi - and welcome

As well as all the other suggestions, I’d add these:

Put “pivot tables” in your excel gig - people seem to be awfully impressed with those, although no one I know ever uses them.

If you look at your competitors, note the list of things they do in the gig title - you should do the same - list what a VA does in the gig title.

Make sure you use tags - there’s some debate about whether or not they’re working right now, but use them anyway.

Aim your gigs at specific target markets - I have no idea what a beta reader does, fwiw, but I think, maybe, someone who was doing NaNoRiMo this year might want one. Someone they didn’t know.

Again - use your description to outline fully what you do in each gig. Draft it in Word (or whatever), tidy it up in a text file (that’s the closest to how it displays on your profile) and then copy/paste to your gig.

Good luck.

[dinacolada]

Hi Nikki,

Gaining traction takes time. So don’t beat yourself up over not getting lots of jobs yet. I’ve got some quick tips for you to get more attention.

First, I did some homework. I typed in beta read, beta reader, and beta reading into the Fiverr search bar. There are 558 services available for this category. Wow, that’s a lot of listings. That’s what you’ve got to go up against.

Now think about what you love to read. Is it a romance? Sci-fi? Fantasy? Pick your fave.

Here’s a list of other searched terms and YOUR competition in the title.

Beta reader short story— 170 listings
Beta read romance— 148 listings.
beta reader short manuscripts— 52 listings
Beta read children’s book— only has 37 listings!

Niching down to your specialty will help. Because . . .

This means LESS competition for you!

You could also add a sample of feedback you’ve given someone else from your beta reading experience. You could also post a review of a book on amazon to highlight your mad beta-reading skills.

Here’s something you could write in your title description: I will be your careful romance beta reader.

For your “About this gig section” You can keep your sentences short and be specific about what you offer. Also, let the prospect know what makes you the best choice like this . . .

I’ve read 33 romance novels in the past year and understand the subtle nuances of character development that your reader craves. I’ll also give you detailed feedback about the struggle of the hero’s journey in your book (and if it’s up to par… or not!). And that’s not all, I’ll also give you detailed suggestions on the organization of your story and as a bonus— the how to add drama to the relationship of your characters.

Feel free to steal anything I’ve written and let me know if you make any changes and how it goes!

Warmly,

Dina Colada

aka Copywriting Chick