If you want to explore the world of freelancing and don’t know where to start, Fiverr might just be the stepping stone you need to kickstart your freelancing career!
Fiverr has become so popular since its first launch 22 years ago. And many people are turning to the platform to outsource talent from individual sellers.
Before I had the confidence to build my service website, Fiverr is where I started my freelancing journey.
There, I gained the experience of working for different people with different backgrounds.
Through Fiverr, I also realised what services I was happy to offer and services I was uncomfortable with doing long term.
Why is Fiverr a great platform to start your freelancing career? Keep scrolling to find out!
Fiverr is free
It’s totally free to set up an account on Fiverr.
There’s no upfront cost, and no subscription fees.
If money is the issue why you’re not setting up your own platform then this might be a better alternative you need until you’re ready to invest in a more professional platform.
Setting up a Fiverr account is easy
Unlike other freelancing platforms, Fiverr has made it so easy to set up an account. You don’t have to submit a CV or a cover letter, or answer millions of questions – and then painfully wait to find out whether you get accepted or not.
As soon as you set up an account, you’re good to go.
The downfall of that, however, is that it’s also easy for malicious users to get access. Within the first weeks I signed up I got many messages from suspicious buyers.
Most of the time, Fiverr police block them before you get a chance to message back. But like cancer, they keep finding new ways to target sellers under the radar.
Easy marketing
Marketing yourself and finding a client can be the most difficult aspects of freelancing.
When you launch your website or social media page, you might struggle at first to build a connection with people, more less make a sale. It also takes time for your website to rank on Google.
With a massive client base specifically on Fiverr who are on the platform to SPEND money, and with Fiverr’s inbuilt review system – it’s much easier to scale your profile and make more sales once you build your reputation.
Read my blog post: How I got my first sale on Fiverr
Boost your confidence
If you’ve never sold a service before, it might be daunting to start your online business. Am I good enough to charge this much? Will a prospectt buy from me when there’s much skilled people out there?
These are all the worries that went through my head that put me off from pursuing my dream for so long.
Selling on Fiverr can be a good idea to boost your confidence in your skills.
I used to love writing status posts on Facebook. I would write about my work, funny stories that happened in my day-to-day, my thoughts, etc. And my friends and family loved reading them and often commented that I should make a living with my writing skills.
However, I wasn’t confident and I didn’t know how. I didn’t have a degree in English, or took any proper writing course.
When I got on Fiverr, I started offering writing gigs: letter writing, blog writing, caption writing, etc. And when people started ordering and told me how happy they were with my work. That scaled my confidence up the roof!
Sure, they were much better writers than me and I’m no match for postgraduates and experienced journalists (not yet anyways). But that shouldn’t deter me from pursuing a career in something that I love to do.
As long as you don’t stop trying to improve, the possibilities are endless. With today’s unlimited resources at the tip of your fingertips, there should be little excuse why you can’t advance and improve your skills and knowledge.
Most buyers on Fiverr are not looking for degrees and professional experience (although it is a plus). If you can prove to them that you can get the job done then that is all that matters.
You can start with offering small gigs and then once you’re comfortable and have more confidence you can offer more specialised gigs.
Easy ordering system
When you own your own platform, sealing a deal with a client requires several steps before you get the cash; negotiating the price, signing a contract, invoicing and chasing them up for unpaid work.
Although this is eventually something you’d have to do down the line in your freelancing career, Fiverr provides a much more efficient process.
Fiverr acts like an intermediary between you and the client. They take care of the payment part of things, and once the job is complete you can see the money on your account.
So this is how it goes:
- A buyer places an order for your gig.
- You have a timeframe to do the work and deliver the order.
- The buyer marks the order complete and you get the money to your Fiverr account.
If the buyer fails to accept the order it’ll automatically be marked as complete after three days.
Please note, however, that Fiverr does take 20% off of what you make. Personally, considering that I don’t have to spend time finding clients and doing the onboarding process I don’t see it much of a cut.
Reminders and meeting milestones
One thing I like most about Fiverr is that you can build a reputation within the platform.
How many orders you completed, how much money you made, and what’s your average rating.
Seeing these statistics is motivating to want to do better and meet those milestones to become Level 1, Level 2, Senior Seller and so forth.
The platform takes meeting deadlines seriously, so to avoid bad performance reports you’re more likely to not slack off and respect agreed delivery dates.
Learning experience
Fiverr can be a great learning experience and gain some of the skills needed when you decide to open your own freelance business.
Here are some of the essential skills I gained through building my Fiverr profile:
- Reading gig performance analytics and making necessary adjustments to improve the impressions, click and order ratio
- Designing more clickable gig images
- Crafting gig copy and converting potential buyers into actual buyers
Furthermore, I also had the opportunity to work with business owners from varying industries. Sometimes I’m exposed to their working methods and how they run their business which have urged me to try it on for my own business.
For example, writing detailed instructions in word documents or how to find leads and entering their information. I was able to bring those methods to the startup company I worked at and it brought amazing results!
Don’t get me wrong
Fiverr, like any other platform, has its own disadvantages and flaws. I’ve heard many sellers complaining about some issues relating to bad buyers (Fiverr favours buyers over sellers), and getting suspended for no apparent reason.
While I haven’t had any serious issues to complain about, I’m aware that I shouldn’t solely rely on Fiverr to build my freelancing career. As the saying goes, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”
Haven’t opened a Fiverr account yet? Join today here.