Back Again!

What do you do when life happens, and you can forget everything about your plans?

There I was, making plans about Fiverr, starting an Instagram account related to it, preparing posts for it...and then it happened.

It started innocently enough: I had a coffee with a friend. Then I spent too much time in the sun, and got a sunstroke. Then I did everything I could (and everything I should have done) to cool off and recover – and a couple of days later, when my symptoms changed, I was diagnosed with a bronchopneumonia. Ouch. Think fever (40C), awful headaches, weakness, very sore throat from all the coughing… It took me a month to recover, and in the end, I’ve made it, with excellent test results – but during that month, I’ve been unable to work, and I could forget about all the plans that I’ve made. They were simply no longer doable.

What a way to spend a third of your summer.

And then?

Then I traveled to the seaside, both to help my lungs and to spend some time with my family living there. And now I’m back, dusting my skills and my plans off, thinking about new improvements and possible new offers (got a few ideas already), and ready to work again.

Is it going to be easy? Of course not – life still happens, and even while I’m writing this, I’ve got a bunch of things to handle, and a bunch of stuff to keep me busy. But, hey, at least I’m doing it without bronchopneumonia, and that’s a huge relief.

Once again, it’s good to be back.

Back to Work!

Holidays are over, including the Orthodox Christmas (it's two weeks later than the Western one), so I'm back to work now. It's as scary as always, not to mention that Fiverr has been more buggy than usual after the maintenance and the server migration, but there's no use complaining or worrying; it's better to do something productive, like play with the gigs. And that's what I did as soon as I got back: I have added two images to my main gig (screenshots, actually, with an explanation and an example). Take a look!

The lower picture, the example, is an actual script I've written for a client (and obtained the permission to use it as a sample); the one above explains what a video script looks like. Maybe it will help some buyers who have no experience with video scripts and don't know what to expect, and if someone asks for a sample, hey, there it is.

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

Coming Back From the Fiverr Vacation Is Scary

During the holiday season (in my country, it starts with the New Year, because our Christmas is two weeks later than in the Western world), I have turned the Vacation Mode on Fiverr on, so I could relax during the holidays. It's a scary thing to do: when I come back, will I get any orders? Where will my gigs position in the search? Will my business be ruined? It's been less than 24 hours after turning the Vacation Mode off, I have no orders, and I'm worried a bit.

It's scary. Then again, being a freelancer can be scary. And fun. And great.

I've already used the Vacation Mode in September 2014, when I spent some time with my family in another country. That's how I know that sales can be slow after coming back. It's normal. Knowing it's normal doesn't make it any less scary, though, not when you also know that nothing in the freelancing work is certain (although, there's no true safety with the 9-to-5 job, either). The best a freelancer can do is be patient, try not to feel too scared, and be active.

Being active, or advertising, whichever way you want to look at it. No matter how you call it, it may include blogging (in my case here, and possibly a mention someplace else), social media activity, forum activity, possibly changing the Fiverr gigs a bit (keywords, new extras, description change) or adding new ones... Advertising experts would tell you all about targeted marketing, too, but I'm no marketing expert, I'm just a storyteller. What I can tell you is that, whatever you do, you shouldn't spam; spamming is rude, annoying, and harms your business.

If my previous experience with the Fiverr Vacation Mode means anything, it takes some time for the sales to start again after coming back, but they do start again. Old clients seek the freelancers they were satisfied with, and the new clients come, too, as long as the ratings are good and the work is of good quality.

It takes some (scary!) time, but the sales definitely come back.