Good Design for $5?

Would you design a logo or business card for five bucks? Previously, I had written about our worth as designers and how to properly calculate your personal worth. (See my blog entry here.) So, to place such a low price on your work might seem in opposition to that entire idea, but let's consider a few things.

1. Does your experience entice repeat or word-of-mouth business without marketing yourself?
2. Does it generate a revenue stream?
3. Do you have enough stand-out logo work or business suite design in your portfolio?
4. Do you hate creative exercises that help push your abilities and allow you to make money in a real world environment filled with client requests with high demand and quick turn around times?

If the answers to any or all of these is "No", then you may want to consider that five buck design option. Okay so #4 was a bit of word sorcery meant to challenge your self-esteem and pull out the answer I wanted, but hey, I don't like uneven lists!

Now, I'm not trying to promote a third party here, but I've recently fallen into the Fiverr realm. Maybe you've heard of this low cost gig opportunity driven revenue stream building app/website.

The premise is you can offer a service, literally for anything, that is built on a $5 price tag. This might sound like a waste of your talent but consider this, creating one logo a $5 a piece might be, but creating templates from which a client might choose from then recycling that same design over and over and over again could become extremely profitable. One Fiverr I saw had been doing just that. You can check out some of his work on Fiverr here 

Maximizing his design potential with the power of copyright law. You retain rights to your designs, unless you sold them specifically to the client. (In case you didn't know that, see my copyright blog.). 

It's pretty genius when you think about it. Tack on the added fact that you can add services as an up-charge like your selling a large fry to someone who should of only gotten the small and you're in the money. It's called "gig economy". The gig is simple, singular and gives supply to demand in a way that hasn't been tapped since the early garage band days of bar shows and Why pay thousands of dollars for services someone is willing to give away for five? It's all about marketing yourself. If you can do that successfully, there's not a lot that can stop you. I see it as another form of experience from a self-branding, self-marketing standpoint. You don't have to relegate yourself to the above mentioned design skills either. You can do anything from social media headers to website reviews. Just get your foot in the door and let the money roll in.

The selling point for me was when I read that "Logo Design" was literally the second best selling service on the site. Along with testimonials and featured blogs from some high level sellers promoting their new purchases like a new car or house based off of their Fiverr profits, I was hooked. 

I highly suggest you check it out, if you haven't already. I'll be testing out the service as both a buyer and seller over the next few weeks and I'll report back to see if it's as good as my research is leading me to believe. I've already put up two test "gigs" and have received over 800 impressions. I'm excited.