Fiverr Pro for Freelancers: How to Get Approved and Get More Clients

This contribution comes from Mike Zima and Damien Bouvier, who’ve used the Fiverr Pro platform to grow their digital marketing agency.

That agency, Zima Media, is a leading provider of SEO and other online marketing services with more than 1500 clients around the world.

Inspired by my experiments on Fiverr, Mike and Damien doubled down on their Fiverr efforts and built a successful location independent business.

Take it away, Mike!

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Quick Note

If you prefer watching videos over reading, our Fiverr Pro Video Course is just what you’re looking for:

It’s a 48-minute course divided into 5 main sections where you’ll be able to learn how to become successful on Fiverr as a buyer, covering everything from how to get started to advanced seller tips. You’ll even be able to download and use the templates we currently employ for a complete experience!

It’s a great way to learn in a more interactive manner straight from Mike Zima. If you like this video, be sure to subscribe to get more content like this!

What is Fiverr Pro?

In October of 2017, Fiverr launched a new service called Fiverr Pro, which features the top 1% of sellers on the platform.

Our business was the first to be featured in the Pro section for SEO, and here we’ll explain some of our strategies for building your brand on Fiverr as well as best practices for being accepted into Fiverr Pro.

Buyers can navigate directly to the Pro section of the website, or happen across Pro gigs in the regular gig search results.

Why Should You Care About Fiverr Pro?

The short version: credibility.

Becoming part of Fiverr Pro guarantees that your services are some of the best quality offered on the Fiverr platform.

Becoming a PRO seller on Fiverr isn’t easy — as we’ve already mentioned, only 1% of the applicants are accepted. Fiverr personally reviews PRO sellers to ensure that they exceed expectations, have a formidable background and experience in their respective fields and provide the highest levels of both service and quality.

With Fiverr PRO, we’ve been able to create better gigs with a bigger service packages, reach less price-sensitive customers, and spend more time on our clients to deliver quality results.

Nick’s Notes: I know that as a buyer, I’ve definitely checked out some gigs where quality mattered more than price, and I wanted to cut through the clutter.

The Fiverr Pro Application Process

Any candidate that wants to be part of Fiverr Pro has to first submit an application, which then goes through a vetting process with the in-house team.

The vetting process consists of 3 rounds:

Technical vetting (do you know what you’re doing)
Professional vetting round 1
Professional vetting round 2

In the professional vetting stage, two separate category managers at Fiverr will vet you and your business to ensure you have the level of professionalism, quality, and experience they’re looking for.

As far as the exact requirements, it really depends on the Fiverr PRO category you’re applying to be part of.

Whether it’s as a graphic designer, a web developer, a copywriter, or our category, SEO, the qualifications needed to be accepted as PRO can vary, which is why candidates are vetted individually.

In the application itself, you may be asked to submit the following:

A portfolio of work
References/list of previous clients worked with
Social media profiles/handles
Education i.e. school(s), degree earned, accreditation etc.
Years of experience

If Fiverr feels that they need more information, they may reach out to you directly.

In our case, we were already established SEO experts on the regular Fiverr platform. We used our many positive client reviews as well as our experience of having previously worked in data and marketing agencies as part of our application for Fiverr PRO in the SEO category.

Still, even if you’ve never sold on Fiverr before, you’re eligible to apply for a PRO account if you meet the qualifications in a specific field.

Take your time when filling out the application to make sure that you’re showing them the REAL you – take advantage of the free text fields and “don’t be shy about promoting yourself”.

Also, make sure to put in a special effort in your portfolio — it’s an important differentiator to share the work you have done for clients both inside and outside of Fiverr, since it showcases your most high-profile solutions and services. It could mean the difference between Fiverr and Fiverr PRO.

Creating Your Gig Menu

Since we have experience in many areas on online marketing, our gig menu on Fiverr reflects that.

The more specific you can make your gigs, the better.

And remember, Fiverr is a search engine!

It uses different ranking criteria to showcase gigs. So consider what keywords people might be looking for to find your service. Include those keywords in the title of your gigs.

For example, we’ve built gigs around:

Backlink building
Manage your adwords campaigns
Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn ads
SEO keyword research
Setup Google tag manager
Content Marketing
Social Media Management
PR and press release management
And more!

Each of our gigs are like a sub-speciality within the broader field of digital marketing or SEO.

Get as granular as you can so that your prospective buyer says, “Yes! That’s exactly what I’m looking for!”

Remember — you should always have an excellent service, personality, and confidence in your gig description. This will ALWAYS boost your sales. We talk a bit more on discoverability on our free video course.

Pricing Your Services on Fiverr Pro

Like regular Fiverr accounts, each Fiverr PRO seller determines what their services are worth on Fiverr. Quite literally: your service, your rules.

Create Pricing Tiers

Fiverr encourages a 3-tier pricing package, which is what we at Zima Media use.

For example, here’s what our current pricing looks like for our SEO Management gig:

As you can see, it’s based on sizes (S, M, and XXL). This “small, medium, large” structure is beneficial both for sellers and buyers because it offers several “entry points” from which to try out that seller’s services. And I think you’ll find it increases your average order values.

There are other pricing options where the user can choose to scale up a particular service. For example, in our Content Marketing gig, we provide a “basic” option for 1 article, but a user can choose to pay up to 5.

Both pricing strategies can help give your user a wider range of options to choose from and increase your AOV.

With PRO, the days of Fiverr as “the $5 marketplace” are long gone!

Encourage Custom Offers

Another option is for sellers to create Custom Offers with buyers who may be looking for something beyond what is offered in their services, at which point the seller can set a unique price for that custom service.

Nick’s Notes: As we learned from one Fiverr seller, Custom Offers can go up to $10,000!

One way we encourage custom offers is by inviting prospects to reach out with questions about their specific business and needs. We want to start that conversation and point them in the right direction, either to one of our existing gigs or create something custom just for them.

Be sure to treat each potential customer with special care. You never know… they might be your biggest client yet!

Nothing is Set in Stone

Remember, you can update your prices whenever you want.

Our pricing model has evolved over time. We we were the first SEO PRO sellers of the platform, so our original prices have changed. This is because our gigs are constantly changing as we figure out how our services work in the scope of Fiverr PRO and with our client base. We made sure to change our services and pricing to reflect that evolution.

For us, it’s important to keep that element of flexibility in order to keep being successful on Fiverr.

How to Optimize your Fiverr Pro Profile and Portfolio

To optimize your Fiverr Pro profile, it’s all about paying attention to even the smallest of details. A single unclear sentence or a low-quality gig photo could be what makes a buyer choose another seller over you.

To help you get started here is a big list of tips on getting the most out of your Fiverr profile.

Your Gig Title

Keep your gig titles short, sweet, and to the point!

For example: “I will manage your Adwords campaigns.”

However, if you want something more, you can add a descriptive adjective that stands out. Browse through the different categories in Fiverr and you’ll find titles like:

“I will create enthralling content”
“I will make killer blog posts for you”
“I will draw colorful and intense art that pops”

We even found a promise: “I will make your sales soar”.

Words like beautiful, professional, stellar, unique and engaging are a few examples you can try.

Also, make sure your keywords are in there too. We use the “auto complete” search function on Fiverr to see what suggestions pop up for keywords related to our niche.

For example, when I punch in “keyword”, the search box suggests several potential ideas real Fiverr customers look for.

Gig Image

We suggest having an image of yourself in your profile and in your Gig image. We found it really helps with conversion, perhaps building trust by showing you’re a real person.

You can see our gig photos in the image of our profile page above.

Gig images should be at least 690 x 426px (subject to change, of course).

Also, don’t use pixelated images. Low quality images may lead potential buyers to think you offer a low quality gig… which is not something you want. Keep this in mind: an image is the very first thing a potential customer will see of you and your company. Make a good first impression.

Pro Tip: Text on your images is allowed, but should be minimal, clear and legible. Try to keep text to the left/top of the Gig image since the Pro badge sits over the bottom right of the images in the marketplace. This will make the overall layout look more balanced:

Gig Video

A gig video helps significantly with conversions. We know, we made our own video you can check out right here.

Keep these Fiverr guidelines in mind:

Videos should be at least 30 seconds long and at most 75 seconds.
They should weigh less than 50 MB and be in .avi or .mp4 format
Include a simple explanation of what your Gig service is.
Don’t use a computer to narrate your Gig; you should use your own voice.
Don’t use the same video for all your Gigs – make sure it’s customized to the specific service you’re providing

Pro Tip: End your video with a call to action, such as “please contact me… I would be happy to work with you or create a custom offer for your specific needs.”

Gig Description

Gig descriptions on Fiverr are limited to 1,200 words, which is approximately the length of this blog post up to this point.

Use the description to:

Sell yourself (how many years of experience you have in the industry, your team of people, etc.).
Name the companies you’ve worked for, namedrop cool clients and list programs you use/any certifications you have.
Show why your services are worth buyer investment!
Explain why a buyer needs this Gig—what is it? What is the added value?
Clearly explain what the buyer gets when they purchase your Gig. Explain the workflow process (be transparent).

Pro Tip: Consider adding the line: “Contact us before placing this order”—a lot of the time this will lead to creating a custom offer, so use it!

Price & Packages

Charge the same amount you would charge offline and keep in mind that Fiverr will keep 20% as their fee.

One thing we love about Fiverr is the simple transparency of the platform. There’s no bidding for work like on other freelance sites, and buyers can take it or leave it.

On Fiverr Pro, buyers are of course still value-motivated, but they seem less price conscious than on “regular” Fiverr. The Pro level connotes a certain premium-ness to it, so price accordingly.

Test out different pricing structures using the 3-tier model described above. Figure out the best ways to upsell with your packages and extras.

Add Gig Requirements

What information do you need from the buyer in order to complete your project?

Depending on your gig, this could be things like industry, location, competitors, or access to accounts and websites. When you ask, remember to keep it brief and simple.

Add FAQs

A list of frequently asked questions and answers can save you time and help sell your services.

For example, you might include questions like:

What do you get when you purchase this Gig?
What is the workflow process?
Do I offer revisions? What constitutes a revision?
What does it mean to be a Pro seller on Fiverr?
What other services do I offer? (Great way to upsell)

Make sure to make a list of all the questions previous clients have asked, as well as keeping in mind all the doubts a potential customer could have.

Stay Up To Date on All Things Fiverr

Fiverr doesn’t only offer Gigs and services. There are two new modes where you will be able to show off your team working skills… or learn a few new ones.

Fiverr Studios

Fiverr Studios is a new solution where a client can find all the freelance talent he or she needs to complete a larger project. They will hire a team of freelancers that is managed by a Studio Lead — all within the same Gig.

It’s a one-solution approach that saves time and effort in more complex projects. For example, if a client needs a team of talented designers, writers, developers, digital marketers and more, then Fiverr Studio is a better option to buy a “bundle” solution for their company.

This solution is still in beta testing and isn’t available to all sellers. But be sure to stay tuned in case this fits your business model and current offers.

Fiverr Learn

We should never stop learning. Fiverr Learn is — you guessed it — a learning center! Go back to school and learn practical skills, proven methods, processes and best practices from industry experts.

This platform functions as an on-demand video course “classroom”, where you will learn valuable skills that will set your business aside with verified capabilities and valid Fiverr credentials.

And if you pass the final test, you’ll gain valid Fiverr credentials, which will more likely give you more visibility in the Fiverr marketplace. So not only are you growing your own skills, you’re actually applying them immediately to your business on Fiverr.

Set yourself aside from the competition by proving you know what you’re talking about.

Your Turn

These are our tips for how to succeed on Fiverr Pro, and that have proven successful for us as digital marketing business on the platform.

You can always visit our Fiverr profile here to see how we’ve implemented some of these best practices into our own account. And if you’d like more information, be sure to check out our free video course — we discuss all of this and more!

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Nick Loper