Who? What? Why?

So for the past 2 years, I've been freelancing on Fiverr. Game development freelancing in particular.
I'm a 21-year-old self-taught programmer from the land of the sands and sometimes Pharoahs, Egypt. I thought that Fiverr would be a good pick since I heard good things about it (yeah. I know). I also didn't have much professional experience at the time nor did I have a good portfolio to show to people. So, in my ignorance, I thought I could make a Fiverr gig and try to reap the benefits, as I was low on cash at the time (not much has changed honesty). Given that I had no experience in freelancing, I thought I could watch a couple of videos about Fiverr and freelancing in general. I'll get to this later, but those videos really did not help much nor did they stick with me at all when I was actively freelancing.

In short, however, I did not know what I was getting myself into. I have never done anything similar before. Not even close. A shot in the dark, if you will.

Strap in, feelas. I have a lot to say and I know nothing about discipline. Be warned.

Some Things To Keep In Mind

Before I start delving deep into my PTSD, I need to preface a few things.

First, you have to remember, that this is my experience. Not yours. Not that guy's experience over there. Not even Jared's experience. It's my experience. Your experience might be different from mine. It might be better or it might be worse. But I'm only talking about my experience here. What I went through. This is why the post is called "My Bad Experience With Fiverr". Not "Fiverr Is Shit, Dude" or something like that.

Second, even though I will go on a tirade about a few clients I worked with on Fiverr, I do not mean any harm and I do not condemn them either. With some of these stories I'll be getting into, I'm going to be solely responsible for the mistakes made. I don't shift the blame to anyone. I don't blame any of these clients nor do I hold them responsible. It was just a combination of unprofessionality, high expectations, and terrible management on my part.

Third, I am not making this post in the hope of discouraging you from starting out on Fiverr. Fiverr can be great if you know what you are doing. If you have done it before and you know what you are getting yourself into. Take it as a lesson of what not to do. Not as a reason to dismiss or avoid Fiverr just because you read about it on the internet by some random Egyptian guy.

Fourth, and finally, don't come here expecting any advice from me. I barely "succeded" on Fiverr. I don't even call what I did on Fiverr a "success". More of a wet fart at the end of a very hard-working day. Useless but it happened.

Fifth, just wanted to say you are beautiful.

Okay, let's start. Just watch for some vulgar language.

The Big Bang

First there was nothing. But then he farted and unto us came someone who wanted to make a game.
- Some drunk guy I know

Before I even started my Fiverr journey, I watched a couple of videos. I don't remember which videos exactly since it was over 2 years ago. And, frankly, I don't care to remember. I just remember a couple of videos vaguely talking about how you should keep your gigs simple and straight to the point. Have the thumbnails of the gig be interesting and captivating so the customer will be excited to press on your gig and all that bullshit you probably heard a hundred times before. Now, initially, I spent a long time setting up my first Fiverr gig. I made sure to have the best-looking pictures on there and the best-written and most professional-sounding intro you have ever read. Even though these "tips" might be useful if you're making a Steam page for your game. But, honestly, in the Fiverr landscape, none of that shit mattered. Not even a little bit. What matters is only one thing: money. Do you have a huge price on your gig? Too bad, buddy. Go find a job instead. You ask for almost nothing in exchange for your services (ew)? Give me a hug. I'll talk about the usual clients I met on Fiverr, but that gives you the gist.

If there is one thing I learned from Fiverr is this: niche is the best. If you are really good at one niche, then you're golden. Make sure it's not too niche, though, since that will make your gig essentially invisible. I know this because me and my sister started our gigs at the same time. Her gig was way too general while mine was much more niche. The result? She never got a single client while I got some.

I specifically decided to focus on making games using C++ and libraries like Raylib, SDL, and SFML, which are the libraries I knew at the time. Now you might have a clue of the clients I'll be getting but I didn't know shit at the time.

My pricing was not all that crazy either. I'm a simple man after all. There were 3 tiers to my gig. The first was 10$, then 15$, and finally 20$. I did change these prices as I went along but that's what I started with. I did do some "market research" beforehand. And by "market research" I mean I just searched "Raylib" or "SDL" or something like that and saw the results. Both the results and the prices were pretty low. So, as I am a marketing genius, I decided to adjust my prices accordingly.

Now, if you want to get clients on Fiverr, there are two things you need to do: find a niche and forget about your ego for the first dozen or so orders. You are nothing. You are a programming machine. You will do whatever the client says and that's it. You will have to lower your prices just to hopefully match the competition. I was (and still am) broke. As mentioned, I'm a self-taught programmer too, so not much credibility there. I had no other choice. But even then, the amount of work I put in did not say 10$ or even 15$. I did learn to adjust the price based on the amount of work being tasked but I didn't know shit, man. Besides, I wanted to stand out from the others since I had no reviews. I had to lower my prices drastically just to get those first juicy reviews.

However, after waiting for 2 fucking months, I finally got it. A client. A message from someone. That actually gets me too...

The Population

Hey, man. Can you make Doom using C++? And can you also make it in 2 days because I need to deliver the project to my professor haha.
- Some dude who wants to make Doom in 2 days

If you come to Fiverr expecting to meet some professionals, artists, other programmers, or any sort of "serious" work, then, man, you're fucked. Like, hard. Raw. No lotion even. Do you wanna who I got? College students. That's all I got. I mean I only blame myself with that one. My gig essentially screamed college assignments.

I made so many snake clones. So many asteroid clones. So many fucking geometry dash clones. I swear to god I'll be ready to suck the homeless drunk guy under the bridge, get Aids, and then die in a car crash before I ever make another endless runner game in Raylib or SDL2 ever again. They are mind-numbingly boring.

Once upon a time, not so long ago. I had a client who wanted me to make some stupid endless runner in SDL2. I thought, sure why not? Made it before. Easy 20 bucks, right? Oh, sweet summer child. How ignorant. I told him to give me the requirements. Apparently, his professors at his college cracked the Da Vinci code and decided to not use SDL2 directly. But, instead, have a thin wrapper around SDL. Fully-fledged with every terrible decision a human can make. Now, a thin wrapper around SDL doesn't sound too bad, right? NOPE! Wrong answer, buddy! You're out!

I had to deliver the project in 2 days and I didn't understand shit. And also, the kid was from Bangladesh so all the comments were fucking French to me. I had to go through the code and try to figure out what the fuck this function did. There were also classes you just had to inherit from. It was necessary. Part of the requirements actually. So I had to get on my boat and take to the seas trying to figure out what the fuck does what and what goes where. And trying to ask the client was useless since he could barely speak English. I tried to find the code but I couldn't since I deleted it from the frustration. The funny thing is, I think the thin wrapper was actually made throughout the course just to teach the students how such a thing is done. But I didn't know shit! Do you know why? Because I wasn't in some college in Bangladesh! No slight against the Bangladeshi bros. Love you, my dudes. But Jesus fucking Christ I was livid. And, on top of all of that, it was only for a mere 20$... how wonderful.

There was even someone who wanted to use SDL1! Like SDL1??! Really??! Who the fuck uses that anymore in the year of our lord 2024??

That wasn't the worst of all, however. Pretty much all of the projects I delivered were in either C or C++. Mostly C++, though. You know what that means? That's right. CMake!

Usually, what I would do with these orders is the following:
- 1: Get the requirements and any assets that might be used

- 2: Start making the project 

- 3: Take a video or maybe a few screenshots to show the current development state of the game and send it to the client 

- 4: Give the client an executable that they can run to see if everything "feels" good

- 5: Once everything is okay, I send the client a custom order which they will accept after which I'll send the source code zipped up like a good boy

- 6: Wait...

Throughout my Fiverr... um... "career" I've had in total of 15 orders. 13 of which are "unique" clients. Since I did have a client (or maybe two?) order the same gig again. Of the 13 unique clients, I've had one. One fucking guy who knows how to compile the code by himself. That's it. The rest? Oh well, I had to fucking babysit them and tell them what an IDE is! Most of them were already using Visual Studio. But, also, most of them never coded on their own. It was always with a professor or using college computers. Or that's the impression I got since they didn't know shit about Visual Studio. They knew the code. Understood it even but just didn't know how to set it up. And, hey, I understand. I went through that shit too. Everyone did. But Jesus H fucking Christ I feel like slitting my wrist and cremating my body into some guy's balls every time I try to help them out with setting up the code.

A lot of times I would just say fuck it and let them send me the project folder and I would just do it for them. I work on Linux (not Arch btw), so I can't really open Visual Studio and edit their solution files. And even if I could, I don't think it'll work since they had to edit their own Visual Studio to point to the libraries and the correct directories and all that jazz (great movie btw).

There were also the lost tarnished. Those who have lost the way or can't fucking read apparently. My gig strictly says I do 2D games. I couldn't do 3D games (or barely could) since my laptop was bought when King George III was still dancing naked in his little bathhouse. Despite that, I've had people approach me about making 3D games. I had one guy even come to me 3 fucking times!!! Asking me to do 3D... in WebGL... using JavaScript. I mean fool me once shame on you, fool twice shame on me, fool me thrice just fuck you. He had a very urgent assignment I guess and he couldn't pay for the other freelancers and he desperately wanted me to do it. Like, take me on a date first jeez. I wanted to help believe me. But I genuinely did not know anything about 3D at the time and sure as shit did not know anything about WebGL. And, again, my laptop is in a retirement home. I can't bother it with all this new hip and cool 3D stuff. It needs to rest.

Now, you might be asking, "Why didn't you charge extra for these services?" Weeeeeelll....

The Moon And The Stars

Terrific guy. Would definitely work with him again.
- Some pretty cool dude

That's right. The reviews. I couldn't risk it. I wanted a good review throughout. I didn't want to have some fucker fuck up my good boy score and bring me back to the depth of Fiverr hell. I wanted to please the client (ew) as much as I could. Looking back, this part really sucked. Just when I was done with the project and I could finally focus on my own game or side project that I would be making, the client came in with, "Hey, can you compile this for me? I can't do it.". I could have just said, "But it'll cost ya extra, hon". (Yeah that just straight up sounds sexual I'm sorry). But I did not know how the client would have responded. Again, it was my fault. I wasn't experienced. I did not know what I could have and could have not said. And besides, these clients were fucking college students. A lot of them were also from third-world countries where 10$ is just a lot of money. Or at least somewhat sizable for a college student. I know because I live in a damn third-world country. You don't choose the clients on Fiverr. You take what you get.

I felt like I was lucky to have this opportunity. I couldn't just kick the chance away and say no. I know more now. Fuck that shit. Opportunity my goddamn hairy ass.

And, believe me, they know. They know they have the upper hand in this relationship. If you don't want to do what they ask for, they can just leave and find someone else. You're the loser here (you heard that before huh?). They know you want them more than they want you. You're replaceable, they are not. Perhaps on other freelancing platforms, you have more of an advantage. Choosing the clients and the projects and not waiting for scraps.

And maybe you can do that too on Fiverr. If you are a big enough seller with lots of reviews (oh man I just missed the dick joke bus shit), then perhaps you can pick and choose from the clients who message you. But I wasn't like that. I only had those 13 clients come to me and review my gig. Now I only had 9 out of those 13 clients review my gig. Why? Well, Fiver, my friend. That's why.

Essentially, the way it works on Fiverr is you create an order, deliver the product, and wait for the client to mark the order completed or, if they're idiots or new, wait for 3 days until the order gets marked automatically for completion. However, if the order was not marked completed by the client themselves, then you won't get a review. And for 4 out of these 13 unique clients, they didn't. Why? Well, it's basically because they didn't know or they just didn't care. I could have asked them, sure. But, again, I did not want to risk it. Call me paranoid or egotistic but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It's like asking to like and subscribe down below (even though you can't). I mean, like, I used to be like you but then I took an arrow to the knee.

Honesty, though? I couldn't care less. I just wanted to be done. I wanted it to end. I didn't care about the reviews I got. I didn't care about the money I got. I just wanted to end it. The order not the... yeah. I was so done with the project when I delievered it. I couldn't look at it anymore. If the client wanted me to go back and change something, I wanted to barf. It was like going to a crime scene where two people got killed by butt fucking each other with a Swiss army knife. Like, I didn't want to see that again. I didn't care to see it again. If I had to endure the smell for 2 hours and personally remove the army knives myself, then I would do it if it meant I was gonna be out of there. I mean I hated the projects so much that I couldn't even keep them on my system when I was done. It was like bringing me ever-growing anxiety or just hatred. Pure frustration. I deleted every project I made on Fiverr. I have no trace. You might think that's sad but I couldn't be much happier. I didn't want to look at them. At all. I just wanted to get back to whatever game or side project I was doing at the time. I didn't care about their stupid college assignments. I just wanted to do my project. I would suddenly get bursts of anger and frustration building up as soon as I saw that stupid green app notify me that someone messaged me. I wanted to throw my phone against the wall and delete that app. I wanted to remove my account completely and never come back.

I think the reason for that anger was mainly because the project required very specific ways of completing it. Again, they were all college assignments so they had to be using whatever they were learning at the time. I had one project where you just had to use a Singleton class. Fine. Whatever. But then you also had to create a very specific 'Scene' base class that had very specific members and that class had very specific functions that took very specific arguments and then there needs to be another class that inherits from this class and then another class that inherits from that sub-class. I also had to use a very specific version of C++... like I wanted to fucking scream my lungs out and kill Andrew Ryan from BioShock because what the fuck!

Maybe I'm acting like a spoiled brat here. Maybe I ought to be more grateful for this "opportunity". And, in an attempt to not seem like a brat, I will discuss a few of the "positives" of Fiverr.

Heaven And Hell

I hope you realize that these quotes are actually fake. You do? Okay cool
-Dude

This has been quite the negative post I do realize that. And I do apologize. Initially, I did not mean to come off as negative but I could not help it, to be honest with you. However, I will make this right. I promise. It's not that I can't find any positives. Rather, the positives are just so few that I was embarrassed I couldn't find more.

First, the money. Or rather, the lack thereof. In my 2 years of doing this, I made a little over 100$. But, honestly, that's my fault and I will get into that. You do have to remember, however, that Fiverr does take away 20%. Plus, in my case, when I transfer the money from Fiverr into Payoneer (Egypt doesn't have Paypal), it deductes 3$ from that. AND, because fuck me in the ass and call me Janice I guess, Payoneer takes 12% of the amount. But that's not all, Payoneer doesn't withdraw any amount less than 50$, you peasant. Hawk tuah. Buuuuut, it was the first time that I had ever made any resemblance of income from programming... like ever. I was able to buy a couple of things for me and my sisters which was nice at least. Was it a lot of money? No. Was it money though? Yes. And that's a plus I guess.

Second, you can basically start on Fiverr even if you're an intermediate. I wouldn't say start at it as a beginner since that will be difficult. But you don't need much work experience or an impressive portfolio to start. At least in the criteria I started on, it was mainly university assignments which you can do if you know what you're doing.

Third, not a lot of scams. From the 2 years I spent there, I only came across, like, one scam. So that's nice. (I'm running out of positives to say as you can tell).

Fourth, I don't know. Pretty good-looking site I guess.

This Is The End

If you had one shot. One opportunity.
-Guy who's named after a chocolate

In retrospect, I came at this with the wrong mindset. I came into this with a little bit of naivety and a lot of inexperience. I wanted to be a part of cool projects that would be pretty fun to program for. I wanted to actually deliver a project that I was happy with and I could be proud of. Working hard on it and getting somewhat of a reward out of it. Even if it's not a financial reward. Just being proud of the project is a good enough reward for me. I can tell you for sure, that was the absolute worst mindset I could have had at the time.

I turned down a lot of projects from clients because I thought I couldn't do them. I wanted to deliver something pristine and perfect. I wanted to accept a project that I knew absolutely I could do. I wanted to learn something new. Something that I would have never learned otherwise. But what I got instead was the same project over and over again just with a different skin.

It's crazy but I learned way more from just doing game dev on my own than freelancing with it. I was moving forward as a programmer but I was stuck doing the same fucking projects for some client. I mean I made a whole ass 3D game from scratch on my own. I barely was able to do it because of my laptop but god damn it I did it. I learned so much from it. I was happy every single fucking second while I was programming that game. I just didn't give a shit about anything or anyone. But, as soon as I see someone message me on Fiverr, it's back to programming space invaders clone once again. I had to give all my time to these projects since they usually had a 2 or 3-day deadline. So I had to completely abandon my own projects just to make theirs. And I felt like sucking Bill Clinton off at the end. Fucking disgusting.

What can you take from this? I don't really know. Entertainment? Joy? Relatability? I just wanted to express my anger somewhere and this seemed like the best place.
I'm sorry if this was too dark or bleak. I'm sorry if this was too bitchy. I just wanted to talk about it. That's it really.

However, I would loooove it if you could tell me about your experience with Fiverr. Perhaps freelancing as a whole. Whether that would be game dev freelancing or just freelancing in general. Perhaps you have a better story than mine. Come on! Share your stories! Share them... or else. Or else I'll cry like really hard, dude.

Cheers.