It’s not big, but I make £600 a month from writing on Fiverr
When I started my journey on Fiverr I was sure that it was going to be full of missteps and painfully slow growth. 8 months later, I’m a level 2 seller, with a solid 5/5 rating, happy, repeat customers, and I’m making £600+ a month, which isn’t bad given that it is just a side hustle that only takes an hour or so per day.
Here are the top 7 things that I’ve learned on my journey to Fiverr success.
1) Decide what you’re going to sell before you start — Just like any business, your job as a digital freelancer is to be profitable (hopefully). What’s the most profitable thing you can sell to your target demographic? Where does your skill set overlap with those targets? For me, I’ve always been a keen writer with an eye for nuance, whereas I can’t draw — at all. So clearly illustration would not be my thing, but I thought maybe writing would be. It turns out, I was right.
2) Research your market — What are they buying from other people, and how much are those people charging? Are those products something that you feel confident creating a product for them at a price that you know will be competitive? You don’t have to create a product if you don’t want to. Ad space, graphic design, consulting services are all great ways to make money on Fiverr without needing a product. For me, I found that the top writers were asking £200 for 500 words. That is my aspirational target. I began, like almost every other Fiverr newbie, at $5 for 500 words. It was painful, given that Fiverr takes $1 of that, PayPal will take a little when converting it and eventually, there is tax to pay. But slowly but surely I have raised my prices and I now am comfortable and busy at $30 per 500. Onwards and Upwards throughout 2022, though.
3) Develop your brand — When you’re just starting out on Fiverr it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. I know that the first time I was looking at all of those gigs my head spun. How could I stand out and be noticed? Fiverr promotes popular gigs, and has analytics so you can track how you are doing in terms of views. Once you start creating output, your brand will start to develop, and your gigs get shown more. You’ll become known for something specific and soon enough people will come looking for you specifically!
4) Get a polished profile — Your profile is basically an advertisement of what you have to offer. When I first started out I didn’t really put much effort into it at all. Do you want potential customers to look at your profile and think “eh, not interested” or do you want them to be attracted by the professionalism of your brand? When things started to take off, I researched the top Fiverr Sellers in my field and checked out how they presented their profiles, then made myself new thumbnails and blurbs based on that research.
5) Respond to messages — This is an easy way for people that are shopping around for gigs to learn about how professional you are. If clients message you and you don’t get back to them fast, or you don’t get back to them at all, that’s a great way for potential customers to think “hmm, if he doesn’t care enough about his own profile how much do I want him working on my products?” In addition, Fiverr shows how quickly you respond to the initial message and is another optic through which potential clients can view you and size you up.
6) Pick your clients with care. Yes, they come to you, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept every order. I have a clear statement on each of my gigs instructing potential clients to speak to me first, before placing an order. This is to ensure that I am able to do the job properly and that they aren’t the type that will try to cause problems. On several occasions, I have had aggressive would-be clients contact me and straight out of the gate let me know all the ways that they would refuse to pay me. I understand some clients don’t receive the service they expect from other sellers, and if the client has feedback to support the notion that they are reliable and just have high standards, that’s fine. But any time someone tells me they have ridiculous requirements that basically state upfront I won’t be getting paid, and they also have zero feedback, that’s a massive red flag. That person will not become my client.
7) Customer service is king. Yes, it’s a place to go and get stuff for five bucks. But people shop around on Fiverr the same way they do offline, and this is especially true when you first start out and there isn’t an established customer base. If someone buys your gig and you immediately deliver to them what they want, it doesn’t mean that’s the end of the transaction. That’s just the beginning. They might want to work with you again, and they will give feedback on whether your service was good or not. When any kind of quibble arises, apologise, make it right, and thank them for bringing it to you.
If anyone is considering joining Fiverr as a new side hustle, maybe with the dream of it one day being the main job that gets you out of bed each day, I say go for it!
Naturally, here’s an affiliate link to make the move over to Fiverr and potentially give me a little boost in the process, thank you!
