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, also known as Twistedweb123. Today we’re joined by a very special guest Gisela, one of the Fiverr editors. Welcome to the show Gisela.Gisela: Thank you. Hello Adam. Hello Redd.Redd: Hi Gisela. Well, thank you so much for being here. We would love to hear a little bit about who you are, what you do at Fiverr, how long you’ve been doing it. So tell us a little bit more about you.Gisela: I’ve joined Fiverr 2.5 years ago. So I have been with the editorial team for like ever since I joined Fiverr. Then I have a lot of stuff to share with you guys. So I’m really pumped about it.Redd: Well, we are so glad that you’re joining us today because we’re going to talk about one of the things that we get asked probably more than almost any other question when people are asking us questions about Fiverr and about how to be a seller on Fiverr.One of the most popular questions we get is, “How do you become a top rated seller? What are the editors looking for? What can you do to be on the right track for TRS status?”So we’re going to talk about that but one of the first things that I want to ask about Gisela is can you tell us a little bit more about the editorial team on Fiverr and what they do and kind of what – how big the team is and what are your main responsibilities in your job?Gisela: So basically we have like a mission and the vision. Our vision is to create an inspiring and engaging high quality and trendy site. Make sure that the site look and feel, you know, it’s good enough and of good quality through the curated content and our mission is to moderate and curate our site content and to be able to elevate the highest quality of sellers and Gigs and support content-related initiatives to show the diversity of Fiverr services, all the possibilities that Fiverr has to offer.Adam: So that’s a really interesting thing I didn’t consider before. But inside the editorial team, you’re kind of – you’re given your own individual categories on Fiverr that is your sole responsibility to kind of focus on.Gisela: Yes, yes, yes. I think that each category deserves its own focus and if I’m going to share with you along this conversation, also there are tips that are specific for each category. It doesn’t mean that if you follow something, it’s good for every single category.Redd: So Gisela, I imagine that you get really, really familiar with people within your category, if there are certain categories that you guys are each responsible for. So is it one of those things where you kind of – you’re very aware of all of the different sellers and you kind of have a level of familiarity with them or is it kind of too big to have all that information?Gisela: No, we do – that’s why we kind of divided the categories among us, so that we could give each category the dedication and focus that each category deserves. So we get very acquainted and we get in touch with the sellers and we get very acquainted with like the content itself and with their sellers.Adam: So when you’re looking through the category that you’re assigned to, what’s the first kind of thing that will make a Gig stand out to you?Gisela: Well, I will tell you what. Within writing and translation for example, it doesn’t make sense to me as an editor for a seller to offer let’s say a creative writing Gig and have a poor description. For me that’s a big no-no and also on the other hand, you’re not supposed to write your whole life story and not really focus on what the service is about, which happens. You have both extremes. You have like the seller that just will write a line or what would he be willing to sell for $5.Then you have on the other side a seller writing his life story but in the end not really being specific about what the service is about. You know, straight to the point, a good description that will make a good Gig, specifically in writing and translation and of course pay attention to the grammar. I know it sounds like of course I will pay attention to the grammar but like if you’re going to offer a service, just make sure that you put your whole heart and attention to it.Adam: So in the same way then when you’re looking at say the logo design category, showing poor examples or quickly rushed examples inside your Gig images isn’t going to put you in a very good stead. It’s important to take the time to kind of curate your Gig to be as good as it can do and then that’s something that is going to be appreciated by the editorial team.Gisela: Well, I will tell you even more. When it comes to the graphic and designs category, it’s not only about just like choose whatever image you have handy and just like stick it in there. Open your deliveries. If you’re able to open the work that you’ve done, use the three images and show what you’ve done. Of course like if you can’t because the buyer asked you not to display it and everything, that’s fine.But like if you – you can open your portfolio, do it. Do it. People want to see more than three images. People like to see what you’ve done and it’s also good for us to see what kind of other works you are into. Maybe we can pick up on a trend. A lot of things can come out from like a good and nice-presented portfolio.Adam: Yeah. I mean for me specifically, one of the things – I would say one of the mistakes I notice most when it comes to the kind of graphic and design section is when people kind of set up their Gig for their first time. They may not have any previous work to put on. So they go ahead and decide to create a couple of logos to kind of show what they can do. But they do two things which is they may kind of rush the logos, to put them on quickly, to get the Gig up as soon as possible or they do something which is a little bit of a pet peeve of mine which is where they try to recreate the Fiverr logo to show the design work, which I think is a very, very difficult thing to do because the Fiverr brand is massive now.So trying to recreate the logo is never going to kind of reflect well on you. So I think where you’re saying it’s important to kind of put the time and the effort into kind of molding your Gig before taking it live is only going to be beneficial to you not only for the sales but in the way the editorial team will kind of – it will pop out to them.Gisela: Exactly, especially if you’re a new seller because the competition will only grow. So if you put the extra effort in portraying – maybe you have only one Gig to offer. Let’s say logo design. You’re very good at designing logos. So you’re like, OK, I’m going to – just don’t rush into it. Put the time and effort and don’t copy-paste descriptions from other sellers. Be as transparent as you can be and just also write a description about yourself. Just don’t leave it empty out. That’s what I’m saying. Like be as most transparent as you can be and yes, put the extra effort.If you don’t have a single logo, then just go ahead and design three logos and it will only pay off in the end. It also shows that you’re serious about it. You can really tell when a seller is – it’s like serious or like you just put up a Gig to see how it will grow and if you make a good impression from the beginning, then it will take you far in the end.Redd: So say that you are – you’re hanging out in your category and you come across a Gig that has some of the problems that you spoke about. Maybe it’s not very well-written, things like that. What kind of action would you then take on that Gig?Gisela: We try to help sellers directly but we also have got the academy and the tips and we can tell the sellers who do deserve our attention and our help from the sellers that are – you know, might have even duplicate Gigs or like clones or – so when you look at content all day, when we’re looking like at Gigs all day, it’s very easy to pick up on who is serious and who’s not about their business.Adam: I think that’s a really important thing to say because in the same way as the editorial team, buyers are often looking at categories in Gigs a lot as well and they kind of have the trend of picking up what’s a serious seller and what isn’t a serious seller. So I think it’s important that when you’re deciding to sell on Fiverr, you need to kind of follow the best practices to both you being promoted on Fiverr as a seller but also to help gain with your sales as well from that, which kind of go hand in hand.Gisela: Exactly, and even – let’s say that it’s not – I’m going to give another example that it’s not graphics and design. Having a good – a high quality original image is very important. It’s very important as well. I mean what image you can upload in programming and tech. Just upload an image of yourself at your work station or just a picture of your work station itself.Things like that. People like to see that and again it goes back to being transparent with the buyer. It’s already a digital marketplace so there’s a limit to how much transparent you can be and people don’t – they’re just putting their trust, their money and the more transparent you are with them, the better.Adam: So when we’re talking about best practices as a seller, we’ve kind of covered it’s important to kind of have the right kind of story if you like inside your description and it’s important not to duplicate Gigs and content whether that’s from other sellers or even on your own profile. It’s important to try to use unique images. Are there any kind of – are there best practices that you look for or that you advise?Gisela: Yes. I will give examples because I think that like through examples across categories, people can identify because I – they can find it more relevant. Not everybody is in the graphic designs category or programming and tech.What about music? If you show yourself performing rather than having like a still image and again use the three images and use the video. The video helps a lot. Maybe you don’t have a camera but like again putting the extra effort shows that you’re serious about it. If you’re for video services, then you definitely have to show your skills through the video. You can offer your music samples. If you do web programming, you got to be specific. Don’t say the skill that you do. Say specifically the service that you’re offering. It’s not like other platforms that you have to say in what you’re skilled. You have to say which service you’re offering.People want to – they look at your Gig and they’re like, OK, what this guy is offering me for $5 and up or if it’s in a different category that you might offer it for a higher price.It’s very important to use the packages. You get the services like really – like clear-cut what you’re offering for each price and that makes it much easier than having everything in a bulky list of like OK, if you do this, if you order this and this, I will charge you so and so on. So it really helps to see specifically what are you offering and for what price. Redd: So when you’re thinking about making someone a new top rated seller, can you tell us a little bit about how the top rated seller program works from your perspective and what the whole – what are the benefits of it? Like, how does that work?Gisela: Being a top rated seller, it doesn’t involve one specific thing. You might have let’s say seven Gigs and then you decided that you want to try a new category and you go for a specific category and then you might not have many customers coming in, in that new category.Being a top rated seller, it involves so. Your badge shows across every single category. So you’re supposed to relate to every Gig you open as if it would be your top Gig. We look that the seller doesn’t have any major warnings, that they have a high rating, impressive sales record, that the seller has no duplicate or two similar Gigs, no clones.If it’s in graphics and design, definitely share your portfolio. It’s not going to be a deal breaker but we will definitely rate you. If it’s worth it, then of course we’re going to reach out and be like, hey, open your – you should definitely open your portfolio or you should change your profile picture or add the description. Talk a little bit about yourself. But then there are smaller things like have an articulate description and the title, the quality Gig image. Definitely must be an original image and the rating and the cancellation rate for sure.Adam: I just want to come back to the bit where you said about having duplicate Gigs and a lot of Gigs listed on your profile and where when you’re a top rated seller, obviously you are then a top rated seller for whatever Gig you set up.I think it’s important to mention that when I go to the site and I look at a lot of different top rated sellers, although we have 20 odd spaces available to create Gigs, I noticed that most of the time, top rated sellers are actually – some of the few have the less Gigs available because myself personally I’ve kind of – I’ve grown into the mold of I know what I can offer and I know what I can do well.I kind of – I only think at the moment I have maybe four or five Gigs active and I think that’s a great thing to highlight that if you look at other top rated sellers, usually I don’t see many top rated sellers with 20 plus Gigs because they’re kind of focusing on making sure they can give the best possible service inside the ones that they’ve kind of condensed down and listed.Gisela: Right, but there’s also like the inverted – there’s the inverted situation where there are like – a seller would open one Gig and try to stuff as many services as he can in the same Gig. If you can offer more than that, then just like open a different Gig. Open – as a new seller, you can open up to seven Gigs and I think that for a beginner, I think that that’s enough.Like you said, until you know you get comfortable in like what you – that you know what you can offer and seeing what categories you’re better at, what categories you might find a little bit more challenging. So the possibilities are endless indeed.Adam: I think buyers kind of go through a natural progression where when they sign up, I mean I always personally kind of recommend to put a few Gigs up, see which ones work for you, see which ones are popular, et cetera. Then over time as they kind of level up and get high – kind of get to level two, they kind of – well, may have had a lot of Gigs before. It has now kind of condensed down when they figured out what has worked for them because I mean from my point of view, I think it looks great when you look at a seller’s profile and all of the Gigs have quite nice numbers but it would look poor if I saw one Gig like 1000 feedback and then 10 Gigs with no sales.Gisela: Exactly. Start opening one Gig. See what’s the reaction. Then try to go little by little. You might as well open maybe five Gigs and then your work might be excellent and then you get pushed to homepage and then you cannot – you won’t be able to handle all those orders. So that’s also – and then you get the cancelation rate and the – so it’s – like getting a little bit in cold water, little by little until you see what’s more comfortable for you and what you can really offer.Adam: So talking about being pushed to the homepage, obviously as well as there being a top rated status to kind of have more Gigs and have more exposure, what kind of criteria does it take or what do editors look for when they’re looking to feature a Gig?Gisela: When we’re looking to feature a Gig, it’s kind of the same but what it goes for like TRS, of course like if the seller already has a featured Gig, we cannot make a different Gig featured. So we’re looking for like a unique and special service and something that delivers quality and also the quality of service. So it’s very similar to becoming a TRS. But the featured Gigs that’s an example for the category.Adam: OK. So it’s kind of like where let’s say a non-TRS has a featured Gig. That Gig itself, it highlights very well. It sets for the category. But could you kind of say that the profile overall may not be TRS ready yet but this specific Gig deserves to be featured? So we’ve got that kind of in between where you can feature specific Gigs as opposed to just TRS-ing the whole profile.Gisela: Exactly, exactly. With TRS, like I said, the badge goes across all categories. So it’s not just like that. Oh, I made such and such sales or I made – maybe you are a great seller and you have great numbers but the customers are not happy with the way that they were treated or a lot of – the cancelation rate is very high. So there are a lot of factors involving becoming a TRS and I just want to make clear that even though we’re having this conversation, it should be clear that it’s not – even if you follow everything that we’re talking about right now, it doesn’t mean that automatically you will become a TRS but it will definitely help you get under the editorial eye.Adam: So when it comes to being a TRS then, there’s kind of – there’s no set limit that you have where you say we’ve got 1000 TRS right now. We can’t add anymore until kind of some leave.Gisela: No, no, no.Adam: OK. Because I go to a few pubs where they have a board and you can only get on the board when a member leaves. So it’s nice to know that there isn’t kind of like a set number with TRS and it’s all kind of based on the literal sellers.Gisela: Yes.Redd: So how often do you guys make someone a top rated seller? How many new people are coming into that pool say every week or every month?Gisela: I cannot really tell you because it really depends. It’s not that we need to fill up a pool of people or like OK, guys, now we need like five TRSs or now – it doesn’t really work like that.We go through sellers that we already know that might be in the position of becoming a TRS and then according to that, we base our decisions according to that. It’s a long process of like – you know, also with getting to know the seller, their works, the deliveries.Adam: So I imagine customer support probably get asked quite a lot of times, “Can I be made a top rated seller or what can I do to be made a top rated seller?” and other things along these lines. Now if a user actually messages customer support, is there like feedback given to them in what they can do to be made a top rated seller or is that just one of those scenarios where it’s a case of keep on doing what you’re doing and there may be a time when you come into the editorial’s kind of focus of being able to be made a top rated seller?Gisela: Well, there was a time. I would even say like almost two years but yes, like people would like write a message to customer support and be like, “Would you consider me for becoming a TRS?” The numbers were pretty low in terms of the amount of people that were asking to be a TRS. But as the marketplace grew and everything, then we just stopped taking those kinds of requests because it was becoming like a back and forth. We decided that we’re no longer taking those requests.Adam: So kind of the takeaway from the user there who wishes to kind of message customer support is that you don’t necessarily need to because you are being monitored by the editorial team. The editorial team are aware of your profile and if at that stage you are to become a TRS, you will be made a TRS.So I want to ask – it’s kind of two questions in one. But the first kind of part of it is when it comes to featured Gigs, is there a time limit on how long a Gig can be featured for? When it comes to top rated seller status, can you lose that?Gisela: OK. You can also – OK, regarding the featured, you can also lose your featured badge. But it’s not that there’s a time limit that – OK, once you’re featured, if you keep your scores and your rating and your quality and your service, then you can stay featured forever. Once there’s like a featured Gig that it’s already not reaching the levels and the ratings, then yes, you will lose your badge and the same goes with the TRS.Adam: So I’ve seen previously where when some sellers would discuss that and they kind of – there’s a kind of thought process that sometimes when a seller is made a TRS, they’re kind of like – they’re set. That’s it. They’re a top rated seller. They can now go out and kind of do what they want with that. What kind of things can affect that status? What can see that status be removed?Gisela: If you have – well, your cancellation rate and your rating affect that a lot. You might just automatically drop the batch and it’s exactly the opposite. Once you’re a TRS, it’s not that you’re set. It means that you need to keep on working to keep that badge.Redd: So Gisela, one of the things that I know you also get to look at as a member of the editorial team is things like popular trends and what’s changing and shifting in the marketplace right now. Can you tell us a little bit more about that and how new sellers can get on to a new trend and increase their reach in what they’re doing?Gisela: Definitely. Of course like you have like the trends that are going on within the marketplace. Usually you will notice them because we will either make – we will make an editorial package out of it and we will present it on the homepage or even like the 101 rule of sales just like get on top of the trends that are going on globally.For example like if it’s Christmas, just be creative and create like a Christmas Gig or for example it was Valentine’s Day. Just do something about it because it will definitely get you sales and we always appreciate new and fresh content when it comes to the holidays. But yes, being on top of the trends that are going within the marketplace. It’s very important.Redd: So it’s one of those things where it must be really great for you when you start suddenly seeing a whole bunch of fresh content that’s exciting and interesting and it’s like it’s good for people to kind of ride that wave.Gisela: Yes, exactly, exactly. Of course always keeping yourself original and not copy other people’s work. That’s not nice. But definitely they should be on top of the trends within the marketplace and outside.Adam: So to kind of give an example then, because it’s actually something I thought about last year and I really wished that I was a good kind of caricature or illustrator whereas I’m more based on graphics and logos.But I thought about last year when the Star Wars film came out and what a good opportunity that was being such a massive global release. If someone were to set up a Gig offering to draw people as kind of Star Wars characters, now if something like that came up at that time, it got a few feedback, it caught your attention, et cetera, that was very on trend at that point and very popular. That kind of service could see itself almost like fast track to potentially being featured on the front page because it kind of works so well of what’s going on at the moment.Gisela: Yes, yes. That’s a very good example. That’s a very good example of that. Definitely. And we’re also always calling for new content. We’re always making different projects and also the marketing department makes really cool projects. For example, what they did with the ugly sweatshirt for Christmas, stuff like that. Just participate. Be involved with the community. It can only help you. Reach out. Experienced sellers have great tips to share.Adam: I imagine that’s one of the benefits as well of splitting up the categories between the editorial team is that because you get to know the category so well, you probably also know what kind of global trends outside of the marketplace have the potential to come over to Fiverr and then if you start seeing people set up those kinds of Gigs, you instantly think, OK, this is going to be good. We need to kind of maybe feature this or kind of work on this one.Gisela: Yes, it definitely helps.Redd: Well that’s about all we have time for this week. So thank you so much to Gisela for joining us and giving us such great information on all these wonderful tips. Our jingle was made by Ryan, Customdrumloops, and we were edited today by Dansha. Thanks so much. We will see you next week.Transcription by TransExpert.
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