Having just completed my 10,000th order, people seem to be fascinated with my Fiverr journey. I personally tend to downplay its merit because it was honestly quite easy to accomplish. Granted, it took a great deal of time and blind faith to reach my current status in the marketplace, of which people tend not to part with easily. Regardless, I’ve arrived at a point where I’m comfortable lifting the veil, opening the books and sharing how I got here, where I am and what I envision the future.

What is Fiverr?

With each passing day, Fiverr inches closer to becoming a household name. Regardless of its growing popularity, let’s begin with a brief explanation to ensure all are on the same page. There are dozens of freelance platforms on the Web. Countless creative people around the world make a significant income on sites like UpWork, eLance and Guru every day. Online freelance offers designers, developers and writers the promise of supplemental earnings and, for some, a full-time salary.

Fiverr Mobile App

Fiverr is unique in its mandatory base price of $5 per order. Sellers offer the world their various talents in the form of a Gig. With optional add-ons (“GigExtras”), a seller can make hundreds or even thousands from a single sale but the foundation of the marketplace is strictly five bucks.

My devotion to Fiverr may surprise you considering my stance on freelance market rates. The trade-off here is volume. I’ve honed my offerings to only expend a few minutes of my time each and receive dozens of orders per day. The math adds up in my favor.

My Fiverr Gigs

I joined Fiverr almost 5 years ago. Initially, I some borderline sketchy gigs such as favorable Amazon reviews, social sharing and link-building pyramids. Needless to say, I was skeptical of its legitimacy. However, not only did the moderators start cracking down on services of that nature but, as money started to come in from my experimental gigs, I began to take this opportunity a lot more seriously. My longevity and success on Fiverr would be determined by the real, tangible value I delivered and not from glowing testimonials of eBooks I never read or products I never used.

I currently have six active gigs on Fiverr, two of which provide over 95% of my revenue:

I’ve experimented with dozens upon dozens of gigs with varying success. Some offer a glimmer of hope while others fall flat on their face. I seem to have a knack for business writing as most of my successes are in that realm. Early on, my offerings in logos, graphics and banners were wildly popular but impossible to keep up with at only $5 a pop.

My Income

Allow me to set the stage. My participation on Fiverr is a mere hobby. The labor is minimal and the supplemental cash is more than welcome. I don’t claim to be Fiverr’s most-successful seller by any stretch. For someone struggling or just getting started in the marketplace, I’m hoping my story offers some inspiration at the very least.

I joined Fiverr about 5 years ago. In that time, over 10,000 orders have been processed through my account. With the help of some finely-tuned GigExtras, my average sale price is now up to $9. I currently have a 95% positive user rating, which is 2 points short of Top Seller status. Of course I wish that was higher but in the creative space, you simply can’t please everybody. For now, I’ll settle for almost everybody.

Fiverr Sales Analytics

As of today, I’ve raked in a total of $65,427 from my Fiverr efforts. It may sound like a lot but it’s a slow climb and spread out over half a decade, isn’t really a game changer. I consider it pizza money plus some. I’m tracking to earn $2,900 in October which is on-par with the past few months. Perhaps it’s a bit more than pizza money after all…

When my girlfriend and I got engaged in 2013, I brought her into the Fiverr fold to share the workload and help save for our wedding. After getting married, our Fiverr fund quickly became our first home’s down payment fund. To this day, we still split the labor and profits down the middle and are both very grateful for the extra cushion.

Fiver Selling Tips

Although I could always be doing better, I recognize that many people would like to achieve my status in the Fiverr marketplace. My first piece of advice: be original. This blog post is not an invitation to copy my business plan. It simply will not work for you. However, I’m happy to offer some TOS-friendly advice that will.

Mr. Right Gig
Everyone has a talent or specialty that is valuable to others. Do you design logos? Do you sew tiny plush toys? Have a golden honey voice to lend? Browse the Fiverr directory to see what other sellers are offering. Again, copying them will get you nowhere but inspiration is for the taking! Use their success as a barometer of what could be for a similar gig. Don’t be discouraged if your gig already exists. You can do it better. You can offer more for less! The key is to develop services that can be completed in less than 20 minutes per order. If you spend any more time than that on each order, you essentially just hired yourself for the worst paying job in the world.

Getting Orders
So you’ve published a couple gigs and found yourself frantically refreshing the page in hopes of your first order. Refresh until your fingers fall off because history dictates this is highly unlikely to occur organically. With every new gig, you must create your own traction. Get friends and family to place the first few orders and be sure they leave behind some killer feedback. This throws you into Fiverr’s search algorithm with much more favorable placement. As long as the next few buyers are as thrilled with your superior service as your Aunt Nancy was, you will be well on your way to a steady stream of sales.

Customer Service
When you reach my daily volume of orders, customer service is always the first to slip. Don’t let it. Respond to all inquiries in a timely manner. Assume they sent that same message to 10 other sellers just like you. Never let your quality of deliverables falter. This consistency and friendly responsiveness will not only generate new orders for you now but provide an endless stream of repeat business for the foreseeable future.

Efficiency Delivered
At a certain point, sellers may feel overwhelmed by a constant flow of orders, inquiries and correspondence. This is, of course, a good problem to have. Coping with it is a matter of streamlining the processes you repeat often. For instance, I created a Word document with the top 10 questions I receive in my inbox each day as well as their appropriate responses. Sure, there’s the occasional wildcard message but this document has saved me hours per week in repetitive typing. Plus, the sender receives a fast, friendly and well-written reply every time, ultimately leading to more sales. I also did the same for my gig deliveries in the form of a template I fill in, copy and paste to deliver. Another way to streamline your workflow and decrease time spent is to come up with a tangible item for sale, instead of a service, such as a PDF, eBook or course. I’ve had decent luck with this myself and plan to pursue it more in the near future, opening up a whole new world of passive income potential on Fiverr. Efficiency is the key to productivity!

Go for the Upsell
Generating meaningful income $5 at a time can be a daunting challenge. You may offer GigExtras but few buyers take advantage. I recently started pasting a pre-written, upbeat blurb to all new orders asking them to consider the value of my GigExtras one last time and attaching the next level up as an Offer. In less than three months of doing so, I’ve increased my average order total from $6 to $9. This will mean much more pizza for me in the end.

Get Your Money
I touched on this earlier but it cannot be stressed enough – If you wish to establish a lasting legacy on Fiverr where every new gig turns to gold, I highly recommend adhering strictly to the following tips:

  • Deliver on-time, every time
  • Never pause your gigs
  • Write short, sweet, SEO-friendly gig titles
  • The first sentence in your gig description needs to be the best
  • Over-deliver when possible
  • Follow-up with unhappy buyers
  • Fiverr’s search algorithm favors videos
  • Never include “Message me before you order” in your gig description
  • Do not send mass messages or spam
  • Stay active on the Fiverr Forum

I’m happy to expand on this blog post in the future if there’s interest. There were many lessons learned in my Fiverr journey and it’s my pleasure to pass those along. As Fiverr’s global pool of buyers expands, so does its directory of sellers. Stepping out in front of the competition is no easy task, but absolutely essential to achieving success in this marketplace. I wake up every morning with the reality I may never receive another Fiverr order again. Until then, I sure am enjoying the ride. Thanks for reading!