The Fiverr Seller's Guide: Everything a Fiverr Seller Needs To Know

[danish82]

 

 

This is the ultimate fiverr guide for helping sellers. Help making your gig? Need more sales? Want to know how to become Top Rated Seller? This post will help! It will help the sellers in getting sales and you will learn important things you need to learn.

 

This post is to hopefully help sellers find the answers they need. THIS IS NOT ALL MY OWN! I have collected these tips from across the forums so they are all in one place. Please be aware that the forum on Fiverr is not a way to contact Customer Support .

 

First and most important thing you need to know as a seller are the following:

=Each $5 Gig you sell and successfully deliver, accredits your account with a net revenue of $4.

=Buyers pay Fiverr for orders in advance.

=Fiverr accredits sellers once an order is completed. See “Work Delivery & Communications” below for a definition of a completed order.

=Sellers may withdraw their revenues using one of Fiverr’s withdrawal options.

=If an order is cancelled (for any reason), the payment funds will be returned to the buyer.

=Sellers may withdraw their revenues to a PayPal account of their choice, or to a Fiverr Revenues Card, according to the terms specified below.

=The seller's rating is calculated based on a number of factors, including feedback received from buyers, amount of orders, cancelled orders, and late deliveries.

 

Seller Statuses

 

=Fiverr is all about helping sellers leverage their skills. Fiverr seeks to empower top performing sellers with helpful tools to grow their business.

=Sellers who invest in self-promotion may achieve greater customer satisfaction. And, if they deliver on time and maintain high quality and ratings, Fiverr may reward them with new statuses, special opportunities, benefits, and tools that come with it.

 

Levels

 

=Fiverr sellers can gain account statuses (Level 1, Level 2 ...) based on their activity, performance and reputation.

=Each level opens up additional opportunities and tools for the sellers to extend their business. Sellers who are promoted to a higher level are required to maintain their service level and high rating to keep their preferred status.

=Levels are updated periodically by an automated system. Higher level sellers are still required to offer their Gigs for the basic price of $5. Sellers who cannot maintain their high quality service, experience a rating drop, or stop delivering on time risk losing their seller status and the benefits that come with it. For example, late deliveries or cancellations can cause a seller to move to a different Level. For more information, see Seller Levels.

=Level 1 and Level 2 sellers can sell either Gig Extras of Gig Multiples. A combination of Extras and Multiples is available only for Top Rated Sellers.

 

Top Rated Sellers

 

Top Rated Sellers are chosen manually by Fiverr editors from the list of the highest seller level based on a list of criteria, including seniority, volume of sales, an extremely high rating, exceptional customer care and community leadership. Top Rated Sellers gain access to more extensive features than previous levels, including exclusive access to beta features and VIP support. For more information, see Seller Levels.

 

Handling Orders

 

=When a buyer orders a Gig, the seller is notified by email as well as notifications on the site while logged in to your account.

=Sellers are required to meet the delivery time they specified when creating their Gigs. Failing to do so will allow the buyer to cancel the order and may harm the seller's rating.

=Both buyers and sellers have the option to cancel an order by mutual agreement. Mutual cancellations have no negative effect on rating. However, excessive cancellations, of any type, have a negative effect on Levels eligibility.

=Unanswered mutual cancellation requests will automatically be accepted after 48 hours, while reducing the non-responding user's rating.

=A Seller may cancel an order without the buyer's consent at any given moment (Force Cancellation) However, this will have a negative effect on the seller's rating.

 

Staying out of Trouble

 

=To protect our users' privacy, user identities must be kept anonymous. Requesting or providing Email addresses, s***e/IM usernames, telephone numbers or any other personal contact details (other than your name) to communicate outside of the Fiverr network is not permitted.

=All communications, information and file exchanges must be performed exclusively using Fiverr's messaging system.

=Posting or sending adult, illegal, rude, abusive, improper, copyright protected, promotional, spam, violent, nonsense or any uncool stuff is strictly prohibited. Doing so will get your account blocked permanently.

 

Work Delivery & Communications

 

=You are responsible for scanning all transferred files for viruses and malware. Fiverr will not be held responsible for any damages which might occur due to site usage, use of content or files transferred.

=Sellers must deliver completed files and/or proof of work using the Deliver Completed Work button (located on the Order page).

=Responding and posting a review: Once work is delivered, the buyer has three days to respond and post a review (or 14 days for Gigs with shipping). If no response is provided within the response time, the order will be considered completed.

 

Withdrawing Revenues

 

=To withdraw your revenues, you must have an account with at least one of Fiverr's withdrawal providers.

=Your Fiverr profile can be associated with only one account from each Fiverr withdrawal providers. A withdrawal provider account can be associated with only one Fiverr profile.

=Revenues are only made available for withdrawal from the Revenue page after a safety clearance period of 14 days after the order is marked as complete.

=Withdrawal fees vary depending on the withdrawal provider / method.

=Withdrawals are final and cannot be undone. We will not be able to refund or change this process once it has begun.

 

How to become a Top Rated Seller

 

-Have a very high volume of sales

-Provide unique and high quality services

-Are extremely professional in delivery and communication with buyers

-Present their Gigs very well - including high quality images and videos

Fiverr Sheriff's Note: There is a Self Promotion area on the Forum. Please use it and stop hi-jacking others.

 

 

[danish82]

 

Simple principles to become a great seller!

 

=Be courteous – Use ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ abundantly and always acknowledge people in every kindest ways. Focus on your ultimate goal and know that no matter what you do, you are in a relationship-building business. Show consideration and compassion for all people, whether or not they are paying you. Treat every person with respect and take every interaction as a learning opportunity with an open curious mind and a positive attitude. Over time, your competency, confidence and reputation will improve, so will your sales!

 

=Be helpful – Offer your expert advice and knowledge appropriately and generously. You are here to solve your clients’ problems and to create “win-win” situations. Make yourself that valuable and trusted person your clients can count on. Prove that their money is wisely invested with you over others. Give them reasons to come back to you. Repeat business is good business!

 

=Be fair – Listen carefully to instructions and be patient in getting the information you need. Never assume or afraid to ask when you are unsure. Do everything possible to make yourself more efficient so that you can always deliver your best-quality work on time. Promptly and gladly fix mistakes, sometimes even those that are not yours. Negotiate early and fairly. Effective negotiation means getting consensus, not necessarily giving in or giving up. When disagreements occur, remember these principles, exercise your judgement in doing what is right for you and have the courage to accept the consequences.

 

=Over-deliver: Give them much more than they expect. If you are a writer increase the word count; if you deliver traffic to websites/offers then send them traffic in excess of what was promised; if you deliver digital products throw in some jaw dropping bonuses. Before you deliver let them view the finished piece for their input... Buyers like to feel that they are a part of your creative purpose and more importantly if there is absolutely anything that could award you a bad review could possibly be smoothed out beforehand (quality & value). This would include bonuses as itsyourthing rightly points out & if you would prefer to call it deliver extra value that's fine too... Only I assume your gig either delivers quality & value or it doesn't (& both really are a minimum requirement).

Apply these three principles & I guarantee you will succeed (but I stress that this is only possible if you are determined enough, patient enough & willing.

[danish82]

~.~Creating A Gig~.~

When you sign up for Fiverr, you get all excited to be able to finally make some ‘easy’ cash online. To create a gig, click “Sales” on the top bar of the Fiverr page, then the green “Create Gig” button on the right side. Here are the tips the other Fiverr sellers suggest.



• Step One: Research

The KEY to being successful on Fiverr is making a gig with originality. This means you need to really be different than the rest of the sellers here! Sure, you can offer something similar, but to really stand out and make a difference, you need to be yourself and come up with something new. How?



Look at Featured & Top Sellers for inspiration!

This does not mean copy their gigs or offer the same things they do. What you need to do is get the motivation to be yourself and look inside yourself for your unique skills. Can’t come up with any? Start writing down every little thing you do at work, school, and in your free time and you just might realize there is a lot more to you than you think. Seriously, not everyone can do everything you are able to do, so market that stuff and go for it!



• Step Two: An Enchanted Title

Do not explain everything you are going to do in your title, it just makes it cluttered and it will cut off the words strangely in a link. A wonderful Top-Seller here made the best statement for this. “When a buyer clicks on your gig, there should be no surprises.” This means you need to keep your title direct and to the point. There are only 80 characters in a gig title, and really should should stay below that without difficulty. The words you use should be words a buyer/customer would use to find something, so don’t add all the extra keywords, especially since you can put those in your description or tags. Need a little encouragement, look around at the other gigs sold in the same field as you are trying to sell, but do not copy that!



• Step Three: The Right Department (Categories)

You don’t go to the kitchen appliances section of a department store to look for shoes (at least, I hope not), so don’t try to place your gig into a category and subcategory which would not make sense from a buyer’s view. Your gig may fit into multiple categories, so it is up to you to judge which one makes more sense and fits more of the details of the offer. If you really cannot decide, perhaps separating what you offer into multiple gigs based on each part of what you offer will help. Do not make the same gig for two different categories! With the current set-up of Fiverr, you can only offer a gig to a Buyer Request if your gig and the buyer’s request are the same category and sub-category, so be aware of how your buyer would think and sort your gig properly.



• Step Four: Showing Off Your Talent (Pictures)

The gig gallery is where you upload images to represent your gig. Images must be in JPEG format, 682 pixels wide x 459 pixels high and no more than 2MB each. Your image needs to be related to the service you are offering, or better, show buyers who they’ll be working with and by adding a photo of yourself. Your image cannot be a stock image or something you do not own the copyrights to. When a buyer is browsing the Fiverr search, they will only see an image and the gig title, so try to not have any words in your image and still make it eye catching and appealing.



• Step: Five: Your Full Offer (Description)

Your description needs to contain as much useful information as possible in less than 1,200 words. Don’t just restate your gig offer and your credentials, include a bullet-point list of what exactly they will receive when they order. Be as clear as possible on what you will and will not do so you run into less issues in the future. I try to include the phrase, “Please contact me before ordering so we can work out the details,” so I have less surprise gig orders.



• Step Six: You’re It! (Tags)

Many people say the tags are key to getting sales, but I cannot show you any hard evidence. You have five(5) tags available to you, which can be multiple words or a single word. Again, think as your buyer would think and add tags which are relevant to your gig and not mentioned in the title. I often ask friends to review my gigs and give me a few words that first come to their heads when they think of the service I provide.



• Step Seven: Express Yourself (Video)

I believe the video is really what sells a gig in the end. I know I am due to an update on my gig videos since the changes made to Fiverr. It is true that the best sellers on Fiverr get up in front of a camera and introduce the gig on their own, but this isn’t absolutely required. I highly recommend showing at least a picture of yourself, and I definitely recommend using your own voice. If you have a computer, you most likely have some free video editing software where you can make a picture slide show with special effects and your own sounds, or an actual video recording with all the options to clip and edit. I use Windows Movie Maker, personally. Videos are submitted for review by Fiverr before they are public, so don’t panic if you do not see your video right away. Patience is all part of the process.



Here are the video specifications the specifications:

1. under 50MB
   
2. ‘high quality’
   
3. Length over 10 seconds but under 60 seconds
   
4. Must have some sort of soundtrack (either voice over or music which you own the rights to use)
   
5. Must include “Exclusive on Fiverr” stated either vocally or in easy-to-read text
   
6. Any images/footage used must be your own or you have the rights to use
   
   
   
   • Step Eight: Activation
   
   You have to manually activate your gigs now after you make them. To do this, go to your “My Gigs” page and click the number with “Suspended” as its description; this will bring you to the page where the gig(s) you just created are located and where gigs you decide not to offer for a time will go. Click the check box next to the gig(s) you want to activate then click the “Activate” button on top. Tada!
   

[danish82]

~.~Promoting Your Gig~.~



I hope I have not lost you in all that, because now we get to the “fun” stuff! Promoting your gig is a big part of being successful on Fiverr. If your gig is very original, it will gain notice quickly and you most likely won’t have to do much to keep a steady flow of orders. If your gig isn’t as original as that, you’ll need to get out there and make yourself known … and keep doing that no matter what level you are.



• Social Media

The Fiverr team has stated multiple times that this is the biggest factor to outside traffic. Places like Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and Yahoo Answers are mentioned often and pay off. Creating a profile (or page) specifically tied to your Fiverr business on each of these really helps, though isn’t required. Post updates on what you offer and link back to your Fiverr gigs and page. Answer questions and join discussions which mention a skill your gig uses, and don’t forget to Follow/Fan/Friend the Fiverr profiles on each so you can always see if anyone needs what you offer! It doesn’t hurt to also be friendly and helpful to all users, even if you don’t mention your gigs. 🙂



• Social Bookmarking

I admit, I have no idea how this works and am no expert in it. What you do is submit a title, URL, description, and tags and you get a link back to your gig/page. That link will be indexed in major search engines, which will quickly move you up above competitors and can be automated through certain programs. I know that Reddit, slashdot, and digg offer these, and many people mention Google Adwords, which I am not certain is the same thing.

Please do NOT link your SEO gig in the comments to this discussion! You can do that in the “My Fiverr Gigs” category, which I bet will get plenty of traffic for you.



• Forum Posts

As a regular forum moderator for other websites, I get a little annoyed with the “spam” people who come in, post something which is obviously unrelated, in poor English (no joke), on a regular base. To avoid that, you’ll need to post a description of what you offer and a link to your gig in relevant locations. Digitalpoint and WarriorForum are very popular for Fiverr users. Don’t forget to use the “My Fiverr Gigs” available right here on the fiverr forums! If you want to upload an image to the Fiverr forum, the dimensions are 670(width) x 315(height) pixels.

[danish82]

~.~Handling Orders~.~

You received an order, congrats! If your buyer submitted all the information you required (Ah! I forgot to go over that in the creation part!) it is time to get cracking down and working on gigs!



• Communication Is Key

You’ll want to handle your customer the same way you want to be handled at a check-out lane, professionally yet with personality!



• Politeness. You need to keep the professional and friendly demeanor while working with someone, so being prompt and polite when speaking with them is essential. Use full sentences and avoid “YELLING” (all caps) and extreme exclamation points (!!! and !?!, for example) in order to better portray yourself and give a better feeling to your buyer.



• Regular Updates. Don’t let your first contact be your delivery! Your buyer will appreciate knowing when you will be able to work on and finished they order; this shows that you are thinking about their order. You also want to keep them updated if there is anything ever preventing you from working on it, without going into personal details; they will thank you for making them aware and they most likely won’t mind waiting a little longer if they are not in a rush.



• Asking for Review. When you deliver your order, leave a brief and friendly message asking that they leave a review if everything is delivered as they required. This makes it so they don’t feel obligated, but they might take another look at the field and leave a little note, which will help other buyers trust your rating and experience!



• Having to Cancel. This happens, and it sucks. Sometimes a buyer asks for something you obviously do/will not offer, wants more than they are willing to pay for, mistakenly orders the wrong thing, or even intentionally tries to sabotage your ratio. Currently (Nov 5th) the system counts ALL cancellations against you, even ones force canceled by Customer Support . No matter who cancels the order, it will count against your profile by adding to your cancellation ratio, which can keep you from leveling and even remove your already earned Levels!

To handle this, you will need to stay polite and work with them; yes, it is frustrating, but flushing all your aggression at the person who you need to cancel with won’t solve anything and might even cause your name to be soiled by them across the web.

#1: Make sure there is nothing you can do to solve the issue. Ask if there is anything you can do for them at all so the order can be completed on a positive note.

#2: If you have to cancel, go to the “resolution center” (link on the top of your order page by the order number) and click the “I am having trouble completing this order” to have the mutual cancellation option appear. Write a polite message and click the button to submit it. The order time will be frozen and the buyer can either accept or reject.

#3: If they reject, contact Customer Support by going to support.fiverr.com, signing in (you have to create an account for the support page if you have not before), then clicking the “Submit a Request” to make a ticket to the Support Team; again, be as polite as possible!



Mutual cancellations and business relationships



Support cancellations have the exact same effect on Levels eligibility as any other method of order cancellation. When you request a Mutual Cancellation from your buyer for whatever reason, you can keep a good relationship with them for future projects.



Mutual cancellations will provide you with the following benefits:



It’s a 1 click deal: If the buyer doesn’t respond, the order will be canceled automatically after a couple of days. You don’t even have to follow up on that.

There is no negative rating.

The buyer will appreciate being informed by you and will feel like an equal partner in this transaction.

A support cancellation is a one sided interaction with the buyer, an interaction that can feel like you’re pulling the rug out from under them. This affects the buyers’ experience on Fiverr as well as their experience with you as a seller.

It saves you the time and effort of submitting a support request, and answering to a potential inquiry.

How do I mutually cancel?

At the top of the order page click on “Resolution Center”. Choose “I’m having trouble completing this order” to start the cancellation process.

So take matters into your own hands and keep building your buyer fan club.



I think these awesome tips will be of great help for the fiverr sellers, and they will know everything to know.



Hope this helps!!!

[danish82]

Share your ideas!



Fiverr Sheriff’s Note: There is a Self Promotion area on the Forum. Please use it and stop hi-jacking others.

[danish82]

I forgot to mention to please comment with questions or feedback.



Fiverr Sheriff’s Note: There is a Self Promotion area on the Forum. Please use it and stop hi-jacking others.

[quentinventures]

I felt this was helpful and thoughtful! Thankyou 🙂

[danish82]

Reply to @quentinventures: You are most welcome! 🙂

[work_in]

Thanks very much for the great ideas 🙂

[danish82]

You are welcome! 🙂

[danish82]

please comment with questions or feedback.



:bz

[danish82]

You are welcome! 🙂

[sjthefox]

As a seller, what can I do if I deliver the requested work and the buyer rejects it seemingly just to avoid paying me?



I have a buyer right now that is very problematic, and I’m considering a forced cancellation. I just received my Level 1 status though, and I don’t want to lose it over one difficult customer. At what point will my cancellation ratio lower my level?

[danish82]

Reply to @sjthefox: I have seen that, you have made total 17 sales and therefore, if you cancel the gig, your Level 1 status will not be lost don’t worry!!!

[danish82]

If the work is done correctly, contact Fiverr Customer Support and report the buyer for the harassment. I think you shouldn’t cancel the order if the work is completed well.

[danish82]

Hope this helped you!

[danish82]

Share your ideas!



Fiverr Sheriff’s Note: There is a Self Promotion area on the Forum. Please use it and stop hi-jacking others.

[Guest celticmoon]

Reply to @danish82: Look up the word “sarcasm”.



It is incredibly rude of you to steal the entire text written by someone else and post it under your name. It is utterly outrageous of you to accept thanks from people you’ve tricked into thinking you wrote this. If this is how you do business, you are nothing more than a scammer and con man.

[Guest celticmoon]

Here’s my idea: You are a thief. You stole someone’s entire work and posted it as your own in order to steal attention. You have the nerve to accept thanks from the people you fooled. The fact that you have such a low rating from gigs that you’ve obviously deleted shows what kind of person you are.



Fiverr doesn’t need people like you who cheat and take shortcuts because the only skill they have is to create a wet fart.

[Guest celticmoon]

Reply to @quentinventures: H i@quentinventures~ I just thought you might like to know that this entire post was stolen from another Fiverr member without any credit AND that this person has no right to accept your thanks. He did not write this; he stole it.

[Guest celticmoon]

Reply to @work_in: Hi @ work_in ~ I just thought you might like to know that this entire post was stolen from another Fiverr member without any credit AND that this person has no right to accept your thanks. He did not write this; he stole it.

[Guest celticmoon]

Reply to @sjthefox: Hi @sjthefox~ I just thought you should know that this person stole the entire post and is accepting credit and thanks as if he wrote this. He actually stole it, and for that reason and that his rating is very low, he might not be the best source for GOOD advice on how to manage your problems on Fiverr.