The Fiverr Gig Approval and Denial Process Is A Popularity Contest

Hi, I generally got Gigs approved as soon as I press Submit button.
Probably that depends on my sales, who are really high.

About the support, I contacted it for a project around one year ago, but I think they have not comprehended my real question, so, I'm in accord with you.

See you soon,
Alessandro Zamboni

MOST (not all) of my gigs are approved upon submission too. But I have had a few that are approved at submission and then later "denied" after the fact. I believe the one listed above is one of those. Which is why I was trying to troubleshoot what may have went wrong. *shrugs*

I am not a fan of fiverr.

However, from where I am standing I think fiverr got to filter their Gigs, their standard has changed, and I am sure they can't go around check them. Waiting for Gigs Owner to modify and decide to deny or approve it is the most logical point.

You may n't be aware but whenever a violation exist on what so ever gig, fiverr is getting the heat not the seller, you can imagine with the number of gigs they got how many complaint email they are getting on daily basis.

If the gig is denied either offer it else where (there are pretty good alternative today that you can actually get more exposure than fiverr), or stop providing the service and move to something else.

I agree that it is enlightening. And I feel like I was enlightened by confirming that it really is just a matter of, "we felt like it."

Jace,

I think that who you are and how long you’ve been a “Fiverr disciple" does influence approvals. But Fiverr is having growing pains and it shows.

Fiverr is sort of like an elephant running amok. Look at where they are in terms of recognition and more importantly – EARNINGS!

This site fascinates me – not from the selling participant standpoint, but from what a cash cow it has become. It has proven to be an ingenious moneymaking machine.

Consider that, as of this date, there are 700,000 gigs posted. That is a whale-sized number of offers. Let’s further assume that only half of those gigs lead to ONE conversion WEEKLY. This is 350,000 or so. And this is the absolute worst case I can think of.

At $1 per gig per Fiverr sale, this is $350,000 gross dollars in ONE WEEK - $1.4 million in a month - if only one-half of the gigs make only ONE sale. They are in a period that eBay went through when that site went ballistic. Growth, the auction process and the sellers were running rampant. People were selling their grandmother’s lip imprints in pink frosted lipstick on cocktail napkins and making money. (I am making that up but someone probably sold something close.)

Fiverr has the same dilemma and they are going to administer things with a meat cleaver – not a scalpel.

Why?

They do not have the time or resources – I don’t think you are necessarily being singled out. Administering 700,000 gigs has to be a monstrous logistical and infrastructure task and strain. What is happening to you is also happening to others.

In other words, if your gig even looks like it is borderline “grayhat” or “blackhat,” chances are good they are going to pull it. I have no issues with link cloaking – in fact, it’s a good idea. But there are many that believe it to be an instrument that is on the edge of what they may consider "legal." Either this or they may be clueless as to what it is you are selling.

I am also going to state an opinion about using it as a test bed for your membership site. If you are testing a low price point for membership, it is probably a fair barometer of how products may appeal to your members.

If you are going to offer higher priced memberships, remember you are testing on a $5 per unit sales platform. Is this the demographic you are after?

Since I don’t know anything about your business, I cannot speculate. But remember Fiverr is “bargain hunting heaven” for purchasers. If it were me, I am not sure I would rely much on the results of a $5 per unit pricing and sales venue - at least not for building a sustainable business.

Granted some of the better sellers have very good, even ingenious ways of making back-end and add-on sales, but most sellers on Fiverr are there to make a few extra bucks and they are the majority of the gig merchants. You also have many marketers in other parts of the world where $4 per gig is very good money.

If it were me, I would write a short report about “protecting” affiliate and other links and include the process or script as part of the report. I would not even mention it was designed to protect against hijacking and theft - as those may be triggers that get your gig pulled too.

You can probably get it listed on Fiverr under the umbrella of a “protective” measure as opposed to a “cloaking” device. The difference only amounts to a wording change – the offer would otherwise be the same.

As for any issues with support, I don't consider support an issue for much of anything any longer. I don't base many buying choices on service anymore.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I received acceptable support - from anyone - for anything. This is a real sore spot for me and I perceive it as an area for the growth of third-parties in the future.

Just about every web-based business I can think of has service and support that totally sucks. Perhaps the only notable exceptions that come to mind are sites like Amazon and Clickbank - they get things right most of the time.

Don't even ask about sites like Ebay, Paypal, most forums and a host of other sites that have bargain offers or memberships. It seems - as long as you pay top dollar for goods and services, you'll get taken care of when you have problems. But buyers need to beware when they buy from someplace and get a "deal."

However, once again, there are no absolutes about anything online. Fiverr excels at making sure the sellers of gigs deliver the goods to buyers - or they do not get paid. They are trying, but sometimes they get in their own way when they are trying to do the right things.

Jake

fLufF,

I saw where you replied to another user here about his gig being denied. You said that he was posting fraudulent reviews and some other stuff. I don't if any of that was or wasn't the case. I didn't see his gigs, so I can't comment on them.

And while I agree that it is "fantastic" (erm, lets make that read "good") that they are "finally starting to do something about it." I also think think "doing something" and doing "THE RIGHT THING" are two different animals. Policing your site is a must. But no matter what you must give someone a roadmap to adhere to. You can't facilitate anything without having a clear set of standards to uphold.

Which would bring me to the following...

Why would some of my gigs (formatted exactly the same and structured exactly the same as that one) about very similar topics earn a "gold star" and others earn a trip to the recycle bin? Further still, when you say that the title alone raises "three different question marks" what marks would those be? Why three and not four, five, or twenty? And why would any "question mark" lead to a permanent removal of content rather than a temporary removal barring investigation?

And lastly why would you not be able to provide reasons why you reached the decision you reached or even what would keep you from reaching it again? It would seem the only way to force sellers, such as myself, to "clean up my act" is to first let me know where the dirt is. No?

Seems pretty arbitrary for them to tell you that the "Editors" have a broad range of criteria they use to approve, but not give you any specifics as to why your particulars gigs aren't approved.
So instead the only option you have is to spend time submitting gigs just to see if they will be approved or denied. How do they expect you to "gain more trust" when they don't approve the gigs in the first place??

As you make more sales you get access to better support staff, and as already mentioned the rate of growth and more people trying to play the system means that honest sellers like yourself get a hard time.

But look at it from a customer view point and it's good they have filters in place.

It does seem pretty arbitrary. The guy didn't even really seem to understand the process himself. If they can't train their people to understand the system then why even bother. I would be extremely frustrated!

I'm just going to say that the Warrior Forum is going to be a very dangerous place if two people as long winded as you and I frequent the same threads very often.

But in all seriousness, I see some parallels in your comparisons. But in others I don't think are valid. At the same time, even the parallels I do see as being valid don't make me feel any better. But I'm going to do what my wife and mother tell me I'm incapable of doing and that is shut up and not talk about it.

I've enjoyed reading your responses. And I find it hard to take issue with much of what you say. Much of it was good common sense. Some of it being good common sense I already considered and some of it being good common sense that I needed reminded of. So I thank you again.

Ok I getcha now, you're complaining about Fiverr trying to keep it's marketplace clean.

In future when you're contacting companies about stuff like this, you want to use a completely different positioning. You come across as confrontational and that never works with companies like this. They deal with managing thousands of users every day.

You want to assume that you're in the wrong, and phrase your questions as if you've made a mistake, and you'll want to ask them how they suggest you fix your mistakes. Approach them as the experts on their own platform (which they are) and let them know how much you appreciate all they do for you and the other members of the marketplace.

With better positioning you'll get amazingly different results. (but you might need a new Fiverr account to 'start over' if you get my drift)

I've had all my Fiverr gigs approved to date. Is it possible that it is the concept rather than the content that Fiverr are trying to discourge?

So true. How is this different to anywhere else on the web though? A lot of it comes down to subjectivity. I wouldnt waste too much energy on it bro. I found out a great way to get your gigs approved is to buy a lot of gigs lol.

i posted another gig the other day. and a day after it ask me to change it. i didn't know what exactly they want me to change, so i just deleted it. i've tried contacting them, ask if it's okay for weeks. no reply. oh well.

Anyone have any new horror stories on fiverr?

If I had to make a guess, based on how they answer support questions and based on a site I used to do some approvals for, they use a distributed model. Meaning, they have people scattered all over that they pay a few bucks to review anything that gets flagged by the automated system. One person may interpret the rules differently than another. When you asked the question, the reason hey could not give a definitive answers is because it is arbitrary...based on how each person interprets the rules.

This even happens in the offline world. What what post office allows another might not or heaven forbid what one TSA agent allows another doesn't. I know that my great uncle used to drive to the next city over to renew his license because the one in his city was less lenient in the requirements!

So I don't really think they were singling me out before, but now I do wonder if asking about how this works didn't maybe draw me into their "good graces." It is a little strange, but since I had the conversation I posted here with Fiverr, I have not had any more gigs ordered. In spite of having 100% feedback and averaging 2 to 3 orders a day (again I was new there) for one gig that I had posted, since contacting support I have not received any more orders on Fiverr.

It could just be a coincidence, but it has me wondering if Fiverr "ghosts" listings on their site the same way Craigslist does so that it looks to the seller like their listings are still up, but in reality they have been removed. I do think I might do a little testing with proxies and a new account just to make sure.

Like I said, it may be nothing -- but I'd be a liar if I pretended that I wasn't curious why this nothing started immediately after contacting Fiverr support.

Fiverr support can be super frustrating. I hate that they are not giving you a reason. I am also trying to get level one status approved. I have sold over 100 gigs and have over 50 positive feedbacks and a 100% rating but they won't give me level 1 status saying it is the editors approval and won't explain why.

Good luck with your gigs and hope they get approved or at least give you an answer to why real soon

Other than rewriting it and submitting it as a new gig, no.

If you want some help with making the wording more acceptable, post it here.

fLufF
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may be they thought cloaking is illegal ...
my 2 cents

I've had this happen to me and I had to repackage and describe my gig differently to get it approved, even though originally the gig was no differently described than my other gigs that stood the test.

It's baffling, no doubt about it.

Sounds like Fiverr uses Fiverr to find its support reps.