The Problem With Being a Seller on Fiverr
The infamous $5 gigs
Last month, I signed myself up as a seller on Fiverr.
One of the biggest freelance markets, where you can sell almost any service.
I have heard a lot of hype about this site and how so many freelancers have made hundreds of thousands from their gigs.
So of course, I gave in and created two. One for video editing and one for YouTube channel creation.
Both of these are fairly priced, I think. $5 for short videos and $40-$80 for longer videos. And for channel creation, I charge about $50–$100.
For those of you not familiar with video editing, you should know it is a long and hard process. You have to skim through hours of recordings and trim it down to minutes. With those trimmed bits of recordings, you have to tell a story and keep all viewers engaged. Using sound effects, smooth transitions, and visual effects. It is not easy and is really tedious.
Creating a YouTube channel is just as time-consuming. And in my gig, I even offered 5 free videos on top of the channel.
Who can beat that?
Well, apparently, everyone could beat it.
The competition for video editing and YouTube channel creation gigs is tough.
There are sellers offering 4–8 minute videos for $25–$30. Which is so hard for me to grasp.
And fun fact: It doesn’t take 8 minutes to edit an 8-minute video.
It can take days to edit. So it's kinda a slap in the face to be asked to edit long videos for only $30.
Especially if I am using an application that I am paying $20.99 for, that a lot of clients don’t have access to or experience in.
I feel sad that so many sellers don’t know their worth. And that cheap services have become a norm on Fiverr until you build an established presence and can up your prices.
It makes it difficult for new sellers like me to enter the market.
Why would someone buy my $40 gig when someone is offering it for half the price?
I hate to question the quality of my service. But when I was deciding whether to lower my gig prices, I couldn’t help it.
I started to wonder if my editing skills were subpar.
Spending days comparing my videos to others and grimacing at mine when I notice any mistake.
However, I have to remind myself of all the good comments from family, friends, and even strangers on my videos.
I have to know my worth.
I probably won’t ever lower the prices, just because I believe clients are paying for not only a video editing service, but someone's time, skill, experience, and quality.
And like I said earlier, the video editing software I use isn’t cheap.
So if they don’t like my prices then they can go elsewhere.
Which they more than likely will…and that’s the problem.
