Freelancing with Python and Fiverr

Having never freelanced in my life, I’ve recently earned some $100 on Fiverr in a couple weeks with Python. In this blog post I’m going to tell you a bit about Fiverr and how my short fooray into freelancing went.

What is Fiverr

Fiverr is a service marketplace – if you know a skill others may find useful, you can advertise it on Fiverr and get paid for it. It caters to a wide range of skills – from making silly videos, to graphic design and, most importanly, programming.

My experience

My Fiverr adventure went on from December 2, 2015 until December 12, 2015. I created two gigs: “I will help you with Python” and “I will help you with Linux administation”. The latter didn’t get any request at all, but the former was surprisingly popular:

The gigs

In that timespan I’ve received about 10 requests. The work was varied: sorting rows in CSV files, programmatically creating images or implementing login functionality to KODI plugin and so on. It was almost always relatively simple, from half an hour to couple hours at most.

The money

The official standard price for one request or “gig” is $5, but realistically barely anyone charges that little for a good quality work. The price of my gigs varied from $15 to $50.

This is also perhaps the most difficult part of using Fiverr, and freelancing in general. You are likely going to start off underestimating how much your skill is worth to people – I know I did. In the end I’ve found it’s better to lose some gigs by setting the price a little high, than to slave away at a problem that turned out to be more difficult than expected for a pay that’s not meaningful to me.

I did not try to actually withdraw the money I’ve earned, but given the maturity of the platform that shouldn’t be a problem.

The people

After hearing all the horror stories about outsourcing software I was expecting this to be the worst part of Fiverr, but I was wrong. The specs of the gigs were always decently written and the communication was without a fault pleasant.

It’s worth noting that about half the time people will follow up with another gig when the first goes well – being nice goes a long way here.

Should you try it?

Depending on where you live and how much you need the money, Fiverr can be a good way to augment your income. Or gain more real life experience with programming. The work is not too difficult and nicely varied. But at the same time it can feel very inconsequential – small jobs here and there without any overarching purpose don’t lend themselves to feeling fulfilled.