What $35 Gets You on Fiverr (Part 2)

Today I’d like to take a more serious look at how you can use Fiverr.com to help your business than the more comical one in last post.

One thing I’ve used Fiverr for in the past, with some good success, is graphic design. There are a ton of graphic designers on Fiverr offering all sort of different services…logo design, banner ad design, custom cartoons, photo retouching, website header design, etc.

Putting Fiverr Designers to the Test

I’m developing a course, The Local PPC Blueprint, which is a step-by-step guide to setting up a Google AdWords account for a local business. I’ll need a logo and an eBook cover for the course. Nothing fancy, just something professional looking.

So I decided to see what I could get on Fiverr. I ordered 3 “gigs” (a gig is a project on Fiverr) for a total of $15 and here’s what I got…

1. For the first gig, I got 7 custom logo concepts developed. This was an “Express” gig on Fiverr and, exactly 7 hours 59 minutes and 19 seconds after ordering it, I had my logos.

The only direction I gave the designer on this one was the name of my course, that I was looking for something clean and professional and that the product was for local business owners. Here are the logos…

2. This one was another “Express” logo design from a highly rated seller and was delivered within 24 hours of my ordering it. I provided a bit more detail on this one (the seller had a short questionnaire for me to fill out after I placed the order). They asked for:

1. Logo type (text, image or both)
2. Text or image to be added, if any
3. Color choice
4. Target audience
5. Your website, if any

They delivered an editable source file (which is helpful if I ever wanted to tweak the logo) and also offer lifetime support for further help or support on the design. Here’s what they came up with…

3. This last one is a cover for my eBook. It was designed by a Top Rated Seller on Fiverr and, unlike the logos, was not an Express gig. But I still got the design within 24 hours of sending the information to the seller. Out of the logos I got above, I liked the last one best so I sent that, along with some copy I wanted on the eBook cover, to this seller. She came back with this…

So, in all, I spent $15 and, within 24 hours of placing each order, got the finished design back.

I’m not crazy about any of the logos above. Though I think a few of the logos have potential and could be tweaked into something I’d be happy with.

And I think the eBook cover is dreadful…I don’t like the yellow background at all and I’m not sure that I can (or want to) use Google’s logo on it. But it only cost $5 so no big loss.

6 Lessons Learned About Using Fiverr for Graphic Design

So what have I learned from ordering these, and other, graphics gigs on Fiverr?

1. The more direction you provide the sellers about what you’re looking for, the better your chance of success. I provided very little direction to the sellers above and the results reflect that. Even just providing some samples of company logos you like to a seller would be very helpful in guiding the finished product you receive.

2.  If you need high quality, custom, original graphics done that reflect your business/product/service, Fiverr isn’t the place for you. To get that level of attention and service, you need to spend the money to hire a skilled professional designer for a lot more than $5!

3. Fiverr’s great for generating ideas and brainstorming. For $20, you can hire 4 different people for your graphic design project and get 4 different concepts. You may end up with either a concept or two you can run with or, at the very least, have something you can use as a starting point. And, if not, you’re only out $20. Very little downside here!

4. The most successful graphic design gigs I’ve gotten in the past on Fiverr have been for creating headers for WordPress sites I’ve built. In those cases, I knew the words and images I wanted in the headers but just needed someone to lay it out for me. In a few cases, I went back to the seller to have them make some minor changes to their original work to get it just right (most sellers will do minor revisions at no additional charge). But, overall, I’ve been very happy using Fiverr for this type of work.

5. It’s great for finding people to make simple tweaks to your existing graphics. It’s probably not worth your time to mess around with graphics or photos in image editing software. If you know what you want and it’s pretty straightforward to do, you can find someone on Fiverr to take care of it for you and spare you the time and headaches of doing it yourself.

6. If you need decent graphics fast and cheap, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better place to get them than Fiverr.

While you can have success on Fiverr for graphics projects, there are some types of projects I would never use Fiverr for. I’ll cover those, and share some more of the gigs I ordered, in my next post.

And, out of curiosity, what do you think about the graphics above? Any stand out at you as being particularly good/bad? Are they worth $5?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

What $35 Gets You on Fiverr (Part 1)

There’s a lot of talk about outsourcing these days. And for good reason. You can have people from all over the world do things for your business at dirt cheap rates.

My favorite outsourcing site is Fiverr. This site is built around the concept of hiring people to do things for $5. And you’d be amazed at what people will do for $5.

Among the popular offerings on the site are graphic design, SEO, writing, voiceovers, help with WordPress sites, and even fun, off-beat projects like this one that I got last week (the ending is the best part!)…

I’ve watched it at least a dozen times and still crack up every time!

Sure, there were some rough edits and there’s some inaccurate information (though I was named to a list of 20 “Smokin’ Hot Pieces of Brain Candy”, it was not a list of the top 20 Internet marketers). However, all I did was send him a very rough idea of what I wanted him to talk about and he ad libbed most of the video and did a great job of it!

Now I’m probably not going to put this on the consulting services page of my website, but I’ve posted it on YouTube and embedded it in this post. And for the $5 I paid, whatever posting it in those two places does for me is totally worth it!

Over the next few posts (click to read Part 2 and Part 3), I’m going to share the lessons I’ve learned on using Fiverr.com…what it’s good for, what you want to avoid and also share some of the other gigs I recently ordered (some more serious and others, like the “preacher” video above, more on the fun side!).

Until then, if you want a “preacher” singing the praises of you or your company for $5, check out my new buddy banjoman15 on Fiverr.

And, if you liked the video, I appreciate any FB shares, Tweets or Google+’s you can give by clicking the buttons below.

Do You Have the Marketing Cajones To Pull This Off?

My mom sent me these pictures from a store in New York City that only sells rice pudding…

Would you dare be this bold in marketing your business?

While most companies play it safe and won’t take the risk to be different, this company (Rice To Riches) is boldly going where most companies won’t.

And, judging by the 1500+ reviews they have on Yelp, people are responding!

Rice to Riches is actually doing two things that totally differentiate themselves…

First, all they sell is rice pudding. There are plenty of dessert places to choose from in New York City, but how many specialize in rice pudding?

Second is their snarky, attention-grabbing messaging. Besides the signs above, their flavors have memorable names including Sex Drugs and Rocky Road, Fluent in French Toast, It Takes Two To Peach Mango, and Chocolate Cherry Crime Scene.

That snarky signage made such an impression on my mom that she took photos and sent them to my sisters and me (and she was ready to go in and try some pudding, despite being stuffed from breakfast, but the store wasn’t open yet). It made such an impression on me that I’m writing about it.

A big part of marketing is getting noticed. Separating yourself from the competition. Being memorable.

Whether you think Rice to Riches crosses the line of appropriateness and good taste here by using some profanities in their signage, you can’t deny they’re achieving all those things.

And while I don’t encourage you to resort to profanities in your marketing, I would challenge you to stand out more.

Think really hard about what makes your company more unique, more desirable and more memorable than your competitors. It could be specializing in serving a very specific segment of your market, it could be bold messaging in your advertising, it could be your prices or pricing options, it could be your story/personality, it could be your selection.

Whatever it is, that uniqueness should become the main focus of your marketing. Your website, elevator speech, AdWords ads, business cards, etc. should all reflect that.

So spend some time figuring out how your business is unique, get some consulting help doing that if you need it and figure out how stand out from the competition.

I truly believe finding your unique selling proposition (USP) is one of the most important exercises a business owner can go through. And if you nail your USP, your business will be ideally positioned for success and you’ll never have to worry about working at a “dead-end job” for a “ball-busting asshole” for the rest of your life!