← Writing

The Mistake That Cost Me My 3.5-Year-Old Fiverr Account

· 3 min read

This mistake cost me my 3.5-year-old Fiverr account with dozens of 5-star reviews.

In my previous post, I shared my journey of becoming a freelancer on Fiverr and making over 1 Lakh Rupees in the first month. I ended the post by saying a small mistake got my Fiverr account disabled. So here, I am explaining that mistake.

I started freelancing on Fiverr at the beginning of April 2020. Everything was going well for the next 4-5 months. I was getting a huge number of orders for WordPress development.

On the 13th of August 2020, at midnight, when I was about to sleep, I first received an email saying, "There's an issue with your Fiverr account." I was reading that email when I received a second email saying, "Your Fiverr account has been disabled."

When I checked the email, It said, "Your account was flagged for trying to conduct business outside of our platform. We consider this a violation of our Terms of Service and our policies. As a result, your Fiverr account was permanently disabled."

You may be wondering why it happened. Freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork have a policy in which they want buyers and sellers to conduct business on their platform and don't take it outside. It is obvious because that's how these platforms make revenue.

As I was very new to these platforms, I wasn't aware of this policy. I was in the practice of taking my clients outside Fiverr. As soon as a client was ready to place the order, I asked them to either have a discussion via email or WhatsApp. I was still asking them to place an order for just $5, so they could give me a good review. Other than that $5, I was taking payment directly on PayPal.

This violation of Fiverr policy continued for almost 4-5 months. It would have continued for a few more months, but one of my clients complained about it on Fiverr, and when they investigated, they found I was conducting the business outside.

I tried reaching Fiverr support for the next three days asking to restore my account, but they denied it. I requested them, saying I wasn't aware of this term but with no luck. So ultimately, I lost my Fiverr account.

When it happened, I was making well over 1 Lakh Rupees per month using my Fiverr clientele.

I learned two things from this incident:

  1. I should have read and followed the terms.
  2. I shouldn't be relying on a single income source.

The reason behind sharing the story is that if you guys work on freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, follow their terms. Don't try to conduct any business outside the platform. Even if your client convinces you, don't do so. And other than that, also grow your accounts on other platforms, so you are not dependent on one. I suggest making more direct clients using LinkedIn and Twitter.

That's it for this post. In the next post, I will discuss how I survived this blow of getting my Fiverr account disabled and finding a better revenue opportunity.

Thanks for reading this one. Have a great day ahead!