Fiverr is the best online marketplace for both sellers and buyers in the world and especially for sellers when they come from Africa.
Let me start by answering some questions so that I can break down the whole topic into small chunks which are easy to consume.
What is Fiverr?
It is an online marketplace, where sellers sell their services and goods in terms of gigs and they are bought by buyers.
How do I join Fiverr?
You will just log in to their website and create an account with them. Remember to follow all the procedures they will tell especially when editing your profile.
Creating an account with Fiverr is one of the simplest things because you do not have to do tests and to upload your school certificates and all those documents sites like Upwork requires from freelancers.
Creating an account is a procedure that will take 5 minutes of your time.
How do I start?
Now, after you have finished creating your account and setting your profile you will need to create your first gig.
A gig is a name of the service or services that you will offer to buyers in order to make money on the platform.
To publish a gig it has five stages, that are:
Overview: this is where you put your title, category and search tags
Pricing: So in pricing Fiverr gives the seller the authority to price their gigs. So you can have the cheapest service to the most expensive depending on the amount of time you are taking on working on the gig and the quality of the service you are providing.
Description and FAQ: this is where as a seller, you give a short story about your gig/service. What will you offer, and why should a potential buyer consider you considering there are thousands of sellers offering the same service. In short, you are supposed to sell yourself and to portray all your strengths in that particular area.
Requirements: This section you are supposed to state what you need from the buyer before you start the project. (For example, I always tell my buyers to give me clear instruction on what they need to be done)
Gallery: This is the visual part of your gig. You can either consider putting an image or a video. Though videos have the best response when it comes to selling. So if you can make a short video, describing to your buyers what you are offering, is the best.
Publish: This is the last part, you publish your gig so that it can be visible to the buyers and you share it with your social media friends.
How do I get my first order?
This where a headache is, I am going to give you six tips on how you will get your first order:
- Create a gig that has more traffic, or buyers want it more, for example, data entry and content creation. Those are two gigs that I am so sure you will get your first order within the first week.
- Stay logged-in on your Fiverr account for as many hours as you can. Buyers will see that you are online and they will definitely approach you to cross a deal with you.
- Apply for requests that buyers post under the Buyer Request section. You will find it when you click the selling option on your Fiverr top bar. Fiverr gives you 10 offers every day to try your luck.
- Approach sellers who have many orders in their queue and request to help them at a subsidized fee. Very many sellers welcome this idea, and it can be a great opportunity to create your brand.
- When you get your first order, do it well to receive a 5-star rating and finish on time. From there you will start to get orders on a daily basis because Fiverr will market your gigs, and especially the gig that is doing well.
- Bonus Point. Share your gigs on your social media accounts, especially Twitter, it helps your gig to have much traffic which boosts your sales.