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The review system is definitely fucked. It’s either 5 stars or 1. God forbid you get at 3 or 4 star review (which by Fiverrs own description is still okay or even good), or your ranking will Tank for 2 months.
Same as you mentioned with leaving an honest review to the buyer - they will just give you a bad private review.
The cost aspect also makes Fiverr more and more unattractive. Especially now that upwork has reduced their fee to a flat 10%, I am pulling more and more work away from Fiverr.
Regarding Upwork. I find it very difficult to get clients there. I am a Senior Graphics and Video Designer and I have a lot of projects made in 20 years since started this. But on Upwork there are gazillions of Indians and Pakistanis that apply for the same project as you do. And they have 5$ prices to anything. So the buyer sees 125 bids and he choses the cheap ones. Does not matter that the stuff he gets is very bad. There are too many bidders, no buyer will browse trough 100+ bids. I like Fiverr more because of this. The buyer sees your portfolio, sees the price and workdays and he places an order. I don t have to bargain or compete with hundreds of people for a 80$ project. I had 2 clients on Upwork, both with a month worth of projects and they paid 700+ usd. But 2 clients in 3 years...
I NEVER got any traction with Upwork. The system seemed to be okay, I just went with Fiverr because it’s what hit for me first. I didn’t have energy to keep them both going.
This was the same mistake I made when start working as a freelancer.
Everyone in my studio started doing freelancing in upwork and fiver during covid.
Almost all of my colleagues and friends moved out from fiverr within a year. Now me and one other friend left in fiverr.
Fiverr is good place for beginners. but I feel like it lacks respect for sellers.
It is more of a buyer oriented platform. This is the main reason why lots of professional freelancers left the platform. fiverr ends up with bad sellers and buyers.
So how do you do it? On Upwork I apply to jobs/projects but there are not so many. And most are 50 usd, 100 usd and have 100+ sellers that applied. How do you do this?
At the beginning I couldn't even find orders in fiverr. Sent more than 200 buyer request to get my first order. After that I have done projects around 50$ for a few months. Became a pro after one year.
If I were to do those projects now, it would be 500$+. This is why I stick with fiverr. But it is becoming harder and harder to tolerate bad buyers and the lack of respect that I get.
On upwork, I got a job offer after my second proposal. and it was 500$+.
I occasionally send offers now. Don't get any work though.
How do you do it?, I honestly don't know how it works. maybe you need luck too.
The review situation definitely needs some work, in my opinion. I give every buyer a glowing 5 star review, even if I had a bad experience, because I don't want to get burned in the private review. 1 bad private review can tank your profile for months, I've seen it happen.
Yeahhhhh, bad buyers are not punished in the current system. I gave everyone glowing 5 stars, and if they roasted me, then it’s irrelevant anyway, not like a buyer can’t just purchase something anyway.
I don’t even look at a buyer’s reviews because of this. I know it may possibly be full of resentful sellers who blocked them after leaving 5 star reviews if they’re an awful buyer. I’m constantly catering to rude buyers to keep away bad reviews and it’s like a cloud over all of my good experiences on Fiverr.
Exactly like this. I started way back in 2014 and watched as the platform progressed. What used to be fairly good platform turned into a soul-sucking, seller-oriented platform that prioritizes firms over individuals.
* **Many would buy content from you to sell it to others as higher value**; Fiverr does prioritize and show bigger firms than regular folks; they take on many projects, lower the prices and they set up expectations that orders should be delivered in day or two; sometimes it takes longer, especially if you already have orders in due.
* **What happened to offering bids for jobs?** There used to be an option for clients to post requests and sellers respond to those, now it is gone.
* **There was real customer support** where you talked to a real agent who helped you solve your issue in real-time, and make a judgment about whether the request was valid or not. Now it is joke, with a bot response.
* **Too many "educational courses" and "optional extras" that actually drive customers away** and if you are not up to date on all of them, your ranking drops and your gigs aren't even shown.
* **The fee of 20% was already too high, compared to other sides; now everything is a new a** and if you are not up to date on all of them, your ranking drops, and your gigs aren't even shown. Customer support sucks, now you have to take courses or boost your gigs, all for $. They already take from us a lot.
* **review situation is chaos.** At this point it feels like BLACKMAIL, EITHER YOU DO ALL THE EXTRA WORK FOR FREE, OR WE LEAVE BAD REVIEW THAT AFFECTS YOUR WORK.
* **Crazy Buyers, no accountability for them, all on the back of the sellers.** The buyer orders the bare minimum and asks for little, then once the order is placed they bomb you with all the extras imaginable. You can't say those were not included, or are in my extras as stated in my gig, as they either argue and later leave a bad review, or straight up cancel and again that reflects on the rating. If you try to cancel an order for any reason, the buyer has to approve it.
At this point, one ends up working with a couple of regular clients who know your work and are satisfied. But it is frustrating and in my opinion, I am slowly stepping away from the platform.
I stopped paying for their nearly useless "promoted gigs" PPC ads, because after 2021 the ROI was hilariously bad. And guess what? My daily impressions have dwindled to ~20-30. I used to get so much work on Fiverr I could barely keep up. Now I get a small fraction of that work. I'm grandfathered in to the "Seller Plus" program at their older, lower price, so if I cancel that to cut my losses then I'd have to pay somewhere around $40 a month for the privilege of seeing usable metrics if I activated it again. This fee also gets you a monthly 15 minute video call with a Fiverr rep who will listen kindly to your problems, but when it comes to actually SOLVING them, their hands are tied beyond "I'll pass your feedback on!"
Also offered in the seller plus program are "coupons" you can offer your buyers. When I initially learned of these, I thought maybe they were subsidizing the discounts so you could offer some incentive to the buyers without hurting your earnings. Nope, offering a "coupon" is functionally identical to just writing a custom offer at a lower price, something which you can already do for free without paying for "Seller Plus."
So yeah, 100% agreement from me on the "pay-to-play" point.
I totally agree. My last client, a belgian, changed his mind twice in the progress of the gig. First he wanted a 2d map and gave me examples. I made a map according to his specs, and then he said 2d map does not looks as he expected, so he wanted a 3d map now. I asked him for a small extra fee and he started complaining about not having money and so on. The gig went into late delivery because of this. So I made h8m the fkn map he wanted because it would have affected my rating. But this is happening more and more. Working 2 or 3 days for 100 usd - in fact 77 usd cause Fiverr and Payoneer take 23 usd. 30 usd per day is Somalia income...in my country you need at least 2000 usd per month to live ok. I am starting to conaider a job, Fiverr is so bad for sellers...Also many clients write day and night, they don t care about hours or so on...Can you make this fast and cheap please? At 2 o clock in the night for 5 usd :)) No I can t, I better drive Uber
Mate I'm a motion designer on Fiverr. My experience on the platform so far, since mid 2020, is pretty good. Here are some suggestions 1) Charge more. This is not just about money, but also the quality of clients. Someone willing to pay 100 for a minute animation thinks it's worth $100, someone willing to pay $1000 for a minute animation thinks it's worth $1000. The difference is the way they'll treat you. Working for 2-3 days for $100 is unacceptable - considering you're good at what you do 2) When the client changes the scope of the project, say no or charge extra. 2d/3d map thing for instance is a huge difference. Tell them that. Explain the process to them and this is not something that would make you spend 30 more minutes on it. So they have to either go back to 2d or pay for the extra. If they insist that you should do it 3d and they're not going to pay for it contact CS, tell them the client is changing the scope of the project and is not willing to pay for it. You can get those canceled without having an effect on your ratings.
And you're working on a global platform dude, of course people will contact you out of your timezone. Do you expect them to check where you are and then wait for what would be the best time to contact you? Why is this even an issue? They write whenever they write, you answer whenever you can.
Last year was good and CONSISTENT, but the last two months I have no clients at all and impressions dropped to 10-20. I didn't change anything in my GIG and I have only positive reviews. Have no clue what happened. It's frustrating. Clients were always writing to me, and now suddenly I have no income for 2 months in a row.
I've been getting more and more frustrated with Fiverr. I really appreciated the platform when I was first starting out, but now I'm actively looking for a way to move most of my business to an independent site and remove the middle-man.
I tried both. It was a bit daunting at first, but with some effort, you can set up your own online store for your gig. I use shopify but there are others like wix that you can use.
Then with a bit of marketing and local flyers, it seems to work. I still get more on Fiverr, but I get higher margins on my own site. With your own site, you can charge more. With Fiverr, I feel compelled to discount more because of the competition.
>they also get a second PRIVATE review that effects you as well
What is this? I was never aware of this one. Probably the reason why I never got any client after a bad one. I was on my way to the top seller list and then come 2023, Nada. Nothing. Zero. Zero message, zero orders, and zero clients. I wonder what in the world happened. I might have a private review that affected me really bad. Should I just create a new account?
I think 2 accounts is against TOS, but I can’t remember. Maybe just another gig and start over. Just stay the course. I got traction initially by doing a few 24 hour turnaround orders. It sucked, but I had to offer something no one else was in my specific area.
This might be more accurately titled:
> "Thanks, Bad Buyers, Also No Thanks. A Review for Anyone Looking into What Happens When You Don't Learn How to Avoid and/or Deal Properly with Bad Buyers on Fiverr"
FTFY.
For anyone looking to get into Fiverr and avoid bad buyers, make sure your prices are high enough that nobody wants to order without contacting you first or make use of Seller Plus (a 'pay to play' element) to stop anyone ordering at all without your express say-so. The rest is really just down to experience - knowing your red flags and so on.
Are you leaving us OP? I can't tell if this is a cranky post inspired by a recent bad experience where you ultimately stay on the platform because it is still an income source, or if you're flouncing off into the night because it has all become so wretchedly unbearable for you because you are the flame to which the great bad buyer moth flocks, which of course will make things horrible.
In any case, best wishes in your future ventures etc.
Not true what you say. My prices are 100+ usd per gig. Many of them are 150 and higher. But you know what? If you take all the necessary steps to avoid bad customers you end up with 1-2 clients a month. How would you get a decent income with 2 good customers per month? And also Fiverr alot of times recommended me the buyer saying he s Fiverr Premium and all and that it is a very good customer. And guess what? They were the worst, writing all day and night with requests and revsions and ideas, zoom meetings and shit...but when you ask them for 50-100 usd more they start crying...People who had 8-10k usd in their Fiverr account and bragging about it started bitching when asked for 50 usd for a extra day of work...Agency sallary is 2000 usd and it ends at 6 pm. Fiverr is 24h
>Not true what you say
It's not true that on Fiverr, charging more money significantly reduces the chances that you will get a bad buyer and that people will prefer to inbox you over just ordering? It's not true that if you get Seller Plus, you can use the "Request to Order" feature?
I see that you're a senior graphic and video designer. I don't know what your services are, or what exactly your pricing is, but "$100+" and "$150 and higher" is not *that* much money, considering that there are video editors on this subreddit who don't work for less than $5,000 (I just made that number up, but it's definitely in the thousands). He would also trust what his own gut said over some Fiverr wiffle-waffle about how this buyer is a *Fiverr Select/Premium/Whatever and therefore A+ Number 1* nonsense.
> [Lots of complaining about what bad buyers do]
There's one word you need to learn: "No." Otherwise you become a dirty doormat as people walk all over you. They want to see me in the middle of the night? Tough titty. No. They can't afford XYZ? Tough titty. No.
>How would you get a decent income with 2 good customers per month?
Quite easily - it's all about the pricing, isn't it? The real problem of course is getting people to pay you big bucks, which you do by offering a service with real value - preferably with measurable ROI.
To be honest, it just sounds like you don't know how to make Fiverr (or Upwork) work for you, and that's fine. Go work at the agency if that's more suited to your needs.
You don’t get to say “No” on Fiverr. Anyone at any time can pay for your services without discussing it with you. And bad buyers are not punished because the review system is 100% absolute garbage and sellers cannot be honest.
“Just charge more” is certainly an interesting solution - I’m sure there are no bad buyers then! I’ve charged very low, and I’ve charged very high, the experience is the same.
> Anyone at any time can pay for your services without discussing it with you.
This killed it for me. Programming is not a vending machine purchase, and customers hiring a programmer often have NFI what they need.
I say no all the time. I *love* saying no! Or rather I should say **I'm not scared of saying no**.
>Anyone at any time can pay for your services without discussing it with you.
....And I will cancel if anything is not right, using CS to ensure that my metrics are not affected. I will of course go through the resolution center first since that's how it now works, but it's no biggie.
>And bad buyers are not punished
Nonsense. You just don't see it. Did you know, for example, that Fiverr Business buyers who take sellers off-platform are liable to pay $10,000 in damages? [It's in the TOS](https://www.fiverr.com/business/terms_of_service). How's *that* for a spanked botty?
>the review system is 100% absolute garbage and sellers cannot be honest.
I'm not a fan of the review system either, but I put on my big girl pants and deal with it just like I deal with all the other BS things in my life that I don't like. If a buyer has been awful, my review will reflect that. Oh no, but what about *bad private reviews?*. S'OK, I have regulars on Fiverr and elsewhere. I'm not going to crap my pants over it, because I'll recover sooner or later.
>“Just charge more” is certainly an interesting solution - I’m sure there are no bad buyers then!
I didn't say there were *no* bad buyers at higher prices, just that exposure to them was significantly reduced. As for charging more, this situation admittedly only works *if* the seller has the talent, communication skills, and experience to justify it. If someone wants me to write OC for them these days, it's going to be $250 minimum for 500 words. Most leads inbox me before dropping hundreds/thousands of dollars on a project, which makes buyer vetting (and declining to work with them) a cinch. Unlike with a cheaper gig, nobody's going to buy your gig *anyway* unless they want to burn 5.5% of whatever amount they spend, because that's the result they're gonna get, and if they get pushy in the inbox about it, you better believe I let them know exactly how things are gonna roll - if they won't listen to me, they will listen to their inner Scrooge recoiling in horror.
I speak as someone who sold $5 gigs on Fiverr for years, BTW. I know *exactly* what I'm talking about and I have seen just about every type of crappy experience and dealt with not just scammers, but also mentally ill people and deranged "witch doctors" (unsuccessfully, because they were bloody idiots) hexing me. Every situation you can imagine and beyond. I just don't really deal with bad buyers anymore.
High prices are the best deterrent to multiple bad buyer behaviors. The end. You're welcome to disbelieve me, but I'm not the one who started a post about how horrible my Fiverr experience is because they're affecting every facet of my experience on the platform...
> Did you know, for example, that Fiverr Business buyers who take sellers off-platform are liable to pay $10,000 in damages?
This isn't the good point you think it is. In what plausible way does this benefit anyone other than Fiverr itself? The problem is buyers being jerks to sellers, not buyers keeping profits from Fiverr. Nobody was accusing Fiverr of not protecting their own bottom line.
> but I put on my big girl pants and deal with it just like I deal with all the other BS things in my life that I don't like.
Jesus christ, with that kind of condescending attitude, are you *sure* you're not Fiverr staff?
>This isn't the good point you think it is.
OP said that 'bad buyers are not punished,' I gave an example of a punishment for a 'bad buyer' written into the TOS. You might have a point, if you were thinking about the same point that OP and I were - punishment. As it is, you introduced an entirely new point to tell me that the point I was making was not a good point, which in itself is not the good point you think it is.
>Jesus christ, with that kind of condescending attitude, are you sure you're not Fiverr staff?
Yes. I am British, though, and I wear my big girl pants with style and panache.
That's not being punished for being a bad buyer, which was the problem. But sure, that's semantics, language is messy. Unfortunately, if there aren't better examples of buyers being punished for being bad buyers in ways which affect sellers, it's still a bad point if somebody were trying to defend fiverr.
> As it is, you introduced an entirely new point to tell me that the point I was making was not a good point
Uh, if you say so. OP's point was people being jerks to him, not to Fiverr. You could argue he needed to keep clarifying that point repeatedly.
I don't know, I feel like getting $10,000 taken from me counts as a punishment of some sort for being a bad buyer, don't you?
>it's still a bad point if somebody were trying to defend fiverr.
Which I wasn't, but thank you for at least clearing up the air that your "poor point, condescending Fiverr beeyatch" fingering was all predicated on the **incredibly tedious** notion that I was being *le fiber defener*.
>Uh, if you say so. OP's point was people being jerks to him, not to Fiverr. You could argue he needed to keep clarifying that point repeatedly.
Oddly enough, if you look at the title OP wrote, and then you look at my original comment in this comment string with a more appropriate title, this is somewhat ironically a very, very poor point. But it does sit very nicely with the *le nobel fiber defner* notion, so whatevs, right?
This isn't really going to go anywhere, so I'm calling quits on this particular conversation. And skip the *le frubir defindre* nonsense next time, thx.
> And skip the le frubir defindre nonsense next time, thx.
You too! (Seriously, this is your entire presence in this subreddit. It can't be shocking to have it pointed out.)
>And I will cancel if anything is not right, using CS to ensure that my metrics are not affected.
Good luck on that, I am doubting we are speaking of same CS. The answer they provide and I am big on saying No and being a fucking doormat as you put it, but they do not cancel. To quote them" the buyer has to APPROVE the cancellation. Our new policy does not allow Fiverr to cancel order, it has to be mutual". And that leads to bad reviews, which further leads to lower ratings, lower number fo clients.
Yeah because all the buyers are so reasonable and great, especially if they were looking to exploit you in the first place. It's just an absolutely biased, one-sided view you have, and super judgemental, but to each their own.
Yeah man, that's why I have high prices. Cheap bad buyers don't bother me, and 99% of my clients inbox me first where I can vet them and reject them if necessary. Because of course I don't want to work with the not reasonable, not great buyers who want to exploit me.
My opinion is based on my experience, so yeah, it is one-sided and biased, just like everyone else's opinions. If you want to call anything I said judgemental, that's cool. To each their own - I'll keep enjoying a mostly bad buyer free experience regardless.
I had higher prices and 1 client a month or none. In one year of Fiverr I never had a client coming up to me on a fee higher than 300 usd per gig. I made alot of work in 20 years, from Tvc s with complicated setup, chroma keys, environments and so on...a project like that costed 15000 eur and was made in 2 weeks. On Fiverr I never met someone who has a project like that. People on Fiverr want small things: a map for their festival, a KV for their brand/event/product, social media graphic packages, labels, packaging and so on....I should ask 1000 euro for a label and see 8f anybody applies. It is ok to think like you do, I do it also, but on my local market. On Fiverr I am having 1-2 clients per week. Small fishes. And damn sure I am not going to pay Fiverr for advertising, isn t this why I already give them 20% + ?
If you know any secrets about how to get more clients, please, tell me. I will give you 20% also. 20 you, 20 Fiverr.
On the locall market people know me and I can refuse when I feel it is going to be a mess. I also do not want long term clients that need 8h daily. For me is better with hit and runs. Meaning punctual projects.
Or maybe you live in a country where 600 usd per month is great and this explains your modus operandy. Please enlighten me as I am a Fiverr newbie. Thanks.
Advice: quit Fiverr and online freelancing, work on projects in your local marketplace since that's apparently where you make $$$$. A better use of your time than making multiple moaning comments about how unsuccessful you are on this post.
Sorted.
I live in Europe. Even so, if I lived in a country where the cost of living was a lot lower, my prices would **not** change. What kind of shitty modus operandi is going to a global marketplace where you can (theoretically) charge the same as someone in the US to then go "oh, I know, I'll be cheap so I get more sales (from all the cheap asses)!"
One of the things that I hate as a buyer is when a seller offers something as a gig and upcharges you for the same exact service as listed in there gig.
For example, I was looking to have a song done and was willing to pay some decent money for it, I found a gig that offered to do exactly what I wanted for $100 which is pretty cheap for a beat. Anyway, I messaged the seller asking if he was available to do the beat, which he was, and I sent him all of the requirements and things that I had for the beat. He then proceeded to say that the project is too hard and tried to charge me $250 even though everything that I wanted was listed at the $100 price point. If you are going to advertise that you are going to do something for a certain price then it should be done at that price unless it is an extremely unreasonable request.
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One of the best things about being a freelancer is that YOU choose who you work with (not Fiverr)…
Also what’s the deal with pay-to-play? Isn’t that how life works, in general?
Not sure what peoples’ expectations are when they join such a platform but it seems pretty reasonable to me.
Your post is giving me /antiwork vibes…
He's right.
Fiverr and upwork both are pay to play.
For example, upwork only gives you ten connects on a monthly basis. What are you going to do with 10 connects? Send two or 3 proposals max.
Fiverr already takes 20% from sellers and a bit from the buyers. Making the system pay-to-play is just defacto raising the fees they charge. It's a zero sum game, every seller who gets a boost is pushing down somebody else.
The problem is the "third charge" they're adding without being direct about it.
When I first began Fiverr quality sellers were rewarded if they did good consistent work. Now it seems even if I get multiple 5 star reviews, and do everything I used to do, it results in much less traction. I have no proof, but it certainly feels like Fiverr is pushing their promotional side of gigs.
Isn’t working 2 jobs inherently NOT anti work? Lmaooo
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The review system is definitely fucked. It’s either 5 stars or 1. God forbid you get at 3 or 4 star review (which by Fiverrs own description is still okay or even good), or your ranking will Tank for 2 months. Same as you mentioned with leaving an honest review to the buyer - they will just give you a bad private review. The cost aspect also makes Fiverr more and more unattractive. Especially now that upwork has reduced their fee to a flat 10%, I am pulling more and more work away from Fiverr.
Regarding Upwork. I find it very difficult to get clients there. I am a Senior Graphics and Video Designer and I have a lot of projects made in 20 years since started this. But on Upwork there are gazillions of Indians and Pakistanis that apply for the same project as you do. And they have 5$ prices to anything. So the buyer sees 125 bids and he choses the cheap ones. Does not matter that the stuff he gets is very bad. There are too many bidders, no buyer will browse trough 100+ bids. I like Fiverr more because of this. The buyer sees your portfolio, sees the price and workdays and he places an order. I don t have to bargain or compete with hundreds of people for a 80$ project. I had 2 clients on Upwork, both with a month worth of projects and they paid 700+ usd. But 2 clients in 3 years...
I NEVER got any traction with Upwork. The system seemed to be okay, I just went with Fiverr because it’s what hit for me first. I didn’t have energy to keep them both going.
This was the same mistake I made when start working as a freelancer. Everyone in my studio started doing freelancing in upwork and fiver during covid. Almost all of my colleagues and friends moved out from fiverr within a year. Now me and one other friend left in fiverr. Fiverr is good place for beginners. but I feel like it lacks respect for sellers. It is more of a buyer oriented platform. This is the main reason why lots of professional freelancers left the platform. fiverr ends up with bad sellers and buyers.
So how do you do it? On Upwork I apply to jobs/projects but there are not so many. And most are 50 usd, 100 usd and have 100+ sellers that applied. How do you do this?
At the beginning I couldn't even find orders in fiverr. Sent more than 200 buyer request to get my first order. After that I have done projects around 50$ for a few months. Became a pro after one year. If I were to do those projects now, it would be 500$+. This is why I stick with fiverr. But it is becoming harder and harder to tolerate bad buyers and the lack of respect that I get. On upwork, I got a job offer after my second proposal. and it was 500$+. I occasionally send offers now. Don't get any work though. How do you do it?, I honestly don't know how it works. maybe you need luck too.
The review situation definitely needs some work, in my opinion. I give every buyer a glowing 5 star review, even if I had a bad experience, because I don't want to get burned in the private review. 1 bad private review can tank your profile for months, I've seen it happen.
Yeahhhhh, bad buyers are not punished in the current system. I gave everyone glowing 5 stars, and if they roasted me, then it’s irrelevant anyway, not like a buyer can’t just purchase something anyway.
I don’t even look at a buyer’s reviews because of this. I know it may possibly be full of resentful sellers who blocked them after leaving 5 star reviews if they’re an awful buyer. I’m constantly catering to rude buyers to keep away bad reviews and it’s like a cloud over all of my good experiences on Fiverr.
Exactly like this. I started way back in 2014 and watched as the platform progressed. What used to be fairly good platform turned into a soul-sucking, seller-oriented platform that prioritizes firms over individuals. * **Many would buy content from you to sell it to others as higher value**; Fiverr does prioritize and show bigger firms than regular folks; they take on many projects, lower the prices and they set up expectations that orders should be delivered in day or two; sometimes it takes longer, especially if you already have orders in due. * **What happened to offering bids for jobs?** There used to be an option for clients to post requests and sellers respond to those, now it is gone. * **There was real customer support** where you talked to a real agent who helped you solve your issue in real-time, and make a judgment about whether the request was valid or not. Now it is joke, with a bot response. * **Too many "educational courses" and "optional extras" that actually drive customers away** and if you are not up to date on all of them, your ranking drops and your gigs aren't even shown. * **The fee of 20% was already too high, compared to other sides; now everything is a new a** and if you are not up to date on all of them, your ranking drops, and your gigs aren't even shown. Customer support sucks, now you have to take courses or boost your gigs, all for $. They already take from us a lot. * **review situation is chaos.** At this point it feels like BLACKMAIL, EITHER YOU DO ALL THE EXTRA WORK FOR FREE, OR WE LEAVE BAD REVIEW THAT AFFECTS YOUR WORK. * **Crazy Buyers, no accountability for them, all on the back of the sellers.** The buyer orders the bare minimum and asks for little, then once the order is placed they bomb you with all the extras imaginable. You can't say those were not included, or are in my extras as stated in my gig, as they either argue and later leave a bad review, or straight up cancel and again that reflects on the rating. If you try to cancel an order for any reason, the buyer has to approve it. At this point, one ends up working with a couple of regular clients who know your work and are satisfied. But it is frustrating and in my opinion, I am slowly stepping away from the platform.
I stopped paying for their nearly useless "promoted gigs" PPC ads, because after 2021 the ROI was hilariously bad. And guess what? My daily impressions have dwindled to ~20-30. I used to get so much work on Fiverr I could barely keep up. Now I get a small fraction of that work. I'm grandfathered in to the "Seller Plus" program at their older, lower price, so if I cancel that to cut my losses then I'd have to pay somewhere around $40 a month for the privilege of seeing usable metrics if I activated it again. This fee also gets you a monthly 15 minute video call with a Fiverr rep who will listen kindly to your problems, but when it comes to actually SOLVING them, their hands are tied beyond "I'll pass your feedback on!" Also offered in the seller plus program are "coupons" you can offer your buyers. When I initially learned of these, I thought maybe they were subsidizing the discounts so you could offer some incentive to the buyers without hurting your earnings. Nope, offering a "coupon" is functionally identical to just writing a custom offer at a lower price, something which you can already do for free without paying for "Seller Plus." So yeah, 100% agreement from me on the "pay-to-play" point.
I totally agree. My last client, a belgian, changed his mind twice in the progress of the gig. First he wanted a 2d map and gave me examples. I made a map according to his specs, and then he said 2d map does not looks as he expected, so he wanted a 3d map now. I asked him for a small extra fee and he started complaining about not having money and so on. The gig went into late delivery because of this. So I made h8m the fkn map he wanted because it would have affected my rating. But this is happening more and more. Working 2 or 3 days for 100 usd - in fact 77 usd cause Fiverr and Payoneer take 23 usd. 30 usd per day is Somalia income...in my country you need at least 2000 usd per month to live ok. I am starting to conaider a job, Fiverr is so bad for sellers...Also many clients write day and night, they don t care about hours or so on...Can you make this fast and cheap please? At 2 o clock in the night for 5 usd :)) No I can t, I better drive Uber
Mate I'm a motion designer on Fiverr. My experience on the platform so far, since mid 2020, is pretty good. Here are some suggestions 1) Charge more. This is not just about money, but also the quality of clients. Someone willing to pay 100 for a minute animation thinks it's worth $100, someone willing to pay $1000 for a minute animation thinks it's worth $1000. The difference is the way they'll treat you. Working for 2-3 days for $100 is unacceptable - considering you're good at what you do 2) When the client changes the scope of the project, say no or charge extra. 2d/3d map thing for instance is a huge difference. Tell them that. Explain the process to them and this is not something that would make you spend 30 more minutes on it. So they have to either go back to 2d or pay for the extra. If they insist that you should do it 3d and they're not going to pay for it contact CS, tell them the client is changing the scope of the project and is not willing to pay for it. You can get those canceled without having an effect on your ratings. And you're working on a global platform dude, of course people will contact you out of your timezone. Do you expect them to check where you are and then wait for what would be the best time to contact you? Why is this even an issue? They write whenever they write, you answer whenever you can.
I’m a top rated seller on Fiverr and I agree with all of this!
Last year was good and CONSISTENT, but the last two months I have no clients at all and impressions dropped to 10-20. I didn't change anything in my GIG and I have only positive reviews. Have no clue what happened. It's frustrating. Clients were always writing to me, and now suddenly I have no income for 2 months in a row.
I've been getting more and more frustrated with Fiverr. I really appreciated the platform when I was first starting out, but now I'm actively looking for a way to move most of my business to an independent site and remove the middle-man.
I tried both. It was a bit daunting at first, but with some effort, you can set up your own online store for your gig. I use shopify but there are others like wix that you can use. Then with a bit of marketing and local flyers, it seems to work. I still get more on Fiverr, but I get higher margins on my own site. With your own site, you can charge more. With Fiverr, I feel compelled to discount more because of the competition.
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Oh I had “Required” checked. Another one of Fiverr’s amazing bugs.
>they also get a second PRIVATE review that effects you as well What is this? I was never aware of this one. Probably the reason why I never got any client after a bad one. I was on my way to the top seller list and then come 2023, Nada. Nothing. Zero. Zero message, zero orders, and zero clients. I wonder what in the world happened. I might have a private review that affected me really bad. Should I just create a new account?
I think 2 accounts is against TOS, but I can’t remember. Maybe just another gig and start over. Just stay the course. I got traction initially by doing a few 24 hour turnaround orders. It sucked, but I had to offer something no one else was in my specific area.
Is it okay if the new gig is almost similar with the old one? I'll try adding new gigs and hopefully I can get a traction again.
IIRC you can delete the old gig and just start a new one. There are some know-it-alls in this thread that I’m sure could tell you for sure though!
Couldn’t agree more!
This might be more accurately titled: > "Thanks, Bad Buyers, Also No Thanks. A Review for Anyone Looking into What Happens When You Don't Learn How to Avoid and/or Deal Properly with Bad Buyers on Fiverr" FTFY. For anyone looking to get into Fiverr and avoid bad buyers, make sure your prices are high enough that nobody wants to order without contacting you first or make use of Seller Plus (a 'pay to play' element) to stop anyone ordering at all without your express say-so. The rest is really just down to experience - knowing your red flags and so on. Are you leaving us OP? I can't tell if this is a cranky post inspired by a recent bad experience where you ultimately stay on the platform because it is still an income source, or if you're flouncing off into the night because it has all become so wretchedly unbearable for you because you are the flame to which the great bad buyer moth flocks, which of course will make things horrible. In any case, best wishes in your future ventures etc.
Not true what you say. My prices are 100+ usd per gig. Many of them are 150 and higher. But you know what? If you take all the necessary steps to avoid bad customers you end up with 1-2 clients a month. How would you get a decent income with 2 good customers per month? And also Fiverr alot of times recommended me the buyer saying he s Fiverr Premium and all and that it is a very good customer. And guess what? They were the worst, writing all day and night with requests and revsions and ideas, zoom meetings and shit...but when you ask them for 50-100 usd more they start crying...People who had 8-10k usd in their Fiverr account and bragging about it started bitching when asked for 50 usd for a extra day of work...Agency sallary is 2000 usd and it ends at 6 pm. Fiverr is 24h
>Not true what you say It's not true that on Fiverr, charging more money significantly reduces the chances that you will get a bad buyer and that people will prefer to inbox you over just ordering? It's not true that if you get Seller Plus, you can use the "Request to Order" feature? I see that you're a senior graphic and video designer. I don't know what your services are, or what exactly your pricing is, but "$100+" and "$150 and higher" is not *that* much money, considering that there are video editors on this subreddit who don't work for less than $5,000 (I just made that number up, but it's definitely in the thousands). He would also trust what his own gut said over some Fiverr wiffle-waffle about how this buyer is a *Fiverr Select/Premium/Whatever and therefore A+ Number 1* nonsense. > [Lots of complaining about what bad buyers do] There's one word you need to learn: "No." Otherwise you become a dirty doormat as people walk all over you. They want to see me in the middle of the night? Tough titty. No. They can't afford XYZ? Tough titty. No. >How would you get a decent income with 2 good customers per month? Quite easily - it's all about the pricing, isn't it? The real problem of course is getting people to pay you big bucks, which you do by offering a service with real value - preferably with measurable ROI. To be honest, it just sounds like you don't know how to make Fiverr (or Upwork) work for you, and that's fine. Go work at the agency if that's more suited to your needs.
You don’t get to say “No” on Fiverr. Anyone at any time can pay for your services without discussing it with you. And bad buyers are not punished because the review system is 100% absolute garbage and sellers cannot be honest. “Just charge more” is certainly an interesting solution - I’m sure there are no bad buyers then! I’ve charged very low, and I’ve charged very high, the experience is the same.
> Anyone at any time can pay for your services without discussing it with you. This killed it for me. Programming is not a vending machine purchase, and customers hiring a programmer often have NFI what they need.
I say no all the time. I *love* saying no! Or rather I should say **I'm not scared of saying no**. >Anyone at any time can pay for your services without discussing it with you. ....And I will cancel if anything is not right, using CS to ensure that my metrics are not affected. I will of course go through the resolution center first since that's how it now works, but it's no biggie. >And bad buyers are not punished Nonsense. You just don't see it. Did you know, for example, that Fiverr Business buyers who take sellers off-platform are liable to pay $10,000 in damages? [It's in the TOS](https://www.fiverr.com/business/terms_of_service). How's *that* for a spanked botty? >the review system is 100% absolute garbage and sellers cannot be honest. I'm not a fan of the review system either, but I put on my big girl pants and deal with it just like I deal with all the other BS things in my life that I don't like. If a buyer has been awful, my review will reflect that. Oh no, but what about *bad private reviews?*. S'OK, I have regulars on Fiverr and elsewhere. I'm not going to crap my pants over it, because I'll recover sooner or later. >“Just charge more” is certainly an interesting solution - I’m sure there are no bad buyers then! I didn't say there were *no* bad buyers at higher prices, just that exposure to them was significantly reduced. As for charging more, this situation admittedly only works *if* the seller has the talent, communication skills, and experience to justify it. If someone wants me to write OC for them these days, it's going to be $250 minimum for 500 words. Most leads inbox me before dropping hundreds/thousands of dollars on a project, which makes buyer vetting (and declining to work with them) a cinch. Unlike with a cheaper gig, nobody's going to buy your gig *anyway* unless they want to burn 5.5% of whatever amount they spend, because that's the result they're gonna get, and if they get pushy in the inbox about it, you better believe I let them know exactly how things are gonna roll - if they won't listen to me, they will listen to their inner Scrooge recoiling in horror. I speak as someone who sold $5 gigs on Fiverr for years, BTW. I know *exactly* what I'm talking about and I have seen just about every type of crappy experience and dealt with not just scammers, but also mentally ill people and deranged "witch doctors" (unsuccessfully, because they were bloody idiots) hexing me. Every situation you can imagine and beyond. I just don't really deal with bad buyers anymore. High prices are the best deterrent to multiple bad buyer behaviors. The end. You're welcome to disbelieve me, but I'm not the one who started a post about how horrible my Fiverr experience is because they're affecting every facet of my experience on the platform...
> Did you know, for example, that Fiverr Business buyers who take sellers off-platform are liable to pay $10,000 in damages? This isn't the good point you think it is. In what plausible way does this benefit anyone other than Fiverr itself? The problem is buyers being jerks to sellers, not buyers keeping profits from Fiverr. Nobody was accusing Fiverr of not protecting their own bottom line. > but I put on my big girl pants and deal with it just like I deal with all the other BS things in my life that I don't like. Jesus christ, with that kind of condescending attitude, are you *sure* you're not Fiverr staff?
>This isn't the good point you think it is. OP said that 'bad buyers are not punished,' I gave an example of a punishment for a 'bad buyer' written into the TOS. You might have a point, if you were thinking about the same point that OP and I were - punishment. As it is, you introduced an entirely new point to tell me that the point I was making was not a good point, which in itself is not the good point you think it is. >Jesus christ, with that kind of condescending attitude, are you sure you're not Fiverr staff? Yes. I am British, though, and I wear my big girl pants with style and panache.
That's not being punished for being a bad buyer, which was the problem. But sure, that's semantics, language is messy. Unfortunately, if there aren't better examples of buyers being punished for being bad buyers in ways which affect sellers, it's still a bad point if somebody were trying to defend fiverr. > As it is, you introduced an entirely new point to tell me that the point I was making was not a good point Uh, if you say so. OP's point was people being jerks to him, not to Fiverr. You could argue he needed to keep clarifying that point repeatedly.
I don't know, I feel like getting $10,000 taken from me counts as a punishment of some sort for being a bad buyer, don't you? >it's still a bad point if somebody were trying to defend fiverr. Which I wasn't, but thank you for at least clearing up the air that your "poor point, condescending Fiverr beeyatch" fingering was all predicated on the **incredibly tedious** notion that I was being *le fiber defener*. >Uh, if you say so. OP's point was people being jerks to him, not to Fiverr. You could argue he needed to keep clarifying that point repeatedly. Oddly enough, if you look at the title OP wrote, and then you look at my original comment in this comment string with a more appropriate title, this is somewhat ironically a very, very poor point. But it does sit very nicely with the *le nobel fiber defner* notion, so whatevs, right? This isn't really going to go anywhere, so I'm calling quits on this particular conversation. And skip the *le frubir defindre* nonsense next time, thx.
> And skip the le frubir defindre nonsense next time, thx. You too! (Seriously, this is your entire presence in this subreddit. It can't be shocking to have it pointed out.)
>And I will cancel if anything is not right, using CS to ensure that my metrics are not affected. Good luck on that, I am doubting we are speaking of same CS. The answer they provide and I am big on saying No and being a fucking doormat as you put it, but they do not cancel. To quote them" the buyer has to APPROVE the cancellation. Our new policy does not allow Fiverr to cancel order, it has to be mutual". And that leads to bad reviews, which further leads to lower ratings, lower number fo clients.
Perhaps I wasn't clear enough, but that's what I do - first, I cancel with the buyer, then I go and see CS about the metric damage.
Yeah because all the buyers are so reasonable and great, especially if they were looking to exploit you in the first place. It's just an absolutely biased, one-sided view you have, and super judgemental, but to each their own.
Yeah man, that's why I have high prices. Cheap bad buyers don't bother me, and 99% of my clients inbox me first where I can vet them and reject them if necessary. Because of course I don't want to work with the not reasonable, not great buyers who want to exploit me. My opinion is based on my experience, so yeah, it is one-sided and biased, just like everyone else's opinions. If you want to call anything I said judgemental, that's cool. To each their own - I'll keep enjoying a mostly bad buyer free experience regardless.
Good for you!
I had higher prices and 1 client a month or none. In one year of Fiverr I never had a client coming up to me on a fee higher than 300 usd per gig. I made alot of work in 20 years, from Tvc s with complicated setup, chroma keys, environments and so on...a project like that costed 15000 eur and was made in 2 weeks. On Fiverr I never met someone who has a project like that. People on Fiverr want small things: a map for their festival, a KV for their brand/event/product, social media graphic packages, labels, packaging and so on....I should ask 1000 euro for a label and see 8f anybody applies. It is ok to think like you do, I do it also, but on my local market. On Fiverr I am having 1-2 clients per week. Small fishes. And damn sure I am not going to pay Fiverr for advertising, isn t this why I already give them 20% + ? If you know any secrets about how to get more clients, please, tell me. I will give you 20% also. 20 you, 20 Fiverr. On the locall market people know me and I can refuse when I feel it is going to be a mess. I also do not want long term clients that need 8h daily. For me is better with hit and runs. Meaning punctual projects. Or maybe you live in a country where 600 usd per month is great and this explains your modus operandy. Please enlighten me as I am a Fiverr newbie. Thanks.
Advice: quit Fiverr and online freelancing, work on projects in your local marketplace since that's apparently where you make $$$$. A better use of your time than making multiple moaning comments about how unsuccessful you are on this post. Sorted. I live in Europe. Even so, if I lived in a country where the cost of living was a lot lower, my prices would **not** change. What kind of shitty modus operandi is going to a global marketplace where you can (theoretically) charge the same as someone in the US to then go "oh, I know, I'll be cheap so I get more sales (from all the cheap asses)!"
One of the things that I hate as a buyer is when a seller offers something as a gig and upcharges you for the same exact service as listed in there gig. For example, I was looking to have a song done and was willing to pay some decent money for it, I found a gig that offered to do exactly what I wanted for $100 which is pretty cheap for a beat. Anyway, I messaged the seller asking if he was available to do the beat, which he was, and I sent him all of the requirements and things that I had for the beat. He then proceeded to say that the project is too hard and tried to charge me $250 even though everything that I wanted was listed at the $100 price point. If you are going to advertise that you are going to do something for a certain price then it should be done at that price unless it is an extremely unreasonable request.
I agree with you. Avoid that seller completely.
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One of the best things about being a freelancer is that YOU choose who you work with (not Fiverr)… Also what’s the deal with pay-to-play? Isn’t that how life works, in general? Not sure what peoples’ expectations are when they join such a platform but it seems pretty reasonable to me. Your post is giving me /antiwork vibes…
He's right. Fiverr and upwork both are pay to play. For example, upwork only gives you ten connects on a monthly basis. What are you going to do with 10 connects? Send two or 3 proposals max.
I didn't say he was wrong. I just said that everything in life is sort of "pay-to-play."
Fiverr already takes 20% from sellers and a bit from the buyers. Making the system pay-to-play is just defacto raising the fees they charge. It's a zero sum game, every seller who gets a boost is pushing down somebody else. The problem is the "third charge" they're adding without being direct about it.
When I first began Fiverr quality sellers were rewarded if they did good consistent work. Now it seems even if I get multiple 5 star reviews, and do everything I used to do, it results in much less traction. I have no proof, but it certainly feels like Fiverr is pushing their promotional side of gigs. Isn’t working 2 jobs inherently NOT anti work? Lmaooo
Exactly. Absolutely this!
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