Fiverr.com

[Debbi]

My daughter told me about fiverr.com where you can offer to sell a service for $5. Lots of artists, writers, and programmers there selling their wares. Others say they'll send you a postcard from San Francisco for $5; they'll score your song; they'll talk to your pet over the phone; they'll send you 5 pictures of their dachshunds, etc. Anything and everything is there for $5.

I've been trying to think of something clever but haven't come up with anything yet. Anyone have any ideas related to writing or anything else?

Debbi

[4rumid]

I had never heard of fiverr so I just took a look. One thing to note is as a seller you net $4, and payout is at $40. As for ideas, take a look at what sellers are offering under "writing" -- they're doing all sorts of things, like editing, writing poems, letters, and reviews, etc. It's tempting to post a service there, but the problem is to think of a writing gig for which $4 is enough. Some people are really underpricing, like offering to edit 25 pages for $5. Of course, we don't know how good their work is. Anyway, I'm going to keep thinking. There must be something that at least 10 people would be interested in . . .

[Debbi]

Yeah, I was trying to think of something that I did once and then just hit send on my emcail and whap! $4. Hmm, how about a serialized story? "I'll send you 500 words of my serialized advnture/fantasy/romance/whatever story for $5" Something I'm not going to work too hard at but that would capture people's interest and make them want the next segment? That could be fun! I've been wanting to write fiction (my natural instinct) but marketing is so hard....

[4rumid]

A serialized story -- what a clever idea! Trick is obviously to lure them in for the first installment . . .

I've put up a couple of "gigs" just to see what happens. It's still a new site, so I don't know how much traffic it's getting. But they give you a way to promote your gig on facebook, twitter, etc. I tried it on twitter and got a whole bunch of hits literally in seconds. I think that must be because some people have an automatic feed to new fiverr posts on twitter. Anyway, no one's shown interest yet, but here's hoping.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

What about writing cards or Thank you notes? Everyone HATES writing Thank you notes. LOL.

[BarryDavidson]

I went through a bunch of pages there, and I have to say it looks like one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Most of the "ads" I say thee were downright idiotic.

There might be some legitimate uses for that site, but I'd recommend waiting until the site owners put in some controls to shorten up those lists.

[nichewriter]

I checked out the site too and it's got the craziest ads I've seen, like one dude who says he'll be your boyfriend for a week -- and he'll email you every day and say all the sweet things you want to hear. Kind of hard to take a site seriously with offers like that

[Debbi]

I'm not sure it's supposed to be a seriuos site, more of a novelty shop of service offerings. I wish they would put how many purchases each offer recieves. As far as I can tell there's no way to see who is being taken up on their silly offers and who isn't.

There's some kind of filter (probably scripted), because my first offering was denied. It didn't give me a specific reason, just a list of possibles, but I think it was because I put a URL in there.

[4rumid]

Well, just got my first fiverr "client." I had practically forgotten about the whole thing since I wasn't getting any bites, but someone contacted me today. The gig wasn't writing or editing related, so not sure this news interests anyone here, but wanted to let you know that the site actually functions -- though I still have to wait to be paid.

I also forgot that payout is at $40, not $20! Meaning I need 9 more gigs to see any money. Fortunately, the gig I did took even less time than I thought it would, and it actually comes out to a reasonable rate time-wise. Which also means if I never get that $40, I haven't wasted all that much time.

Anyway, there it is. Fingers crossed for more incoming business . . .

[Debbi]

4, how can we see what your gig is? I haven't gotten around to putting anything up there yet.

[4rumid]

Debbi, I'm going to try to send you a note.

[Debbi]

Got it! Thanks

[mtipton]

I have been using fiverr for a while now and it has been pretty good. I use it to buy services and to sell services. When selling services, I found that as long as it is something you can do fast, it can be profitable.

However, I recently found another site that looks like it is just getting going called "For A $20" fora20.com. It does pretty much the same thing, but for $20 instead of $5. There commission is set at $3/bit, which is 15% instead of fiverr’s 20%.

They also call each service a “bit” instead of a “gig” but they generally mean the same thing.

I am probably going to start listing some services there to try it out.

Just thought I would give all of you a heads up.

Take care,

Mike T.

[AmyT]

I just tried to use fora20 and I think it is a scam... I can't even post a bit/gig/whatever. I re-wrote my listing twice and now I think I give up... the website looks cheap and the help section is non-existent. A nice idea, but I don't think it is worth your time, imo.

Hope that saves you all a bit of a headache -- just lost a good 45 min.

~Amy

[4rumid]

Thanks Amy. I took a look too, though I didn't try to post anything. It's nearly an exact copy of fiverr, and when I saw it, only had 3 gigs up. I couldn't really tell what to make of it. Maybe it's legit and just new, still ironing out the wrinkles, but I certainly wouldn't bother with it until it was really up and running (if that ever happens).