Should You Do Fiverr in 2024? Not A Chance!

Two great ways to find new clients is to either work for someone else and “steal” their clients or to do a bit of freelance work to gain a following. At one point in time, Fiverr was a phenomenal place to find new clients. Of course they don’t want you to actually take work off the site, but plenty of people do it. This was over five years ago when Fiverr thrived. I revisited the gig working site to make sure I could still sing it’s praises, but what I will say to you is more of a warning.

I started posted gigs on Fiverr in 2014, about four years after it was founded. Most of my gigs dealt with entrepreneurship like business names, taglines, branding colors, etc. Back then, the process was simple enough. Sign up, add your PayPal account, complete your orders, and get paid in 14 days. The process now includes a few more steps like adding W-9 information, it took less than a day to process (make sure to get an EIN from the IRS so you don’t have to give them your SSN), and a few language tests to make sure you are as fluent as you say you are. Those two extra steps aren’t as much as a problem, but the platform essentially encourages a race to the bottom.

Back in the day, charging your worth was encouraged, and at one point I was making $500 weekly. For example, sellers offering business cards designs would simply let their customers choose between a variety of pre-made templates they’ve designed and then fill out information for $5 (it’s really $4 as Fiverr takes 20% of every order, even tips!). If customers wanted to get a unique design, they would create add-on options that reflected the service. Now, designers are drawing up original designs for the same low price. It’s clear that as the site became more popular, people from all corners of the world got a chance to compete in the marketplace. Five dollars can go far in some places but not in others.

Since the competition started heating up, it’s become a cyclical process of sellers purchasing gigs from cheaper sellers, so they can charge less without having to do any work. Pro Verified and Fiverr’s Choice profiles where they often charge their worth, often have zero orders in queue. There are a few success stories, but most are from people that got their start on the platform and moved on.

From my recent time on there my gigs only got impressions if I priced them at $5. Makes sense as most buyers are there for the rock-bottom price. The other point is that my gigs only got clicks and messages when I offered to do a day’s worth of work for $5. During my two months on the site, I didn’t make one sale. I went back to entrepreneurship category and realized I couldn’t compete. There were sellers with 7+ orders because they were giving a package of brands names, taglines, brand colors, mission statements, and much more for $10. Alexandra Watkins (the woman that’s sold names to big brands like Disney for commas) would be appalled. Surely those sellers are using internet generators to create names and taglines so if you’re into scheming it may work. I looked into other categories such as writing to see if there was traction there, but most are looking for 1000+ words for $5. Most places outside of Fiverr’s ecosystem charge $0.25 a word on average. Again, these people are using AI content or resting old works, there’s no way to produce that many orders on time and not have a shortcut in place.

Overall, if you’re one of those people that have shortcuts into how to do work then this is your place. Otherwise, the only categories that are worth it are the jobs that pay well outside of Fiverr like programming and marketing (bloggers and influencers thrive here). For those that have no skills and little experience, you will be placed in a race to the bottom. Choose wisely.