During this artice, I explain you how you can earn money by reselling Fiverr gigs on freelancing websites. This method is extremely simple and based on a principle that is as old as human beings: selling something for more than you bought it. You will look for amazing Fiverr gigs that deliver quality products, ask the sellers for permission to advertise with their portfolio and then resell the gig to employers looking for these kind of work on freelancing websites such as oDesk, Elance and Freelancer.
Investment needed: | $5 for a Fiverr gig |
Working hours: | 1-2h for contacting employers |
Earning possibilities: | Between $25 and $50 per sale |
Skills needed: | None! Perfect for newbies |
1. Find a good Fiverr gig
In case you don’t know Fiverr, it is a website where people do things for $5. There is a lot of useless bullshit (“I will heal your illness over the internet for $5”). However, there are also some very talented people (designers, programmers, video editors) who sell their skills under value. We are going to use these people’s offers and help them selling while we are making cash. These kind of offers are called “gigs” on Fiverr.
At first, you need to find a Fiverr gig with a fast turnaround time and a lot of positive reviews. The category of the gig should be something technical. Here are categories that do fine with this method:
- Logo Design
- Illustration
- Ebook Covers
- Photoshopping
- Business Cards
- Banners & Headers
- Flyers & Brochures
- Online Marketing
- Video Editing
- PSD to HTML
- Programming
- Jingles
I used the category Logo Design in the past so I will choose this as example for the following steps. However, it is working with all other categories, too.
Click on the category you want to use and filter by “High Rating”.
Click on a gig that appeals to your eye. Look at the profile and make sure the gig has:
- Turnaround time of maximum 7 days
- Mainly positive reviews
- A great looking portfolio
Search until you find a gig you would order yourself. After you found one, you need to register an account at Fiverr and ask the seller for permission to use his/her examples of work. In the case of logos, it will be pictures of logos designed for other clients or exclusively for the portfolio.
2. Ask the gig seller for permission
When contacting employers on freelancing sites, you need to show them some previous work you did (or in this case the gig owner did). However, for copyright reasons you can’t just simply steal pictures from the seller’s portfolio. You have to ask if he minds using them in this way. Some people won’t agree and others will be completely fine, as they understand you are actually helping them to make more money. Check out an example of such a message here:
Dear seller’s name,
I just found your gig for logo designing and I must say your work looks stunning.
I know a website where a lot of people are looking for high quality logos like yours. I would love to help you to get even more orders to your gig. To make it short: I would like to resell your gig on this website! Here is the deal: I will show some examples of your work to the clients. They will want me to create such a logo. I buy your gig here on Fiverr, you create the logo and I send them the outcome.
You’ll get more orders, however, you don’t need to spend more time. Nothing would change for you. I don’t want to hurt your copyrights and therefore I ask you for permission to show examples of your work to my clients and resell your gig to them.
Please let me know if this is okay for you.
Best Regards,
Your name
When you got the okay it’s time to look for people who are looking for this kind of service.
3. Contact employers on freelancing websites
You found the gig and got the permission to use pictures of the work done by the gig author. Time to find people who are looking exactly for what we can offer. In this example, logo designs.
3.1 Register at freelancing websites
You should register an account at the main freelancing sites to find a large number of employers.
Register an account at oDesk, Elance and Freelancer.
Make your profiles look professional and include the examples of work of the Fiverr gig you want to resell.
3.2 Find people looking for the service the Fiverr gig offers
After registering an account, it’s time to apply to people who are looking for what the gig offers. If you decided for logo design like I did, the right category is:
oDesk
Find Work > Find Jobs > Edit My Categories > Tick Logo Design > Save Categories
Elance
Find Work > Search Jobs > Design & Multimedia > Tick Logos
Freelancer
Browse Projects > Browse Categories > Design, Media & Architecture > Logo Design
3.3 Apply to the jobs
You should have found people looking for what the Fiverr gig can offer. All the freelancing sites require an application and the job poster will select the person he thinks is the best for this price. Make sure you show them the portfolio of previous work experience! I wouldn’t tell them that I am reselling from Fiverr (obviously) but I also wouldn’t lie to them (“I have been studying design for 15 years blabla”). You can check an example application below:
Dear Hiring Manager,
I offer high quality logo designs to all of my customers. The style of my logos is always “clean and modern”. You can see examples of previously designed logos in my portfolio.
I understand that you are looking for a new logo in the format 100×100 for the website of a lawyer. I know what to consider when creating designs for lawyers: the logo needs to look very professional, not use fancy stockphotos or be filled with a lot of different colors. I can create a professional looking logo by choosing your preferred colors of green and brown.
I can deliver the logo within the deadline of 10 days. Three free revisions are included in my price of $50. I am available every day during the time of the project to be able to react to your questions and concerns.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Sgt. Kraut
It’s important that you address the job description of the employer. Most freelancers are just copying and pasting their job application to every job. It gives you an advantage if you include information only a person who actually read the job description could know.
I have hired from these freelancing sites myself, so I understand both positions. I can tell you from the point of view of an employer it is a big advantage if you know the freelancer has actually read and understood your job description.
Include the amount of revisions the Fiverr seller offers. The employer must know that you only offer a few revisions and can’t revise dozens of times.
Check the Fiverr sellers delivery time. If the employer needs the logo in the next two days, but the Fiverr seller has a delivery time of 7 days you shouldn’t apply to the job. You need to have some buffer time. The worst case is that your Fiverr seller can’t deliver on time or in near future, then you need to have enough time to offer another gig (preferably a so-called Express gig that delivers within 24 hours).
4. Choose a pricing
Most freelancing sites allow you to mention a price you want to have for the job. This should be in the budget range mentioned by the employer. We don’t have much work with this method so we can offer a quite low pricing.
However, you have to be careful. One could think that as we are only paying $5 we can sell for $10 and still make profit. In reality, this is not a good calculation. What if the gig seller needs longer than thought and the deadline of the employer approaches? What if the gig seller suddenly closes the gig? Also, this calculation ignores the fees of the freelancing website.
I recommend to do another calculation. I look for a similar gig that offers an Express option. Those gigs are usually a bit more expensive. The worst case is that I have to buy such an Express gig by another provider if the actual provider fails to deliver.
Therefore, the actual calculation is:
$5 for the gig + costs for an Express gig + freelancing sites fee + payment provider fees (PayPal etc.) + reward for you = what you should charge the employer
When I used this method, I mostly charged between $30 and $60 per logo. I never needed the Express gig, however, I prefer being on the safe side.
5. An employer wants you for the job
Apply again and again, it will work at some point and an employer wants to hire you for creating a logo. The only thing you have to do then is to order the Fiverr gig, copy and paste the employer’s instructions, wait for the result and deliver it to the employer.
You can also outsource support to the Fiverr seller by copying and pasting the employer’s questions to the Fiverr seller and letting him answer. This is not lazy, but intelligent 😀
I’ve written above that I used this method in the past but don’t use it anymore today. However, of course I checked for my dear readers if it still works before writing this article. It did:
$25 profit for a few minutes of work, isn’t that awesome?
Summary
- Find a great Fiverr gig in a technical category
- Ask the gig sellers for permission to use their portfolio
- Register at freelancing websites
- Apply to jobs the gig can fulfill
- Choose a good price
- Get hired
- Buy the gig, deliver the result
- Get paid and repeat from the start!
I love this method because it’s simple and effective. It can be done by everyone, even by newbies who never earned money online before. What’s your opinion?
Hey,
Thanks for the great guide, im really interested in reselling Fiverr gigs but when I came to creating my profile and portfolio on oDesk they recommend that you take some tests for the area that you want to freelance in, since im not an expert in graphic design (one of the areas I want to resell in) I don’t think I would be able to pass the test, or complete it to a satisfactory level.
So to cut a long short, do I need to take the tests to improve my chances of get the jobs offer to me or is a great looking profile all you need.
Hope I made my issue clear, hope to hear from you soon.
Timothy
Hi Timothy,
that’s a very good question.
You do not need to finish any tests. The tests will usually be multiple-choice text questions, meaning even if a “real” designer does the tests they will only be assessed on a theoretical level. But design is all about the final outcome and practical skills.
The most important thing is your portfolio because this is what people really care about. Everyone would prefer to hire a construction worker who creates awesome designs over a professor of design whose designs just don’t look well.
Vielen Dank für die super Tipps, ich werde diese Methode ausprobieren. Sollten noch Fragen auftauchen, darf ich mich an dich wenden?
Liebe Grüße Mandi
Thanks, Mandi. Yes of course can you ask me when there are further questions. If this could be useful for everyone, then put your question in the comments. Otherwise you can use the contact form to contact me directly.
Well, u can hire somebody on odesk that is an expert an does those tests for you…
or u can search on fiverr if somebody does this allready…chchchch…! 😉
Thank you for adding your ideas!
Dear
U wrote an excellent article but How safe it is for my Fiverr account ? Is there any tips that my Fiverr account will remain safe .
Thanks
There is no danger for your Fiverr account at all, as you are only using it to buy other Fiverr gigs.