12 Fiverr Myths that new sellers should learn the truth about

If you are a new seller on Fiverr, chances are that you have heard many tips and tricks about how to rank your gig, how to increase impressions and clicks. If you struggle to get your first order or the impressions on your gigs are very low, then you might wonder why. Some of these seem obvious, but I've seen so many new sellers fall for this "quick and easy money" tips. Unfortunately, there are too many people giving bad advice to new sellers.

Tips (myths) for easy success on Fiverr

• Stay Online 24/7

• Instant responses and 100% response rate
• Gig rotation can be influenced
• Review exchange can boost your Fiverr gig performance
• Offering free work to get reviews
• Send as many buyers requests as possible (or react to the new buyer request matches)
• Promote your Fiverr gigs on Social Media
• Fiverr is easy and fast money
• Fiverr and Paypal have no fees
• Making money on Fiverr is passive income
• Anybody can be successful on Fiverr
• Success is based on luck

They will be debunked now, for good. 

That's why I wrote this guide for new sellers on Fiverr to clear out some of the myths that have spread around the internet about how you can rank your gig. So if you see any other Fiverr seller giving you one of these 12 tips, just post this gif and leave the chat. 😎

If you need a Fiverr discord server with experienced sellers, feel free to join the Fiverr Insiders community. https://disboard.org/server/1008862116205301841

Fiverr Myth #1 - Stay Online 24/7

Staying online 24/7 to boost your gig ranking performance is a myth and does not help at all. No single human can be online all the time, only bots and auto refreshers can. Fiverr might consider your account suspicious when it is online 24/7.

Additionally, if you are online, get a message but are not able to properly answer your client (because you actually sleep) it will make a much worse impression than answering when you are back online. 

When a client sees your gig and the gig is well made, with promising work samples and a well made and concise gig description, the client will be compelled to message you. Not because you are online, but because your work looks promising! 

What's more important than your online time is your answer rate and your average response time.

Fiverr Myth #2 - Instant responses and 100% response rate

Instant responses with a very low response rate increase gig traffic and ranking.

It is true that the response time matters. Remember you have 24 Hours to respond! After that it will negatively affect your response rate and this will in turn have a negative effect on your gig ranking & impressions. So keeping a 100% is possible and important for your gig ranking. But it is easy to do it yourself. There is no need for automatic responses that will automatically keep your response rate at 100%. Be careful about that response rate, because it can derank you if you already have a Fiverr Seller Level.

Being responsive and active is important to be successful on Fiverr. Even more important is how you respond. But what is key when getting a message in from someone in your Fiverr inbox that seems interested in your services? What clients actually want is an honest, concise answer of you will be the right choice. Show your client a solution strategy  and how you would tackle their problem. This will increase their confidence to make the right decision when hiring you. 

Fiverr Myth #3 - Gig rotation

Gig rotation was a thing on early Fiverr, but since the freelancing platform has seen a massive growth in new sellers and buyers, the simple rotation of gigs to the first places in search results is over. New sellers need to be way more thoughtful about their gig category and service niché when creating a new gig. Some categories are so overwhelmed with offers and are so competitive, that you will have a hard time starting out.
But, if you use correct keywords, preferably keywords that are not overused by other sellers, you have a good chance of landing your first orders and gaining a reputation as a good seller. Getting 5-star reviews will help boost your gig ranking and performance and increase your impression and click rate a lot. 

Fiverr gig rotation is a myth, but it's not 100% untrue. The search results have improved a lot since the early days of Fiverr and now they are tightly based on the buyers portfolio as well as the sellers skills.

The rotation is there, but it's minimal. There is randomness involved. It only switches around the gigs when the results show, but Fiverr will not randomly rotate gigs down and up the search results. The algorithm is much more advanced than that. 

Fiverr Myth #4 - Review exchange can boost your Fiverr gig performance

Review exchange is against Fiverr’s terms of service and will get you banned quickly. It is also very obvious. Fake reviews are also not worth it.

Reviews do not have the weight as they used to be, but reviews from Fiverr Select buyers, or repeating buyer reviews are something that can really boost your gigs ranking. 

Reviews that did not come from your amazing work and professional attitude will just result in your gig or account being banned. If anybody offers you a review exchange or suggests it to you, block them and move on. 

Fiverr Myth #5 - Offering free work can help you get started

A big no from me. This is very bad advice in my opinion! Offering free work will put you in a bad light. There is no reason that you should ever offer your work for free. People will reach out to you and you might get some exposure by offering free work, but in the end these people are only going to use you and won’t ever see you as a freelancer who they need to pay.

Stick to your prices, know your worth and the worth of your work. 

There is an exception to this rule. If you don't have the proper skills to offer services, then you should not trick any buyer into spending money on  you. Its okay to build your portfolio with projects from others. I still recommend you to find your own ideas for projects, these will help you learn much more than doing work for free. 

Fiverr Myth # 6 - Send as many buyers requests as possible

Sending all possible buyers requests is not worth your time and will not help you get sales and orders quicker. Only send buyers requests that you think you can actually provide a valuable offer for. Take the time and write a detailed solution strategy and why the client should hire you. Don't go overboard and write too much. Be concise and try to make a sale! Spamming those buyer requests won't help your gig performance or conversion at all.

Fiverr Myth #7 - Promote your Fiverr gigs on Social Media

It has been said before, but posting your gigs on your personal social media account wont help you at all. These people that you will reach through your promotion are not potential clients. Find out better ways to promote your Fiverr gigs and try to reach out directly to potential buyers. Read more about “How to promote your Fiverr gigs on Discord” in our upcoming guide. There you will learn how you can use Discord for promoting directly to your target audience and build a network of potential clients.

Fiverr Myth #8 - Fiverr is easy and fast money

Not at all. Fiverr is a highly competitive marketplace with low prices and very skilled freelancers offering their work. If you do not put in the time to create a gig that sticks out and follows all the rules of SEO, with good work samples, then you will have a very hard time on Fiverr. 

You need a skillset that people are willing to pay money for, otherwise it is unlikely that you will get easy and fast money, if any. 

Fiverr Myth #9 - Fiverr and Paypal have no fees

Fiverr does have a 20% fee for sellers. The fiverr fees are what they are and it's not a small amount of money. Additionally, the withdrawal on Fiverr can also include fees from Payoneer, the Fiverr Revenue Card or through PayPals currency conversion fees.

Luckily, you can keep track of your fiverr fees using the Fiverr Fees Calculator. Use it to determine your hourly rate after all the fees were calculated. 👍

Fiverr Myth #10 - Making money on Fiverr is passive income

Many people that post and comment about their Fiverr experience label their income as passive income. That is NOT the case! Fiverr orders have to be actively worked on, sometimes with unexpected challenges and more effort than you anticipated. Having a successful Fiverr profile, even for some easy side money / beermoney, Fiverr requires sellers to be active alot. You need to answer messages, respond properly to get orders, and update your gigs. Only the process of researching a category that you can create your gig in, writing optimized descriptions and titles can take a lot of work if done right.

Calling making money on Fiverr passive income is just plain wrong. But, it can be less stressful than a side job (as a student for example) because you can always decide yourself how much work you take on. So as a side hustle for easy money it can be a great opportunity, but it's never passive. Your Fiverr Seller profile always needs your attention, otherwise it will go downhill quickly.

Fiverr Myth #11 - Anybody can be successful on Fiverr

In a way that is true. It is true, because anybody can learn valuable skills these days. YouTube is full of free tutorials, you can find virtually any question answered through Google or DuckDuckGo. There are huge amounts of resources on any skill you like to learn. 

But, without a valuable skill that people are willing to pay real money for, you are never going to be successful on Fiverr. It's the hard truth, but if you are here to look for fast and easy money on Fiverr, I can tell you with certainty that you are on a path that is never gonna lead to success.

Fiverr Myth #12 - Success is based on luck

You cannot make it on Fiverr or as a Freelancer. Only lucky people or very smart people can be successful. You should just give up. 

But thats not the case. You can. Everyone can. If you want it hard enough. 😎

Pick a skill that you want to provide and LEARN AND MASTER IT. Put in the time and effort, ask other people who have those skills for feedback.

Improve, fail, improve, and repeat.

Until you finally have the skills that you need to be successful on Fiverr.

These skills can include programming, search engine optimization skills, advanced photo editing and many many more. The more difficult the skill is to learn, the better people will pay you for your work. That's the way it works in the business world and Fiverr is no exception.

So get started today. Stop wasting time. Learn the skills you need and improve them until you have the tools to be successful. 

Thanks for reading and good luck!