The internet is making the world a global village. As clich? as that may sound, there are websites like Fiverr.com which make it easy to buy and sell web based services regardless of where you live on the globe.
If you see the value of this you've probably searched the web for Fiverr Reviews to see if it's worth your time to get into Fiverr. If you really want to know the good, bad and ugly, then you're in the right place. I wouldn't recommend joining Fiverr until you read our review. You've been warned!
What is Fiverr?
Fiverr is a global freelance marketing platform for clients and freelancers willing to buy and sell digital services, i.e ‘gigs'. Cofounders Shai Wininger and Micha Kaufman launched Fiverr.com, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, on February 1st 2010.
How Does Fiverr Work?
Fiver provides an online platform for freelancers (sellers) to sell digital services to clients. Initially freelancers (sellers) were only allowed to charge $5 for any gig performed on Fiverr. However, following a public outcry in 2014 by clients willing to pay more for better services, Fiverr lifted this condition. Freelancers can now set their price than $5 and also negotiate charges with clients (buyers).
How Do I Create My Fiverr profile?
With one Fiverr account, you can choose to either sell a service or buy one. Creating an account is totally free.
To Buy on Fiverr
Once you create an account, all you need to do is look for the service you would want a freelancer to do for you. You will then proceed and ”buy” the service. Once the billing goes through you can start engaging the seller for instructions.
Fiverr will hold the cost of the project until it is complete. After the work is done Fiverr pays the seller. The seller will only get your money once you confirm that the order is complete and you are okay with it. If not you can request for a refund. You have the option of paying through a debit card, credit card or PayPal.
To sell on Fiverr
Create an account and go to the sellers' dashboard and create a gig. Once you initiate this process, here are the steps you will follow
Step 1: Name your gig and select a category. You can choose from
- Graphics & Design
- Digital Marketing
- Writing & Translation
- Video & Animation
- Music & Audio
- Programming & Tech
- Business
- Fun & Lifestyle
You can view
Step 2: Create your gig package. Cable companies have packages or bundles, from basic, for example to premium. Well, so do sellers at Fiverr. You can create packages for your gigs, with each package having a select number of service attributes that make up the bundle. If you are a logo designer, for example, you can set the delivery time on your premium bundle to be faster. You will then set the pricing for each particular bundle accordingly.
Step 3: Describe your gig and create a FAQ sheet: you will have to give a detailed description of what your gig is all about. The description is the convincer. You can then post up your own FAQ segment that includes questions sellers might have about your gig.
Step 4: Tell your buyer what they will need to provide before you get started. If you are a business card designer, for example, here's where you tell the buyer the details that will go into the card.
Step 5: Add files: Add a gallery, video or documents that will showcase your previous work and what you can do for your clients.
Step 6: Publish: You are done! Once you publish your gig it will be live and you can now wait for a notification through the Fiverr app, email or phone.
Once you publish your gig Fiverr will give you a link to promote the gig. Then, you can use the link to, advertise the gig through social media, for example.
If any of this sounds way too complicated, there are much simpler ways of earning via sites like Swagbucks.com and Fusioncash.com. No profiles to develop over there. You can also work at home full time through My Best Work Home Recommendation.
How Do I Get Hired on Fiverr.com With No Experience?
Fiverr.com uses a percentage rating system, where you will be rated based on
- Positive rating
- Response rate
- Orders completed
- Delivered on time
Obviously, if you're new this will put you at a disadvantage.
How To Improve Your Chances Of Getting Hired On Fiverr:
- Embrace the $5. No matter how skilled you are, there are hundreds more like you on the site willing to charge the minimum $5. Build your profile, ensure 100% customer satisfaction. Eventually you will be able to charge more.
- Be as close to the truth as possible. Sure, you don't have a Master's Degree in IT but if you know the coding language inside out; why not bring in clients who prefer well educated coders? Just ensure you can back up your claim.
- Be unique and specific. Gain a competitive edge by providing unique services. You can do your research first before creating a gig and advertising it.
- Go all in while advertising your page. For instance, you can post the link you are provided with anywhere you can.
- Don't be boring. Make your profile fun and amazing to look at, while maintaining a healthy level of professionalism. There are lots of tools you can use, including slideshows and videos to showcase your talent.
- Fiverr has a ”Fiverr Pro” version of seller accounts where you can apply to be vetted. If you pass the vetting, the Pro status will be visible on your profile. You will stand a better chance of getting gigs if you achieve Pro status.
Keep in mind that there are other places where you can start making money with no experience such as Swagbucks.com and Fusioncash.com. The best part is, you can start earning today.
How Much Does Fiverr Charge Sellers & How Will I Get Paid?
Fiverr deducts 20% of the cost of any gig. If you have a balance in your seller account, you can withdraw it through either PayPal or the Fiverr Revenue Card. The Fiverr Revenue Card is a normal Payoneer card.
It takes 14 days for any payment to process, from the time you initiate the withdrawal procedure. If you are a Pro Seller, it will take half that time.
Fiverr Hacks, Tips and Tricks
Sure, you have an amazing profile and you have exhausted almost every feature designed to enhance your visibility. There are ways you can jump on the bandwagon in terms of securing buyers, including
Having a quick response time – This not only applies to project completion time, but also replying to inquiries. You can enhance this by downloading the Fiverr app and keeping the notification sounds always on.
Be a forum contributor – Post useful articles on Fiverr's forum page. If you are good at it, you will definitely create positive buzz.
Exceed Buyer Expectations – A popular trick with sellers is to over-deliver, giving something extra to the client, or even some sort of after-sale service.
Make your profile simple and clear – A client will probably go through tons of profiles before they come across yours. If your profile is not clear and straight to the point, they will just go to the next simpler one.
These tips and tricks are all speculative and do not a sure way of improving your earning potential with the website. I would, however, recommend Swagbucks.com or Fusioncash.com if you are looking for sure ways of earning from home. You can also check out My Best Work At Home Recommendation.
What We Like About Fiverr
Available Worldwide
Unlike so many work-at-home opportunities out there, Fiverr is available to anyone, anywhere, as long as the country you are working from supports Fiverr's payment options.
Convenient Payment System
If you are lucky to have PayPal and Payoneer services in your country, you can work with the website.
Fiverr Complaints
So now you know all the good stuff about Fiverr. But obviously there is always a bad side to sites like this. If you want to know the complaints against Fiverr then read on below. Don't join without reading these things since it can impact your decision.
The website is too crowded
Some would argue Fivver lets anyone and everyone in, including scammers. For instance, buyers complained of interacting with highly unprofessional people and people not living up to what they claim to do.
Quality is no longer a guarantee
There is absolutely no vetting process from application to posting gigs for sellers. That means there is no way of separating wheat from chaff. You get vetted if you want to achieve pro status.
Negative BBB status
If you're one of those people that judge companies solely on their BBB ratings, then you might want to know Fiverr's has an F at the time of this review.
Poor Customer Care
The website is there to make money. And since the people with the money are buyers, the customer care reps are there to serve them. Several sellers have complained of being able to easily get responses from customer service while acting as buyers.
Is Fiverr A Scam?
Fiverr is not a scam. All its shortcomings aside, It's a legitimate freelancer website, where you get to progressively build your profile on your way to earning a decent income from home.
As with any other crowded freelance marketplaces, you have to stand out. You have to possess the rare skills that will make clients come to you. People who have been successful at Fiverr have automated the services they provide, and are able to complete enough $5 orders to make their presence on the website financially feasible.
If you are looking for work at home opportunities where you can start earning immediately, you can head over to Swagbucks.com or Fusioncash.com. You can also check out My Top Work At Home Recommendation for the ultimate way to earn a full time income from home.
Well, that's my opinion regarding Fiverr. Do you have yours? Feel free to chime in. You can always leave your two cents' worth in the comments section below! We would love to hear from you.
All the Best
Eddy with a Y
A seller called Shine787 is a scam and took $1,600 for a project that they guarantee you to complete but never did and made me wait long time. Also, Fiverr stole $80 for just solving the case with the policy and not research properly or demonstrate genuine interest in helping me solve the situation to have my order completed or refunded to pay another developer with better reputation. Now I am interviewing developers in another app to spend another $1,600 for a job that Fiverr failed to service.
I decided to deactivate my account due to both, an extremely bad experience with a seller and Fiverr support, and the reputation out there of how easy it is to make scams on this site.
What hurts the most is that I did a lot of projects on Fiverr and I cannot trust their sellers or employees anymore. Because, it is easy to play with what does not belong to you right?
This experience opened my eyes and yes, they genuinely does not care about their users at all. Am doing a favor to whoever is reading this and use apps to buy services to completely avoid Fiverr.
Sorry to hear about your horrible experience with Fiverr. Like any marketplace there are good and bad people on it. Most people have positive experiences on this platform. But it doesn’t negate the bad ones. So I can totally sympathize with your complaint against them.
As a seller, Fiverr is a hostile place. I have reached Level Two status, and maintained a 5/5 feedback rating over hundreds of orders. Once you receive some seller status, it is trivial to have that removed by malicious buyers. In order to impact a seller’s rating, simply make several orders (or have others do it) with that seller and then cancel the orders. that’s all it takes. Fiverr support confirm that there is no way they can counter this.
The customer forums are heavily censored to mask the discontent among buyers and sellers.
It isn’t that you cannot find capable freelancers on Fiverr (after prolonged ferreting), but generally the management, developers, and support people are … how shall we say… not the brightest bunch. They’re interested in your money (high fees), not providing a service (generally low user satisfaction).
As someone who has used the site over a long period, I would recommend being very cautious on Fiverr, and definitely look at the alternatives. Also, don’t take my word for it. The Internet is awash with disgruntled Fiverr users; check out their BBB complaints!
Hi! I am considering hiring twistedweb123 to design my website and seo. He is top rated and says hes ambassador of Fiverr. What does that mean? Hes offering me a decent price but still a lot to lose, if he doesnt build me a good site and seo it. Id appreciate any advice.
Thanks,
Diane
His good rating means he’s done good work. It’s pretty straight forward. That said, SEO is something you do once and you’re done.
You’ll be applying SEO regularly to your content as you add new posts which you should be. So he may SEO the pages he adds and creates for you when designing the site. He may also add some SEO plugins. But you’ll need to keep doing SEO going forward. If you want to learn how to do that properly you should check out my top recommendation which teaches you how to build your own site and SEO it.
Please dons waste your time in fiverr, they are just a scam site, why? after i completed 57 projects with 5 star in this 2 years they said “You no longer meet the requirements for your current level.”, is it not funny?.
Sorry to hear about your experience. That sucks.
Milton: this is absolutely wrong. I have suffered a similar problem. Fiverr do not extend basic courtesy and respect toward the people making doing the work to earn them money (sellers). It is a company that is very hostile toward sellers.
Well, after reading both negative and positive comments/complaints, I must say that my involvement was bitter sweet. I was very Leary at first. I asked for a sample of what I needed. One seller was willing and she did it. Unfortunately the second seller didn’t. I didn’t trust the process. I needed to see what I was paying for first. I paid for both gigs. The on that gave me an example was very professional. Very detailed, creative, quick, and courteous. Her name is Shabz12. She’s awesome! The other one Queen I think she gave up I’m still waiting for a response. What she sent me was was amateur work 3 simple steps. The logo consisted of a square box, one swipe of pink paint and the wrong typography. I should have when called me Dear and hun. She is the reason why I’m here. How do I file a complaint for a refund?
I liked this Fiverr post. I use Fiverr all the time for anything form video intros to logo designs. There are plenty of things that you can hire a freelancer to do with the site. Totally agree with you that it’s not a perfect system and has some hiccups but over all it a great site. I’ll definitely use it again and again in the future.
Thanks for sharing your experience as a buyer.
Hi Eddy
Enjoyed your review of fiver, its been around for a long time and it does serve a purpose if you want some tasks done for cheap.
The only thing that I don’t like is the traffic gigs they are a complete scam, so to anybody who is looking to pay somebody on fiver for traffic, then I would recommend to stay well,clear of any of those gigs
All the traffic is just bots and will do your website more harm than good
There are however lots of really good gigs on there if you need any graphic design done. Some of the gigs can be really helpful for marketers who want to outsource some of the more tedious tasks or ant jobs that you cant do technically.
The best part is, as you pointed out, is that each advertiser has a rating score, which can really help you choose the right gig.
Great review and a very comprehensive over view of whats available on this website
Barry
Yeah I agree buying certain gigs like traffic is a waste of money. But the other gigs that are technical or graphic are good. So I agree with you.
HI Eddy, I have heard of Fiverr before and thought of it just a site you can buy a logo for $5. Didn’t know it’s a site for sellers and buyers for so many varied services!
So, it sounds like the business model of Upwork but with a $5’s limit. But now willing buyer and seller can negotiate a higher amount.
Its negative BBB status is a turned off for me. However, if I need a logo, I’ll probably get it from Fiverr.
A fair and and comprehensive review!
Song
Yeah I have used it for images and technical things as well.
I have thought about using fiverr before. Great review, really thorough and helped me understand more about the whole thing. I’m new to the online business model and just wanted to find out more information. From my understanding, however, you can charge $5 per a specified time as well right? Or is it just $5 per job until you build up your profile and ratings, then you can charge more. I’m not sure, but fiverr has always interested me.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. It’s $5 per gig aka task or service. And yes, you can up that later as you build up your reputation.
It’s one of the best review about Fiverr on the web. I’ve also gone through Fiverr for some freelance work to be done for my blog. I’ve found that really it’s too much crowded though it’s not a scam site. As well as finding good freelancer in Fiverr is quite tough.
If someone really needs good freelance then I think Fiverr is not a good place.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I thought Fiverr was awesome at first. My recent experience proved that wrong. I had to go through 3 sellers to get what I needed to be done. The first two didn’t get me what I want.
These sellers try to do the bare minimum with as little effort as possible. I wanted a stripe payment button for reoccurring payments. The first guy just puts the buttons there with no coding to connect to stripe. The second one makes it a one-time payment option. What’s worse I figure I could change it myself but this guy used a plugin that requires a yearly subscription for $50 if I want to use recurring payments. Jeez, thanks.
Whats worse they hammer you excessively to leave them a 5-star rating. Sadly these sellers seem consistently come from common locations: India, Sri-lanka, and Nigeria.
Fiverr is misleading. You won’t get any great work for $5 or even up to $30-40. You will be spending 50-100 which defeats the purpose coming there IMO.
Thanks for sharing your experience as a buyer. It’s been hit or miss for me using fiverr. I find it’s good for simple, straightforward things. But I would never use them for things like content or anything that is more involved that requires more thinking.
Hello Eddy
I really liked your post. I know Fiverr and I have commissioned several works on that site. I can also ensure that the site is legal and available to all those people who have some special ability on the internet. In Fiverr you can earn money without problems. Regards
“In Fiverr you can earn money without problems.”
This is not necessarily true. On Fiverr you can earn money, yes. But you are extremely lucky if you can earn money “without problems”.