What does $5 usually get you these days? Typically, our beloved Wilfred gets us almost two americano's, a taco, two bus rides, etc. Basically, $5 doesn't go super far these days.
What if I told you there is a website dedicated to providing over 3 million services ranging from logo design, to music track mastering, to paid testimonials, to... well... almost anything you can think of, for $5? Nuts, right? Enter Fiverr.com.
I've only just started checking it out, but I've found a Sean Connery impersonator, a dancing Sri-Lankan, and high-quality logo design. Five minutes of searching yielded a massive selection of services, so I encourage you to take your time.
The website itself is well laid-out, and if you join, let's you save services for later use. More importantly, it provides a review system, so you're able to largely mitigate getting crap for your $5. And that raises and interesting point: does this website legitimately make traditionally expensive services accessible, or does it further cheapen skills and labour? I'm not sure yet, to be honest.
For example, five bucks apparently gets me a professional-grade logo for my business or brand or whatever. Traditionally, this same service would be on the order of $100 to $250, maybe more. That price seems reasonable to me because it acknowledges the designer's skill, education, tools, etc. So if I can get the same thing for $5, this makes me wonder if much of these services rely heavily on templating, which further increase generic mundaneness, and if not, then WTF? In an effort to reach a psychologically acceptable impluse price ($5), is Fiverr.com essentially encouraging the devaluing of human skill and labour? Maybe, maybe not.
While everything can be bought for a rock-bottom five dollars on Fiverr.com, there are also 'Extras' one can purchase, and I've noticed these increase dramatically for professional services. So, sure you get your logo for $5, but if you don't like the first draft and want to have it revised based on your suggestions, it's an additional $10. Okay, fair enough - $15 for a logo you can tweak is still outrageously inexpensive.
Still, I can't figure out how one can make a living on this site when, for example, ten logos is only $50. Then again, maybe I'm missing the point. At the very least, check it out - I'm totally ordering a Sean Connery voice-over.
