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Tips for Using Fiverr

Things I Learned When Using Fiverr:
- The pricing model is a lot more attractive to people who live in countries where the average wage is lower than the West. Many people are not communicating in their first language, in fact, I’m pretty sure some of the guys I spoke to were using Google Translate. Use simple, well-constructed sentences and avoid idioms or non-literal sayings.

-Help your seller. However much they say they will spend an unlimited amount of time making things perfect for you, be realistic. If you’ve just spent $10 for a custom book cover it is not reasonable to ask for a dozen revisions. If you do want things done differently spend some of your own time investing in your product. As an example when I wasn’t happy with a font, I went and found a different one myself, made a photoshop mockup of the changes I wanted and then sent this and the font files straight to the seller. This way the seller was able to use their very limited time working on my file, not Googling for open-licenced fonts or trying to think of ways to interpret ‘I’m not happy, do it differently’.

-Be mindful of what the gig is. If they say they will draw you an image for $5 and they do, pay them and thank them. It was a huge learning experience for me in how to better communicate design briefs to people. Just simply from a moral point of view, I needed not to take out my failure to be clear, or my lack of research on the seller. Fiverr is a great place to learn how to commission work because it is possible to pick very small amounts of work up for a very low price, mistakes won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

-Remember how much you’re paying. If a service normally costs $X and you’re getting it for $X/10 there’s a reason for that. Maybe you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t want to deal with
customers full-time and offer a full service, maybe you’re dealing with a student or someone just starting out. Maybe they’re just not very good. I chose to go for a budget service and I carry the can for that, not the seller. To me it’s spread betting, I could pay a single person a lot of money and I might still get a rather mediocre result, it’s happened to me plenty of times. With Fiverr, I can spend less money trying out several people.

-Pick your services carefully. Some services are better suited to non-professionals working rapid gigs than others. Editing is hard – really hard. You’re talking weeks for a very skilled and knowledgeable person, collaborating with you, arguing with you. Lots of back and forth. Think you’ll get that delivered in 24 hours for $80? Think again. Having someone to read your book in the role of a normal consumer and write a short report on their impressions? Perfect. Ten please!

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Slartibartfast
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