Reassessing and New Pricing

I've always felt like I knew the value of my time, especially when we are talking about my skills as a professional. That being said, I've known for years that I'm accepting far less than my time is worth. It's imposter syndrome, plain and simple. As much as I know I deserve a certain price per hour, I get weirded out when people are willing to pay that much. It's something I'm always working on.

This has led me to to rethink my Fiverr gigs. I have been getting a lot of work from that platform lately, which in a way is good. I like working on the gigs I offer there. However, over the past three weeks I have had to put myself as away from the office more often than available to new customers. There are many reasons for this. First, I like my Saturdays and I always mark myself out of the office on this day. I already have to work six days a week, so Saturdays are my time. I've also had to do this when I keep getting gigs ten minutes before I go to bed. While it's true I have at least 24 hours to complete the work, it makes me too anxious that I won't get it done, and it ruins any chance of good sleep. If Fiverr would let me put my status as away for a specific number of hours instead of a minimum of a full day, it would be a different story.

The other issue is that the quality of the buyers is sometimes lacking. I (and every seller on the platform) would love to be able to work with customers who provide clear instructions tailored to complete the gig. But often I get 40 questions from someone who doesn't end up buying a gig, or little to no information from someone who has purchased a gig, and I have to drag it out of them. For the price I'm paid, that saddles me with a lot of extra work just trying to get the information I need to get started.

One of the many perks of being a freelancer is negotiating prices.

I'm also running into a new problem--the middle man (or woman, of course). I will admit to doing a lot of work for middle men, and that's fine as long as the situation is transparent. I know that some work I do I'm only getting paid 20% of what the customer pays for the work--and I manage my availability for these projects accordingly, knowing I'm being paid less when I take those jobs. On Fiverr, I have no idea if I'm working for a middle man unless they leave clues, and they have been. I still wouldn't mind doing the work, but through Fiverr no one has to tell me they are getting paid $100 for what they turn around and pay me $5 to do. I just want transparency about what I'm losing. If it's too much, I might as well slap "consultant" at the end of my name and become their direct competitor.

This has led me to reevaluate the prices I charge. This is everyone's official heads up about the changes coming to my Fiverr gigs on November 1. My blog editing gig is being removed completely--no one has purchased it, and it would be very time consuming at this point with all of the other projects and freelance jobs I have going on. My gig for social media posts will double in price. I actually still consider that a little low, but I don't want to lose every customer I have. My blog spotlight gig will continue to be offered at $5 for the cheapest option, but the price will be raised for the top two tiers to counteract the fees I'm charged.

Yes, I'm announcing these changes before I make them, but I'm pretty sure my Fiverr base and my Blogger base don't have too much overlap. Even if they do, it's fair warning to get the lower priced gigs while you can.