Thoughts on being a seller on Fiverr
If you haven't heard of Fiverr.com it's a website where you can buy/sell different gigs for $5. These gigs can be computer related, marketing, advice, all kinds of stuff. Some are useful, some are weird, and some are creative. It's worth checking out if you haven't already.
My "gigs"
The whole website is an interesting concept and I decided to try it out by being a seller. I decided on a few quick things I would be willing to do for a mere $5. I decided on:
- I will recommend minor html and css fixes to make your website look better
- I will comment on 10 of your blog posts
- I will give you script to show your logo and text when someone shares your site on Facebook
- I will give you script to add social media sharing to your blog posts
- I will give you script to show a Facebook like box for your Facebook
I thought these were all reasonable little gigs that people would want and I could do in a small amount of time. I wrote what I thought was clear instructions on what I would do if someone ordered the gig, and what I wouldn't do. It seemed like I covered my bases.
Good experiences
Some of the orders I received were reasonable and had clear instructions. For the HTML/CSS bug gig I got some orders from people who needed help fixing some minor bugs they didn't know how to fix, like adding padding on sidebars or figuring out why some things were aligned certain ways on pages. No biggie. I got requests from new blogs to write some comments on posts to help encourage visitors to comment on posts too (not everyone wants to be the first commenter, they're shy).
The bad side
Then I got the crazy/weird/not-at-all-what-the-instructions-said requests and gigs.
One person wanted me to comment on a blog pretending to be an angry tea partier. Umm, pass on that.
Numerous people asked about making custom WordPress themes for them. I'm definitely not going to do a custom WordPress theme for $5 a pop. I'd maybe make one simple theme and sell it to a lot of people, but I'm not doing a $500+ website for someone spending 20+ hours on designs, coding, and approvals for only $5. Heck no. I sent them links to my website and told them I'd be glad to send an estimate.
I received requests for setting up email marketing campaigns, website templates, commenting on 10 different blogs to build backlinks instead of commenting on one blog to boost conversations, copying designs from existing websites and making WordPress themes out of them, using Javascript to hack & change functionality of 3rd party scripts, and lots of other things that I was definitely not willing to do. I think I made some people mad, but oh well.
What works
Surprisingly my best selling gig is for commenting on blogs. Most seem to shy away from doing this for purposes of driving quality conversations about content. Most want me to pose as 10 different people and comment on the same few posts over and over again just to boost comment count. This is disappointing and to me seems like something that will either hurt their blog in the long run or just be a waste of time. Intelligent people who see spammy or fake comments on posts will see the blog as untrustworthy and leave (at least that's what I do). In my opinion the number of comments is less important than the quality of comments.
Where to go from here?
I'm continually finding myself wondering if I should abandon the whole Fiverr thing. I've spent countless hours dealing with messages and gigs and have received very little money for my efforts. I've received plenty of messages that either shock me or leave me confused. Then again, I have helped some people out with relatively little effort and I know they appreciated my help. These gigs also teach me to work faster and more efficiently. We'll see if I stick with it or not.
