Yesterday I bumped into an old friend and I must admit that what I learnt from him is worth blogging about. What a clever way of make money in Zimbabwe he revealed to me. He surely is living the laptop lifestyle. How does he do it? Wait! Let me give you a background of how we met. We were little boys in Mutare doing our primary education. He would take all the prizes and I would shake his hand to congratulate him as I would always come second. But that’s where it ended. Even as a primary school kid I was too proud to ask him how he managed to beat me every term. This time I had to swallow my pride and the information he revealed is priceless.

What is fiver?

For those who haven’t encountered this site, Fiverr is the world’s largest online marketplace which offers various tasks and services starting at a cost of $5.00 per job, thus the name fiver. Most freelancers use fiver to offer their different services to their customers from different parts of the world. Fiverr has more than two million services on offer. The services range from $5.00 to $500.00.

How does it operate?

 As I have highlighted earlier, the various services offered starts at $5.00 as the base. Each service offered on fiverr is called a Gig. If you see someone saying, “I will design your business card for $5.00” on Fiverr, it means the designer is selling a Gig. Signing up for Fiverr is free and is necessary if you want to transact of Fiverr. Only registered users are able to buy or sale fiverr gigs. You can do this here.

Buying and Selling Fiverr Gigs

This article, like all other articles on this site should be as practical as it gets. At this point, open a new page on your browser, log onto Fiverr and create your new account. After verifying your account, visit the home page and browse the different categories on offer on fiverr. I recommend you buy at least one Gig of your choice to really appreciate the service and how it operates. Click the order now button after selecting your required Gig. The payment options Fiverr uses are also available in Zimbabwe. You could use your PayPal account or MasterCard amongst the various payment options available.

All the purchases are subject to a processing fee of 5% on purchases above $10.00 and much less for a Gig. Buyers pay Fiverr for orders in advance. Each $5.00 you sell and successfully deliver, accredits your account with a net revenue of $4.00. Fiverr accredits sellers once an order has been completed. Just by explaining how Fiverr works, you should by now be having an idea of how you could make money on it. As I was proof reading this article, I had a new idea every one of those times and ironically, you can make money proof reading manuscripts on Fiverr. However, this is not the best part.

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 Making money on fiverr.

I once posted a mantra on our Facebook page which says, “You should invest your time every week doing what you know best and soon you would get rewarded.” Fiver is the place where you are rewarded for doing what you know best. I have bought Gigs on Fiverr to increase my Facebook likes. I have used Fiverr many times to get researches done. I also use fiverr a lot to get my website code errors fixed. There are more than three million tasks you can get done on fiverr. My question is, what do you know best? What are you good at? Can’t it be monetized on fiverr? Are you a Mbira player? This could be a niche you could exploit producing mbira beats for the world at large. You don’t have to go to UK or USA to produce Mbira beats for an African cultural gathering. You could do all that on fiverr. The internet is like a second passport and gives you dual citizenship to a country of your choice. Someone might be creating a homemade movie in Lebanon and would want credits done or editing of the movie. You could do that too from Zimbabwe on Fiverr. If you check all the ideas Iam talking about don’t raise a brow and won’t make headlines in a daily press but they have the potential to make your journey to the bank filled with joy.

Fiverr Arbitraging

This is not the most interesting part about Fiverr if you are smart enough. Firstly, let’s get a healthy dose of motivation. Opportunities are always disguised as problems. One of my extended mentors was once asked what he needed to start a hot dog company and compete with a big company. All he said was, ‘I need a hungry crowd’. He didn’t mention getting a good marketing team or state of the art equipment. What am I getting at? You don’t need to be a great designer to make money on Fiverr designing banners and logos for clients. All you need is a hungry crowd. All you need are clients in need of that service. You could buy Gigs for resale. That is called Fiverr Arbitraging.

I have used it a few times and the results are superb. I remember suggesting that a groom could get a personalized song as a bride’s present on their wedding. I bought a Gig through the process I explained above. I didn’t put a price tag on the song but when I played it for him, he pulled a fifty dollar note from his pocket and pressed it in my hand. I didn’t react. It looked a bit too much for just two Gigs. I had bought one Gig for the lyric from one freelancer and another for the song. It was superb. The other time, someone saw the logo for our first ZimIvestors t-shirts. I told him that the logo had been outsourced and had since stopped using the designer because he was expensive. My friend who did the new ZimInvestors logo was out of the country. She dared me to find a good designer. The offer was too difficult to resist. I bought a gig plus a few add-ons. She loved the design and was paid a hefty commission. With Fiverr arbitraging, you don’t have to know how to do it, but rather who needs something done.

I talk about this strategy and many more on our Ziminvestors click-startup classes. Before attending our online monetization class, I dare you to try for yourself first. These are just a few of the many ways to make money in Zimbabwe without necessarily being an expert. And remember to do good stuff and as always…to your continued success.