Ok to give free advice?

[bitwiseauto]

Hi,

Is it against any of the rules to give potential buyers free advice which results in them not needing to buy a gig? There has been a few occasions where buyers will contact me asking to buy a gig for help completing a task that they had already started, and in some cases they were 90% complete and all it took me was to give them a 1 minute response to get them on track to completing the project themselves. Is this against the rules as Fiverr is potentially missing out on money they might have made if I made an offer to the buyer and they bought it?

I feel terrible taking money from someone who has put a lot of effort in to figuring something out for themselves and only got stuck on one small bit which only takes a minute of my time to help them.

I just want to add that this has sometimes resulted in that potential buyer coming back a few days later wanting to buy a gig for a different/bigger project, so that few minutes I lost giving them advice can sometimes convert in to a sale later on.

[marinapomorac]

Hi,

Is it against any of the rules to give potential buyers free advice which results in them not needing to buy a gig? There has been a few occasions where buyers will contact me asking to buy a gig for help completing a task that they had already started, and in some cases they were 90% complete and all it took me was to give them a 1 minute response to get them on track to completing the project themselves. Is this against the rules as Fiverr is potentially missing out on money they might have made if I made an offer to the buyer and they bought it?

I feel terrible taking money from someone who has put a lot of effort in to figuring something out for themselves and only got stuck on one small bit which only takes a minute of my time to help them.

I just want to add that this has sometimes resulted in that potential buyer coming back a few days later wanting to buy a gig for a different/bigger project, so that few minutes I lost giving them advice can sometimes convert in to a sale later on.

Is this against the rules

Why would you even think this?

It is normal human behavior to help others. If the task is not time consuming to the level you need compensation, why not do it?

By doing this you increase your level of good karma.

[bitwiseauto]

Is this against the rules

Why would you even think this?

It is normal human behavior to help others. If the task is not time consuming to the level you need compensation, why not do it?

By doing this you increase your level of good karma.

Thanks for the response. I totally agree and that is what I was thinking when helping out. I just see every now and then people doing things unknowingly which are against the Fiverr rules.

[english_voice]

I’ve often used phrases such as “I could do the job for you, although in fairness you will only need to do XYZ”. I don’t see this as giving away skills for free, but instead laying the foundation for a hopefully more valuable job in the future. The buyer sees you’re honest and hopefully remembers you.

I’ve had one such sale this month. It turned out to be a reasonably large order and the buyer made a point of saying they came back to me as they could see I was a good seller to work with.

Of course, others will say you should never give away your skills and that you should always charge a gig rate, even if it’s just a nominal fee.

Here’s a bad analogy! Think of it like going to the supermarket when you see those small cheese samples on a cocktail stick that you can try for free. You might try one and think, yeah this is tasty. Although I don’t need to buy cheese today - I’ll remember to get some of this brand next week.