The fiverr model is structured to force you to make a promise and give details on how you will fulfil it. You therefore must be convincing enough to the customer, especially if it’s the first interaction, to make them give you a chance. That means that your profile should be compelling. It still is important that as you make that promises in your profile, you must tell the truth about your capabilities. There are things to be careful of as you trade as it becomes easy for customers to lose confidence in you just by your actions and behaviour.
The good thing about fiverr is that you set the standards and you then live up to it. You also set the price for your service. As you do, you must be conscious not to price yourself out of the market or even below market. Both extremes can jeopardise your profile.
Next I will go through the three this which I believe form part of freelancing success on fiverr.
Process
Fiverr lets you do everything yourself. The two things they provide you is the platform, including its structured processes, and getting customers. Nonetheless, you are also free to do your own marketing outside of fiverr. In all that, you first must register and profile yourself the way you want customers to know you. Fiverr provides electronic templates to fill which when completed will give a complete profile. These templates have validation criterion that you must observe and meet in each stage before you proceed to the next. Your profile will also include the services you will be offering. Once your profile is complete, you now can wait for a call from a customer who would like to work with you.
Skills
Your already acquired skills and those you are still acquiring goes together with the process. Skills that can go into your profile include both those you achieved through your academic work acquired and those from your experience. It still is important to follow your passion as you chose the gigs/services you will be offering on the platform.
Academic skills often take more credit because of the ease of proof to the client. A client is easy to believe you if you mention the name of training institution(s) that you attended and the certificate(s) issued. On the other hand, experience can be best proven in practice, that is, a client must be willing to give you a chance to prove yourself.
Time
Depending on the services you offer, you may take a while before you get things going yet you should not give up. When things get going and you start earning some money, fiverr will then increase your reach based on four stages; New Seller, Level 1, Level 2 and Top Rated Seller.
There are two major variables that fiverr uses to categorize a freelancer within the levels. A freelancer can either move to next or back to a lower level, depending on their performance.
New Sellers create up to 7 gigs (service offerings), add extra 2 services per gig, offer services of up to $20,000 each and are allowed to withdraw only after 14 days.
Level 1 sellers can offer up to 10 gigs, add 4 extra services per gig, and create custom offers of up to $20,000.00. They should have been active for at least 60 days, have completed at least 10 orders, earned at least $400, have rating of 4.7 and above, to pick just a few.
Level 2 sellers can offer up to 20 gigs, add 5 extra services per gig, and create custom offers of up to $20,000.00. They should have been active for at least 180 days, have completed at least 50 orders, earned at least $2,000, have rating of 4.7 and above, to pick just a few.
Top Rated Sellers can offer up to 30 gigs, add 6 extra services per gig, and create custom offers of up to $20,000.00. They should have been active for at least 60 days, have completed at least 100 orders, earned at least $20,000, have rating of 4.7 and above, to pick just a few.
A detailed description of these levels is given in the fiverr website.
Conclusion
Surely fiverr works in Africa. I do want to point out that unless you commit to the exercise of profiling yourself and do get started working on it, fiverr success is a possibility. I would also recommend that you keep checking other forums on which you can offer your freelancing service(s). I have created a page where I update on all the gig market websites as to whether they work for Africans or not. The page is ‘Trial Updates’.
I need to know more
Thanks for your comment. I think we should plan a workshop shortly about this, many people want more information. You will know from my updates when its on plan.