Is Fiverr legit? If it’s legit, then how does it work? Questions about websites’ legitimacy seem to be the order of the day right now—especially when that website is a place that involves buying and selling.
With the rate at which internet scammers keep increasing, it’s never a wrong thing to ask questions about how legitimate a website is before investing your time and money on it.
From my experience using Fiverr, I’ll share with you if Fiverr is a legitimate platform — a place to invest your time and efforts on freelance jobs; or money to hire freelancers.
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Fiverr is Legit and here’s why
Fiverr International Limited is a registered freelance company founded in 2010 by Shai Wininger and Micha Kaufman, and has its headquarters based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
After Fiverr was founded, it quickly gained recognition; majorly due to its user-friendly interface and uniqueness of its freelancing platform.
Currently, Fiverr is the most popular freelance website in the world (507) and in the United States (379) (according to Alexa).
A huge percentage of Fiverr’s visitors are from the United States — some buyers and some freelancers. So many Americans make a living off freelance sites either by getting freelancers to do hard jobs on the cheap or by becoming freelancers themselves.
According to a Forbes publication: three women, all from the United States, make 6 figures annually as sellers on Fiverr.
So if you had the question “how much can I make on Fiverr?” on your mind, I believe you must have a clue by now.
There’s no limit to how much you can make. As a freelancer, you don’t get paid salary. Your earnings is dependent on how much work you can put in.
I have used Fiverr myself to outsource for freelancer and completed freelance jobs myself. So, from my own testimony, it is a legit freelance marketplace for freelancers and sellers.
However, just like every other freelancer marketplace, there’s a need to be careful when hiring freelancers for jobs. There are pro freelancers and regular freelancers.
The pro freelancers are hand vetted and have undergone screening by the Fiverr team. Regular freelancers, on the other hand, don’t have any badge of endorsement from Fiverr. The only way you can tell how good they are is by the number of jobs they’ve completed and the number of positive reviews they have.
How does Fiverr work for freelancers?
Fiverr is an online marketplace for getting freelance jobs and hiring freelancers. Over the years, it has witnessed a massive increase in the number of users (buyers and sellers alike). And the number keeps increasing.
If you have decided to become a freelancer on Fiverr, here’s how it works:
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It is free
Unlike some marketplaces where you may need to subscribe to some pro account before you start selling, Fiverr is completely free to use and doesn’t cost any money to get started on. You can start selling the next minute after you create an account and a gig.
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20 % off Freelancers earnings
Although it is completely free to get started on Fiverr, they take a cut of 20% off your earnings (that’s 1/5). To some freelancers, that cut is, somewhat, outrageous. Notwithstanding, most freelancers feel totally satisfied with what they earn.
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$5 base and $995 cap
For a regular freelancer, the pricing of your Fiverr gig starts at $5 and can go up to as high as $995 with gig extras. You can choose to offer up to 3 gig packages: basic, standard and premium.
Recently, a new feature, called Fiverr Pro, was introduced. With a pro account, you can earn up to as high as $5000 dollars for a job done. Additionally, pro sellers get featured in the home page with a badge to differentiate them from regular sellers.
If you feel like you have what it takes to get a pro account, feel free to sign up with Fiverr as a pro seller so you can stand out from the crowd.
How long does it take to get your money ?
Upon the completion of an order, a freeze is placed on your revenues for 14 days in a bid to reduce scam and fraudulent transactions in the platform. After the expiration of the 14 days freeze, you can withdraw your earnings through your preferred withdrawal method.
For top-sellers, the wait period is only 7 days, you don’t have to wait for 14 days before withdrawing your funds.
How does fiverr pay you?
Fiverr pays its freelancers using basically three methods: Bank transfer, Fiverr Reveue Card and PayPal.
For people without PayPal accounts, Payoneer is your best payment alternative. Payoneer and Fiverr are partner companies, and the Payoneer MasterCard Serves as the Fiverr revenue card.
Fiverr and Payoneer are partner companies — so you can easily link your Payoneer account with Fiverr and get paid using Payoneer.
If you don’t have an account with Payoneer, follow my step-by-step Payoneer guide to do so.
How do you get Started on Fiverr?
Nowadays, getting freelance jobs on Fiverr is not so easy. There’s so much competition among freelancers for the same jobs. In my opinion, freelance jobs are not evenly distributed among freelance workers. Many new freelancers find it difficult to make even a single sale, whereas, some other freelancers get tons of orders and even embark on reselling.
As a result of all the above problems new freelancers face, I shared, in a previous publication, some secrets top sellers use in ranking their gigs. And in my gig creation guide, I also share how you can create amazing gigs that convert well.
Read: 10 smart tips to increase your gig sales on Fiverr.
Wrapping things up
Fiverr is indeed a legit freelance marketplace and a good place to make your first dollar online. However, you must be ready to face competition from other sellers.
Freelancing is not so easy anymore. The competition on freelance platforms have made so many freelancers price themselves down way too much.
However, you can make it easy for yourself. Do not overwork yourself; offer smart gigs that can be highly rewarding but less competitive.
Offering services in overcrowded or underpaid marketplaces can be frustrating. You will always find someone ready to go way, way lower than what you are offering.
Regardless of the limitations, freelancing can be a nice experience for anyone who is smart and intelligent.
There are several other freelance sites you can offer your services on. Some services are more rewarding if offered on other platforms.
Here, we share tips that help freelancers get the best out of themselves. You can connect with us on Facebook and YouTube to get access to our freelance tips faster than anyone else.
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