After a year of rocky, on-off availability and limited communication from Fiverr about what was going on behind the scenes, it’s back! Early Payout returns just in time for Christmas as a less-than-impressive stocking stuffer.
Fiverr’s Early Payout Feature: A Quick History
When Early Payout was (stealth) launched as a beta feature in April 2020, it met with a mixed reception. Despite some sellers’ reservations about giving Fiverr even more money from their earnings, other eligible users found it a useful financial management tool. This was mostly down to Early Payout’s “killer feature” – the ability to instantly withdraw without waiting for 7 to 14 days for their funds to clear.
Early Payout Was On-Off for Most of 2023
Over 2023, however, Early Payout suffered a series of hiccups. Fiverr sellers on the r/Fiverr subreddit and the official Fiverr Forum that they weren’t getting the Early Payout option anymore, or that it was appearing intermittently. Others complained of a 48-hour wait time to get their funds.
Some went as far as to threaten to cancel their Seller Plus subscriptions, claiming Early Payout was the only thing that made the membership worth it.
Fiverr Staff Announce Early Payout’s Unavailability
Despite clear issues with the feature, it wasn’t until October 9 that Fiverr staff took to the forum to confirm that the Early Payout feature was out of action:
As many of you may know Early Payout has been unavailable for some of you for a fair amount of time now. The team behind Early Payout was reviewing the feature so they could make adjustments / improvements. It has been unavailable longer than planned, but it is returning. Although I can’t guarantee when it will be back, I know that the team is trying to get it back within a month.
noahd_success, Fiverr Staff
Hints of a New-Style Early Payout Based on Hidden Metrics
Of course, things move a bit slower in the corporate world. In November, a poster on Reddit revealed that they had asked their Success Manager about the mysterious reappearance of Early Payout on their Earnings page:
[He] told me that they transitioned early payout to a “metric based decision”.
u/BrandonArrh, /rFiverr
On Friday, December 15, Fiverr staff member Kesha posted that Early Payout was set to return with more details to follow on Monday. She also confirmed that Early Payout funds would now be cleared in 48 hours, rather than instantly.
The post did not attract much attention due to the controversy over the ongoing private feedback beta test, which introduced the Fiverr emoji rating system to a stunned – and decidedly hostile – audience.
Early Payout: Fiverr’s Big Christmas Gift for Sellers
If you’re a Fiverr seller in the Seller Plus Premium Program who likes Early Payouts, Fiverr has a big present for you. They are back – so long as you can keep your buyers satisfied and your quality metrics high.
That’s all that can be said at the time of writing, as Fiverr staff did not post an update on the details of Early Payout on the Fiverr Forum. Instead, an email was sent out.
Early Payout Returns: So What’s New?
Unfortunately, the actual feature seems a bit convoluted and is not well-explained on the Early Payout help page on Fiverr:
You might be forgiven for thinking that a “Seller Plus” member might be eligible. However, both the email and Kesha’s post on Friday indicate that this is not the case and only Seller Plus Premium subscribers can use Early Payout.
Additionally, the order must be completed. Auto-completed orders, where buyers do not manually complete the order, are not eligible for this feature.
But that’s not all…
Hidden Metrics Matter for Sellers Dependent on Early Payout
The Early Payout feature is now not only locked behind a Seller Plus Premium subscription, but also depends on a seller’s performance:
1. What are the eligibility criteria required for Early Payout?
Early Payout FAQS, Fiverr Help Center
Eligibility is determined based on your sales and performance history, quality measures, and compliance with Fiverr’s Terms of Service and Community Standards. Your eligibility is automatically defined and can change on a daily basis.
This would mean keeping all observable metrics over 90% – ideally at 100% – and also performing well on hidden metrics, which sellers cannot see. It’s not certain how long these metrics have an impact on a seller’s account, but between 60 to 180 days are numbers thrown around in various Fiverr communities online.
Why would they change eligibility on a daily basis?
Because they are rolling metrics. A rolling metric measures data over a continuously updating timeframe. That’s a big deal – and it really illustrates where Fiverr’s priorities are going wrong, even if their intention might be in the right place.
Hidden, Rolling Metrics: The Silent Judge Behind Early Payout
If you’re a Fiverr seller, visible metrics and hidden metrics essentially scrutinize your performance every single day. It’s not hard to stay on top of your visible metrics, but it’s almost impossible to know when your hidden metrics are taking a hit.
If you’re doing well, Fiverr will give you all of its best stuff: enhanced rankings and access to things like Seller Plus Premium and Early Payout. However, if you’re not doing well – maybe a bad private review nailed you – and your hidden metrics dip under what Fiverr considers acceptable, everything is taken away.
You’re out in the cold until 30, 60, 90, 120, possibly even180 days have passed.
You don’t know what the problem is.
You don’t know what you did wrong.
You don’t know how many days you are under penalty.
The kicker? The less work you have, the more impact those rolling metrics have on your current Fiverr rating. No matter how you square it, the current metric system rewards quantity over (high-)quality.
And nobody will tell you what went wrong.
But if you can get it right, you can certainly access Early Payout.
Community Reaction to Early Payout’s Return
There was little response to Kesha’s post on December 15 announcing the return of Early Payout. There were no additional details following on Monday, nor at the time of writing this on the following day.
This post will be updated if Fiverr makes any further announcements on this Early Payout relaunch.
Wrap-Up: Early Payout’s Return Is More Scrooge than Santa
While eligible sellers who like this feature are certainly pleased with Early Payout returning, it marks the end of a troubling year for many Fiverr sellers. The online platform’s increasing overreliance on AI tools to sift and sort through sellers, combined with unknown metrics for what amount to daily performance reviews, have left many of its established sellers with a sour taste in their mouth.
Fiverr sellers could be forgiven for feeling more than a little Scroogeish about the platform this festive season. As the global economy continues to cough and splutter and more people enter the gig economy, 2024 sets the stage for even more competition.
While Early Payout is presented as a gift to the platform’s most established sellers and best performers, it’s hard to overlook the fact that many established sellers are looking to reduce or remove their presence on the site. This is a conversation where Fiverr falls silent as he stuffs his stocking full of money.
The freelance platform might be wise to stop for a moment and remember that many sellers are suffering. Increasingly blind and restrictive metrics are simply driving sellers to find freelance work elsewhere – places where they can skip the 20% commissions, fees, and metrics altogether. Early Payout or not, 2024 should be a year in which Fiverr doesn’t just listen, but act.
