I first learned of Fiverr two years ago but didn’t see the need to use it then and I don’t think I even went to the site. I heard what it was, an e-commerce marketplace for things starting at five bucks.

Fast Forward to December 2013. A co-worker was talking about a logo he got on 99 Designs. I wasn’t that impressed and somehow remember Fiverr. I told him to try it out. And he did. A logo for a concept company we were thinking about was designed. Yep, it’s a guinea pig. His name is Miles 🙂

That got me thinking, what else can you get on Fiverr? A quick peruse throughout the site answered that question for me. Basically, everything. I had a just launched an ebook and I thought could sell on the site. All I would have to do is upload a file and receive 5, actually four bucks for it. Seemed easy enough. A few weeks went by and I had made 8 bucks! WooHoo. After searching the site in more detail, I decided I wanted to do more gigs.

On that same day, I received an email introduction from a potential client for consulting work. But, what it really was, is a person looking to pick my brain and then never hire me or rather PAY me. I responded back saying thanks and then emailed again saying if the person wanted to meet with me, they could hire me. I mean, why shouldn’t I be paid if they are going to make money off of what strategies I give?

Guess What? No response from the person who really wanted to meet me. Did he really want to meet me or was he just looking for a pat on the back and free help? As soon as I clicked send, I thought, this is my Fiverr. I will review a business plan for you. I hate business plans and people who spend weeks developing a plan instead of actually going out and finding a paying customer. So, instead of doing these gigs for free or getting a free lunch (maybe) I could get a few bucks for it and test out Fiverr.

What the site has that is cool, are levels. The more you sell, the more extras Fiverr give you. Your five buck gig can turn into 165 bucks for a few minutes worth of work and even more if you become a Top Rated Seller, some $500+.

I decided I would test out the site and see if it was worth it. I didn’t set a goal in dollars or gigs bought, but I assumed I would be able to internally know whether or not it was worth it or not.

About a week in I was featured on the homepage. Over a million eyeballs saw my gig and a few more were purchased. My description and video were weak though and I tweaked the descriptions. I looked at other Fiverr seller pages and saw a few trends.

Tip: The key to Fiverr is to not spend all day on one five dollar gig, rather finds items you can do in a very short period of time that is valuable to others.

Being on the main page was interesting to me, but because my page wasn’t optimized I only made a few sales. I did, however, reach Level 1 status, which is the first stage. I could now charge $20 for gig extras up to 2 extras. This was encouraging as my average sales went from four bucks to eight bucks overnight.

I continued to find new gigs to add and added a Review Your Website, which had specific answers to what would be produced. 6 questions reviewing only the homepage. This way there would be zero back and forth.

I’ve since added a spokesperson gig as well and was featured again on the homepage. Since beginning Fiverr and actually spending time testing it, I have made almost $2,000 in roughly two months. I haven’t calculated the time spent, but I’ve made it so I spend no more than four hours a week doing so.

The best part is that I now have Paid Users to know what people are looking for and am able to create campaigns around topics I didn’t know there was interest in. Campaigns such as Ways to grow your company at $5 and create a ‘Grow Your Sales Pipeline’ series as well.

Not only are co-workers and friends asking me how it’s going, but also other Fiverr sellers are asking how I’ve been able to Hack Fiverr. So, I thought back at the trends I saw that I think helped me. Now, I’m not sure these are actually ways to Hack Fiverr, but my guess is it doesn’t hurt.

I’d love to hear your Fiverr experiences. Please comment below or email me.

6 Ways To Hack Fiverr

1. A/B Test your gigs. Create the same campaign twice and change the words in the title and description. Add the text to a spreadsheet and analyze every week with Fiverr’s analytics tool. This way you can see what converts higher and push that gig more than others. This has been the most important tool for tracking my growth. Because I am using the same gig twice, I am able to easily see what works and what doesn’t.

2. Comment quickly regardless of the response. When I first got on Fiverr, I would comment to new gigs or questions every few hours and while that is more than many sellers on Fiverr (I’ve bought a few gigs and the response time in horrific) it represents you as slow. In their analytics tool, it shows how quickly you respond. I’m at 2 hours right now and am looking to get that down to under 60 minutes. I recommend even if you are just saying ‘ok’ to do it as you are getting a response out. Download the app so you can do this on the fly and not have to open via email.

3. Start with a small turnaround time. A lot of buyers are looking for an immediate turnaround, when you are first starting on Fiverr, set a turnaround of three days. This can be difficult if you do not manage correctly, but because you are trying to build a following and Level 1 + 2 Status, it will allow you to get there quicker.

4. Look at other gigs and copy them. If you search Fiverr for what is popular you will find trends. Video editing, website help, content writing, etc. Instead of creating something that no one is looking for, copy what others are doing and be the best at it. Make the best video possible to entice visitors to buy your gig. If you look the same you will get the same, but if you have a very solid description and video + solid testimonials you can crush it!

Don’t do random stuff, do the popular gig better.

5. Over Deliver. This may be common sense, but people overlook this all the time. What can give someone as a bonus to make them feel extra special? This is could be communicating with them early and often and delivering early or simply giving amazing customer service. Because I give the same work I do to the normal clients that I do to Fiverr clients, I have been able to nail several recurring customers.

6. Replicate. The final hack that I have seen work well with Fiverr is when you have a template in place that makes your life easier. For example, the biggest difference between my Website Review and Business Plan Review is the website review is concrete in what I will deliver as the Business Plan Review is not. Which makes the business review much harder and takes far more time. Which isn’t as valuable to you from a time perspective.

So, there it is, the 6 hacks I’ve used to create some extra cash using Fiverr. What are you doing to create extra cash? I would love to hear from you, simply comment below.