Fiver is one of the online businesses in the world that keep turning a lot of people into millionaire. Once you have a high demand skill, be rest assure that you will see alert every month.
One of the advantages of fiver compare to other online business is that you can render it both online and physical once you are good people will keep coming to you.
But it is competitive?
Yes, fiver is very competitive likewise other freelancing platform, but if you are serious about the business you will surely have your customers, but if not the competition will kill you.
To make it on fiver is not hard you just need some tips that will boost your freelancing business to another stage which is the purpose of this article; to tell and show you everything you need to do make money on fiver in Nigeria.
Before we go into the steps and tips, I will like you to take not of the following, if you are already into fiver but want to broaden your knowledge, you can skip it and go into the tips and challenges.
What is fiver all about?
Beta fashion of fiver was created in 2009, but officially launched in 2010, by Israeli entrepreneurs, it main purpose is to connect seller to buyer which it has done effectively over the years. Its popularity hinges on the $5 minimum price for skill, but hardly will you find a service of $5 there now.
This how the buying and selling works on fiver
Seller create and price it gig (service profile) which will be display to buyer when they search it.
A buyer has two option to buy service on fiver, either they search the type of service or invite a seller, usually before a buyer will invite seller they must have work together before or the seller has high rating and good review.
When the buyer paid for the service 20% will be deducted by fiver for instance if you price your service at $5 your receivable amount will be $4.
Skills you can render on fiver
Basically any online skill can be render on fiver, but here are some niches where Nigerian has chance of making it. They are
- Programing
- Graphics
- Content writing (copywriting and technicalwriting)
- Email marketing (advisable)
- SEO optimization
- Web design
- Transcription
- Web traffic generation
- Social media advert
- Web analytics
- Voice over
- Video editing
And many more
Terms/register on fiver
There are terms peculiar to deferent industry; Fiver (gig industry) is not left out, take note of them because you will surely need to speak the language of fiver.
Gig
This is the code name for the service you are rendering on fiver. Before you can create up to 20 gigs, but recently it is seven.
Sellers
This can be individual like you or organization who listed their service on fiver. On the part of organization, once you start getting a lot of order you can hire people and build business around fiver.
Buyers
These are individuals or organizations who buy service on fiver.
Order
This is when a buyer purchase a gig (service)
Offer
This is when buyer notify the seller for a job.
Gig extra
This is a marketing strategy used by the seller such that they add additional service to the main service with less price.
For instance let say you are rendering a proofreading services at $20 per 2000 article (main gig) plus editing at $5 making $25 which would have cost more than that if it is separated.
Steps of starting Fiver business in Nigeria
1) Choose a niche
The most important steps in any online business is niching down, there are competition on fiver, to make it you have to be a domain expert of a niche.
Whatever niche you choose make sure you know it to the core because if you do rough work, bad review will kill your business.
2) Register on fiver
Once you are confident that you are pro in a particular niche head over to fiver to create your account.
When creating account do not listen to hearsay, many people will tell you to use VPN and create a foreign account, while it might bring you a lot of order, it won’t be long before fiver kick you out.
If you are serious about the business register with your Nigerian account but make sure you render skill that has little or no discrimination.
Read more: Forms of business organization in Nigeria
The following information will be require on fiver
- Your full name
- Verifiable email
- Verifiable Phone no
- Profile picture
- Skills level
- Educational background (optional)
- Certification
- Social media account
Note: Use a valid phone number because you will have to verify your account before you can continue
3) Create your fiver gig
Gig is the code name for the service you will render, to create gig follow the below guide
- Write title for your gig e.g. “I will proofread your article”
- Write your description
Let your description be catchy and include your delivery time - Chose a category — There are about 8 categories to choose from
- Price your service — There are three model for pricing, under each include your delivery time and detail of the package. Those models are
- Basic pricing
- Standard pricing
- Premium pricing
4) Promote your gig
This is the steps most people miss; do not think it is over when you create your gig, in fact it is the beginning head over to social media to share your gig.
On twitter you can use hashtag and on Facebook you can use group and page. To make it faster create ad on those platform.
Build a portfolio website that will display your work. You can connect fiver button with the website, once people click on it they will be directed to fiver where they would pay, or you can shun fiver and setup payment platform on your portfolio website
Another way to promote your gig is to optimize your gig title and description. Search for keyword that buyer will use when searching for your kind of service on google or fiver. Put it in your gig title and description.
Read more: How to start bakery business in Nigeria
Withdrawing your earning from fiver to Nigeria account
When buyer pay you after completing an order the money will go into 14 days pending until it is cleared and whatever amount you are paid will be shared in 8:2, you will take 80% while fiver take 20%.
After the 14 days your money will now be available to withdraw. You can withdraw it using four methods
- PayPal
- Bank deposit
- Fiver revenue card
- Direct deposit
In all the four ways the best way is to use bank deposit. To use direct deposit follow the below guide
1)Create a payonner account
You will need your valid id card or voters card to create payoneer account
2)Link your Nigeria account to payoneer , you will find it under menu icon
3) Link your payonner account to fiver, to do that head over to your fiver account go to earning and under it select payment option chose bank deposit
4) Insert the US bank details provided by payoneer
5) Initiate a withdraw
Your money will be move to payoneer and on payoneer you can withdraw it to your Nigeria account.
Note: minimum to withdraw on payonner is $50 and it will take up to 5 days before your money will be transferred to your bank account.
Tips to make money on fiver in Nigeria
1)Good review
Fiver is a home of review about 70% of your customers will leave review and if they don’t you can ask them.
Review can be your greatest advantage and a downfall, try as much as possible to go extra length to satisfy your customers especially when you are just starting out.
2)Deliver fast
Do you want to be at the first page when buyers make a search, it is simple deliver fast. Fast delivery is one of the ranking factors on fiver.
If an order will take 5 days, strive to deliver order on day 3 and if you can’t do not let it exceed day 5.
3)Good Communication skill
There will surely be a communication between you and seller, if you lack communication skill you might lose many customers and not only communication skill you should also have negotiating skill.
4)Be active (online)
The secret to getting job on fiver is to be active; seller will only order service of those who are online except you are well known which is impossible for a newbie.
To be always online download fiver app, it will make you stay online as long as your data is on and also you will be able to receive message notification.
Read more: How to start a business in Nigeria
5)Have a mentor
No doubt this article is a perfect guide for how to make money on fiver, but should I tell you the truth, it only covers 20% of everything you need to know.
Seek mentor who has been receiving money from fiver and if you can’t, buy a well detail eBook.
Challenges of fiver business in Nigeria
1)Electricity
You need electricity to stay online and also to work but unfortunately we have epileptic power supply in Nigeria, what you can do is to augment it with generator.
2)Competition
At a start, you will hardly see order, instead of giving up you can use this time to up your skill, build your portfolio, and learn how to write better heading and description, trust me, you will surely get order.
3)Getting kicked out
To reduce the chance of getting kicked out of fiver, do not use foreign accounts, fiver will surly detect it and when they do, you will be shown the door.
Conclusion
Though there is a room for newbie on fiver unlike upwork but upon that you need to discipline yourself to always deliver top notch services, these will turn your customer to your marketer which will take you beyond fiver, you don’t want to stay on fiver forever. On that let me give an advice.
Building your business on fiver is good for the start, but have plans to take your business away from it, because you can be kick out of fiver with no warning, in fact this happen to so many people of recent.
Build portfolio and scheduling website where people can book your service (you can contact us for that).
