I'm Experimenting, Too!

What do you do when Fiverr tests and tweaks their search algorithm, so your place isn't certain?

Actually, a place in the search is never certain, whether they're testing or not, so: what do you do?

Doing your own experiments might be a good idea. Tweaking your gigs, maybe creating new ones, maybe deleting the ones that are simply not selling... That's what I'm currently doing.

As much as I love kinetic typography, the gig for writing scripts for kinetic typography videos never sold, so I deleted it. That doesn't mean that I won't write that kind of scripts; my main gig still covers them.

Among the paused gigs, I had the one for cat-related Teespring headlines. It never sold, the only ones who inquired about it wanted headlines in bulk (I don't like bulks), so I deleted that one, too.

My gig for custom projects was initially meant for my old buyers who had a different project for me, something that I'm capable of doing, but don't offer on regular basis. Since it was there, other potential buyer sometimes contacted me to ask if I could do this or that, and those things were something that I didn't want to do. I'm not really sure what to do with that one, so I have paused it, and will unpause it for my old buyers when needed.

Some time ago, I have also paused my gig for scripts for Christmas videos. I will unpause it for the season.

The biggest change, though, was my main gig. I have changed the picture (hopefully this one makes it obvious that it's for video scripts, not for radio ads or email marketing), the description, some tags... And I'll keep working on the search tags, because there was an announcement on the forum about them. Fiverr will make yet another adjustment, and the search tags will count for more than they used to; ideally, they will also help narrow down the search for the buyers, and help them find exactly what they need faster.

Does this picture make it clear that I write scripts for videos?

I have some other experiments in mind, too, like pausing two script writing gigs (for scripts for animated explainers and whiteboard animations) because they don't seem to help, and starting a new one, more specific, and hopefully fun to do.

Like always, I'll see what happens, and I'll keep playing.

Fiverr Is Testing...

For a while now, people have noticed that there was something odd with the search algorithm. For one thing, the Relevance and the Average Customer Review (not to be confused with the number of reviews) filters gave exactly the same results. For the other, new users with high prices, a small number of reviews (some of them bad, too) or no reviews at all were/are showing at the top of the search results for the chosen keywords. It doesn't happen in all categories, and it's not consistent, but it's definitely making things difficult for buyers and sellers both.

It turns out that there's a reason for that, as was recently explained on the Fiverr's Forum: Fiverr is testing the search placement algorithm, and trying to improve it so that it truly shows the most relevant results for the intended search. There's no time frame for the testing, and therefore, there's no answer to the questions like "My gig has 2,000+ positive ratings but doesn't show up in the search, when will it show in search again?". Until they're done with the testing, the search results are likely to stay weird and/or unpredictable.

Does it affect all sellers equally? Certainly not. Those who have built their businesses and have numerous repeat customers are still getting sales, because those sales don't depend on the search results. Those who don't rely on Fiverr to bring them sales and who advertise elsewhere are also doing fine, more or less; they're bringing their own customers. But sellers who completely depend on their Fiverr ranking? They're in trouble.

What can a seller do in such a situation? Many things, actually. Send offers to Buyer Requests, when appropriate. Advertise outside of Fiverr, wherever their target audience is. Even better, spend more time on building their online presence, so that their advertising doesn't get perceived as spamming. Improve the current gigs. Add new gigs. Learn new skills and/or improve the existing ones. Explore other platforms. Finally work on their own website/business empire/whatever.

Spread wings, and fly.

Testing of the search placement algorithm may be a hindrance, but it's not the end of the world (or your Fiverr career), not unless you allow it to be.

Spread your wings, and fly.