Freelancer Tips

Fiverrcast Episode 10: Tips for New Sellers

By
Fiverr Team
|
October 30, 2015

Transcript

Redd: Hello 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 joined by Julian also known as julipalmer7 on Fiverr. Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself today Julian?Julian: All right. First of all, thank you so much for having me. Hi everyone. I am Julian and I am from Jamaica and I’m a virtual assistant on Fiverr. In the end of this month, I will be on it for nine months.Redd: So one for the things that we wanted to talk about today and one of the reasons we asked Julian to stop by was because we want to talk about how to work on Fiverr as a new seller. Adam and I have been around for a while but we wanted to know what Julian thinks about being a new seller on Fiverr and look at some of the challenges she may have faced. So Julian, tell us about how you got started on Fiverr.Julian: All right. First of all, before I even knew that Fiverr existed, I heard about it by accident. There was a boot camp advertising here in Jamaica and they were the one that introduced me to this platform. So when I signed up initially to advertise my Gig, I didn’t even know that I would get a buyer in the first place to even – to my services, to buy my virtual assistant services. So the first thing that I was so anxious about was, “Was my Gig good enough? Would a buyer come to buy my Gig and my services?” So that was one of the main things that I was really worried about.Adam: So the first Gig that you created for virtual assistant, is that Gig still the one that you maintain and work on today or did you find that you had to kind of change up what you were offering to start with?Julian: It’s funny enough that you would ask something like that. Yes, it’s my main Gig that I work from. I actually have created different services under that. For example I do data entry services, researching, so I have on a Gig that really is sort of virtual assistant but different Gigs that come under that main Gig.Adam: OK. So you’ve diversified and split that into Gigs.Julian: Yes, I have.Adam: So you can have others. Have you seen that help with your sales or help with the amount of buyers who are getting in touch with you?Julian: Well, first, I must say that I did have a challenge getting in sales in the first instance and when I joined Fiverr, it was midway when I started getting sales. I saw a decline in sales. So luckily enough for me, I went to the community and I saw some suggestions that it would be good some of the time to change your tags, your description, do some new Gigs and based on those suggestions and that’s what I did and basically I saw sales start coming in when I diversified my Gigs, actually doing different services from the main Gig that I created.Redd: So when you started Fiverr, can you tell me about any challenges that you feel like you faced when you began working?Julian: As a new seller, you want to please your buyers initially when they come to your Gigs. So my starting at Fiverr is I saw that I got a lot of buyers coming in for a specific service. For example, they wanted me to send out messages to their prospective clients.One of the challenges that I faced initially was that there was this buyer who said, “OK, for example, can you send out a hundred news to these contacts?” We will update the order page with the information and actually when you see the order, you’re seeing that it’s maybe more than the requirement that we initially discussed in the conversation. So that was one of the challenging buyers saying OK, well, they wanted 100 information to send initially and then we went and ordered, it was not exactly a hundred. It would be more than what we have discussed.Adam: So as a new seller, you’re under quite a lot of pressure there because you want to try and secure good ratings early on but at the same time, you don’t want to go so far beyond that it becomes difficult for you. So how would you handle a situation like that? Because there’s obviously a lot more pressure on you where the feedback starts off quite small to make sure that all the feedback you’re receiving to begin with is great?Julian: OK. There are two ways that I deal with a situation like that. One was that I ask the buyer initially to send the information that they would want me to do before they place the order as one way. A second way is upsell that. Before that, I would say, OK, these are the requirements. You ordered a $5 Gig. You want this stuff. For my $5, this is what I’m offering. Let’s say for 10 information to be sent to the prospective emails that they have.Another way I could actually deal with that as well is upselling. So say that they placed it for $5 and they want the 500 emails to be sent. I also said, OK, this is what – you have two options. Either I give you the $5 requirement or I upsell but I always ask before to avoid cancelations.Redd: I know that you are fairly active on the Fiverr forums. How have you found that the community has helped you out as a new seller?Julian: I would say that the community has been so supportive and helpful. I initially found out about the community by accident when I was a level two seller.So when I went to the community, I was having a decline in sales. I don’t know. For some strange reason, some other sellers were experiencing the same thing and I even saw suggestions from Adam to change your Gigs and your description. I saw that it was two years old. I got support from questions that I didn’t even have to ask. All I had to do was search through the forum and there it was. The suggestion was already there and the answers are already there.So the community has been very helpful. I have met friends that I don’t even know. So it’s really a good place if you want tips and suggestions on everything that has to relate to selling on Fiverr.Adam: I think it’s great as well because the more and more you become involved in Fiverr or you’re doing more and more work on Fiverr, you’re more likely to make it kind of your fulltime job and when you’re freelancing, it can often be quite a lonely experience where if you have issues or problems, you kind of feel like you’re by yourself. So the fact that we’ve got the community there and the forum that we can turn to when we need help or we need advice or even just to have a chat with someone, I think it’s a very unique option we have available.Redd: Yeah, I agree. I feel like there – I mean look at us right now. We’re recording from three different countries. I think that’s really amazing. Like, the community just kind of brings us all together in one way. It’s like yes, we’re all in different places but you’re working in one big kind of overarching office building of etherealness and it’s nice. It’s like you feel like you have coworkers and I like – personally, I really like that because I talk to myself in a padded room all day. So it’s good to interact with other people.Julian: Yes, I agree.Redd: If you could give a new seller – since you’ve just been through this so recently, if you could give a new seller one piece of advice, like one thing you wish someone had told you when you first started Fiverr, what would you tell them?Julian: All right. From the moment that you have created your Gig, just go to the community. Go to the forum and before I even post the – a question, use the search bar and see if whatever suggestion or question was – is relating to you. Just search first and then when you search first, I can tell you that the situation that you’re going through may be a hundred times other sellers are experiencing.So search the forum first before you post a question if you don’t see the question there. So that would have been my advice to get yourself involved in the community. Search the forum before you post your question.Adam: So Julian, being a new seller, it’s always quite tough. As we’ve discussed, there can be pressure there to make sure that you do everything great and there’s a lot of challenges you face. Now, I know at the moment you offer virtual assistant Gigs and I’ve always wondered about virtual assistant Gigs.How difficult is it to manage your time on Fiverr when you may have such a large queue and you need to work with that? The reason I ask is because when someone will usually hire a virtual assistant, it’s because they need a job done relatively quickly. But say if your queue is about three days old. How do you manage to increase your orders and handle that without making the buyer wait too long for such a time-important service?Julian: OK. The first thing that I do when I see an increase in sales, I increase my maximum delivery time. When a buyer comes and says, “OK, this is what I need for maybe in the next 24 hours,” I send a message stating, “OK, well, this is the timeframe that you would get this as well as bear in mind that I do offer express or you have the option of choosing the maximum delivery time.”So each time that a buyer comes and says to me, “OK, this is the timeframe that I’m working with,” I prioritize by letting them know you have the two options whether to wait a maximum delivery time or at express. So when I actually let them know – being aware of the options rather, that’s how I prioritize the orders. I deal with the orders by the express first and then I move along from there. So that’s how I do it.Adam: So when you first signed up and you set up your Gig, how long was your lead time to begin with?Julian: I think I waited a week and from there it was sales coming in. I remember sending out requests every day. So I think I signed up the Saturday and I got my first order the following Sunday.Adam: And the delivery time you had set on your Gig when you first signed up, was that still three days at that time or was it shorter than that?Julian: It was three days. It was still the same. The only time I increased it is for example if I get an increase in sales. But what I normally do as the orders come in, I try to deliver before it even – they don’t wait the three days.Adam: I think that’s some – a really good point to mention because I think when a lot of new sellers sign up, and they come to set in their Gig delivery time, I think as a new seller, they think, “Right, I need to deliver this as fast as possible.” But they may set their time to say one day and potentially put a lot of pressure on themselves to deliver really quickly and if they receive a lot of orders, it can be quite difficult. But by putting it slightly longer but still delivering quicker, you not only look like you’re delivering fast to the buyer so the buyer appreciates that more, but you still receive sales. You don’t have to necessarily deliver – or say you deliver within a day as a new seller.Redd: I think it’s all about kind of finding your sweet spot especially with like – when you’re new knowing like – I think it’s always better to say, “OK, I think I can handle this in one day. But let me start at two and then if I need to, I can bump it up or I can turn on extra fast delivery,” or something like that. I think it’s important to be careful not to bite off more than you can chew but still remain competitive. So there’s definitely – especially in those first couple of months. I think there’s nothing wrong with wiggling around your delivery time so that you get it to exactly where it needs to be.So I feel like it’s important to advice new sellers that – don’t be afraid to change your delivery time especially in the very beginning because you have to make sure that you are comfortable with the work that you are doing and you’re still able to provide that level of customer service to your clients. So I think what you do Julian is great. You say three-day delivery but you often deliver faster than that and I think that’s an excellent way to deal with that issue.Julian: Yeah.Redd: So thanks very much for listening today. Thank you so much to Julian for joining us. You can find her on Fiverr at julipalmer7. Our jingle was created by customdrumloops AKA Ryan and we were edited today by Dansha. Thanks so much and we will see you next week.Transcription by: Transexpert

Fiverr Team
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