How to Boost Your Profits with Fiverr

What business owner doesn’t occasionally need some extra help meeting deadlines? And what about those tasks where you or those on your team simply do not have the time or skillset necessary to complete the project?

Several freelancing platforms can provide an affordable pool of talented people. Some of these tend to target skills like coders or designers while other sources provide the opportunity to find more diverse skills.

This article is about how to boost your profit with support from Fiver workers. Fiverr is one of the top freelance websites offering services representing almost every skill imaginable. Fiver has been an effective addition to my businesses. I have been buying Fiverr gigs, since 2012.

Fiverr History

Fiverr, founded in 2010, has its headquarters in Israel, and shares of company stock trade on the NYSE: FVRR. Originally, the cost of a gig was $5, with a business model matching its trade name. Later it changed the cost structure from $5 per gig and allowed freelancers to set their own prices for the work they do.

Even during a global pandemic, in the second-quarter of 2020, Fiverr’s revenue grew 82% year on year. The number of active buyers increased by 28% during the same period. But along with this recent healthy growth, there have been criticisms over the years.

Past Criticisms

A Wikipedia article criticizes Fiverr for providing very cheap, low-quality services, and for providing poor customer service. In 2015 Amazon took legal action against Fiverr and 1,100 of their sellers for providing fake product reviews. And In 2017, the same article criticizes Fiver for portraying unhealthy living and excesses in work behaviors as ideals to live up to.

A Realistic Review of Criticisms

I find it difficult to understand how a platform operator like Fiverr could make unhealthy demands on sellers who have no direct supervision from Fiverr, live all over the world, are free to work in traditional jobs or use any of the other freelance platforms readily available to them.

As for unethical sellers providing phony reviews, anytime there are visible measures of achievement, there are those willing to sell short cuts to meet the requirements. To make this scam work, there must also be a ready supply of unethical buyers who are willing to buy their accomplishments versus working for them.

There’s good news, none of these scams will last long. As soon whoever is responsible for measuring the accomplishment finds someone is gaming the rules, they will change the requirements. The unethical buyer will lose any advantage they bought and the unethical seller will move on to their next new scam. No policing type effort on the part of a freelance platform will change this aspect of human nature.

As I write this, Fiverr has a B rating at the Better Business Bureau. While that’s not a stellar rating, it not horrible for a company that referees disputes between its own buyers and sellers. Every dispute will guarantee there is at least one unhappy person. I haven’t found it written in Fiverr’s payments, terms, or conditions, but it’s commonly accepted that in disputes, Fiverr sides with the buyers.

The Starting Price Issue

The last criticism was cheap, low quality services. I think the very low $5 starting price leftover from earlier days, can cause issues for both buyers and sellers. This low-cost starting point can cause less than positive experiences for buyers when compared with higher starting prices at some freelance platforms.

Let’s face it, $5 isn’t much for tasks requiring any special skills. Visions of having your pick of 100s of low cost highly trained workers have caused some buyers to expect a turnkey full featured response at rates even third world workers can’t deliver on time or on budget.

Who doesn’t enjoy getting a great deal with their purchases? But picking a $5 gig when you know your requirements are easily worth $50 or more is sure to cause issues. You’ll be unhappy when the seller provides one-tenth of the work you were expecting for your project. The seller will be unhappy when you ask for endless revisions. And both of you will be unhappy when you ask Fiverr to resolve the conflict.

Setting Realistic Expectations

Fiverr buyers will have better results with their purchases when they are realistic about their needs and about the time and skills the seller will provide. I consider myself to be a careful buyer of goods and services. I look for value in my purchases, not necessarily for the cheapest price.

I’ve purchased more logo designs than I can count, for my use and my clients. I have bought other gigs from Fiverr’s freelancers for technical help, clerical support, data entry, article writing, SEO, copywriting, graphics design, and artwork. I’m sure there are a few other types of gigs I have forgotten.

Here’s an example to illustrate my point about the possibility of a difference in the expectations between gig buyers and sellers. I searched for “build a website”. There were over 110,000 results with prices ranging from $5 to $11,350. There were 13 sellers offering websites starting at $10,000 with a total of almost 100 buyer ratings from this group. The average fee to build a website on the day I searched was between $1,500 and $5,000.00.

I blame the $5 history of Fiverr for the obvious disconnect between what a buyer of a $5 website can expect to receive and what a seller of a $5 website can produce. Logic, or possibly your mother, should tell you not to expect much from a $5 website. In fact, at most mainstream providers who design and build websites, the starting prices would be in the hundreds of dollars for a small very basic website.

Ease of Use

Getting to a mutual understanding of the deliverables is one key step to a successful gig. The fiver platform is easy to use and promotes good communication between the parties. Sign up is quick and painless. The search function quickly provides a prospective buyer with a listing of sellers based on the search criteria. And to fine-tune the search, there’s a robust filter system with choices like budget range, seller details, and delivery times.

Once you have a list of sellers who appear to do the work you need, Fiverr makes it easy to communicate with those on your list. You will want to ask questions and clearly outline for prospective sellers what you need, using the provided inbox and messaging. Treat this stage of the process like a job interview, because it is.

Once you have chosen the seller and paid for the gig, waiting for delivery starts. The gig contains expected delivery time and Fiverr follows up for delivery. After delivery, the buyer will either approve the gig or if there are revisions, ask for any needed changes.

Wrap up

I have worked with some of the same Fiverr sellers for years. I treat each seller as a valued part of my team and I look at Fiverr as my temp agency.

Having a reliable resource for skilled support has helped me to compete with larger organizations. And only having these resources available on an as-needed basis gives my profit picture a boost.

If you are realistic about your needs along with the effort and skill required to meet these needs and you’re willing to pay fairly for the work, I think you’ll find Fiverr is a valuable source the next time you  need skilled workers.