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Fiverr – Not such a great marketplace!

Fiverr is a new marketplace where sellers offer their services starting from $5. While its great for buyers who are looking for a bargain…its not such a great place for sellers. Here are some reasons why…

1) Fiverr takes 20% of your Income
Lets say you make a sale for $5. Its quite a small amount already, yet Fiverr takes a $1 from it. You’ll get $4 and they’ll keep that dollar. As you make more money through extra offerings, the amount Fiverr takes continues to increase. Lets say you make $55, you will only get $44 and Fiverr keeps $11.

2) Fiverr usually take the buyers side
If you recently joined Fiverr, you’ll soon find out the value of reviews. Occasionally, you have buyers who take the files you work hard in producing (Eg. Articles, Graphic Design, Email templates…) and basically threaten you to refund. So for the sake of keeping 100% positive feedback, you would have to cancel the order and refund the money. If its a big order, too bad…Fiverr staff just wouldn’t bother looking into it.ย They always take the buyer’s side and refuse to look at the situation. Even if you tell them that the buyer is basically blackmailing you into refunding, they’ll simply say “Please sort it out with the buyer”.

3) Fiverr site design isn’t that great
Fiverr recently upgraded their entire UI to v2 but there are still some features that are missing. For example, you can only write 1200 characters max in a message. If you have a lot of explain, then you have to split your messages into parts and then post it. Fiverr doesn’t allow you to communicate outside its site. So if you want to clearly explain something to the seller, you just have to do it through its site…there is no other way. All the active orders are shown through “TO DO” list on top but if you marked an order complete and the buyer responded, Fiverr would only send you an email. They will not show it in the TO DO list. If you have 100s of orders, you will have a flood of emails from Fiverr. What comes up in TO DO list and what doesn’t is quite a challenging to figure out. Their menu and organisation of links is also quite messy. It takes time to get used to their interface and where things are.

4) Fiverr gives buyers unlimited time to leave a review
It doesn’t matter if the buyer bought a gig from you 2 years ago, they still have an opportunity to leave their feedback. I personally don’t find it right. I had buyers come to me after literally an year and asking me to fix a problem they created. I have to fix it or I risk getting a bad review from them.

5) Buyers can’t edit their feedback or remove it after a certain time
Thats right. If you leave a review and now you would like to change it, you have to contact Fiverr staff to open it up for you. If you want to remove the feedback you left, you can’t do that either. You have to contact their support staff. Lets say after 5 years, I want to change my feedback and make my seller’s life miserable…I can. I simply have to contact their staff and ask them to remove my feedback. They will remove it without a need for a reason and allow me to place a negative feedback.

One thing I do like about Fiverr is the speed at which it transfers funds. Once you click on the verification link, they will send your funds literally in a minute to your Paypal account. So well done, Fiverr!

4 replies on “Fiverr – Not such a great marketplace!”

Great review there, my friend. I like how you’ve put it because they match with what I am thinking – “The customers browsing Fiverr are just honestly not the kind of customers I am passionate about working for”.

And a perfect sum up – “Cost versus Quality”. It really is the matter of that. Good job – a very comprehensive review.

Thank you, Roshan, for this valuable info. Without people like you giving us insider info, we would be making less-informed decisions. I am glad to know what I am up against. I’m going to open an account in order to practice transcription. I don’t intend on remaining there indefinitely, because my ultimate goal is to seek my own gigs. I feel that signing up at any contractor site like this is still very similar to being employed. As you outline above, the worker is subject to restrictions, processes and principles which he/she may not agree with. With the rampant unfairness and injustice, working on a site like this can be demeaning and discouraging. I also believe that even if a person becomes successful on this site, because the site owners have the upper hand, the freelancer never knows when her/his house of gig cards will come crashing down because of site changes, or whims of the owners.

I’ll be using the site to get practice while I establish myself in other ways. If something bizarre should happen; like they suspend my account and keep my money; I’ll consider it training that I had to pay for, and happily close my account. If I receive unfair reviews by unscrupulous customers, I’ll leave the site sooner than I planned. Training done ๐Ÿ˜€

Anyway, I do have the upper hand now. Because of you and others who take the time to alert unsuspecting venturers, I know what to look for. Take care!

Thank you Sandi. This post is to raise awareness of how Fiverr and their staff deal with sellers. I am still selling at Fiverr so its all about considering the good and the bad. Its not intended to put people off from Fiverr because I still think its a place to make some quick cash despite these disadvantages.

You do raise some really good points. Yes, ultimately the work is subject to restrictions, processes, and principles set by the owner (Fiverr). The plan you have sounds pretty good to me ๐Ÿ™‚ haha

I am glad you found this review useful. Take care!

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