Making Money on Fiverr: How, and My Experience Earning over $7,000

Recently, a fellow Steemian asked if anyone had success on Fiverr. I know this is not the first post about Fiverr on Steemit, but with eight years of off and on experience on the platform, I thought I'd give you all an overview on Fiverr, how to make money on it, and my experience. So here we go!

What is Fiverr?

Fiverr brands themselves as the "Freelance Services Marketplace for The Lean Entrepreneur." In other words, freelancers of all kinds, provide work in exchange for payment from people who want that work (no, they don't accept cryptocurrency yet). Small businesses from around the world use Fiverr to get services from marketing videos to logo design to blog articles.

The name comes from their original intent--to offer these services at only $5. The site and quality of the work delivered on the platform has grown, and freelancers can now offer their services for significantly more than $5.

How Does it Work?

A seller decides what they want to sell and creates a "gig." These gigs are then searchable for businesses to find and purchase. After a gig is completed, reviewed by the buyer and approved, there is a very long two-week waiting period. Fiverr then transfers payment (minus a huge 20% fee for their services) to your account, which you can then withdraw through Paypal (for yet another fee, usually $1) or use their debit card.

My Experience Earning Over $7,000

As you can see, over an eight-year period, many of those years I had my account switched off, I've earned over $7,000 on Fiverr. This isn't a life-changing account, but neither is it chump change.

What that $7,000 doesn't explain is the value I gained from completing 600+ small jobs for business clients all over the world in nearly every single industry. It also doesn't explain that my single best business connection came from Fiverr. Someone looking for a writer with a business background reached out to me on Fiverr and I'm still working with them five years later. That one interaction, which wouldn't have happened with my Fiverr account, has been worth 20x what I've earned on the site.

Working with clients on the site can at times be brutal (for many reasons from language barriers to miscommunication about what your gig promises to deliver), so if you're interested in offering gigs on Fiverr, here are my tips for you:

• Reviews are Gold
  

People give up on Fiverr quickly because there are many people that already provide what you probably want to offer. That's okay, there are millions of people using Fiverr, you don't need to be the only one offering to write a blog post for a business! What you do need to do is to rise to the top by getting great reviews. Ask for reviews and go out of your way to deliver amazing customer service.

• Invest Time Up Front

I built a good reputation quickly because I offered something way too cheap and got a crapload of orders. This wasn't great for me at the moment because I was flooded with work for $5-10 each, but I got a long list of customers under my belt and my gigs started to rate highly in searches. I could then raise my prices. I now charge 5x what I did at first, and people still pay it. Go into this knowing there is a learning curve and that you will need to invest some extra time up front.

• Offer Something Quick and Simple

I first offered to write blog posts for small businesses. Writing blog posts for someone you've never met before who operates a company you've never heard of can be difficult. Now, I offer business name creation (I research and brainstorm, and provide them a list of options), tagline creation, and ideas for articles they can write on their blog. These are pretty simple, things I love to do, and are quick to complete.

• Over Explain What You Will Provide

Don't take anything for granted. You will have buyers cancel on you when you've already completed the work. It is truly frustrating. Make sure you aren't the reason there is a misunderstanding and clearly explain what you're going to provide your customers and then give them the best service possible with respect to your time.