Are you a newbie content creator looking to get that elusive boost in marketing your blog? Are you any kind of creator/owner looking to outsource the actual content creation part to freelancers?
Well, you should look way further than just Fiverr.com.
In my experience as a creator looking to outsource work, I have never encountered a more wretched hive of incompetence than Fiverr.
Why? Well, read on.
Side note: While not all freelancers on Fiverr are a scam, I can assure you that there are a few.
Example 1: I approached a gig seller with the aim of increasing traffic to my website. He offered to drive traffic (about 10k users) from US and UK for $60 for 60 days.
A deal too good to be true. Being the noob that I was I took the bait.
I got what I paid for. 10k users from US and UK for 60 days. And that’s the thing about Fiverr. You get exactly what you ask for. But as it turns out, what you ask for isn’t exactly what you need.
Exactly 3 out of those 10k users resulted in a conversion. And by that I mean they signed up for my email list. There was no engagement whatsoever. The users spent a considerable amount of time on my website, but that was it. Once the 60 days got over things were back to normal.
Surely, my website was not that bad?
Example 2: I approached another gig provider to create video posts out of my blog posts. This seller had 4k positive reviews and nothing but praises in the review section.
Again, I got exactly what I asked for. I got two excellent videos out of the blog posts I had provided them with.
But then, it was too quick to be true. You see, their turnaround time was 5 hours. In my experience it takes much more time than that to create a good quality video.
A quick google revealed that they had used an online tool that any jackass with half a brain can use. That’s another $10 down the drain.
This was my own fault for not doing my research. I agree. But now you know better. Always search for services outside Fiverr where they will do the same thing for cheaper.
Example 3: I approached a gig provider with 3.5k positive reviews to write a children’s short story for me. I had high hopes for this one. The reviews seemed to be legit.
Well, they were legit. It’s just that she was not proficient enough to write a short story in the genre I wanted. What I got in return was a half-baked, poorly-researched story with several spelling errors. After asking her to rewrite the story 2 times, I just dropped her a one-start review and forgot the whole thing.
Example 4: My worst experience so far was when I tried to purchase backlinks to a website I owned.
Some reviews for the gig went so far as to tell, “Wow. Simply amazing! My DA just jumped 5 points!”
And what did I do? Well, being the desperate blogger that I am, I bought it.
Suffice to say that nowadays I spend my free time disavowing bad backlinks using monitorbacklinks.com. This was very frustrating.
How can such shoddy work ethic be rewarded with so many positive reviews? I did an experiment.
I signed up as a seller and DMed a new seller asking for a free review. Here’s what I got:
Just googling “buy fiverr reviews” throws up 38,80,000 results.
If you’re the truly shady kind you might even finagle yourself into the several Fiverr telegram groups where such review-exchanges are orchestrated.
So here I am to say that if you’re a new blogger or any kind of content creator, stay away from Fiverr.
The work is sub-par and not worth the money you spend. Granted, some gigs are too cheap but keep in mind they are cheap for a reason.
If, by some unexplainable stroke of luck you do manage to find a legit gig- provider on Fiverr, stick to them forever.
All the successful people on Fiverr that I know of have gone on to start their own agency due to the shady tactics employed by sellers on Fiverr.
Ethics is not the name of the game.
What was your experience using Fiverr? Leave a comment below!
My experience has been disheartening. I’m just now coming out of denial….after cancelling another gig and requesting a refund. Be careful with fiverr and definitely don’t fall for the reviews. I could tell a lot of the reviews were fake.