Bonus Material: Free Passive Income Quiz
Trying to make money with Fiverr sounded like a simple solution.
It seemed like an easy business model: offer a service and get paid $5 to do it.
How hard could it be?
Kendell Rizzo of successfullyfunded.co had been freelancing for a while.
She was over caffeinated and sleep deprived. Long hours for little pay wasn’t cutting it anymore.
This girl is an ironman triathlete that is tired from the amount of work it takes to be a successful freelancer. That is saying something.
She was working for herself. Dream come true, right? Wrong. It was still the rat race.
Instead of having one or two bosses, she had 5 to 10 clients. And when it comes to freelancing, clients might as well be bosses.
There are still deadlines and complaints and performance evaluations.
The deadlines are just imposed by the client.
Ditto for the complaints.
And performance evaluations are necessary to show proof of quality work. It attracts more clients. Another necessary evil.
All that sounds like a pain, but that wasn’t the real problem.
Freelancing requires even more time and energy than working with the customer.
You’ve got to market yourself to attract more customers.
You’ve got to handle invoicing and payment.
There is even the time spent bidding on jobs that could lead to nowhere and end up being a waste.
All this lead Kendell to stress filled days and sleepless nights.
An Easier Way
Like most things in life, there was an easier way.
Kendell realized the life of a freelancer is fragmented and Fiverr seemed like an easy solution to bring it all together.
Marketing becomes easier because people are already using the website. Fiverr is attracting the customers and you just have to draw them in one step more.
Billing is handled through their payment system. No more worrying about sending an invoice and hounding the customer for payment.
The bidding process is gone. Customers would find her on Fiverr and request to work with her.
Fiverr takes so many pain points of being a freelancer and removes them completely.
It allowed Kendell to focus on the part of work she really liked: helping people launch successful crowdfunding campaigns.
After jumping on Fiverr, Kendell made over $100,000 in her first 18 months.
She attracted over 4,000 customers and spent less time working than before joining Fiverr.
And don’t let the name fool you, people spend more than $5. While the marketing of paying someone $5 for a gig attracts customers, a lot more money is being spent there.
It has reached a point where Kendell’s average order is now between $500 and $900!
Kendell is an amazing success, but that doesn’t mean other people can’t do exactly what she did.
Here are her top tips for anyone looking to become a Fiverr success.
1. Just Get Started
Filling Out Your Seller Profile from Fiverr on Vimeo.
Don’t overthink your initial profile.
Take 5 minutes to get everything set up with a couple pictures and a quick bio.
You’re going to tweak things later on and that’s OK.
Spending a ton of time making sure everything is perfect in the beginning means less time you have to potentially be making money.
Also, use what you have.
Don’t go out looking for someone else to create images for you.
Use a tool like Canva to create something simple.
The beauty of starting on Fiverr is that people aren’t expecting perfection.
You’ll want to try to be perfect because that leads to better reviews, but it’s $5. No one is expecting mastery.
The sooner you start, the more you can hone your skills, the better you get, the more you can charge.
So if you’ve got an idea for a service, just get started.
2. Get Specific with Your Gigs
“Copying others will set you up for failure.”
If your skill is social media marketing and that’s what you’re offering, it’s going to be hard to attract customers.
You become a very small fish in a very large pond.
Instead, become a big fish in a small pond.
Instead of a gig that sets up Facebook Pages, offer a gig that sets up Facebook Pages for bloggers focusing on financial independence.
If your skill is making Pinterest images, don’t just say “I’ll make a Pinterest image.” Offer a gig that makes Pinterest images for fitness blogs.
This sets you apart from the crowd.
Now, if someone is searching Fiverr looking for Pinterest images for their fitness blog, they’re more likely to pick you.
They definitely will pick you over a generic graphic designer.
Niching down also makes it easier to upsell later.
You’ve built a relationship around something very specific. The client is going to know you’re passionate about their topic.
When they need more done later on, they’re going to come straight to you. You’ll also have an easier time offering them premium packages of work.
3. Overdeliver in the Beginning
Under promise and over deliver for the first few months.
When you’re first starting out, deliver every gig within 48 hours, but don’t charge people for it.
Put it right on your gig image, “Delivered within 48 hours.”
Even then, deliver the final product within 24 hours if you can.
This impresses the hell out of people.
Most people charge extra to have such quick turnaround time. Offering it for free is another way to set you apart from the crowd.
Delivering even faster than 48 hours means you’re more likely to get a good review.
A good review is as good as money when you’re starting out.
You want to start off looking for positive reviews and 5-star ratings.
If you finish a gig and the client hasn’t left a review, send them a couple email reminders.
“It felt like working for free in the beginning.”
It took Kendell around a month to get her first 10 orders.
When you don’t have many gigs and you’re turning them around in such a short period for $5 each, it can feel like you’re working for free.
That’s OK. It doesn’t last long according to Kendell.
You’ll start getting more reviews, which will attract more customers, which will allow you to up your rate.
4. Start with Multiple Listings that Offer the Same Service
After you’ve got one gig listing out there for a little while, create a second one that does the same thing.
And a third.
And a fourth.
With each one, tweak the headline and description paragraph just a little bit. Maybe even change the image if you’re savvy with graphics.
You might be surprised with which one ends up performing the best.
Kendell once made 10 gigs for the exact same service.
Plus, each extra listing is just one more opportunity for someone to find and hire you.
5. Use Two Numbers in Every Gig Offer
Make sure every gig offer includes two numbers: time and quantity.
Instead of “I will make a Pinterest image for your fitness blog.”
Change it to “I will make 2 Pinterest images for your fitness blog in 48 hours.”
The second title sounds a lot more enticing than the first, doesn’t it?
This kind of goes with the under promise and over deliver.
It’s going to be hard for anyone who is looking for Pinterest images and owns a fitness blog to scroll past something like that without clicking.
If you’re a copywriter, don’t say “Will Write Copy for Your Widget Sales Page”
Change it to “Will Write 2 Versions for Your Widget Sales Page in 48 hours.”
6. Post Your Gig Before Creating the Product
Services are great when you’re starting out, but the real passive income comes from digital products.
Once you’ve got a few service gigs under your belt, it’s time to start creating digital products.
This could be an ebook or some templates. Whatever you do, think of something you can offer that makes the client into a DIYer.
Step-by-step guides are a great example.
You’re taking what your service does and making it incredibly easy for the client to do it themselves.
Why would you want to do that? Because it saves you time.
You’re still getting paid without the hours spent completing the work.
Then you offer a second gig at a higher price where you’re still doing the work for the client.
There are going to be people out there willing to spend a premium just so they don’t have to do anything.
Back to our Pinterest image example.
Offer up 2 pinterest image templates for people to buy and download for $5.
Then have an upsell offer saying you’ll create 6 unique images for them for $50.
You’ll either be making money for doing nothing or making more money for doing a little something.
The key with digital products is to make the gig and put it out there for people before even creating it.
If you think you’ve got a great idea for a digital product, post a gig and see what happens.
People may end up buying it and then you’ll have to actually create it.
But if they don’t, you just saved yourself weeks or months worth of work for nothing.
7. Upsell, Upsell, Upsell
Kendell’s final recommendation to start earning the big money is to upsell.
Constantly upsell.
Once you’ve got a bunch of little $5 gigs doing different things around your niche, start bundling them.
Combine them into one gig and charge more money for it.
For each of your small gigs, upsell a faster delivery time.
Once you’re busy and have plenty of good reviews, it’s time to take down the 48 hour turnaround.
That’s an easy upsell.
If people want something done in 48 hours, charge them a bit more.
If they want it done within 24 hours, charge an even higher price.
Fiverr makes it easy to do that.
Eventually you’ll get bundled packages that include both digital products and services.
Each one has a premium price tag that people are willing to pay. You’ll start charging $300 and $400 for things you used to do for $5.
Conclusion
Fiverr takes all the stress out of being a freelancer.
They’ve taken all the headaches around account, marketing, organization and put it into one easy to use platform.
That means it’s easy to start on the side.
Take an hour or two at night or on the weekends to do a little extra work.
Make a few hundred dollars a month to start off. The more gigs you create, the more you can bundle, the more you can earn.
Turn around and invest that and you’ve got a turbo-charged income snowball that’s ready to roll.
Have you used Fiverr before? Any tips or suggestions?
Note: This info is from an interview that Kendell did with Nick Loper on the Side Hustle Nation podcast. I highly recommend listening if you have an interest in making money on Fiverr: Listen Here
This article helped me make 3 sales in 12 hours after posting my first gig! I want to ask your permission to link this article on the Fiverr forum.
That’s great! I’m glad to hear it, Amela.
Sure, you’re more than welcome to link to it on the Fiverr forum.