Lately, to pick up more graphic and web design jobs, my husband has been hitting Craigslist.com. Not only has he successfully booked 3 jobs, he has a few other prospects lined up for the coming week. Half of these contacts have more work for him in the future and is finding that many of them are simple projects that he completes within an hour or so. I’m also helping him manage the task of receiving payments by wisely sending them a non-usable watermarked proof, then when payment is received (I’m the bookkeeper around here), the final full-sized high resolution file. Many people use Craigslist to pick up temporary or freelance work, and my husband’s success got me thinking about why he has been successful in such a short period  of time (a week!). Below I outline a few tactics that he is using that make him successful:

• Experience. My husband has owned his own business for over 10 years. Most of the prospective clients look at it before contacting him directly. This gives him an edge up on the competition, people feel they can trust him though they don’t know him yet.
• Professionalism: Being an experienced manager, he easily takes command of a project and plots out what needs to be done and how to best complete any project. He knows which questions to ask and then how to proceed.
• Requiring a deposit: Some complaints on Craigslist are about not receiving payment after completing a project. Something my husband learned years ago, if you don’t have a payment history with a client, you need to secure a deposit. The alternative to this is not sending the final file until payment is received. Some of the easier projects can be sent in a low resolution with a watermark, then when payment is received, the final non-waterproofed file is submitted to the client.
• Hitting Craigslist early: It seems like some of the more serious prospects are on Craigslist early in the day. Later in the afternoon, he doesn’t see as many replies. This may be in part that those posting jobs need them done that very same day.

He has only been using Craigslist.com for the past week. But if we continue to receive the same amount of interest, we may continue replying to more postings. Compared to Guru.com, another freelance website we use, we have had a 99%  better return rate with less work. (Guru requires you to submit a formal proposal, which is time consuming.)

What experiences in obtaining work have you had with Craigslist? Have you posted a job and successfully fulfilled it?