Ever though of starting your own freelancing career? I bet you have! In this article I am going to walk you through the complete process of getting started on fiverr: from setting up your account to adding gigs, from optimization to improving your sales. If you are serious about starting your own freelancing career on fiverr stick with this post.

Benefits of Using Fiverr

Fiverr is one of the biggest and most used freelancing platforms in the world with thousands of sellers and millions of buyers. Fiverr has more than 150 gig categories and offers its services in 196 countries. Now you see the huge potential ??

Well cutting short, here are the few major benefits of using fiverr:

• It’s free  to get started. You can create your account for free and start promoting your services.
• Fiverr charges only 20% of the actual amount which means $1 for every $5 you earn and as far as I see it is a pretty good deal. After all they bring you a lot of potential customers.
• Initially you can setup 5 gigs for different services. Not only that, you can also bid offers for buyer requests.
• Work as much or as long as you want. You don’t need to follow the 5 to 9 routine and the biggest plus is you can work from anywhere.
• Provide service according to your passion, change the area of your services anytime. You can offer copy writing services or if you are a business consultant, a social media expert, a blogger, video designer, a graphic designer, an activist or whatever there is scope for every single thing.

Understanding Fiverr Levels

Currently there are four seller levels on fiverr.

1. New seller.
2. Level One
3. Level Two
4. Top Rated

When you get started you are a new seller. A new seller gets 7 gigs, 2 gig extras and 5 multiple gigs.

While when you are promoted to Level One (first milestone) you get 10 gigs, 4 gig extras, 10 gig multiples and eligibility to be featured in promoted gigs list.

To become a level one seller you have to maintain 4.8 star rating, your account should be 30 days old, you must have completed 10 orders of worth $400 or more and you have successfully maintained 90 percent: order completion rate, response rate and on-time delivery rate.

Next big day is when you get promoted as Level Two seller. A level 2 seller gets 20 gigs, 5 gig extras, 15 gig multiples, priority customer support, eligibility for customer success program and eligibility to be listed in promoted gigs list.

All the matrix are same as of level one with addition that your account must be 120 days old and you must have earned $2000 or more and completed 50 individual orders.

Top Rated Seller is the dream of every seller. It’s very hard to achieve but has the most amazing benefit like 7 days payment clearance, VIP customer support. 30 gigs, 20 gigs multiple and 6 gig extras.

Since the reward is big, hard work should be big. Your account needs to be 180 days old. Completed 100 individual orders and earned at least $20,000 or more. That’s a big amount.

You can read more about fiverr levels on fiverr’s official page dedicated to fiverr levels.

Important: Payment clearance duration or other levels is 14 days.

Getting Started on Fiverr: Gig Research

Before we launch our first gig, it is necessary that we do proper research about what you will be offering and what competition you can face. What exceptional or extras you can offer to your clients to get their attention (and eventually get a sale) and some precautions you can take to beat your rivals.

First go to fiverr.com and create a seller account. It’s free of cost. Once you are have done creating your account follow the below steps.

Step 1

As I mentioned earlier fiverr has 150+ gig categories. If you  have a good set of skills and you know what service you will be offering you can skip to step 2.

First login to fiverr, in the menu bar you will see major categories, hover over those categories and sub-categories will appear. Scroll through each category and see if you find something according to your interest.

Step 2

Once you have figured what service suits you best, break down further to sub-categories. Doing this will reduce the competition and you will see what your competitors are offering. Get an idea about pricing, how soon they deliver and read their description and title.

If you think copy writing is what you will be providing you will notice that there are tons of gigs about copy writing and some of them are so well ranked that it’s very difficult to beat them. Now, what you will do is breakdown the main category.

For example you can offer something like: “I will provide you a 1000 words article about health”. Actually you can be even more specific about what topic in health category? This will reduce the competition to huge extent.

Getting Started on Fiverr: Setting Up Gig

Assuming that you are already logged into your account, navigate to top bar menu where it says selling.

Click on it and select Gigs.

On the gigs page select Create New Gig.

First main thing of your gig is the gig title. It should be unique and attractive enough to grab the attention of clients.

If you are good at writing website content you can offer something like:

“I will write an engaging about us page for your website.”

Recommended formula for gig title:

[Verb] + [Unique Selling Point]+[Gig Outcome] or

[Verb] + [Gig Outcome] + [Unique Selling Point]

According to  survey if you use numbers in your title there are better chances that people will interact with your post/gig. You can add some numbers like “I will write an article in 24 hours”, “I will design 2 logos” or “I will do something for $5” etc. It will really help you to grab attention of clients.

Done with title? Now is the turn for choosing the write category. Carefully select in which category your gig falls. Further select sub-categories very carefully. Doing this will help your gig appear in relevant results.

Select appropriate tags for your gig. For example if you are setting up a logo designing gig you can add tags like: modern logo design, vintage logo design, feminine logo design, retro logo design.

Pricing and Gig Extras

There are two options available for pricing. Either you can setup one single package or 3 packages with different benefits. I would strongly recommend that you choose 3 packages. It will add more value to your gig.

Since you have done some research in your field so you have an idea what pricing is best to get started. Setup 3 packages with a little variations like in one package you can offer 500 words and in the other you can offer 1000. In one package you can offer 2 day delivery and in other you can offer 1 day delivery or in one package you can offer topic research and in other don’t.

Gig Extras

Gig extras are also a good way to make some extra cash. You can offer fast delivery for extra charges. Client can add topic research, focus keywords or more words to the package. But be aware don’t ask for too much.

Pro Tip: When you are getting started try to price your gig for as low as possible. I will recommend starting with just $5. Also one 24 hrs delivery if possible. Buyers prefer sellers that deliver within 24 hrs. But don’t worry! Once your gig is up and you have atleast 10+ reviews you can start increase pricing gradually.

For example after you have successfully completed 10 five star projects you can increase the price of each package by $5. When you reach 50+ five star reviews you can add $10 more to each package.

Writing Gig Description

Gig description plays a vital role in your conversions (rather client buys your service or not). Carefully curated and good sales pitch converts well and helps you to get more orders. It also plays a little role in your gig’s rankings for a specific keyword.

Here are a few tips to write your gig description efficiently: 

• Describe what are you offering in your gig
• Describe what you are not offering in your gig
• Make bullet points for what your clients will get if they buy your gig
• Describe for whom is this gig best for
• Answer common questions and try to eliminate any doubt
• It’s better to ask your customers to contact you before placing the order

Pro Tip: Want to drive more sales? Offer some ethical bribe. For example:

Order now and get two logos in price of one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked questions or FAQs allow you to answer common questions related to your gig. For example if you are in logo designing. Your FAQs may look like:

Q: Is the source file included in package?
A: No source file is not included, you have to buy it for an extra $5.

Q: Do you provide unlimited revisions?
A: No, only 3 revisions are included in package. After that, you have to buy more revisions for extra charges.

Adding Requirements

Make requirements must for your clients. Even you have discussed everything in private chat ask your clients to mention all the requirements on the order requirements page. Though it will be a little hassle for your client but it will save you from future conflicts.

Ask as much detail as required, don’t over do don’t miss out important things. Make checkpoints if possible. For example if you are offering social media related services. Your order requirements may be as follow:

1. Social Account Links
2. Current Status of Accounts (Followers/Likes)
3. Related Niche

Gig Gallery

In this section you can add banner for your gig (upto 3 banners), a video and a pdf file. Adding at least one image is compulsory. Video and PDF files are optional.

Add a high quality custom built image for your gig. Clearly mention the main service included in the gig. If you can’t design a banner you can higher someone or use canva to build a custom banner for your gig.

Publishing Your Gig

Our final step is to publish our gig. Once everything is setup you can publish your gig and start sharing on social media or with your clients.

Mistakes to Avoid

Most of the beginners complaint that they don’t find any success on fiverr. In this section I will discuss why they don’t find any success.

a) Pricing

One of the biggest mistakes that beginners make is that they set the pricing for their services too high that client overlook their service. Whose going to invest his $100 in a service that is newly launched and have zero reviews. They have better pricing options. That’s why fiverr is awesome, you are never out of options. They will prefer to buy from a Level 2 Seller for $80 instead of a new seller (you) for $100.

So keep the pricing as low as possible, even you are not new in the field. But remember you are new on fiverr and to gain the trust (5 star reviews) do sacrifice, if you have to.

b) Don’t Offer What You Can’t Do

Never list a gig that you can’t complete or that is beyond your skills. In the beginning be very careful about client satisfaction, over deliver if you have to but never you fail to deliver an order. One bad review and you are at the brink of failure.

One bad review will throw your gig so deep that it will never appear in search results again. All those 5 stars wasted, all those good deliveries wasted.

c) Late Deliveries and Response Time

Try to deliver in time, it’s important for the good standing of your account + if you want to get promoted to next level.

Response as soon as possible. According to my point of view your response time shouldn’t be more than 1-2 hours. More engaging you ar

e more chances are you will get an order. Besides if you don’t reply quick you can lose a potential seller to another client.

Tips for Maintaining a Good Account

To keep your account in good standing and to get more sales you have to:

• • Avoid misleading or unrealistic promises or expectations

• • Deliver on time

• • Response quick

• • Maintain a rating of 4.8 stars or higher

• Low order cancellation

Here are a few tips for everyone:

a) Deliver on Time

Always deliver on time. But in case you ran late talk to your client and try to convince him to extend the order delivery time.

You can do that by going to the order page > Resolution Center

In resolution center select Extend Delivery Time and give a suitable reason for extension.

b) Maintain 5 Star Review

If you deliver what you has promised you will definitely get a five star review. But some customers can be real mess or some even don’t bother to leave a review.

So here is the solution. After you have delivered what was promised send a polite message with an ethical bribe. A bonus related to your gig. For example if you have delivered a logo you can offer something like:

Leave an honest review and get a free 3D mockup of your logo.

If you think something is wrong and the customer may leave a bad review, reach him out before he leaves the review with such a strong offer that he can’t deny. For example:

Leave a good review and get source file for free.

Here is the script for such messages:

**BONUS: (add your bonus here)

Once you have reviewed this report and are satisfied, I’d really appreciate if you could give me a rating and comment on Fiverr. If you’ve any questions or concerns, just reach out first : )

c) Avoid Order Cancellation

Order cancellation badly impacts your gig so it is highly recommended that do what ever possible to avoid order cancellation.

Pro Tip: Ask the buyers to contact you first so you can decide rather you are ready to take the project or not. Also discuss the do(s) and dont(s) already. This will lower your cancellation rate to a great extent.

d) Buy Some Trust

When getting started on fiverr you may find it hard to beat the competition and make some place for your gig. So sometimes I recommend new people that they buy review.

How this works?

Ask a friend to buy your gig, you can pay him the price of gig. What he has to do is leave a 5 star review with a comprehensive good comment elaborating that you did very well. Try buying 5-10 such reviews if possible. Once people see that you are rated five stars they will have some trust and orders will start rolling in.

You can buy reviews from other sellers but cost will be a little higher.

e) Send Fake Traffic

If you can’t afford buying reviews a simple trick that may work is start sending fake traffic to your gig’s page. Fiverr will take it as if original people are viewing and interacting with gig. This will help your gig’s ranking and it may start appearing in search results.

Use can use hitleap to send fake traffic to your gig’s page. It is a traffic exchange site so you don’t have to pay for getting traffic. All you have to do is visit other people’s websites. You can use any other traffic exchange website for this purpose.

But remember 5 stars are king. They attract more and more buyers.

f) Level Up

Fulfill the required matrix to get promoted to next level. Higher level means that you will get more exposure and more exposure means more sales. Also when your level ups you become eligible for featured listings. Featured gigs receive a lots of sale, since they are appearing on top of related search results.

g) Favorite Gig

Ask your friends or buyers to give your gig a heart, means favorite your gig. This factor also effects your gig’s ranking. More heart means more people are liking your service. This tells fiverr that this gig is worth showing to buyers. Let’s say you already have some good reviews, getting more hearts will make you gig eligible to be featured.

Getting More Sales

To get more sales you have to optimize your gig perfectly. This includes writing a good description, an engaging title and appropriate tags.You can actually play with tags until you start getting impressions, views and clicks. Test different tags on weekly basis until you find the most suitable tags.

Here are a few more tips to get more sales:

• Increase 10% of your traffic by responding to messages in time.
• Become a top rated seller and you will get 16x more traffic. More traffic mean more sales and more potential clients.
• Use a video that presents your gig. This will increase your sales by 220%. These stats were released by fiverr so they are authentic. You can hire a freelancer to create a video for you or you can create a simple video yourself using your phones camera or any digital camera.

Bonus

A huge mistake that beginners make is that they create only one gig while you can create 7. Absolutely right 7 gigs!

You can create 2 gigs of same skill or if you have a different skill set you can setup another gig for that specific skill set. Fiverr allows you to create gigs in different niches. So go ahead and create another gig.

Creating more than one gig will give you more exposure. You can test more and check which service sells best or you can keep both. A little luck factor is also worth mentioning here. You don’t know which service will sell best. You may be expecting that your copywriting gig will sky rocket but opposite happens and your social media management gig becomes viral.

So, keep trying different things and don’t give up too early. It may take some time to see sales rolling in. Be patient and determined.

Conclusion

Getting started on fiverr is really easy but to get success is little but difficult. You have to put some effort into it. If you follow this guide, you can start earning very easily. Once orders started rolling in then you will see good money. But remember keep your ratings up, always deliver on time and avoid order cancellation. These are the keys to success.

If you have any tip you can share it with the audience. Simply comment below or send me at my personal mail. I will add it in the article.

Got any question? Facing any difficulty? I am always here to help. Comment below and I will try to answer your question.