After my last post, many of you commented that you were looking forward to hearing my Fiverr review. I hope this gives you some insight into how it works, and maybe you’ll find it worth trying!
Although I’ve known about Fiverr for a while, I had never considered using it myself until my challenge to earn $2k in 2 months through side hustles. About 2 weeks ago, I decided to join, and within a few hours, I had received my first order. I’m happy to report that so far, it’s proving to be a good resource for a little extra income.
Update: I’ve now been using Fiverr for freelance writing work for 4 years, and it’s become an excellent source of income! I don’t do anything for $5 anymore and was quickly able to increase my rates.
How Fiverr Works
As the name suggests, every “gig” being offered on Fiverr is listed at $5.
I know, I know- this sounds terrible, right? How can you make any money if you’re working for $5 a pop? Don’t worry- you do not have to work for this low rate! Read on…
Setting Up a Gig
If you’re a seller, you simply “Create a gig”, spelling out exactly what it is that you are willing to do for a base fee of 5 bucks. You can come up with just about anything, so if you have a talent or a skill that you want to make money from, it’s worth offering and seeing if you get some bites.
There are so many services that you can offer as a buyer- virtual assistant, graphic design, freelance writing, etc. What’s so nice is that you can make a very specific gig. For example, maybe you excel at making cool Pinterest Pin graphics. You could offer a custom Pinterest pin graphic.
Figure out what you really enjoy doing and can do quickly. That’s what will help you to earn more and make the most of your side hustle gig.
Eventually, you can see analytics on how many views your gigs receive. You can add tags to each one to help buyers find them through the search function.
Now, how to earn more than $5 for you a gig.
You want to structure your gig so that you offer the minimum amount of work for that base rate. Let’s say you’re starting a writing gig. You can offer 100 words, about a paragraph, for .05 cents a word. You can do this until you’re able to level up and unlock the ability to charge more. After getting a few orders under your belt, this won’t take long at all.
A buyer will check out the details of your listing, then send you a message with questions, or simply place their order. You get an email from Fiverr letting you know that a message or order has come in. Easy!
What “Gigs” Should You Offer?
If you’ve thought about selling on Fiverr but were intimidated by the sheer number of sellers already there, fear not!
There are hundreds, probably thousands of things being sold, from writing services to tangible items to illustrations to web designs to logo designs, etc., etc.
There’s even a category for bizarre stuff, like someone who will write a message in the sand on a beach, or someone who will be your “mystery girlfriend” on Facebook. Yep, it can get pretty weird browsing through gigs!
I started by creating a listing for web content services. You have plenty of space in the description to state exactly what you will offer a buyer, and you set your turnaround time.
Not interested in freelance writing? No problem.
Don’t just think of Fiverr as a place to offer writing services. The options are endless for what you can offer. Consider the skills you have, the knowledge you can share, or the talents you want to monetize.
You can offer VA services, sell Pinterest pin templates, create custom Pinterest pins, make logos, proofread, etc. There are so many possibilities if you have a little extra time.
After I made my first gig, I got an inquiry within a few hours and had several orders right away. You can modify your gig at any time, which is great because I have already gone in and modified my offers multiple times over the years.
As you begin to get good reviews, you can increase your prices. Don’t sell yourself short.
Pros and Cons of Fiverr as a Side Hustle
Fiverr definitely isn’t perfect, and no one is going to get rich off of offering “gigs” for just $5 a pop. The fixed pay rate is so low, which is a big con for any freelancer. Fiverr takes a 20 % cut. Keep that 20% cut in mind when setting your prices higher.
Personally I am ok with the 20% that Fiverr takes because they make it so simple for me to get work. I don’t have to pitch, send out cold emails, and waste time on job boards. The work comes to me, I don’t have to create a contract or worry about unpaid invoices.
Buyers pay upfront and once you’ve completed the gig and the buyer accepts the delivery, you’re earnings are available in 14 days. If a buyer doesn’t manually accept the delivery, it is automatically accepted for them after 3 days.
You definitely want to offer the bare minimum for your basic gig once you get established. After you complete a few orders and get positive feedback, edit your gigs to reflect the rates you want to charge.
The 20% that Fiverr takes off the top sounds like a lot, and it is! However, they’re bringing you a huge pool of potential buyers. The whole system is simple and secure, so you don’t have to worry about not getting paid each month. I love that peace of mind and I don’t have to chase down any invoices.
Gig Extras
Another good feature is that once you achieve a certain number of sales, you can add “extras” on to your gig. So you can say, “I will do X for $5, add $5, $10, $20 for additional services.
A lot of sellers offer an expedited order for an additional fee. This is really where the money is to be made, in the extras. If you can turn orders around in 24 hours, you can find buyers willing to shell out for it.
One of the potential problems is that the very nature of a $5 service attracts some demanding buyers with high expectations, many of whom try to take advantage of the services being offered. I have unfortunately encountered this kind of buyer, and the Fiverr forums are rife with complaints from other sellers. I have no problem telling a potential buyer “thanks, but no thanks.”
You will want to get away from these types of buyers fast. I trust my gut when a buyer contacts me and if I don’t think that the job is right for me or the buyer is a good fit, I turn down the job.
Fiverr Pros:
- Easy to use
- Opportunities for all types of skills
- Buyers come to you, so no need to spend time cold-pitching
- Good platform to build long term relationships with repeat buyers
- Practically guaranteed payment for your work
- No need to create invoices and chase down clients to receive payments
- The payment system is convenient
- Scale up your pricing once you’re established
Fiverr Cons:
- Fiverr takes 20% of earnings
- 2 week waiting period for payments to clear
- You may encounter unrealistic buyers
- Not all gigs will be accepted by Fiverr
- Takes time and effort to get established and scale up
Getting Paid
The payment process is a little unusual. There’s a waiting period on each payment, which from what I understand is up to 14 days. Once the payment is “cleared”, you can cash out to your PayPal, with no minimum. Another downside is that you pay the PayPal fees, so there go a few more cents from your bottom line. It’s really only a $1 a transaction, so not too big of an inconvenience for me.
If you don’t need the cash that you earn immediately, the payment system shouldn’t be an issue. I like to let my funds build up a bit before I cash out.
Fiverr Review-Final Thoughts
Overall, I’ve found Fiverr to be a great way to make money from home. I enjoy what I do, and I’ve raised my rates to a level that I’m very comfortable with. About twice a year I do reassess and raise my rates to reflect my skill level and positive ratings.
I absolutely love that I don’t have to go out in search of freelance writing clients. They can find me and we both enjoy the security that the Fiverr platform provides. It’s hassle-free. Potential buyers message me with details of what they need, and I can decide if it’s something I’m comfortable writing. I love how passive it is, in terms of finding buyers.
Don’t expect to make Fiverr your main moneymaker, at least not right away. Do look at it as something fun that you can try out. It’s just one more platform you can use to bring in extra cash each month.
Have you tried using Fiverr yet, or will you give it a try now?Â
I love Fiverr and use it for some small gigs, but never thought about listing any services on it. The low prices seem to make this one of those side hustles that may be more work than it is worth.
I have ordered a few things from Fiverr, but have never offered my services. I don’t have anything I can offer for $5 right now and I certainly won’t write for that little. I know it can be good once you can offer the extras, but you have to make it to that point!
It actually only takes 30 days to reach the point where you can add extras. One smart thing that I’ve seen sellers do is set a minimum for their services, so they will say that buyers must order X number of $5 gigs to reach their minimum pay for one job. Seems to work out for many!
I actually used Fiverr when I was setting up my self-hosted website. I paid some dude $5 and he set up Jetpack and transferred over my old wordpress.com site to wordpress.org.
I’m pretty sure it took him like 10 minutes, since he knew exactly what he was doing and just asked me for the log in I had and the log in I wanted. It was brilliant. We were both happy.
I think something like that is perfect for the $5 model. I’d considered writing posts, but even at 500 words, that’s still 30/60 minutes to knock it out. At $5 an hour? I don’t think so. $20 is my minimum for that kind of commitment.
I can understand that, and it’s good to have a minimum that you won’t go below. I’m looking at the $5 gigs as a way to build up quickly and command a higher rate. With the add-ons, that shouldn’t be hard. The basic articles I’ve done so far have been easy as pie to knock out fast. I’ve negotiated with buyers on different details, too, which makes it worthwhile.
I am thinking of using it for a logo for my site also. Thanks for your review on your experience so far as I was curious about the business model.
Thanks for the review…I’ve bought from Fiverr but never advertised any services. (I definitely was not demanding for $5) I guess the extras is where the money is made.
Thanks for the review! I think my best bet would be to offer editing services, as it’s generally something I can do pretty fast. I’m not sure writing 500 words for $5 would be worth it, unless I specified the topics I’d be willing to write about. As you said, as long as it only takes you 15 minutes, that’s not too bad. I tend to be a perfectionist, and I don’t think I could slap a quality post together in a short timeframe unless it was on a basic topic.
I did specify topics myself, so that makes it easy. You can also turn down a buyer, too, if it isn’t something worthwhile.
I started offering a gig on Fiverr last summer when I decided the only way I could justify getting a smartphone was if I could pay for it entirely with side hustle income. The hardest part for me was figuring out what to offer. I ended up offering a gig editing badly written outsourced website content, after I ordered a couple blog articles for a different project and they turned out to be terrible. I figured other people would have similar experiences and if they were willing to pay for writing, they’d be willing to pay for editing!
I made about $600 last fall before I got busy during the school year and suspended my gig. I just reopened it, though, and I’ve had a couple orders recently. Offering a bonus to do a gig faster has helped me raise my average income per order.
That is awesome, Daniel! Thanks for sharing your experience.
We have had a few logos drawn on Fiverr in the past. I think it’s a great service and you cannot complain about the pricing!
I’m thinking of using it for that, too. It’s hard sifting through all of the sellers offering logos, but for $5, yeah you really can’t complain if it’s lousy!
Interesting post. I actually hire people occasionally on fiverr and it’s quite cool to read about the other side. Personally, I would prefer to make money through Elance although you could use the articles you’ve written on fiverr as part of your portfolio if you wanted to go down that route 🙂
Hi Christine! I gave Elance a try briefly, but I got overwhelmed by the volume of projects on there. It seemed really time consuming to write up bids. What I like about Fiverr as a side hustle is that I can set up my gigs, then buyers come to me. It’s kinda like set it and forget it until an order comes in.
Thanks for sharing your experience so far Lauren. You are an efficient writer! I’m in awe. 😀
I’d probably get priced out if I tried. 🙂 I’m just not willing to write 500 words for under $3. I love the idea of add-ons, though…it sounds like it could start to be lucrative if you get into that!
Nice overview of Fiverr. I haven’t used it, but I will give it a try. I might use it as a seller and as a buyer. I need some logos to be designed and I’m not that good at designing things so I might need some help.
Great overview – I like your idea about offering the addon services to get more value out of what you are able to offer. I will definitely give it a browse to see if anything being offered could be up my alley in terms of throwing my name in the hat.
TWO weeks ago I bought my first Fiverr gig. It’s for a bit of graphic design. The work is really good but the finishing of the gig has drawn on for weeks because they are from India and don’t understand my simple modification request. At one point I cancelled the order because they hadn’t responded for days. They say ‘unlimited modifications’ in their descrip. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy overall from the communication problems definitely add a level of frustration.
But hey, me getting them $4 in India is a lot better than $4 in America so good for them.
Overall, I like fiverr.
What kind of articles are they asking you to write? (bonus pts if you reply because that means you read my whole long-winded comment) LOL
Hi Will! I do read every comment! 🙂 Sorry to hear about your less than satisfactory experience- that stinks. I appreciate that Fiverr displays the country flag for sellers so that you can see where the person is from, though.
So far, I’ve written articles about travel tips, finance, all easy-peasy stuff! If I can write it with little to no research, it takes me very little time to complete. If I got an order for something I didn’t agree with writing about, I would just ask the buyer to cancel it. I refuse to be taken advantage of, in terms of word count and extras that they might hope to get out of it. For 4 bucks, it should take me 15 minutes, tops.
This is interesting. I was wondering about Fiverr and if anyone had figured out how to make money on there. Thanks for the read!
Thanks for stopping by and reading!
Have you ever thought about trying to find writing jobs for other blogs? Bloggers are usually very reasonable and easy to work with. And in my experience bloggers are awesome with payments, especially in the PF niche, they’re never late.
When I first started out freelance blogging I charged $20 for a 500 word article. And since most jobs are on an ongoing basis you only have to find the jobs once and you’ll have another income stream.
If you’re interested in doing that you should make a list of all the blogs you want to write for and then start emailing them about writing jobs. It’s really a lot easier than you think to find those jobs and it could help you reach your 2k goal faster!
Hi Alexa, I actually have written for other blogs before, but it definitely would be a good idea to reach out to more! I typically don’t write anything for such little pay, but I just wanted to add Fiverr as an option for a little extra income 🙂
Thanks for the overview Lauren! It really does seem as the add-ons would be were you could really make more money. That said, I just wonder what the success rate is for those that offer that. Meaning, how many of their sales include some sort of add-on?
From reading the forums over there, it seems that many people make their money with add-ons, so I’m guessing there is a pretty good success rate. Otherwise, it isn’t worthwhile for sellers who offer things like graphic design, videos, etc. I think it really depends on what is being sold/offered.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Lauren. It definitely seems like an interesting way to make a few extra bucks. It sounds like doing a little browsing to determine “reasonable” perimeters might not be a bad idea before you start.
Yes, I would definitely recommend looking through other people’s gigs to get a better idea of what and how to make your listings.
Great overview. I’ve ordered a handful of fiverr giggs for IT related work and have been very impressed with the results. Always had professional and timely sellers. I can definitely see how the extras would pay off.
That’s good to hear! I’ll probably be ordering some things related to website design in the near future.