It’s cool to hire child slaves contractors to do small stuff for you.
I wanted to dabbled with Fiverr a bit to see if it was worth using. So I hired 25 gigs, spent $302.75, and posted the results below:
Pet Portrait of Donnie The Dog ($15.75):
Purpose: Because Donnie is awesome.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/mashara/voy-a-dibujar-a-tu-perro
Instructions:
Hello! Would love to see a portrait of Donnie :)
Original Photo:
Final Result: Awwww Donnie!
Side Note: I thought the seller did a fantastic job with this drawing. It’s amazing how cheap you can get some of these gigs done for. This is quality work for only about 10 bucks.
2nd Pet Portrait of Donnie ($21):
Purpose: Seeing what kind of art talent we can scope out on Fiverr on the cheap.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/sanjicka/draw-portrait-of-your-pet–2
Instructions:
Hello! Would love to see what you can do with this (obviously photoshopped) version of Donnie!
The portrait doesn’t need to contain the text (unless you think it looks good).
Thank you!
Original picture: I had photoshopped this picture myself, but wanted to see what it’d look like in a portrait form.
Final Result: Best $21 spent ever.
3rd Pet Portrait of Donnie ($5.50):
Purpose: Can we pause here for a moment to acknowledge that I just wrote off $42.25 on my taxes to get a friends shih tzu dog painted. I love my job!
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/meow_bug/draw-portrait-of-your-pet-in-any-clothes
Instructions:
Hello! Can you please draw Donnie with a black tuxedo and black bow-tie. Thank you!
Original Picture:
Final Result: “The name is Donnie. JAMES Donnie.” Amazing drawing for only $5.50!!
Logo Video Drawing ($5.50):
Purpose: See if a cool logo video can be made for under 10 bucks.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/artrio/speed-color-or-speed-drawing-your-logo-text-graffiti
Instructions:
Hello! Could you please draw my KopywritingKourse logo. Thank you!!
Original Photo:
Final Result:
Logo Hand Drawing ($10.50):
Purpose: Check out some other video drawing gigs.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/vincentpineda/hand-draw-your-logo
Instructions:
Hello! Would love if you could hand-draw my KopywritingKourse.com logo (attached).
Original Photo:
Final Result: Very happy with the results, exactly what I wanted!
New Logo Design ($5.50):
Purpose: See what new logo concepts I can get from giving super-vague instructions. This gig comes with two logos.
Instructions:
Hello! I have a company called KopywritingKourse.com and we do copywriting for blogs and startups (writing articles).
Could you give us two different logo concepts? We’d love to see what you can come up with fresh!
Final Results: Seller sent back 3 logo ideas for the KopywritingKourse logos:
File #1.)
File #2.)
File #3.)
Side Note: I’m almost 100% certain these logos were created from previous templates, but I don’t care! The reason I like Fiverr is because you can give super vague instructions, and get back some great logo ideas. Sometimes I have no idea what I want, so I leave it up to the seller to figure it out. If you want logo ideas, I’d suggest buying 4 gigs, paying only a total of about $22 and getting multiple logo ideas from different people around the world. Totally worth it for $5.50!
Video of guy flipping with a sign ($5.50):
Purpose: Maybe use this somewhere on the KopywritingKourse sales page or somewhere else as a cheesy dad-joke.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/simonbeyond/do-a-side-flip-while-holding-your-sign
Instructions:
Hello, cool gig!
Can I please have the message say:
————————-
You’ll flip for the
KopywritingKourse!
————————-
So the first line will say: “You’ll flip for the”
Second line will be bigger text that says: “KopywritingKourse”
The 1st performer is fine. Thank you very much!
Final Result:
Make Me From The Movie Avatar ($15.75):
Purpose: Testing out some Photoshop talent to see how it turns out. I purposely picked a picture where I was facing at an angle which makes Photoshopping a face much harder.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/paintyourweb/make-you-a-beautiful-pandorian-profile-from-avatar-movie
Instructions:
Hello! Can you make my face all Avatar-y please….thank you!
Original Image:
Final Result: Lol….I love this! Came out awesome :-)
Website User Testing ($5.50):
Purpose: Test if my email signups are working effectively.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/peco/conduct-usability-testing-on-your-website-from-a-users-point-of-view
Instructions:
Hello Paul!
I would like to user test http://KopywritingKourse.com.
Sample scenario:
1.) Someone Googles the term “Consulting as a side job” and finds my site.
2.) They come to this page: https://copywritingcourse.com/consulting-as-a-side-job/
What is the likelihood they signup for the email list? Are they likely to browse the rest of the site?
Thank you!
Final Result: Came out really well! Was cool to watch someone else’s point of view browsing KopywritingKourse:
Side Note: This guy was pretty clever with his pricing. I was shocked by the high quality of his audio and video in the intro video…and when I ordered had a lot of attractive upgrade options (like SEO plans, competitor analysis etc), and also required you to answer many questions about your website like monthly traffic, marketing budget, biggest problems etc…..clearly the guy is funneling cheap gigs into much higher-paid gigs. Very smart.
Overall Website Usability Test From Top Guy On Fiverr ($47.25):
Purpose: I actually wanted to buy this gig because this guy had a DAMN GOOD offering. I thought his video was on point, his additional option upgrades were great, and I bet the dude earns a pretty good living from Fiverr alone. If you want to see how to make a profitable Fiverr gig, take a cue from this guy! Plus I just wanted to see how he viewed my webpage.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/twistedweb123/improve-your-website-with-10-tips
Instructions: He had a couple of questions to answer on purchase:
Your website URL:
https://copywritingcourse.com
Any particular area(s) you would like me to focus on? If not, I will provide the tips covering all areas about how to improve your website:
Would like all areas, but particularly interested in how “sticky” the webpage is to new users….and if they would want to signup for the email list.
To help me with my own records, if possible, could you tell me how you came across my gig?
Browsing Fiverr. FANTASTIC sales video!
Final Result:
PDF HE SENT: Kopy_Writing_Kourse_Improvements.pdf
“Kopywriter For Hire” with a cute puppy ($5.50):
Purpose: I wanted to use this picture in my becoming a copywriter post. I also used this picture in Facebook ads (and it converted pretty well)!
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/atelierm/picture-my-dog-holding-a-sign-for-you
Instructions:
Hello Feta & Human! Would prefer a closer-up photo on the yellow chair.
The sign should say: “Kopywriter for hire.”
You can use large text, center it, and split it into two lines such as:
————————
First line: Kopywriter
Second line: for hire
————————
Thank you! You look forward to seeing it! Neville Medhora
Final result (awwww):
Turn Me Into An Amish Person ($5.50):
Purpose: I wanted to get a picture of myself photoshopped into an Amish person for this Amish Hour post.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/milanguragain/add-custom-beard-and-mustache
Instructions:
Can you make me look Amish?
–Hat
–Beard
–Maybe glasses?
Such as these guys: [sent links to images found on Google Images of Amish men]
Thank you! Use your best judgement!
Original Photo:
Final Result:
Turn Neville Into The Joker ($5.50):
Purpose: Why so serious??
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/midj916/give-your-photo-a-joker-or-harley-quinn-makeover
Instructions:
Can you please make me in to the joker? The current background is fine. Thank you!!
Original Image:
Final Result: Actually turned out kinda cool!
Turn Joanna Into Harley Quinn ($5.50):
Purpose: Turn fellow copywriter Joanna into Harley Quinn.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/midj916/give-your-photo-a-joker-or-harley-quinn-makeover
Instructions:
Can you please turn my friend Jo into Harley Quinn. Thank you! The current background is fine.
Original Image:
Final Result: Kinda looks like a raccoon :)
Posted Request: Make a racist picture ($7.00):
Purpose: I couldn’t find a specific gig to “make someone look really Indian”….so I posted a Fiverr Request to make my friend Ramit look super stereotypical.
Gig: This was a request to the Fiverr community, not a specific gig.
Instructions:
As a joke I need to add a turban and mustache to a picture (pic.jpg attached).
Approximate turban style: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Sikh_wearing_turban.jpg
Approximate mustache style: http://previews.123rf.com/images/mediagram/mediagram1311/mediagram13110
Original Image:
Final Result:
Side Note: It seems my request got rejected by Fiverr. Perhaps making an Indian looks SUPER INDIAN was too offensive. I’m tickled by the fact there’s someone out there looking through really offensive requests all day, wish I could see them all! Well…..today I learned you can’t post racist gigs on Fiverr.
SEO Keyword Research ($5.50):
Purpose: Do search engine keyword research when someone is looking for plumbers in Austin.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/jeetuj/do-quality-keyword-research-to-find-top-words-to-rank
Instructions:
Hello! I would like research on the keyword like: Plumbers, plumbing repairs, plumbers in Austin.
Location: Austin.
Thank you!
Final Result: The seller got back to me with a big list of keywords in Excel format. Sent me 5 files:
Excel File #1.) Plumber-in-Austin.xlsx
Excel File #2.) Plumbers.xlsx
Excel File #3.) Plumbing.xlsx
Excel File #4.) Toilet-Repair.xlsx
Excel File #5.) Water-Repair.xlsx
Sample of file Plumber-in-Austin.xlsx:
Side Note: The seller essentially pulled keywords from the Google Keyword Planner or similar tool, downloaded them, and organized the file by Average Monthly Search Volume. For someone who isn’t very experienced in SEO, this probably isn’t super useful. However for $5.50 I got reports pulled for several different keywords. Not great, but not bad either. I can see this being very useful at scale (For example if you are a large content site like TheHustle.co and want 100 keywords researched for story ideas).
Get a spokeswoman to talk about copywriting ($10.50):
Purpose: For $10 bucks??? Wow.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/yourawesome/produce-quality-testimonial-videos-for-business
Instructions:
Hello! Here is the script:
Hey there, welcome to The Copywriting Course! We hope you stick around and browse the site for a while. If you wanna learn about copywriting, you’ve come to the right place. Poke around….read some articles….leave a comment or two….and start learning the tactics, formulas, and psychology behind the art of copywriting!
Side Note: This woman had one of the best-presented Fiverr gigs I’d ever seen (and also the highest number of reviews I’ve seen). There were add-on options for green screen filming, clothing options, location options (kitchen, living room, office), high definition options and more. I never thought someone on Fiverr could make a decent living doing this, but whoever this is must be bringing in a few thousand dollars on Fiverr per month and also getting some longer term clients out of it. Kudos.
Final Result:
Have Jesus Talk About KopywritingKourse ($5.50):
Purpose: Have Jesus talk about how awesome KopywritingKourse is.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/socalchrist/have-jesus-promote-your-business-from-heaven-via-hd-video
Instructions:
Hello, cool gig! Here’s the script:
Hey, it’s me…Jesus. After going through the KopywritingKourse website, I can honestly say it’s the best website I’ve ever been to. And I’ve seen like, EVERY WEBSITE EVER. I totally love reading it on my Heaven iPhone, and hope you enjoy reading it too! Jesus Out.
Looking forward to seeing it!
Final Result:
Side Note: I literally LOL’d when I first saw this gig. I love how Fiverr created a platform for people to sell stuff, and stuff like this comes out of it!
Writing A Blog Post About Copywriting ($5.50):
Purpose: I was just curious to see what kind of blog post you get for $5.00. I selected the bare-minimum on purpose to compare it with my own how to become a copywriter post. With a little more money paid to the vendor, you can probably get a pretty decent post actually!
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/ccmonstage/knock-your-socks-off-with-my-original-blog-writing
Instructions:
Write me a blog post on “How to become a copywriter.”
1.) Topic: Copywriting
2.) Keyword: “How to become a copywriter”
3.) Include Sources: Yes!
4.) Titles: Something like “How to become a copywriter” would be fine, but can spruce it up if you feel it’s necessary.
Thank you, looking forward to it! :-)
Final Result: (This was sent in a PDF file which I’ve reproduced here).
So, you want to be a Copywriter?
The copywriting industry has been a growing for decades, and there seems to be no end in sight. With the recent demand for SEO driven content, along with the number of personal blogs and websites all over the internet, copywriting is an industry that is going to continue to be in demand for years to come. So what exactly is copywriting? First, it is important not to confuse the word “copywrite” with the word “copyright”. A copyright is licensing that gives the holder the rights to an artistic work. A Copywriter, does not make or create copyright, a copywriter simply creates content. The word copy essentially means words. So what is it that a copywriter does? They write! Anything and everything, from fliers to brochures, to press and news releases, blogs, articles, advertisements, speeches, or anything else they might be hired to write. Being a copywriter allows you to create your own schedule, and allows you to work anywhere you can take a laptop too. That being said however, the journey to becoming a successful copywriter can be a long and difficult one. Before starting that journey consider the following:
What kind of copywriter do you want to become?
Do you want to be a freelance copywriter and work from home or your favorite coffee shop?
Yes, this sounds very nice, but keep in mind, working for yourself means you have to hustle to find your own clients each week, which can be difficult. Or do you work for a company? Getting hired by a copywriting company can be equally as difficult, and often requires an English degree of some kind.
What is the market like? Is there a demand?
Before taking the plunge into the copywriting world, first find out if there is a demand that you can meet. Do you write in a specific niche or have a specific expertise, such as gardening or real estate? Perhaps there is an untapped market for real estate copywriters that you can fill. The point is to do your research and find out where you might fit in.
Create realistic goals for yourself.
Don’t expect to be making $100 per article you write at the beginning… or (more likely) ever for that matter, Instead set achievable goals at the beginning, such as writing for a new client everyday for a week.
Is it time to brush up on your grammar and writing skills?
You may fancy yourself quite the writer, but, even you may need to brush up on some of the basics before you start your new career. Turning in work with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes will annoy your clients, and news will travel fast that you are unprofessional.
Are you active on social media?
If not, it might be time to start. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are excellent platforms to advertise your freelance copywriting services on. Plus you can network with other copywriters and stay in touch with past clients.
Copywriting is an exciting and competitive field to get into. There are numerous resources online to help you get started, make sure to utilize them. Besides that, there are two things you need to do to guarantee your eventual success, first, you must stay consistent, and second, keep putting pen to page. Don’t over think it, they are just words on a screen.
Side Note: While this article probably won’t blow anyone away…..I spent only $5.50 for it and got a 24 hour turnaround! I bet if I paid this guy more he’d write a pretty decent article. Very impressive. I was a liiittllee worried about plagiarism, so I did a quick plagiarism check and his copy came back 100% unique:
3D Model This Logo ($15.75):
Purpose: I wanted to 3D model my KopywritingKourse logo so I could print it on my 3D printer. I can’t do this myself, so I paid someone to help.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/designhubb/convert-your-logo-into-3d-model
Instructions:
Hello! Could you please model my KopywritingKourse.com logo (attached). Preferably delivered in .STL so I can 3D Print it on my MakerBot Replicator 2 :)
Thank you!
Original Image:
Final Result (1st draft): I requested the letters and pens be “raised” out of the base more.
Final Result (2nd draft):
Final Result Printed on a MakerBot Replicator 2 3D Printer in 29 minutes:
Side Note: I accidentally printed with a reel of flexible filament instead of solid PLA white plastic, so certain details printed kinda funky.
Write 4 jokes about copywriting ($10.50):
Purpose: Because we all know that copywriting jokes are the funniest jokes.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/nikkipal/write-you-five-jokes
Instructions:
I would like to see some jokes about copywriting. Copywriting being in the marketing sense, not the lawyer term. Would love to see what you come up with!
Final Result: The buyer delivered the jokes in a .jpeg format (not sure why not just text):
Side Note: Looking back at the gig, I realize this guy meant he would write Tweetable or pun-y jokes. If I were to view these as Tweets, I could (sorta) see how they’d be funny. Btw….after a solid 3 minutes of reading that “Yo mama so fat she’d need a 720 campaign” joke…..I actually LOL’d :-)
Do Market Research On The Copywriting Industry ($5.50):
Purpose: Get some intelligence on the copywriting industry.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/vishacon/do-market-research-online-research-for-1-hour
Instructions:
1 hour of research: Can you find out how much money companies in the United States (or world) spend on copywriting services?
I basically want some market research on the copywriting industry.
Final Result: I admit finding any hard research on the copywriting industry is hard, that’s why I chose the subject. And for only $5.50 I’d say this is a decent recap. I bet if I was looking for information about the oil industry or telecom industry, this report would’ve been much more thorough. Anyhow, I was impressed by the research for only a small sum of money!
PDF Report: copywriting_market_research_and_spending.pdf
Palm Reading with Markup and One Question ($15.75)
Purpose: Little known fact….in 2005 I got a Romanian web dev team to create an online palm reading business (Site now gone, but you can see the original flash website banner). Whilst I personally think palm reading is totally bogus, it was AMAZING how intensely people would listen to your advice if you sprinkled some “pseudo-science” in there.
For example: “See this how your Heart Line curves over your Life Line in the middle? That’s an indication your erratic personality will have a deep impact on one of your most important relationships. You need to seriously consider toning this down or losing your hard edge before you get married.”
See how the advice seems to be “backed up by science” like this? It was a fascinating.
The lady I got to do the palm readings (I’d have her record her voice as she looked at a persons scanned palm on the computer) was more like a therapist than a palm reader which is why I picked her (almost all of the rest were literally 110% full of crap and would do things like “spell removal” on people……of course for a fee $$$).
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/palmreader37/read-your-palm-in-detail
Instructions:
Hello Alexandra!
Age: 33
Question: Is there anything in my palm indicating I will be greatly successful?
Thank you very much, look forward to seeing the reading!
Right Palm Photo:
Final Result: The seller sent pack three files:
Palm File #1.) palm-highlighted-neville.jpg
Palm File #2.) Palmreader37_for_neville__specific_question.doc
Palm File #3.) Palmreader37_for_neville.doc
Do A Full Investigative Background Check ($47.25):
Purpose: You know all those sites online where you can do background checks on people? Some people have the unlimited monthly plans, and will pull a single report for you.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/triplej3372/conduct-a-basic-background-check-for-5-dollars
Instructions:
Name: Neville Medhora.
Locations: Austin, TX. and Houston, TX.
Type of check: Background check and Criminal History and Court Records.
Final Result: Originally I selected a plan that cost me $21, but the seller got back to me saying I needed to pay an extra $15 for what I wanted. Normally I would push back or cancel the order, but whilst outsourcing 25 other Fiverr gigs at the same time I decided to just pay the extra money to get it done with:
Side Note: For obvious reasons I’m not going to post the full background check here…..but the report definitely came back with a full background check, including every place I’ve lived (including all the random apartments in college), every place that’s issued me a W-2, any criminal background history, family names, neighbors names, every single vehicle I’ve ever owned (including my scooter……the report also contained all the additional options my current car has from the dealer!!), all corporate affiliations……..and one surprising section called “Impostors” that listed the names of people that’ve ever tried to use my social security number. I actually didn’t even know about this till now.
Damn. You can really scrape a lot of info about a person for pretty cheap.
Drawing a 3-Paneled Cartoon Strip ($15.75):
Purpose: Try to convey my message that “Copywriting is just transferring information from one brain to another.” I’ll probably use this in my What Is Copywriting post.
Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/mac10/draw-a-stick-figure-comic-for-you
Instructions:
Hello, love your drawings!
Could I get a 3-panel cartoon with your color style and stick figures.
Above the panel it should say: “Copywriting is about getting information from one brain to another.”
I drew a super-rough sketch of the idea….but please feel free to interpret it whichever way you see best!
Thank you!
Final Result: Turned out super cool! Kinda reminds me of the drawing style of The Oatmeal.
Design Professional Facebook Cover Photo Banner ($12):
Instructions:
Please send me a link to your existing Facebook Page or website.
Here is the facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/kopywritingkourse/
Our website is: https://copywritingcourse.com
Please provide a title ( this can be your business name) and a short description
Kopywriting Kourse
This is a copywriting blog for smart business owners who want to increase conversions on every single marketing piece they make.
Please send me your logo and/or images that you want me to use for the design of the social media covers (optional)
Create Programs Or Flyers For Your Event ($17):
Instructions:
Basic information is needed
– event name
– when
– where
– ideas of what desired product looks like
– any additional information needed for the program or poster
We are looking for flyers that can be printed on 8.5 x11 paper with white boarder.
-Social Media Week Austin (SMWATX)
-FEB. 20-22, 2019
– Robert B. Rowling Hall, The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business
300 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX 78701
Distribute Your Flyers, Cards, Stickers, Etc In Austin, Tx ($7):
Do A Vintage Badge Logo Or T Shirt Design ($17):
Thanks for The order . However, I will need more details, such as
1 BUSINESS NAME?
2 TAGLINE OR SLOGAN?
3 BUSINESS TYPE?
4 COLOR PREFRENCE
5 ANY YOU LIKE THE MOST?
1. Kopywriting Kourse
2.—
3. Learning copywriting
4. no
5. I like your oldschool gym and the black beard gym styles.
Closing thoughts:
This little experiment barely scratched the surface of all the things you can get outsourced on the cheap. You can get someone to design a circuit, do your calculus homework, get a producer to refine your music, get a professional guitarist to create a cool lick, get a professional hairstylist to advise your next hair look……ANYTHING!
What Fiverr seems bad for:
- Finding a dedicated designer or developer.
- Super high quality content creation in-a-box. It’s more individual-gig based.
- Getting someone you don’t know to access your email, websites etc….
What Fiverr seems to be really good for:
- Photoshop work.
- Basic blog outlines.
- Basic SEO guidance (they just pull reports from expensive software like Ahrefs or SEOmoz)
- Photoshopping/drawing cute pictures of pets.
- 3D modeling (was surprised by this one).
- Getting people to give “testimonials” (obviously fake).
- Getting a human/pet/cartoon model to hold up your logo.
- Prank call your friends.
- Copy editing.
- Basic data collection (like website scraping).
- Getting art made.
What’s cool is that instead of getting help from only people in your immediate friend network like in the past, is now you can get help from someone on any part of the planet…..for just a really small fee.
In the past: “I wish I had a friend that could help me with this calculus homework.”
Nowadays: “I’ll just pay some dude on Fiverr to help.”
For a relatively small price I got experts in their field from around the world to do work for me. Here’s the total breakdown:
Most of the gigs purchased I got all the work done for the base price of $5.50. Only on 3 gigs did I ever go over $20.
I’m definitely for sure going to keep using Fiverr for small jobs like Photoshopping, Kindle book editing, and funny pictures with dogs :-)
Holy moly that was a lot of examples!
Download this entire post to keep them all:
-Send to friends/family who think these tasks are hard, but can be solved with $5-
-Send to your boss to show them the value of outsourcing small tasks-
-Keep in your files for later reference-
Sincerely,
Neville Medhora – Blue Kopywriter
I really like the photos on all these gigs. Thanks Neville!
I use Fiverr alot buy have learned to do my homework on sellers first. If they are new to Fiverr I ask to see previous examples of their work. It’s fantabulous generally, I have framed one of the not so fabulous attempts at making my partner an Avatar as Walter White. It’s bad, in a totally different universe and galaxy, which made it more hilarious as a birthday present.
Great work! I need to check that market researcher out! :)
I think there are many more great things we can find on Fiverr :)
Hey Neville.
I laughed so much at Jesus. (there is also one where you can hire the devil).
DO you think it’s too much to get Fiver jesus to recommend my service and then place a “endorsed by jesus” on my website? I don’t want it to come off like I don’t take my service seriously but it will be hilarious.
P.S This is a serious question haha
Great post thank you. Do you know a gig to covert this to the booklet you show?
Neville, I think I’m early to the party. Just wanted to drop a line and mention James Donnie is clearly the winner!
So should I spend hundreds on your Kopywriting Kourse so I can end up doing $5 gigs on Fiverr – ;)
What is a good guideline for tipping? Being a retired career waitress/server, in the United States, I am often guilty of overtipping because I’ve been there done that. I don’t want to be that person that undertips, because I know how I feel about those people. I just used Fiverr for the first time and I want to make sure that I am taking care of the person who did a great job. With the costs of jobs being so low, I don’t want to take advantage of those providing a great service.
I think it’s like Uber……tips are appreciated, but not required.
They are in the first place TELLING YOU they will do a job for a set price, so you’re not taking advantage of them at all!
Also remember in countries like India something like $5.00 goes a much longer way.
I shared your post with my subscription forum, I was most impressed with the lady doing the 20-second commercial. Really enjoyed the post, appreciate you doing that.
Thanks very much for sharing it Joe, much appreciated :)
You had me at Jesus. LOL!
But seriously, somebody needs to do my LinkedIn. 0.0
Bahahahah…..hey I can’t control that Jesus totally recommends Kopywriting Kourse :-P
Child slaves hahahahaha. Too funny. Amazing what you got for $300. The spokesmodel was awesome, so was everything else come to think of it. Never used Fiverr but maybe I will now!
Oh yeah, I’ve used it for so much stuff. What I like is the tasks they advertise are SPECIFIC and you can see actual examples of their work before purchasing.
Good luck using it Jim!
Entertaining! Thoroughly researched! Thought provoking!
Thanks for the funny, interesting and creative post :)
Why thank you Evie! Your compliment sounds like a good movie poster :-P
Hi Neville.., loved the Jesus on fivver mate, had me lmao and thanks because of I do in my business, this guy is so perrrrrrfect to a new product line this Christmas lol, sorry, still laughing at the idea . Have a great day. Best wishes lee
Bahahaha yeah the Jesus guy would be AWESOME to do a video for a Christmas promotion, that would be hilarious :)
I have to be honest with you, while I can’t comment on some of the other things, but with the first 3 pet portraits, those are pretty poor once you know what can be done by a skilled and properly paid (i.e. paid More!!!!) portrait artist.
I mean for between $5 and $15 those are pretty dang good :)
You must have created great wealth to have $320 to just throw on fiverr and buy stuff! Really aspiring!
Neville – May I know how many years have you spent on this blog https://copywritingcourse.com and how much does it make?
Do you publish income reports?
He totally made a video on that, ‘how the hell do I make money?’ or something, you’ll find it if you search around somewheres :)
Bahahaha….you can see where my “Great Wealth” comes from here :-P
https://copywritingcourse.com/how-do-i-make-money/
Hello I am interested in your copy writing course how do I sign up?
You can join at https://copywritingcourse.com/join
Thanks for the great post! I’m considering using Fiverr to have an intake form created for my wordpress site. However, the person with the gig (lots of positive feedback for the person’s previous work) requires the sign in info for my site to create the form. Being new to Fiverr and feeling a bit cautious wondered what your thoughts are for doing something like that through Fiverr? Really appreciate any thoughts you might have!
wow, first of all you bought all these gigs and then wrote about your experience. A lot of time invested here. I have spent a ton of money on fiverr over the last few years doing various small projects. Did I overbuy because I think its cheap?? Maybe. There has to be some method to the madness afterall.
Great experiment and an awesome idea! I wish you would have come to me though I would have loved to be a part of this! I am an actress, if you need one: fiverr.com/swaydesign :)
Did you try social media design? The services I provide on Fiverr is graphic design and my best seller gig is about Facebook cover design (or Social cover design package). You can check it if you like: https://www.fiverr.com/pepita1/design-a-professional-facebook-cover-image-for-your-page
Thanks, Pepita
I did know a guy on Fiverr and I already bought thousand dollars on services with him.
This guy is very professional and your job overcomes all expectations.
I believe that exists many bad professionals on Fiverr, but exists some great professionals that use the Fiverr as a platform for their great talent and get more and more clients every day.
Here is the excellent professional, his name is Studio Domingos.
https://www.fiverr.com/studio_domingos
Hi, I was using Fiverr however, I moved to Lebanon and I can not open their website. Can you please advise me if there are similar sites that I can use.
thank you
Thanks for an awesome overview of Fiverr!
I have worked on Fiverr, but I can say that it overcome my expectations.
Most of the clients return to more projects and more jobs, or sometimes they to go for my personal website.
Currently, it overcomes the concept of the cheaper job, and most of my work are more than $50.
http://www.studiodomingos.com/
https://www.fiverr.com/studio_domingos
I can vectorise any image for 5 $ with all vector source file (.ai,.eps,.pdf,.cdr,.jpeg)
This is my link to the gig
https://www.fiverr.com/karthike5806/vectorise-any-logo-for-5-dollarsmoney-back-guarantee-if-not-satisfied?funnel=8989cd3a-ce57-4297-8302-25b9e9830ca0
till now I was using upwork but these gigs seem good
I will surely look forward to getting this done there just for $5.
thanks for sharing, keep it up
So far I mainly was ordering SEO gigs, but I have to say I have mixed feelings.
Ales
http://flybilling.com/
I’m guessing he definitely got paid. That would explain his piss poor attitude toward anyone who disagrees with him. Obviously Nev has no concept of the value of brands. You don’t get valuable brand assets for $5. =o
I have used fiverr to outsource work and I always got the wrong order back. These are people in the middle east who obviously steal other professional work to display in their samples. What I got back was clip art that a high school student would do. I am a professional graphic designer and I know what professional work looks like. For 5 bucks is not bad to get some additional samples done just to show clients more variety. You have to see feverr like a supplement to the work you do. I guess you get what you pay for and I found that I was spending more time trying to explain a simple logo job then to do it my self. I rest assure that my professional career is not at stake here because customers will realize that a good quality logo requires time. Not $5 clip art. LOL
Holy awesome write-up! I’ve used fiverr a few times and was generally impressed simply because of the low cost. I may have to start dabbling again. Some of the work you received back was really impressive. I hope that Fiverr cuts you a check for this post!
I’ve always been interested in signing up for Fiverr or Freelancer myself to make additional income, I think after reading this that you really need to find a niche where few are competing *ahem—Jesus* in order to do well from the beginning. Simply trying to profit from writing seems to be an uphill, competitive battle.
Really nice article.
I hope it’s not just luck you’ve got with fiverr. I got my orders today and I hope that I get somethings as nice as what you had!!!
Thank you very much for sharing. I am getting ideas…
Loved it….
What am I missing about gigs costing more than $5? thanks!
I’m absolutely hiring Jesus
Hmm.. Pretty Nice Article. I’m gonna try using Fiverr now, Just Wanted to be sure i’d not be wasting resources.
Thumbs Up…
I tried Fiverr for the first time in the past week or so to get a logo put together. I provided the icon, and requested that the designer find fonts that will work with it. I only wanted a few versions in black and white. The instructions were fairly specific. The first seller, who offered to do it for $5, sent one useless logo in color. After cancelling that one, I found another seller, and offered $50 — same instructions, and a little more explicit just in case. Got back 4 logos, and only one included the icon I had sent. No additional choice of fonts. So I cancelled that one, and now my money is stuck at Fiverr. Seems to me you need ask for a singular thing to be done, not ask for creativity, and be pretty open to the results. I ended up putting the designs together myself. Maybe next time I’ll try Upwork instead. Have to admit, it’s nice to know you get what you pay for.
If you need graphic design work done professionally, please check out my portfolio and you won’t be going through this. I used fiverr to outsource some work when I was overwhelmed and found that I was spending more time trying to explain a simple job than doing it my self. Know that the work that was suppose to be done for those clients had to be redone by myself.
I have a profile on Fiverr and love working with people around the world.
Most of the time the work is done with great quality and budgets ranging above $ 50.
http://goo.gl/BTz973
Thank you!
You know I spent $15 on my logo for my new project and I was really happy with how it turned out.
Especially after being quoted $400 by a graphic designer who cited “getting my branding right” as the reason for the price but didn’t seem to know what real branding.
I’ll definitely be outsourcing more of my tasks there.
However, I think a key thing to remember is a lot of the people on fiverr dramatically underestimate their value so make sure you leave a tip :)
Designing a logo can take 2 – 50 for something that will fulfill the logo function which is getting people to like and trust you and how people perceive you as a company “Branding”.
So a few questions for you:
Are you sure it isn’t a stolen concept which you could face problems for later?
How do you feel about paying the person who is going to make a representation of your company 5 dollars an hour for their time? cool with that?
Why not use a site like upwork there’s a much better hit to miss ratio so you aren’t wasting your time. And you’re paying something more reasonable . I mean yes go get your pet as superman, but using that kind of stuff for professional stuff you’re looking down the path down to fail town and frankly probably just wasting your time.
We also used a lot of fiverr gigs until a lot of programers had problems editing extension for our website, and then the site was down couple of times… So thanks but no thanks…
Until…
It is bad until you find a good programer, usualy with few sold gigs, so he would try real hard to keep you around as a customer.
Hey Unior, like I said in the description of what Fiverr is NOT good for, it’s “Software developers or giving people the keys to your site.” You will probably have more luck with developers by going to a higher-priced and highly-skilled platform such as Upwork.com. Give that a try, I (and others) have had a lot of success with it!
Hey Neville, huge fan of your work. Not to pee on everyones $5 parade, but as a service provider I feel like fiver is really more damaging than good. The fact is when you’re paying someone $5 the incentive just isn’t there to put in the time needed to do quality work. It’s much higher to steal copyrighted material, use crap templates or just generally throw together something sucky. Now can you find a good deal sometimes? sure but I’d be really hesitant to use it for anything other than pet photos or spreadsheets of a dubious source. The old cliche of you get what you paid for comes to mind. What about paying service providers more than a slave wage for quality work? what a concept!
Oh, I really like this post. It amazes me how big difference 5$ can make. Personally, I love to buy magazines to cut photos from, then put them on my walls. This makes my house so much more vital.
Why thank you :)
$5 can still go a super long way if you use it correctly!
Hello Nev, thanks for your interesting post.
One of the tasks that I have found VERY difficult to get done on Fiverr is “manual niche blog commenting”. There are very few sellers offering such kind of service (or “pretending” to do that), but very few of them (I can count them on my hand’s fingers) are ACTUALLY doing manual and qualitative comments.
What do you think about that? Thank you, Nicola.
I think you can pretty easily get this done on Fiverr. Just search for “commenting” or something like that. You will have to find someone who will actually read a post then comment on it, not some mass-spam comments. HOWEVER, I’m not 100% sure why you want someone to comment for you? Hope you don’t plan on spamming people!
Hi Nev!
You just made me left one Joanna’s ebook to read the post and it worth it jaja
Tomorrow in Spain is the Father’s Day and I think he will love my little Rocky (a 33 kg retriever, little…) being draw and printed for him. You teach kopywriting and give me ideas for gifts, could you do something more? :D
I guess that something more could be that box. Think about it, you could have an Spanish accent testimonial from a guy from Cádiz (the best place in Spain by far :D).
And talking about Fiverr, I only have bought some linkbuilding stuff (not bad from 10$) and some girl photos for a landing page of a book. My friends told me that the girl was pretty and the conversion raised, not bad!
Have a nice day Nev!
PD: I sent you an email talking about the Kopywriting Kourse, answer me when you could please :D
Watch out for any offers for link building on Fiverr. I’m sure people actually do the work, but most people selling links for that cheap just link-farm it which won’t be good for your site in the long run!
Wow Neville, this has come at just the right time for me. I’m transitioning out of living in a Hare Krishna temple (long story) and am trying to figure out how to put my pre-ashram skills to good use. This post has opened my eyes to so many ideas, not just for short-term income but in how I can leverage Fiverr’s assets as I settle into a freelancing lifestyle. I’ve always thought of Fiverr as only jokey gigs and a mass of undifferentiated service offerings but you’ve schooled me differently. Thanks for that and for opening my eyes today. I’ve been stockpiling your emails for a while (no time to read them when following a schedule that includes waking up at 4:00 AM every day) and this is the first of those I’ve opened.
Interesting story…..I hope you can transition into freelance work. I think Fiverr is a decent place to START your freelancing career. It can act as your first source of low-paid gigs, and hopefully a percentage of those become higher paid.
It will also show you what talents you have since people rate your work. Best of luck Elle!
I use Fiverr for business stuff (data entry and boring shit like that).
The funniest thing I have got done was this video for my friend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45JO8ZGqPo0
Bahahha….that’s awesome. My favorite weird gig I saw was Fruit Man!!
https://www.fiverr.com/varun_karkhanis/say-whatever-you-want-with-my-fruitman-costume
I love Fiverr! I had my company logo, which has received many compliments, designed through Fiverr. However, sometimes it can be hit or miss. I tried to have another company logo designed through Fiverr and it was a complete miss. That’s OK though because it was only a few dollars, so no real money lost. What a great concept!
True…..some can be a miss, but the overall cost is so cheap it kind of doesn’t matter. For $22 total I can get 4 different people to try designing a new logo. Out of 4, usually one will be really amazing. And if not, at least you get 4 different concepts!
Fiverr is grossly underrated.
Extremely underrated! I was pretty shocked at the amount (and variety) of useful gigs on there whilst doing this experiment.
Brah, great post.
I’m shocked you didn’t use the fiverr affiliate program for this :O
I actually applied, and found out most of the gigs don’t qualify for the program, so I decided against it. But yes, I thought about it once every beta-reader of the article was super psyched to signup for Fiverr!
I’ve used Fiverr to get a few crochet beards for my friends. I think they were about $10 each. Great deal!
Oh wow…..so actually physical goods, that’s awesome! Never even thought of that.
I started using Fiverr to fill some gaps when transitioning to freelancing full time, but now I use it all the time for gigs! Most of them are of a more serious nature, but I’m seriously considering getting a few dog portraits after reading this!
Awesome! It’s amazing how much grunt-work you can outsource to Fiverr…….but yes, the dog pics are still the best :)
I haven’t used Fiverr, but I am definitely considering it now. Such interesting things you can find on there! I want a few drawings of my dog. :D
DEFINITELY get pictures of your dog :-)
I wanted to make my educational YouTube videos look more professional, so I had someone design a logo for me and (for a $10 add on) create an animated 12 second video intro with a 3D version of my logo set to music.
I was SUPER IMPRESSED, and it was a cheap way to make my videos look like they were made by a pro (instead of just a dude).
Oh nice! That’s definitely a damn-great purchase of less than $20 that you can use forever now!
Hey Nev
Pretty cool experiment, I used Fiverr since it began off and on, and for me it’s been
pretty off I just paid for the gigs and moved on.
Now the only one that really stands out for me is the one where I used celebrity impersonator
Schwarzenegger for a pitch to a dealership, it was something like hey this is me Arnold and I
want you to listen to my friend because he has something of great benefit to share with you.
I’m paraphrasing because I’m out of town and I don’t have access to it , anyway it had a hyperlink
no it was an 800 number and he wraps it up by saying something like “call him” did you call him
“call him now” in that typical funny accent it was actually pretty funny. It got your attention !
This is making me want to go pull it up when I get back home, anyway this was a fun post for me
and I’m sure for many.
All the best!
Neil baby ?
Hahaha….I’ll have to look up this Schwarzenegger impersonator, sounds funny!
Fiverr is pretty awesome. One of the most random things I’ve paid for on there was to have someone order pizza for me. Here’s the story… my girlfriend went home to visit her family in Japan and I planned a special Skype date. I paid a Japanese person to order a pizza and have it delivered to her home. We were on the call when the doorbell rang and a fully paid pizza showed up unexpectedly. Let’s just say her parents were impressed!
Oh wow that’s super cool! I know there’s a lot of gigs where people will place a phone call for you. At first I thought it was just for pranks, but then I realized for example there’s people in China who will call a Chinese manufacturer for you and speak in Mandarin for you. Lots of cool uses, thanks for sharing yours!
I have read every one of your emails/blogs for the last 4? years. This one was the best!!
Oh wow, that’s high praise Tom. Thank you so much!
Neville,
1. I love Donnie. Might there be a Donnie fan-club or does he have an instagram account?
2. Besides a GREAT example for experiments; this list seems extremely valuable and thanks for the insight:
“What Fiverr seems to be really good for:
Photoshop work.
Basic blog outlines.
Basic SEO guidance (they just pull reports from expensive software like Ahrefs or SEOmoz)
Photoshopping/drawing cute pictures of pets.
3D modeling (was surprised by this one).
Getting people to give “testimonials” (obviously fake).
Getting a human/pet/cartoon model to hold up your logo.
Prank call your friends.
Copy editing.
Basic data collection (like website scraping).
Getting art made.”
3. Also: not sure if others took note of the plagiarism checker? This is also VERY VALUABLE!!
Thank you. You always provide so much inspiration and value!!
ps. I noticed this, too: “I wanted to dabbled with Fiverr” made me wonder if Fiverr wrote this article?
There TOTALLY should be a Donnie fan club!
And yes, the plagiarism checker is pretty valuable if you’re getting things written by others. Takes just 10 seconds to run any copy through it to make sure someone isn’t just stealing content and passing it off as their own!
Great & entertaining post, I caught myself saying “No way!”, “Whaaaat for $5?” and “Holy shit!” several times while reading this. I guess this is how those audience members feel when Oprah gives gifts back to back lol…
I know a couple of friends who are really going to appreciate this post, so thank you Nev.
BAHAHAA, that’s what I was going for!
Hope your friends enjoy Kurt, glad you did too!
Best gigs on fiverr are the ahrefs and semrush monthly subscriptions for only $5!
I don’t know if you can get the whole subscription, but I know people will pull reports for you for $5!
I just hired someone to do a “smooth male announcer” voiceover for my podcast intro – about $35 after the “extras” like paying to add music and have it be allowed for commercial use. Haven’t gotten it back yet (your post was hilarious + super timely), but we’ll see how it goes…
I’m sure it’ll be good…….there’s some super high quality voice-over stuff on Fiverr, I’m always impressed by the quality!
Great article Neville, thanks. The only thing I am missing is your opinion about the critiques you received about your website. In what points you do agree or not and the reasons for that.
Hey Alex, I haven’t gone through every single point just yet….at some point I may. Didn’t want to turn the post into something about my own site, just wanted to focus it on the Fiverr gigs for now!
This is absolutely crazy what you can do on Fiverr! I’ve never used it but laughed throughout this article, haha. Thanks for the entertaining post! Something to keep in mind.
Hahaha….well at least you now have a modestly-priced tool at your disposal!
I used fiverr.com a lot for my own project. I had a guy do a logo for my book and business, and he delivered six.
A designer did the the cover of my book, or at least the outline was done, for 5.50 dollars. I am using the cover for my book, which I sold 11 copies of, to different libraries here in Denmark.
My picture as a drawing (liked it). A blog post (don’t recommend). A business card (ended up paying 15 dollars, but it’s really cool.
I had a guy do a SEO report for 10, and used it to get paid a whole lot more, after I changed the design, but kept the content. My customer was very pleased with the result.
I am only just beginning.
That’s awesome you’re using it to improve your own client’s work….great job Cap!
I’ve had great and bad experiences – but thankfully the bad one was so bad the guy refunded my money – I asked for some calls to action for Twitter and man they sucked bad. Interestingly this guy had all really high ratings but he was late with the project and sloppy in the extreme. On the flipside I’ve got an awesome designer for logos. I send him pix of what I like – colors and concepts and he designs to that. I also pay more than $5 for the gig because I always make sure I have original logo files in vector format (.ai or .eps) but it’s super worth it.
Yeah, Fiverr can be hit-or-miss at times….but for the price it’s hard to complain! In my experience most of the people with high ratings have come through for me on the gigs with very few exceptions. At least the guy refunded you, that was good :)
Hi there…
I enjoyed your effort you put in this entire experiment, if you wanted to sell this to me for small and funny things you usually pay a tons of money for.. you succeeded. Being based in Germany i would like to give it a try from here too and see what comes up.
I .love the fact that we can disconnect ourselves from these global players and get something done by someone who is willing to work for it honestly (in most cases I suppose), than giving jobs off to tem big ones for a lot more money…
Thanks for all that effort, and fun you bring across with your passion.
best greetings
Craig
Ps. Your rejected project making you more Indian.. the picture/link considering the mustache style isn’t working(you didn’t take the A.Hitlers Pic did you) then I wouldn’t be surprised that it was rejected ;-)
Thanks Craig, glad you enjoyed! There was actually a lot of time put into this experiment, so I appreciate the compliments :)
Love this article! Thanks for posting. I’ve used Fiverr to outsource graphics work (infographics and brochures) and didn’t have much luck. The brand standards/ details seem to get lost in translation. I’ve also used fiverr for market research, which has been a huge time saver. You just have to be very specific about what questions you are trying to answer.
Thanks Stacey! I agree, the more specific you are about what you need, the better the result. That’s always good advice when outsourcing a task.
I also like Fiverr i’m outsourcing design needs. It’s really simple to make business with it. What I do is I find local companies and sell them website for $300-$400 and my designer from Fiverr do same work for $100 ;
If you need company website or design you can hire him, great guy: https://www.fiverr.com/tipstricks3315/create-landing-page-or-sales-page
Good tip, thanks Daniel!
I had this idea to spend $500 on Fiverr over 5 days and try to build a site from scratch and get 5000 visitors to it using only Fiverr as my source for all the work (never got around to it :-(). I may still have to try it after reading your article.
I have had serval things done in the past on Fiverr (copywriting, blog posts, explainer videos, etc.). Some have been good and some have ended not so good. I am encouraged to try the service out more after reading this article.
One area that I haven’t used on Fiverr is the SEO services. Have you had any experience with it? Does it provide good SEO tactics or does it kill your site with bad backlinks (I’m guessing the ones with good reviews have to work)? These are the treacherous waters we play in while using service like Fiverr.
I would NOT use the SEO services because it seems like a bunch of shady backlinks. In the longrun, that can really hurt you. Only do legitimate white hat SEO. Shady stuff will always catch up with you.
The video promo was pretty interesting. Here’s another set she does:
http://www.absorbyourhealth.com/product/brain-booster-power-pack/
Who is she? I’m pretty sure she’d look better doing the video for my product than me! LOL
Well, you can hire her out right here!
https://www.fiverr.com/yourawesome/produce-quality-testimonial-videos-for-business
I love Fiverr and I recommend it to everybody. I’ve had a ton of stuff done on Fiverr. Facebook cover images, Logos, Answer My Question About Egypt, Voice-Overs, List of Domain Names With Estibot Values, Give Me Vehicle Registration Info Based On License Plate (the seller also offered a full background check for this one but I have not taken her up on that yet)… I always try to find what I need on Fiverr first. I’ve gotten some articles and blog posts done on Fiverr, as well, but I’ve found that I’m more satisfied with the writing quality I get for just a bit more on Upwork.
Great list of things to do on Fiverr Patrick! I agree though, for services like writing or any long-term design/dev work I will go to UpWork and pay more for higher quality.
I used Fiverr to have a fictional character I created designed, then to have a cover (with the character design) created and finally to have a 3d rendering of the cover made. I was quite satisfied and with the results of all three – the character design was the most expensive as I wanted to have the commercial rights. But I got all three for $75-$80 tops.
I passed on hiring a Fiverr edit my book – was too expensive for me and my book was only about 47 pages at that.
Dang…..that’s an amazing value for that kind of talented work! Great job Mike!
The usability gig and background check blew me away!
Well now you know something new :)
Hi Neville,
I’ve invested at least a thousand dollars in Fiverr over the years. Here are some of the fun things.
Besides the normal boring things I’ve had done on there.
1) have videos made for businesses for $5 and sold them for $100-200
2) same for logos, buy for $5 sell for $50 or more
I’ve used this buy low on fiverr and sell high method for numerous other things. They have no idea that it only cost me $5. That’s nice margin.
3) my boss had a white board explainer video made for over $10,000 from a high end video shop. I had one made on fiverr for $185. Everyone agreed that his was a little better they also agreed that my $185 video was ALMOST as good as this $10,000+ one. No one would dare tell him that though:-)
A couple of fun ones.
On the 10 year anniversary of a membership site I had. I found someone on fiverr to do an Elvis impersonation on audio congratulating my website for it’s 10 anniversary….I also had them put a fake message on the large electronic sign you see at Times Square congratulating the site. Everyone really got a kick hearing seeing and hearing these on my website!
I’m interested in using a “buy low on Fiverr and sell high method” on Craigslist and in Facebook sales groups.
Do you have any step-by-step advice for doing this as a simple, but lucrative and long-lasting business?
Dude, that is AWESOME you were able to make all those expensive things for so cheap :)
Very NevBox-Worthy share Ron! The Elvis thing sounds awesome also. Great idea arbitraging the work.
Thank you, thank you very much, Neville :-)
1. I have used Fiverr for marketing flyers, business cards and logo options. Pretty decent return on time/money, but like your article said, its not necessarily going to replace my main UX/UI designer.
2. Not to be a wiseguy, but there is a typo in your email:
Two luck commenters will be getting a free NevBox (worth $97/each) shipped to them anywhere in the world!
(I hope I’m one of the Luck commenters who gets a free NevBox!!)
-Chris
Fieldtrip Interactive
Bahahha, you have a close eye Chris :)
Interesting gigs you’ve chosen!
I used Fiverr to make two book cover designs and chose one to use for my eBook, audiobook, and print versions. The person I used was very helpful and made modifications as I needed them for each cover. I’m surprised to read that you haven’t done this!
I’ve also used Fiverr to help with some book marketing too!
Hi – Do you have any recommendations on sellers for the book cover and book marketing? I’m getting ready to launch my first book this year!
Stacey,
Congratulations on your upcoming book!
I used a seller named fiverrstar for covers for my eBook and then for my print version which was very different and much more complex. He came through quickly on those and my modifications. Take a look at the covers on Amazon!
Print version: http://amzn.to/1Mir6br
eBook version: http://amzn.to/1MONtYf
That’s awesome Amanda! Amazing that you can get a whole book cover done this cheap…it’s such a great value!
Yup, I agree with Amanda. I also use fiverrstar services. Now, I’ve become a regular customer, not just cover design, but also in other graphic design services, such as: flyers, brochures, PowerPoint, etc. Currently, my sales increased dramatically, it turns out the role of graphic design is very important :)
What a time-safer! Love your newsletter Nev. Not only do you provide interesting and valuable content, but you give me creative inspiration for my own copy as well. Always compelling and entertaining. Thanks!
Why thank you very much Jill! Hope I can keep pumping out great stuff for you :)
Awesome! Thanks for sharing the links to the gigs that you have purchased. I’ll definitely try to buy something from them and let you know the result :)
Nice John! Glad you found the article helpful.
I’ve used Fiverr only a couple of times. But one of those times was to create a new signature for myself. I was just bored and wanted something a bit more splashier. I think I was getting jelly watching tennis matches and they would sign the camera lense all cool after a win. The results. The woman sent me 3 different signatures based on my first, middle initial and last name. I wanted to include my middle initial because, well, it was my $5 dollars. Anyway, I ended up selecting my favorite and have been using it ever since. That was four years ago.
Nice! Just $5 for something you’ve used for 4 years….I’d say that’s a damn great value!
Since I’m working on my copywriting freelance business this will be ideal in the next few months to outsource all the research I need to be conducted for certain things. This will save hours off my time. Plus you’ve left links to good sellers on fiverr anyone who sees this knows exactly who to hire and get good quality work done for the price. Thank you Neville!
Awesome, glad I turned you onto Fiverr for basic tech help! A lot of things like formatting PDF’s and such can be completed with Fiverr.
Sorry folks. Fiver is just another content mill that devalues legitimate skills and services offering far better quality and value. Would never use if only on principle.
Paul, that’s a nonsense argument.
That’s like a ditch-digger who still uses a shovel complaining a guy with a big digger machine can dig a ditch cheaper and faster with him. Either stay with the times, or get left behind.
Maybe 10 years ago knowing basic Photoshop skills would fetch you a lot of money, but nowadays it’s so easy and common that unless you have further talents than others, this work is not considered high value anymore.
Also if your job is being replaced by people who can do it for only $5 a pop….then perhaps you need to get into a new line of work. Good luck Paul!
This response really made me chuckle…your quite witty Neville :)
This was amazing Nev! I’d heard of Fiverr but never thought you could actually get so much productive stuff done. Actually realized this is a great way to get some previous blog posts turned into fancy PDFs. Thanks for the tip!
Yup, whatever tasks you don’t like doing, hire it out on Fiverr!
Hi there, I agree with the rest that the Jesus video is pretty funny! Perhaps this will spark other ideas eg Superman giving you a review?
A company I used to work with ordered 2 testimonials from Fiverr but I won’t recommend them here. The women were dressed in tank tops and we were selling to a B2B audience!
One word of caution: the Fiverr reviewers you hire need to match your clients’ profile.
Bahahah that’s funny, you definitely need to find the right spokespeople to match your client profile. Fortunately there’s A LOT of people doing it. Different looks, different genders, different accents etc.
I have heard of fiver – but thanks to your experiments – I will now use it!!!!
No problem, glad you enjoyed and learned something Susan!
Really loved this experiment! Your article not only gave me a great outlook on how I can use Fiverr, it also gave me ideas on running my own experiments.
Loved the whole article, but my favorite part is good and bad ways to use Fiverr. I particularly liked you included this in your BAD ways: “Getting someone you don’t know to access your email, websites etc….”
Thank you!
Yup, so many things you can do with all these people willing to work for a great price!
I love this site. I have used it for press releases, logos, audio transcription and much more. It is a great place to get ideas for things you may not be an expert in. Plus for $5-$15 how can you go wrong.
I know! The price is so low it’s hard to pass up.
Um Nev… this just saved me $1,000 on projects.
Had NO idea ALL of this was avail. on Fiverr!!
Thanks!
Awesome! Glad it helped Brandon :)
This is true. The Fiverr is a great idea!
Please visit our job, I’m sure we can work together.
Thanks,
Daniel Domingos
http://www.studiodomingos.com/
https://www.fiverr.com/studio_domingos
Dude, stop telling people about all the awesome stuff on Fiverr! Yes, it’s one of the best tools for delivering amazing results with really small budgets. But it’s like really great hair color – you don’t want everyone to know about it! ;-)
Bahahha……I hope more people know about it, then I get to read better articles online :)
OK, this is definitely very cool. I’ve never used the site, but I’m going to take a look after I finish this comment! Very interested to learn just what a Nevbox is…
Take a look around and see if you can outsource some things you can’t do yourself!
I love fiverr
ive used it many times to design different business cards, ebook covers, ebook descriptions, edit pictures,
for $5 its hard to go wrong. Sometimes ill even buy 2 or 3 gigs for the same job and just use the one i like best.
thanks for the article
I do that too!
I do that also! It’s pretty cool to see 4 different interpretations of a design job by 4 different people….and only $22!
This post was so helpful. My favorite was the joker pic and the 2 videos about your site. I’ve used fiverr only once. To create my logo. It’s the one I use now. Not amazing but it was a start.
P.s: I’m intrigued to see if/how you’ll use the guy flipping. The quality of his sign is so low!
Thanks Fatima! I didn’t mind the quality of the flipping sign, because the guy had many other videos with the same quality, so I already knew what to expect. But the main point was to show people how many varied things you can get with Fiverr!
Some funny one’s, but the Jesus one had me laughing the hardest. I have to start using Fiverr more. Thanks for the post.
Yeah, Jesus was very gracious to take time out of saving the world to do this gig for $5.50 :-P
Off the back of a previous Nev article about using Fiverr, I spent 5 minutes creating a gig selling stupid joke tweets (I’ll create 10 joke tweets for $5) and forgot about it. I literally just chucked one line of text in the explanation, used some random photos to fill the image sections, and hit Send.
A couple of weeks later I got a gig! And this week I got a double order from the same customer! maybe I owe Nev some commission ;)
BAHAHAH….you’re officially a professional joke-writer :)
I had only ever considered Fiverr for cheap graphics work in the past. Didn’t really feel that I would get good value for any other gigs. Wow! you hjave opened my eyes – like you opened my brain to copy that works.
Glad your eyes have officially been opened Rod 8-)
well, some experience with fiverr
as Buyer:
1. sold my first domain ever on flippa for 187 USD within a week, using sales letter by flippageek which cost me 10 USD, i got 150 usd+ profit
2. do some great logo by kanishka (super recommend him), far better price than competition
3. make a cartoon of my portrait which turns about to be great by ardhika_16
4. fiverr deducted 10% as administration fee ( thats why 5 usd will actually cost you 5,5 usd, just like neville’s report above )
as buyer, i was very satisfied with most gigs i purchased
Experience as Seller (my seller name is zaleart) :
1. in the beginning i create the gig only for fun, however after few months i Generate 558 USD from fiverr
2. the gig is about me installing wordpress integrated with mythemeshop themes setting as demo package ( i am an extended member of MTS and ask directly to them for permission to create fiverr Gig, and MTS allowed it)
3. Bad thing happens, 2 or 3 times, the Gig Disabled by fiverr, their reason being the gig not pass their content editor review ( some kind of violation happens )
4. Lucky i saved the email with MTS permission and explain to fiverr customer support that i am not violating anything (i provide end product as a site, not giving away the raw theme or plugin file) , and the gig activated again (this happen 2 or 3 times )
5. the payment can be withdrawn with paypal or bank transfer, and no minimum for withdrawn any money (most of it i use to buy appsumo product LoL)
6. “buyer request Area” is great place to hunt for Project that Pays Great ( i got few 50+ usd project through here)
7. some limitation ( must wait for 14 days for the payment to available for cash out, 20% of the price will go to fiverr, meaning if you sell 100 USD project, you only get 80 USD and fiverr get 20 USD, quite a competition)
The summary as seller : quite a Decent way to make money, your profit, limit only to your creativity and skill, met new people, get amazing client, the downside, the Gig can be shut down anytime by fiverr, the cash out is 14 days which quite long, fiverr got 30% each time (20% from seller and 10% from buyer), communication outside fiverr is prohibited ( email, sms, skype, phone, etc )….but again, the Benefit far outweigh the downside so i am happy to be a fiverr seller ( a very nice experience )
Hope this comment win me a Neville Box, so that i can start my own copywriting Gig on Fiverr :) and when the times come, i am happy to share with the client about the copywriting of yours and direct them to you if they want to learn the copywriting themself….but, first i must be good at copywriting aren’t i?
by the way, one of your sentence that reach out to me, is the copywriting king (level 4), “if Jesus was looking
for a copywriter he’d hire me”, this sentence is amazing and somehow correlating with the Jesus Video above
still waiting appsumo deals for this one :) ( i missed it).
Thanks for the opportunity Neville.
Wow, looks like you definitely have a good amount of experience with this, thanks for sharing this very NevBox-Worthy post Zaleart!
Three jawdrops in a row: the usability analysis, the spokeswoman and the background check. And your point got incredible clear. It IS possible to outsource a truckload of work for the cheap. Thank you so very much, trying to grab a few more gigs here, I’ve just used fiver for a new logo before, in a $10 gig. Awesome!
Yup…..only a few were needed to prove the point, but I thought 25 was a nice number to SUPER KNOCK PEOPLE’S SOCKS OFF! Glad you got something out of this Joao!
Love your Jesus video! And oh my gosh, if you browse the funny & bizarre section, you can get someone to pretend to be Donald Trump and call whoever you want to wish her/him a happy birthday!!! Hilarious. Or you can have someone send you Japanese candy or name a star/buy land on the moon. Woah…
On a more serious note, I’m thinking of a couple things we could use Fiverr for for our business: Making sketches of our portraits and recording a custom intro/song for our YouTube channel…
Thanks for sharing your experiments, Neville!
P.S. Neville, what’s your phone number & birthday? For no particular reason at all… ;-)
Bhahha, the possibilities in the “Funny & Bizarre” section are hilarious!
I’m already planning on making funny videos with Fruit Man!
https://www.fiverr.com/varun_karkhanis/say-whatever-you-want-with-my-fruitman-costume
I’ve used Fiverr extensively for the last few years, and overall it has been a tremendous help. There are plenty of sub-par services that you’ll receive, but for the price it is well worth experimenting. You’ll find some folks that you want to work with regularly, and some whom you will cross off your list permanently. It’s like Upwork or Freelancer.com, but you can experiment/audition very inexpensively.
Very true. I tend to make sure I buy gigs only from people with a lot of high ratings, this method has given me a 95% success rate.
I am for sure going to get the hot gal and Jesus talk about my blog. Time to give my readers some woo. :D
Bahahah…..I’m sure people will be impressed that Jesus endorses your website :-P
I’ve never used Fiver, but I can honestly say that I never had any idea that I could get quality out of it until I saw your experiment here. I guess I’m from the ” you get what you pay for” mindset. Good on you! You gave me personal insights, too!
Well I’m glad you learned something new Eric :-)
If people already know how to do something really well (say photoshop you into Avatar), then doing it for $5 or $15/each isn’t that big a deal. So yes, you can get some really quality stuff made with Fiverr!
Had a cartoonist create a PowerPoint cartoon based on my description (geeky, I know). Black and white + color version = $50…my audience loved it :).
The end result looked like this: https://nutsandboltsspeedtraining.com/funny-powerpoint-cartoons/
Wow, those are actually really good!
Yes, I thought they were great too! The killer thing is artist only wanted $35…but since I knew there would be back and forth and I wanted them to be GREAT, not good…I told him I would give him $50.
Also, for anyone thinking of doing something similar…I made a competition out of making the best line for the comic…I had it made based on what i thought was going to be funny, scrubbed the words out, sent it around to my list for the best line and 68 people submit even better lines…a ton of fun.
Reading this review makes me more certain I’ll look for some gigs for a website I have in mind. It even made me think about selling my own, but I guess I’ll have to do some market research, or hire someone at Fiverr to do it for me.
Thanks for the experiment and best regards.
Glad you got something out of this Jose. I just wanted to show that for all the stuff you can’t do (or aren’t good at) there’s probably someone in the world willing to do i for $5 :-)
Thanks for showing us the actual results. Actually, I’m using Fiverr for the initial sketches of my children’s book series.
Well perfect, then you’re already a Fiverr pro!
Watching this review of Fiverr gigs was like unboxing little treasures and gave me lots of chuckles. What a great reminder of what can be outsourced for cheap. I had a guy photoshop my head on a the body of a pig- (as a pattern interrupt) suggesting one should make a pig of themselves using my bath & body products. The wackier the better to get attention in a crowded marketplace. Neville- this tech dummy would like to know how you create your hand-drawn images in your copy? They really spice things up.
Hahaha, it IS fun to go through them all huh? :-)
I use a tablet + pen + Photoshop to make all the drawings (something you can also outsource on Fiverr also)!
I love the pet portrait (I have 5 dogs and 1 cat)! I have used Fiverr before and even my team mates would use it as well. For $5, it turned out pretty decent (simple logo). I used to wonder how they are able to make a living with just $5 (minimum) per task and then I look at the number of projects they did (some had 3000 projects) and I wondered what in the world can I do for $5?!??! Thanks for sharing Nev the Blue Kopywriter
You have FIVE dogs?? Gimme one! A lot of people crank out many Fiverr gigs per day, and as you can see in the experiment, they don’t always only make $5.50….they can make a lot more with additional options.
Also if you live in a place like a village in Bangladesh, making $20/day can be a very good income.
This is awesome. Really shows the odds and ends of what you can get done with Fiverr!
I used Fiverr once for getting a guy to narrate a meditation script I wrote. Combined it with some free music and now I have my own meditation “app” and it only cost me $15!
Wow…..that’s a damn good return for only $15!
Excellent!!!! A great reminder to outsource basic task while I can be doing more productive stuff.
Thank you!
Oh for sure! Especially if it’s gonna take you a while….what’s $5 to get it outsourced?
Tried Fiver a couple times… sourcing the right people and having consistent delivery is a crapshoot but maybe worth exploring.
I tend to only got for people with a lot of high ratings, I’ve had about a 95% success rate with that!
I had no idea there was such a wide variety of things that could be done on Fiverr. I used it once to get a logo done, and was quite pleased with the result based on just a tagline that I supplied!
Yup……there’s more and more cool stuff everyday added. Even I was impressed by how much stuff you could do (I didn’t even scratch the surface with this experiment).
I find extremely useful an answer at https://copywritingcourse.com/wp-content/uploads/Kopy_Writing_Kourse_Improvements.pdf
Glad you liked that PDF, I found it really useful too!
Getting yourself drawn as a Simpsons character is a pretty cool one.
I’ve found it really useful for getting vectorised versions of logos/sketches done too.. Great site!
Hahhaa, that WOULD be a good one! Home Simpson is on my laptop cover :)
Also you’re right, Fiverr is great for vectorizing stuff. It’s just a chore to do, so why not outsource it for $5?
So I’m starting my own company and used Fiverr to create a logo. I’m basically paying to keep my excitement and enthusiasm going about getting my business off the ground. I cancelled my first gig and kept the second. I won’t ultimately be using it since I’m planning on using a different company name. One frustrating aspect was that I found that many sellers from foreign countries had difficulty with understanding/writing in English. Anyway, fun $5 spent to form opinions about my company in my startup phase and see things created. I googled “Fiverr code” and got $1 off.
Nice Julissa! However on a side note, I’d suggest not spending too much time “playing business” and getting a bunch of logos made. Maybe first validate your idea then worry about all that branding stuff later if your produce/service takes off.
What is the easiest way you would validate an idea for an eCommerce store? Personally Branded Item is the route I’m going if that helps. Love this post! Especially following all of the comments.
I loved this post! Even at 6am.
I recently had a few logos made for my amazon buisnesses and the guy got it right the first time around. I was totally impressed. The time he didn’t get it right was when I gave him creative direction.
Until this post I was skeptical on what value I could get out of Fivver contractors but now I’m totally on board. Thanks Neville, great post!
Thanks Corina! Fiverr kicks ass for those small logo-type design projects.
GET SOME SLEEP NOW!
I love fiverr, (almost as much as I’d love a Nevbox!) I’ve been using it since it first started and have spent way more than I should, the biggest lesson I learned was to stick with people with good feedback ratings.
I’ve only had 2 or 3 gigs that have disappointed which is a pretty good hit rate.. now off to get a voice over done for a VSL
Oh yeah…… only buy gigs with a lot of good reviews. And even if you get jilted on 2 gigs, it’s like $10 only!
Great list. I jumped to try couple of these right away.
Neville, you listed copy editing as one of the good things to do on fiver. Any trustworthy gigs specifically for this?
Cheers
I didn’t specifically do a copy editing service…..but if someone has a lot of great reviews and a lot of past clients, I think you have a really high chance of success with them!
i love fiverr. I’ve been following them since the day they launched. I had the pleasure to hear their founder Micha Kaufman in several meetups i’ve been attending. The new ECO system they created, provides a lot of people around the world a side income, it is a great source of inspiration to me.
I used the service in the past for some tedious research work. Get a list of relevant blogs and influence-rs in my nitch. great service!
Yeah I agree….it probably really does provide an amazing income for people in countries not on the right side of the foreign exchange.
For example if someone in Bangladesh can pull in $25/day from a small village, that’s pretty major money over there.
I’ve used Fiverr for various small projects like flyer design, resume critiques, and business card design.
It’s a great value and after reading this article, I’m going order a few more services.
Thanks for sharing, Neville.
Awesome Arthur! Use it more for those small things, it’s so cheap and helpful. Definitely a great value.
I had a few logos done for private labeling. I ended up not liking them. It’s great service but I think I wasted 15$
Hmmm…..sometimes if you give vague instructions the output might be alright. But considering you ony spent $15 to get logos made is not bad!!!
I spent over $1,500 on Fiverr. That’s a great website. I have a developer from Romania who always fixes little things I’d never be able to understand (HTML, PHP and things like that), I have a graphic designer who designs my portfolio banners at $2 each, I also used it to get some research done, some low quality writing in the old days… I did prank videos too! Weirdest thing was translating Katy Perry songs into Latin (“Puellam basiavi et mihi placuit…”) as I wanted to prove anything in Latin sounds smart (wrote an article in my Italian blog).
I received poor work sometimes, but I still think it’s worth the risk since it was just one or two times out of 10.
My biggest mistake was outsourcing an editing job and NOT checking the final result… I lost the client LOL my bad.
Oh nice Dan! You’re an experienced dude on there.
Of the 25 gigs I got done, they all came back pretty great. I think in the past I had one or two gigs that were “alright” quality….but for $5 you kinda get what you pay for.
I use Fiverr for really basic stuff. For more advanced things (like developers and designers) I’ll generally go to UpWork.com.
Thanks for sharing Dan!
Hi,
would be great if you can share the completed works done by Fiverr guys
I have never used fiverr to buy a gig but I do have some fairly random ones myself. The requests and offers can get pretty interesting. Some guy contacted me to see if I could send potatoes with messages in the post. How could I say no to that?
Bahahah! I wonder what the potatoes were for!?
Haha that Jesus video was amazing.
Jesus was a cool dude to work with :-P
LOL this is the best post about Fiverr ever!
Gonna be ordering some portraits of my dog today :)
Thank you Chris, it took a while! The dog portraits were my favorite too :-)
Dear Nev.
Your pic looks great! I liked it. Good job by the fivrr guy! :D
A good collection of ideas, I will surely look forward to get this done there just for $5.
Waqar
Thank you Waqar! Definitely use Fiverr next time you need some small design work done.
I find all graphic work I need I can find on Fiver. However I do not know, when should I accept higher offer than $5. Any hints?
Depends on how much you’re getting for 5 bucks. If it’s a small design job $5 might be enough…..if it has a lot of additional work (say mocking up a full sales page) then more than $5 is acceptable.
Actually there is many factors that might make a higher offers than 5$ acceptable.
For example:
– The seller history and feed back. (usually new sellers have the lowest offers. on the other hand experienced sellers who sold many Gigs with 5star feedback worth a higher offer)
– How many hour an average graphic worker would take to do the job. if it is a simple job like removing the background from a picture or so it would be fine offer at only 5$ as it wouldn’t take more than a hour or two to get it done. otherwise if the job needs a lot of labor it would be okay to offer more than 5$. )
Usually sellers decides the how much labor can be done for 5$. and they compare their gig with other sellers. so when you find most sellers offer the same amount of work for 5$ that is a good hint that it can’t be offered with more than 5$.
I love Fiverr for this kind of work.
Any thoughts on doing a “Digital agency” where you would just fulfill all work requests through Fiverr? That would be a great job for someone in high school or evenings/weekends while working a full time job?
True, you should find some good committed suppliers and work with them all the time. Coz there are some slackers around who will not deliver what they promise.
The background check seems to be a good one, you could sell that for at-least $200 to $2000 based on what problem you solve.
Hey Daniel! I’ve never thought of doing an agency based off Fiverr because generally the gigs are one-offs. If you are going to do a digital agency, you may as well hire a proper group of people. UpWork.com would be a better place to find longer-term and very experienced developers/designers.