Internet | Fiverr connects fun and profit

By Anna Malczyk

If you are interested in this topic, take a look at our University of Cape Town Internet Super-User course.

If someone offered to write you a personalised poem for $5, would you pay her? What about managing your company’s advertising department for a day? Writing your logo on their arm? Creating a customised jingle?

Fiverr is a new online services that allows anyone in the world to offer a skill that they think is worth five dollars – absolutely anything from teaching you to smoke a cigar to writing a full 20-page SEO report for your website. The seller creates her own “gig” and outlines the service that she is willing to offer.

Buyers browse the site to find the task they want performed, and then order it. The seller performs the task, communicates with the buyer and delivers the final product or outcome, whereupon she gets paid $4 if the buyer approves the work (the remainder goes to Fiverr, for facilitating the service).

The genius of the system is that there is almost no risk for either seller or buyer. The seller can specify exactly what skill she offers and delineate the service narrowly, and the buyer – at worst – loses out on $5 (about R39); in fact, the buyer can choose not to pay if the outcome is unsatisfactory. This form of micro-transaction (small, quick purchase) encourages buyers to spend money on fun or useful tasks, and allows sellers to monetise their unique skills quickly and easily.

Sam, our managing director, couldn’t help himself when he saw he could get a custom jingle for just $5. He asked the seller to create an energetic and fun jingle that highlighted some important information about the company. Two days and $5 later, he received this!

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.