Google Employee Makes $100,000 Using Fiverr

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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It is said there's an exception to every rule. Whether that is universally true or not, it certainly applies to a lot of the things we talk about on Side Hustle School. And hey, by the way, welcome to a new week on Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. And I have the privilege of bringing you stories of real life people out there, people with jobs, people doing normal stuff who also in their spare time find a way to make sometimes a lot of money.

Sometimes not a ton of money, but always something that is significant. Always something that can make a real difference in their life. And they're almost always doing it on their own through some kind of creative idea. Now, I often tell people that there are these things called starter platforms. And a starter platform is a website like Fiverr, which I'm gonna talk about today.

Or it could also be something like Etsy. Or we could even say like driving for Uber or Lyft is a starter side hustle. It's cool in the sense that you can do it in your own time and you can set your own schedule. But the downside is someone else is controlling the entire system. So your odds of making a lot of money are pretty slim.

That's why I encourage people to develop their own ideas, often eventually developing their own website, and not relying on these kind of starter platforms for all sorts of reasons. However, speaking of exceptions and rules, once in a while, somebody comes along and just blows it out of the water. And I have to say things like, "Okay, usually that's a good rule to follow, but here's someone who likes to break the rules." As a nonconformist, I respect that. And as someone with the goal of helping people become economically empowered, when I hear that a guy has made $100,000 in a year using Fiverr, naturally I'm interested. So we caught up with him and got all the details of this story, which I'll bring to you right after this quick thank you to our sponsor.

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Platforms like Etsy, Fiverr, and Skillshare are typically recommended for beginners or for those who just want to dip their toes into the world of side hustling. They're easy to get started on. They can help you build your business skills, but they don't tend to be lucrative, at least not for most people. Because they're based around an existing business model, working with one of these services tends to limit your income. It's a great way to experiment, but not a great way to grow.

Again, at least not usually. There are exceptions, however, and in that intersection of exceptions is where we meet John Uche. In just under one year of using Fiverr, John has earned close to $100,000. To be clear, this is uncommon. So how did he do it?

What did he do differently from everyone else making $5 at a time on the site? Let's start from the beginning. By day, John works at Google as a product marketer helping YouTubers grow their audiences. On the side, he runs a website where he publishes weekly cartoons that make fun of the common workplace. By the way, this comic is named Every Vowel, since John is one of the few people who has every vowel in his last name.

He was already involved in those endeavors when he began working with Fiverr, so he had some experience. Fiverr is a platform where freelancers can advertise their services to the public. Buyers can go on the site and hire writers, editors, marketers, and other people to do work for them. Fiverr markets itself as being for the, quote, "lean entrepreneur," and has thus built a culture of inexpensive services. This is a big reason why most people don't make much money as a Fiverr freelancer.

Also, there was the fact that the site is called Fiverr, and for a long time, everything was priced at $5. But John's story is different. With his background as the head of creator product marketing at YouTube, he has an impressive resume of past clients and a coveted position in a company. Fiverr Pro is the highest tier of services that Fiverr offers, and naturally, those services cost more. John decided to only offer services through the Pro tier, and in his case, he does marketing consultation.

This means that most of his sales come from calls with business owners asking for advice about their social media presence, brand, videos, copy, and strategy. Naturally, his specialty is with businesses tied to YouTube. For these calls, he charges $1,000 for a 60-minute session. That's right, $1,000 for an hour, and if a customer wants his copywriting service, he charges $1,500 for a speech, around $1,300 for a blog or article, and about $900 for website copy. Sounds pricey, right?

But remember what he does. He helps these clients gain audience, which is valuable. John is able to maintain those prices and keep his clients coming because of the quality of work he puts out. He prioritizes giving his clients more than what they ask for and always leaves them happy. This then breeds a large number of positive reviews, which then gets him more business.

He also 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, he didn't want to oversell his expertise and leave his clients at a loss. That's another reason for his other side hustle. Now, what if you're out there thinking, okay, this sounds good, but John had this background.

He had an incredible job. But how does that help me? How can I join the elite ranks of service providers on Fiverr Pro? Well, the good news is you don't have to just sit around and hope that services like Fiverr will notice you. In this case, you can actually apply to become part of the Fiverr Pro team.

We talked with our PR rep who told us more. She says that Fiverr looks for freelancers with a strong portfolio, not just ones who have jobs like John does. Mostly they look at the types of projects that the person has worked on, as well as the quality of their work. In addition, if you have skills in a field that Fiverr happens to be focused on at the moment, there's a greater chance of making it in. For example, they've recently opened a new pro category for product photography.

So naturally those in that field or with that background have better odds. When you apply, there are three different rounds of vetting to go through. One is a technical vetting where they assess your skill and the other two are professional. During that phase, two managers from different categories on Fiverr work to understand the level of professionalism, experience, and quality of work that the freelancer has. There's no simple hack to automatically make a lot of money on services like Fiverr, but 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. So the key to a success like this, the key to high price services on a low price platform like Fiverr, is to offer something specialized that's not a commodity. Remember the CrossFit chalk guy from last week? He was able to sell a commodity and make a real profit, but most people can't do that. And most offerings on Fiverr consist of the same thing over and over with no real differentiation.

That's why it's largely known as a low cost provider of services or a provider of low cost services, let's say. But as you can see from this episode, that's not the only way. There is a way to make real money from it. And by the way, if you're new, if you've missed some episodes, you might also like an episode from three weeks ago, that was number 521, about another guy who earns $100,000 serving clients on Fiverr. And in this case, he actually does it over a couple of years.

So it's not just one year, but still, it's $100,000. If you're interested in using this platform, you can probably learn from that too. All right, congrats to John. Thanks so much, John, for letting us share your story. And to everybody out there, don't forget inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

If you'd like to check out today's show notes, we're gonna include links to John's Fiverr profile, anything else that I mentioned in the episode. Those are online at sidehustleschool.com/548. We are now underway with this new week and much more is on the way. I hope you'll join me tomorrow for episode 549. Until then, this is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.