Redd: Hi and welcome to Fiverrcast, the official Fiverr podcast for sellers by sellers. My name is Redd AKA reddhorrocks.Adam: And I’m Adam AKA twistedweb123. Today we’re rejoined by a guest host that we’ve had on the show previously and that is Barbara. Why don’t you tell us a little bit more about yourself Barbara?Barbara: Hey guys. Thank you for having me on today. Well my name is Barbara AKA bachas85. I’ve been a seller on Fiverr for three and a half years going on four. My main Gig is just doing commercial videos for whoever needs one at an affordable price. I’ve done a little bit of voiceovers here and there but the video Gigs are my thing.Redd: So today, thanks for joining us. This is a great topic for you. We are talking all about Gig videos, the importance of having them, how to create them, what the best situation is for Gig videos. So I know for me a Gig video is really important because as a voiceover artist, it’s really good for clients to be able to hear samples of my work. So I have Gig videos on my two main Gigs and I have basically a recording of me explaining a little bit about myself and what I do and then I have a bunch of samples. Now for me I have it with a static image but I know Adam you appear in some of your Gig videos, don’t you?Adam: Yeah, I appear in a couple of my Gig videos and I also go kind of down the route of doing a portfolio of kind of sample works similar to you. One thing I often think about when creating a Gig video is I always imagine if I was watching television and an advertisement came on the screen and if that advertisement was just text on the screen for 30 seconds that I had to read, would that captivate me as much as watching an actual advertisement or understand an advertisement.That can become a transition into looking at Fiverr and thinking, “Looking at the Fiver profile, what is going to captivate my audience more than reading text on the screen or some kind of engaging video?” So I don’t – I’m not a massive fan of appearing on video myself but it was that kind of – a thought process behind that that prompted me to kind of take that leap and decide to do it.Redd: So what about you Barbara? I mean obviously you’re a video person. It’s mostly what you do. Did you always have – when you were doing your voiceover Gigs as opposed to your video Gigs, did you always have yourself presenting on camera?Barbara: Well, I started off with video Gigs in the first place and then I kind of transitioned into the voiceover Gig. But in my voiceover Gig, I felt that it was more appropriate just the way that you’re doing it where you display your samples and you have a static image because again it depends on the type of Gig that you’re offering. In this case, if it’s a voiceover, your buyers are going to want to hear your voice. But as far as my Gig videos, I obviously had to do something about it.When I first started, I was kind of hesitant of doing a Gig video or doing Gig videos – not Gig videos. Doing video Gigs at all because I’m quite the shy person. So it took a little bit of that like “oomph” before I actually got into this whole spokesperson video thing.But for me, it works perfectly because I get to do my own video. I work with the lighting and the camera. I do my editing, et cetera, et cetera. But there are other people out there, other sellers who they have to find how to do them. So there comes the question. If you’re a seller that is selling something like an ebook or translations or some other type of creative service and you just – you can’t find it in you to do your own Gig video, what do you do? That’s the question that often pops up. So I don’t know what you guys think. What do you guys usually tell people when they ask around?Adam: I think when you are looking at what sort of Gig video you’re meaning to do, you need to hone in on what is the unique selling point of your Gig. So in that regards, for example your voiceover videos for both you and Redd, your unique selling point is obviously your voice. But there’s a secondary point to that which is yourself as well because you need to present kind of the tone and yourself as being the voice. So I’m guessing that both of you have your examples shown but you maybe also – the photos may be a headshot of you too on each of your videos.Redd: Yeah, I have a headshot and then I also within my Gig video, I introduce myself first. So it – I can’t remember exactly what it says off the top of my head but it’s like, “Hi. My name is Redd. I do voiceovers,” and I think that that’s a big part of it is personally introducing yourself and yeah, you’re right. You are displaying your brand Adam. So it’s about showing them that you are you and you are a person and you are the person behind the name and they’re buying from you.Barbara: I totally, totally agree with that too. Definitely tip for every seller out there. The first thing you want to do is introduce yourself and who you are and that it doesn’t matter how you end up doing your Gig video. You put yourself out there and then you explain what your Gig is about.Adam: I think when it comes down to your unique selling point, so with both your videos, the unique selling point is quite obvious whereas when you look at maybe something like an ebook, where your unique selling point becomes a little bit more difficult because in the day, your service is essentially an ebook.So you have to kind of try and differentiate yourself from other ebook sellers who may be on a similar subject. So where that unique selling point becomes more difficult, in that situation, I think it’s best if you’re not sure what to do to appear on video yourself. There’s nothing better than presenting yourself to the user.However, I think if you’re uncomfortable with appearing on video yourself, it’s very easy to fall into a trap of going along the whiteboard animation or the template route.Now normally if you have a really nice whiteboard animation, something that really kind of jumps out to the user, anywhere it would really pop and really look great. But the problem is because Fiverr is a large platform with a lot of different sellers and a lot of different services and a lot of different people offering the same service, the risk that you fall into is if you do a whiteboard animation and your competitors have done a whiteboard animation and your other competitors have done a whiteboard animation, they’ve all kind of chosen that way, you kind of lose your unique selling point and you kind of lose your unique video as well.But there’s something that you can never have someone else replicate which is your self on video. So when I first created my video for my website review service, it was not a good video. It was on quite a poor webcam. You could just about see my face and hear me. It was passable for quality but it wasn’t really the best commercial video.But the feedback that I received from that was very surprising and the amount of people who ordered just because they could see me as a real kind of end user, a real person that they’re purchasing from. That alone kind of spiked my sales.Redd: When I started, I actually had something similar. I didn’t actually have the static image headshot with the samples. I just had me on a webcam talking and saying who I am. So the first year that I was on Fiverr – and I didn’t do terribly badly with it. I mean I got a lot of orders and I definitely saw a spike when I had the slightly more professional video later.But that initial webcam one worked really, really well, which surprised me but I think anyone can kind of do that. You just have to be able to inject a little personality and show them who you are and that you are an authority on what you’re selling.Barbara: Yeah. What I always say is at the end of the day, it’s you and the camera. You can do 5 takes, 10 takes, 100 takes. You can do whatever you want. The possibilities are endless. And then at the end of the day, who’s going to watch the video that you’re doing? Who’s going to edit it? It’s going to be yourself and then you put out a video out there. When you’re comfortable with – even if it’s not the best of qualities because when we all started, our video quality wasn’t the best. But you definitely do get a higher turnaround in orders and then you sort of get the ball rolling and that’s how you start.Then as soon as you get more sales, you get more money and then you can do better videos because you won’t stay with one video for the life of your Gig. You’re going to have to rotate videos. I know I’ve changed my Gig video probably about six times since I started. I don’t know about you guys.Redd: I think I’ve only changed mine once or twice but that’s because my services have stayed so similar. It hasn’t really – I haven’t really adjusted anything but I can understand for you as you go along, you’re probably continuing to upgrade your equipment. So you might want to demonstrate better your equipment that way. I think for you Adam, you just changed your Gig video recently too, didn’t you?Adam: Yeah. I was really, really, really nervous about changing my Gig video because I thought my sales are quite OK now. I’m happy with them. What’s the worst that can happen? I don’t really want to lose that and it took me a long time to decide to change it and before I changed it on the Gig that I changed, I had roughly about 30 orders in queue on average at any set time, delivering and coming back in. I took the plunge and I changed the video quite pessimistically and I’m currently sitting at around 170 orders on average in queue just because of that change in video.That really shocked me because I think you can kind of fall into a shell with things like video especially if you become comfortable or if you’re not comfortable. You may record a video and you say, “Right, OK, it’s done. It’s there. It’s fine. It’s out of the way,” or you may record a video and think, “OK, let’s not change it.” But I think it’s important to kind of mix it up and I think what Barbara said was a really, really valuable tip about the fact of it’s you and the camera.Often when people say they don’t want to appear on video, it’s because they’re not going to be good on video. But who else is going to see your recording? You can record and record and record until you’re happy with it. There are so many things that you can do with it to make sure you’re happy. You might as well just record. There’s no downside to giving it a go.Redd: Let’s talk a little about – for the people who really just cannot do the on-camera thing. What are some other options that they can have to personalize their Gig videos without actually going on camera?Adam: OK. So I think one important thing to mention here is something they can’t do and I think Barbara gets a lot of these requests. A lot of the times, people will ask, “I don’t want to appear on video. Can I hire another Fiverr seller to help me appear on video or to appear on video for me?”Unfortunately for those people looking for that, the answer to that is no, and that’s because it’s important to represent yourself as your own profile. However, there is a slight bit of leeway there in the fact that you can possibly hire someone to record a voiceover. So you could hire someone to record a voiceover to maybe add to a video but having someone appear on video for you isn’t allowed.Barbara: Yeah, that is absolutely correct and sometimes people will in my case say, “Oh hey, can you record a video for my Gig video?” and I say no and then – well, I don’t say no-no. But I give them an explanation but in other – in other instances, they just say, “Can you do this script for me?” and I kind of know the gist of what Gig videos or Gig scripts are about.So I kind of know that they’re going to do it for a Gig video and in both cases when they ask me flat out or when they just hand me their script and I kind of find out that it’s for their Gig video, I say it’s unfortunately not allowed. Don’t waste your money because you’re going to pay for this Gig. I’m going to record this Gig for you which I probably could if I wanted to. But the good thing is that I wouldn’t do that to them. I’m sure there are other sellers maybe out there who might do it, but don’t do it.Adam: They will just end up getting rejected. But I think my fallback for if I have a Gig that I don’t think it’s appropriate to appear on video where my unique selling point is clearer or if I’m not sure what to do. My fallback is to always try and demonstrate the work maybe in a kind of portfolio style and then try to add kind of a personalized touch with something like a voiceover.So if it’s my own voice, that is brilliant. It’s almost as good as appearing on video but you’re still kind of setting that tone. If I maybe hire someone to do the video, I think the presentation may go up because people probably have better recording values than me. But I think you lose a little bit of personality there. So I can’t be an advocate for the alternative. But – because I don’t think you’re trying to – it’s going to be as good as appearing yourself. But if there is an alternative there, I think it’s still important to have something that’s quite engaging and kind of captivates the audience.So one of the biggest pitfalls I see people fall into is they kind of maybe go down a text-based video route with either music or no music and you’re sitting there watching a video for about 60 seconds and you’re just reading text on the screen. It may be slightly nicely animated but it’s not really captivating me. It’s not really speaking to me as a buyer and the other side of that is they spend about 60 seconds highlighting the $5 service.If you’re going to have a video for 60 seconds long, you should try to – even if it’s just a reference of check out my extras, you should not try to mix it up a little bit because after about 20 seconds into the video of a $5 service, you probably get the gist about what the $5 service is. If you don’t, it’s probably being presented too slowly to you and for me, I kind of lose interest and click around elsewhere and probably end up leaving.Redd: I mean that’s the whole like – it’s the MTV generation thing. Everyone is just really, really used to short, quick, to-the-point clips. So I think length of the video, that’s a really important thing to talk about. I think in my opinion I would say between 30 and 60 seconds is about where it should be. I believe Fiverr limits you at 60 seconds. So I mean they’re already kind of thinking about that along those lines. So what do you guys think are the most important things to include in your video? What is the information that you must get to your potential buyer?Barbara: What I personally do is of course introduction, who you are, a very brief, brief description of what you sell. It’s basically kind of like going over your Gig title and then asking people to read your Gig description. That’s what I do and I don’t even say for $5, like from – in my case, I do $5 for every 50 words. I don’t even include the number of words because I can actually reuse that video or keep my video in case I want to change my prices. So it’s also – it’s best to keep it kind of generalized and just to the point, who you are, what you do and read your Gig description.Adam: Yeah, for me it’s quite similar. I always make sure that I introduce myself. I think it is very important to connect with the user in some sort of way, kind of way, where when they go to message you, they don’t just kind of say hi there. There’s at least maybe an engagement where they may say, “Hi twistedweb123,” or “Hi Adam,” or just something a little bit more than, “Hi there.”So I think the intro is really important. I also think like you say keeping the main bulk of it to quite a concise element where you’re not being too specific because if you are being specific, you as you say risk the fact of if you change your prices, you have to redo the whole video. That’s something that I also really try to do is I always reference the buyer.So if I’m going to build a logo, create a logo, I don’t say I’m going to create a logo. I say I will create your logo and if I’m going to build a website, I don’t say I will build a website. I will build your website for your business.I think it’s very important to reference the buyer and their situation. So having watched your video, they can kind of think, oh, yeah, this is exactly what I need for my business or this is exactly what I need to help me as opposed to being sort of a blanket statement.Redd: That’s a really, really good point. I mean there’s like – there’s almost like a certain level of you’re engaging with the buyer with the assumption – in a way with the assumption that they are going to purchase your product and that then seeds itself into the buyer’s mind too. It’s like they – I think it’s easier for them to see themselves doing it when you’ve directly said to them, “I’m going to do this for you,” instead of like, “I’m going to do this.”Adam: I think a great example about it is something like voicemails. A lot of buyers may click around and just have a browse. Let’s click to a Gig and it said, “I will create a voicemail.” I look at that. I think, “Oh, create a voicemail. That’s quite cool. It looks good.”But if I read, “I will create your voicemail,” I might sit and go, “Oh actually, I think my business will benefit from having a personalized voicemail message,” and it kind of clicks to the buyer that oh actually, this is relevant to me whereas beforehand, they may kind of look at it in a kind of third person point of view and just see what’s available.Redd: See, now, I’m like oh, I’m going to have to go back and look in my Gigs now because I think that might have “a voicemail” on them. Oh my goodness, you’re changing the way that I think about it. That’s so good.Barbara: I think he’s changing the way everyone thinks. I’m trying to think like, “Do I say ‘your video’ or ‘a video’?” But I’m probably going to go back too. But I think that’s a very, very brilliant tip right there.Redd: Yeah, definitely.Adam: I think the other thing that I always mention about the video as well is you’ve always got to reference your extras in some capacity because you got to remember that first – well not every buyer that comes onto your profile is experienced. They may not even think to scroll down the page.Second of all – even if they were to scroll down the page, they may not really see how relevant it is to them. So if you can spend a portion of the video time, but not all of it, highlighting the $5 service, then a quick kind of like hack tip to just be sure to check out my extras below to maximize the value of your service or just something along those lines just to do that.So when the buyer is reading they kind of go – or watching I should say. They kind of go, “Oh, there are extras.” I was just going to say as we all know, a lot of the times buyers may just watch the video and check out not even reading the description kind of assuming, OK, the video kind of covers me. This is what I want. This is the service. So you’ve got to make sure to kind of direct them to say there is more as well.Barbara: And to add to that, you say, “Check out my Gig extras.” You can say below or if you’re doing the video yourself, you can actually point downward when you’re saying that so that you’re telling them, “Hey, look down here. There’s a lot of valuable information down here,” and just a little pointing of the fingers can get them there without saying much.Adam: Like a direct call to action.Barbara: Yeah.Redd: Very cool. So Barbara, as an experienced on-camera person, do you have any other tips for people who are looking to be on camera for their Gig videos?Barbara: Well, the most valuable tip is make a script. Write it. Read it. Practice it. Make it yours. Feel comfortable with it and then just practice with the camera. As I said, I’m never going to tire of saying this. It’s just you and the camera and no one else. There are four walls around you and you can make the video as best as you can with what you have because it’s not like everyone is going to have a full blown studio and an HD cam. You don’t really need that.All you have to do is just put your personality into the video. Speak loud and clear and just give it a go and again, you’re going to be changing your videos every so often. Maybe once a year or however many times. But each time, I promise you each time you do your video, it’s going to be a better one.You can grab your iPhone. Your iPhone camera is perfect. You can shoot a video with that, grab a tripod. You can make things work. The thing is to kind of have a confidence of being in front of the camera with yourself because again, it’s just you and the camera. You can do whatever you want and you will be great at it.Adam: I think the script point there is very valuable as well because often, when I sometimes watch videos, I will notice you can – even if the script is like say two centimeters below the camera lens, you can see people’s eyes look down and you can kind of tell when they’re reading.So I think if you either memorize the script or you have at least a point in your head that you want to cover, you can engage a lot more with the audience and talk with the audience as opposed to trying to get the script done or read the script off a piece of paper during the video and kind of losing that engagement because I think at the end of the day, the most important thing the video does is it engages with the audience.Redd: I think it’s really important to know too that you do not – that’s a great point Barbara. You do not need fancy equipment to do this. You can do this with a webcam. You can do this with your phone. There are so many brilliant video editors on Fiverr that would love to help put this together for you. So I’m sure that for a very small fee, you could take what you have and get it polished up by a video editor online.Barbara: Yeah, that’s the beauty of Fiverr. You can search for providers to give you a little bit of this, a little bit of that, editing. They could work out some nice three-second intro with your username. Just little things like that.Redd: All right. So I think that about wraps up our topic for the day. So we’re going to move on to our question-and-answer portion and we’ve got a really interesting question here today from “fastcopywriter” who asks, “What are your worst buyer stories?” And I think for – I know for myself, I’m not super comfortable discussing my worst buyer stories because I really don’t like to focus on that. So I think I’m going to flip this question a little bit and I’m going to say, “What are your best buyer stories?” Barbara, what’s something amazing that has happened to you with a buyer?Barbara: It’s kind of hard for me to pinpoint just one buyer experience because I’ve had such a vast experience with so many different people out there and I can sort of grab a little bit of everyone and make like the perfect buyer and I’ve had tons of these types of buyers before where they read your Gig description. They provide all the requirements at the moment that they place their order. So you get to their order and you’re ready to work on it and you don’t have to ask anything from them in order to proceed with your order and they’re polite. They say hello. This is – I’m so and so. This is what I need.One of the best parts that I like is that they say, “I’m looking forward to your work.” That means to me they actually looked at my samples. So they’re comfortable and they’re pumped and they want my Gig delivered.At the end, they just surprise you with the nicest, most elaborate review you can think about that you kind of get flattered in multiple occasions. I’ve always had to say thank you so much for the kind words. I really, really appreciate it.On top of that, they give you a tip and then the best part is when they become a repetitive buyer. So those kinds of buyers to me are the really, really appreciative types of buyers who appreciate your work and they come back because they like the quality of your Gig and your service.So for me, those are the best types of buyers out there and I’m just really happy to say that most of my buyers are that way. I appreciate every single one of them.Adam: For me, I think there are two kinds that I’ve got here. The first is in regard to the actual Gig with the buyer and for me, my best stories – again it’s hard to pinpoint one. So for me the thing that I love to see the most when I work with a buyer is seeing the success from it and it’s absolutely – for example if I’m hired to improve someone’s website and they come back – they may have struggling sales or they may be lacking in search and optimization or something along those lines.We worked together for a little while and then they go on their way because we’ve done the work. But then they maybe come back a month or two down the line with additional work and they just come back and say, “My website has totally changed. It’s amazing how you’ve helped do this kind of thing.” Just seeing the long term of that, it gives you a real closure to the order and I love the buyers that come back with that kind of closure and show how it has happened and what has happened and it’s really kind of – it’s like seeing your product developed and as you work with so many buyers on Fiverr because the possibility is behind all the ordering, you have the ability to have that happen over and over and over again where normally you may not have that happen that frequently at all.You may be part of a small project or part of a big project where you don’t always get to see that and go. In terms of overall, I once went through a phase of – before the tip Gig was in place, I went – oh, I should say the tip extra. I went through the phase of on my tip Gig, rather than accepting direct tips as money, I kind of – I list them almost like a wish list.So I put them as a wish list to say if I receive this tip, this is what I’m going to do, et cetera, et cetera and part of that was I experimented for a short while and I had an Amazon wish list just to see and I think the thing that touched me most was I put those Winnie the Pooh things on there randomly and someone bought all these Winnie the Pooh things for my son for his birthday and that was absolutely amazing. We had like a go to sleep Cuddle Me Winnie the Pooh, like a set of Winnie the Pooh six books, et cetera, and it was the sweetest thing ever and we ended up talking about kids and everything else just rambling outside of work and that was such a nice buyer. How about yourself Redd?Redd: I have a lot of really – I’m really lucky. I have a lot of really, really amazing buyers that I have developed great relationships with over the years and I’ve got wonderful ones that I see them come back day after day after day and those are great and I love them dearly.One of the things that I didn’t really think that I would be working on when I started the voiceover thing, it didn’t occur to me, was how many people made voiceovers for videos for Kickstarter and I’ve had many, many charities and amazing organizations who are on a super, super low budget who are trying to get a Kickstarter campaign launched to fund things like clean water in the south of Africa and things like that. So I’ve had this opportunity to kind of indirectly be part of these amazing charitable campaigns that some of them have really, really given me like food for thought and there has been a couple that I have actually ended up going and donating to because they’re just such wonderful ideas.So it has been really amazing to feel like in some teeny, teeny tiny way I’m making a difference and then I have a lot of people who are students who are doing things like final student projects and they’re trying to make things seem more professional like especially for people who are going – who are in high school in computer classes, designing small websites or putting together videos for certain things and stuff like that. It’s really kind of rewarding just to think that it’s an opportunity to give people a high quality service on a low budget.So that always makes me happy and then I did have one really amazing one where it was a gentleman’s – it was his wife’s birthday and I think she was – I think she was turning 60 or 70 and he had written the story of her life that he wanted narrated over and it would end up being narrated over like a slideshow of all these cool things that she had done in her life to play at her birthday party for that – I got to narrate that for her and I think that was super cool too because it was just so personal and so sweet and just such a lovely thing to be involved in. So those are the ones that really stick out to me, the ones where I get to feel personally and emotionally invested in what the buyer is trying to create. So those are good. I like those.Barbara: I really liked your stories Redd and every time you feel like you’re able to give something to the buyer other than your service, you’re helping them, whatever their end purpose is, with the Gig that they’re buying, you actually get to help them because you’re giving a really, really excellent quality Gig for a really affordable price. So that they can do whatever they had in mind and that birthday story was really, really inspiring actually.Redd: Well, yeah, it’s a really cool job and I think it’s neat to get to do it. So, well, I think that about wraps it up for today. So thanks everyone for listening. If you have community questions for us, you can find us on forum.Fiverr.com under the podcast. Thank you Barbara for joining us. You can find her as bachas85. Thanks to Ryan AKA customdrumloops for making our jingle and we were edited today by Dansha. We will see you next week.Transcription by Transexpert
