Fiverr and Network Marketing – Our Review As A Buyer of Fiverr Services

What is Fiverr?

Fiverr is a web site that hosts all types of business and non-business services, with thousands of what we’ll call “micro-pay” entrepreneurs, each touting what they can do for you for a tiny five bucks. Everyone starts with the same price – 5 bucks. Hence, a “Five-er.” A job (a “gig” as they call it) for only five bucks? Seriously?

How can anyone do something that will take time and charge 5 bucks and make any substantial money in an endeavor like that? And, how does that help a network marketing business?

Well, welcome to the shrinking world of commerce and the Internet. The short answer is Fiverr is not only a valid source of labor at a rock-bottom price, but it is an opportunity for all network marketing business owners because it is built on the same concept as an online network marketing business – the law of large numbers can help you make money if you work it right. Equally as important is the opportunity to link and hook up with new business owners you would never have met without this platform, and that alone is worth looking at Fiverr as more than just a place to spend five dollars.

To fully get the grasp of Fiverr, we looked at Fiverr from two angles, because we’ve used both sides – as a buyer of services, and as a provider of services. This article addresses using Fiver as a buyer.

First, a quick look at Fiverr the website:

Who Dreamed Up Fiverr?

Fiverr is the perfect example of where someone with a brilliant idea meets the Internet head-on and creates a winning situation for both buyer and seller. At $5 a gig, you certainly can’t complain of an expensive experience! Fiverr is a pretty simple concept if you can get past the onslaught of advertisements from every Fiverr entrepreneur who is offering services. There are some pretty amazing statistics about Fiverr:

• Fiverr was founded a mere four years ago by Shai Wininger and Micha Kaufman. A blog written by Micha over a year ago, indicated at that time, 1.5 million people use Fiverr to buy and sell Gigs and many millions more visit the site every month. Fiverr members come from more than 200 countries and sellers offer over 1.8 million Gigs in 120 different categories. A Gig is purchased every 6 seconds. Clearly a year later, those numbers have grown.
• Alexa ranks Fiverr (as of 2/14/15) as the number 349 most popular site globally, and number 370 in the United States.
• Fiverr has generated over 3 million “gigs” (the term they use for jobs), When you consider many Fiverr sellers make more than just the $5 base (as you rise in the number of gigs done, you can charge more) it is clear this is a money making machine for not only the founders, but if you are successful, as a seller.

So, what can you get on Fiverr? Well, a LOT – Here are the main categories:

Graphics and Design – Cartoons & Caricatures / Logo Design / Illustration / eBook Covers & Packages / Web Design & UI / Photography & Photoshopping / Landing Pages / Flyers & Brochures / Business Cards / Banners & Headers / Architecture / Presentation Design / Other

Online Marketing – Social Marketing / Fan Pages / Get Traffic / SEO / Bookmarking and Link / Article and PR Submissions / Video Marketing / Other / Blog Mentions / Keywords Research / Web Analytics / Domain Research

Writing and Translation – Copywriting / SEO Keyword Optimization / Creative Writing & Scripting / Translation / Transcripts / Website Content / Press Releases / Resumes & Cover Letters / Speech Writing / Proofreading & Editing / Reviews / Other

Video and Animation – Commercials / Editing & Post Production / Animation & 3D / Testimonials & Reviews by Actors / Intros / Stop Motion / Puppets / Other

Music and Audio – Audio Editing & Mastering / Jingles / Songwriting / Music Lessons / Rap Music / Hip-Hop Music / Custom Songs / Sound Effects & Loops / Custom Ringtones / Voicemail Greetings / Narration & Voice-Over / Other

Programming and Tech – WordPress / Web Programming / Mobile Apps & Web / Website Builders & CMS / Convert Files / Ecommerce / User Testing / QA / Databases / Desktop applications / Data Analysis & Reports / Support & IT / Other

Advertising – Hold Your Sign / Flyers & Handouts / Human Billboards / Pet Models / Banner Advertising / Radio / Music Promotion / Outdoor Advertising / Other

Business – Business Plans / Career Advice / Market Research / Presentations / Virtual Assistant / Legal Consulting / Branding Services / Financial Consulting / Business Tips / Other

Other – Lifestyle / Gifts / Fun and Bizarre

Buying on Fiverr – What Do You Buy, And How Do You Do It?

Buying on Fiverr is not hard. From the list above, you can see buying something in these wide categories is not an issue. For Fiverr buyers, this is a great thing – there are so many possible entrepreneurs offering you what you want, it is a matter of finding someone that has a sharp advertisement or whose description of what and how they’ll do what you need is better than most. You’ll have almost unlimited choices.

While that can be good, consider this – there are three primary categories that Fiverr has put in place when buying a gig. There Fiverr members in a “High Rating” category, members in a “Recommended”, category, and finally the “newbies” in the “New” category.

While there certainly has to be a way to categorize those offering services, this “class distinction” we almost felt was border-line discriminatory until we looked at the sheer numbers of individual gigs being offered. Fiverr had to come up with a way to delineate “newbies” vs. more experienced members.

On the day we were on the site researching Fiverr, when we typed in the phrase that starts every single Fiverr gig – “I will”, this was the result:

High Rating – All Categories – 63,741 Recommended – 215,861 New – 52,731.

That is a total of 332,333 individual gig choices! When you consider that each web page you can see when you get results is usually 6-10 gigs on a screen (taking into account the size of some screens are small, some are large), at 10 gig views a screen, it would take you 33,234 screen scrolls to see all the alternatives! At say, 10 seconds per screen to see if any value was perceived, that would be 543 hours, or a bit over 3 weeks to see all the choices! Clearly, you will have no problem picking from such a large universe of sellers.

The primary hurdle you will have as a Fiverr buyer will be to pick the best qualified seller out of this immense sea of Fiverr members. It is not as daunting as it sounds. You’ll have to scan just a handful of sellers to understand what to look for in an experienced seller. Do they have a video? What is their turn around time? How are they ranked and do they have positive testimonials? After several minutes, you’ll get a feel for what to look for.

When we purchased gigs, we sometimes spent more than just the $5. Why is that? Well, technically, that is all we were required to pay. However, the jobs that were done for us were done quickly, efficiently and we paid extra to have that happen – instead of a 3 day turnaround, we chose to pay another $5 for a one-day turnaround. In one case, we wanted some “bells and whistles”, so we dropped another $10 for the gig. Those extra bells and whistles are offered through only the recommended and highly ranked sellers.

NOTE: When you consider that our average ticket was $10, and there have been over 3 million gigs completed, that equals 15 million in revenue – pretty solid! In reality, it’s pretty certain there a a lot of sellers on Fiverr who routinely get much more than $5, so you have to conclude Fiverr has created a very profitable niche indeed. This solid financial performance we think bodes wll for Fiverr continuing as a major player in this growing market of “subcontractors.”

Once you find a Fiverr provider you like, you simply send a message by email through Fiverr, or just pull the trigger based on their description and make a purchase for $5. The give and take and communication on Fiverr between buyer and seller is very fluid and similar to any good transaction-driven site, so we’ve never found an issue when ordering, adding extras to a gig, and finishing the transaction. You can then offer “tips” if the project was good, and also testimonials can be left. In that regard, it is not unlike an E-Bay environment – a buying community with posted results

Some buying tips: You can look at all the categories from “high ratings” to “new”, and you can see the number of gigs processed and comments and rankings just as on eBay, or Elance, or any number of internet sites where services are offered. Go with the experience of the person, and let your instinct guide you. Ask questions through Fiverr to the seller and your buying experience should be a good one.

Now one angle that is we do want to emphasize – there are network marketing services that are valuable that can be purchased on Fiverr. You can purchase back links, you can have link wheels constructed, you can have blog content written, you can have SEO keyword phrases researched, you can have video scripts build, you can have videos made, in short, there are valuable network marketing “nuts and bolts” that can be purchased from the Fiverr members that can really help your network marketing business.

Just do your due diligence and shop intelligently. Ask questions and your experience will be a positive one.