Fiverr Review
The gig economy is here for the long term especially with the significant increase in demand for contract-based workers and freelancers. A marketplace would come in handy to help make the services they provide easily accessible to their target audience. Enter Fiverr!
In today’s post, I’ll be exploring everything you need to know about Fiverr including its features and pros and cons. I hope this review helps you make an informed decision when deciding whether or not this freelancer website suits your needs. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
A Quick Overview of Fiverr
For the most part, people usually go through customer reviews hoping to get answers to their questions. Some of the frequently asked questions include: Is Fiverr legit? and Is Fiverr a scam? The answer to these questions is that Fiverr is as legit as they come.
However, just like any other platform, both buyers and sellers are usually advised to do their due diligence for a better experience.
Fiverr is a whole ecosystem and comes with its own rules guiding performance and engagement on the platform. This means that it tends to put lots of work to ensure the members of the community can work safely and also transact on the platform with ease. Sellers are encouraged to stick to the set rules while buyers are advised to pay attention to customer reviews to get the most from the platform.
There’s plenty of talent on Fiverr. Plus, there are many different renowned companies outsource tasks for freelancers on this platform. Price tags for gigs on Fiverr usually range from $5 to a maximum of up to $10,000 depending on the seller’s rank, type of service and other significant factors.
Keep reading to find out more about Fiverr as a platform for both buyers and sellers.
What is Fiverr
As earlier mentioned, Fiverr is an online platform that allows users to exchange digital services for money. Contractors and freelancers usually sign up to the platform, choose the services they are looking to sell from the available categories. After that, you can create a simple profile, sell and showcase some of your works to potential buyers.
In this case, the buyers are business owners and companies looking for skilled workers with vast knowledge to help with their projects. These projects are usually short term. For instance, handling one-off tasks like designing logos or creating some graphics for different campaigns.
Fiverr helps facilitate the transactions as it ensures in every way possible, that those using the platform are legit sellers and buyers. What’s more, it provides support for the buyers and sellers.
How Fiverr Works
First things first. Whether you are a freelance buyer or seller, you have to create a Fiverr account by signing up. Creating an account is super easy. Here’s how:
You’ll see the “join” option at the top righthand corner of the homepage. When you click on it, it’ll display a pop-up box with options that you can use to join with either your Google, Apple or Facebook accounts. You’ll find another alternative right below these options that requires an email address.
You’ll need to confirm your Fiverr account once you’re done signing up and you’ll be good to go. Remember, signing up is free!
How to Set Up a Fiverr Seller Account
You need to create a Fiverr seller account to start selling on the platform. To complete the process, you’ll also need to fill out some forms with relevant information to help increase your chances of getting gigs. The questions are usually about general things like where you schooled and the certificates you hold.
You don’t have to answer all the questions. However, you must complete about 70% of the questions before proceeding to the next step.
When setting up a seller profile, it’s always advisable to answer all the questions since it helps improve your entire profile. Plus, it helps buyers trust you easily. You can begin publishing the gigs once you’re done. A gig is a typically a shorter sales pitch describing the services you offer. The best thing about using this platform is that it allows you to create multiple gigs.
You can create gigs in different categories such as recording voice overs, digital marketing, content marketing, financial consulting, logo design, copywriting and translation among others. You are likely going to attract lots of potential customers looking to buy the services depending on the clarity of the sales pitches.
How to Sell on Fiverr
Fiverr allows its users to bundle the services into three different packages including Premium, Standard and Basic. Plus, you can price the packages differently when setting up the gig. The price of each of the package depends on the value offered. This typically translates to more value for a relatively higher price and vice versa.
In terms of pricing the packages, you are free to choose prices ranging from $5 to a maximum of $10,000 for the packages. However, always ensure that you are setting reasonable prices. As a rule of thumb, it’s always advisable to check your competition on the platform and compare the services they’re offering along with the price points.
In addition, the platform allows you to add extra gigs to the packages and increase the charges. For instance, an expedited delivery can pass off as an extra gig especially where the customer pays an additional cost to the standard fee in place so that the seller delivers the services faster.
How to Buy Services on Fiverr
You can choose to browse through the available categories or use the search bar to find specific services as a buyer who wants to hire a contractor or freelancer on the platform. You can see the freelancer’s starting price, pitch and rating on their profile.
In addition, you can upgrade any purchase if you are looking to include faster service delivery schedule or extra gigs under different circumstances. However, these services usually come at an extra cost. Make sure you go through customer reviews on Fiverr before making any payments for the gig. This is because the reviews are generated by actual buyers who’ve tried out the services to help you make an informed decision when looking to buy.
Fiverr Pricing
Fiverr charges a 5.5% service fee of the payment made as soon as the buyer pays for the order. The service fee is usually charged for each payment made.
For instance, if you are purchasing a $100 logo design, plus expedited delivery as the extra gig at $25 and a $15 tip for the seller. Fiverr will charge you a 5.5% service fee for all the three payments. This means that the total payment will be $147 as opposed to $140.
However, the above charges apply to purchases ranging from $50 and above. A service fee of $2 applies for any purchases under $50.
Remember, these are the official fees on Fiverr as of the time this review goes up.
Since every freelancer sets their own fees, the cost of the services offered on Fiverr may vary. You can always work on a budget especially when sourcing for sellers to identify someone who falls within the range you’re working with.
Sellers can charge anything between $5 to $10,000 for the gigs. Fiverr, on the other hand, tends to charge a 20% for each sale made including the $5 gigs.
The name Fiverr was derived from the $5 price tag displayed on all gigs on the platform since its inception in 2010. Fortunately, the platform allows users to charge more than that for their services. However, the gigs should be reasonably priced. You can check out your competitor’s price points if they are offering the same services if you are anew seller then set yours slightly lower or higher.
Setting a reasonable price for your gigs helps ensure that your offers are comparatively attractive. This will in turn, put you in a better position to get more orders since most buyers prefer working with old freelancers with good customer reviews and are equally higher up the seller levels on Fiverr.
Fiverr’s Seller Levels
Fiver has four different seller levels including top-rated, new, level 1 and level 2.
You can move to level 1 if you complete more than 10 orders, actively sell for about 60 days and meet other milestones. Level 1 sellers on Fiverr can have a maximum of up to 10 gigs on offer simultaneously and 4 extra services for each gig.
You’ll move to the next level if you deliver more than 50 orders consistently inclusive of the first 10 on the previous level when you were a newbie. Save for that, you are also required to meet other milestones on the platform.
Level 2 allows you to create 20 active gigs and 5 extra for each gig. Plus, you’ll be given priority when it comes to customer support.
The top-rated seller is the highest seller level on Fiverr. To get to this seller level, you need to deliver 100 orders inclusive of the complete ones on the previous levels. Save for these and other provisional requirements, you’re also required to have been actively selling on the platform for about 180 days.
Withdrawing Money from Fiverr
Fiverr allows you to withdraw your money 14 days after delivering an order. This rule cuts across the board for freelancers and sellers on all levels with an exception of the top-rated sellers. This means that freelancers on top-rated seller level are allowed to withdraw their money 7 days after delivering an order.
Sellers can withdraw their money through different supported channels including:
- PayPal
- Fiverr Revenue Card otherwise known as the Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard
- Direct Deposit to a bank account – this option is only available to sellers based in the US
- Transfer of funds through bank accounts
Are Fiverr Reviews Fake?
Recently, Fiverr has experienced an influx of fake reviews on their website. This development is quite sad since it has affected sellers and buyers in equal measure. The trend was brought to light by one seller on the platform who couldn’t take anymore of the fake reviews.
Those looking to venture into the freelancing world are always advised to do some through research to get acquainted with the steps to follow especially if you are new freelancer to get a better experience. In as much as there are fake Fiverr review, most of those on seller’s profiles are legit. This is because Fiverr has put in place a policy that allows them to collect a 20% commission once payment is made before they are allowed to leave any review.
Some reviews are fake but it might cost the seller a lot more to buy the reviews which is not worth it in the long run. You’ve probably heard about forums, websites and groups on different social networks where sellers get these fake Fiverr reviews. They do exist.
Spotting Fake Fiverr Reviews
- There are no fast and hard set of rules that would help determine the legitimacy of Fiverr reviews. However, the reviews of the seller on the platform could be fake if:
- They have a significant number of great reviews and they just started selling on the platform. It’s almost impossible for a new seller to complete many gigs successfully in a short time owing to the factors determining their growth on the platform.
- The reviews are generalized or vague and seem to come from the same buyer. However, it might be a return customer.
- For the most part, they are just four- or five-star reviews especially for low level sellers.
- The review was left by a seller on Fiverr which might be a case of sellers collaborating to gain rankings.
- The seller is unable to show you their portfolio especially of their completed projects or they can’t explain to you the basics of the industry jargon.
Refund and Dispute Resolution on Fiverr
Every marketplace is bound to experience refund requests, order cancellation and disputes and Fiverr isn’t an exception. The platform has a resolution centre that provides its members with possible ways of handling any conflict that arise. Its community is usually advised to make use of the resolution centre before trying to reach out to customer support.
The resolution centre can handle disputes that include order cancellation, delivery time extension, order modification and request for any progress update among others.
Refunds are usually made to the balance credit of the buyer on Fiverr where they can use the money to make a purchase on the platform. This is because Fiverr doesn’t make direct refunds to the payment provider.
