Beware the Fiverr Sinkhole
By: Rebecca Donohue
Tags: Digital Nomads, Humor, Gig Economy, Fiverr, Money

Beware the Fiverr Sinkhole

Image via Blake Wisz, Unsplash

Oof, the gig economy. The glory it promises. Live anywhere you want! Embrace your location independence! Be your own boss! Set your own hours! Freedom! Freedom can be yours! It all sounds amazing until you sober up and realize it’s just one of your particularly dreamy friends yelling at you.

You stumble away from your day drinking event (with said friend) and realize that maybe their location independence is really just a way to justify their alcoholism. You’re not sure. It’s unclear.

Boo, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere! (Image via Unsplash)

I just finished watching Nomadland with Frances McDormand and I couldn’t shake a funny feeling. It was something like, “Hold on. Wait, a minute. Does she want to do this?” Does she want to live in a van called, “Vanguard” and spend Christmas in the “Amazon Seasonal RV Park”?

All I can say is that I spent a weekend in a hipster Airstream-er once, in an alley, behind a fancy house in San Diego. Hey, it was on Airbnb, so it had to be legit, right? I thought I’d finally live out my tiny house fantasy and leave a convert. I was ready to buy that HGTV-marketed freedom.

Sell everything you own! Live off five dollars a day. Sheesh, when you’re living that cheap, Fiverr does sound like a way out! Well, sign me up. That’s how I was feeling… until… until I took my first shower.

I entered the bathroom box and my ass touched all four walls. I don’t even know how that’s possible because the last time I looked, I don’t have a wraparound ass. But, this particular day it was touching all four walls, as I straddled the toilet and hosed myself off with the detachable showerhead. In an instant, fantasy became a horror show.

It was a moment, for sure, but not one that left me feeling like I had transcended the rat race. It was one that said something more decisive. It was a song I’ve heard in my head many times before and it sang to me gently at first, “What have you done? Oh, gurl, what have you done?”

So, the pandemic hits. My entire industry becomes irrelevant in a heartbeat. I tap into my entrepreneurial spirit and think, “Well, this is it. Time to work for myself. Time to build up that freelance business.” Then I try it out and the allure dissipates with a rapidity that scares me, much like showering in a 100K Airstream-er in the middle of a San Diego alley.

Yet, there’s always a superstar that shines on through. There’s always a story that tells you drug dealing might not be a bad option. After all, it’s what Jay-Z did before the album hit! When it comes to Fiverr, I’m thinking of Alex Fasulo, the 20-something-year-old, who makes six figures a year on Fiverr. When you read Alex Fasulo’s interviews, Fiverr feels like a dream come true.

You get tired of working for the man, the corporate environment is killing your soul, you start working for yourself and — bang — all of that changes. You’re making big money. You’re doing what you love! Right? Right?!

Psst, I can build your website for a Fiverr. (Image via Unsplash)

No. Wrong… or at least wrong for most humans over 30. Sure, if you’re living with two other roommates and still figuring your shit out, you might be able to slog through low-paid writing gigs with high demands, hitting a massively quick turnaround, raising your profile in the algorithm, and eventually dominating the field.

But, if you have anything else going on in your life, at all, you’re going to be effed. Effed like the 11th man on a skydiving team when you realize there are only ten parachutes.

But, you don’t know what you don’t know. So, I jumped into Fiverr as an experiment to see what was really there. I created a really low bar gig — show notes for podcasts. I had produced a podcast on my own, prior, and I used a really reputable audio house to cut and help build out my podcast.

The podcast show notes were $50 per episode through this production house. So, to get good show notes for $5 is a steal. I looked around at other gigs that were offering show notes for $5/per show and I offered a little something extra. For example, if every gig offered 30 minutes of notes for $5, I would offer 40 minutes. You have to. It’s a review system and you’re new without any reviews, so you need something that will separate you from the pack.

At first, you’ll think that no one is going to see your gig, but if you undercut everyone in one area, you’ll grab some people who will want to try you out. Then when you deliver and deliver well, you will get flooded. That’s what happened to me. I did the very first one. I did the gig fast and turned it around within the hour. The client loved it and gave me a great review.

Another Fiverr customer saw my good review and as a buyer of a lot of show notes, she knew I was undercutting the competition in one area. So, for her, it was a steal. She bought her first gig. I turned it around super quickly. I felt good about myself and went about my day. Now, granted, I had done two gigs for under $10/hour. These are copious notes, summaries, time codes, in native English (this is important on Fiverr), turned around very, very quickly.

I shut my computer and drove up to my Airbnb (another side gig I do for cashola). I went up to see what needed to be done and to take care of it before my next guests. By the time I looked at my Fiverr account again, two more gigs had come in with very little time to turn them both around under deadline. Missing deadlines means you sink in the algorithm again.

That’s Fiverr for you. Actually, forget Fiverr. That’s the gig economy for you. Picture Malaysians making Forever 21 shirts for ten cents an hour and you’ve pretty much got the perfect analogy for building an empire on Fiverr.

It’s a volume business, but the problem is — no one can sustain that kind of volume and live in a country with the cost of living that America has. That’s why some of your best-earning Fiverr-ites are freelancers who live abroad. They are making a killing because in their economy an actual Fiverr goes a long way.

Image via Unsplash

So, can you build a substantial business on Fiverr? The answer is, probably not and especially not if you live in the United States. You’re better off selling to that vendor from your old job as a side gig or networking with your real-life connections to build a business that doesn’t have you working for peanuts.

Is that harder? Sure, everyone wants to capitalize on the Airbnb of freelance, creative gigs. But, the truth is you’re always going to lose out to foreign arbitrage and foreign economies.

It’s OK, though. Your unemployment is kicking in. You’ve just finished your first round of Uber background checks and if all else fails, there’s always the “Amazon Seasonal RV Park”.

Think of the glory you’ll experience, living out of your van, exploring the Old West, and pooping in a bucket. If that’s not modern-day success, I don’t know what is. Forget paid vacation and sick leave and health benefits. You’ve got the open road and that’s the American dream. Isn’t it? Isn’t it?! Um, is it?