five was designed to give users the ability to purchase digital services from a variety of world-class providers.
Founded in 2011, it has grown rapidly, with over 8,000,000 “gigs” purchased through the platform in 2015 alone.
While this may sound cool, the big question is whether you can make money from it as well.
To answer this, I’ve found it best to consider the general scope of the market, and where you can make some headway with it…
—
Having spent the last 5 months working with various people on the platform, the a What I have found that determines whether someone will be successful is how position your offer
For most people, and women are particularly bad at this, they’ll basically list what they can “do” with some examples of previous jobs.
Perhaps this works well for high-end photographers, but for everyone else, it’s a recipe for disaster.
People want to know how you are going to move their business/life forward, not what you are capable of.
For example, you may be a “world class surgeon”, but how does that translate to the type of treatment you can provide to patients? What is your specialty? What have you done before that other surgeons wouldn’t touch?
In the Western world, we have reached a time when social media has all but debunked the “faceless business” myth: people want to know who who they are dealing with and want the best services delivered directly to them.
To this end, when considering what you can do with the platform, there are a number of steps to take:
—
1. Lead with YOUR experience
The first BIG thing I found is to lead with your experience.
If you are inexperienced, just say you are eager to learn; the idea is that people use your services because they want to help you improve, etc.
Every time I have seen someone who has been successful on the platform, forever Lead with your expertise above all else.
The best platform providers are very specific with what they are offering, because they will always mold it around the experience they have developed in the “real world”.
A big mistake many different people make is simply trying to sell a service because they think it’s popular (SEO/WordPress design, etc.). AfDB way of doing things, and it will usually inhibit growth as it won’t give very good results.
While the initial rush to make money may be good, bad customer reviews will kill any aspirations you may have. therefore pay in the long run to focus on what you can actually do (not what you think people want to pay for).
2. Look at what you are selling
Some things will be more popular than others, although you shouldn’t “copy” other people’s work, it’s always healthy to see what’s popular and what’s not.
In terms of how to do this, there are two methods:
-
Look at Popular Accounts
-
Look at Popular Products/Services
The first method is to try to identify any popular “accounts” on the platform and “reverse engineer” how they have been so successful. This usually opens the door to look at the various popular “marketplaces” through which they’ve been selling their gigs:
-
Click Fiverr
-
At the top, select one of the “themes” from the navigation bar
-
Select a sub-topic (make sure both are quite popular (Digital Marketing > Social Media Marketing)
-
From the left menu, select “Tier Two” + “Top Rated” under the “Seller Rating” section
-
Also enter at least $100 in the “Price Range” section
-
Make sure the listings are sorted by “Best Selling” and start clicking on the ones that seem popular
-
If you find something that looks appealing to you, click on the seller’s “profile”.
-
This will give you an overview of your entire gig portfolio.
The second method is to search for any product/service that is generally popular. While you shouldn’t be generic in what you’re offering, you should be able to consider the “language” through which your audience may wish to communicate.
-
Click Fiverr
-
At the top, select one of the “topics” from the navigation bar that appeal to your experience
-
Select a subtopic that attracts more
-
Make sure the listings are sorted by “Best Selling”
-
Scroll down and look for the small number after the initial rating
-
For example, you can have 5 stars + “1k”
-
The “1k” represents the number of people who bought the concert and left a good review.
-
It directly denotes the popularity of the concert and therefore whether it is something to consider.
As mentioned, both methods should only be used to get a “landscape” – basic level research designed to give you more insights into what’s popular on the platform.
3. Create your own offers ON DEMAND
After doing the above, you should consider creating an “on demand” offer.
Demand is a loaded word; the key is that most people just want to know what you are going to do for them.
The problem is that most people will just try to tell you what they “do” or what they think you want to hear. this does not work
What works is having a system that allows you to “pitch” your services in such a way that people instantly understand the underlying benefits to your business.
For example, one of my Fiverr profiles specializes in computer repair.
Computer repair is not the most attractive or abundant market right now. Back in the ’90s, being a “PC repair” guy meant a lot of money… not in 2018.
So, to work out an “in demand” supply (because computers are still used, even more than in the 90s, just in different ways), you need to go with where the “demand” is:
-
WordPress repairs
-
Cloud VPS provisioning + management
-
fixed shopify
Now while these are fine, the BIG problem here is that there isn’t much demand for them. People don’t “want” to buy them.
that people want pay are the reasons “why” they are using the aforementioned software packages: traffic, growth + sales.
Therefore, you wrap whatever you’re doing in the “growth” package…
-
5 New WordPress Theme Tweaks to Increase Conversions by 20%
-
Increase traffic with new WordPress tweaks
-
Build a SAAS subscription business with Cloud VPS
-
Boost Shopify Sales With These 3 Theme Tweaks
There is obviously an art to this: if you can do it effectively, you can attract orders from a large number of buyers.
4. Understand what people are buying
Obviously people buying a repair/upgrade, but in essence, you have to appreciate that most people won’t be willing to send you money for mediocre service; they want exceptional.
Exceptional does not mean “quality”, it means “results”.
Therefore, when considering the process of working with clients (if you receive orders), you must do absolutely everything to boost your business / life.
As explained above, things like wrapping the offer in underlying results (for them), going the extra mile to help them understand what you’ve done, or simply doing more than expected: If you treat your customers with respect and energy, you start to get decent reviews.
These good reviews are what *should* perpetuate the growth of the service.
5. Make sure the “back-end” is handled correctly
If you want to break into the big leagues, the absolute key is to make sure your business can handle a higher number of orders.
While it can be nice to get 5 new orders, if you want to keep your momentum going, you need to think about how you’ll be handling 500+ orders.
To this end, one of the best things you can do is focus on how the “back end” of your business is run.
Things like Trustpilot integration, creating a YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter feed, etc. they are small things to keep customers in your “loop” (so you have the ability to continue providing your services “on demand” at a later date).
In the sales world, it’s known as a “funnel”: the deeper the customer goes, the more valuable it becomes.
Obviously, you need to respect everyone’s ideas, etc., but from a purely pragmatic perspective, you need to be able to consider how you’re going to continue to “recycle” the buyers that Fiverr brings in.
If you do this effectively, which can include everything from setting up a CRM system to integrating email marketing campaigns into your services, you’ll end up with exponential increases in sales.
How you handle this growth depends on your experience/temperament, but the bottom line is that business is available if you’re willing to focus on demand.
—
As I mentioned, I made $2500 in my first month with my friend on Fiverr, and have since worked various deals on two of my own profiles.
If you follow the steps above, you will be ahead of 98% of people who start on the platform.