Fiverr is honestly one of the best places right now where you can find Freelancers for any business that you want to run. While there are objectively better places that might have a more curated list of professionals that you could potentially go to and hire, nowhere else on the Internet right now has such a mix of Freelancers that range from newbies starting out to professionals offering premium services.
Best of all is that it comes at the tip of your fingers by using Fiverr’s search engine and perusing through the various subsections of their website. You don’t have to worry about posts linking to Freelancers being drowned out by newer posts like you would on Facebook, or Reddit, or wherever else you go to hire people.
However, this freedom does come at a cost. Like with anything business-related, there’s an upside to the platform, as well as a downside to it. When there are hundreds (if not outright thousands) of people – as opposed to a few dozen – that are competing for your time, attention, and money, you’re going to find more often than not someone who might not fit exactly into your business plans.
Worse of all, you might end up finding someone who can be more of a detriment, and a waste of resources and time, rather than not being a good fit. It’s all right to find someone who isn’t a good fit; it happens. However, there’s a problem when it comes to scammers who can actively harm your business with their untrustworthy tactics.
For now, though, let’s look at two major problems that a lot of Buyers have on Fiverr when they’re looking for the perfect candidate for their business needs. One that’s partly on the Buyer themselves, and one that is harmful and is entirely on the Seller: Poor service, and Scams.
Poor Service On Fiverr
Poor Services is the first thing I’ll discuss because honestly, it’s one of the most prevalent problems on the Fiverr platform.
Poor Services is defined as anything from poorly executed projects that utterly fail, to poor customer service from the Seller to anything else in between that makes the whole experience painful and unproductive.
While lackluster services ARE expected from newbies who start out because they don’t know the way that Freelancing work (and are thus getting their feet wet), a lot of the problems can be mitigated by the Buyer by understanding a few things that will help them find exactly what they’re looking for.
The first thing that Buyers need to be aware of is this simple idiom that works in almost every single business transaction: You get what you pay for.
In this instance, what I mean is that lower-priced services are often used by newer Freelancers as a way to draw in business to them. Their work is often subpar because they’re learning, and the prices reflect that. It’s a way for them to remain competitive in an often saturated market, and to get the necessary experience they need to improve.
However, oftentimes Buyers will have an unfair expectation of these Freelancers to perform at a level that they don’t have the experience for. This is a problem from both ends because it can cause a breakdown in communication between both Buyer and Seller, and leave both frustrated that they’re not getting what they want from the service transaction. The Buyer feeling they have an inferior project and a seller feeling like they’re unable to compete in the market – especially since early on Low Ratings can spell doom for their account.
So in this instance, what Buyers need to do is curb their expectations the lower the price is on a Sellers service because often those are from new Sellers, and should be used for smaller projects that you can withstand a small loss on if it doesn’t get you what you need.
Of course, this all supposes that the Freelancer in question is new. Sometimes, this isn’t the case, which leads me to the next thing that Buyers need to be aware of: The scammer.
How to Avoid Scammers
Unfortunately, because Fiverr is a successful platform, there are a host of scammers that take advantage of it. This, unfortunately, happens a lot of times, because catching these sorts of accounts and Sellers can sometimes be hard to do if they’re insidious and fly under the radar.
Luckily for Buyers, by being diligent, you can spot them fairly easily. Let’s take a quick look at two of the most popular forms of scams that are known to happen on Fiverr right now, and how you can protect yourself from them.
How to Spot Fake Reviews On Fiverr
Fake Reviews are fairly often easy to spot. Oftentimes, Scammers will purchase a review off of the Fiverr platform, and often have people buy their cheapest service. These reviews typically have a mass of 5-star reviews all in the span of a few days – weeks, and typically are from either one Buyer, or from a lot of accounts that just have one or two generic responses. IMHO Reviews did a detailed review about it.
For Buyers, the best way to see if an account is authentic is to look at the reviews and see what they say about the SERVICE, rather than about the SELLER, because Buyers are interested in the services they’re getting.
Always Check For Quality To avoid Plagiarism
Plagiarism is harder to spot and is extremely insidious because this form of scamming can actually harm your business and make you legally vulnerable should you use plagiarized works. A lot of scammers tend to hide their plagiarism by simply editing, and re-writing works or other projects using simpler key phrases or using synonyms over common words or nouns so as to trick most plagiarism detecting software on the market now.
Really, for Buyers, the only real way to be vigilant against this form of scam is to just be observant. Always, ALWAYS, ask for samples of their writing, and previous projects, and observe how they write or do their projects. If what they’ve written or planned out sounds like gibberish, or if they’re using synonyms that don’t ‘match’ to the text that’s written or looks like they’ve been abused by a thesaurus? Possible scam.
Always Go With Your Gut Feeling on These Things.
Fiverr is a big market. So remember to keep your expectations mild, and to be objective and vigilant to avoid working with Sellers that are looking to take advantage of you. In the Freelance business, Freelancers and Clients have to work together to create the perfect working relationship that gives each exactly what they need. These small tips should help you in almost 90% of all your interactions.
