How to Get Clients on Fiverr: The Ultimate Guide

Over my years of freelancing, I’ve helped many of my friends and even some of my clients get set up on the Fiverr freelancing platform. But within a few weeks or minutes, in some cases, almost all of them ask the same questions “How do I get clients on Fiverr?”

So, just on the off chance you’re getting set up on the platform and want a few hints and tips for getting your first buyers, this blog post should hopefully give you some ideas.

Start By Creating Your Fiverr Profile and Gigs

Obviously, you can’t attract any Fiverr buyers without first putting up a complete and professional profile. Many buyers will use your profile to assess whether you are someone they want to work with, so make sure it is well-written and polished.

Your Fiverr Profile

Your profile should include:

– A professional photo

– A catchy headline

– A detailed description of your freelancing services, experience, and a little blurb about yourself.

I cannot stress this enough; your profile photo needs to be both polished and of you, not some generic image or your company logo. Fiverr is a personal platform, and buyers want to see the face of the freelancer they’re working with. A professional-looking headshot is best, but if you don’t have one, a clear photo of you is perfectly fine.

Your headline should be descriptive yet short and to the point. You’ve got less than 100 characters to work with, so make them count.

Lastly, your “blurb,” or description as it’s called on the platform, should be clear, concise, and give buyers an accurate idea of what it is you do and what they can expect if they purchase one of your gigs. As I said, Fiverr is a personal platform, so I always recommend putting something in there that describes you as a person, such as your favourite hobbies or passions outside of work.

If you’re not sure how to get started, take a look at some of the top-rated freelancers on Fiverr and see how they’ve put together their profiles.

Creating Your Gigs

Just as you need to take time over your profile, your gigs need to be well thought out too. They should be titled clearly and concisely, use tags judiciously, and include clear, professional photos.

Your gig titles need to accurately reflect the services you’re offering and use keywords that buyers are likely to search for. For example, if you’re a web designer, some of your gig titles could be “I will design a professional website for your business,” “I will create a custom WordPress website,” or “I will design an eCommerce website.”

Your tags should also be well-chosen and relevant to your gigs. Again, using our web design example, some of the tags you might use are “website design,” “WordPress,” “eCommerce,” “web designer,” etc.

The photos you use for your gigs need to be professional once again, and it’s not a bad idea at all to hire someone from Fiverr to design the gig thumbnails for you. Fiverr push you to use a video thumbnail (well, at least they used to). They say it can lead to an uplift of 230% regarding clicks and impressions, but in my experience, that wasn’t the case.

I did have a video on my gig in the early days. But it was so cringeworthy that I couldn’t bear it any longer and took it down. I’ll leave whether you put a video up on your gig to you, but I do recommend using a professional image.

When creating the gig description, this is where you get to go into more detail about what the gig entails. Again, be clear and concise, and make sure you use relevant keywords throughout.

Offer gig guarantees that are easily deliverable on your end, including specific timescales or a 100% satisfaction guarantee through unlimited revisions. Your gig description is your chance to really sell the gig to potential buyers, so make sure you make the most of it.

Lastly, while tricky if you are a freelancer with no experience, I would recommend uploading samples of your work too so that people can evaluate your skills when you don’t yet have any reviews.

Pricing Your Fiverr Gigs

OK, so now we’ve covered creating your profile and gigs, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty of pricing your services.

When you’re first starting out on Fiverr, it can be tempting to price your gigs as low as possible in order to get some sales under your belt and get those all-important positive reviews.

And while there’s nothing wrong with that strategy, I would caution you against pricing your gigs too low. If you do, you’ll quickly find yourself in a race to the bottom, working for less and less as other freelancers undercut you on price.

Remember, you are competing against freelancers across the globe, including those based in countries where $5 goes a long way.

That said, you are going to have to eat humble pie and underprice yourself. Remember, the key to getting and, more importantly, retaining clients on Fiverr is under-promising and over-delivering. That’s the only way you can guarantee (if there is such a thing) that you’ll get those all-important five-star reviews upon completion of your orders.

For context, when I launched my Fiverr writing gig, I charged $15 per 500 words, and my first order took two hours. That’s just $7.50 an hour and even more depressing when you convert it back into pounds.

However, I knew that this strategy would allow me to get some good reviews quickly, which is vital for building up a client base on Fiverr.

Once you have some excellent reviews and orders under your belt, you can start to increase your prices. I would recommend doing this in stages as you get more and more comfortable with the platform and get a feel for what buyers are willing to pay. I upped my prices at 100 reviews, 250 reviews, and then again at 500 reviews. I’ll do so again once I have received 1,000 reviews.

Lastly, don’t forget extras when pricing your gig. Extras are essentially additional services that you offer on top of your standard gig. They are priced separately from your gig, so if a buyer orders a gig and an extra, they will be paying more than your gig price.

For my writing gig, I offer two extras. The first is a 24-hour delivery for an additional $10, and the second is to write an additional 250 words for $5. At the beginning of your journey, when you’re quiet anyway, charging extra for fast delivery is simply charging money for old rope!

Building Up Your Client Base on Fiverr

Now that we’ve covered the basics of creating your profile, gigs, and pricing, it’s time to get into the heart of the matter: building up your client base on Fiverr. While Fiverr doesn’t work like Upwork, where you have to bid and pitch for projects, you can’t simply sit back and wait for the orders to come rolling in.

You have to be proactive.

The first place to start is on the platform itself. Fiverr has a number of different tools and features to help build up your client base on Fiverr.

Buyer Requests

The first of these is buyer requests. Under the buyer requests tab, you can see a list of requests from buyers that match your skill set. You can then send a proposal to the buyer, outlining what you can do for them and why you are the best person for the job.

I’ve found that buyer requests are a great way to get your first few orders on Fiverr, as they allow you to get in front of buyers who are already looking for someone with your skill set. However, it’s not something I would recommend long-term as I’ve found the buyers offering these requests aren’t the best people to have as clients (they tend to be motivated by price alone).

Promote Your Gig on Fiverr

Fiverr is increasingly becoming a pay-to-play platform, which not everyone is happy about. That said, if you’re willing to invest in yourself, you can gain some early traction by paying to promote your gig.

Promoting your gig on Fiverr works in the same way as Google Ads and other Pay-Per-Click (PPC) platforms. You simply set your budget, and Fiverr will serve your gig up to buyers who match your target audience (defined by keywords), and you only pay when someone clicks through to your gig page.

I’ve found that this is a great way to get some quick orders and get some good reviews under your belt. It’s also a great way to get your first few orders if you’re struggling to get any traction organically. Again, depending on your ad budget, this might not be something to keep up long term. However, if it’s delivering an impressive ROI, then don’t abandon something that’s clearly working.

Share Your Gig on Social Media

While Fiverr is a great platform, it’s not the only place you can get clients. In fact, these days I get the vast majority of my clients from my own personal website and social media channels such s LinkedIn.

Therefore, I would highly recommend sharing your gig on your personal channels. Not only will this help you get in front of a larger audience, but it will also help you build up your personal brand and authority in your industry.

When sharing your gig on social media, it’s important to remember that you’re not just trying to get clicks through to your gig page. You’re also trying to get people to like, share and comment on your post. The more engagement you can get, the more likely it is that your post will be seen by a larger audience.

Remember, engagement trumps clicks in the eyes of social media algorithms. The more engagement you can get, the more likely it is that your post will be seen by a larger audience. Therefore, when promoting your gig on social media, it’s important to focus on getting likes, shares and comments.

A great way to do this is to post engaging content that speaks to your target audience and encourages them to take action. Think about what you can share that would be valuable or interesting to your target audience.

For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you could share a post about the top 10 design trends for 2020. This would get people interested and engaged, and you could then include a link to your gig in the post.

Reach Out to Prospects Directly

When starting out on Fiverr, you must already have an idea of who you would consider ideal clients. If that’s the case, why sit there waiting for them to magically appear? Why not reach out to them directly and let them know you exist?

I’ve found that one of the best ways to get clients on Fiverr (or anywhere else for that matter) is to reach out to prospects directly. My best results have come from cold calling on the phone, but I know just how nerve-wracking that can be. Just thinking about it now makes me feel sick!

What I found helped was sending an email first to break the ice and get a foot in the door. You can find the contact details of most businesses with a quick Google search. Once you have their email address, simply reach out and introduce yourself.

Tell them that you’re a Fiverr freelancer who offers services that would be of interest to them. Then include a link to your gig page and invite them to check it out. If you don’t hear anything back, try giving them a phone call and using the email as a conversation starter.

Bonus Tip: Offer Services That Customers Need on a Regular Basis to Win Repeat Clients

In many ways, how to get clients on Fiverr is the wrong question. What you should be asking is how to get clients on Fiverr that keep on coming back for more.

The best way to do this is to offer services that customers need on a regular basis. That could be anything from social media management, blog writing, lead generation, product photography, or anything else that’s needed on an ongoing basis.

If you currently offer a one-time service, can you think of anything that you can offer on a recurring basis? It could be worth testing out a few different ideas to see what works best. For example, if you design websites, think about what the client might need after completing the website. Perhaps some ongoing SEO work or WordPress maintenance, for example?

Whatever your main gigs offer, you’re far more likely to win repeat clients and build up long-term relationships by providing services that customers need regularly.

Don’t Give Up in Your Quest to Get Clients on Fiverr

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, don’t give up. Becoming a success on Fiverr is a long hard slog. I’m not going to lie to you. The algorithm is extremely cyclical, you’re constantly going from famine to feast, and it took me two years of blood, sweat, and tears to reach Top-Rated Seller status.

However, once you start to build momentum (for me, this was when I reached Level 2 Seller status), it becomes a lot easier, and you can start to get a lot more consistent work.

Final Thoughts

Getting clients on Fiverr isn’t a cakewalk. That said, it’s not as difficult as you might think. By following the tips in this article, you should be able to get the clients you need to build a successful freelancing business on the platform. Just remember to be patient, consistent, and always under-promise and over-deliver.

Do you have any tips on how to get clients on Fiverr? I’d love to hear them in the comments below. I know my journey has been very different to other successful sellers, so it would be great to get some insights from other freelancers on the platform.

Thanks for reading!