callyofficial

Has anyone else noticed the lack of a decent response from Fiverr CS lately? I feel like no one is actually reading and understanding the messages. I keep receiving 'general tips', like edit your gig, use the promotion feature, promote outside of Fiverr, etc. I've even pointed out this problem to them and the next reply they respond in the same way again.

I've set my account to away twice, and both times when I returned my messages and orders dried up for several weeks, so I still wouldn't risk my account by using this feature, there's way too much at stake.

This isn't necessarily a good thing. There are times when you can stand your ground to get paid, I understand that, but other times there are buyers you know will be an absolute drain on time, and no matter what work you provide, they will still be unhappy. This is often down to the way they are wired, rather than as a result of quality of work/service. As I now usually recognise the different buyer types quite quickly, I prefer to cut off the time wasters, because they can sometimes 5X the duration of an order, and you can still often end up with a cancellation. When I know I have a buyer that's a bad fit for my work/service, I prefer to cut them off as quickly as I can, to avoid the waste of time and to focus on the buyers that appreciate my skillset and service. Although this may seem at a glance like both myself and Fiverr would lose money due to these cancellations, I believe they're actually helping me be more profitable, by freeing up more of my time to spend with clients I know I can work well with.

I would love to be able to track time like Clockify or Toggl. When you visit the order page you could be asked if you want to start tracking time, and then you could either manually stop the timer when you’re done, or input the data later (essential if you forget to start/stop the timer). The benefit to having this built into Fiverr would be improved analytics with valuable information such as time spent per order, average order time for a particular client, hourly rate earned per order, average hourly rate per package/gig and so on. It would also be great to compare gigs to see which are bringing in the best/worst hourly rate. This information would be invaluable when it comes to pricing gigs, as you could factor in this data to ensure you're being paid fairly for the amount of time you're working.

I'm not too sure on that 3rd point, and it could be different depending on the category, I'm in music and audio. But generally speaking you'll usually be best sticking with Fiverr recommendations. You could also take a look at Pro/Top Rated Sellers for your category.

Hi there, welcome to Fiverr. In answer to your questions... 1) In my experience higher performing sellers have better gig titles that have a clear gig meaning, while still being optimised. In fact I don't think I've seen a successful seller with a title that has no clear meaning. 2) I agree, your gig image should have as little writing possible and be very clear. Your gig description can do all the explaining. 3) You would need to elaborate on this as I'm not sure what you've seen.

Possibly, I'm not too sure. Fiverr also sometimes roll out their new features slowly so not everyone has access to them immediately.

Amazing, Fiverr have finally rolled out a 'Request to Order' feature, meaning buyers will have to contact the seller before placing an order. So happy for this, a great addition.

Completely agree with your comments, I was just giving my feedback on buyer insights as I hadn't seen another forum post on it. I didn't know a buyer could opt out of certain fields and always wondered why information for some buyers wouldn't show. This is great to know and definitely a red flag.

I've had one buyer create numerous accounts and order with me, let me carry out the work, then request to cancel. He's done this many times and after doing it a few times, also realised he could request to cancel then close down the account and he'd get an immediate refund. This was a massive problem until those insights were introduced, and since it's helped me recognise his many accounts (new account, same country, not to mention I now recognise his music style/quality). I also agree with @donnovan86, being able to look at ratings given raises a flag, which allows sellers to look further into the buyer. Definitely a fantastic addition to the inbox which I now use with every buyer that messages me.

My first thought when I saw this was is there any hidden but real consequence of responding or not responding in this time. Does it perhaps change the algorithm in any way to benefit those who respond quickly or negatively affect those who don't?

Best thing I ever did was stop watching TV.

In my experience, buyers that ask for discounts off the bat are usually the more difficult buyers to work with. They're usually the ones with more questions, more of a need to chat, always checking in for updates, and basically just taking up more time than than their order is worth. So most buyers who ask for discounts are just a red flag to me. There are exceptions so I would always judge every situation independently, but 95% of the time I would let them know I'm unable to discount my prices, and remind them there are sellers at every price point they're able to search for.

Can anyone recommend a good app to track both time and income for freelance work? I can find plenty of great time trackers, and although many of them let you track income, such as Toggl and Clockify, they only let you track income as a billable hourly rate, rather than a fixed amount per order.

The answer is simply down to supply and demand. Are you getting orders at your current price point and are all your buyers currently happy with your skill/service? If so it could be worth trying to increase your price. If you're not getting orders at your current price point, then you need to address why this might be before considering charging more.