How to Make Money on Fiverr - 7 Tips From a Fiverr Pro

So you’ve spent weeks browsing the internet, scouring reddit, looking for the perfect way to make money online. You‘ve come across countless articles and YouTube videos about a site called fiverr. A freelance platform where people claim to make thousands of dollars per month, from the comfort of their own home, all while holding down a full-time job.

If you’ve decided that you want to try your hand at making money on fiverr, this blog post should help you get started down the fiverr path by providing some pro tips.

My name is Mike Nardi, I’m a fiverr pro-rated copywriter. I’ve spent the last 4 years selling my services as a copywriter on fiverr, mostly while still working a full-time job. Fiverr has been my side hustle for years, and recently became one of the income streams that has allowed me to become self-employed.

So, in this post I’m going to give you 7 tips for how to make money on fiverr, that should be helpful for you even if you’re a complete beginner.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that I will receive a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Also an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

1. Understand What You’re Getting Yourself Into

If the idea of making money online excites you, and you’ve decided you want to sell services on fiverr, you shouldn’t jump into it without first taking a minute to think about what that means for you.

Fiverr is a freelance marketplace, basically all that means is that it’s a place that facilitates the trade of services for money. You, as a freelancer, would be one of the people providing a service. And any of the millions of people and businesses that use fiverr to purchase services would be your potential clients that you‘d be selling to.

Selling on fiverr is no different than starting your own business, to make money on fiverr you are committing to deliver a professional service for someone. There are rules, expectations, and commitments you will need to make and stick to for it to be something that works out for you.

If you’ve never thought about starting a business before, of if the idea of starting a business doesn’t appeal to you at all, you should seriously consider whether starting a business that leverages fiverr to find clients is right for you.

2. Decide on What You Want to Specialize in and Stick With It

To be successful on fiverr you need to build a reputation of being someone who is really good at certain things. After all, to make money on fiverr, you need to be able to convince businesses that you are ready and capable to provide a service for them better than they would be able to do it themselves. Nobody is going to hire you if they don’t think you’re good at it.

This all starts with identifying what skillset you want to monetize on fiverr, and making sure you are proficient at that skillset.

If you’re coming from a career where you’ve learned skills that would work well on fiverr, you need to figure out what specific aspects of your learned job skills you want to bring to fiver, and hone in on those.

If you don’t really have much work experience, and have decided you want to offer services that you’re simply interested in but don’t yet know how to do then you need to learn those skills.

There are endless ways to this this. You can find a mentor, take a university or college course, get an entry level 9-5 job that will teach you how to do things, watch YouTube videos, or leverage some of the many online learning platforms currently available.

For most people who want to do things that are relatively straightforward to learn, YouTube is a fantastic option.

If not, I recommend leveraging sites like Skillshare or Coursera as affordable, high-quality, paid options.

3. Have Realistic Expectations

Speaking from personal experience here, fiverr can be a life changing tool. It can help you make more money than otherwise possible working a standard 9-5 job, and can even help open doors to new possibilities for how you make money in your life… Like it did for me!

While this is all very possible, when starting out, that should not be something that you’re expecting to happen right away. The reality is that it takes a lot of hard work, persistence, and time to get to that level.

Realize that it‘s going to be a lot of trial and error in the early days, you’re going to face a lot of rejection, and you likely will have some $0 months before you start making any money.

4. Be Client-Centric

Be client-centric, this might be a pretty new concept if you’ve never run a business before. But I’ll explain.

Here’s what it means, regardless of how much you care about using fiverr to make money for yourself, that won’t be possible unless you balance that with doing what‘s best for your clients as well. Clients hire freelancers to help them with their business, not to help put money in a freelancers pocket. Being client-centric means you have their priorities in mind and keep them top of mind during your interactions.

This helps you ensure you are doing high-quality work, aren’t rushing through projects, are treating people with respect, and ultimately building a business where you’ll have clients coming back and referring you to their friends.

Being client-centric is the only way you’ll find long-term success on fiverr.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Try a Different Approach

Let’s say you haven’t had much luck with a gig you created, or you are starting to get the feeling that you’re not charging enough, or you feel there might be something else you enjoy doing more than what you’re currently doing. Don’t be afraid to pivot and try a different approach.

Part of finding success on fiverr is finding your place on fiverr, and fiverr’s place in your life. We don’t know what we don’t know, and once you start trying to sell a specific type of service you’re going to learn a lot about that service and yourself.

Maybe it’s not or you, if it’s not, that’s ok!

Fiverr is a massive marketplace, with plenty of opportunity for you to go after. Don’t be afraid to try something new, or give up on something in exchange for something else, or raise your prices, or lower your prices. You need to find your sweet-spot, and you will only be able to if you give new things a try.

6. Don’t Go Overboard

Once you start seeing success with your fiverr business, it can become addictive.

Early on in my fiverr journey I had a couple of months where things were really starting to take off for me. This resulted in me obsessing over fiverr 24/7.

If I wasn’t working on a project I was thinking about how I could improve my fiverr gigs. If I wasn’t improving my fiverr gigs I was trying to think of new gigs I could offer for sale. If I wasn’t doing that I was trying to figure out the best way to market my gigs.

It really started to get out of hand, and started eating into my personal time with my loved ones.

As with anything, there’s always the possibility of overdoing fiverr. Try to carve out time during your day that‘s just meant for you, to decompress, or hang out with your partner.

It might sound unproductive if you’re in fiverr growth mode, but just trust me, it will help you in the long run!

7. Tell People About It

The #1 mistake I made early in my fiverr journey was keeping it a secret.

I don’t know why I was scared to tell people, but I felt like people wouldn’t take me seriously if I let them know that I picked up a side-hustle as a freelance writer.

It’s an irrational fear, and a fear that will prevent you from reaching potential customers.

How are your friends and family going to be able to refer you to a potential client if they don’t have a clue that you’re a freelancer?

Trust me, tell people early and often. Talk to other people doing what you’re doing. Show people what you’re working on. Offer to help others in the industry. Sharing is caring and will help you get noticed in the world.

It’s something I learned far too late in my fiverr journey.

There’s a great book that talks about the power of sharing called Show Your Work!. You should check it out if you need a little push in the right direction!

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Who am I?

Mike Nardi is a freelance copywriter, YouTube content creator, and blogger. I make videos about fiverr, freelancing, and making money online. Visit me at: YouTube, Twitter, Newsletter, VERO