How I Built A $3000 Per Month Fiverr Side Hustle
And some tips I learned along the way
Two years ago I would have told you that I was working on finishing my first novel. I was a novice writer who wanted to write something that people actually wanted to read. I wrote because I wanted to create something massive, epic, impressive – queue that first writing prompt that still hasn’t made it’s way into a story.
Today I’m making over $3000 per month as a freelance copywriter on fiverr in my spare time.
Here’s how I went from creating a fiverr gig with low expectations to making $3000 per month, and some tips for anyone else looking to build a fiverr side hustle.
My fiverr journey started in a room at the Harbour Grand Hotel in Hong Kong back in February 2019. Staring out at the boats cruising around Causeway Bay, I procrastinated when I should have been writing.
I’d been working on my “story” for the past six months, in that time I had only written a handful of chapters.
How could I motivate myself to write? I needed a writing habit. I found fiverr. A way for me to get my writing reps in, with cash money as my incentive.
Creating That First Fiverr Gig
The first step I took was creating my first gig. I decided it would make sense to try to align the gig with skills I thought I already had. Having spent most of my career in sales and customer service I thought that writing sales and marketing emails was a good place to start.
I was right. To this day it remains my top performing gig accumulating over 15,000 impressions per month and dozens of monthly orders.
Getting your first order
Arguably the most challenging part of growing a fiverr side hustle is getting your first order.
Not only is that first order validation that people want and see value in your services, but it also helps motivate you as a seller.
The problem is that for most new fiverr sellers it’s so easy to create your profile, publish your first gig, and then wait for something to happen. More often than not, nothing happens.
Being proactive helps reduce the amount of time it takes to get your first order.
Here’s what I did to help speed up the process.
- Keep prices at $5 in the beginning. Low prices attract buyers, until you’re an authority on fiverr keep your prices low.
- Spread the word throughout your network, both online and in person. Being embarrassed about your side hustle doesn’t help get the word out. Get over it and tell people about it already!
- Proactively sell your gig. Waiting for your first gig to start selling itself is painful. Email businesses that you think might be interested in hiring you to get your gig exposure outside of fiverr search.
Bend Over Backwards For 5 Star Ratings
The most stressful part of my fiverr journey was completing my first handful of orders.
In the early days as a fiverr seller you really need to bend over backwards to make sure you are delivering your absolute best work – a lot of buyers know this, and will lean on you because of it.
Why?
Well, because you need your buyers to mark your orders as completed and give you those all important 5 star ratings.
Don’t let your first few orders be your last
The ratings you get on your first couple of orders are extremely important to your future as a seller. If you mess up and deliver a project that hasn’t met or exceeded your buyers expectations, you might not be able to recover.
Always aim to exceed expectations.
5 star ratings drive a lot of the momentum your gigs have in fiverr search. It’s frustrating having to deal with fussy buyers, or a bunch of revision requests – suck it up and deliver 5 star work, it will pay dividends later.
Set Healthy Expectations With Yourself
Your fiverr gigs will eventually start to snowball, once they do it might be time to set expectations with yourself.
After I banged out my first 15–20 orders my gig started to gain a lot of traction in fiverr search.
Every day I was receiving messages from new interested buyers, orders started coming in more regularly, and I was addicted to the feeling that fiverr was becoming a profitable side hustle.
Awesome, right?
Fiverr started to feel like a job. I was constantly on my phone responding to people, or on my laptop completing orders as they came in. My personal life was taking a hit.
Deciding how much time to allocate to fiverr
Reflecting on why I originally got started with fiverr really helped me plot my path forward.
Originally, I started with the goal of becoming a better writer. But now I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it was becoming a money making machine. Had my priorities changed?
Yes.
Fiverr was becoming a super profitable side hustle, this was good for me.
I was paying my mortgage writing a couple thousand words per week.
But if I wanted to keep fiverr as a side hustle I needed to set boundaries. I decided to limit myself to 4 hours per week, when I did my earnings jumped.
My hourly earnings jumped to over $200/Hour.
Optimising My Workflow Took Me Past $200/Hour
Making the decision to cap the amount of time spent each week on my fiverr side hustle changed the game.
Parkinson’s Law tells us that work expands to fill the amount of time you have available to complete it.
I didn’t realise this. Before capping my fiverr time I was working on projects at all times of the day. Projects that now take me 10 minutes to complete would be open in google docs for hours. I was inefficient.
Here’s what happened after implementing my 4 hour per week time limit:
- I started using fiverr quick messages to quickly respond to common buyer questions.
- I began tracking every order in a spreadsheet. Client type. Project type. Time to complete (in minutes). Earnings after fees. Hourly earnings rate.
- Streamlined repeatable processes. Research, preparation, workflow, I outlined repeatable steps that I would use to complete every order quickly without sacrificing quality.
- Created delivery templates. Templates for every service I offered. They provided a professional look and feel for every delivery. Once the copy was written I simply copied it and pasted it into the new template and it was ready to be delivered.
These small changes to my workflow allowed me to complete more orders, in less time. I started to make a lot more money.
My hourly earnings jumped from $40–$60 to $150–$250 by month six and seven as a freelancer on fiverr.
It’s now mid-May 2020. Since January I’ve been earning over $3000 per month, and have not spent more than 15 hours on fiverr projects during any of those months.
I think I’ve achieved a freelancing flow state.
Wash, Rinse, Repeat
It’s taken me 16 months to get to the point that I’m at now. It was a long journey with a lot of trial and error, unsavoury clients, and some really stressful times.
But it was all worth it. Fiverr has become a manageable constant in my life, it’s opened doors for me, and provided me with an extra layer of financial flexibility.
I’m on track to earn about $40,000 from fiverr in 2020.
It’s been an awesome journey.
Before I go, here are some tips for other aspiring fiverr side hustlers:
- It takes time. Don’t get discouraged!
- Be patient. Some buyers might frustrate you with their ignorance. Be patient, be helpful, they’ll appreciate it.
- Focus on offering value. Spend time looking for ways to offer more value to your clients vs. simply speeding through projects. It’s a fine balance, but it’s important.
- Try things outside of your comfort zone. Who knows, it may open new doors for you!
Thanks for reading! Cheers!
