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Showerthought: That first $5 Fiverr gig was actually costing me money
I was sitting in my truck after a rough HVAC call last summer, eating a cold sandwich and scrolling through my Fiverr dashboard. I had been taking $5 logo design gigs just to build reviews, thinking it was the smart play. Then I did the math on my time per gig. Between the client messaging, revisions, and actually drawing something decent, I was making like $2 an hour. Plus Fiverr takes their cut on top of that. I realized the only thing I was building was resentment and a bad habit of undervaluing myself. Swapped over to Upwork with a $25 minimum bid and instantly got a client who didn't waste my time. Has anyone else had a moment where they just stopped and realized the cheap grind wasn't worth it?
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zaranelson21h ago
That $5 logo story hits hard because I had almost the exact same wake-up call when I realized I spent 12 hours on a gig that netted me like $3.47 after Fiverr's cut. Did you notice a specific shift in how clients treated you once you raised your rate, or was it more about the type of work they asked for?
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danielowens21h ago
casey342 nailed it with the "cheap clients are actually the most demanding" part. I had a buddy who did logo work on Fiverr too, and he had this one client who paid $10 but wanted like 15 revisions and kept asking for free extras. Once he bumped his rate to $100, he said the clients actually respected his time more. They'd send clear briefs, say thanks when he delivered, and rarely ask for changes. The shift was wild to see from the outside, like raising the price filtered out the people who just wanted to bully someone cheap.
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