Wednesday, April 25, 2012

TOP 5 Reasons YOU Should Start Using Fiverr NOW.

Fiverr.com, or Fiverr to veteran users, seems to be the topic du jour these days.

I've been following an extensive discussion on the amazing Solosez discussion list about Fiverr over the last two weeks.

It was interesting enough for Carolyn Elefant to ask for tips about it in her marvelous blog, My Shingle.

I was attracted to both of these discussions: thanks to Joanne Quinn Smith, aka the technogranny, I have several brain cells called Fiverr, so I see it all over the place now.

If you've never heard of Fiverr, reserve a few brain cells for it. It's a terrific way to get professional help from all over the world, all for $5 per gig. You can go on Fiverr, too, and make a little money if your accounts payable are running behind.

Still need convincing, here are my TOP Five reasons, all based on social proof, why you should use Fiverr for your next project.

1. The wicked cool banner you see at the top of this blog.

I've had some terrific response to the new banner. It looks great. It cost me five dollars. I have two more in the works, and I sort of need to get them finished. They look great, too. My only contribution was to request a pair of red shoes. My designer, Nancy, came up with everything else. Wait until you see what she's done with The-Barefoot-Barrister, my new coaching site.

2. My buddy JG Francoeur, The Messy Manager, loves it.

Here's what JG says: "Got this video done by Fiverr - Best $5 ever spent... MESSY Manager - Grab Your FREE COPY!: http://t.co/0zIFQPQy via @youtube."

BTW, you should really take him up on his offer because it's a terrific book. 

3. The list of my Solosez colleagues who like Fiverr is as long as my arm.

Solo and small firm lawyerpreneurs (I think I may just have coined a new word!) have to be frugal. The Fivver projects ranged from Facebook makeovers, to web & business card design, to fancy craigslist ads. None of the reviews were negative. But you have to be careful - there are some reports of malware stored in images, and some so-called SEO experts may not be quite reputable - billable professionals would need to steer from - and report - any negative experiences. 

Fiverr rates its providers on timeliness and customer approval, so check around and READ THE RECOMMENDATIONS. Providers do get negative ratings for tardiness, bad customer reaction, and quality issues, so pay attention to that.

4. You'll probably be doing a mitzvah for somebody.

The woman who does my banners is from Greece. Do have any idea how far five hard Washingtons go in Greece? Or Turkey, or India, or Ukraine, or in the United States? Literally, you may be putting food on a family's table for a week. Or you may be buying beer for some hard-up college student. Who cares? Someone is putting themselves out there to make an income they wouldn't otherwise have. And, as Carolyn Elefant notes,  

  • if you’re skilled enough to cut a video opening in 10 minutes and can churn out six in an hour, that’s $30, which honestly, is more than document reviewers earn these days.

5. It's all about the Lincolns, baby.

It's five dollars. Seriously. That's cheaper than some Starbucks drinks. And if you need something done quickly, and reasonably well, you can do that with Fiverr. Nancy turned around drafts of my project in about 36 hours. A few comments later, and within a week I had my banner, and two other sizes for advertising on other blogs (see the small version at Positively Pittsburgh Live Magazine).

For the price and turnaround time, you may not get stellar quality. But you'll get an idea of what the purveyor can do, and you can hire her or him for more expensive gigs.

Happy Birthday PPL!

Speaking of FIVES --- Happy Birthday PPL

Positively Pittsburgh Live Magazine, The Technogrannyshow, and all of their related wonderfulness turn five years old today! In five years, its founder Joanne Quinn Smith, has grown her online web programs into an international empire of wonderful content and fun programs. 

You have to appreciate these impressive stats:

The Positively Pittsburgh Live site has had more than 1 million listeners.

Her sites have:
220,000  hits per month
62,000 unique page views per month
Viewer Growth: 11.6% per month

These stats don't take into account the evangelistic graduates of her many marketing training programs. I'm a recent grad of the Web 2,0 Gorilla Branding training, and the program is freaking amazing. 

Check out her Positive Pittsburghers site. It's a Fiverr banner. 

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