For those of you who have never heard of Fiverr, it is an online marketplace where people can go to offer their service or to purchase a service for $5. It’s as simple as that. However, not everything is at $5. People can sell their service for whatever price they desire and they do this by offering special packages.
Having said that, there are very successful Fiverr sellers. Alison offers services like voice talent and video production and has earned well over $100,000 on Fiverr and has been featured on business insider, and nextshark.
Fiverr calls them “custom orders”. These are great because, at this point, you are able to add extras and increase the offer of your desired price.
On the other hand, many people actually do offer their work for $5. I know, it’s hard to believe, isn’t it? and that is also one of the many reasons for Fiverr complaints.
The standard starting price is too low. It’s even harder to believe when you know that Fiverr takes $1 off of the $5 as a commission leaving freelancers with just $4 not much of extra money you can say.
What services can you find on Fiverr?
You can find anything on Fiverr. When I say anything, I really mean anything
-Graphic design
-Video and animation
-Music and audio
-Programming and tech
mobile app developer
video editing
data entry
virtual assistant
testimonial videos
-Advertising
-Business
-Digital marketing
-Translation
Freelance writers
…and the list goes on.
Sometimes, you’ll even be surprised as to what kind of talent people really have out there. fiverr gigs ideas do not stop at the above mentioned. Want voice overs in a specific accent, fiverr has you covered. It’s pretty impressive actually.
Fiverr Signup
The procedure for joining is so simple that it only takes a few minutes to create your profile in simple steps .
Whether you are a buyer or a seller, they oblige you to create a profile, choose a catchy and easy to remember name if you are a seller to make it easy to remember for your future clients.
Then, once you have done that, if you are a seller, you can go ahead to create your, what Fiverr calls it, “gig.
These must include the details of what service you are providing. You can even put together a small video introducing yourself and your gig,make sure your gig title is eye catching then wait for your first gig.
The response rate may be slow when you are just getting started as people may overlook your gig page but that`s ok,be patient.
Don`t let the price tag fool you, the “fives” adds up fast given you`re free to decide what your price is, for example, my friend Lynne offers gigs starting at $40. Read her post here and how she got started.
Buyers like this because they really get a sense of who they are purchasing from. It puts them at ease with you right away.
Sellers who have videos in their profile are more popular than those that don’t.Have a short video introducng yourself and what you offer if you want to be a top fiverr seller.
People who are not native English speakers may feel disadvantaged here, there have been some Fiverr complaints from people getting started and can’t record video testimonials for Fiverr due to language barrier/accents.
But honestly,you need not worry, graphic designers or a canva designer does not need to speak perfect English and these are gigs on high demand.
The Selling/Buying process
The entire process of selling and buying is pretty awesome and very well structured.
The good thing about Fiverr is that both parties involved are protected.
The seller doesn’t get paid until the work is delivered, however, the buyer still pays in advance, prior to receiving the work.
How does that work? Well, Fiverr keeps the money in escrow.
Once the work is delivered, Fiverr deposits the money into the sellers’ account, minus their commission of course.
This way, nobody gets scammed and nobody worries about getting scammed. Still, read more on outsourcing here.
You can outsource just about anything at Fiverr and it`s a good way to make some money on your spare time if you have any talent.
Fiverr complaints
It’s really important that you read the comments that the buyers/sellers have written about their experience prior to actually hiring someone or working with someone.
Even then, a part of me believes that those comments aren’t always 100% accurate.
Read more on Fiverr complaints here. There are many more complaints out there, just do a google search of the complaints.
Some sellers aren’t really that great at what they do.
Once the work has been delivered, yes, you can ask for a revision at no additional cost if the seller has permitted this in the “gig” description but still, to me, that really doesn’t make any difference in some cases.
I will give you an example: I hired someone to make a whiteboard for me and a background removal . I even had the voice-over ready and everything.
I had sent images of what I wanted in my video. I had even sent the seller to my websites so that he can get a feel of my style.
Well, to make a long story short, when he delivered the video, I was so disappointed that I asked him to redo it. It was nothing like I had imagined. He said that he would redo it for free.
So I waited for a few days. However, I had already given him my comments and I don’t have to tell you that they weren’t positive at all.
Then, once he read them, he asked me to give him a good review because if I didn’t, it would take some sales away from him and it would affect his reputation or earn him Fiverr complaints.
I am a very sensitive person so how do you think this made me feel? This job is probably the only job that this person has.
He may even be feeding his family with the income that he is making with this “gig” and not something he does in his spare time.
Anyway, because he was redoing my whiteboard, I decided to give him a good review. Well, guess what?
I never saw the new video. I had to make a complaint to Fiverr and everything turned out ok in the end, but still, it was a hassle.
I`m sure a fiverr like him does not make much money because he miss out on repeat clients so he`s always lookiing for a new gig.
I had still turned around a hired a different person to do my whiteboard and this time, it was awesome!
Another second bad experience was when I hired a freelancer to create for me a logo(I have two left hands and totally not creative).
When he delivered what I had asked for, I was horrified to see he`d done worse than I`d have had I done by myself.
I said please this is not what we agreed, it took him some days and when he got back to me, he asked me to first-rate him 5 stars before he could refund my money. (The more stars you have in Fiverr as a freelancer the better).
I was furious but I felt I had no choice so I awarded him the stars and got my money back. So, I guess we just have to be vigilant in choosing who we work with.
The moral of the story is when you find someone that does great work, don’t let them go.
Freelancers do not stick around for long, they do move to green pastures but before they do, hold on to the good one you find.
Still, Does Fiverr Work?
Some people have even complained about not being able to get their money deposited and when they did, it took a very long time.
Again, let’s not take everything seriously, depending on who you talk to, fiver works perfectly.
Many people write horrible comments about certain services but if you look closer it`s simply because they have either been kicked out.
Because this is very possible, or because they have lived one bad experience.
Not everything in life is perfect, but I have to tell you, if you look long enough, you can find something very close to it.
Is Fiverr A Good Way To Make Money?
Fiverr is a brilliant way of making money as a freelancer, especially if you`re just getting started online. Example a social media manager can make a pretty penny on Fiverr as companies are always looking for people to manage their social media.
Fiverr ranks high in outsourcing platforms so there are enough clients to go around, but having said that, know your value, your price,if your talent is in huge demand,price accordingly.
Just because everything starts at $5, you don`t have to underrate your services, if Fiverr is not the right platform for you, move on to something else.
Join a different freelancing platform, or better, create your own free website here and offer your services to clients directly.
Conclusion on Fiverr Complaints
Fiverr is an amazing place to start a business. It really is. They offer everything in one place. It is becoming more and more popular every day.
If you are a content writer and want to help website owners out there that simply don’t have the time to write for themselves, Fiverr is the place to start.
If you want to help others build their websites in WordPress, offer your services on Fiverr.
You never know what can happen. Big marketing campaigns go on Fiverr looking for that extra help.
Create your profile, record a little video. Speak from the heart and make your personality shine!
Avoid Fiverr complaints by offering great gig in top quality in whatever gig you perform. Someone will hire you and when they do, others will follow as well.
But if you are looking for better ways to make money than spending hours working on Fiverr, you can build your own website, drive traffic to your site and offer your services, this way, you can make more money for yourself than waiting for gigs at Fiverr.
Join the #1 program to make money online
Now you might be thinking Fiverr is for Pizza money but you`ll be surprised.
I think Fiverr has created a platform where you can have quick gigs done cheaply, but if you need better, be ready to pay.
It`s not to say talent is not there, but the talent can only offer you what you paid for.
I`m saying this because I know for a fact I will not accept a $5 gig and if I did, I`ll not give a S*** how it comes out.(don`t worry I’m not a freelancer).But what im saying is that the best fiverr active gigs cost more.
You can`t have a sales funnel or book covers or content writing done for 5.
People make serious cash on Fiverr, you have to know what your talents are and great way to deliver, offer higher-paying gigs check this Netshark.com post on how Allie makes money on Fiverr.
I dealt with a Fiverr called tayyab31 who was a psycho and a total scam artist. He was a monster and lead me on for days and hours. They didn’t care to do anything about his abusive sick actions. I never got what I paid for and the crazy seller just kept leading me on. Just warning others of this person
There are nasty freelancers.I once ordered an article for my social media,you could see from miles that it was written with a very low quality article spinner. When I asked for a refund, the seller told me he insist I give him 5 stars first before he can refund, so i had to give him the 5 stars but later I felt rotten because I realized the many hundreds of 5 stars he had were achieved the same way.
Hello friend,
What a great article and honest information on feverr complains. I have heard about feverr, but I never knew what goes on there. never knew that its a place where where people buy and sell .
Now that I no the truthfulness of what feverr really is and what goes on there, I will surely try to hire a service there to see how their platform works. As you said I will need to be vigilant of whom I deal with so as to avoid any scam.
Thank you so much for this great article on feverr.
You are welcome to try Fiverr,there are good gigs there.
I have never heard of Fiverr before, so I found your article very intriguing. It sounds like there are a lot of positive aspects of joining in. I like your honest review of Fiverr. Thank you for pointing out the pluses and minuses of this website. The more we are aware of what we are getting ourselves in, the better. Excellent article.
Thanks Grace,Fiverr has positives too and there are good gigs there if you look around,not only that, if you`re not happy,you can always ask for a refund.
Hi, Sarganser,
As is the case with many other online sites revolving around people providing a service for others, fiverr has both good qualities as well as bad. Really, as you stated in your review, it would be a matter of a person doing his due diligence by first performing research on any person at the fiverrr site who is advertising him/herself out to be hired.
Last year, I hired an artistic designer at the fiverrr site asking that he create a logo for my websites. He was very professional throughout the entire process. I was not quite happy with a draft of a logo that he created initially. He was more than willing to create something more in line with what I had in mind, the finished product extremely well done. He also charged an extremely fair price.
At fiverr, I can imagine that some people advertising their business practices are not as ethical as the individual who I had hired. As I did in research, what is available at the fiverr site is the opportunity to see how others have felt as far as written reviews of that individual’s prior business practices – be it creating artistic logos or writing article content. If the person was lousy at his/her craft, then the reviews would clearly reveal it to future prospective clients.
There would be no reason to hire some individual who has received nothing but bad reviews, no matter how low a price this person would charge for his/her services. A well-known motto is: “you get what you pay for”. Hire some shady person at any site, (not just fiverr) to perform a task for you most likely would result in subpar work being performed when he/she requested an extremely cheap price for his/her services. Was the low price that you paid for this individual worth it? I would think not!
Jeff
Hello Jeff
Thanks for stopping by, I agree there are good Fiverr gigs, people who know what they are doing, people ready to provide quality.
Then there are freelancers there who will really frustrate you, I`ve had freelancers ask me for a positive review before they can refund my money, I`ve had an article lifted right out of Wikipedia word for word and delivered to me by a “top rated writer”.
I think the positive reviews does not always matter when outsourcing from any site.I have 3 websites so I outsource quite a lot for my other 2 sites and in time I`ve come to learn that nothing is as it seems, I`ve also learned to give anyone a chance as I`ve had very good experiences(some bad too) even from writers low ranked maybe because they are starting out.
But having said that, just like offline, you get mostly what you pay for in outsourcing sites, pay the cheapest and you get low-quality product that you can not use, pay medium price, you get an ok product that you may need to do more work to before you can use it.
Having said that outsourcing platforms like Fiverr,odesk and iWriter are a really useful if you need something done, we can`t all be good at everything.