Fiverr.com is a website where people offer different things to do for $5. As a buyer, you can get a lot of services done at $5. Some examples include: Creating a short video, getting a logo designed, SEO services, increase fans on your facebook fan page and so on. However in this post we will talk about how you can earn money from Fiverr.com as a service provider.
When you provide a service on fiverr.com the buyer actually pays $5 but you will receive only $4. They take a cut of 20% for their services. If you can provide 5 services a day on average, that’s $20 in earnings. If you work for 25 days a month, that’s $500 a month in earnings. As a single person working from home, this is very much possible. You can expand your business by hiring more employees and delivering more services.
$500 a month is Rs.25,000 a month and Rs.3 Lakhs a year. This is equal to the average starting salary in any IT company in India. (In 2008 my job offer in an IT firm was Rs.2.75 Lakhs/Annum – of course I never went for it). These figures are just a rough idea and making $1000 per month or more is very much possible if you have some creativity and consistency.
I have been using fiverr.com more as a buyer than seller and my primary earnings do not come from fiverr. So don’t ask me if I earn that much from them, I don’t. But I have enough experience to advice you on this topic.
Now let’s look into the whole process in more detail.
Step 1: Decide What You are Going to Sell
Usually freelance job networks only work on a model where the buyer posts a project with the estimate and requirements and service providers bid on the project. After the buyer is satisfied with one provider, he chooses (hires) him and work gets done, payment gets done.
Fiverr.com became popular because they turned the tables around. The first move is by the seller (or service provider, you!). You first post that you are ready to do this for $5 and then the buyer buys the service. This allowed for more creativity in the marketplace. People were offering strange and weird services and sometimes they were good value for more. Buyers found services that they would have never imagined were available and the whole eco system boomed.
The following image is a screenshot from the home page of fiverr.com where you can see services are being offered for $5.
You should head over to fiverr.com right now and have a look at the various services being provided there and get a general idea about the scope of the site. In each service offering (usually called a gig) you can see feedback. If a gig has a lot of comments, ratings and feedback its a good sign that they are doing well in sales of that particular service.
In the following screenshot you can see a guy offering voice over services for $5. He has 204 positive reviews which means at least 300-400 people would have ordered his services (all buyers may not leave feedback). Just on the conservative side, say its 300. $4 x 300 = $1200!
If you want to make a significant amount of money from fiverr, you should first study the market – learn what kind of services are in demand and sells well. You can try to provide a better service for the same price and people will buy from you. You can also make a new gig from your creativity, something which has never been offered in the site before.
Sometimes new ideas will boom, sometimes they may crash. Since there is no cost for posting a new gig and there is no limit to how many gigs you can post, you can just post anything that comes to your mind as a possible service idea. Just be careful that you will be able to meet the delivery deadlines – if a lot of people order your service and you don’t deliver, you rating in fiverr will go down.
You can also get some service ideas by visiting other freelance networks such as elance.com, getafreelancer.com, odesk.com, guru.com and so on.
Hot Tip: Some people make a lot of money as a middle man between fiverr and other freelance sites. They would bid on a project on odesk.com (or a similar site) and use fiverr to get the job done for a cheaper price and make money in the middle. For example if someone posts a job for $20 in odesk.com, you can bid on it, get it done for $5 on fiverr.com if the same service is available and make a cool $15 as a broker. And there is nothing legally or ethically wrong with this method!
Step 2: Post Your Service/Offer – Gig
Once you have some ideas on what kind of services you can offer, it is time to start publishing it on fiverr.com. After you have created your account, go to Seller -> My Gigs and then click on the button ‘Add New Gig’. You will get a page like this where you can enter the details of your offer. Make it as explanatory as possible so that buyers order your Gig with confidence.
You can add images and videos in your gig. Try to add a video explaining your services so that people get a clear idea what your gig is about. Once you have added it, add a few more gigs and wait. You are sure to get orders if you are providing something of value. Initially your orders will be slow, but as you provide more services and get more feedback, your orders will get repeat customers and new referrals.
Step 3: Improve Your Rating and Reputation
To get a lot of orders you should remember the following points…
- Provide a good quality service and make the buyer happy
- Always leave feedback for the buyer and ask them to give you a feedback in return
- Deliver your orders on time
- Under promise and over deliver so that your chances of getting -ve feedback are reduced
- Sometimes buyers won’t be satisfied even if you provide a good service. Just reply to them politely and provide a refund instead if arguing with them and risking a negative feedback.
- Give clear instructions to the buyer about what they should provide for your work. Clear and transparent communication will help both the parties.
Step 4: Withdrawing Your Money
Once you deliver an order, the order will be marked complete in 3 days. After that there is a 2 week holding time before your balance can be withdrawn. When you withdraw your balance, it will be paid to your PayPal account. Then it will be withdrawn to your bank account. For more information about PayPal, visit my post about using PayPal in India.
Conclusion
I hope you got a good idea about making money with fiverr.com. Go ahead and start trying it out. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below. Remember, the secret of making money is just 4 letters… W.O.R.K.!
