Do you make plans, and then go and do something else? I do, and it's not necessarily bad, as long as some progress is made. After all, there's so much to do, and the day only has 24 hours; as long as something is done, it's good, or at least that's how I see it.
Last time, I said I would create a gig for scripts for kinetic typography videos, and I did. I also said I would create a gig for writing inspirational articles, but I still hesitate to do it. Will I like it? What if people only want to order in bulk? Will the clients expect the impossible, or demand something that I don't actually offer? I'll probably create it anyway, sooner or later, and then deactivate it if I don't like the outcome. Just not yet.
The questionnaire for video scripts? Not done yet. Not good. Being more active on the blog? Not as much as I'd like to, but I hope I'm getting there. Tweaking the gigs some more? Yes, and will keep doing it. Being more active on Twitter? Yes. Also, I have activated the Catwriter Facebook page again, and now I'm thinking about the stuff I could post there that I don't post elsewhere (otherwise, what's the point? Why would anyone want to look at the same stuff on all the social media?).
More progress: learning new stuff. I know way too little about advertising and about using social media in general (well, I'm not exactly social myself), so I've read Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy, and Crush It!: Why Now Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk. The next one I intend to read on the subject is Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World, also by Gary Vaynerchuk. A businessman teaching me how to tell a story? Sure, why not? He's great at it, and I'm always looking to improve.
I keep thinking that I could have done more. Well, I could have. It's always possible to do more. But then I look at what I've actually done (the stuff I'm posting here is related to being a freelance writer on Fiverr; I do other things, as well), and I think to myself that this isn't bad. It could have been better, but it's still not bad. Not bad at all.
Showing posts with label fiverr story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiverr story. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Work in Progress
Freelancing is, just like everything else (life included), a work in progress. There's always room for improvement: improving skills you apply to do the task, improving your marketing skills, improving the presentation of your offer, to name just a few.
It all applies to Fiverr, too, and that's what I've been doing since I got back from vacation. Obviously, I'm not done yet, nor will I ever be completely done; so far, I've taken a few steps, plan on taking a few more, and keep learning from the more experienced sellers. While I have yet to see the results, it doesn't discourage me, because I'm aware that seeing results of anything takes time.
So, what have I done so far?
I've changed my profile a bit, and added a few skills, as well as my education info (though I'm not sure whether The Faculty of Dramatic Arts from Belgrade, Serbia, is going to mean anything to anyone).
I have created another gig, for whiteboard animation video scripts. I've already written a bunch, and it was covered by my main gig (video scripts in general), but a separate gig might make some things simpler. Or not. I'll see what happens. It might also increase the overall exposure of my gigs (or, again, maybe it won't).
I have switched almost all of my gigs to packages (the only exception is the one for totally custom orders), and I've added an extensive FAQ to the main gig. I was afraid of switching my main gig to the packages system, but, hey, right now I'm getting only a few sales anyway, and I'll have to do it sooner or later. It's best to get it over with. Adding the FAQ has also enabled me to shorten the description of the gig, change it a bit, and add a call to action.
I have altered some gig pictures, and added text to them, mentioning the services offered in the gig.
And the plans?
I have ideas for two more gigs (one for scripts for kinetic typography videos (DONE 3 days after posting this!), and one for inspirational articles), and hopefully I'll create them soon. (If this gave you an idea to offer something similar, go ahead!)
I intend to write a somewhat lengthy questionnaire for those who need a video script, but are not sure what they want. I hope it will help them communicate what they need.
I'm trying to be a bit more active on Twitter, and I'm trying to be a bit more active here on the blog, too.
That's it, for now – but, as the title of an awesome book says, my work is not yet done.
It all applies to Fiverr, too, and that's what I've been doing since I got back from vacation. Obviously, I'm not done yet, nor will I ever be completely done; so far, I've taken a few steps, plan on taking a few more, and keep learning from the more experienced sellers. While I have yet to see the results, it doesn't discourage me, because I'm aware that seeing results of anything takes time.
So, what have I done so far?
I've changed my profile a bit, and added a few skills, as well as my education info (though I'm not sure whether The Faculty of Dramatic Arts from Belgrade, Serbia, is going to mean anything to anyone).
I have created another gig, for whiteboard animation video scripts. I've already written a bunch, and it was covered by my main gig (video scripts in general), but a separate gig might make some things simpler. Or not. I'll see what happens. It might also increase the overall exposure of my gigs (or, again, maybe it won't).
I have switched almost all of my gigs to packages (the only exception is the one for totally custom orders), and I've added an extensive FAQ to the main gig. I was afraid of switching my main gig to the packages system, but, hey, right now I'm getting only a few sales anyway, and I'll have to do it sooner or later. It's best to get it over with. Adding the FAQ has also enabled me to shorten the description of the gig, change it a bit, and add a call to action.
I have altered some gig pictures, and added text to them, mentioning the services offered in the gig.
And the plans?
I have ideas for two more gigs (one for scripts for kinetic typography videos (DONE 3 days after posting this!), and one for inspirational articles), and hopefully I'll create them soon. (If this gave you an idea to offer something similar, go ahead!)
I intend to write a somewhat lengthy questionnaire for those who need a video script, but are not sure what they want. I hope it will help them communicate what they need.
I'm trying to be a bit more active on Twitter, and I'm trying to be a bit more active here on the blog, too.
That's it, for now – but, as the title of an awesome book says, my work is not yet done.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Fear and Loathing on Fiverr
First time when it happened, I was petrified...
All right, not exactly petrified, but every Fiverr seller knows what I'm talking about: the first negative review, which happened while I was still fairly new. The ARS (the 5 stars system instead of thumbs up and thumbs down) was also new, and everyone was desperately trying to keep their 100% rating. People kept saying that everything lower than 100% rating was a complete disaster for a new seller, and being new, I believed them.
Now, on other freelancing sites, a rating of 95% is excellent. I believe that time will come when the same will be true for Fiverr. However, that time isn't here yet, and while I know now that one negative rating would have just slowed me down, not ruined my business on Fiverr, back then, I was worried. Saying that I experienced fear and loathing would be exaggerating, but hey, I'm a writer and a blogger, so I'm allowed to exaggerate.
Anyway, here's what happened: I discovered that I got a 1 star rating for an About Us page I've written for a client. No explanation, no modification requests, nothing. My first impulse was to answer his feedback with my own 1 star rating, explaining that the buyer never even tried to communicate after placing the order, and that he sent me very little information to begin with. I calmed myself down and messaged the buyer instead, asking about his reasons and why he didn't request me to revise the page. He said he thought about asking for a modification, but the page was terrible, it had numerous grammar errors (actually, there was a single typo), the vocabulary was terrible, it was useless to his company (all of this written in not so good English). So, I do the next smart thing and initiate the mutual cancellation, apologizing for wasting his time and offering a refund because my writing was useless to him. That would be it, i thought.
It wasn't. He refused the cancellation. They were going to use some parts of the page I sent him, he said. Some parts of a 296 words page? I didn't ask him that, of course; that would have been unprofessional. Instead, I asked him to remove the negative rating, because the page wasn't so useless, after all. He accepted, but discovered the option to do so was gone. So, I asked him to contact Fiverr Customer Support (I did the same myself), because at that point, that was the only way to remove the bad rating. He did, and I sighed with relief, thinking that it was over.
It wasn't.
He rated the work I sent him with 4.5 stars. It's not a bad rating as such, but it still lowered my overall rating and decreased my chances at success, or so I thought at the time. So, I patiently explained to him what the problem was, and he agreed to contact the Customer Support again. They removed his rating. Then he demanded that I write him a better page than the one I sent him. He did so much for me, he said, he deserved a flawless page. And, he would rate me based on the page I sent him. This time, he sent me more information, as well as some examples of the pages he liked. I did the page again, and I got 5 stars.
Finally.
This entire story went on for a few days. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but it taught me a few things. One was not to panic about bad ratings. After all the back-and-forth, I simply can't be bothered to panic about such things anymore. Panic is useless; it's much better to move on, and to keep delivering the best work I can. In the end, the results will show, which is another thing that this experience taught me: one bad rating, or even several bad ratings, don't destroy someone's business on Fiverr. They make it a bit more difficult, but if the sellers explains their side of the story, reasonable buyers will still work with them.
And another, very important thing I've learned from experience with this buyer and several others: never, ever accept to work on the order without enough information. I've tried to improvise, or to write general pages about this or that type of business, but the buyers who are unwilling to provide me with enough information about their businesses (see what kind of information I need) tend to be unsatisfied no matter what I do. It's better to initiate the cancellation immediately with a list of questions (cancellation can be aborted once the buyers sends the answers), so that the buyer either sends the info, or accepts the cancellation and moves on.
Live and learn. I've survived, learned something, and got a story to tell.
All right, not exactly petrified, but every Fiverr seller knows what I'm talking about: the first negative review, which happened while I was still fairly new. The ARS (the 5 stars system instead of thumbs up and thumbs down) was also new, and everyone was desperately trying to keep their 100% rating. People kept saying that everything lower than 100% rating was a complete disaster for a new seller, and being new, I believed them.
Now, on other freelancing sites, a rating of 95% is excellent. I believe that time will come when the same will be true for Fiverr. However, that time isn't here yet, and while I know now that one negative rating would have just slowed me down, not ruined my business on Fiverr, back then, I was worried. Saying that I experienced fear and loathing would be exaggerating, but hey, I'm a writer and a blogger, so I'm allowed to exaggerate.
Anyway, here's what happened: I discovered that I got a 1 star rating for an About Us page I've written for a client. No explanation, no modification requests, nothing. My first impulse was to answer his feedback with my own 1 star rating, explaining that the buyer never even tried to communicate after placing the order, and that he sent me very little information to begin with. I calmed myself down and messaged the buyer instead, asking about his reasons and why he didn't request me to revise the page. He said he thought about asking for a modification, but the page was terrible, it had numerous grammar errors (actually, there was a single typo), the vocabulary was terrible, it was useless to his company (all of this written in not so good English). So, I do the next smart thing and initiate the mutual cancellation, apologizing for wasting his time and offering a refund because my writing was useless to him. That would be it, i thought.
It wasn't. He refused the cancellation. They were going to use some parts of the page I sent him, he said. Some parts of a 296 words page? I didn't ask him that, of course; that would have been unprofessional. Instead, I asked him to remove the negative rating, because the page wasn't so useless, after all. He accepted, but discovered the option to do so was gone. So, I asked him to contact Fiverr Customer Support (I did the same myself), because at that point, that was the only way to remove the bad rating. He did, and I sighed with relief, thinking that it was over.
It wasn't.
He rated the work I sent him with 4.5 stars. It's not a bad rating as such, but it still lowered my overall rating and decreased my chances at success, or so I thought at the time. So, I patiently explained to him what the problem was, and he agreed to contact the Customer Support again. They removed his rating. Then he demanded that I write him a better page than the one I sent him. He did so much for me, he said, he deserved a flawless page. And, he would rate me based on the page I sent him. This time, he sent me more information, as well as some examples of the pages he liked. I did the page again, and I got 5 stars.
Finally.
This entire story went on for a few days. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but it taught me a few things. One was not to panic about bad ratings. After all the back-and-forth, I simply can't be bothered to panic about such things anymore. Panic is useless; it's much better to move on, and to keep delivering the best work I can. In the end, the results will show, which is another thing that this experience taught me: one bad rating, or even several bad ratings, don't destroy someone's business on Fiverr. They make it a bit more difficult, but if the sellers explains their side of the story, reasonable buyers will still work with them.
And another, very important thing I've learned from experience with this buyer and several others: never, ever accept to work on the order without enough information. I've tried to improvise, or to write general pages about this or that type of business, but the buyers who are unwilling to provide me with enough information about their businesses (see what kind of information I need) tend to be unsatisfied no matter what I do. It's better to initiate the cancellation immediately with a list of questions (cancellation can be aborted once the buyers sends the answers), so that the buyer either sends the info, or accepts the cancellation and moves on.
Live and learn. I've survived, learned something, and got a story to tell.
Saturday, November 22, 2014
How I Started On Fiverr
I have heard of Fiverr when looking for freelance sites, but dismissed it at first. I was already on Elance, which looked like the best site for freelancers, with the most serious buyers. Even on Elance, I've noticed a bunch of buyers who treated it like a content mill and offered $1 for 500 words. Fiverr seemed like yet another place where freelancers worked for spare change.
However, a freelance writer in a LinkedIn group mentioned that $5 was for beginners, and that she, as a Top Rated Seller, could earn up to $125 per assignment. And in Writing For Money by Stephen G. Davies I found not just a recommendation for Fiverr, but a very useful advice, something like: Don't write more than 300 words, it's $5.
I decided to give it a try.
I created my first gig, and got my first order the very next day. I was lucky, in a way; there was a buyer who needed texts for his website about pets, and it looks like he was checking out all the pet gigs on Fiverr. I completed it, got 5 stars, and for about a week, that was it.
I've used the time to browse the forum, learn as much as I could about Fiverr, and also to check out other gigs and see what else I could offer. I created the gig for About Us pages, figuring that people with websites could use it, and another one, for video scripts (I'm a script writer by trade, so that was something I could easily do). Thanks to my first gig, I was already a 5 star seller, and so, a week after the first order, the second one came. This one was for the About Us page, and it was the first such page I have ever written for a client.
It was scary. It was exciting. The client loved it, and immediately ordered another one. He was very nice in his reviews, too. And I was... Wow. I did it. I actually did it. And it was good.
The next day, I got another order. The day after that, another one. And so it began. I got promoted to Level 1, and then to Level 2.
My cat gigs didn't get many orders, but they made me stand out among other writers who did About Us pages and video scripts. People noticed them in the forum. Buyers noticed them. And some of them ordered animal related About Us pages from me because they figured me for an animal lover (correct). Some others may have noticed my minimalist lifestyle gig, which also serves more to set me apart than to bring me direct income. By seeing those gigs, some buyers get a better idea about me, and an impression that I would understand them and help them. And I do.
While most of my work is written for small businesses, a considerable amount is done for charities and the underrepresented, and that makes me happy. I like working with them. I like helping them to get noticed, to express themselves about the good things, the important things they're doing. And the most common comment I get from them is: She really understood what our website is about. That makes me smile. That makes me feel proud. Just as buyers who return a few months later with a new task make me feel proud of myself. I did well, they remembered me, and they want me to work for them once again.
And so, here I am, 5 months after I started on Fiverr, and doing... Well, sometimes doing good, sometimes not as good as I'd like, but overall, I like it. I enjoy it. I love the small, quick jobs, and exploring new things, and experimenting, and writing for a living. And Fiverr offers the possibility for all that.
Would I recommend Fiverr to others? Yes. I already did. Find something you like doing and can do in 5 minutes, or 15 minutes, or half an hour, and offer it. Be respectful to customers, offer good service, and have fun.
Definitely have fun. If you do, sooner or later, it will work.
However, a freelance writer in a LinkedIn group mentioned that $5 was for beginners, and that she, as a Top Rated Seller, could earn up to $125 per assignment. And in Writing For Money by Stephen G. Davies I found not just a recommendation for Fiverr, but a very useful advice, something like: Don't write more than 300 words, it's $5.
I decided to give it a try.
I created my first gig, and got my first order the very next day. I was lucky, in a way; there was a buyer who needed texts for his website about pets, and it looks like he was checking out all the pet gigs on Fiverr. I completed it, got 5 stars, and for about a week, that was it.
I've used the time to browse the forum, learn as much as I could about Fiverr, and also to check out other gigs and see what else I could offer. I created the gig for About Us pages, figuring that people with websites could use it, and another one, for video scripts (I'm a script writer by trade, so that was something I could easily do). Thanks to my first gig, I was already a 5 star seller, and so, a week after the first order, the second one came. This one was for the About Us page, and it was the first such page I have ever written for a client.
It was scary. It was exciting. The client loved it, and immediately ordered another one. He was very nice in his reviews, too. And I was... Wow. I did it. I actually did it. And it was good.
The next day, I got another order. The day after that, another one. And so it began. I got promoted to Level 1, and then to Level 2.
My cat gigs didn't get many orders, but they made me stand out among other writers who did About Us pages and video scripts. People noticed them in the forum. Buyers noticed them. And some of them ordered animal related About Us pages from me because they figured me for an animal lover (correct). Some others may have noticed my minimalist lifestyle gig, which also serves more to set me apart than to bring me direct income. By seeing those gigs, some buyers get a better idea about me, and an impression that I would understand them and help them. And I do.
While most of my work is written for small businesses, a considerable amount is done for charities and the underrepresented, and that makes me happy. I like working with them. I like helping them to get noticed, to express themselves about the good things, the important things they're doing. And the most common comment I get from them is: She really understood what our website is about. That makes me smile. That makes me feel proud. Just as buyers who return a few months later with a new task make me feel proud of myself. I did well, they remembered me, and they want me to work for them once again.
And so, here I am, 5 months after I started on Fiverr, and doing... Well, sometimes doing good, sometimes not as good as I'd like, but overall, I like it. I enjoy it. I love the small, quick jobs, and exploring new things, and experimenting, and writing for a living. And Fiverr offers the possibility for all that.
Would I recommend Fiverr to others? Yes. I already did. Find something you like doing and can do in 5 minutes, or 15 minutes, or half an hour, and offer it. Be respectful to customers, offer good service, and have fun.
Definitely have fun. If you do, sooner or later, it will work.
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