Can You Make Money on Fiverr? How I Made $32,937 Last Year

If you’re looking to make some extra money, you may have considered turning to Fiverr to start freelancing. After all, Fiverr is an online platform that offers an easy way to get started and can be a great way to find paying clients. But is it really possible to make a good income on Fiverr?

When I first heard about Fiverr, I figured there was no way that anyone could be making good money there. But after trying it out myself and really giving it a good shot, I was able to earn a really good income working part-time!

In fact, in 2021 (my first full year) making money on Fiverr, I earned $32,937.64 working part time!

Don’t believe me? Here’s a screenshot of my analytics from 2021 complete with a huge watermark so no one steals it and tries to pass it off on their own 😉

Even better? I truly was working part-time hours. In fact, according to my Toggl (free time tracking app), I spent about 381 hours working on Fiverr orders which comes out to around 8 hours per week. Obviously, that’s just an average across the whole year because as you can see in the graph, I worked a lot more in January than I did in December. But you have to admit, that’s pretty good.

In fact, that comes out to about $86.45 per hour which is great for a college dropout working off self-learned skills! I truly believe it’s one of the best ways to freelance online and tell people about Fiverr all the time because of how quickly I was able to grow my income.

So exactly how did I do it?

To put as simply as possible: I jumped in, committed to getting my first few orders even though I wasn’t making a lot at first, and I did good work that would encourage clients to come back. Then I slowly raised my rates as I got more orders and gained a reputation on Fiverr.

Easier said than done, though, right?

>> Want a shortcut? My course, Fiverr Kickstart, walk you through choosing a gig, setting it up, and getting those first few orders so you have a little guidance in the beginning.

Otherwise, keep reading and I’ll give you the basics.

What is Fiverr?

Simply put, Fiverr is an online marketplace where you can offer up your services as what are called “gigs”. There are all sorts of gigs available on the platform, from social media marketing to graphic design to writing and more. Potential buyers can browse gigs and order them and then it’s your job to fulfill them within the timeframe you set when you put your gig up.

Fiverr is pretty well known as a place where you can get freelancers to do work for cheap, but it’s not just that. There are plenty of freelancers who make good money on there and there are plenty of businesses who are willing to pay well if you do quality work. So don’t dismiss Fiverr the way I did at first!

How Does Fiverr Work?

Fiverr is pretty simple, though I can see it being a little overwhelming at first. For a someone interested in getting started as a Fiverr freelancer, here are the basic steps to start working on Fiverr:

Sign up for a Fiverr account
Set up your profile
Set up your gigs
Wait for an order
Work on the order
Deliver the order
Get paid (payments are released 2 weeks after delivery)

That’s a really simplified way of putting things, but those are the basic steps when it comes to working on Fiverr. Of course, there are things you need to do to make sure you set up your profile and gigs so that you actually get orders. And then there’s actually doing the work.

How much are Fiverr fees?

Fiverr takes a 20% fee from any income you make through orders and tips on their website. This is where I tend to lose a lot of people because it sounds like a lot. In fact, it is a lot! If you’re doing $5,000/month on Fiverr, that’s $1,000 in fees, right? But here’s the thing, Fiverr is not only providing you with clients so you don’t have to spend your time and resources finding them yourself, they’re also collecting payment so you’re not chasing those clients down to get paid.

In my opinion, the 20% fee is more than worth it when I think about all the time and effort saved in finding, vetting, and getting payment from clients. The only thing I don’t like about the fees is that I don’t think they should be taking 20% from tips, but it is what it is.

How much money can you make on Fiverr?

While most Fiverr sellers are doing it as a side hustle, there are also plenty of Fiverrs pulling in a full-time income! As I mentioned, I made over $32,000 part-time last year and I earned $6,625 my highest month. If I did that over 12 months, I would be at $79,500 in a year. That’s a pretty good income! I have no doubt that if I wanted to make a full-time income, I could hit $100,000 or more. That’s just personally not my goal, but I think it would be doable with the volume of orders I was getting at my peak. However, keep in mind that it depends on so many different factors so there’s really no saying what the average or maximum truly is.

Pros and Cons of Fiverr

Like with anything, there are pros and cons to working on Fiverr. I’m going to give you a quick overview of both so that you can decide if Fiverr can be a good side hustle (or even full-time income!) for you.

Pros

Clients come to you: I cannot stress how crucial this is and if you’ve ever freelanced before, you know how hard it is to go out and find clients who are willing to pay you. With Fiverr, they literally come to you and Fiverr collects payment at the time of order so you know they’re legit.
Choose your own hours: One of the best things about freelancing is that you can usually choose your own hours. You can take on as much or as little work as you want which gives you a lot of flexibility, especially if you have other commitments like school, raising kids, or a full-time job.
Choose your own rates: This is a big one! When you’re starting out, you kind of have to start low and just take whatever will get you those first orders, but as you start to get more orders and build up your positive reviews, you can start charging more. I was able to increase my base rate for blog posts from $10 to $95 over the course of about a year.
No chasing clients for payment: Another thing that can be really tough about freelancing is getting paid. With Fiverr, they handle all of the payment processing for you so you don’t have to worry about chasing clients down for payment. They literally pay Fiverr when the order is placed so you know they have the money and you won’t have to go begging them to pay your invoices.
Work from anywhere: One of the best things about Fiverr is that you can work from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection. When we traveled full time in 2020 and part of 2021, Fiverr was a huge chunk of my income. Read more about how I made an income while RVing full time here.

Cons

20% fee on all earnings: This is the biggest con of Fiverr and it’s also the one that scares most people away. The 20% fee can eat into your profits, especially at the beginning when you’re not charging a lot.
Strict delivery times: Another thing that can be tough about Fiverr is that you have to deliver your work on time, every time. A timer will literally start and if you don’t deliver before it runs out, your order is “late” which can hurt your standing on Fiverr. If you’re not a very organized person, this can be really tough to keep up with. I personally like it because it keeps me on task.
Lots of competition: Because Fiverr is so popular, there can be a lot of competition in some niches which can make it tough to get orders at first.

Become a Fiverr Seller

If you’re interested in becoming a Fiverr seller, I’m going to outline the basics for you step by step so that you can get your account set up and ready to go.

Setting Up Your Profile

First, you’ll need to visit Fiverr.com and sign up for an account. Choose a good, professional username because you can’t change it later!

Once you’re all signed up make sure you fill out your profile as completely as possible. Your profile is like your resume on Fiverr. It’s what buyers will see when they’re considering ordering from you so you want to make sure it’s as complete as possible and showcases your skills and experience in the best light possible.

You can include a photo (use a real photo of your face!), short bio, education and work experience, etc. to convince your buyer that you’re the right person for the project they’re looking to have done.

Creating Your Fiverr Gig

Once your profile is set up, you need to set up your first gig. A gig is basically a service you offer on Fiverr. When buyers browse the site, they’ll be looking for someone who can do a specific thing and your gig needs to show that you’re the person for the job.

When you set up your gig, you’re basically filling in the blank starting with “I will”. For example “I will design a modern logo” or “I will write a 500 word blog post”. This is how all gigs are titled so keep that in mind when you’re planning out the title of your gig.

When you’re a new seller, you can set up 7 gigs and it goes up from there are you level up to level 1, level 2, and then top-rated. I recommend that you set up at least a couple of gigs because it allows you to reach more buyers with different needs.

To set up a gig, start by giving it a descriptive title with good keywords people may actually be searching for. You can also add tags to help buyers find your gigs more easily.

Then you’ll need to write a gig description and include all the details of what the buyer can expect if they order from you. This is your chance to really sell yourself and your skills so make sure you put some thought into it!

>> Need help with setting up your gigs? Fiverr Kickstart will help you set them up and includes some free templates for your gigs so you can just fill in the blanks and don’t have to figure out what to say from scratch.

Pricing Your Gig

Now you need to set a price for your gig. When you set up your gig, you can set up three tiers. Most sellers will offer a basic gig, standard gig, and premium gig, or something along those lines. The first one should be the cheapest and most basic of your service, and each tier you go up should be more money and more value. I do recommend checking out your competition and starting low because you’re a new account with no reviews yet. You can up your price as you get more reviews and repeat clients.

Upselling with Gig Extras

Once you’ve got your gig all set up, there’s one more thing you can do to make some extra money – add gig extras! Gig extras are basically additional services you can offer on top of your main gig.

For example, if you’re a graphic designer and someone orders a logo design from you, you can offer an additional gig extra for business card design or social media graphics to go along with the logo.

This is a great way to make more money from each buyer and can really add up! For my blog post writing gigs, I offer a few extras like:

I will brainstorm 2 post topics for you (some clients aren’t sure what they want)
I will do keyword research for your post (so that their post has a better chance of ranking in search)

Request Buyer Requirements

Next, you’ll need to make sure that you ask for everything you need from your buyer in the “Requirements” section of setting up your gig. Here you can ask questions, ask for files, etc. to ensure that you have everything you need from your buyer to get started.

When you get an order from a client and they fill out the buyer requirements, a timer starts based on how long you said you would take to deliver so ensuring you have everything you need so you can get started right away and don’t deliver late is important.

As you get your first few orders you might find that you need to tweak this section a bit to get your buyer to provide everything that’s needed so just keep that in mind and make changes as you go along.

Adding Graphics and Video

The last section when setting up your gig is the “Gallery” section where you can add images, video, and documents. Here I recommend showing your face so your potential buyers know that there’s a real person behind the gig and puts a face to the name. You can also add images of your work, video testimonials, etc. to really showcase what you can do and help sell your gig.

Getting Your First Orders

The hardest part of getting started on Fiverr has to be getting those first few orders and positive reviews.

To help with getting your first orders:

Be patient: It took me 2 weeks to get my first order!
Ask family and friends: You may know someone who needs your services and it never hurts to throw a link out on social media to find out.
Start your prices low: Starting your prices low, much lower than you want to eventually make, can help encourage people to take a chance on you.

Remember, I do have a course called Fiverr Kickstart that can help you position yourselves to stand out among all of the competition and give you all the methods I used to get my first orders. Check it out here.

Gig Ideas for Fiverr

Not sure what kind of gigs to offer on Fiverr? I personally do blog post writing and Pinterest management and optimization services. I do these because these are services that I’m familiar with and I know I can do well. Below are some ideas if you’re feeling stumped, but you can always browse through the different categories on Fiverr to brainstorm on your own as well.

Writing Blog Posts

If you’re a good writer, you can offer your services writing blog posts on Fiverr. This can be anything from writing short posts to longer-form articles. You can also specialize in a certain niche or type of writing like SEO articles or product reviews.

Don’t let the fact that this category looks like it has a lot of competition scare you away! This is the gig I started with and make a good amount of money with. When I started I was charging $10 for 500 words just to get those first few orders. Over time, I was able to up my price to $95 for 500 words. So if you’re a good, fast writer, this can be a great gig to start with on Fiverr.

Graphic Design Services

If you’re a graphic designer, Fiverr can be a great place to showcase your skills and get some clients. There are all sorts of design gigs you can do on Fiverr, from creating logos to social media graphics to offering complete website designs.

The great thing about graphic design is you can create a separate gig for each type of graphic design project you’re willing to do. Creating separate gigs for logos, brochures, wedding invitations, etc. can bring in a variety of different buyers and get you more orders than just simply advertising yourself as a graphic designer.

The sky is the limit when it comes to design services you can offer on Fiverr, so get creative and create a handful of gigs to see what people are interested in.

Virtual Assistant Services

If you’ve got administrative or organization skills, becoming a virtual assistant can be a great way to make money on Fiverr. Virtual assistants can do all sorts of things like manage social media accounts, schedule appointments, answer customer questions, and more.

To be successful as a virtual assistant on Fiverr, I recommend taking a look at other successful gigs for virtual assistant services to see what types of services they’re offering. This will give you some ideas of what you can do and how to price your services.

There are a few ways to go with this like offering a time package (like 5 hours of virtual assistant work) or specializing in a specific type of service or project.

Social Media Marketing

If you know how to market on social media, you can offer your services as a social media marketer on Fiverr. This can involve anything from creating and scheduling posts to running ads to growing a following. This is another one of my gigs that I have offered for a long time. The great thing about social media marketing is that you can get recurring orders from those who want you to continually work on their account, rather than just one-time orders.

If you do a good job, clients will come back month after month to have you manage their social media accounts and you can build up a good recurring income. At some points I had a handful of monthly social media clients making me over $2,000/month.

Design Business Cards

If you’re familiar with Photoshop or another design program, you can create business cards for people on Fiverr. This can be a quick and easy gig to do but can be very profitable. If you’re strategic about it and have a handful of templates ready to go that just need to be customized, you can usually get a business card design done pretty quickly and pocket a good amount of money for very little work.

Logo Design

One of the most popular gigs on Fiverr is logo design, but it’s also in high demand. There are so many small businesses or individuals who dream of starting a business who are looking for a logo to get them started. This can be a great opportunity for you to get some quick and easy design gigs.

To be successful with logo design on Fiverr, I recommend having a good portfolio of logos you’ve designed and being able to show potential clients what kind of style you’re able to do. If you can do a variety of styles, you can even create separate gigs for each one to try and attract different types of potential customers.

Video Editing

As a YouTuber myself, I know how time-consuming video editing can be. If you’re skilled with video editing software like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro, you can offer your services as a video editor on Fiverr. This can involve anything from cutting and splicing together footage to creating intros and outros for videos.

To be successful with this gig, I recommend having a strong portfolio of edited videos that you can show on your gig to potential clients. You can also create a gig video that showcases your skills and what you’re able to do.

There you have it! These are just a few ideas of gigs you can offer on Fiverr to make money. With a little creativity, you can probably think of many more. If you’re thinking about becoming a seller on Fiverr, I hope this has given you some ideas of what you can do and how all of it works.