This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Google employee makes $100,000 using Fiverr. This is a pretty fun story. We don't usually talk about gig economy stories. I don't usually recommend you going on Fiverr and doing this for your full-time business. It's a great way to experiment.
If you've never side hustled before, if you've never offered any kind of service and you want to get used to the idea of like working for clients and pricing your offer, writing copy and such, it's great for that. It's also great for searching for services, for finding service providers. But I don't usually recommend that Fiverr is your best bet just because you're not gonna make a lot of money. It's a very low cost market for the most part. And then of course, along come the exceptions, this Google product manager earned an extra $100,000 by providing marketing services on Fiverr.com.
We're gonna subtitle this, learn his tips to hack the platform for yourself. I'm always inspired by somebody who comes along and just says, okay, this is how normally the advice works, but I'm gonna show you a different way of doing it. As a nonconformist, I respect that. And so when I hear that a guy has profited so much using what is normally a starter platform or a basic kind of platform, naturally I'm interested. So let's hear the story.
Google employee makes $100,000 plus using Fiverr. [Music]
Platforms like Etsy, Fiverr and Skillshare are typically recommended for beginners or for those who just wanna dip their toes into the world of side hustling. They are easy to get started on. They can help to quickly build your business skills, but they don't tend to be lucrative. Because they're based around an existing business model, working with one of these services tends to limit your income.
As I said earlier, it's a great way to experiment, but not a great way to grow, at least usually. Now, of course there are exceptions and in that intersection of exceptions is where we meet John Uche. In just under a year of using Fiverr, John earned more than $100,000. To be clear, this is uncommon. Most people don't have that experience.
So how did he do it? And what did he do differently from everyone else making $5 at a time on the site? All right, let's start from the beginning. By day, John worked at Google as a product marketer helping YouTubers grow their audiences. And on the side, he also ran a website where he published weekly cartoons that poked fun of the common workplace.
It's aptly named Every Vowel, since John is one of the few people who has every vowel in his last name. Again, that last name is Uche, starts with a Y. He was already heavily involved in those endeavors when he began working with Fiverr. Fiverr, of course, is a platform where freelancers can advertise their services to the public. Buyers can go on the site and hire writers, editors, marketers, and more to do their work for them.
Fiverr markets itself is being for the lean entrepreneur and has thus built a culture of relatively inexpensive services. And because of that, people don't usually make much money as a Fiverr freelancer. But John's story, as we know, is different. With his background as the head of creator product marketing at YouTube, he had an impressive resume of past clients and a coveted position in the company. Fiverr Pro is the highest tier of services that Fiverr offers, and it costs more because of that.
So here's a key decision. John decided to only offer services through the Pro tier. And in his case, he does marketing consultation. That means most of his sales come from calls with business owners asking for advice about their social media presence, brand, videos, copy, and strategy. And naturally, his main specialty is with businesses tied to YouTube.
Now get this, for these video calls, John charges $1,000, actually a bit more than that, $1,080 for one 60-minute session. If a customer wants a copywriting service, he charges $1,500 for a speech, $900 for website copy. These are pricey prices, especially for Fiverr. But remember what he does, he helps these clients gain audience, which is valuable for the right people. And John is able to keep those prices and his clients coming by the quality of work he puts out.
He prioritizes giving clients more than what they ask for, always leaves them happy, which then breeds a large number of positive reviews, even at that high price point, which then gets him more business. Now, John believes in practicing what he preaches. Before offering his services to others, he made sure he was confident in his abilities to market himself. If he couldn't do it for himself, of course, he didn't want to oversell his expertise and leave his clients at a loss. Now you might be thinking, okay, well, John has got this incredible job that led him to be picked up by Fiverr.
How does that actually help me? How do I get picked? Well, the good news is you don't have to just sit around and hope that services like Fiverr notice you. You can actually apply to be part of the Fiverr Pro team. And when we talked to the Fiverr Pro team, they said they're looking for freelancers with a strong portfolio.
They don't have to have a fancy job like John does. Mostly they look at the types of projects that the freelancer has been a part of and the amount of time that they've spent on the work they're advertising. So basically, if you can build up these skills over time and you can focus on higher end clients, there's a much greater chance of making it. For example, Fiverr opened a new pro category for product photography. So naturally those in that field have better odds.
When you're applying, you go through a couple different rounds of vetting. One is a technical vetting where they assess your skill. The other two are professional. So during the professional vet, two managers from different categories on Fiverr work to understand the level of professionalism, experience and quality of work that the freelancer has. So there's no simple hack to automatically making a lot of money on services like Fiverr, but it seems getting on the pro tier will give you an edge.
So before you start selling your soul, or more likely another service for $5, poke around and see if there might be a better way. [Music]
Quote from John is, "You must be willing to keep going with your project, even if you make little to no money at first, you need consistent effort." And that's what helps get more and more reviews on a platform like Fiverr, and then also allows you to charge a higher price. And I do know from my own experience of hiring lots of service providers on Fiverr, most offerings there consist of the same thing over and over. It's kind of like a commodity. There are lots of people doing the same kinds of things.
So in that situation, you're never gonna be able to charge a higher price, or at least let's say it's gonna be extremely difficult. So providing some sort of differentiation really is the key. And that's how somebody like John has been able to be successful. So don't try to compete with everybody else, find what you can do differently or better, or just, well, as I said, differently, that's actually really the key. Provide some sort of differentiation.
All right, I'm gonna leave you with that today. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. I'm excited to bring you new stories, new questions and answers much more this month. This was episode 3,196. Thanks so much for tuning in.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
