Why Creating a Fiverr Side Hustle Isn’t Worth It
At least, it might not be for you.
The “side hustle craze” that has eclipsed the world only seems to have amplified during the pandemic.
Everybody is “on that grind”. Usually, that grind refers to going after some sort of side income in addition to one’s full-time work. This is a concept with incredible opportunity — depending on how you play it.
Depending on your goals, pouring your precious time after work into a freelance hustle might be an absolute waste of time.
The reason for this is simple: if your goal involves ditching your 9–5 somewhere down the line, you shouldn’t be replacing it with a shinier one that lets you work in your pajamas. Especially one with crappy upsides and can’t be put on the backburner as plan B.
To determine whether or not a Fiverr gig might be for you, let me ask you this:
What are your big-picture goals with your life and work?
As you answer this, let me know if they are any of the following:
- You want to quit your job and start your own business
- You want to be a full-time content creator
- You want to save up money and travel the world
If they are or are similar to any of the following, dedicating your time to running a Fiverr or doing similar freelance gigs might be the furthest from the thing you really should be doing.
Why?
Let me tell you.
Tearing Apart Fiverr (and the Gig Economy) to Show You the Truth
Ever had FOMO about offering gigs on Fiverr? Everyone’s doing it, after all.
According to Priceonomics, 96.3% of sellers on Fiverr make less than $500 or less per month, with the majority (70%) making less than $100. It’s estimated that only 1% of sellers are earning $2,000 or more per month.
(😮)
~$500/mo would be a great side income, but how well does it hold up when you think about trading your time for money?
Say you’re sporting a common gig like graphic design, coding, book editing, or writing music.
Even if your customer commissions a relatively simple piece, it’s not a stretch that creating it PLUS the customer asking for revisions will take you 2–3 hours. In the case of book editing, it might take you 2–3 hours just to read the book you then are going to critique.
Of course, I have no stats to back up my claim of 2–3 hours. But I don’t think it’s asinine to imagine coding a website or composing a jingle plus revisions will take you a bit of time.
This is in addition to the time it will take the customer to respond to your progress and give their opinion. Now imagine doing this process and over, to meet that ~$500 average (or the 70% majority average of making less than $100!).
You can compensate for this by upping your prices, but that might be enough to scare away any onlookers (ESPECIALLY if you’re new).
On top of this, it’s my experience that people come to Fiverr with the preconceived notion that they’re not necessarily commissioning professionals.
This limits earning potential and is backed up by the fact that anyone can make a store. Before you couldn’t even commission work for more than $5, which was their brand was based around.
Fiverr has attempted to remedy this “rag-tag” feel of the site by introducing Fiverr Pro. This is what it says on their website:
Fiverr Pro is a premium marketplace that connects some of the biggest brands and businesses with top, manually-vetted freelancers. Our Fiverr Pro sellers have worked with some of the most influential brands in the world! We handpick each Pro talent to ensure that all Pro sellers offer the highest level of quality and service to our business clients.
They then list some of the benefits of going Pro:
A highly professional environment, high-end business clients, and elite peers.
A hassle-free process, so you’ll get paid easily and on time, every time.
Assistance from our dedicated Success Managers to set up, navigate and make sure you will maximize the platform.
Hmm. A professional environment and peers, getting paid on time, and having managers…
Is it just me — or does applying to become a Fiverr Pro sound like applying to another full-time job?
And by the looks of it, you’re applying for a job close with close to zero salaries. Many people who apply to be Fiverr Pro from the get-go have no reviews, often tout prices in the $200–$600 range and see little orders.
This was best expressed by user “Dan” on Quora:
Put yourself in the buyers’ shoes. Would you rather buy from a “Pro” with 0 social proof and an exorbitant price or the established “non-Pro” seller with hundreds of positive reviews?
Most of the time, the Pro gigs too expensive and not necessary. When you have 1000 positive reviews in your non-Pro gig, people will trust you regardless of your badge.
Fiverr Pro didn’t scrub away the rag-tag feel permeating the platform, and likely never will.
Fiverr as a brand is only as professional as the freelancers on there. And the majority of them don’t have professional backgrounds in what they offer (and still do great work nonetheless).
So, to summarize:
- You’re not going to earn much as a regular seller, and
- Your professional background is not enough to set you apart.
What is there left for you?
Amazing support from the company?
Why Fiverr & The Gig Economy Is Not On The Seller’s Side
Here are some facts about Fiverr:
- Fiverr is highly competitive (~900,000 sellers)
- Fiverr takes a 20% cut of your earnings.
- Buyers have 100% privileges to completely neglect seller rights.
- Low earning potential (you can’t even price higher than $995 as a regular seller)
- Once an order is completed, the money takes 14 days to be cleared and available to you.
- A buyer can cancel and receive a refund after receiving the work.
- Pausing your gigs makes you fall in ranking placements. Ranking placements may not accurately reflect how your store is doing compared to other stores to begin with.
How appetizing! Are you still drooling over gig work?
Look, I won’t deny that Fiverr has given a lot of people the opportunity to earn money. It’s popular for a reason and is only growing.
But in my opinion, if your dreams don’t lie in freelancing — there are so many better ways to spend your time and the money to sustain yourself.
Freelancing can be useful for building a nest egg. Money is money, and you need money to build a runway for yourself.
A to-be startup founder might spend his day and nights working full-time, odd jobs and gigs on the weekends to save up to quit entirely and focus on building the new business.
This is certainly a strategy.
I’m just saying, unless you have something unique for yourself that will net you new, high-ticket clients frequently — building up a gig store only to abandon it when you’ve saved up enough to do what you’re really looking to do is such a waste of time.
You can “pause” your gigs, but your ranking placements slowly plummet until you’re almost right back to where you started in a way. You’ll have your reviews, but there’s no telling what abandoning your store will do to it in the long run. So you’ll be hard-pressed to keep it as an intact “plan B” should your plan A efforts fall apart.
Now that I’ve spent ample time tearing apart freelancing gig sites, what should you focus on instead?
If you want to quit your job and start a business, wouldn’t it be a great comfort to have unrelated money coming in every month without having to do much?
If you want to be a full-time content creator, wouldn’t it be great if you get to practice your skills while money comes in while you sleep?
If you want to travel the world, wouldn’t it be great if you could be moving from place to place and pack a steady stream of income inside your laptop?
That’s right — we’re going to tackle the elusive beast that is passive income.
Why Focusing on Passive Income Is Superior
There are two main reasons why passive income is superior to the gig economy:
- Takes insane amounts of effort in the beginning, but pays off exponentially.
- Can always be leveraged as a plan B.
Passive income requires more work upfront.
It requires you to work your butt off while seeing next to no results. The chance of going “viral” and your course being swept off the online shelves, your articles being read by thousands or your Facebook ads driving massive traffic to your dropshipping service is unlikely.
You’ll have to compensate for this by putting in excruciating, consistent effort.
After doing this for a year or two (or three), you’ve hopefully improved enough to start seeing the fruits of your labor. Whether it’s $500 or $5,000 extra rolling in each month, your creation has come alive. It’s awake at all times and works for you even when you’re not there to nurture it.
It’s a slog, and nothing is guaranteed — but if you know what you’re doing, you can maintain the income without pouring the same amount of hours into it and free up more time to build your dreams.
Wouldn’t you rather earn $500/month keeping up with one gig, rather than scramble all your time on Fiverr or Upwork or wherever to maybe get there?
Another upside to passive income streams is that with a little polish, they can always serve as your plan B.
If your passive income source is writing articles on Medium and you stopped posting completely, picking up the pace again will start bringing in views and pushing your library of articles again.
Picking up your gigs after a lapse won’t earn you any money for just being there — you’ll be 100% relying on getting clients again.
Yes, setting up any passive income stream ironically being forced to be super active at first. But when it comes to the gig economy, it all starts and stops with you.
Why spend that effort when you could use it to create an ally for yourself in passive income?
Final Thoughts
To summarize, Fiverr is not an ideal stepping stone for people who need stable income every month to pursue their dreams.
Neither is it an ideal plan B to fall back on if you are unable to maintain it while you’re focused on your main objective.
If you’re looking to become a freelancer Fiverr is undoubtedly a great place for beginners. Racking up experience in marketing yourself and giving customers satisfactory results is the bread and butter of freelancing, and Fiverr does the hard work of exposing you to clients for you.
But as a long-term nest egg builder or a way of making a living?
I’ll pass, and maybe now you’ll think twice about it too.
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