And a few tips I learned along the way
Two years ago I would have let you know that I was working on finishing my first book. I was a novice writer who wanted to write something that individuals actually wanted to read. I composed because I wanted to create something massive, epic, impressive – line that first writing brief that still hasn’t made it’s way into a story.
Today I’m making more than $3000 per month as a freelance copywriter on fiverr in my spare time.
This is the way I went from creating a fiverr gig with low expectations to making $3000 per month, and a few tips for anyone else looking to build a fiverr side hustle.
My fiverr excursion started in a room at the Harbour Grand Inn in Hong Kong back in February 2019. Staring out at the boats cruising around Causeway Bay, I procrastinated when I ought to have been writing.
I’d been working on my “story” for the past six months, in that time I had just written a handful of chapters.
How might I at some point motivate myself to write? I really wanted a writing habit. I saw as fiverr. A way for me to get my writing reps in, with cash as my incentive.
Creating That First Fiverr Gig
The first step I took was creating my first gig. I decided it would make sense to attempt to align the gig with skills I assumed I already had. Having burned through a large portion of my career in sales and client support I felt that writing sales and marketing emails was a decent place to start.
I was right. Right up to the present day it remains my top performing gig accumulating more than 15,000 impressions per month and many monthly orders.
Getting your first request
Arguably the most challenging part of growing a fiverr side hustle is getting your first request.
In addition to the fact that that is first request validation that individuals want and see value in your services, yet it also persuades you as a merchant.
The issue is that for most new fiverr venders it’s so easy to create your profile, publish your first gig, and then wait for something to happen. As a general rule, nothing happens
Being proactive decreases the amount of time it takes to get your first request.
This is what I did to assist with speeding up the cycle.
Keep prices at $5 in the beginning. Low prices attract purchasers, until you’re an authority on fiverr keep your prices low.
Spread the word all through your organization, both online and in person. Being embarrassed about your side hustle doesn’t assist with getting the word out. Deal with it and enlighten individuals already!
Proactively sell your gig. Waiting for your first gig to start selling itself is painful. Email businesses that you think might be interested in hiring you to get your gig openness outside of fiverr search.
Twist around Backwards For 5 Star Ratings
The most unpleasant part of my fiverr excursion was completing my first handful of orders.
In the early days as a fiverr merchant you really need to twist around backwards to make sure you are delivering your absolute best work – a ton of purchasers know this, and will lean on you because of it.
Why?
Indeed, because you really want your purchasers to mark your orders as finished and give you those all important 5 star ratings.
Try not to allow your first couple of requests to be your last
The ratings you get on your first several orders are critical to your future as a vender. If you mess up and deliver a task that hasn’t met or surpassed your purchasers expectations, you might not have the option to recuperate.
Always aim to surpass expectations.
5 star ratings drive a great deal of the energy your gigs have in fiverr search. It’s frustrating having to deal with fastidious purchasers, or a lot of revision demands – suck it up and deliver 5 star work, it will pay dividends later.
Set Healthy Expectations With Yourself
Your fiverr gigs will eventually start to snowball, when they do it might be time to set expectations with yourself.
After I banged out my first 15-20 orders my gig started to gain a ton of traction in fiverr search.
Consistently I was receiving messages from new interested purchasers, orders started coming in more regularly, and I was addicted to the feeling that fiverr was becoming a profitable side hustle.
Awesome, right?
Fiverr started to feel like a task. I was constantly on my telephone responding to individuals, or on my laptop completing requests as they came in. My personal life was taking a hit.
Deciding how much time to allocate to fiverr
Reflecting on why I originally got everything rolling with fiverr really assisted me with plotting my path forward.
Originally, I started with the goal of becoming a superior writer. However, presently I was starting to see the light at the finish of the passage, it was becoming a lucrative machine. Had my priorities changed?
Indeed.
Fiverr was becoming a super profitable side hustle, this was really great for me.
I was paying my mortgage several thousand words per week.
In any case, if I wanted to keep fiverr as a side hustle I expected to define limits. I decided to limit myself to 4 hours per week, when I did my earnings hopped.
My hourly earnings leaped to more than $200/Hour.
Optimizing My Work process Took Me Past $200/Hour
Making the decision to cap the amount of time spent each week on my fiverr side hustle changed the game.
Parkinson’s Law lets us know that work expands to fill the amount of time you have available to finish it
I didn’t realize this. Prior to capping my fiverr time I was working on projects at all times of the day. Projects that currently take me 10 minutes to finish would be open in Google docs for quite a long time. I was inefficient.
This is what happened after implementing my 4 hour per week time limit:
I started using fiverr quick messages to quickly answer normal purchaser questions.
I began tracking each request in a spreadsheet. Client type. Project type. Time to finish (in minutes). Earnings after charges. Hourly earnings rate.
Streamlined repeatable cycles. Research, preparation, work process, I outlined repeatable advances that I would use to finish each request quickly without sacrificing quality.
Created delivery templates. Templates for each service I advertised. They provided a professional look and feel for each delivery. When the duplicate was written I simply copied it and pasted it into the new template and it was ready to be delivered.
These small changes to my work process allowed me to finish more requests, quicker than expected. I started to make significantly more cash.
My hourly earnings bounced from $40-$60 to $150-$250 by month six and seven as a freelancer on fiverr.
It’s currently mid-May 2020. Since January I’ve been earning more than $3000 per month, and have not spent over 15 hours on fiverr undertakings during any of those months.
I think I’ve achieved a freelancing stream state.
Wash, Rinse, Repeat
It’s taken me 16 months to reach the place that I’m at now. It was a long excursion with a great deal of trial and blunder, un savoury clients, and a few really unpleasant times.
Be that as it may, it was all worth the effort. Fiverr has turned into a manageable constant in my life, it’s opened entryways for me, and provided me with an extra layer of financial flexibility.
I’m on track to earn about $40,000 from fiverr in 2020.
It’s been an awesome excursion.
Before I go, here are a few tips for other aspiring fiverr side hustlers:
It takes time. Try not to get discouraged!
Show restraint. A few purchasers might frustrate you with their ignorance. Show restraint, be useful, they’ll appreciate it.
Center around offering value. Invest energy looking for ways to offer more value to your clients versus simply speeding through projects. It’s a fine balance, yet it’s important.
Attempt things outside of your usual range of familiarity. Who knows, it may open new entryways for you!
Thanks for reading! Good health!
