Okay, it’s time for me to be that guy again. All over Facebook I’m seeing these ads for Fiverr, the site that encourages people to perform services for the paltry sum of five dollars. They’re trying to get me to like their fan page, check them out and maybe jump on the band wagon. Sorry, it ain’t gonna happen.
The upside of Fiverr is if you’re looking for cheap labor this is your dream. This is the next best thing to opening a warehouse in China. What I’m having trouble understanding is what’s the motivation for the people offering the services. Perhaps they are desperate because of being unemployed and are unable to find income elsewhere which is understandable. Or maybe they just don’t value their work very much.
You have people offering everything from 45 minute financial advice videos, doing personalized original artwork, writing short stories based on your hopes & dreams, you name it. I’m sure someone’s probably going to offer to come to your house and clean your toilet.
I’m not trying to tell people what they should or shouldn’t do, that’s up to them. But you should really be careful when it comes to something like this. One of the worst things that could happen is you become successful, you’re swamped with cheap orders and now you’re trapped in a sweatshop of your own making (this happens on Etsy a lot!). A successful artist once told me,” Don’t sell your work so cheap that you are doing yourself a disservice. Once you’re known as the cheap artist that’s what you’ll always be.”
