Start Marketing On Fiverr: Three Basic Steps To A Winning Profile
You’ve probably heard of Fiverr. You know, that online marketplace that's becoming all the rage these days. It's where freelancers from all sorts of industries can connect with clients for specific projects.
Now you might think, "Fiverr? Isn't that where everything sells for $5? Now why in the world would I want to work for chump change?"
Well, yes and no. Fiverr started out that way but they've evolved since then. Five dollars is the minimum. You can actually charge up to $995 per project! And you get to keep 80% of each transaction (Fiverr still needs its commission, of course). The highest I've earned from one project is $100 and my average selling price is $39.
How does Fiverr work exactly?
Unlike other freelancing platforms, you don't necessarily have to submit proposals to get jobs. You post gigs.
Gigs are basically what you can do or what services you can offer. For example, my first gig was "I will ghostwrite your short story." I
f you want to write children's books, you can say "I will write a fun children's book for you." Something like that. Sounds pretty simple, right?
Basically, you don't go looking for clients. The clients come to you.
I want to start marketing myself. What do I do?
You can easily make money by providing writing services to others who need content created for them. This could be social media posts, short stories, or even full-fledged novels!
You’re good with words? Check.
You want to write as a side-hustle or as a full-time career? Check. Then let’s skip all the hoopla and cut to the chase.
1. Do some research (or a lot)
Before creating my profile, I did some scouting first. I went on fiverr.com and typed in “writing” on the service search bar. Simple as that.
Do you have magical resume-writing powers? Fluent in French? Can you write engaging blog posts? There’s a whole slew of writing jobs you could choose from.
So you’ve picked your holy grail (mine was creative writing). Now what?
Do a quick search. On the first page, you’ll see the highly-rated sellers. Choose a few that catches your eye and study their profiles and their gigs. How do they price their services? What’s included? Do they do revisions? How many words do they offer?
Now I’m not telling you to copy and paste. You know your own working style. If you write web content, can you churn out blogs and articles quickly? Do you prefer short-form content or long-form?
If you’re into creative fiction, what genres do you love to work on? Writing horror short stories will obviously not appeal to you if you hate blood and gore.
Take some time to think about it. Once you get the general idea of how you want to set up your own gig, then you can move on to step 2.
2. Create a killer profile (and an equally killer gig)
When I started out, my profile description read more like a boring resume you chuck in the trash. Looking back on it now, all I talked about was me, me, me. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but clients don’t really care about that.
Instead, talk about what you can do for your clients.
If you want to be a copywriter, talk about how you can increase sales for your clients through the compelling ads that you write. If you write for social media pages, say how you plan to make your client's brand stand out through a diverse combination of posts and high-performing content.
Once you have your photo and description set in place, you can now create your brand spanking first gig.
Again, be creative with your gig descriptions. Keep it short and sweet but let your personality shine through.
When I set up my first gig, I offered to ghostwrite short stories. $10 for 3,000 words. I know. That was insanely low, but I was new and had no idea what I was doing.
It's something a lot of newbie freelancers on Fiverr do: offer services for a low price to entice clients. Something like bait. Well, it worked for me.
Once I got orders and good reviews rolling in, I was able to increase my prices five-fold. Is that the end of it? Not at all. All the while, I kept tweaking my profile and my gig, adding in things that would make me stand out and throwing away those that don't. Fine tune your gig packages, add in extra services, level up your graphics.
It'll take some time but you'll just keep getting better and better.
3. Make your portfolio irresistible
A few weeks before I discovered Fiverr, I had just finished taking an online writing course where we were required to submit a 1000-word fiction short story of any genre we chose. For some reason, I chose to write about a girl who found a magic rock while crabbing (I know, it sounds weird). Surprisingly, the story was well-received by my classmates and I got an amazing score on the assignment.
So when I discovered Fiverr and created my ghostwriting gig, I decided to add that short story to my profile. Lo and behold, I had my first client within four days.
And thus I discovered the power of the portfolio.
Now this right here might be the most important step of them all. Your portfolio can make or break your fledgling writing career.
Author: by: Gema Ocampo
https://www.ghostwriterish.com
