Have you heard of Fiverr, the freelancer marketplace known for five-dollar gigs? Today we’re diving into the in’s and out’s of getting the most out of hiring a Fiverr freelancer, and giving you a roadmap for finding the best talent Fiverr has to offer.
When it comes to running a growing business, it isn’t sustainable for you to act as a jack-of-all-trades. At some point, you’ll need help if you want to stay healthy and sane. If you’re like millions of entrepreneurs, you’ll eventually turn to a freelancer to help you tackle tasks that may extend beyond your own expertise.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of platforms from which to scout top freelance talent. One platform has stood out for over a decade for featuring the most cost-effective freelance solutions around.
We’re talking about Fiverr, the go-to resource for entrepreneurs looking for affordable solutions for everything from graphic design to SEO. Read on for our guide on hiring remote freelancers on Fiverr.
How does hiring remote freelancers on Fiverr work?
Founded in 2010 in Tel-Aviv-Yafo Israel, Fiverr is an online marketplace for affordable freelance services. Simply put, Fiverr’s goal is to connect shoppers with freelancers offering all kinds of services from graphics to CSS and everything in between.
Freelancers list their services – or “gigs” as they’re called on the platform – in an e-commerce style marketplace for would-be clients to browse.
Fiverr owes its massive growth in popularity to its reputation as a resource for affordable services for cash-strapped entrepreneurs. How affordable you ask? We’re talking five bucks, folks.
Hence the name Fiverr.
Not surprisingly, the appeal of a new logo or help with pesky website code for just five dollars was pretty significant.
How to use Fiverr
All freelancers (or “sellers”) list their gigs using the same format. Each listing starts with “I will…” followed by the service provided.
For example, I will…
- write you a killer social media posts for $5
- design an original logo for $15
- draw badly drawn stick figures so you feel better about your skills for $5 (yes, this really exists)
Sellers can offer a single flat rate for a basic service, or create add-on services and a tiered pricing structure for more complex services.
Buyers search the site and vet freelancers based on reviews, number of completed gigs, and other metrics, and place an order when they find a winner. Communication, fulfillment, payment, and dispute management are handled entirely through the Fiverr platform, making it a true one-stop-shop for the gig economy.
Fiverr gigs we dig (and gigs to avoid)
As soon as you log on to Fiverr and begin to browse the gigs available, you’ll notice one thing.
There are over 2 million Fiverr freelancers, each offering up to seven gigs. That means there are literally millions of gigs available.
In our humble opinion, however, not all Fiverr gigs are created equal. Here are a few of the gigs we love, and a few to steer clear of.
Give these gigs a try
These Fiverr gigs are some of the most useful and affordable for small business owners. Give them a try, and save money in the process.
Voiceovers & Explainer Videos
Did you know that 6 out of 10 people would rather watch online videos than television? Online videos will make up more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2022. That means that if you’re not creating video content for your business, now is the time to start.
Fortunately, Fiverr is a surprisingly great resource for doing just that.
Try turning your latest how-to blog post into an engaging graphic video? Not only will you give your website visitors an alternate way to consume your top content, but you’ll be increasing your brand’s digital footprint by establishing a presence on sites like YouTube, and even Google Video results.
Video & Podcast Transcripts
Sometimes it’s the little things that eat up our time as entrepreneurs. Things like generating captions for your latest YouTube video.
Let’s be real, auto-generated captions are the worst.
Ensuring your website and content is accessible to those with disabilities is not only essential for keeping your U.S. based website ADA Compliant, but it’s also part of simply being a good human.
Video captions are an important yet tedious part of that, so why not turn the job over to a Fiverr freelancer? Besides generating perfectly formatted captions for your videos, they can also format those same captions into a full video or podcast transcript for cross-posting to your blog.
Infographics & Social Media Design
Provided you already have an established brand identity (namely a logo), Fiverr can be a great resource for creating shareable visual content.
Let’s face it, most of us simply don’t have the time or the expertise to be our own graphic designers. While handing over your entire brand image to a freelancer on Fiverr may not be wise, many are skilled enough to handle creating complementary graphics to help you fill your social media calendar.
Do you have a helpful how-to article on your website? Why not summarize it with a branded infographic that can be easily shared around the web?
Does your latest blog post need a boost? Take some of those inspiring quotes and turn them into beautiful Instagram posts, courtesy of an affordable Fiverr freelancer.
3 Gigs to avoid on Fiverr
While there’s no shortage of skilled talent on Fiverr, the platform has received its fair share of criticism over the years. It often gets a bad rap for low quality, unoriginal graphic services and has been called out for allowing the selling of fake Amazon reviews or bulk social media followers.
While those gigs have thankfully been removed from the platform, there are still a few you should avoid.
Logo Design
We know, we know. Hiring remote freelancers on Fiverr for Logo design is usually one of the most attractive gigs on the platform. I mean, who doesn’t want a new logo for just five bucks?
The fact is, it’s really difficult to find a truly original logo on the platform. There’s a reason that graphic designers charge high fees for their creative talent. When it comes to something as important as representing your brand visually, it pays to invest more. After all, you get what you pay for.
Buyers have routinely reported winding up with the same logo as the competitor down the road or a random, uninspiring piece of clipart snagged from Google.
If you’re simply interested in getting the creative juices flowing, then a Fiverr logo might not be a bad starting point. But if you’re serious about running a business primed for growth, you’ll likely want to look elsewhere for your new brand identity.
Blog Content
This is another possibly controversial recommendation, but if you’re looking for high-quality blog content in English, you will need to sift through a lot of bad apples before finding someone truly capable. While there are undoubtedly plenty of skilled writers on Fiverr, many of them simply aren’t native English speakers.
In the end, it depends on the type of content you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a writer who can discuss hurricane preparedness while appealing to your southern Louisiana client base, for example, you’ll have a hard time finding that on Fiverr.
If you’re simply looking for a quick, 500-word FAQ post, however, it won’t hurt (or cost a lot) to give Fiverr freelancers a go. Just make sure to follow our tips for finding high-quality talent below.
Web Traffic
Much like fake reviews and spammy social media followers, paying for traffic to your website simply isn’t worth it. Yes, traffic is an important signal to Google and other search engines that your website is possibly worth a rankings boost. But search algorithms are smart enough to distinguish between real, engaged traffic and a rapid influx of traffic with a high bounce rate.
While you may experience a brief uptick in rankings, the boost to your business’ SEO efforts is not sustainable, and may even hurt you in the long run. Plus, if you’re truly interested in building an optimized, high-converting website, fake traffic will only mess up your metrics and make it harder for you to determine what is and isn’t working in your conversion optimization efforts.
How to find high-quality talent on Fiverr
Regardless of what gig you’re searching for on Fiverr, following a few best practices will ensure that you find the highest quality talent possible.
Ask around for personal recommendations
Fiverr boasts over 2.3 million active buyers as of September 2019. That means there’s a good chance that you already know someone who has turned to Fiverr for a gig or two in the past. Tap into your professional network to find out which trusted sellers they rely on.
There’s nothing like good, old-fashioned word of mouth for locating a freelancer you can count on to get the job done right the first time.
Be willing to pay a bit more for top talent
Like most areas of life, the saying you get what you pay for applies. Hiring remote freelancers on Fiverr is no different than many other situations where you have different value offerings.
Sure, there are plenty of decent service providers on Fiverr with extremely low prices, especially those working in developing countries. But when you need to be sure that you’re working with a trusted professional, sometimes it pays to pay just a little bit more for that top-ranked seller.
Look at the negative reviews as well as the positive
It’s great to read positive reviews, but in this day and age, they often aren’t as trustworthy as we’d like to believe. In fact, a freelancer with entirely 5-star reviews is highly suspect. As it turns out, we’re not alone in that belief.
According to Get Five Stars, “consumers displayed more trust and were more likely to purchase a product when it’s rating was between 4.2 to 4.5 stars.”
The good news is, no one pays for bad reviews, which is precisely why we recommend turning to those first. Sort review results from the lowest rating to the highest, and look through the bad reviews for any patterns. Do you see repeated complaints about poor follow-through? What about low-quality work? Does the freelancer respond to these reviews professionally and attempt to resolve them?
Reading bad reviews can help you identify any potential problems ahead of time, and give you a good indication of what it will be like to work with your freelancer through any revisions or issues.
Ready for the next level? Try Fiverr Pro
Sometimes you need to be absolutely sure that you’re working with the best of the best. Enter Fiverr Pro.
Fiverr Pro is a new service that ensures that buyers are working with hand-picked, thoroughly vetted talent.
Want to snag the same voice-over talent used by top brands like Giorgio Armani, Dos Equis, and Campbell’s Soup? You can do that over on Fiverr Pro. How about working on your writing with a top Medium advice writer and TEDx speaker? You can do that, too.
Fiverr Pro freelancers can charge top dollar for their services because you can be sure that you will be working with an experienced, battle-hardened industry professional. And while they’re able to charge top dollar, their rates are still surprisingly affordable.
To locate and hire your next Fiverr freelance superstar, just head over to Fiverr Pro and browse their hand-vetted talent.
How will you use Fiverr Freelancers to grow your business?
From filling your social media calendar and creating blog graphics to solving pesky WordPress issues and everything in between, Fiverr is a trusted resource for entrepreneurs everywhere. Like any marketplace, however, it’s important to know how to navigate it to maximize your chances of success.
Have you hired a Fiverr freelancer in your business? How did it go? What are your tips and tricks for getting the most out of Fiverr? Did the tips help you with hiring remote freelancers on Fiverr? Let us know in the comments!
