Fiverr

Fiverr works differently to most freelance marketplaces. Instead of clients posting a job and freelancers bidding on it, sellers list packaged services at a fixed price with a fixed turnaround, and buyers order them like products.

How it works

• You publish a "gig" with set tiers, a price and a delivery time, so there is no back and forth over quotes before work starts
• Buyers order directly, and payment is held until the work is delivered and accepted
• Completing orders on time and keeping ratings up moves you through seller levels, which unlock more listings and better placement in search
• Categories run well beyond the writing and design it started with, covering development, video, music, marketing and admin support

Worth knowing

Fiverr takes 20% of everything you earn, which is at the steep end, so build it into your pricing rather than discovering it at payout. Buyers pay a separate service fee on top of your listed price, so the total they see is higher than the number you set.

The platform's reputation for cheap work is not entirely unfair, and the lower categories are genuinely a race to the bottom. The sellers doing well on it tend to be the ones offering something specific and productised rather than competing on being the cheapest.

Who it suits

Good if your work packages neatly into a repeatable deliverable at a predictable price. Less good for open-ended consultancy or anything needing a scoping conversation first, where a marketplace like PeoplePerHour fits better.