Top 10 Tips To Help You Make Money With Fiverr

What started out as a lark on November 26, 2011 has now turned into something much, much bigger.

I know, it sounds crazy. I've read all those blogs, too. But you really can make a steady, 4-figure income on Fiverr. And I'm living proof.

I'm not going to lie to you, though - It's not easy. It's a lot of hard work. Especially in the beginning, when you're trying to find just the right Gig to offer and you're trying to learn how Fiverr works.

But you can read all about that on my other lenses. You came here to get my top 10 tips. And Lord knows my other lenses are long-winded enough.

So let's cut to the chase, shall we? I have things to do and I'm sure you do, too.

Here are my Top 10 Tips for Making Money with Fiverr.

Drumroll, please.............

Image: MindMillion.com

Whatever you're offering to do for five bucks, be an expert. Or as close to it as possible.

You're going to have buyers asking you all kinds of questions, trying to get as much for their $5 as possible. You have to know where to draw the line.

In my case, one of my first gigs was offering to write an article that was guaranteed to pass and get published at Ezine Articles, as long as it was an acceptable topic under their TOS.

Guaranteed is the key word. If you've ever submitted articles to Ezine then you know how particular they can be. I felt comfortable offering this guarantee because I'm a Platinum Author at Ezine, I've never had one of my own articles rejected, and I know what topics they'll approve and disapprove.

What I had forgotten about was how difficult it is to get articles past their editors when you have a brand new account. I also didn't consider the fact that some of these buyers had already earned several black marks with Ezine, so they were on the Ezine Hit List, which means Ezine wasn't going to accept anything they submitted, no matter how well it was written.

After doing about a dozen re-writes - free of charge - I shut that gig down fast! All of those buyers were just trying to use me to get their accounts built up past that first level that Ezine sets. They couldn't do it themselves and they were looking at me as cheap labor.

Know exactly what you can and can not do when you're working with another site, or building links, or submitting content for someone. Because you will have buyers who try to take advantage.

Don't forget... You can always edit your gig.

Watch Out For Boredom! You're only going to actually clear $3.92 after Fiverr and Paypal fees so it's important that the Gig you create be something you can deliver quickly, efficiently and with good quality - over and over again. You're going to have to deliver on a lot of Gigs if you want to make good money on Fiverr.

I'll use my article writing gig again, as an example:

Yes, I can write a 450 word article in about 15 minutes. If I have to research I can usually push out 3 per hour. That's approximately $12 per hour, which isn't great, but it beats a sharp stick in the eye.

However, I also hate... no... I absolutely despise writing about the same topic over and over again. When I do, I start slowing down. I mean WWAAAAYYYYyyyyyyyy down! Like one article every 2 hours! It's what I hate most about freelance article writing - the monotony of writing dozens of articles, all on the same keyword.

My gig started attracting repeat buyers. And they started ordering multiple gigs. The day I had to write 8 articles about Man Boobs - and then go back and clean up that buyer's mess on Ezine - I shut that gig down for good.

So choose a gig that you know you can produce, over and over again - quickly, efficiently, and with good quality...

Without getting bored to tears!

Which brings us to Timing. Since you're only going to clear about 4 bucks per gig, you do the math. How much do you need to make per hour? How many hours a day or week are you willing to devote to Fiverr? And how much of that hourly figure do you want to earn with Fiverr?

If you want to make $50 a day with Fiverr you're going to need to deliver 13 Gigs per day. If you only want to devote 4 hours a day to Fiverr that means you're going to have to deliver more than 3 Gigs per hour. So you'll need to offer something that you can complete in about 15 minutes, give or take a few.

If you think you have a really good idea for a Gig, go for it. It might take you a few days to get a system down that enables you to cut your time. So don't panic if you only deliver 2 or 3 gigs your first day. Just take a look at what you're doing and see how you can streamline the process.

Don't forget... You can always edit your gig.

In the beginning I was afraid to suspend any of my gigs. I thought I'd lose my momentum with the buyers if they couldn't see it all the time.

But then I had some things happen - I lost my Internet connection for a whole day due to a snowstorm and at that time I was booking 10 or 15 gigs a day. Being offline for that one whole day put me way behind schedule.

The guys who run Fiverr put that option to Suspend there for a reason - they don't want you to get burned out or fall behind on deliveries. That makes the buyers angry and that's where Fiverr earns their money.

I've also used the Suspend option when I'm trying to decide if I want to keep a gig running. Like that article gig. I suspended that thing 3 or 4 times, and I kept editing and tweaking... But finally it just got to be too much.

If you're trying to decide whether to leave a gig running or take it down forever, just suspend it for a couple of days and give yourself time to think about it and see if you can come up with a way to make it work. Because...

Once you delete a gig you lose all that good buyer feedback.

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I'm still trying to figure out the lead time system on Fiverr, but here's what I think happens...

You can set your lead time to anything you want. So let's say you set it at 7 days.

As soon as a buyer orders your gig the clock starts ticking. So if he orders the gig on Monday then you have until the following Sunday night to deliver it before it's considered late. (And even then, you still have a couple of days before it's automatically cancelled.)

But just because you have 7 days doesn't mean you have to use them. When I have the time and energy I work ahead so I can give myself a day off later in the week.

But here's the thing - if you deliver your gigs early, the the Fiverr clock automatically adjusts up. It still reads 7 days when you look at your gig. But it starts shaving time off your deliveries on your dashboard. Instead of giving you 7 days, it might only give you 6.

If that happens too often, which is has to me, then you'll be back in the same old place again, overwhelmed with too many orders to deliver at one time.

AND - you can only move your leadtime OUT, you can't pull it back in. THAT happens automatically!

Anyway, my point is this...

Watch the clock! Deliver on time or you're risking your rating!

Don't be afraid to request that the buyer cancel his order. I use this option a lot.

Any time you don't deliver a gig in the allotted time, for whatever reason, the buyer has a button pop up on his side that gives him the option of cancelling. If he does, you get a Thumbs down and your rating is lowered. Obviously, you want to try to maintain a high Seller Rating. So beat the buyer to the punch.

You can request that the buyer cancel the gig and if he does it won't hurt your rating at all. In fact, Fiverr would prefer a mutual cancellation agreement over a negative feedback. It makes you and Fiverr look better.

I've used this option a number of times. When my power was out I sent all of my buyers a message and told them I was going to be late delivering and why. And I gave them all the option of cancelling the gig.

I've also used it when I have someone order something really unusual that would just take too much time to create - something that's just on the edge of what I'm offering. You know? One of those buyers who's trying to get more for his money than I'm willing to give.

In those cases, I send them a polite cancellation request, telling them that their request is outside of TOS or it's not something I feel comfortable writing about, etc.

Whenever I send this cancellation request I'm always polite. I give them the option of changing their order and I tell them I completely understand if they want to cancel. I also tell them what I can do for them if they want to continue with the order.

This cancellation request button is useful for three reasons: It gives you a way to get out of gigs that would take up too much time. It makes you look good to the buyer - you're leaving the decision up to him. And it puts everything in writing, right there where the Fiverr guys can see it if the buyer wants to give you any crap!

I've met some really awesome buyers on Fiverr. In fact, out of the hundreds of gigs I've delivered, I've only blocked one buyer from ordering from me and I've made a few really great friends.

The key is to communicate. If you're having trouble meeting the deadline, if you have any question at all about the gig, anything - go ahead and communicate.

Most of the Fiverr buyers realize that five bucks is a really small price to pay for anything these days. They also understand you probably have more profitable ventures going on at the same time. They're willing to wait for delivery - as long as you communicate.

Just make sure you do all of your communicating right there on Fiverr!

I live in that area of Kentucky that was hit by tornadoes a couple of weekends ago. It didn't hit my house but it did hit pretty close to home. So I've been doing some work helping out a couple of churches in the area and I was offline for about 3 days or so.

I immediately sent messages to all of my buyers and also communicated with the guys at Fiverr Support so everyone would know what was going on. I ended up with a couple of cancellations in the process that dinged my rating but I'm pretty confident I can get the Fiverr guys to remove it if I ask because I've kept them up to date on my progress.

The guys who run Fiverr are great and I've never seen this level of support from any other site I've worked with. Be nice, be polite, and remember - they're human beings, too.

Once you hit Level 1 Seller status you can start offering gig extras. Use these to increase your profitability - not just make more work for yourself!

I can't tell you how many gigs I've seen that offer to write a 500 word article for 5 bucks and if you buy the extra, which is another 5 bucks, they'll write two articles! How dumb is that?! Why offer an Extra at all?!

Instead, offer something that compliments your original gig and makes it just a little bit better. But make it something that doesn't add in any additional time.

For example, one of my gigs is on offer to create Squidoo lenses. As an extra I offer to add in the "Lens Link' module so all their lenses are linked together. It doesn't take me any extra time at all but it adds value to their lens. I make an extra 5 bucks just for adding a module.

Fiverr gives you that opportunity to add Extras so you can increase your profitability.

Fiverr has a few different options that buyers can use to sort through the gigs and one of them is 'New Gigs.' If you notice your orders are slowing down, just put up a new gig - even if it's the same offer with different wording.

I do this a lot, especially during holidays. Fiverr always puts up a category like Christmas or Halloween or Valentine's Day. I just create a new gig offering the best Valentine's Day Squidoo lens on Fiverr. It's the same offer, I just word it a little differently so it's not duplicate content, and it pops up under the New searches and under the Holiday searches.

And remember - you can always suspend or delete it after your momentum picks back up.

Be sure to use plenty of tags so buyers can find your gig!

You thought I was gonna leave you hangin', didn't you?