Fiverr is simple – it’s a place where people offer to do something for $5! What you offer is down to you – anything goes on Fiverr! (more details about what’s acceptable are included later)

Many people steer clear of Fiverr as they believe that because you only get paid $5, it’s not worth their while doing work for this sum but Fiverr connects you, the service provider, with customers … and many $5’s soon add up.

There’s far more to Fiverr if you utilise its potential fully. So, let’s find out a little more about the site.

Your work is known as a “gig” and each one is worth $5. The price is non-negotiable and all transactions HAVE to go through Fiverr; it’s forbidden to try and negotiate outside the site and anyone caught will be instantly banned from the site.

Every seller simply completes this sentence when they create a gig: “I will … For $5”, followed by a description of the service offered and the turn-around time in days to complete the order. This time span is important – make sure you allow enough time to complete the order, taking into account all your other commitments, both work and home. Failure to meet your deadline may result in your gig being cancelled by the buyer.

All gigs are categorised, so it’s easy to find a service you’re looking for.

Outsourcing on Fiverr

If you need something done, you simply complete the search box on the right hand side of Fiverr’s main page and someone may get back to you. You’ll receive an email from seller’s letting you know how they can help you and it’s up to you to choose or ignore these.

So, I’ve signed up – what now?

The worst thing you can do is simply sign up to Fiverr, create a gig and then sit back and wait for someone to find you. If you do this, your gig will more than likely fall below the first two pages of the site and this in turn means that no-one will see you gig; which equals no work!

So, you need to market your gigs to make them stand out – and to do this, you’ll need to drive as much traffic as possible to the gigs.

You may be lucky enough to pick up a client who loves what you do and they keep coming back for more. You want people to pay for your gig, then leave positive feedback. The more feedback you get, the easier it becomes to get your gig featured. This simply means that it’ll appear at the top of the first page of the Fiverr site, where more people can see it!

Fiverr works in two ways – for the seller and the buyer

The Seller:

• You create a gig for the service you want to provide (you can create up to 20 gigs on your account)
• You upload your gig onto Fiverr
• You’ll receive an email notifying you when some orders your gig
• You’ll be able to communicate with your buyer
• After you’ve completed the gig, Fiverr will credit you with $4 48 hours after you’ve delivered your work. The $1 is their standard fee
• Once the funds have cleared, you can withdraw them and credit them to your PayPal account

The Buyer:

• Check out Fiverr and find a gig that matches what you’re after
• You can send a message to the seller before you commit to purchasing
• Order your gig and pay $5 by PayPal or credit card
• You’ll be able to communicate with your seller as many times as you want through Fiverr, sending information, documents etc
• Once the gig’s completed, you’ll receive your completed work
• You’ll have 48 hours after delivery to ask the seller to make any changes you’d like
• You should then provide feedback for the seller

The money you receive as a seller has a clearing period of 14 days. This is to protect the system from fraud and also any problems with complaining buyers can be sorted before payment is cleared.

Positive feedback is vital for your success – the more “thumbs-up” you receive, the more chance buyers will hire you! Most buyers select a gig based on its ratings and feedback – they want to be sure they select a trusted buyer who can deliver!