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[solved] What's your experience with asking "street prices"?


viennadesign

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With my local customers i ask the usual rate of 75-80€ per hour for Web Design and Print Design. Of course at that rate i will be well above most offers here on Fiverr. But i have seen Designers ask these rates here on Fiverr and get reviews.

So i wanted to know what your experience is with that?
(specially considering that you don’t “own” your customers, so the 20% is not just on the fist job but on all jobs).

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Check out what others are charging for their services. It makes sense to do that, but also to remember you’re starting from scratch on here - you can charge more as you gain a better reputation on the site.

I’m sorry but that doesn’t really answer or address my question. I wasn’t asking what most people do, i was asking what experience people have with charging for quality work instead of a quick 1$ stock template design job.

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I’m sorry but that doesn’t really answer or address my question. I wasn’t asking what most people do, i was asking what experience people have with charging for quality work instead of a quick 1$ stock template design job.

Check out what’s being offered by Pro sellers then - that’s the opposite end of the spectrum to your template design example. 🙂

You can find out more about the Pro program on the forum by doing a search. ☀️

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I have been here for five years with excellent credentials, and still don’t charge “street prices” most of the time.

My prices would be at least triple what they are here.

That’s probably true for most good sellers.

so what is your incentive for being here, instead of finding your own customers, if they pay triple?

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I charge 15% more here than my “street prices” (i.e. if someone came to me direct). I don’t charge 20% extra (the commission) as I typically have to pay 3% in payment fees if they come direct, which Fiverr does not charge me.

I’m pretty much consistently busy (mind, I am a Pro seller) with both my non-Fiverr and Fiverr work (I estimate Fiverr will probably provide around a third of my work next year). My effective hourly rate for all work was $140 an hour this year, and I expect to raise that to around $160 an hour next year, both on and off Fiverr.

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so what is your incentive for being here, instead of finding your own customers, if they pay triple?

Its just another customer base

For me Illustration is my passion and so getting paid for something I would probably do anyway is great

I will never provide my offline design and branding services here because of the low price expectations. My branding and graphic design charges outside fiver range between £500 - £1500

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so what is your incentive for being here, instead of finding your own customers, if they pay triple?

so what is your incentive for being here, instead of finding your own customers, if they pay triple?

It’s kind of obvious isn’t it? I have a steady stream of clients every day from fiverr and wouldn’t have it otherwise.

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Because Fiverr is an online platform showcasing millions of services, unless you have a great portfolio and review base you can’t really charge a lot compared to when a local hires you. Additionally, having solid reviews won’t do anything if people aren’t visiting your profile in the first place.

The beauty of Fiverr: Fiverr enables you to reach out to clients whom you’d never get a chance to work with.

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Because Fiverr is an online platform showcasing millions of services, unless you have a great portfolio and review base you can’t really charge a lot compared to when a local hires you. Additionally, having solid reviews won’t do anything if people aren’t visiting your profile in the first place.

The beauty of Fiverr: Fiverr enables you to reach out to clients whom you’d never get a chance to work with.

Well put @thecreativeguys! 🙂

OT:

Summary

Happy anniversary! 💜

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these are all interesting points. I think this thread is kind of going into the wrong direction. Which is my fault to begin with. I wasn’t trying to start an argument about what price is right. I was more interested in the possibility of setting up a profile for my “street price” here on Fiverr and asking for the experience of people who have done the same. @paulmaplesden send me some amazing links with insights on how to do that on Fiverr.

Personally, if i had the choice of loosing 75% of my income here or spending 75% of my income on Facebook ads to generate Leads that i own, i would rather choose the Facebook option. But, apparently, i don’t have to choose, because i can set up a full price profile here and run my normal business. The test of time will show if Fiverr can actually deliver me some customers that are willing to pay full price. If not it was free anyways

So, long story short: i am really interested in full price experiences and knowledge exchange about that 🙂

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these are all interesting points. I think this thread is kind of going into the wrong direction. Which is my fault to begin with. I wasn’t trying to start an argument about what price is right. I was more interested in the possibility of setting up a profile for my “street price” here on Fiverr and asking for the experience of people who have done the same. @paulmaplesden send me some amazing links with insights on how to do that on Fiverr.

Personally, if i had the choice of loosing 75% of my income here or spending 75% of my income on Facebook ads to generate Leads that i own, i would rather choose the Facebook option. But, apparently, i don’t have to choose, because i can set up a full price profile here and run my normal business. The test of time will show if Fiverr can actually deliver me some customers that are willing to pay full price. If not it was free anyways

So, long story short: i am really interested in full price experiences and knowledge exchange about that 🙂

@paulmaplesden sent me some amazing links with insights on how to do that on Fiverr.

Here are the links I shared:

https://forum.fiverr.com/t/ten-tips-to-optimize-your-gigs-create-trust-and-get-sales

https://forum.fiverr.com/t/practical-ways-to-optimize-the-way-you-work-as-a-freelancer

https://forum.fiverr.com/t/going-pro-best-practices-for-becoming-a-fiverr-pro-seller-blog-post

https://forum.fiverr.com/t/practical-ways-to-optimize-the-way-you-work-as-a-freelancer

Note to mods, there are a couple of non-Fiverr links below - I hope that’s OK, but if not, feel free to snip them.

Mod Note: ✂️

productivity-automation-hacks.jpg.603de9ee90c5b5f06e9ffef1f9a90e99.jpg

1*M3VBu7hKXK7NJ44JR8kaDw.png.12b76f99a5f2a629fed405a89172fb80.png

1*JbeN_Y-6mldkDlcPe0VXpg.thumb.png.28765f2b03498b9a35f534bd1fd87f53.png

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these are all interesting points. I think this thread is kind of going into the wrong direction. Which is my fault to begin with. I wasn’t trying to start an argument about what price is right. I was more interested in the possibility of setting up a profile for my “street price” here on Fiverr and asking for the experience of people who have done the same. @paulmaplesden send me some amazing links with insights on how to do that on Fiverr.

Personally, if i had the choice of loosing 75% of my income here or spending 75% of my income on Facebook ads to generate Leads that i own, i would rather choose the Facebook option. But, apparently, i don’t have to choose, because i can set up a full price profile here and run my normal business. The test of time will show if Fiverr can actually deliver me some customers that are willing to pay full price. If not it was free anyways

So, long story short: i am really interested in full price experiences and knowledge exchange about that 🙂

The thing about Fiverr is that it is not about “Fiverr delivering clients who are willing to pay full price”, it is about being able to meet the requirements and provide the value that justifies your price. Starting off expecting to make sales at a high price point will likely lead to disappointment as most Fiverr buyers seem to prefer to see some kind of social proof about your capabilities. You should count your first 50 orders as your initiation or interview and not as money makers.

Once you have established yourself somewhat, it really is up to you what price you charge. The type of buyer you attract will largely be dictated to by that. There are definitely buyers who are prepared the going rate for experts in their field but you need to establish yourself as that first. After all, if on Fiverr I declared that I was a fully qualified psychiatrist with 20 years experience, that is not going to be disputed and so I could offer gigs based on that expertise. However, after 10 x 1-star reviews it is unlikely that I would get more orders as clearly something is wrong there.

Similarly, you can claim to be a high quality designer but without some social proof that you can actually manage to deliver on that claim then getting top dollar for that service will be more difficult.

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these are all interesting points. I think this thread is kind of going into the wrong direction. Which is my fault to begin with. I wasn’t trying to start an argument about what price is right. I was more interested in the possibility of setting up a profile for my “street price” here on Fiverr and asking for the experience of people who have done the same. @paulmaplesden send me some amazing links with insights on how to do that on Fiverr.

Personally, if i had the choice of loosing 75% of my income here or spending 75% of my income on Facebook ads to generate Leads that i own, i would rather choose the Facebook option. But, apparently, i don’t have to choose, because i can set up a full price profile here and run my normal business. The test of time will show if Fiverr can actually deliver me some customers that are willing to pay full price. If not it was free anyways

So, long story short: i am really interested in full price experiences and knowledge exchange about that 🙂

i am really interested in full price experiences and knowledge exchange about that

I see you are an experienced designer. You have gigs starting at $5.

So your price is the same as the designer I use who is located in Sri Lanka.

He has over 13,000 5 star reviews and only about two negative ones.

He’s amazing. This is one good reason that a new designer or a new seller in any category can’t come to fiverr and charge street prices. There is a lot of very good, inexpensive, competition.

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Two questions stand out in my mind. First, how much better are you than the designer selling his work for $5-15. Second, what tangible benefits do I, Joe Everyman, receive thanks to your additional talents?

The hardest part about getting street value for your work is convincing people you’re worth the extra cash. Like Miss Crystal said, there are some pretty good folks out there turning out some pretty good work for peanuts.

The best you can do is get the social proof eoin mentioned, showcase some great work in your portfolio, demonstrate yourself as an expert in your gig description, and then wait. Wait for the few buyers to come along who are serious about succeeding and are happy to pay for the best. There are a few of those around.

Alternatively, you could apply for the Pro tag, which would put you in a different category to other sellers should you get it.

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The thing about Fiverr is that it is not about “Fiverr delivering clients who are willing to pay full price”, it is about being able to meet the requirements and provide the value that justifies your price. Starting off expecting to make sales at a high price point will likely lead to disappointment as most Fiverr buyers seem to prefer to see some kind of social proof about your capabilities. You should count your first 50 orders as your initiation or interview and not as money makers.

Once you have established yourself somewhat, it really is up to you what price you charge. The type of buyer you attract will largely be dictated to by that. There are definitely buyers who are prepared the going rate for experts in their field but you need to establish yourself as that first. After all, if on Fiverr I declared that I was a fully qualified psychiatrist with 20 years experience, that is not going to be disputed and so I could offer gigs based on that expertise. However, after 10 x 1-star reviews it is unlikely that I would get more orders as clearly something is wrong there.

Similarly, you can claim to be a high quality designer but without some social proof that you can actually manage to deliver on that claim then getting top dollar for that service will be more difficult.

You should count your first 50 orders as your initiation

At the moment i am trying to figure out this market and see if it fits my needs. I think it’s a good starting point to analyse a market before you enter it. At the moment i see two opportunities: a) offering highly qualified services for full price (it doesn’t matter if i get way less contracts, because i get paid way more per contract), think about it as the “Ferrari” model - even if you only sell one car per year, you already made a bigger cut that someone how sold 20 regular cars. Or b) offering pre-composed gigs that deliver highly usable products with little workforce. Think about it as the “Mc Donalds” model. Even with a very low cut, the little time and high amount evens out the cut. An example for that would be an expert training that is pre-recorded. Giving me a product that i can sell many times while producing it only once.

The interesting thing about Fiverr is that i can test market strategies for free, see if they stick, and if they do i can market it on my own and build my own customer base via ads. (Not using any of the Fiverr customers of course)

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You should count your first 50 orders as your initiation

At the moment i am trying to figure out this market and see if it fits my needs. I think it’s a good starting point to analyse a market before you enter it. At the moment i see two opportunities: a) offering highly qualified services for full price (it doesn’t matter if i get way less contracts, because i get paid way more per contract), think about it as the “Ferrari” model - even if you only sell one car per year, you already made a bigger cut that someone how sold 20 regular cars. Or b) offering pre-composed gigs that deliver highly usable products with little workforce. Think about it as the “Mc Donalds” model. Even with a very low cut, the little time and high amount evens out the cut. An example for that would be an expert training that is pre-recorded. Giving me a product that i can sell many times while producing it only once.

The interesting thing about Fiverr is that i can test market strategies for free, see if they stick, and if they do i can market it on my own and build my own customer base via ads. (Not using any of the Fiverr customers of course)

i think i’ll bookmark your page and see how it goes 😉

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Two questions stand out in my mind. First, how much better are you than the designer selling his work for $5-15. Second, what tangible benefits do I, Joe Everyman, receive thanks to your additional talents?

The hardest part about getting street value for your work is convincing people you’re worth the extra cash. Like Miss Crystal said, there are some pretty good folks out there turning out some pretty good work for peanuts.

The best you can do is get the social proof eoin mentioned, showcase some great work in your portfolio, demonstrate yourself as an expert in your gig description, and then wait. Wait for the few buyers to come along who are serious about succeeding and are happy to pay for the best. There are a few of those around.

Alternatively, you could apply for the Pro tag, which would put you in a different category to other sellers should you get it.

Two questions stand out in my mind. First, how much better are you than the designer selling his work for $5-15. Second, what tangible benefits do I, Joe Everyman, receive thanks to your additional talents?

The hardest part about getting street value for your work is convincing people you’re worth the extra cash.

To answer both of these:

a) what is the difference to a 5$ gig?

Simple: How much time would any person spend for 5$ on any work? Not really much, unless they live with their parents and have no own bills to pay. Because from 5$ you get 4$ after Fiver took their cut and 2$ after you payed your taxes, insurances, social benefits and everything else that is required by the government. So really we are talking about is 2$

Now for 150$ i can guarantee that i can put my 20 years of art & design training to good use and work 2 full hours on that project. Now, don’t just think about 2 hours. Think about the difference of what a fastfood cook and a highly trained cook can do with 2 hours. If all you need is a fast hotdog, go ahead and buy that for 1$. But, if you are out with a super important customer for a really big contract, you probably want to impress. Well, advertisement is that really really important dinner - because you invite the eyes of your customers to dine on your offerings. Do you want to look like a 1$ hotdog or like a 150$ steak?

That is the differnce

b) How to convincing people you’re worth the extra cash?

Easy: You say “i cost 80$ an hour, here is what my work looks like” - 85-95% will say “Thank’s, but no thanks” And that is totally ok. Because they are not looking for my product. And i understand and respect that. BUT if you go to your customer and say “i work for 1$ an hour” - that customer will think two things: a) you can’t be that good, because why would you ask for so little. and b) i will never pay you more, because you yourself don’t think you are worth more.

Here is a simple example to think about: If you are hungry and you find a nice restaurant and look at their menu and it says “Steak 25$” - what would you think? Would you think they are trying to scam you? Or would you think, well it has to be good meat and they seem to have pride in their work. Or would you think “i know what good steak meat costs on the market - so, if i would pay any less, the meat could not be good steak meat.” - I totally respect people who eat 5$ steak at a restaurant. Good for them. The thing is: i can’t deliver my meat at that price. 😉

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i think i’ll bookmark your page and see how it goes 😉

i think i’ll bookmark your page and see how it goes 😉

it’s a test account. I’m not even sure i will stay here. Fiverr isn’t the only place on the net and based on what strategy i go with i will probably also change my account name towards what i want to market. but thank you 🙂

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I think you can get clients here, so I hope you do stick around. If you change your name, check back into the forum again and say hi!

You’re luckier than most, really, because you have clients outside of Fiverr. That allows you to play the waiting game. You can position yourself as an expert and then wait for those knowledgeable customers to come across your gig, which they eventually will.

I think we’re all with you on the whole testing Fiverr thing. It used to be that this was a budget platform. Anybody charging more than $5 was seen as expensive. Now we have folks selling things for $1000 and getting buyers. It’s going to be interesting watching the site evolve.

Good luck on your Fiverr journey. 🙂

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Two questions stand out in my mind. First, how much better are you than the designer selling his work for $5-15. Second, what tangible benefits do I, Joe Everyman, receive thanks to your additional talents?

The hardest part about getting street value for your work is convincing people you’re worth the extra cash.

To answer both of these:

a) what is the difference to a 5$ gig?

Simple: How much time would any person spend for 5$ on any work? Not really much, unless they live with their parents and have no own bills to pay. Because from 5$ you get 4$ after Fiver took their cut and 2$ after you payed your taxes, insurances, social benefits and everything else that is required by the government. So really we are talking about is 2$

Now for 150$ i can guarantee that i can put my 20 years of art & design training to good use and work 2 full hours on that project. Now, don’t just think about 2 hours. Think about the difference of what a fastfood cook and a highly trained cook can do with 2 hours. If all you need is a fast hotdog, go ahead and buy that for 1$. But, if you are out with a super important customer for a really big contract, you probably want to impress. Well, advertisement is that really really important dinner - because you invite the eyes of your customers to dine on your offerings. Do you want to look like a 1$ hotdog or like a 150$ steak?

That is the differnce

b) How to convincing people you’re worth the extra cash?

Easy: You say “i cost 80$ an hour, here is what my work looks like” - 85-95% will say “Thank’s, but no thanks” And that is totally ok. Because they are not looking for my product. And i understand and respect that. BUT if you go to your customer and say “i work for 1$ an hour” - that customer will think two things: a) you can’t be that good, because why would you ask for so little. and b) i will never pay you more, because you yourself don’t think you are worth more.

Here is a simple example to think about: If you are hungry and you find a nice restaurant and look at their menu and it says “Steak 25$” - what would you think? Would you think they are trying to scam you? Or would you think, well it has to be good meat and they seem to have pride in their work. Or would you think “i know what good steak meat costs on the market - so, if i would pay any less, the meat could not be good steak meat.” - I totally respect people who eat 5$ steak at a restaurant. Good for them. The thing is: i can’t deliver my meat at that price. 😉

How much time would any person spend for 5$ on any work?

I have gotten 8 revisions in real time as I am online with the designer in Sri Lanka for the $10 I spent. He is able to do each one immediately in less than one minute. So he is speedy.

Also for $10 I have gotten some beautiful designs from him that were exactly what I wanted only better than I could have imagined.

I’m not sure what would take two hours of design work for him. He has over 30 waiting in his queue at all times. He has a degree in design and advertising experience.

You are in a huge pool of designers here and many are in countries with different economies that allow very inexpensive jobs to be done which would cost much more in other countries.

It sounds like you may be a candidate for fiverr Pro, which would allow you to charge street prices.

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I think you can get clients here, so I hope you do stick around. If you change your name, check back into the forum again and say hi!

You’re luckier than most, really, because you have clients outside of Fiverr. That allows you to play the waiting game. You can position yourself as an expert and then wait for those knowledgeable customers to come across your gig, which they eventually will.

I think we’re all with you on the whole testing Fiverr thing. It used to be that this was a budget platform. Anybody charging more than $5 was seen as expensive. Now we have folks selling things for $1000 and getting buyers. It’s going to be interesting watching the site evolve.

Good luck on your Fiverr journey. 🙂

You’re luckier than most, really, because you have clients outside of Fiverr.

You can do that too. Here is what i did: I printed a nice brochure (30$ for 1500 prints) and went to EVERY store i could find in my area. Took me about a two weeks of walking every day. In these two weeks i found enough customers to last me the rest of the year with their initial contracts and follow up contracts. I asked a fixed 75€ per hour - and i start with small things. “Do you need a flyer?” - if they do, i make them a great flyer and spend a lot of time taking with them about their business and their plans for the future. If they are happy with my flyer, they mostly (80% of the time) need more. A homepage, a brochure, some seo - all that good stuff. So i enter with a 150€ project and over time it turns into several thousand €

What i want from Fiverr or similar pages is to give me more cash flow opportunities. I want more sources of income - preferably stuff that i can automate one way or another. Tutorials and Know-how are my favorite concepts for that. There is hours and hours of things you can talk about for marketing, sales, branding, community building - all that good stuff that people need to build their business online. And the core concepts don’t really change that much - only the details, but that is where you can get people to sign up your memberships.

so, let’s see what will happen. but i really invite you to try and go out there and ask people in real life. And please: always ask for more than you feel it should cost - because there is a very high chance you are underrating your own services.

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