How To Get Your First Order On Fiverr? (21 Unique Ways)

If you want to get new clients and skyrocket your freelancing business from the start, Fiverr can be one of the best online marketplaces.

It basically helps connect one compatible buyer with another seller for a successful transaction. 

You can offer a wide variety of services on this platform ranging from graphic designing, writing, digital marketing, and video creation and editing to programming and music and audio services.

However, one of the biggest problems you can face as a seller on this platform is that getting your first gig or order on Fiverr may seem like a mission impossible for a while, and this may demotivate you to the point where you completely stop using this service.

First off, perseverance is key here. You can’t simply expect to get multiple clients (or even the first one in this case) in a few days, especially when you’re a new seller on Fiverr with absolutely no reviews or ratings.

Rather than getting frustrated, you should keep doing your level best until you receive your first order on Fiverr.

So, the question is, how can you get your first gig/order on Fiverr? Keep reading this article to crack the secret code! 

How To Get Your First Fiverr Gig? (21 Amazing Ways)

As a starter on Fiverr, you may not be really familiar with different techniques and tips to help you receive the first order quickly.

The biggest challenge is getting that first order, and after that, your journey will be comparatively a breeze. 

Therefore, we have listed down 21 amazing ways/strategies that can transform your mission impossible into a possible one. Before we begin, do watch this video:

1. Narrow Down Your Niche 

There are plenty of services you can offer on Fiverr. However, you shouldn’t simply opt for a category for the sake of getting multiple clients, as you will gradually lose inspiration to work. 

For instance, if you only have a keen interest in writing content, you shouldn’t start selling your services as a social media marketer.

You can also view the competition for different categories. When you search for either category, it will show you “x number of services available”. 

In order to view the sub-categories’ competition, click on the “category” dropdown button, and the numbers in brackets will show the competition.

For instance, the “graphics and design” main category has a total of 17,722 services available as of now. This means you’ll have to compete against other 17,722 gigs, including the ones with stellar five-star ratings and low-price gigs.

 Just have a look below:

competition - get your first fiverr order

If you further narrow down your niche, you will have a better chance of receiving an order. 

So, by clicking on the drop-down “category” button, poster design, business cards & stationery, and illustration, are the less-competitive niches with less than 800 gigs already available.

Instead of creating a gig for the most competitive sub-category like logo design, social media design, or t-shirts and merchandise, a gig mentioning a less-competitive sub-category will help you be more visible to the clients search for these services.  

2. Post Your Gig At The “Right” Time

When a buyer looks up service, they can narrow down their search by selecting the “seller level”. The “seller level” gives four options top-rated seller, level one, level two, and new seller.

As a new seller, you obviously don’t have any ratings. Therefore, Fiverr helps the new freelancers rank on the “new seller” section for a few hours or days. You should leverage this functionality and post your gig at the right time.

For instance, if your target buyer is a company who wants web analysis or copywriting services for their website, it’s better to post your gig on the weekdays. 

On the other hand, a general consumer who may be looking for portrait drawing services will be most active on the weekends.

3. Sell Your Services At A Low Price

Remember that at the start of your freelancing journey on Fiverr, your main goal is to get clients who can leave amazing reviews and ratings on your profile. If your primary initial goal is to simply make money, you will find it hard to receive orders.   

The least price for a gig that you can set on Fiverr is $5. Hence, it’s better to keep low prices in the start to lure the buyers in. For example, as a content writer, you can offer to write a 3000-word article for $5 only.

However, you can’t really set a price as low as $5 for creating a website. So, you should research and see what rates other freelancers have set in the same niche as yours and then decide accordingly.

4. Level Up Your Skills

While you may be trying to catch up with the “level up” trend on social media, it’s also essential to level up your skills for you to be seen as a more authentic and valuable freelancer by the buyers in the market.

The better the skills, the more chances you have to get multiple clients down the line. You can either spend extra time at home honing your skills or get certifications to attract more clients.

On Udemy, you can get lots of free courses or even affordable courses online to polish your skills and stand out among other sellers.

5. Showcase Your Talent With A Portfolio 

As a new seller on Fiverr, how do you expect to get a client to buy your services until or unless you don’t show your skills?

That’s why it’s crucial for you to present all your past work to your clients. Even if you have no experience at all, showcase the work that you yourself did at home. 

For instance, as a writer, you can write some articles on different niches on your own to help your potential clients understand your writing skills.

When you write a description of your order, share a link to your Google Doc or your website for your clients to see your work. You can also add some screenshots of your work to your gig.

6. Write An Eye-Catching Gig Description

proper description to get your initial order

As soon as a buyer clicks on your gig, the description should be compelling enough to make them contact you and place an order. How can you achieve this?

  • You should make sure that your grammar and spellings are accurate. Otherwise, you won’t be taken seriously. This is even more important for writers.
  • Break down your services in bullet points, so it’s easier to read.
  • Highlight the key points to ensure they catch the eye of the buyer.
  • Keep the description short and straight to the point.

You can also look at your competitors’ gig descriptions to get better know-how. However, don’t copy-paste their description. This won’t make you any attractive in the market.

7. Optimize Your Description

Even if you’ve written a powerful piece of description, the grind doesn’t end here. You also need to optimize your description, so it ranks better on the search results and the clients are able to see your gig.

Researching and adding relevant keywords to your post will make your gig more discoverable. One of the techniques you can use to achieve this is to switch your account to a “buyer” account.

In the search results, write the service you will provide. For example, if I write “content writing” in the search bar, there will be lots of automatic search suggestions in bold. Incorporate these automatic suggestions and don’t simply stuff these keywords. Try to make it look as natural as possible.

As a new seller on Fiverr, it’s again better to go for less competitive keywords.

Whichever automatic suggestion you click on and hit the “search” button, click on the drop-down “category” button to create your first gig with less competition, as we already discussed in tip number 1.

8. Create “Similar” Gigs 

More gigs mean you have a higher chance of getting discovered by clients. So, you can create around 5 related gigs at the same time and post them gradually. 

However, make sure you don’t create and post the same gig several times, as this may have a negative impact.

Some of the related gigs you can create are:

Increase organic followers on Instagram

Elevate engagement on Instagram 

Increase website clicks from your Instagram profile

You see how they all have almost the same meaning, but we have used different keywords to encourage ranking.

9. Leverage The FAQ Section Of Your Gig

Faq section on fiverr

Fiverr provides you with an FAQ section with your gig. The FAQ section allows for several questions and answers to help the potential client make an informed decision to get your services.

Therefore, you should harness this section and answer plenty of questions to clear up any confusion related to your niche/service. You can also look at your competitors’ FAQ section to assess what are the most informative questions and answers.

10. Stay Active And Steal Opportunities

When a buyer searches for a gig, they are willing to connect with an online seller for quick communication. Buyers can filter their search results by opting for “online sellers”.

For better chances of receiving your first order on Fiverr, you should stay active on Fiverr quite often. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you have to be glued to your electronic gadgets round the clock.

Merely downloading the Fiverr app on your smartphone and selecting the “show online status” option can help you stay active 24/7. Keep running the app in the background and keep refreshing it from time to time. Voila!

11. Advertise Your Gigs On Social Media

social media to get fiverr orders

More than half of the entire world’s population actively uses social media, these stats are no joke, and you can use them to your own benefit.

It’s important to make your social media presence an authority in your niche. Research which social media platform has the majority of your target audience. 

You shouldn’t solely use your social media pages to promote the links of your gigs, as this will put off your audience.

In addition to sharing your gig links, it’s better to post about tips and techniques in your niche to increase your loyal followers. You can also leverage the paid ad option on social media sites to quickly grow your audience.

12. Use Your Own Profile Picture 

Most of your potential clients will like to check out your profile to know more about you before hiring you. Uploading your own high-resolution profile picture will make you look more professional in the eyes of the buyers.

It will also help create a more “humanly” connection with your clients, and they will find it easier to trust you as compared to a freelancer with no or fake profile picture.

13. Add A Video To Your Gig/Sell Via Videos

Have you ever noticed that most of the high-ranking or best-selling gigs have a video attached to them as well? Video is one of the best-performing content.

You can add a video detailing the services of your work, or even showcasing your work in the video will help you get your first client. You can either upload a video of yourself or a creative, informative video without recording yourself. 

14. Create High-Quality Images For Your Gig

Think images for your gig as thumbnails for YouTube videos. Well-designed thumbnails for YouTube videos perform better than the others. The same is the case with the images you use for your gig.

For creating appealing images, you can use a free user-friendly graphic design tool, Canva, and add the title of your gig to the image as well. 

Use bright colors, but make sure they match the tone of your niche. You can also use free stock images or even add a picture of yourself.

15. Quickly Get A Client Using The “Buyer Request” Feature

When clients or buyers are not able to find a gig relevant to their requirements, they will create a job themselves from scratch, known as “buyer request”. You can apply to buyer requests by writing a job proposal.

You can access this feature by clicking on your seller dashboard and selecting the drop-down tab “more” on the top. Then click on the “buyer request” option to see all the requests.

As a beginner with no ratings, you need to get the attention of the buyer among several other freelancers who have applied for the job. Place the minimum price, and slowly you can increase your rates.

NOTE: As a new seller, you may not be able to see the buyer requests at times as the quota for new sellers may already be filled. Make sure to keep refreshing the buyer request page from time to time to apply to it as soon as a new request appears.

16. Check The Buyer Ratings Before Answering The Buyer Requests

You can only apply to 10 requests per day. Therefore, it’s ideal to utilize them efficiently. Just like the buyer can see your ratings and reviews, so can you for the buyer.

Rather than regretting and getting a poor review from a buyer after all the hard work and effort you put into the project, it’s important to keep “bad” clients at bay from the start.

Read the reviews carefully and see what the freelancers like (or dislike) most about them, then apply accordingly.

17. Don’t “Sir” or “Madam” Your Clients

Instead of addressing your client as “sir” or “madam”, you should use their first name as it will gain their attention more and will make the conservation more relaxed.

Clients aren’t Gods to you. They are simply people looking for solutions to their problems and you are someone who helps them find out what they’re looking for.

18. Write A Winning Proposal

When writing a winning proposal, you should never state this:

“Please, give me this job.”

“I need this job.”

It doesn’t make you attractive in the eyes of the potential client at all. Instead, you should state your skills and mention the benefit they will get from hiring you. Whatever concern the buyer has mentioned in the buyer request, address it.

For example,

With the several years of SEO experience I have, I can help you rank on Google to increase your website clicks and revenue.” 

19. Offer Something For Free

As a beginner, offering an additional service for free can lure the client into placing an order with you. 

If most gigs say they can prepare the order for them in 3 days, try to over-deliver by promising you can do the same in a day. You can also offer a buy one get one free service!

Remember that you must only overpromise if you can over-deliver. Otherwise, it will damage your reputation in the market.

20. Ask Your Friend Or Family Member To Hire You 

This tip worked for one of my friends who was struggling to get the first client, and it may also work for you. You can also ask your friend or a family member who uses Fiverr to hire you once in return for you delivering the job.

For instance, if you’re a writer and your friend owns a blog, you can write a stellar article for them, and in return, they can leave a great review.  

21. Try To Cold-Email Businesses

Cold-emailing may only work for you if you can offer repeated services after delivering one of the services for free or discount.

Some examples are content writing, social media marketing, graphic design, video editing, voiceovers, etc.

When cold-emailing a business, you should make a great impression and be straight to the point. You can find businesses by searching for your niche on search engines and contacting them on their website.

Why Are You Not Getting Clients on Fiverr?

If it’s been quite a long time since you have been waiting for a client to place an order with you, the chances are that you are not following the tips mentioned above properly.

Even if you are implementing some of the strategies, try to pick holes in your techniques.

If you are not the best writer in the world but you are the best graphic designer, you can hire someone to write a description for your profile and gig. Likewise, if you can’t create a video for your gig, you can hire someone else to do it for you.  

You can’t simply wait to get a client quickly without putting in enough effort. You should also try “Quora” for marketing your gigs as it is one of the best ways to promote your services.

You can easily create an account on Quora and search for a question relevant to the services you provide. Try to write a super informative and lengthy answer to help the readers, and don’t forget to add a link to your gig as well.

Why Is It Too Hard to Get Your First Fiverr Gig?

Getting the first order on Fiverr may seem like a mount-climbing journey until you reach its summit and all your efforts and hard work become a reality. It’s all about never giving up.

It’s kind of hard to receive your first gig on Fiverr because there’s a lot of competition on this platform. Almost anyone can join Fiverr, unlike other online marketplaces. 

The earliest you can expect to get an order is within 7 days, while it can take up to 45 days for you to get a client.

It’s essential to optimize your gigs, polish your skills, and practice the techniques we’ve mentioned above to get your first order on Fiverr. However, don’t forget the most important tip:

Stay patient and don’t give up!

My Bonus Tip as a Freelancer

I’ve been in the freelancing industry for almost two years. While it takes a lot of time to get your first-ever client on Fiverr, it is always worth the wait and struggle. Once you get your first order, it causes a snowball effect from thereon.

Another important tip I’d like to mention here is to communicate effectively with your potential and even current clients. Communication is one of the key aspects to building your strong presence as a freelancer in the market.

If you look at Fiverr’s overall ratings for sellers, one of its rating breakdowns is “seller communication level”. It can, of course, have a significant effect on your ratings. Although the most emphasis is given on communication, from writing a proposal to sending your work over, it’s still important to communicate even after you have delivered your services.

When a client contacts you and asks questions, you should provide them with detailed answers to clear up any confusion. Quickly replying to your clients is also essential for client satisfaction.

Remember that there may be many talented freelancers on Fiverr, but your communication can change the game and help you get frequent orders right after your first order with a great review.

My Final Thoughts

You should keep in mind that freelancers now with spectacular ratings and reviews also once struggled with getting their first order ever on Fiverr. 

Their perseverance and skills help them now earn thousands of dollars (or even more) right at the comfort of their home. For most, freelancing has become a full-time job.

It’s all about getting your first client on Fiverr using the tips mentioned above and once you get them, make sure to deliver your best services to them and exceed their expectations. 

You can ask them to leave you great feedback, and after that, you will be able to get several orders down the road.

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