Use Craigslist to get clients?

Not in my experience. They have been very friendly, easy to talk to, willing to pay a fair price..but seeking a bargain. Frequently they have been burned once or twice and are a bit cautious.

I'll leave the "writing" part up to someone else...except to say, study your competitors and see who looks successful and that you would be tempted to call. That should give you a clue what to write.

Barry,
Are you posting locally or across the USA? What sections are you having the best results posting in?

I only focus on two cities, both where I have physical addresses.

Every time I have attempted to go too broad, my accounts get ghosted.

I could use a combination of browsers, clearing cache, VPN's, PVA's, and post more widely, but for now, I'm not.

I am definitely NOT the resource for learning how to do mass postings to Craigslist.

Post ads slowly. Wait hours between posting. You'll have better luck doing it that way.

I usually don't post more than once per day in my area.

I'm not using Craigslist to scrape leads. I have called people that are actively advertising they want a website or other service.

I advertise on Craigslist and get calls from potential clients.

I have to try this , I have very less knowledge about Craiglist .
great to be here .

I used to get really good response from just looking for people that need web work done. Replying to their ads but also posting my own ads. The main thing is to try to work as locally as possible because many of them have been burned. And make sure to weed out the tire kickers. You'll quickly figure out how to do that.

Here is a way to get local clients with craigslist. Go to Google Alerts and create an alert like this

site:craigslist.org "i need a logo"

That is an example. You are going to receive emails from people looking for logos in this case, you can outsource the logo at Fiverr and use it as a foot in the door service and then upsell SEO or another high price premium service.

Think about a service that is foot in the door service that can be cheap and the prospects you want are looking in craigslist and create a Google Alert to find them for you and sell them the cheap service and then upsell them.

I've had no luck posting ads on CL. No one has called or emailed me.

Maybe my ads suck or I'm dealing with too much competition?

Yeah...build trust with a business when you give them a low resolution logo in mostly unusable format

then a month later if revisions are needed you can't find the guy who made it LOL

way to get your foot in the door and your butt kicked out

Ummm....I don't use fiverr... I am talking about client's who have

also - you apparently don't have a lot of experience in dealing with real world clients...they will come back to you and want something added or changed....while I don't offer unlimited revisions, they do want to know that YOU are doing the work. They also want to see who else you did work for - a portfolio from Thailand or India or etc won't fly where I live

You are full of advice but what backs up that advice? I don't go to engineering forums or forums about dental implants and shove my opinion at professional people. I do not claim to be the guru here, nor do I sell anything. I do try to offer practical real world advice based upon the fact this is what I do for a living, full time.

Yes definitely ... Craiglist is the best to get traffic as well as business enquiry.

Craigslist can be hit or miss. You are dealing with people from all walks of life and all income levels. That being said, CL is just another tool in your marketing arsenal.

I agree that CL is hit or miss....I've seen everything from Bargain seekers to business owners wanting to hire for big projects. Just gotta keep posting ads over time to see what you come up with.

Craigslist works for selling physical items. There are tricks you can use to get clients from Craigslist. You have to be smart about it. However answering a plain classified Ad 99% you will get rejected.

Ok, so my first method isn't working. no luck posting ads on Craigslist. No one has contacted me...yet. Maybe my ads suck or I'm dealing with too much competition.

However, I've generated ~8 interested leads via cold calling YellowPages businesses. So I guess I have to contact them, and not wait for them to contact me.

Should I try cold calling businesses who post ads on Craigslist? I'm not sure if they have money to pay me...

It depends on which location you are in , for big cities craiglist works and it also depends on category of your products and ads

I have been doing commissioned based sales for a local kitchen cabinet maker for a year and a half. I have built a website, a facebook page. posted ads in the local weekly classified paper, bought leads from Home advisor, and posted on craigslist.

I would say by far I have had more success on craigslist that any of the others. Speaking from my own experience, the key for me boosting responses was adding tons of pics. most of the other cabinet guys had 1 or 2 pics. Sometimes they were just their business card or a stock photo. I added at least 12 photos of actual kitchens we have remodeled. I try to get photos of each new project and keep adding new photos always making it the featured pic.

I do not claim to be a marketing expert, but I am having success by making my ads different than the rest. I am sure that all the gurus on here would laugh at my ad copy, but at least i'm out there trying something.

I just sold a granite counter top today. left a quote yesterday, and I have an appointment first thing Monday morning, all from craigslist. Oh, by the way, My largest contract to date was $32k new construction kitchen and baths with granite through out. Where did the lead come from?? Craigslist!! Now that was a nice commission!!!

Craigslist is not for people selling things that are not absolutely in demand. People there seem to like Movers, Construction, Garbage/Debris Removal, Man with a Van, etc. But other services are harder to sell there. Web Marketing forget about it. Sucks.

I've had success REPLYING to ads from specific types of businesses and pitching them on my services.

I've automated the process somewhat using IFTTT platform.

Once in the platform you set up what are called ... "recipes" .... which run automatically and can send you potential leads. For example, say you were pitching services related to Word Press ... you would set up a recipe (keyword trigger) for "Word Press" .. and anytime an ad said something like .... "Word Press Website Designer Needed..." ... you would receive a copy of the ad so you can then reply.

Of course that's the easy part so to speak ... closing sales is another story. You have to test many, many different approaches (your e-mail replies to the potential customer) to find a winner. For example, I've found that BRIEF emails work best when first replying. If they can't answer while on their mobile phone ... you need to SHORTEN your message. Basically, you're just looking for initial interest here. Once you establish that ... THEN ... you can advance the conversation via a longer email or even a phone conversation.

Also, the services you have to offer MUST be tightly aligned with ads being placed. Meaning, you may be an expert at ... "Electrical Engineering CAD Software Design" ... but there are NO ads being placed saying ... "CAD Software Designer Needed."

Lee

I built a web scraper that looks through over 400 cities on craigslist. I have it set up to filter and display the most recent adds with web development related keywords in the gigs section. For example, something like, "I need a new wordpress website".

I have sent probably about 15 personalized emails and haven't even had one response. My guess is that most people only want to pay the equivalent of $15 an hour, which is an insult to US based developers.

Yesware is a great and free email tracking tool that integrates with Gmail very well.

Craigslist is a fantastic source for new leads.