Well, here’s an article I never thought I’d write. I joined Fiverr about four months ago as a freelance blogger because I was looking for a way to earn a little bit of additional side income whilst my business was going through a lean period. I was shocked, nay horrified, when I discovered that I was soon spending more time working for clients on Fiverr than I ever had on my own blog!

My first month on Fiverr was tough. You get hired on Fiverr because of reviews - they are very important and it took some time for me get my first order. After that orders started to roll in thick and fast, and four months later I’ve racked up over $1,200 on this platform!

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IN THE BEGINNING

There were no Fiverr reviews and no orders. Just me and my gig up on the internet seeing what all the fuss was about and if anyone would bite. Life was this way for a month, and I could have just thrown in the towel, but running a small business in a pandemic has taught me that the key to success lies in your willingness and ability to pivot. I started thinking about how I might need to change my offering so I could get those essential first clients and reviews. Here’s how I did it…

• I made my gig offering clear and concise and professional.

• I gave an introductory offer price and noted this in bold on the gig description, like this, “As I’m new to Fiverr my first ten orders will be at a heavily discounted price.”

• I responded quickly to messages, even if they weren’t outright orders. I knew that because I had no reviews it was vital that anyone who contacted me to see if I was legit knew that I was professional.

• I absolutely nailed the first gig! It’s so important to take time to get your work right, but it’s especially important to get the first one down.

HOW I SCALED UP MY PRICING AS A FREELANCE WRITER ON FIVERR

1. A PRICE INCREASE. After the first ten orders and once I had a number of good reviews under my belt I increased my pricing, just slightly. This is a sticky patch though, because it's important to price yourself correctly. I knew from the reviews I was receiving that I was doing a pretty good job, so I compared my offering to sellers who received similar feedback and priced myself somewhere in line with that.

   Top tip: it’s tempting to want to offer the lowest price just to get the orders in, but pricing yourself too low makes you look cheap and you’ll soon start to resent the work you’re doing because you don’t feel it’s worth your time.

   Know your worth and don’t be afraid to ask for it.

2. BULK PRICING. For the most part, folks would order just one article from me. But if you have a blog then you know that you need to be blogging consistently to get a reasonable amount of traction from it. So, once I had delivered the work I would send a follow up message and offer a discounted price on bulk orders of four, eight and even twelve blog posts. This way I was guaranteed work and income and I could bring in hundreds of dollars in one order.

KEEP AT IT

The freelance world can be tough. I quit my job a little over a year ago and dived in knowing pretty much nothing but feeling hopeful and eager to learn. My biggest lesson over the course of this year is to be stubborn about your goals, but flexible with your methods. It’s this open-minded, can-do attitude that’s kept my feet on the ground, kept the bills paid and is setting me up for success.

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