I know there are a lot of posts and videos where people explain why they quit a certain thing, this is actually my first one! It can seem clickbaity of course, but the reason I wanted to share is because I think my experiences highlight some of the issues with fiverr and other micro-gigging sites. And I know others have faced similar experiences.
Micro-gigging sites (such as fiverr and the now defunct fivesquids) have always had issues (just as all money-making platforms do). For a start, whatever payment is on offer for completed work, it will almost certainly not be the deserved amount!
Sure, from a buyer’s perspective its great when you have a limited budget and require some work. On the flip side, these platforms have made it harder for people to earn a fairer amount for their talent when they have had to price themselves lower to compete. But again, there is a flipside, and that is in the potential volume of work you could receive if you built a good name for yourself: people were and still are making good money through micro-gigging. Another thing that could happen is that people discover your work through one of these platforms and you then build up a good relationship, possibly even continue to work with them outside of the platform- going on to bigger and better-paying jobs with the client. So micro-gigging sites are a good platform to be discovered on.
I worked on fivesquid for many years on the side and made a couple of grand a year doing mostly short 500-word articles but at a high-volume rate. I also completed several large ebooks and one physical DIY book. The extra money helped, especially when the pandemic hit, and my other income streams were affected. It was not the best paying for a lot of hours of work, true but I enjoy writing so I was getting that out of it too. And it was a bit of focus during the lockdowns.
And in general, I didn’t have too many issues. fivesquid had received plenty of complaints that customer service wasn’t very good, but honestly for me, when I had a handful of issues with problematic buyers fivesquid stepped in and made the right call. After all, they could see interactions between buyer and seller and the work that I had delivered so it shouldn’t be too hard to see who was in the wrong. This may not have been everyone’s experience. And when they certainly did screwup (as in the main company players) and the website was closed all of a sudden, not letting everyone draw out their earnings and a lot of money was lost, I was lucky and at this point didn’t have any unclaimed money. But it was bad how things ended with fivesquid, that’s for sure. And that is another problem, there is always a risk the platform could go down and you might loose all of your contacts and the lines of business you built up. I got to work with some great people and its a shame I no longer have that contact and possible business with them.
After fivesquid went, I hadn’t been taking on writing jobs, focusing on my selling at The Stufforium. I eventually decided to join Fiverr in case I returned to freelance micro-jobs. I set up some work offers and it wasn’t long before I started to get requests, but it also wasn’t long before I got put off completely!
The first job I took on the buyer tried to claim I hadn’t completed work in the way they had asked-I had. I got fiverr customer service involved, but unlike with fivesquid, they didn’t want to intervene-you had to sort it out yourself. Long story short, this person got away with a free article that had taken me a good few hours to write and research, it was a couple of thousand words long.
Then I was getting similar vibes from other buyers that they were trying to get work out of me, and then find a made-up excuse to say so I wouldn’t be paid. One trend was claiming I had used AI to write an article which they didn’t want. This was something I had been concerned about happening the more I was reading about AI writing tools.
I did realise after a while you could see the feedback of the buyer, so checking their reviews from other sellers may filter out the problematic ones. But even still, the fact that this can so easily happen and fiverr won’t use common sense and help out where they can see an issue completely put me off.
Due to my personal lifestyle, health and commitments, I am looking for ways to earn more for less hours. I know many of us are! But my point is, I am moving away from writing a lot of words for a little payback and focusing on other options. However, I am still passionate about writing and see it as more of a hobby and an indirect money-maker, currently. For example, I have this blog, which I write generally in a more casual style, It is how I talk essentially in words (for better or worse!) I am working on a novel, which is a passion project so even if it doesn’t sell I am really enjoying working on it. But I am going to do my best to sell it as a product too. I have enjoyed writing for people and would like to still do that from time to time but it would be on a direct basis, without a micro-gigging website in the middle.
I am interested in where you stand on micro-gigging, particularly where writing jobs are concerned and also if you are up to any writing projects currently?
Until next time,, take care.
For my regular picks for making money activities see the thrityP facebook page:
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