Fiverr for Students: Earn While You Learn

1. Introduction

Students today have it tough. Balancing work, study, and fun is a difficult task. Many turn to a weekly allotment of finances from parents or a student loan in order to get by. However, there are easier ways to make money while studying. Fiverr creates a platform for students to earn money with ease, without having to overexert themselves. This guide will lead you through mastering the art of selling on Fiverr. Fiverr is a unique take on freelance job provision aimed at normal everyday people. People who wish to earn money on the side, people who want to learn the trade of their expertise, and most of all, people who have fun doing it. Fiverr sellers provide services to customers for as much as they please (but no less than five dollars); from which Fiverr takes a 1 dollar cut or 20% from. Services are known as "gigs" and extend a large variety of fields. This could be anything from writing an article, to recording a song, to prank calling someone's best friend.

1.1 Benefits of using Fiverr as a student

Universally, one of the greatest appeals to working for oneself is to no longer have to 'answer to the man'. On Fiverr, you are your own boss. You set your own rates, choose when and what work to take on, and (if you're good enough) you may find you can forge ongoing work relationships and become a valuable freelancer to certain clients. High-performing freelancers often find themselves earning above the minimum wage of unskilled workers while enjoying the work much more.

Flexibility to work at your own pace is an opportunity that should not be taken lightly. This is particularly useful to students who may be working while studying, as you can choose the quantity of work to take on depending on your availability. You could take on a few jobs here and there in your holidays or stock up on work to do through the semester; it's all up to you. Being an online platform, work is available 24/7 so you can fit it around your schedule. This open-all-hours approach means that regardless of time zone, there will always be work available.

As a student, joining a platform such as Fiverr can be a beneficial move in terms of both pocket money and post-graduation employment. Fiverr provides a multitude of opportunities for students, taking on a variety of skills.

1.2 Overview of the guide

Just about every student could do with earning some extra cash in addition to that coming in from the government maintenance loan. Using Fiverr and working online could be a real option for those wanting to earn extra money. It doesn't matter if you don't have expensive video equipment or a concrete background in video editing...just go to the WANTED section and specify what you're good at. You don't have to commit to any orders and can cancel them within 24 hours.

In this section, the guide will provide students with a comprehensive introduction to the idea of part-time work and freelancing, set in the context of using Fiverr as the mechanism. The standard features of Fiverr will be highlighted, but more specific attention will be given to the benefits for students. This chapter will build a thorough understanding of what Fiverr actually is while dismissing any misconceptions or unreliable information.

2. Getting Started on Fiverr

Setting competitive prices for your services: Pricing is a difficult topic. People are looking to purchase services at a cheap rate but nobody wants to work for peanuts. Setting a low price is going to make it easier for a new seller to get orders but there are negative aspects of this. A low price can reflect badly on the quality of your service and people may be less inclined to buy from you. Selling yourself cheap can also be demoralizing, the look of $4 in your pending clearance will not give you the same satisfaction as a higher amount. It is for this reason that I would initially set prices slightly below the average for your type of service. When standards are met and you have been providing reliable service for a while it's a good idea to gradually increase your prices and find the highest point between maximizing income and order quantity. This may involve some trial and error and it's important to change prices back if the order quantity starts to drop.

Choosing the right gigs for students: Picking the right gigs is fundamental to a student's success on Fiverr. Unfortunately, students do not usually have the necessary skills to dive in and compete in the most popular categories like animation, graphics design or programming. Although these categories do have the most work, they are highly competitive and generally require a high level of skill to make any reasonable income. It can be disheartening for a student to make a gig and not receive any orders for weeks so it's important to utilize one's skills in an area with less competition. Think about what you are studying and the skills that you possess now or will possess in the near future. Examples include writing, translation, video editing, voice over work and even offering to do a company's social media work e.g. managing a Facebook page or Twitter account. The more niche an area is the less competition there will be and high competition is something to avoid at the start. Later when you are more confident on Fiverr it is always possible to branch out and try something different.

Creating a strong Fiverr profile: Create a profile which stands out, people who are looking to purchase services are doing so because they do not have enough time to get it done themselves. This means that buyers are looking for competent and reliable sellers. It's important that your profile reflects this and puts across the idea that you are going to be the best person for the job. A profile picture is a must. It does not have to be a picture of you but it makes a huge difference, people are naturally more inclined to trust somebody if they can put a face to a name. Buyers will also feel more comfortable parting with their money if they think there is an actual person on the other end rather than just an avatar. A video is a huge advantage. Fiverr allows you to upload a short "gig" video explaining what it is you are offering. It has been proven that gig videos have a much higher conversion rate, this means that people are more likely to buy having watched your video. An introductory video gives off a good impression, it also separates you from the myriad of sellers who have not put forth the effort to make a video. Complete every aspect of your profile. You will be asked to fill in information about yourself, your skills and create gigs. Do not leave anything incomplete. A Fiverr profile is like a resume. It is a chance for you to sell your skills to potential buyers, anything left incomplete reflects badly on you and decreases the likelihood of people wanting to buy from you.

2.1 Creating a strong Fiverr profile

Be sure to use correct English, and avoid text speak at all costs. If spelling and grammar is not your strong point, get a friend to look over it for you. Your aim is to look professional. Use a friendly, conversational tone in the profile information, to show potential buyers that you are easy to work with. Avoid sounding pushy, arrogant, or using cliché sales phrases such as "number one service!" and "buy now!". Remember, your profile is the buyer's first impression of you. Make it good! Your profile information is the most important part of your profile, as this is what will attract buyers to your services and assure them that you are the right person for the job.

A good Fiverr profile is essentially an online CV. It is a summary of who you are, what you have to offer, and most importantly, what you can do for a potential buyer. A good profile will help you to: - Stand out from the rest. - Be found in the search results. - Convince potential buyers to make an order with you.

2.2 Choosing the right gigs for students

The aim is to earn money, but most likely you'll want to avoid anything that involves too much time or work. That said, a guaranteed $4 may sound better than risking a lot of time working on some gig that doesn't sell. Look for the jobs that have a high volume of sales. A plentiful customer base is a good sign, and it's always possible that you'll be able to get in on some of that action. Consider looking into the forums for information on this. Some gigs can be right out tedious. This may not bother you if you're getting paid, but it's still better to do something you enjoy. Think about your skills and talents. What are you good at? What do you like doing? Ideally, you'd want to do something you're already skilled in, or perhaps learn some new skill that you never got around to. Fiverr is a rather creative place - if you're a creative person, there are definitely some fun and interesting opportunities.

2.3 Setting competitive prices for your services

Google can be a useful tool when setting your price. It can provide information on similar services in terms of asking price as well as what people are actually willing to pay and what is not worth their money. You can research by typing in keywords that are related to your service then analyze the results. Be realistic. If you are new to Fiverr and do not have a huge reputation, don't overvalue your services. You may have the best service of its kind but no one is going to buy it for $100 if similar services are being offered for $20. High-value services ($0 - $50) typically have a higher purchase rate, so many people will argue the best way to make money is to sell lots of cheap gigs. This method is the quickest way to leveling up on Fiverr but is not always the best way long term. If your service is of high quality, thorough, and very useful – it's not always a bad thing to sell it at a higher price. It may have a lower purchase rate, but you won't need to do near as much work for the same amount of money. If you are doing say 8 hours of work for $4, that's $0.50 an hour! If you believe your services are value for money, there's no harm in aiming for $5 - $10 a gig.

3. Balancing Studies and Fiverr Gigs

By its very nature, Fiverr is casual work that often doesn't quite feel like 'work'. It's easy to sign on and tell yourself you'll only be on there for an hour, only to find it's 3 am and you've turned down social invites and ignored your study notes for the next day's exam. People are creatures of habit and are either 'night people' or not, but regardless of timing, try to allocate a specific period each day to do your Gig work, whether it's one hour or five. Often tasks take longer than you originally assumed, and few people want to stop something right in the middle of it when it's getting interesting. Funnily enough, the 3 am people are often the ones with 9 am commitments. Don't be afraid to tell potential customers that you won't be working at a certain time; it's important to stick to this commitment.

Students are inevitably busy people, with study commitments, socializing, family obligations, and all those extracurricular activities that are supposed to make your resume stand out. The last thing you need to add to the mix is another set of responsibilities. It's tempting to just take on Fiverr work as it comes, but you're better off making a plan which accommodates your study and assignment deadlines. When you know you've got a crazy assessment week coming up, you'll be glad you don't have a Fiverr deadline looming over your head. There's no reason in particular Fiverr work won't fit in with your study load, it's just a matter of learning to manage your time effectively.

3.1 Time management techniques for students

We allocate time to things we consider important to us. This is a psychological fact that we can use to our advantage in improving our time management. If you have made it this far into your studies, you already have a good understanding of the importance of time management. How would you advise someone to manage their time effectively? What are the key attributes they need to demonstrate? These are useful questions to ask ourselves because we often learn indirectly from our own advice. By asking yourself these questions and responding, you are, in fact, making a conscious decision to be more like the type of person you described. This is the psychological theory known as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). According to this theory, our behaviors are directly influenced by our attitudes and subjective norms, which are mediated by our intentions. Therefore, to change a behavior, we should make a strong commitment to do so. For instance, if you make a personal decision to try and spend less time on Facebook and study instead, you are more likely to follow through with your decision. Remember, the strength of one's intention and ultimately their commitment can be simply changed by doing so. For example, if you spend an hour volunteering to help a charity, you may start to take a liking to work, therefore intending to increase your commitment to 2 hours. This will continue as long as working the 2 hours is a satisfying and positive experience. Therefore, the strength of commitment determines the level at which you manage your time on each given task. Accessibility to resources is another significant factor in time management. If a certain scientific article or exercise question may take 15 minutes to find, it is a waste of time when you could have accessed it in 5 minutes. Therefore, you should always make sure that you are optimally using your time on a task by having good access to its required resources. This relates to the MPS and MRP model of organization in that planning to have resources available is much more efficient than searching for lost time. Another thing to consider is the amount of time you spend on a particular task. Often, we spend more time than planned doing an easy or unimportant task because we have allocated too much time for a given task. In the future, compare the degree of importance of tasks to the amount of time spent on them. Always remind yourself that time is a precious resource that can never be recovered. This is a very important concept to understand as it appeals to our intrinsic understanding of economics. Costs are often associated with how much we value something. Sunk costs are costs that cannot be recovered once they have been spent and act as a very strong motivation for not wasting resources. Often, we find ourselves spending time working on something when there is little benefit, understanding that we really should stop and cut our losses. This is an effective use of time management.

3.2 Prioritizing tasks effectively

One way to help decide what is important is to use the priority matrix. This is a table with four quadrants, one each for important and urgent tasks, important and not urgent tasks, unimportant and urgent tasks, and unimportant and not urgent tasks. The aim is to spend the most time working on tasks in quadrant 2 while minimizing the time spent on tasks in the other three quadrants. This will reduce the time pressures (urgent tasks) that lead to stress and will help achieve personal and academic goals. An example of a priority matrix is shown below.

Setting priorities is a crucial part of effective time management. The aim is to spend more time on the important things than on the urgent things. The important things are those that help us achieve our personal and academic goals, while the urgent things are those that have a deadline. It is essential to focus on the important tasks in order to avoid the stress of having to do important tasks when they become urgent. Remembering to make time for important tasks is a recurring theme in effective time management.

3.3 Creating a schedule that works for you

This works hand in hand with thirty minute time smashing. If you have a gap in your day between classes or some free time in the evening and a task needs to be done, thirty minute time smashing is a great way to complete the task without taking up too much of your time to relax. Set yourself a 30-minute timer and work for that entire duration, after which you are free to relax or do something you enjoy. Because the time to work is so short and there is a balance between work and free time, you are less likely to procrastinate and the task will get done. The fear of a large task that is due in a month's time is what causes students to leave work until the last minute, so divide the task into smaller tasks with deadlines and thirty minute time smashing is an effective way to stay on top of these small deadlines.

If you have an early morning lecture and you know you are not productive in the mornings, do not schedule any Fiverr work beforehand as the chances are you will be rushing it or making an excuse to postpone it. Instead, do it a few hours before the deadline when it is best for you. You do not have the constraints of time limitations for Fiverr tasks, so there is no necessity to adhere to a time that does not work for you. You will produce better quality work when it is done at a time you are comfortable with. Also, always give yourself more time than you think you will need. If the task will take around 90 minutes, schedule 2 hours in case you go over time and so you are not rushed.

3.4 Dealing with stress and burnout

Dealing with stress and burnout is inevitable, but it is something we can manage if we equip ourselves with the right knowledge and attitude towards it. Stress can be defined as our body's reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response. The body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses. Stress is a normal part of life. You can feel stress from your environment, your body, and your thoughts. Even positive life changes such as a promotion, a mortgage, or the birth of a child produce stress. During times of stress, the body reacts by secreting certain hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. These substances help the body to obtain the energy it needs and also cause numerous other changes within the body. So when stress is triggered, adrenaline and cortisol can aid performance and efficiency in coping with the situation. The problem is an overabundance of these hormones can be detrimental to our health. Stress can be the root cause of many health problems such as hypertension, heart disease, and even psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression. High levels of stress can lead to mental and physical burnout, a state of complete mental and emotional exhaustion. This is as a result of the body continuously being in a stressed state and not being able to cope with it. Although this sounds pretty grim, stress can also be a positive influence to aid motivation, attitudes, and overall functioning in everyday activities.

4. Maximizing Success on Fiverr

Video/Picture - Gigs with a video or picture are statistically more likely to sell. Seeing as you are a student, it is very likely that your service is the same as somebody else's. People are more inclined to buy if they can see what they're getting. With a video, you can describe your service and yourself, making the buyer feel more comfortable. It doesn't have to be anything special. I used a 20-second video from my webcam and got positive comments on it.

Description - This is the chance to really sell yourself to the potential buyer. Describe your service in detail and with enthusiasm to show that you are genuinely willing to help them. If you're stuck for ideas, you can use the sales template on the Fiverr forum.

Tags - Fiverr allows you to attach several tags to your gig so that it appears in the search when buyers are looking for those specific services. Think of what the buyer is looking for and use tags that cater to that. For example, if you're offering to make PowerPoint slides for someone, use tags like "professional presentations," "PowerPoint design," etc.

Title - Make your title clear and specific to what you're offering. Instead of "I can write an essay for you," try something like "I will write a high quality, university standard essay for you."

Gigs are the essence of Fiverr and the way sellers generate sales. As a student, your ultimate goal is to be making money while doing as little work as possible. With Fiverr, if you take the time to make a quality gig and promote it effectively, that is a very realistic possibility. There are a few elements to consider when creating a gig:

4.1 Promoting your gigs effectively

Promote your services on your college campus. Let's not forget that you're a student, and this is Fiverr for students. That gives you a unique opportunity to promote your skills/services in a localized environment. Many students are in need of the same services that you'd offer through Fiverr, such as essay writing, graphic design, or IT service. Take advantage of this by offering your services personally to students on campus, with the intention of using their positive feedback to generate more leads on the website. You could also offer a discount on your Fiverr gig for students at your college or in your local area, giving them an incentive to use your services and leave you positive feedback. Social networking. At this day and age, most college students are heavily involved in social networking. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to get the word out about your gigs is by using your personal social network for promotion. If you have a large following, you could create social media pages/profiles specifically for the services you're offering, in which you post regular updates and links to your Fiverr gigs. A good tactic could be to post a status or tweet explaining that you will be offering a discount or free extras to anyone who purchases your services within a certain time frame. An effective status or tweet has the potential to spread rapidly and result in multiple sales in a short period of time. If you have friends who are willing to help you out, get them to share your gigs via social networking too.

4.2 Building a positive reputation and getting reviews

Buyer Requests are a section of the site which new sellers often forget or ignore, likely because it may appear that the requests are swamped with offers to do the work for very little money. Nonetheless, sending offers to Buyer Requests is a great way to get started and to help build momentum in getting initial sales and reviews. This is a perfect occasion to offer your services at a slightly reduced rate in order to attract and entice new buyers. Money isn't the priority for now, it's about generating interest in your services and getting those first few sales under your belt. A high-quality offer can often lead to the buyer checking your profile and gig, therefore resulting in them buying from you after already considering other offers. This is now a scenario where you have a repeat occurrence of attracting long-term custom. Always make offers directly related to what the buyer is asking for, generic spam offers will not help you to achieve this. A well thought out offer at a reduced rate can often lead to a tip and/or a 5-star review from a highly satisfied buyer. This is a step in the right direction.

This one's a biggie. As aforementioned, showing your performance through delivering high-quality work is how others will come to see your attitude towards everything you do. Whether it's reflected upon your customer service, adaptive skills to different buyer personalities, how efficient you are or punctuality with delivery, your performance is your key to a positive reputation. High-quality work makes for a happy buyer, therefore increasing chances for them to return. So long as you maintain high standards and consistent quality, they will remember these high standards when coming to look for another seller in your service category, this is when you will begin to get long-term custom.

4.3 Expanding your skills and services

Creating new gigs in a different Fiverr category can also be a good move. It's a way to expose your services to an entirely new group of buyers that you may have not reached with your previous gigs. For example, many internet marketers are looking for graphics to use on their websites but may not have thought to look for these services in the "graphics and design" category. If you have been designing eBook covers, DVD labels or web graphics, you could post these as new gigs to reach a fresh group of buyers.

Another method is to consider offering a package deal to provide more comprehensive solutions to buyers. Buyers often are looking for a total solution to their problem and offering a package deal can often result in a large order. For example, if you are offering an article writing gig, you can offer to submit the article to directories and social bookmarking sites to drive traffic. This is a service in high demand as many people understand the SEO benefits of directory submission and link building but many do not have the time to do it themselves.

The most straightforward way to expand is to offer a related service to your existing gigs. If you are already getting orders for one type of gig, it's highly likely that the same buyers will be interested in your other related services.

Offering a wider range of services can attract more buyers to your Fiverr profile and increase your earnings. There are many ways you can expand your services and this section covers a few of the methods.

4.4 Scaling your Fiverr business as a student

The last topic on scaling earnings is a rather unusual but important one. Assuming your account with Fiverr has begun to make a substantial amount of money and freelancing is something you wish to continue in the future, it's wise to research tax laws in your country regarding supplementary income. It's quite an eye-opener when you realize you owe a percentage of money earned from doing digital work!

The next important thing to look at is money itself. It's all well and good to earn more money now, but what about the future? It's a very bad habit to rely on money from freelance work to fund your cost of living. If, by increasing your workload, you find yourself spending more than usual, it's a good idea to monitor revenue against spending. Remember why you started earning in the first place and always make sure that studies and future life do not suffer. Fiverr money can disappear just as fast as it's made if it's not managed well. Always set aside a safety net of money in case things go wrong.

Now, here are a few important things to discuss when it comes to scaling your Fiverr earnings as a student. First of all, let's talk about time. You may have started on Fiverr earning comfortable money while balancing work with studies. If you want to earn more money by doing more work, you need to consider how that will eat into your study time. I never recommend compromising your course grades to earn more money. One way you can increase your workload without compromising study time is to work more during the vacation periods from university. Many countries have long summer holidays, and if you plan well, you can save up enough to reduce your workload during term time. With this in mind, when considering a higher workload on Fiverr, it's important to be realistic with buyers about delivery times. It's much better to be known as reliable for delivering early than to stress yourself out and risk receiving negative feedback. Speaking of risk, consider how new services or skills could affect your current income on Fiverr. If you think something could be hit or miss, it's best to trial it in your free time first before making it a public service. Be sensible and always consider potential positives versus potential negatives.