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.

A Nice Client Sent Me a Video

I write video scripts, but I rarely get to see how the video turns out. I deliver the script, modify it if needed, and that's it; clients move on with the work, and rarely send me the link to the finished video.

Recently, though, one client did, and he allowed me to share it as a sample. Yay! Their product seems rather useful for a very big group of people (basically, supermarket owners, supermarket staff, PLUS pretty much every shopper), and I like writing scripts about useful and helpful stuff; I like it even better when I see the video itself, because it helps me learn what works, what doesn't, and how to improve my writing.

Without further ado, here it is. Enjoy!

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.