Jump to content

New sellers underpricing themselves and everyone else


naim_keys

Recommended Posts

Hello, i am naim_keys, i am a professional session pianist on fiverr for 4months, i’ve been getting orders, and ranking well lately, and i’ve had my clients, that pay me enough and fair prices for my work, but then today i received a message from a buyer that found my gig, asking me if i could do “100 piano songs for 70$”, now the lowest budget per song is 5$, here he was asking for a budget as low as 0.7$ per song, which is in my opinion crazy, but then i thought how can someone under price our work here guys this way, and i got to thinking maybe he did order something similar before, so i said “the lowest is 5$ per song, 70$ would only get you around 15 songs, you can ask other sellers they will be declining this offer because the budget is very low for 100songs” i really believed this, but then he said “no i did a similar job another guy did me 50songs for 33$, and he isn’t online lately so i came to you”
Here’s the point, people working very hard and every underpricing themselves is very okay, we all did that in the begining of our journey on fiverr, but think about it, we never underpriced ourselves this much, this is like working on a daily basis for 10 days to make 100songs happen which is crazy frustrating to make and to deliver, and i know 70$ seems like a good price, but the work behind it is crazy, would you create 100logos for 70$ while top rated sellers create 1 logo for 200dollars or something, this is the same deal, my wish is to new sellers to try to be reasonnable with the underpricing thing, i know there are tons of youtube videos talking about pricing under the others for competition, but actually there’s no price under 5dollars, the lowest a client should ask for, and they know it, is 5dollars per one job, one song, one logo, one video or whatever, which would be around 500$ for the whole order, but he asked for only 70$, you’re clever guys, do the math!!
I wanna hear everyone’s thoughts on this, thank you!
Naim.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really think you need to look at this another way.

Someone comes to you and asks for songs for well under your price structure … giving you some story with no evidence in order to emotionally blackmail you into reducing your prices.

Say “no”, tell the buyer what 100 songs would cost with you, keep saying “no”, because, frankly, they’re never going to buy from you.

In the unlikely event they do place an order at a reasonable fee … well, they’ve given you fair warning right from the beginning of your interaction that they are going to be difficult and the order will probably end in a cancellation

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really think you need to look at this another way.

Someone comes to you and asks for songs for well under your price structure … giving you some story with no evidence in order to emotionally blackmail you into reducing your prices.

Say “no”, tell the buyer what 100 songs would cost with you, keep saying “no”, because, frankly, they’re never going to buy from you.

In the unlikely event they do place an order at a reasonable fee … well, they’ve given you fair warning right from the beginning of your interaction that they are going to be difficult and the order will probably end in a cancellation

My friend i definitely agree, i’ve had this so many times and i cancelled a few times, and i got fooled before, in the buyers requests section there are so many people requesting really difficult projects with 5$, why do they post them in the buyer request section ? because no one would actually agree to do them if they ask, only new sellers that are looking to rank up, there’s mutual guilt here, buyers that take advantage of new sellers, and new sellers that kill the market with accepting rediculous jobs with very low prices! that guy didn’t give me a story he straight asked for 100songs for 70$ and i thought it was just insane and low! I really hope fiverr would add a report section for scammers and these guys that take advantage of new sellers, so we can help clean the platform from this toxicity!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to offer $5 services when I first joined the platform and the way I made it work in my head (for the sake of my sanity, dignity, and self-respect) was I simplified the product I was selling to the point it’d take me 15 min (preferable) - 20 min (max) to complete.

This, in my opinion, is the only way to build your profile and not to go insane in the process. If you (the hypothetical you) sell, say, 20 hours of your time for $5, you don’t love yourself and I’m very sorry that you feel that way.

One of the strongest factors that keep your profile going long-term are the returning customers who love your work. They are the ones that’ll get you paid when you’re experiencing severe sales drops and who will stick around after you raise your prices repeatedly. They’re not the people you’ll get while desperately, constantly underselling yourself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to offer $5 services when I first joined the platform and the way I made it work in my head (for the sake of my sanity, dignity, and self-respect) was I simplified the product I was selling to the point it’d take me 15 min (preferable) - 20 min (max) to complete.

This, in my opinion, is the only way to build your profile and not to go insane in the process. If you (the hypothetical you) sell, say, 20 hours of your time for $5, you don’t love yourself and I’m very sorry that you feel that way.

One of the strongest factors that keep your profile going long-term are the returning customers who love your work. They are the ones that’ll get you paid when you’re experiencing severe sales drops and who will stick around after you raise your prices repeatedly. They’re not the people you’ll get while desperately, constantly underselling yourself.

Yeah we all did this my friend, the 5dollars for 20min jobs i personally did tons of it in the beginning, it’s not what i was talking about, it’s the insane underpricing that is going on, people doing 100songs for 70dollars, it means 1 song would cost 0.7$ per song, and 10 songs per day, i mean if you think i’m wrong please correct me but this isn’t underselling or underpricing, this is litteraly killing the market for us sellers with dignity, sanity and self respect!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, i am naim_keys, i am a professional session pianist on fiverr for 4months, i’ve been getting orders, and ranking well lately, and i’ve had my clients, that pay me enough and fair prices for my work, but then today i received a message from a buyer that found my gig, asking me if i could do “100 piano songs for 70$”, now the lowest budget per song is 5$, here he was asking for a budget as low as 0.7$ per song, which is in my opinion crazy, but then i thought how can someone under price our work here guys this way, and i got to thinking maybe he did order something similar before, so i said “the lowest is 5$ per song, 70$ would only get you around 15 songs, you can ask other sellers they will be declining this offer because the budget is very low for 100songs” i really believed this, but then he said “no i did a similar job another guy did me 50songs for 33$, and he isn’t online lately so i came to you”

Here’s the point, people working very hard and every underpricing themselves is very okay, we all did that in the begining of our journey on fiverr, but think about it, we never underpriced ourselves this much, this is like working on a daily basis for 10 days to make 100songs happen which is crazy frustrating to make and to deliver, and i know 70$ seems like a good price, but the work behind it is crazy, would you create 100logos for 70$ while top rated sellers create 1 logo for 200dollars or something, this is the same deal, my wish is to new sellers to try to be reasonnable with the underpricing thing, i know there are tons of youtube videos talking about pricing under the others for competition, but actually there’s no price under 5dollars, the lowest a client should ask for, and they know it, is 5dollars per one job, one song, one logo, one video or whatever, which would be around 500$ for the whole order, but he asked for only 70$, you’re clever guys, do the math!!

I wanna hear everyone’s thoughts on this, thank you!

Naim.

now the lowest budget per song is 5$, he

Because you’re already extremely underselling yourself and this attracts creeps like this who want to exploit that even more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

but it’s the common price, even in the first page of search !!

Common doesn’t mean right.

And it’s sad that you’re letting others determine your worth.

$5 for a minute of music is outrageously low. I’m so sad that you actually don’t see that. You’re not only undervaluing yourself. You’re inviting scammers and you don’t even know it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Common doesn’t mean right.

And it’s sad that you’re letting others determine your worth.

$5 for a minute of music is outrageously low. I’m so sad that you actually don’t see that. You’re not only undervaluing yourself. You’re inviting scammers and you don’t even know it.

Let me make something clear, since i reached level 1, i haven’t done anything for 5$, i’ve had orders for 30$ to 50$, mainly from custom offers, but imagine everyone from page 1 to page 25, have their gigs priced starting at 5$, it’s kind of unfair yeah, but still can’t change, we can’t ask 10000 sellers to change their prices, also fiverr says always in his ads " hire freelancers for 5$ ", it’s a huge problem, since the beginning!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let me make something clear, since i reached level 1, i haven’t done anything for 5$, i’ve had orders for 30$ to 50$, mainly from custom offers, but imagine everyone from page 1 to page 25, have their gigs priced starting at 5$, it’s kind of unfair yeah, but still can’t change, we can’t ask 10000 sellers to change their prices, also fiverr says always in his ads " hire freelancers for 5$ ", it’s a huge problem, since the beginning!

Let me make something clear, since i reached level 1, i haven’t done anything for 5$,

It doesn’t matter if you actually don’t fill orders that low. The fact that you offer it attracts scammers.

5$, it’s kind of unfair yeah, but still can’t change, we can’t ask 10000 sellers to change their prices, also fiverr says always in his ads " hi

I have dozens of thousands of competitors here. I don’t undercharge yet I still get business. It’s because I’ve strategically targeted a specific audience who understand value. And I’ve also set myself apart.

It’s a total myth that to survive in business you need to charge way less than all your competitors and it’s also a myth that low prices make sales more likely.

I think you need to do some reading.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let me make something clear, since i reached level 1, i haven’t done anything for 5$,

It doesn’t matter if you actually don’t fill orders that low. The fact that you offer it attracts scammers.

5$, it’s kind of unfair yeah, but still can’t change, we can’t ask 10000 sellers to change their prices, also fiverr says always in his ads " hi

I have dozens of thousands of competitors here. I don’t undercharge yet I still get business. It’s because I’ve strategically targeted a specific audience who understand value. And I’ve also set myself apart.

It’s a total myth that to survive in business you need to charge way less than all your competitors and it’s also a myth that low prices make sales more likely.

I think you need to do some reading.

it’s hard to apply all these, as a new seller, maybe you’ve been a new seller 5 or 6years ago, the platform has evolved and it grew insanely!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well yeah, a lot of job categories on fiverr have this problem too, even in logo design!

even in logo design

lol especially logo design

Again, to be honest. I’m sort of underselling myself right now. I’m making things work by balancing my time and effort, but still. On a piece by piece basis, it’s underselling. You’re sort of underselling yourself right now also.

The fact that someone is underselling themselves more than you do, to a grotesque degree, changes nothing about that fact. What you can do is to actively (and I do mean actively, by declining and canceling) cultivate a client base who are aware that they are getting a great deal for their money and who are respectful of you, your time, and your process.

As soon as you get that, those phantom new sellers who undersell, hurt the niche and all that stuff will become irrelevant to you and your business.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

even in logo design

lol especially logo design

Again, to be honest. I’m sort of underselling myself right now. I’m making things work by balancing my time and effort, but still. On a piece by piece basis, it’s underselling. You’re sort of underselling yourself right now also.

The fact that someone is underselling themselves more than you do, to a grotesque degree, changes nothing about that fact. What you can do is to actively (and I do mean actively, by declining and canceling) cultivate a client base who are aware that they are getting a great deal for their money and who are respectful of you, your time, and your process.

As soon as you get that, those phantom new sellers who undersell, hurt the niche and all that stuff will become irrelevant to you and your business.

to fiverr, 5$ isn’t underselling, but i agree, what do you think about changing our prices to higher prices, what would it do to us ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

to fiverr, 5$ isn’t underselling, but i agree, what do you think about changing our prices to higher prices, what would it do to us ?

I think the second you start getting thoughts about the prices being too low / questionable / unfair, that’s your cue to raise the prices and see how it goes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the second you start getting thoughts about the prices being too low / questionable / unfair, that’s your cue to raise the prices and see how it goes.

i tried before, it didn’t go too well, but idk maybe now that i have enough reviews it could work

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it’s hard to apply all these, as a new seller, maybe you’ve been a new seller 5 or 6years ago, the platform has evolved and it grew insanely!

maybe you’ve been a new seller 5 or 6years ago, the platform has evolved and it grew insanely

My history is irrelevant. People who understand value pay for it and sellers who fulfill low competition and high demand have a higher chance of getting sales.

Increases in the amount of sellers don’t change these principles of sales, especially sales of commissioned work vs products.

I don’t see the point in making a post about getting scammed if you’re going to debate me when I tell you how to avoid it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With these music bulk deals you’ll find that they won’t be original melodies, they just come from sample packs, loopmasters, cymatics, etc.

When I joined I Fivver I noticed a lot of my competition were using samples that can easily lead to copyright issues, and yes, they underprice because it costs them nothing to download, repackage, resell. Which is an issue the music community has in general to be honest, not just on Fiverr.

On the brightside, I can say I’ve had the chance to work with serious bulk buyers who pay the right price for each instrumental, and I can say I don’t mind reducing the price a little.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

to fiverr, 5$ isn’t underselling, but i agree, what do you think about changing our prices to higher prices, what would it do to us ?

to fiverr, 5$ isn’t underselling, but i agree, what do you think about changing our prices to higher prices, what would it do to us ?

I think Fiverr likes us to raise our prices. More 💵 dollars for us and more for them!

When I raised my minimum package to $10 I noticed my gigs were on earlier search pages and I got more orders. I will still do a $5 custom offer if I get a request to do so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

maybe you’ve been a new seller 5 or 6years ago, the platform has evolved and it grew insanely

My history is irrelevant. People who understand value pay for it and sellers who fulfill low competition and high demand have a higher chance of getting sales.

Increases in the amount of sellers don’t change these principles of sales, especially sales of commissioned work vs products.

I don’t see the point in making a post about getting scammed if you’re going to debate me when I tell you how to avoid it.

I didn’t get scammed i don’t take these deals, please don’t get me wrong i’m not debating, but i’m just saying, There’s no way you’d leave the new seller status if you refuse orders, at least in my case it’s how i left the new seller status, i did jobs for 5 dollars, and for 100 dollars, but since i got my level one that changed and i changed my mindset and raised my value.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...