TylerCruz.com: An Internet Entrepreneur's JourneyThe journal of a web entrepreneur on his journey to wealth.

10 Tips to Making Money on Fiverr

A year and a half ago I decided to try becoming a seller on Fiverr out of monetary desperation. 18 months later, I am now a Level 2 seller with a flawless rating and have made $9,000 CAD from Fiverr as a seller, $1,800 of which was made just a couple of months ago for an average of $60/day.

I did this by creating a new gig account for a skill of which I am actually not very skilled. In fact, when I started, I was a complete newbie! I learned as I went along!

With my credentials set, here are my 10 tips to making money on Fiverr as a seller:

#1. You NEED to Have a 5/5 Rating

Similar to Airbnb, if a seller on Fiverr has an average rating of anything less than 5/5, it means that they are to be avoided like the plague. Even a 4.5/5 rating average won’t do (although you still have a chance).

As such, your number #1 priority should always be to have a 5/5 rating, at all costs. Did you just spent 7 hours designing a fantastic logo, but your client doesn’t like it? Or perhaps they “like” it but it’s only satisfactory? Keep working until they are ecstatic or else cancel the gig. The clients would want their Graphic Design Service Subscription to be worthy. And, yes, you’ll have wasted 7 hours of your time and be out money, but that is just how important it is to maintain a 5/5 rating.

If you dip below a 5, not only will you not be eligible to be a Level 1+ seller, but you will be seen as toxic towards potential buyers and it will be very hard to get more orders (but certainly doable).

#2. Start By Pricing Yourself at $5

When you’re starting out on Fiverr, you need to build up your number of reviews (as well as maintain a 5-star rating). The more reviews you have, the more people will trust and hire you. More reviews will also improve your ranking in the Fiverr search results (my own observations). In addition, it will also pave your way to becoming a Level 1 seller.

In order to get reviews, you need to offer a deal. Most buyers on Fiverr are looking only to spend $5-10, so you need to cater to the largest crowd. Remember, in the beginning you’re simply after reviews – don’t think about the money yet as that comes later.

So yes – even if your gig is actually “worth” $150, if you have no reviews, I would price it at $5. Otherwise, you might wait a literal 2-3 years before you even get a single order. Once you have a few reviews under your belt then you can consider raising your price ever-so-slightly.

#3. Work (Mostly) on Spec

In order to “guarantee” a 5-star rating, I typically work (mostly) on spec. By this I mean that I actually will start work before I have the client place an order, to make sure that they will be happy with the final result. Sometimes I will finish it beforehand if it’s easy enough, but if it’s a more difficult order I will just start work on it then show it to them and if we’re on the right track then I’ll have them place the order.

This way, there are no surprises upon delivery, and the client is always happy (if they’re not, I will redo the project until they are or else cancel the order).

#4. Write a Compelling Description

When potential buyers look at your gig, they will be looking at 3 things: your price, your reviews and quantity of reviews, and your description (likely in that order).

We’ve already talked about pricing and reviews above, so the next thing you need to pay attention to is your description.

Fiverr only gives a limited amount of space for your description, so make sure you use it well. This is your last opportunity to close the sale, so make your description descriptive, accurate, and clear. Use bold and highlighting to make certain elements “pop”. Do this for your profile as well.

#5. Communicate Well

The prices I charge for my gig are double or quadruple those of others in my category, and one reason for this is that buyers know that they are working with a native English speaker when they hire me. You’d be surprised how poor most sellers are when it comes to communicating, and this causes fear and distrust for sellers. Oftentimes I’ll get gigs from buyers simply because they were talking to another seller and didn’t like how they were talking to them.

Even if English is your first language though, you still need to take the time to communicate well. That means responding quickly, always addressing everything a client brings up, and being polite and courteous.

Communicating well will almost certainly bring you a lot of repeat clients for this reason alone.

#6. Overdeliver

When a client receives service and a final product that surpasses their expectations, you can be sure that you will be given a glowing review, a new repeat client, and more often than not, a generous tip.

So how do you overdeliver? Basically go above and beyond every chance you get. For example, if your gig is to proofread written work for spelling and grammar, perhaps you can also throw in some suggestions on how the written work could be improved beyond just spelling and grammar as well. Maybe the writer was rambling on too much about one topic, or got some historical facts wrong – alert them to this and cite your sources.

This is just one example of how you can easily overdeliver, and there are always many opportunities to do this. Another common way of overdelivering is by completing the project extra fast/early – clients love this!

#7. Raise Your Prices over Time

You have to be very careful on this one, but you should increase your pricing over time if you are getting a lot of demand.

If you’re getting an average of 3+ orders a day (not just inquiries), it could be a sign that it might be a good time to increase your prices. In addition, once you hit Level 1 you should probably increase your prices, as well as when your Level 2, and again if you become a Top Rated Seller.

You can always lower your prices if you see a dramatic drop in orders, but you might be surprised what you can get away with. I suggest only making incremental increases to your prices though – this will vary depending on the complexity of your gig though.

I’ve risen my rates 5 times since I started… after the last increase, I noticed a definite drop in orders… but at the same time I’ve been busy with other things such as my blog so I don’t mind having less work.

#8. When in Doubt, Decline the Order

Sometimes you’ll be talking to a client and you’ll find yourself unsure as to whether you can complete the order to his/her liking or not. For example, you might have a transcription gig but the audio quality is poor and the speaker has a very accent. You think you can do it, but aren’t 100% sure and may mess up a bunch of words. If this were me, I would politely decline the order stating my concerns.

This way we avoid getting a poor rating. Plus, since you stated your reasons for cancelling, a lot of the time the buyer will reassure you that it’s okay and ask you to consider. For example, in the above scenario, the buyer may tell you that he understands the person has a strong accent and that it’s okay to get some words wrong. Then you can accept the order.

Or, perhaps you can do the gig, but have a bad feeling about the buyer. Maybe their English is terrible or they have been insanely slow in communicating with you. Or perhaps they sound quite demanding. When in doubt, decline the order – it’s not worth it.

#9. Give Yourself Enough Time

The more difficult gig, the more time you will need to give yourself. Always give yourself enough leeway so that if something comes up you will still be able to deliver on time.

As your Fiverr gig grows, you will also start to get multiple orders pending concurrently. Make sure that you can deliver on all of them within the allotted time. If you deliver a project over the deadline, the buyer has the opportunity of canceling the order and getting his money back, and it will hurt your ratings.

If you start getting so many orders that you are having difficulty completing them all in time, then raise your price or set your gig to automatically hide when you have X orders in the queue (this is an option you can set).

#10. Always Be Professional

I know that this is Fiverr and not some fortune 500 company you’re working at as am employee, but it’s still important to always be as professional as possible. Buyers will pick up on this and the more professional you are, the more likely they will be to come back to you again in the future.

It is also important to stay professional when things go sour. You will inevitably come across situations where you are in disagreement with a buyer. Remain cool and maintain your composure.

I’ve been in situations where the buyer and I have butted heads on things such as quote disagreements and misunderstandings, but I’ve always managed to resolve things by talking things out calmly and professionally.