Nothing but BottomFeeders in Buyers Requests

[hughmura]

I’ve been a voiceover artist on Fiverr for 2 1/2 years. About a year ago, the management at Fiverr encouraged us to increase our prices to approximate Industry Standards. Essentially, that’s $150 for 30 seconds of audio. Fiverr has done a great job marketing their brand as “Anything for $5”. In order to comply with Fiverr’s push to increase my prices (and their profit) in the VO category, I raised my price to a whopping $25 for 200 words, far below the “real world” industry-standard. I attracted a few good clients, willing to pay for quality VO, recognizing they were getting a huge bargain. And yet, every time I visit the Buyer’s Request section for VO, a daily habit, I find nothing but bottom feeders, looking for professional VO for $4 (that’s $5 minus Fiverr’s 20% cut). Way to go, Fiverr, your marketing and moniker, “Fiverr”, continues to attract global clients that think $5 is fair compensation.

[misscrystal]

Hello Hugh, I’ve never used BR since I’ve been here. I think that it might be a matter of choosing what kind of fees you want to charge, based on not only your ability and experience but also on the economics of the country you live in.

There may be voiceover artists who need reviews due to being new and are willing to do some voiceovers for $5 until they build up their reputations.

I think over time the perception of fiverr is changing. There are all price ranges now on fiverr and many higher priced sellers are mostly doing well as far as I can tell. These higher priced sellers don’t get bottom feeders as clients.

Your ability as a voiceover artist is extremely professional and experienced and you may find you can charge more than $20. A voiceover artist of your caliber might even stand out more if you charged $30 for example with some high priced extras.

[hughmura]

Hello Hugh, I’ve never used BR since I’ve been here. I think that it might be a matter of choosing what kind of fees you want to charge, based on not only your ability and experience but also on the economics of the country you live in.

There may be voiceover artists who need reviews due to being new and are willing to do some voiceovers for $5 until they build up their reputations.

I think over time the perception of fiverr is changing. There are all price ranges now on fiverr and many higher priced sellers are mostly doing well as far as I can tell. These higher priced sellers don’t get bottom feeders as clients.

Your ability as a voiceover artist is extremely professional and experienced and you may find you can charge more than $20. A voiceover artist of your caliber might even stand out more if you charged $30 for example with some high priced extras.

Hello misscrystal:

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. When I first started on Fiverr, Feb 2016, I did indeed sell my sevices for $5, and dealt with all kinds of Buyers with crazy demands. That was just part of building my social proof on this platform. As I gained experience, I reached out to a Fiverr Category Manager in the NYC office, who strongly recommended I raise my prices. Once I did that, the volume of orders dropped significantly, but the quality of Buyers improved immensely. I also created a $25 gig with extras, a $50 gig with extras, and a $100 gig with extras. That experiment is a bust. I am now reaching out to other more successful VO artists on Fiverr for analysis and feedback, and will make changes accordingly. Once again, thanks for your reply.

Hugh

[radiojay]

$5 clients are pushy too. Anyone else notice this?

[misscrystal]

I’ve had some very wonderful $5 clients. In fact most of them were.
You do get some who are unrealistic and show disrespect for that low price point. Some expect $500 worth of work and demand it for that price also.
It’s simply selling yourself short if you have something of value to offer. Being willing to do any sort of work for that price can attract the wrong kind of expectations.

[seafkir]

I’ve seen endless unrealistic requests for lunch money budgets.
In the animation business, a custom quality animation can take a long long time to produce.
Yet I see requests and get inquiries about long custom cartoon or explainer animations often for budgets of $5-$15. For a week or a month’s work.

It’s either individual buyers who have no idea about the process and how much work can go into it, or hoping for someone desperate enough to go through that hell. I don’t know many animators that would work a week for $5-15.

What I do is simply don’t engage. With buyers like that who don’t even care about realistic expectations about what their budget can do for them, you’ll most likely end up with a hell of endless revision requests regardless of the amount of work your put in.

Thankfully a lot of buyers are aware and understanding enough. Especially those in business.

[ydrawing]

That section is just bad… Everyone wants some top notch quality almost for FREE… All of them have lots of requirements. I guess it works for new seller, but still…

[sohizidesign]

The sad part it’s not only the Vo Category but all, here I attached an example of a guy looking for 3 designs
1 Poster + 2 Brochures for $5

Now should we blame him or Fiverr system. instead of them working on Buyer requests section they prefer to not to do so. It’s getting worse every time they make a move.

[radiojay]

I’ve seen endless unrealistic requests for lunch money budgets.

In the animation business, a custom quality animation can take a long long time to produce.

Yet I see requests and get inquiries about long custom cartoon or explainer animations often for budgets of $5-$15. For a week or a month’s work.

It’s either individual buyers who have no idea about the process and how much work can go into it, or hoping for someone desperate enough to go through that hell. I don’t know many animators that would work a week for $5-15.

What I do is simply don’t engage. With buyers like that who don’t even care about realistic expectations about what their budget can do for them, you’ll most likely end up with a hell of endless revision requests regardless of the amount of work your put in.

Thankfully a lot of buyers are aware and understanding enough. Especially those in business.

It’s either individual buyers who have no idea about the process and how much work can go into it, or hoping for someone desperate enough to go through that hell

AGREED! I think that is the realization I am going thru: Pick 2 of the follow, and only two:

1. Quality
2. Economic Price
3. Speed

Which of the three did you not choose?

[seafkir]

It’s either individual buyers who have no idea about the process and how much work can go into it, or hoping for someone desperate enough to go through that hell

AGREED! I think that is the realization I am going thru: Pick 2 of the follow, and only two:

1. Quality
2. Economic Price
3. Speed

Which of the three did you not choose?

Well since the common saying is “You can either have it good or have it fast”

Good and + = Time & Resources

Fast = Rushed job due to not enough resources to dedicate the time.

These are simple principles of any craft.

I am thankful and fortunate to meet the clients who understand the business. And those are worth the wait.

The “lean entrepreneur” has to understand the compromises that can occur with a “lean budget” and adjust their expectations accordingly.

Thankfully in my field, while it is common to see ridiculous buyers’ requests wanting the moon and the universe for $5-$10. It is also frequent (tho not as much) to see requests with budgets of $750-$3000. It all depends if the client has experience and knowledge about the field and wants quality or is just out of touch with reality.

It’s a freemarket and the key is choice. None of us have to engage such requests.

Fiverr’s “Custom order” option is a godsend.