Fiverr Review: Is It Worth Selling on Fiverr.com?

There are now over three million gigs on Fiverr.com. That’s not quite three million sellers, but there are certainly hundreds of thousands of them. It’s become a highly popular website for those looking to make money. Some people do it full time, while others like me use the site as part of their side business. However, is it really worth your time? This is my Fiverr review from the seller side of things, with the good, the bad and the downright ugly aspects of the “gig economy.”

The idea is to set up gigs that you can do in a short space of time. It ends up being whatever you deem worth $5. Of course, that isn’t always what someone else will deem worth $5, and there are plenty of cheapskates on the site.

Personally, I offer 400 words for a general, original article and 100 words for sales and web copy. Both of those gigs are extremely popular, with the sales copy one really taking off at the moment. I’m happy, since I write quite and most of the topics are easy to research. In fact, most of the time I turn down the difficult topics because they just aren’t worth the time for the money.

The benefit is that people can set up whatever they want for their base gig. Some people set up gigs that take hours of work (and then end up complaining!), while others set up gigs that they can automate relatively easily. The latter definitely have the right idea, but it depends on your talents, skills and the stuff you like to do.

As you start to gain what Fiverr calls “Levels,” you’re able to work your way up to offer gig extras. These allow you to offer add-ons as part of your gig for $5, $10, $20, $40, $50 and $100. You get the higher amounts when you hit the highest level of “Top Rated Seller.” Don’t get confused over the name. The term “Top Rated Seller” is not for those who are highly rated. It is a term given to those who are handpicked by the Fiverr team. There is no guarantee you will get there, and it can be difficult to reach that top spot since the reasons behind choosing someone are never given.

Anyway, back to the extras. These add-ons help to make your gigs more profitable. You get to choose the type of add-ons you want to offer, so you can break your gig down further. Some people find that they can reduce their word count or offer a little less from their original gig once they have the extra features.

Buyers have the opportunity to review your work. This is a great feature on Fiverr because you can use those testimonials elsewhere. It gives people a true sense of the type of work you do for the money, and whether you are valuable.

However, this is where one of the downsides comes in for my Fiverr review. You see, there are a small number of buyers who threaten sellers with negative feedback. They know just how important it is to sellers to have a perfect rating, and decide to use that to their advantage to gain free work. There is a lot on the Fiverr Forums lately about people forcing cancellations by leaving unjust negative reviews.

Fiverr customer support does very little in the way to protect the seller. According to the people behind the desk, it is a buyers right. At no point do they look into the details of the order, see that the buyer is in the wrong and remove the feedback. I have been lucky to get some unjust feedback removed when I have refused to give into unscrupulous buyers but that was at least a year ago. Now I have unjust negatives sitting there, and there is nothing I can do because I refuse to give into threats.

Sellers have no choice but to accept an order that is placed, except by harming a seller. Unless the buyer communicates through the Fiverr system first, there is no method of talking about an order before the countdown timer starts. This is a serious flaw in the system, and has led to buyers either getting more than the gigs offer or their orders are cancelled.

All types of cancellations, whether they are forced, mutual, or by the Fiverr admin, affect the sellers. They are added into a cancellation tally, which is a percentage of the number of orders sold. There is also a tally for the individual gigs. When the cancellation tally reaches around 15%, that figure is shown up on the seller’s profile.

This can really put a buyer off from buying. There is no reason given for the cancellations, and it can lead to some potential buyers worrying that it is a seller wasting everyone’s time. This is something that all sellers have asked to have changed, but so far nobody is listening.

Remember the point right at the start about the three million gigs? Well, this is definitely a bad thing, especially for new sellers. When I first started out three years ago, I found it took a few weeks to get my first order. From there, I was able to sell a fair amount each month to the point where I main a sustainable wage each month from the site.

However, with so much competition, it is making it harder to be found in the searches. It is especially hard for newer sellers who do not have the reputation yet. This is partially due to the spam and bad gigs that are on the site. Many buyers want to find someone who has proven to offer high quality work, and will deliver on time.

All it takes is that one chance, but it is getting harder and harder to get that chance. You need to do a lot of self-promotion, and convince others that you are worthy of their money.

The website is down a lot. And I mean a lot! Just a couple of months ago, it was down for half a day. It just shouldn’t happen so much considering the nature of the site. It has led to people struggling to deliver their orders on time, and then those orders are cancelled by buyers who may not always realize that there was downtime.

While customer support says it will try to help, there is very little help offered. There is no way to extend the time once the countdown timer starts, and there have been cases where negative feedback has not been removed despite it being due to the downtime experienced.

Fiverr offers updates on the Twitter feed and Facebook page when there is downtime. However, these updates offer sellers no help or explanation at all. The message that says Fiverr will be up “soon,” is just a way to try to get annoyed, worried and stressed sellers off their backs. The “soon” works out to be 12 hours later—definitely not soon at all!

I definitely don’t recommend Fiverr.com for sellers as a full time business. This is something to develop as a side business. I have multiple streams of income, so when I have a bad week of no sales or there is downtime on the site, there is always somewhere else for me to go. However, you do need to find a balance since those Fiverr orders could come in thick and fast.

It’s worth finding something you can do that will take five or 10 minutes. Remember that you’re only making $5. In fact, you only end up making $4 because Fiverr takes a 20% commission on all orders. There are also PayPal or Payoneer charges involved that you need to look out for. Finding something you can do quickly and easily will make the income more worthwhile.

Hopefully my Fiverr review has helped you determine whether the “gig economy” is worth your time and hassle.