Fiverr v. Your own site

[Chaneyof90]

Hello again everybody,

I recently landed my first customer for market research for businesses. I obtained them through Fiverr and a thought occurred to me. Would I be better suited to start my own website with ordering and dealing with the ins and outs of processing and all that or is it better to wait until I grow more customers on Fiverr and continue to have them take a part of my profits to deal with the financial end as well as advertising and listing?

Please advise,
Thanks to all in advance.

 

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[ProcessPro]

Hello again everybody,

I recently landed my first customer for market research for businesses. I obtained them through Fiverr and a thought occurred to me. Would I be better suited to start my own website with ordering and dealing with the ins and outs of processing and all that or is it better to wait until I grow more customers on Fiverr and continue to have them take a part of my profits to deal with the financial end as well as advertising and listing?
My Fiverr Gig

Please advise,
Thanks to all in advance.

I suggest you take the shortest route to your second, third, forth (etc.) sale to build momentum which might be easier via Fiverr. Do a few jobs on Fiverr, build some social proof then try to build your website alongside Fiverr, then you can make a full transition if you choose.

Eventually you can just point people to Fiverr to check out your reviews but you actually do the jobs, etc. through your website.

 

[1899]

I suggest you take the shortest route to your second, third, forth (etc.) sale to build momentum which might be easier via Fiverr. Do a few jobs on Fiverr, build some social proof then try to build your website alongside Fiverr, then you can make a full transition if you choose.

Eventually you can just point people to Fiverr to check out your reviews but you actually do the jobs, etc. through your website.

The problem is if they detect you are sending customers away from Fiverr they can ban you.

 

[Chaneyof90]

The problem is if they detect you are sending customers away from Fiverr they can ban you.

That is understandable. They want to keep their profit. However, I could just save the reviews of my work on fiverr for later when I decide to start my own website.

 

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[Private Witt]

The problem is if they detect you are sending customers away from Fiverr they can ban you.

Fiverr is funny. I have a long time freelancer that I do all our conversations and data transfer on the Fiverr chat platform but have not taken a gig out with him for over two years and just Zelle him the payment. I guess he is the one taking the risk but he does not care.

 

[ProcessPro]

The problem is if they detect you are sending customers away from Fiverr they can ban you.

Valid point. Whatever OP decides to do, it should certainly be ToS compliant.

I understood OP as meaning that he'll be getting clients via other means that he's direct to his website. I was suggesting that if trust/proof is needed, he could simply link them to his public Fiverr account to see his verified reviews etc. But if he got the clients off Fiverr and is serving them through his site and merely using Fiverr per above, this should be fully ToS compliant.

 

[ProcessPro]

Fiverr is funny. I have a long time freelancer that I do all our conversations and data transfer on the Fiverr chat platform but have not taken a gig out with him for over two years and just Zelle him the payment. I guess he is the one taking the risk but he does not care.

I have always gotten a hunch that Fiverr is operating on very simplistic software. I'm not sure how powerful their bots are and if they even have the manpower to keep tabs on everyone's chats. I doubt it.

 

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[Private Witt]

I have always gotten a hunch that Fiverr is operating on very simplistic software. I'm not sure how powerful their bots are and if they even have the manpower to keep tabs on everyone's chats. I doubt it.

There have been some worries when a comment gets flagged usually cause of a joke but nothing ever has happened.

 

[1899]

I would advise you to start a site anyway, even a simple one pager because I have had a situation where someone needed something immediately, messaged me on Fiverr and minutes later (i guess they) googled the name in my fiverr avatar, found my website and called me with the phone number listed on my website. Over time ill probably start pushing my website with paid google ads. Fiverr is a service that could change its ToS or go down at any time, its best to have a backup plan.

 

[Chris Sciora]

Hello again everybody,

I recently landed my first customer for market research for businesses. I obtained them through Fiverr and a thought occurred to me. Would I be better suited to start my own website with ordering and dealing with the ins and outs of processing and all that or is it better to wait until I grow more customers on Fiverr and continue to have them take a part of my profits to deal with the financial end as well as advertising and listing?
My Fiverr Gig

Please advise,
Thanks to all in advance.

You're providing the service to the buyer, right?

I'm the buyer and have used all the various outsourcing sites over the years for marketing, coding, market research, everything. Elance, Upwork, Fiverrr and many others. We started using Fiverr again about two months ago after several years off. Hired nine people to complete a handful of small projects over a two month period.

Only two finished. The other seven ghosted me, changed their mind, complained, asked for extensions and wanted more money. Due to how Fiverr is structured, it was a hassle to get all the advance payments refunded. Aside from using the two people who actually delivered the work, we will NEVER use Fiverrr again. Never.

The way Fiverr is structured makes sellers rush to provide dirt cheap bids followed by trying to upsell in every imaginable way. That's your competition. From the buyer's perspective, it's almost impossible to even distinguish between someone who will provide excellent work vs. walk away and hope I don't try too hard to get the advance payment refunded. Fiverr takes a cut of every dollar you earn including tips. That last bit really ticks me off.

While thinking through ways of better vetting Fiverr candidates before hiring them, I decided an external website showing their client work was mandatory. Everything else is much easier to fake. A website and references are too much effort for most scammers. Fiverr rant over.

You're going to need to generate business on your own without relying on a platform that consistently treats valuable services as a commodity to monetize. Might as well get started sooner than later. It's simple to get a great looking website running for a few bucks each month. Without knowing your financial position, I'll just say that using a paid website service for under five dollars monthly will save you countless headaches over getting started with something like SpamDaddy web hosting.

You can worry about handling payments after landing another customer. There's endless ways of collecting money online nowadays regardless of where you live. If you're in the US, JotForm + Stripe is an easy way to start. Stripe is also supported in a long list of countries around the world.

 

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[Chaneyof90]

You're providing the service to the buyer, right?

I'm the buyer and have used all the various outsourcing sites over the years for marketing, coding, market research, everything. Elance, Upwork, Fiverrr and many others. We started using Fiverr again about two months ago after several years off. Hired nine people to complete a handful of small projects over a two month period.

Only two finished. The other seven ghosted me, changed their mind, complained, asked for extensions and wanted more money. Due to how Fiverr is structured, it was a hassle to get all the advance payments refunded. Aside from using the two people who actually delivered the work, we will NEVER use Fiverrr again. Never.

The way Fiverr is structured makes sellers rush to provide dirt cheap bids followed by trying to upsell in every imaginable way. That's your competition. From the buyer's perspective, it's almost impossible to even distinguish between someone who will provide excellent work vs. walk away and hope I don't try too hard to get the advance payment refunded. Fiverr takes a cut of every dollar you earn including tips. That last bit really ticks me off.

While thinking through ways of better vetting Fiverr candidates before hiring them, I decided an external website showing their client work was mandatory. Everything else is much easier to fake. A website and references are too much effort for most scammers. Fiverr rant over.

You're going to need to generate business on your own without relying on a platform that consistently treats valuable services as a commodity to monetize. Might as well get started sooner than later. It's simple to get a great looking website running for a few bucks each month. Without knowing your financial position, I'll just say that using a paid website service for under five dollars monthly will save you countless headaches over getting started with something like SpamDaddy web hosting.

You can worry about handling payments after landing another customer. There's endless ways of collecting money online nowadays regardless of where you live. If you're in the US, JotForm + Stripe is an easy way to start. Stripe is also supported in a long list of countries around the world.

This was most insightful. Thank you.

 

[Ronnie Bryan]

I hired Graphic Designers on Fivver the work was decent but many missed deadlines. I think ODesk or Freelance dot com offer better value per dollar just based off personal experience.