I tried this new thing out recently, after an ex-colleague of mine told me about it.
I had no idea what to expect and what the first thing I had to do on the site, so I basically winged it. Needless to say, after a day, I got the first order for my gig.
My gig, which I aptly named “I will edit your work, in terms of grammar and spelling for $5”, stemmed from the fact that that was the only thing I could think of that I could do online to earn a bit of moola without trying too hard. I just wanted to experiment with the site and it’s 5 bucks merely because the site insisted on adding it onto my gig’s title. Also, that’s sort of like the site’s thing; “provide and order services for the low price of $5” or something like that. And then, my description was:
I am willing to proofread your written pieces to the best of my abilities, in terms of grammar and spelling. I will also be able to provide a review on how well the essay reads throughout, so as to make it read even better than it already is.
My first order wasn’t even related to what I had advertised, but since it was a review on pets, I thought, “Heck, this ain’t bad.” I got two orders like that and after both orders, I promptly forgot about the site.
Just last Friday, I received an order from someone in the Netherlands late at night (time difference, no?) and I was reminded that I forgot to shut the gig down. So I did the order, but a few hiccups happened. I then realized that Fiverr just wasn’t my thing.
For some reason, my internal conscience is bothered by the fact that I am earning money online just by staying comfortably at home and doing something that doesn’t take me much effort; I just feel like I am cheating money from people. And it might be because I just have a very traditional mindset when it comes to earning money. I may have jumped onto Fiverr quickly to test it out and was excited about the prospect of earning money on the site initially, but all I know is that, despite the fact that it may seem like freedom to do whatever you want and earn money from it on the site, it just seemed constricting to me. And there is absolutely no direct contact (and what I mean by this is that I don’t get to meet them face to face) between the buyer and the seller. It just felt really unnatural to me, seeing as body language and facial expressions provide so much more information about someone, rather than just the words they choose to reveal online.
It was a good try, but I don’t think I’ll be relying too much on it for wages in the future.
Ruminations 