Hi, I’m Carson Lee, aka Leecarso on Fiverr. I was on the path of becoming a college graduate and wanted to get involved with foreign affairs in the U.S. government. I received my B.A. from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor in International Studies and recently took the time to gain a Master’s in Political Science. Despite heavy criticism and over 80K in debt, I set out on a journey to pursue my dreams as a music entrepreneur. After a few failed attempts, I used my enthusiasm for the music industry, particularly the philosophical stances of the Wu Tang Clan, to land a job as an intern promoting their final album. But I was still struggling with debt, and unable to find the economic freedom I was seeking.
That is when I found Fiverr. I started writing detailed album reviews for customers on Fiverr until they caught fire. I expanded my portfolio with ghostwriting Gigs, which is a controversial art which I see as a collaborative effort towards a musical vision. I became one of the first ghostwriters on Fiverr and I keep all of my customers confidential. Everyone has a calling. So I learned to maximize my experience on Fiverr, testing and optimizing my services until I reached success. Here’s how you reach your goals, vet your ideas, and turn your dreams as an entrepreneur, into a reality.
Fiverr provides a low-risk environment that can help you not only figure out what clients truly want, but also to test BIG ideas. It was the best way for me to execute on my passions at low cost and really work out the kinks of services I envisioned for a personal company. Fiverr is unique because potential buyers take more chances rather than committing to a popular freelance site where they’d need to hone in on one skill. It provides an informal setting to freelancing that is both affordable and flexible for buyers. From my experience, I obtained industry experience to display professional knowledge of the music business. I didn’t want to be a pseudo-seller with a lot of promise and no execution – I sought to take on mentorship experience from top record labels in the music industry as an intern. I didn’t care that I wasn’t paid because the value I received was insurmountable and the fundamental visions were in solidarity with my own.
Below I list my top tips for testing services through Fiverr.
- Scope Valuable Services: The hardest part of becoming an effective seller is trying to figure out what to sell that people would legitimately purchase in the first place. Sellers can look at Fiverr member ratings and see what is popular, and what buyers envision as valuable. This is great because it furthers your niche in finding a plan that has an authentic spin to it. Remember: You don’t have to be the most popular person, but you can be the right person at the right time and get the job done!
- Fiverr Traffic and Exposure: Fiverr works like a startup company where there are opportunities everywhere for sellers to display their talents to the world. Fiverr is ranked very highly in terms of traffic globally in the top 350 most visited sites in the world as of the New Year 2017. In other words, if your services are on Fiverr people will with without a doubt be able find them. Now there is a Fiverr Community network across the world building real-life connections with other sellers and buyers.
- Linked Social Media: Sellers have the ability to connect with social media and pre-existing networks of people integrating them into the almighty Fiverr municipal. This builds honesty, integrity, and trust between Fiverr as a business and its sellers without a micromanaging atmosphere that sellers really do appreciate. Fiverr has to protect their interests while remaining diplomatic and sellers have to protect theirs. Faith between both factions is the most important element in an ecommerce environment where customers have superiority reign. Fiverr is the perfect platform for this symbiosis.
- Credibility: Sellers can use Fiverr testimonials to build credibility within their network and business. Since Fiverr is centered on a rating system to ensure quality, why not use the positive reviews to acquire credibility? It’s the reality and your sales skills will go through the roof in terms of interpersonal relations, customer service, and being able to work with clients on a deeper level.
- Confidence: Confidence is built on Fiverr with positive reception and accolades for your product or service. It’s difficult becoming established as a seller early on, but once you get a couple sales under your belt, the necessary feedback will come. If not, ask for it – however, be weary that asking could opt in the writing of a negative review by shaking the lion’s tail. If you would like to avoid this, ask the people who have already given reviews on how you could improve and what they liked.
- Negative Reviews: Napoleon Hill once said: “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” Negative views can ground you as a seller and may come unexpectedly. How you react determines the public perception of the company, so respond positively publicly while mitigating a solution privately. Remember that some unrated reviews can be negative as well but they didn’t take the time or spared you in writing a bad review. I remember my first bad review – I was really disappointed as I spent 4 hours meeting the demands of a customer only to get a bad review. Now that I see it from their perspective: I should have asked more questions and inquired to fully understand their objectives.
- Anticipating Problems Before They Arise: We all have intuition for a reason, and sometimes have the ability to sense when something is off. You have the ability to decline to work with anyone on the Fiverr platform. Anticipation will come with experience but if something seems off or questionable trust your gut, especially in terms of the high maintenance/low paying buyers or the non-collaborative ones that overwork sellers without remorse. Fiverr will help in cultivating skills to anticipate potential problems with buyers before submitting and can gauge your customer service skills through active listening. Remember that asking questions about orders shows clients that you care about their vision and want to produce the best possible experience for them.
- Collaboration: Form a team and commend sellers on their awesome work. There are plenty of music reviewers and hip-hop artists that I messaged personally to ask them questions. Surprisingly, a majority of the time they are more than willing to help or work on a project together. Sellers can find other people with similar visions and aspirations – you don’t have to be some rogue seller grinding out on your own all the time. I personally have linked up with amazing sellers to execute great services and deliveries. For example, on the ghostwriting Gig I offer – my writing skills are far superior to my singing skills. I have an amazing artist I met through Fiverr that does some of the deliveries when she has time for choruses/hooks. I go to buyer requests with my ghostwriting Gig and find people who need hooks performed. If you want to do big things you are going to need a team of motivated individuals.
- Sellers Can Dictate The Market Too: Don’t let the market discourage you from trying new approaches out – maybe a seller creates a system of innovation that is not working NOW but will in the subsequent future. I believe that the Fiverr community can make this a platform for all services and it’s only a matter of time – TIMING is everything.
- Pricing/Quoting Experience: One of the most difficult aspects to overcome is charging people for something you love to do. A seller can test different types of pricing in the Fiverr market and see how it matches up. Once you get over the hump of contemplating pricing on your inherent value, you need to stand firmly behind your quote knowing that you are the perfect person for the job. Make sure that you scale this to the real world prices, which may fluctuate in your side business quite a bit. I set the Fiverr standard in terms of ghostwriting rap verses at $25 because I was one of the first sellers with that service. I was categorically nervous about it but I knew that I was delivering a great service I was passionate about and not overreaching. Don’t back down and construct a low price threshold that you won’t accept in terms of negotiating. Starting off you will have to go lower price to build trust and credibility. After some testimonials and positive reviews you will morph into the ideal seller. As a bonus, provide a portfolio of work to display and show how your service is distinctive.
- Keeping Fiverr: This is important in order to continue testing new ideas that come along with your entrepreneurial ventures. Fiverr continues to evolve and it will only be seen as an asset to a side business for the invaluable merits of feedback and potential money. On Fiverr, sellers can generate a great income while constructing a symbiotic relationship with their brand that is unmatched on any other site.
How do you use Fiverr to test our your business ideas? Tell us in the comments below!
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