What would you do for $5? Or what would you pay somebody $5 to do for you? Fiverr.com connects people who will carry out a task or service for people willing to pay 5 bucks. The price is non-negotiable and the service, called a gig, could be absolutely anything, and there are some strange sales pitches on there. It’s a great idea and $5 is a fantastic set amount. It isn’t too much for people willing to shell out on something that doesn’t matter, and at the same time it still encourages people to take part selling. All communication is semi-anonymously done through Fiverr. Payments are made through Paypal and Fiverr will take a $1 cut, giving the seller $4 for each completed sale. Sellers must have accrued over $40 (10 sales) before withdrawing their funds but that’s just about all the rules. So what takes place?
Buying & Selling On Fiverr
Every seller completes the blank in this sentence – “I will [blank] for $5″, fills in a small description of the gig and a turn-around time in number of days. Three random gigs on the homepage as I write are “I will send you a golf tee with your name engraved on it for $5″, “I will analyze 5 individual pages from your website and do SEO report for $5″ and “I will answer any philosophical question for $5″. The gigs are categorised for browsing pleasure, the most popular gigs are small IT tasks such as graphic design, writing etc but there are many off-line quests as well, see “Silly Stuff” and “Gift Ideas” categories. The strangest I have seen is “I will send you 7 hours, 53 minutes of vacuum cleaner sounds for $5″. Each gig has feedback from other buyers who have used a service so it is easy to find the popular providers. Sometimes you find pointless gigs such as somebody finding a tutorial, I think people are aware of search engines if they are willing to try Fiverr but you can’t blame somebody for trying to make a quick few bucks. Some gigs are inventive and you can see the potential in such tasks as “I will send a postcard with anything written on from Seattle for $5″, or “I will break up with your Girlfriend for you for $5″. After clicking “Buy”, the seller must accept the gig, communicate with the buyer and finalise details, process the gig and report back when the job is done. The buyer can then leave feedback.
Outsourcing on Fiverr
So what if you need something done? On the right of the homepage you can suggest a gig and somebody may get back to you. If you like them you can go ahead with the sale. Again, those looking for workers are mainly people in the web-media field looking for help or somebody to do something mundane (like write a blog post!).
My Experience
I usually do my own graphics but for one new site I am working on I had come to a mental brick wall with designing a logo. I decided to try one of the logo designers on Fiverr that had good feedback and so spent the $5, which equates to about GBP3.40, and thought ah what the hell. Within minutes my seller had contacted me asking for colour and company name requirements, I promptly replied and after about 40 minutes from clicking “buy”, I had 6 logos in .jpg, .eps and .tif formats. I was really impressed with the entire service, Fiverr includes all communication and necessary file transfer systems so no email or personal contact details are exchanged. Despite my seller saying he would carry out revisions, I was unhappy with my logos but it didn’t matter, I was just trying out Fiverr as a whole and looking for inspiration. I would definitely recommend Fiverr to anybody, especially those looking for a small computer based task to be done.
Summary & Verdict
Apparently Fiverr considers itself in a Beta phase but as far as I can see everything looks in perfect working order. If it expands its features in some way and truly goes global it would be a remarkable service, although any possible gigs i can think of are already there. I tried “I will rate a picture of you out of 10″ just for a joke to see if it drummed up interest but to my surprise there were already several people trying that. I probably won’t try selling any services to make money but that’s because I don’t have the time, commitment nor any particular talent. I would definitely recommend to everyone to give Fiverr a try, if not a look at what is on offer.
I just join Fiverr some days ago, the website, service and communication are perfect, all is working fine. I didn’t buy anything yet but already received 3 orders in only 3 days for some of my gigs. Fiverr is a very good ressource for all people. <3
Miss WBS I removed the link for your site because it has malware. Thanks for your comment though. I like Fiverr and keep using it too!
you can also try http://tenbux.com :D
Tenbux? Sounds interesting but I get a blank screen when I visit. When will it be available?
there are others as well such as http://www.fiveones.com you can charge more than $5 thats what i use.
Have you tried http://www.gigme5.com ?? They charge less commission and have some new features, good for both buyers and sellers.
I just bought three gigs for logo design and got eight logos in total from the sellers. I was very impressed with what I got back. All were usable and one in particular I thought was spot on. I can’t believe what I got for just $15 total. Probably would have cost me hundreds of dollars if I had gone through a local designer. Highly recommended, but keep your expectations in check. Look at sellers that have lots of good reviews.
Yes good point, I keep using Fiverr for weird entertainment and must say looking at the feedback is important. Thanks for your comment.
Hey guys, Please check http://www.minitaskr.com site too. My the same gig in all sites. You can earn more money
I mean post the same gig in all sites like fiverr,gigme5 and so on. You can earn more money
I’ve been very fortunate as my fiverr took off pretty quick. After the second month, I contacted the admin and requested that I be “Featured” and was accepted. I now get 40 – 60 views per day and my Singing Telegram sales keep going up from my repeat customers. Fiverr fuels my Jeep. :)
I have been using fiverr for awhile now and I love it. You really have to think outside of the box when it comes to creating your gigs. It’s nice that it links up to paypal so easy. Check out my seo gigs on my profile http://www.fiverr.com/users/jcash12
I both offer gigs and buy services on Fiverr and although there are some things that I don’t like, my overall experience is good with them.
Fiverr.com SUCKSSSS They DELETED without notice all my positive feedback. Not worth it for the $4 they pay me.
I “outsource” to Fiverr for work-related stuff after I found a guy that was reliable. I needed help with web programming (Grrrr) and he fixed my issues so fast. Here’s my experience: http://bit.ly/fdTyw1
I can attest that Mark’s singing telegrams (found on Fiverr) really fill the bill. He did a Mother’s Day call to my mom, who was totally blown away.
Great article about Fiverr — glad to see it!
Fiverr is a good marketplace. Fiversworld.com is another good alternative for fiverr with 10% fees instead of 20% on fiverr and threshold start from $5 instead of $100.
Ik ben laatst ook een Nederlandse tegenhanger tegengekomen.
http://www.ask5.nl
Staan ook veel diensten op, en ik kan hier ook zonder creditcard betalen. Ideal is erin verwerkt, erg mooie website.
A person in Fiverr has copied my gig and then he copies my work and sells it as his. I alerted Fiverr about this and they did nothing. Be aware of theft in Fiverr.
How?
Here is his gig:
http://fiverr.com/users/natapak/gigs/write-10-positive-reviews-25-to-50-words-each-with-10-different-email-addresses?ref=glst-g-ttl
He has a history of copying and pasting reviews of others, hurting SEO instead of helping, because Google penalizes for copied content. The client caught him red handed where he just copied and pasted a dentist review from LA and pasted it for a dentist in Texas, without even removing the words: “best dentist in LA”, obviously hurting the Texas dentist in question.
Fiverr is stupid in many ways. For example they Decide randomly that your gigs might be similar to one another (even if not identical) an after months of you having the gigs they just randomly remove it. You don;t even notice this for days. Just morons.