Why I quit Fiverr

Welp, I touted Fiverr as one of the few freelancing sites I would suggest using in an earlier post ... mostly for its ease of use and "getting into the game."

I now retract that suggestion. 

Here's what I said originally:

"Fiverr is different [from oDesk and Elance]. It's more like a shopping site. You offer something for $5 (called a "gig") and people can buy it. For example, I have gigs for 500 words of editing, 50 words of copy writing, and some other fun things I've tried over time ... like providing feedback on online dating profiles. The best thing about this site is that the jobs come to you. No searching, no cover letters. The worst thing about this site, and this actually angers me, is that it takes 20%. So not only do you often end up working too hard for $5, but then you only get $4. Then you transfer it to PayPal and lose another small percentage. It should really be called Three-point-ninety-two-err. 

You might be wondering why I still use this site. Well, it's great to have tiny jobs that fill in the cracks. If I can ever drop a site because I'm just that busy, Fiverr will go first. I honestly think it's highway robbery for them to take 20%. I do pause my gigs pretty often when other work is keeping me busy (it's super-easy to do) ... but when I'm not, it's nice to have those little jobs."

For a little context, in about a year I've made $1000 on Fiverr overall, meaning I've made $200 for Fiverr. That's a lot in the context of these small gigs and most of it was within a few months. I had earned a Level 2 rating, which is a bigger deal than it sounds like. The only thing higher is Top Seller, which is decided by Fiverr staff on a one-by-one basis.

So first, I noticed a dramatic drop in my Fiverr jobs lately. No logical reason. I don't know what they changed and I didn't worry about it much because $3.92! Life goes on. I left my gigs up for what few small jobs might trickle in.

Recently I got one of those random and infrequent jobs, not for editing like I used to get DAILY, but through my gig for help with online dating profiles. The client wanted help with texting a girl. Yes, I know ... not exactly one of my typical clients, but I felt for him and I tried to help. He kept saying that Fiverr messages were not that convenient for real-time chatting, so multiple times I offered my Skype username. I know this is against Fiverr policy, so I said "S kype," which keeps the little warning from popping up.

I think because I did it like three times (he kept ignoring me), I got flagged. Notice I was not trying to make money outside of the site, but just do my job more easily. I got multiple emails saying my account was flagged. The next day I got emails that my Level 2 status had been removed, and then my Level 1. I had no activity on Fiverr during this time, just emails trickling in from them berating me for trying to use the best tool to do my work.

I also love that they try to say the policy is "to keep our community safe." Um, shenanigans ... it's because you don't want people skipping out on giving you your 20%. At least be honest about that.

Okay, despite all of that, it's Fiverr's prerogative to set its own policies and percentage takes. I know that. I chose to continue working with the company until now, and that's on me. I also think it might just be a bad place for freelancing, but perhaps not other things (like, oh, offering to sing a personalized Christmas carol in your underwear on video for $5). I'm just saying that going forward, here's a full list of reasons I will no longer user Fiverr:

• High percentage take (20% is well above industry norm and just ridiculous).
• Payment is slow. Most typically it takes two weeks to receive payment after a three-day period before order is considered "complete" (client can mark it complete sooner, but most don't bother), and then 11 days for payment to "clear." Enjoying floating my money, eh? Of course you then have to withdraw to PayPal, so if you want it in your BANK, that's another three business days.
• Being hard-nosed about not letting people chat outside of Fiverr. Until they have a fast and easy chat tool, that's not reasonable.
• Giving PayPal as the only reasonable option for withdrawing money, which then results in additional fees. Elance and oDesk charge their 10% or less fee and then send money directly to my bank for FREE.
• People can order gigs and you have no way of saying "No" without going through a cancelation process, which dings you. So Rando Brando can order my editing gig for $5 then ask me to write him 500 original words (minimum $25) and ... no easy way out.
• No way to cancel your account online. That's just ... annoying.

So, Fiverr, enjoy that $200 I made for you with little effort on your part, but the party is over. You know, that party in my wallet that you crashed and I didn't kick you out at first but now I am. That one. Buh-bye.