I just don’t get it!
Key people in the voice over community…. influential people…. have told me I was wrong about Fiverr. They pointed at other Pay to Plays like voices dot com, that have started to take a page out of the Fiverr playbook.
“It’s the future, Paul. You can’t stop it,” I was told. “Just because it’s called Fiverr, doesn’t mean people are making $5 per job.” And then they come up with examples of folks who are making “good money” on the platform. And if I still don’t sound convinced, they lecture me on the fact that every market has a top and a bottom end, and people can charge as little or as much as they like.
“It’s a free market! Stop bashing Fiverr. Try it out, Paul, before you pass judgment.”
Yeah… sure. But did you know that before getting into a higher revenue level as a seller, you have to earn your place in the Fiverr hierarchy by doing the lower paying jobs to build a reputation on the site? And you can’t force buyers to leave a good rating or review upon which your ranking is based.
As a rule of thumb, low-budget buyers are usually the biggest pain in the neck. They don’t care about helping you or about building a long-term relationship. All they care about is getting more and more for less and less (just like the filthy rich studio bosses SAG-AFTRA has a problem with).
Did you know that the top earners pay Fiverr every month for a higher ranking, rigging the system against those at the bottom? How fair is that?
Remember, Fiverr already takes 20% on every transaction, so a $5 gig is actually $4. To make $100 per day, you’d need to complete 25 orders. This is of course before taxes and other deductions. By the way, Fiverr also takes 5.5% from from buyers.
The average Fiverr.com executive compensation is $214,108 a year (source). The median estimated compensation for executives at Fiverr.com including base salary and bonus is $207,776, or $99 per hour. At Fiverr.com, the most compensated executive makes $490,000, annually, and the lowest compensated makes $61,000.
CEO Micha Kaufman’s total yearly compensation is $9.63M , comprised of 3.1% salary and 96.9% bonuses, including company stock and options. He directly owns 4.81% of the company’s shares, worth $53.16M (source).
In spite of all of the above, I was willing to give the platform a try, just so I could prove my critics wrong. But as soon as I told my agents about the experiment, they all had the same answer:
“The minute you start selling yourself on Fiverr, you’re out the door. Fiverr is not a professional platform, and we only represent professional talent. Why would a client book you through an agent if they can get the same voice at a bargain basement rate?”
Well, that’s a simple solution, you may say. Why not work for Fiverr under a fake name. Problem solved!
Except, this is what the Fiverr Terms of Service has to say about that:
“You may not create a false identity on Fiverr, misrepresent your identity, create a Fiverr profile for anyone other than yourself (a real person), or use or attempt to use another user’s account or information; Your profile information, including your description, skills, location, etc., must be accurate and complete and may not be misleading, illegal, offensive or otherwise harmful. “
As I said, influential people in the voice over community have warmed up to the Fiverr model. “You can’t stop the future, Paul” they told me. And now these same people are shouting from the rooftops that they’re supporting the SAG-AFTRA strike for better pay and fair treatment of actors (voice actors included).
But SAG-AFTRA’s positions go even further than Fiverr. The Union is against the whole Pay to Play model. The negotiation team writes:
“ONLINE CASTING PLATFORMS: Performers should not be required to pay for access to employment opportunities, nor provided preferential treatment in exchange for fees to a casting platform.”
Back to Fiver.
Be honest: how can you support a platform that devalues our work as part of their business model, making it harder and harder for talent to make a living wage, AND publicly tell people you agree with SAG-AFTRA on the strike?
Can you have it both ways?
Sorry, but I don’t think so. It looks like opportunistic window dressing to me.
Simply: Amen.
Thank you, Paul.
For the record, I didn’t support the last SAG-AFTRA strike, but I support this one. AI is too big a thing and must be dealt with fairly and immediately.
Hope all is well in the North Country!
We’re high and dry, Paul, unlike many Vermonters who are dealing with flooding, lost harvests destroyed properties, roads, and businesses. It’s a mess and the rain keeps falling.
I’ve never worked on Fiverr, nor will I. As they say, nuff said!
Stand up for the right thing wherever and whenever you can – karma will come around when you least expect it to, and you will be the beneficiary when you least expect it.
And even if it doesn’t, creating a better world – one where, among other things, creatives are paid for their incredibly difficult work (making something out of almost nothing) – is good for ALL of us, our children, our nation, and even the greedy people who are sitting back smugly raking in the cash while sharing as little of it as possible (okay, these last don’t see it, but they have kids, too; their planet is burning, too; their water and air are getting fouled, too; and they won’t like taking care of themselves and their mansions when everyone else is gone).
And you can sleep better at night.
As Harlan Ellison put it so well: “Pay the writer!”
I do not support Fiverr. I am also making a passable living as a non-union VO. It seems to me the analogy is a street corner hooker and a $3,000 a night “escort”.
Sag/Aftra:
“ONLINE CASTING PLATFORMS: Performers should not be required to pay for access to employment opportunities, nor provided preferential treatment in exchange for fees to a casting platform.”
Also Sag/Aftra:
“The national initiation fee rate is currently $3,000, although it may be lower in some states. Annual Base dues are $231.96. In addition, work dues are calculated at 1.575 percent of covered earnings up to $1,000,000.”
I’m with you, Todd. One hundred percent! As someone who works internationally it doesn’t make sense for me to join SAG-AFTRA, but if I were working mainly in the USA, I would certainly become a member.
So where TH am I supposed to start out as a voice actor? If I can’t use fiverr (because it doesn’t support the current workers in the industry, and I won’t be taken seriously) and I can’t use a P2P site (also because it doesn’t support the current workers). Then where can I get started?
I’m so “green” in this industry, you might not even consider it as ” IN the industry”…
I just spent money on equipment, and spent a bunch of time on coming up with demos, and setting up a fiverr profile, and then suddenly this SAG/AFTRA strike happens.
I’m not some young kid with no responsibilities, who can take big risks. I have a regular 40 hr job, a family to support, bills, and a mortgage.
Can somebody Please Help, and point me (and others like me) in the right direction?… Please!
Thank you!
Hi Brentacus, you speak for many of my readers, so, thanks for asking the question!
Long before we had Pay to Plays and Fiverr, voice actors managed to find work. They did what every other freelancer is still doing today. They depended on themselves instead of on some online entity that was funneling job opportunities their way. When you depend on things you do not control, you are vulnerable. You’re not playing your game. You’re playing THEIR game.
The SAG-AFTRA strike didn’t suddenly happen. It was years, if not decades in the making. People who study the business saw it coming. And that’s what you’re supposed to do if you want to set up shop in a new field. Before you buy your inventory and you rent property, you do your research. You find out what the market is like and what you need to succeed. And right now, the market for voice overs is saturated with people who discovered VO during COVID when they were sitting at home, wondering what to do. Demand isn’t keeping up with supply, and that’s when you see prices go down. Plus, AI voices are taking away the simple jobs inexperienced talent need to gain experience.
In short, VO is a sh*tshow at the moment, and I don’t see it getting any better. As a coach I have stopped accepting green students (I only work with experienced people), because I think it’s unethical to train someone for something that isn’t very likely to happen. Mind you, you’ll find plenty of people who are willing to sell you a complete package for $5000 promising you success. Don’t believe them. They have other motives.
If you still want to pursue VO, don’t give up your day job and start studying how to run a small for-profit business. Make sure client acquisition is part of the program. Learn about branding, marketing, social media, and advertising. You’re going to need it!
Brentacus – Please do not spend another dime on gear or demos. If you are not ready a demo will do you much more harm than good. You have a 40/hour gig. Do they have a message on hold system? An auto attendant? Offer them a discounted rate to update it/them. Look around your local area for similar situations. MOH/Telephony are a great entry into the voiceover world. It doesn’t pay a lot, but neither does Fiverr. Find me on LinkedIn. Connect. I’ll give you a listen & maybe I can offer some advice. Free of charge.
Thanks for being kind and helpful, Todd. And Brentacus, Todd is one of the nicest people you’ll ever work with. I speak from experience!
So, REAL talk here, Fiverr is rough because Fiverr is run by shady practices designed to undercut everyone’s prices. It’s very crap work where the majority of orders will be stuff like YouTube scripts or crappy advertisements for stuff you’re never really sure isn’t a scam. This is the degrading world of commercial voice acting on Fiverr.
Character voice acting is pretty rough too but SOMETIMES is better. You’ll get much less initial revenue from it and the entire Fiverr system is designed to let sketchy buyers attempt to take blatant advantage of you for a quick buck.
I started with Fiverr years ago for the same reason you’re listing and turned it into a fulltime job. It’s shitty. You CAN make it work if you really want to though. Just keep in mind that the type of orders you get there will not be the types of orders which give you character acting experience.
work elsewhere too and consider Fiverr as its own world. NOT as part of the rest of your acting career efforts.
Fiverr is just ghetto Google. It organizes the search algorithm primarily by keywords throughout your profile. Gender -> national voiceset (american, British, etc.) -> voiceover/voice/acting/voice actor etc. Buzz words, essentially
understand that Fiverr is going down the toilet and is trying to exploit sellers even more than it used to. They want their 20% cut and they don’t give a damn about whether you get fair price or sell it for five bucks because they want quantity, not quality. Don’t stoop to crazy low prices.
The myriad of things you can buy into don’t help because it’s just a pyramid scheme. They want you to buy all that and then it’s just hooking you up with other sellers who “specialize” in it because you’re paying and Fiverr is getting that 20% cut. It’s all a scam to keep the money within the company. Always was but damn it’s gotten bad. No need to buy into the extras.
Look at Fiverr in the same way you’d look at waiting tables or working odd jobs for a Walmart. Just because it pays and gives you experience doesn’t mean it’s the type of work to show your auditions and friends and family. Treat it like the dirty work it is and use other, BETTER places to get character voice work in. Appreciate what you learn and use it to get you into better beginner tier audition pools.
Bonus: Sometimes legitimate companies hire you and those are ones you CAN use. I did the instruction videos for the operators manual of a machining laser company called Wagner Lasertechnik out of Fiverr. I’ve had some audiobooks come out of Fiverr too. Those are REAL projects which you can use on your portfolio. Just don’t include that Fiverr was ever the middleman.
Thank you so much for this fresh and much-needed inside perspective, Paul!