I understand that Craiglist is a major website that tens of thousands of people have successfully completed transactions on. My experience using Craig’s List has been less than effective.
On a regular basis I visit Craigslist to see what type of web development and web design projects are available. Quite regularly I respond to the advertisements. In many cases my skill set fits exactly what the client is looking for. Exactly. As of today I have yet to get one single return call or email from any job posting I have ever responded to on Craig’s List.
Perhaps my prices are too high. Perhaps my skill set is less than I think it is. Whatever the case, it’s becoming quite apparent to me that Craig’s List is never going to produce a single client for 1955 Design.
What has your experience been?
4 Comments & Trackbacks
#2
David Zemens says in reply: Posted: December 8th, 2009 at 11:55 am
I think you hit the nail on the head with your pricing comments. I guess most folks think of Craigslist as a bargain basement place to request services. Since I don’t charge bargain basement prices, nor provide bargain basement work, I should be happy that I am not getting any responses!
#3
aljuk had this to say: Posted: December 28th, 2009 at 10:38 am
I had exactly the same kind of experience with CL, ‘though it wasn’t work related. I was looking for an apartment in NYC for a month last summer. I got very few replies by contacting advertisers, and those I did get were a little too weird to trust. So, I posted my own ad, and my experience immediately changed – I was inundated and found exactly what I was looking for very quickly. I think posting an ad is the thing to do… let them come to you.
#4
David Zemens says in reply: Posted: December 28th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
That’s a great point aljuk. Maybe I will try posting my services on Craigslist. Thanks for stopping by and for commenting.
Posted: December 8th, 2009 at 11:47 am
I agree with you 100%. Although I did get a couple of jobs from CraigsList in the past, they were small support jobs that really didn’t bring in much. Now that I have quite a few regular clients and am more “known” I just check CraigsList but rarely do I respond.
I’ve found that a lot of it is the pricing. The folks advertising on CraigsList seem to feel that anything reasonable is too high. I’ve seen a few where they have specifically asked for a high school student because (not a direct quote but what I recall): “They know the web better and don’t overcharge.”
The other irritating thing is job ads on CraigsList … I’ve checked those for my husband and the hourly rates they offer for the experience and knowledge they want is absolutely ridiculous! Full-time experienced application developers with knowledge of just about everything … and they want to pay $10.00 per hour!
Absurd!
Obviously you’ve hit on a touchy subject for me, Dave!
Pat