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What It's About
A music teacher hits the right notes as a Fiverr freelance writer.
Business Model
Service
Skills Required
Writing & Marketing
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
High
Words of Wisdom
Carrie has some advice for those thinking about doing something similar, "Be open to new opportunities and stay flexible. The ways that you can collaborate, interact, and work with people around the world are changing, and there’s some pretty amazing potential in being an early adopter."
Fun Fact
Fiverr began life as a fun website where you could pay people all over the world five bucks for an array of tasks. Now, it is a freelancing platform of real force boasting over 5.5 million buyers, 830,000 sellers and processing 50 million transactions per month.
Notes from Chris
Episode 1172
It was 2013 and Carrie French was in her second year of college studying music education. With high tuition and living costs she was looking for ways to make extra money. However, her goal to graduate a year early made her days just too full for a traditional part-time job. It was around that time she first read about Fiverr in a Seventeen Magazine article. Fiverr is a freelancing website that allows anyone to post a ‘gig’—their version of a job—and have others pay for it. At the time, the cost for all gigs was five dollars, hence the name. The article suggested teens use the site to earn money for One Direction tickets—a frivolous pursuit in Carrie’s eyes. She was much more interested in paying her tuition than lining the pockets of Harry Styles. The site seemed ideal … so she decided to check it out. In particular, she noticed a lot of people were offering and looking for ghostwriting services, which piqued her interest. Carrie kept a daily blog at the time and considered herself a pretty good writer. She figured, why not? ... and posted a handful of gig offers including article writing, proofreading, and even dream interpretation. The latter found a home in the ‘just for fun’ category on the site, a popular section at the time. Over the next month or so, Carrie earned forty dollars. The equivalent of completing eight gigs. Nothing to write home about, but she enjoyed learning how it worked and being exposed to online freelancing, which was a completely new concept to her. She decided to stick with it and see how she could improve. Although it was just a small side gig, Carrie took it seriously and, unbeknownst to her at the time, began writing her own destiny. This continued for the next few years as Carrie used Fiverr to cover her college tuition and living expenses. She did so well out of the venture that she was able to graduate college with only seven thousand dollars in student loan debt. An enviable position for most people her age. Then, she graduated and the real world came knocking. Carrie got a full- time job as a music teacher, a goal she’d had since the fourth grade. But unfortunately, soon after, reality hit. Turns out, Carrie didn’t really enjoy being a teacher. A few months into it, she made the decision to quit and pursue her freelance business full time. Carrie describes this as one of the hardest decisions she’s ever had to make. But she hasn’t looked back. The decision to focus on freelancing had the immediate impact of doubling her income, once again! She put effort into further optimizing her Fiverr listings: improving her pitch, updating her videos and offering new services in sales copywriting and brand consulting. Now, six years later she is earning over one hundred thousand dollars per year as a writer through Fiverr. More money than she could ever earn as a teacher. More recently Carrie has launched a YouTube channel with the goal of helping other aspiring freelancers improve their Fiver skills.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Learn more about Carrie and her business at her website, CarrieBlogger.com and her Fiverr Profile.
- Carrie also has a YouTube channel to help other freelancers. Take a look at her channel here, Honest Only by Carrie Blogger.
- Interested in starting your own freelance business (or looking to hire)? Check out Fiverr.com
- Freelance Writer Starts School To Help Writers Start Side Hustles: After answering the same questions over and over, this freelance writer opens an online school to help others break into the business.
- Copywriter Carves 140 Characters into $50,000 in Cash: A creative director and copywriter makes an April Fool’s joke that turns into a long-term income stream.
- Mom Finds Love As Dating App Ghostwriter: When a stay-at-home mom displays a talent for helping her friends with online dating, she swipes right on a side hustle that becomes a perfect match.
Quote of the Day
"Be open to new opportunities and stay flexible. The ways that you can collaborate, interact, and work with people around the world are changing, and there’s some pretty amazing potential in being an early adopter."
—Carrie French #SideHustleSchool
