Fiverr Review: Is Fiverr worth it?

If you’re asking yourself is Fiverr worth it, then we want to be up front and say that it does take a lot of effort to be successful on Fiverr.

But it also takes a lot of effort to be successful on any other freelance platform, or going it solo as a freelancer.

Freelancing is not an easy career choice (but it’s still the best career choice we ever made).

That said, there are a fair few things to consider if Fiverr is worth it for you. Let’s take a look in more detail.

What is Fiverr?

Fiverr is a global online marketplace offering tasks and services, beginning at a cost of $5 per job, hence its name.

The site is primarily used by freelancers and small business owners who use Fiverr to offer services to customers on a global scale.

A service offered on Fiverr is called a Gig.

The service is offered by the Seller (freelancer), and bought by the buyer(employer) Five dollars is the popular starting price for offers on Fiverr.

Buyers pay Fiverr for orders in advance. Sellers keep 80% of each Gig they sell and successfully complete and deliver. For example, each $5 Gig you sell and successfully deliver, accredits your account with a net revenue of $4.

Fiverr accredits sellers once an order is completed.

As you build your rating on Fiverr it is possible to start to raise your rates for Gigs.

Each Gig is different and therefore maybe subject to a rates change.

Want to skip ahead? Sign up to Fiverr by clicking here.

How Fiverr works

Fiverr has a pretty simple proposition for freelancers:

1. Create A Gig: Sign up for free, set up your Gig, and offer your work to our global audience.
2. Deliver Great Work: Get notified when you get an order and use our system to discuss details with customers.
3. Get Paid: Get paid on time, every time. Payment is transferred to you upon order completion.

In reality, it’s a little more complicated than that and Fiverr is not worth it for every type of freelance gig.

Let’s look at how you can make money using Fiverr and a few case studies from those who are making a decent income from Fiverr gigs.

What to consider before getting started on Fiverr

Before you dive into signing up to Fiverr and listing your services, let’s take a look at what to consider before you get started:

• Do you have a talent / skill / product / service that you love doing?
• Are you good at what you do?
• Have you made money with that service or product anywhere else?
• You don’t have to be the best at anything. You simply need to be able to provide quality and value!
• Can you perform or supply it quickly (preferably in 24 hours)?
• Are you willing to perform or supply your talent / skill / product / service for $5, for a temporary period of time?
• Do you have good communication skills?
• Do you make friends easily?

If you can answer yes to most of the above questions, you can be more confident that Fiverr is worth it for you, so  take some time looking through Fiverr in the category you would be working in.

Take your time through this part and what you’re looking for is anyone who does what you can do.

Read their gigs and see how they price things, what extras they offer, read their reviews. Then ask yourself, “Would I be happy doing what they’re doing?” and “Can I do what they’re doing?”

Again, if the answer is yes, then you may be able to make money using Fiverr.

One freelancer who is making a success of Fiverr is @thatcoolsign.

They draw digital illustrations as a side gig and it’s becoming a full time job.

Originally they were against Fiverr because it devalued their art, but then they realised the majority of the money on Fiverr comes from upsells.

Without their instagram account, they feel they couldn’t have come this far. Their first 10 sales were directly from Instagram clients, where they would post my drawings, people would message them and they would direct them to the link in the bio, which was a link to their Fiverr bio.

Once they started making consistent sales, Fiverr’s search feature started bringing in more customers, which meant @thatcoolsign was bringing new clients that they would never had been exposed to.

The majority of the money comes from 4-5 big buyers who spent $300-$750 each.

Here’s proof of their success:

1. Create video for your gigs: Gig videos attract Fiverr algorithm and ranks your Gig above other of your competitors that do not have videos. Gig videos also help potential client to know what service are you offering and attract them to buy it from you.
2. Get more favourites & reviews: Buyers on Fiverr tend to go for services that have a high number of quality reviews and favourites. The more favourites or quality reviews you get, the better the service you provide will come across to potential clients.
3. Keep taking on more projects: After a certain amount of time, the volume of jobs that you’ve completed will make your profile stand out more. No one wants to hire a freelancer with only a small amount of projects completed.
4. Scope the competition: Look at what other freelancers are doing on Fiverr and how they are making money. See if you can offer similar services and try to outdo them. Offer more for the same price, lower prices, or put your own creative spin on a popular gig.

There’s lots more you can do to find more work on Fiverr, but these are our main tips.

But if you’re looking for more, here are resources for freelancers that Fiverr themselves offer:

• The Seller Help Center – plenty of information on most topics a Fiverr seller needs to know about.
• How to Start Selling on Fiverr – the basics of getting started on the platform, essential reading for all new sellers.
• Creating a Gig  – how to create your first, and subsequent gigs. Gigs are the way you sell your services on the platform.
• The Seller Help Center  has plenty of other advice on managing orders and gigs, communications, features, promotions, getting paid, and more.
• The Fiverr blog – articles on how to get the most out of the platform. The most relevant section on the blog for sellers will be the “community” section.
• How to Optimize Your Gigs to Maximize Your Sales  – 12 practical things you can do today to increase visibility and enhance your sales.

Fiverr has two advantages over Upwork that attracts a lot of rising talent and clients interested in hiring for quick and fast jobs:

1. They allow the freelancers to package their deals in nice attractive services format which they call “gigs”.
2. The gig price starts from $5, so the lower price naturally attracts lots of clients.

While Upwork also allows cheap job postings and bids in the $5-10 range, those are usually scammy since there is neither involvement by freelancers in making them attractive (service/gig posting isn’t allowed by a freelancer on Upwork), nor are there reviews posted against them.

Reviews are there for individual programmers, but service reviews are also quite helpful.

And to top it, Upwork increased their fees too recently to as high as 15%.

There is a lot of potential for Upwork and they can easily crush down all competition at this stage by simply lowering their fees.

With time, competition is only going to increase since more startups will launch newer freelancing sites, so sooner or later, Upwork will have to slash their fees to stay in the market.

So if you’re considering Fiverr vs Upwork, Fiverr is probably more worth it for you right now.

Fiverr vs 99 Designs

99Designs specialises in design freelancing, allowing buyers to purchase anything from a simple business logo to a complex graphic design.

Like Fiverr, freelancers are evaluated regularly and reviews are public.

What makes 99Designs stand out compared to Fivver is that you can have multiple designers submit drafts so you can have a large selection to choose from.

Pricing depends on what you need and how many submissions you’d like to see.

A simple logo design costs anywhere from $299 for about 30 designs to $1,299 for 60 premium designs and responsive customer support.

99Designs is pricer than Fiverr, so it does people with established businesses, not someone just getting started.

That might mean you can make more money freelancing on 99 Designs than on Fiverr, but the competition will be tough.

Sign up to 99 Designs here.

Ready to get started with Fiverr? Sign up to Fiverr by clicking here.