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Fiverr could be the site for you if you’re looking to earn something extra on the side.
It’s basically a platform that you should consider using if you want to make five bucks (or more) from something you’re good at.
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What is Fiverr and How Does it Work?
Today, an overwhelming number of Millennials are earning money online – thanks to sites like Fiverr.
Fiverr is a site that offers anyone with a particular skill or ability to accomplish certain tasks (which are referred to as ‘gigs’) in exchange for $5 for each. At least, that was the idea since its inception in 2009.
These days, when you sign up on Fiverr, you stand to make more than just five bucks. The moment you start offering your services on Fiverr, you’re opening yourself to a world of opportunities.
A massive population of freelancers is shifting gear from notable sites like Upwork to Fiverr (approximately 14 million users to date). This could largely be because it provides relatively straightforward options to land freelance gigs.
Fiverr uses a unifying account system that works for both clients as well as freelancers. Registering with Fiverr is free and pretty straightforward. You can create a Fiverr account without hectic (and sometimes annoying) manual verification processes.
How it Works
At Fiverr, freelancers can pitch their gigs with nothing more than a statement that briefs the client on their services.
As mentioned above, Fiverr doesn’t restrict the average gig to five bucks alone. As a freelancer, you can create a gig of any reasonable amount – as long as it fits the job description.
Assume you’re a graphic designer. You can proceed to create a logo designing gig with a brief gig title like ‘I create decent logos for my clients’. Along with the title, you can also include details describing the service’s scope, USP, etc.
You will also have to specify precisely how long you can take on the gig. For quicker delivery or additional work, you can also provide gig extras. From the example above, you can give a $5 – $10 gig extra to deliver the logo in twenty-four hours.
You can as well offer more logo designs where the client can pick one for an extra cost with the gig extras. This will give clients an option to pick out the specific package they require without having to choose unnecessary stuff.
Gigs you offer on Fiverr are almost equivalent to side jobs you can do from home. Clients can scroll through gigs like yours from various freelancers and settle for the one that matches their requirement(s). In some cases, they can ask the freelancer for a custom quote.
Before paying for the gig, clients have to pay Fiverr a small commission to buy the gig that catches their eye.
For services of $20 and below, Fiverr charges a mere $1 that goes towards servicing charges. Gigs over $20 will be charged exactly 5% of the total amount.
What Follows Next After a Client Pays for My Gig?
After making the necessary payments, the client needs to answer any question the freelancer may have. This is standard protocol to ensure freelancers do what is required of them to avoid costly mistakes later on.
From the example above, you should ask critical stuff such as the name of the client’s business, the colors to use on the logo, the type of logo, etc.
Once the client provides the information, it’s up to you to deliver on the agreed-upon date and time. When the client reviews the gig and points out a few flaws here and there, they can you to make the necessary changes.
If you’ve done a great job and there are no corrections to be made, clients will mark the gig as ‘completed.’
They will then rate you based on the communication, service and how likely they are to refer you to other clients.
These ratings will assist other buyers in assessing the standard of your work. You can also rate the client based on their conduct and level of communication.
When the client marks the order as complete, Fiverr will almost immediately release the funds to you the moment they take out their fees. Each order has a fixed twenty-percent rate that means you get $4 for a $5 gig.
If the order isn’t marked as complete within the next 3 days, the system will automatically assume it’s finished and you will receive your payment.
Why You Should Consider Joining Fiverr
Major benefits of becoming a Fiverr freelancer is the confidentiality, value for money and the platform’s detailed feature.
Here are a couple of details that spell out the benefits of using Fiverr as your preferred source of income:
Low Fees
Fiverr offers incredibly low rates that make it easier for freelancers to post gigs at $5 or less. Freelancers and clients alike can offer or solicit for services without having to part with substantial lump sums of their hard-earned cash.
Interactive and Fun
As a freelance platform, Fiverr offers creative people and hobbyists an opportunity to get paid from doing fun and interesting activities they’re passionate about.
Contractors are likely to find a source of income on Fiverr from the exposure they gain by allowing clients to pick them for the services they have to offer.
Offers Safe and Secure Transactions
As a client, you can check out every essential detail about particular contractors you want to hire. Details are in the form of ratings, jobs/gigs, cancellation occurrences, and feedback.
As detailed as it may be, the platform never releases full details to any third party, contractor, or client. Fiverr guarantees that client/freelancer details will stay concealed at all times.
The same applies to all financial transactions done between clients and freelancers. Any transaction done on Fiverr can’t and won’t be visible to any third party.
This provides a sense of assurance to clients that their financial transactions/details won’t be jeopardized in any way. Payments on Fiverr are made via electronic payment (credit/debit card, PayPal, etc.)
Neatly Organized
The products and services that Fiverr offers its clients are typically divided into various field specialties. Each category is further branched into different sub-categories that offer detailed information on the products and services being provided.
Freelancers can view the highest-paying categories on Fiverr and determine where they lie based on their skills. Clients will then scroll through these sub-categories or perform a search on various keywords.
Provides a Secure Communication Platform
The service provides a means through which contractors and clients can communicate privately with each other.
Both parties can discuss matters concerning their projects knowing they’re doing it on a secure platform. Any project details discussed on Fiverr stay strictly confidential between the client and the contractor.
You Don’t Need to Be Experienced
The beauty of working as a freelancer on Fiverr is that the only thing you need is a robust and diverse skill set.
Clients can hire freelancers on Fiverr to accomplish gigs, including business work, tech, programming, audio, music, animation, videos, translation, writing, digital marketing, design, graphics.
You can also post gigs that are lifestyle and fun related. It’s somewhat satisfying to browse through the different categories and subcategories knowing there’s a place for you somewhere in between.
Most gigs on Fiverr require zero experience, which makes it more diverse and receptive to people with different skill sets. Lucky for you, there are tons of zero-experience gigs you can take part in and earn a living from Fiverr.
Which Fiverr Gigs Can I Do with Zero Experience?
Let’s face it: not everyone is skilled or experienced in lucrative online ventures such as writing, designing or anything along those lines. However, most freelancers don’t realize they’re good at them before they try them out first.
1. Proofreading Text
Proofreading is a perfect fit for you if English isn’t your strong suit. You may not be the best writer on the freelance space, but you can surely fix errors made by the pros.
Most people prefer to have an extra set of eyes to read through a finished text, just to ensure that there are no grammatical inconsistencies or mistakes. This may sound like an editing job, but the differences outweigh the similarities.
Proofreading majorly focuses on fields such as formatting, syntax, spelling, grammatical errors, and so on.
Editors mostly organize and reorder information by changing the tone or ultimately striking out certain elements to better suit the audience.
Based on findings from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, proofreaders – professional or not – earn a full-time salary of $36,960 on average.
This, of course, will depend on certain factors, including the workload and how available the proofreader is.
Busy proofreaders who can maintain a good number of clients can easily earn more. If you’re a newbie proofreader, don’t expect to earn more than a pro who’s been in the business for quite a while.
Most proofreader jobs require little to no formal training. However, if you’ve stayed some time since you opened a grammar textbook or read through a full-length English text.
You don’t need to have a certification or degree to earn a living as a proofreader on Fiverr. As a prospective proofreader, you need to have an eagle eye for details and be flexible.
Most clients require that you know how to read and write in English before offering this service.
As you post your pitch on Fiverr, consider how you frame it to attract clients’ attention. Ensure you deliver top-notch work and take the least possible time.
2. Social Media Management
A huge chunk of services offered on Fiverr mostly center on Google Plus promotions, Twitter posts, or Facebook promotions.
Companies and individuals are willing to go the extra mile to gain traffic to their sites. As a result, they won’t mind parting with $5 or more to get their official webpages noticed.
A majority of agencies are making quick cash by handling the social media channels of various companies and corporations. If you’re a popular figure within your social media circles, you can easily sell shout-outs.
The more followers you have, the easier your workflow. If you don’t have a considerable number of followers, there’s where you need to get creative. Determine why any potential customer would want you to keep tabs on their social media.
On Fiverr, your profile is an excellent portfolio. By establishing your online presence, you can use it as a strong selling point later on.
The best Fiverr social media managers use specific automation tools to market various online services or products. This simple tip helps them achieve the best results as far as reaching the right audience goes.
Social media management is a question of strategy rather than skill. Companies or individual brands find it easier to hire social media managers rather than boost their online presence on their own.
As a potential social media manager, you need to understand how to utilize Instagram proxies. These are private proxies used to create multiple accounts on Instagram at once.
Managers use proxies to broaden their social media marketing reach and scale the audience exponentially. This strategy can be approached in two ways: through the use of a social media bot or manually.
To make things easier, opt for a bot like Jarvee that will automate the entire process in a fast and secure manner. Like every other gig on Fiverr, you can earn as little as five bucks for every social media gig.
3. Content Creation
If you want to make money from writing on Fiverr, ensure you’re 100% fluent in English or whatever language you want to use.
Believe it or not, you can make extravagantly more than $5 for each task. On average, you can earn approximately $16 as a Fiverr content creator. Start by mostly writing bios of about 100-250 words for five bucks each.
Along the way, you’ll find one or two clients who will want to work with you. Every positive review you get from your content will boost your ratings, which will, in turn, attract more clients.
For $5, you can offer a bio of about two to three sentences. A 250-word bio can go for around fifty-five bucks. This unique strategy should see that you achieve a massive spike in your income.
Being a writer on Fiverr can be an excellent way to make a steady income if only you stay consistent. You should also direct everything that appears on your Gig page towards achieving a specific financial goal.
One way to go about it is to utilize the comparative pricing strategy. For instance, let’s say that you’re offering a 75-word ad copy for $20 and 100-word SEO ad copy for $30.
The latter would be a higher preference for most clients for several reasons.
For one, a hundred words are more than seventy-five. Secondly, the ad copy is SEO optimized for only ten bucks. That’s a subtle way of persuading clients to invest a minimum of $35 in your gig.
Strategizing is the best way to make money on Fiverr. Just place the real work in the extras and attract clients’ attention toward them.
By doing so, your typical gig sale is bound to earn you more than just five bucks. At first, start with low prices. As you rake in positive reviews and build your brand, that’s when you can start charging more.
4. Language Translation
Are you fluent in more than one language? By offering a translation service, you can pocket five dollars from a single gig.
Translation can be done in the form of text or audio. How much you earn will depend on the range in quality, number of words, and the language’s geography. When compared to teaching a language, translation has its fair share of perks.
It mostly offers a sense of financial freedom and a ton of flexibility. You can choose:
- who to work with
- how much to make from a single gig
- when to work
- And where to work from.
If you want to earn a living from translation, you need to be fluent in more than just two languages.
Most freelances are oblivious to the fact that it may take a while before they become successful in the field of translation. Sometimes, it may take a couple of years to understand what is required of you fully.
A number of translators on Fiverr work with language pairs. That means that you should pick out two language pairs you’re most proficient in. Ensure you specify those languages when posting a gig on Fiverr.
It’s worth noting that your preferred language pair will determine your earning potential. Some of the most sought-after language pairs are mainly from English to Danish, Japanese, Arabic and Chinese.
You must be able to fluently read and write any of these languages before deciding on an industry to translate. Moreover, there are endless cultural nuances pertaining to language.
For that reason, don’t hesitate to expand your knowledge base and learn an extra language. The translation industry you settle for may require that you learn an alternative dialect via legitimate language learning apps.
5. Video Testimonials
Video testimonials are among the most well-paying and most sought-after gigs on Fiverr. This factor automatically makes it among the most profitable gigs on the platform.
Unbelievable as it may sound, reputable brands look for people to give believable video testimonials. Their first resort is often Fiverr.
A testimonial is a brief review of a product or business offered by a firm to entice others to take a shot at it as well. You’ll be provided with a script or outline of what you’re supposed to say in the video.
You can earn big with video testimonials provided you’re a confident speaker. All you need is a high-resolution camera and a suitable place with adequate lighting to film your video. You can choose to buy a high-quality camcorder use your smartphone camera provided it has quality resolution.
The videos you submit to your clients will determine how prolific you become on Fiverr’s testimonial platform. You can create hundreds of online testimonials for any brand or company and make good money from using different aliases.
Your pitch to clients should be convincing enough to make them hire you for the job. Your gig post should go something like “For $5, I will make a two-minute video testimonial.” Keep it brief and straight to the point – as you should with all gigs you post on Fiverr.
A sure way to make even more money is to write your own script. Additionally, consider recording your testimonial on full HD with a quality camcorder.
Consumers nowadays attach credibility to online testimonials. As a result, there’s a booming demand for professional video testimonials by buyers. Videos you make should take anywhere between fifteen seconds to five minutes.
Of course, the least you can make for each is $5.
How Legit is Fiverr?
Fiverr has been around for quite a while. For the years it’s been active, there have been zero reports of scandalous activity on the platform.
On the other hand, there are chances that registered freelancers on Fiverr may be scammers.
Every freelancing website has a dispute system that takes care of disputes. Some decisions may be in favor of freelancers, while others are in favor of clients. Most times, the final decision may not sit well with the wronged party.
Less often, there are cases where the final decision is fair. However, the client or freelancer won’t accept it because it won’t work in their favor. These, and other reasons, lead to negative reviews on Fiverr.
Compared to other freelancing websites, Fiverr seems to have mostly negative reviews. The bad reviews are an indication that when it comes to conflict resolution, Fiverr is rather inefficient.
As inefficient as some think it may be, it’s worth putting into consideration the fact that millions of freelancers make their living from the site with no complaints. Most of those who have sold gigs on Fiverr haven’t had any issues with payment.
No freelance site, including Fiverr, is perfect. The fact that it doesn’t accurately resolve disputes most of the time doesn’t make it any less legitimate.
Final Word
Fiverr is probably the internet’s most significant marketplace. Anything you sell, including website designing, giving advice, or even singing a song, can be beneficial to you in the long run.
There’s nowhere in the Fiverr rulebook that states that you should do what others are doing.
Whether you’re skilled in a certain area or not, register for a free account and get orders for whatever gig you are most comfortable in.
On Fiverr, anything goes provided it’s legit.