Totally CONFUSED! WHY is my gig keep getting denied?

[tiffmeister]

I’ve been writing children’s book reviews for my blog for 3 months. All of a sudden, it gets cancelled. I figure it must be in the wrong category, and rewrite it and put it in a different, category for promotion. It gets denied again.

I am VERY FRUSTRATED! I’ve been buying things on Fiverr for 3 years and selling for 3 months now. I am throwing my hands up wondering what is wrong. Doesn’t Fiverr want to make money?

This is the worst supported website I have ever seen. There is no way to find out what is wrong, how to fix it and make it right for Fiverr to be satisfied. There is really no way to do support unless I post on this forum.

ABSOLUTELY Ridiculous!!!

[frank_d]

Offering reviews for products is no longer allowed.

Please read Fiverr’s ToS.

[tiffmeister]

Offering reviews for products is no longer allowed.

Please read Fiverr’s ToS.

Then, why are so many people doing this gig still?

[tiffmeister]

Then, why are so many people doing this gig still?

There are tons still doing this. And it is written up. I think the other 10 or 12 people doing reviews and offering it in many categories should be told too.

[frank_d]

Then, why are so many people doing this gig still?

Fiverr is slowly removing gigs, it takes time.

It took them 3 months to get to yours.

They will get to all the others.

[tiffmeister]

Just read through the whole TOS. It doesn’t specifically name to not to book reviews. But if they seem to not want that as a gig, then there are other things that can be done to promote books on websites like author interviews. But there are tons of other people writing book reviews for people. So, this is all kind of lame really.

[mah_ameer]

you should follow the rules of making gig in fiverr.

[catwriter]

I guess that you haven’t heard that Amazon sued 1,000+ Fiverr sellers because of paid reviews. Reviews became a huge problem after that.

Have you tried contacting Customer Support and asking them for more specific guidelines? I’m not sure whether it’s allowed to offer reviews if you’re going to post them on your own blog; CS might answer that.

Author interviews sound like a great idea.

[tiffmeister]

I guess that you haven’t heard that Amazon sued 1,000+ Fiverr sellers because of paid reviews. Reviews became a huge problem after that.

Have you tried contacting Customer Support and asking them for more specific guidelines? I’m not sure whether it’s allowed to offer reviews if you’re going to post them on your own blog; CS might answer that.

Author interviews sound like a great idea.

Yes. I just did. And yes, I know about the ZON issues. But I read the TOS, it doesn’t say anything about not doing product reviews. And I just sent a message to the customer support. I’ll follow their advice.

[tiffmeister]

Yes. I just did. And yes, I know about the ZON issues. But I read the TOS, it doesn’t say anything about not doing product reviews. And I just sent a message to the customer support. I’ll follow their advice.

And yes, I think I might just switch everything to author interviews. That is a main feature on my blog anyway. Thanks Catwriter.

[tiffmeister]

And yes, I think I might just switch everything to author interviews. That is a main feature on my blog anyway. Thanks Catwriter.

I know all about the reviews issues with the Zon and Goodreads. You can post on your own blog since it is yours. You can post what you want. It’s only Goodreads and the Zon that have it in their TOS that you can receive payment for a book review. But like I said, I haven’t seen anything in Fiver’s TOS that says book reviews can’t be done on your own blog. That’s why I thought people were doing them. Just like a magazine that sells ad space and review space. So, in a way, I still don’t think that was it. But, I’ll see what customer service says.

[tiffmeister]

I know all about the reviews issues with the Zon and Goodreads. You can post on your own blog since it is yours. You can post what you want. It’s only Goodreads and the Zon that have it in their TOS that you can receive payment for a book review. But like I said, I haven’t seen anything in Fiver’s TOS that says book reviews can’t be done on your own blog. That’s why I thought people were doing them. Just like a magazine that sells ad space and review space. So, in a way, I still don’t think that was it. But, I’ll see what customer service says.

I also kept thinking it was in the wrong categories. There is A LOT of book promotion in social media and on blogs on Fiverr. So, that’s why I thought I needed to move categories.

[tiffmeister]

I also kept thinking it was in the wrong categories. There is A LOT of book promotion in social media and on blogs on Fiverr. So, that’s why I thought I needed to move categories.

So, thank you for all of the advice. I’ve managed to just rewrite my gigs into author interviews, and I’m hoping that will be allowed. I’ve just had the hardest time figuring out what was allowed or not. And now I realize you can’t really follow what other gigs are already up. So, who do you turn to do find out if something will work or not?

Do you just post it and hope for the best. And if it gets denied, just try again? That just doesn’t seem very efficient.

I guess it’s because I’m nervous about adding extra gigs like social media as add ons since I was told another time, you have to have your gig in a certain category to do that.

Is there a way to get a mentor as a newbie? Or is it all a shot in the dark?

[tiffmeister]

you should follow the rules of making gig in fiverr.

Um, really am trying to. It doesn’t seem very clear what is required when there are so many gigs doing what is basically, what I’m being told, is unacceptable. But then, I will just be talking to customer/seller service about this, and just redoing the gig again.

[fonthaunt]

I know all about the reviews issues with the Zon and Goodreads. You can post on your own blog since it is yours. You can post what you want. It’s only Goodreads and the Zon that have it in their TOS that you can receive payment for a book review. But like I said, I haven’t seen anything in Fiver’s TOS that says book reviews can’t be done on your own blog. That’s why I thought people were doing them. Just like a magazine that sells ad space and review space. So, in a way, I still don’t think that was it. But, I’ll see what customer service says.

I know all about the reviews issues with the Zon and Goodreads. You can post on your own blog since it is yours.

This is part of the reason you don’t see specific reviews listed in Fiverr ToS. The Fiverr Editors added reviews to their list of gigs that is “not in editorial focus” and they either drop them from search or deny them. The automated system on fiverr watches for certain words in gigs. Amazon, Goodreads, Yelp, etc. have an especially high status if they are flagged by the system. Just the word “reviews” is also monitored, so that is why these gigs tend to be denied but more slowly.

Even though you can legally post reviews on your own blog, the Fiverr editors have really avoided review gigs, so not many are left. You may receive a Support message telling you that those gigs are not in editorial focus. Even if they let you put them back up, another editor down the road might deny them again. I’m not saying it’s illegal, I’m just letting you know that reviews is a tough sell here and probably won’t stick for long no matter how you word it. Interviews is much better.

[tiffmeister]

UPDATE: Basically, everything was denied. So, I just rewrote and created new author interview gigs. Thank you all for your advice and support. It helped me deal with a very frustrating issue all this week. Hopefully the new gigs will do well.

[misscrystal]

I guess that you haven’t heard that Amazon sued 1,000+ Fiverr sellers because of paid reviews. Reviews became a huge problem after that.

Have you tried contacting Customer Support and asking them for more specific guidelines? I’m not sure whether it’s allowed to offer reviews if you’re going to post them on your own blog; CS might answer that.

Author interviews sound like a great idea.

Amazon sued 1,000+ Fiverr sellers

Amazon sued over 1000 people for posting paid reviews on their site but as far as anyone can tell, none were fiverr sellers.

But Amazon has made it clear they won’t accept paid reviews.

[tiffmeister]

Amazon sued 1,000+ Fiverr sellers

Amazon sued over 1000 people for posting paid reviews on their site but as far as anyone can tell, none were fiverr sellers.

But Amazon has made it clear they won’t accept paid reviews.

There are all kinds of rumors about that really. We could go on and on. Mostly from other writer websites. But the fact reviews are no longer allowed on Fiverr is just something that just doesn’t seem obvious when there are still people with the gig. It was confusing seeing other people with it. I’ve seen other people confused by having gigs similar to what they see on Fiverr and getting them denied. So, newbies, like me, get really confused.

But hopefully this thread will help others in creating their gigs. They’ll see they can’t do book reviews now.

[misscrystal]

There are all kinds of rumors about that really. We could go on and on. Mostly from other writer websites. But the fact reviews are no longer allowed on Fiverr is just something that just doesn’t seem obvious when there are still people with the gig. It was confusing seeing other people with it. I’ve seen other people confused by having gigs similar to what they see on Fiverr and getting them denied. So, newbies, like me, get really confused.

But hopefully this thread will help others in creating their gigs. They’ll see they can’t do book reviews now.

There are all kinds of rumors about that really.

Amazon had tens of thousands of paid reviewers on it’s site so it’s possible, but no one has ever said any were paid on Fiverr to write Amazon reviews. There were more than enough to go after and only a small fraction of them were actually sued when the total may have been over one million. It would have been more difficult to find the ones on fiverr than the others, who were advertising openly under their Amazon names on other sites. Amazon would have had to serve legal papers to fiverr to find the names of the sellers, and they didnt’ have to do that otherwise.

[tiffmeister]

There are all kinds of rumors about that really.

Amazon had tens of thousands of paid reviewers on it’s site so it’s possible, but no one has ever said any were paid on Fiverr to write Amazon reviews. There were more than enough to go after and only a small fraction of them were actually sued when the total may have been over one million. It would have been more difficult to find the ones on fiverr than the others, who were advertising openly under their Amazon names on other sites. Amazon would have had to serve legal papers to fiverr to find the names of the sellers, and they didnt’ have to do that otherwise.

So, I searched through some blog articles and found that it wasn’t Fiverr sued, but the reviewers, and they lived in the US. It was Oct. 2015, and that has given at least 2 years for things to be cleaned up. There still is touchiness about doing reviews even for free, since the Zon owns what ever you write on their site. So, as far as Fiverr, looks like they are trying to police, which is good, to help the Fiverr members. Because I guess it’s not Fiverr that will be sued, but you. That is something good to know.

Here’s the article I looked over. It gives an overview of what happened in 2015 so there isn’t any confusion:

Small Business Trends – 22 Oct 15

Are Fiverrs Running Scared From Amazon Fake Reviews Lawsuit? - Small Business...

Less than a week after Amazon cracked down on fake reviews by filing a lawsuit, the sale of fake rev

[misscrystal]

So, I searched through some blog articles and found that it wasn’t Fiverr sued, but the reviewers, and they lived in the US. It was Oct. 2015, and that has given at least 2 years for things to be cleaned up. There still is touchiness about doing reviews even for free, since the Zon owns what ever you write on their site. So, as far as Fiverr, looks like they are trying to police, which is good, to help the Fiverr members. Because I guess it’s not Fiverr that will be sued, but you. That is something good to know.

Here’s the article I looked over. It gives an overview of what happened in 2015 so there isn’t any confusion:

Small Business Trends – 22 Oct 15

Are Fiverrs Running Scared From Amazon Fake Reviews Lawsuit? - Small Business...

Less than a week after Amazon cracked down on fake reviews by filing a lawsuit, the sale of fake rev

That’s the first I’ve heard that it was sellers on fiverr. So according to that, there were two Amazon lawsuits:

This is the second Amazon fake reviews lawsuit. Back in April 2015, the eCommerce giant filed suit against independent websites and businesses selling fake reviews for the Amazon site.

[tiffmeister]

That’s the first I’ve heard that it was sellers on fiverr. So according to that, there were two Amazon lawsuits:

This is the second Amazon fake reviews lawsuit. Back in April 2015, the eCommerce giant filed suit against independent websites and businesses selling fake reviews for the Amazon site.

Yeah. The Zon has been going heavy on the fake reviews or paid reviews the last two years. But then, there has been a drop of organic reviews too. A lot of my author friends have noticed it’s hard to get any reviews now, even organically. You can post on review websites like Netgalley, but overall, it’s been hard. I’ve even heard Facebook friends being called “Real Friends” and accounts threatened. Mostly, these were legitimate fans that followed the author on FB and was considered that they knew the authors because they were a friend on FB. They didn’t know them really. They were just a fan and followed them to get info, just like a lot of people use FB. It was pretty crazy.

[catwriter]

Yeah. The Zon has been going heavy on the fake reviews or paid reviews the last two years. But then, there has been a drop of organic reviews too. A lot of my author friends have noticed it’s hard to get any reviews now, even organically. You can post on review websites like Netgalley, but overall, it’s been hard. I’ve even heard Facebook friends being called “Real Friends” and accounts threatened. Mostly, these were legitimate fans that followed the author on FB and was considered that they knew the authors because they were a friend on FB. They didn’t know them really. They were just a fan and followed them to get info, just like a lot of people use FB. It was pretty crazy.

It’s definitely crazy. I’ve seen some writers complain that their review of someone’s book was removed because Amazon thought that they were friends, and they were not, they just happened to meet each other at a convention.