Spotting a Good Freelance job on Craigslist

Craigslist has a wealth of big dreaming potential clients who all have the next big idea and want you to help them bring it to market. I will recount my experiences, as well as a few lessons I have learned.

The Difference Between a Paid ad and a Free ad

One important thing to consider when searching through the thousands of daily classifieds is where you are searching.  The “Jobs” section of Craigslist immediately filters out those wanting something for nothing; it costs $25 to post a web design job in Seattle.  Usually these will be long term hiring positions and many of them are posted through recruiting companies like Creative Circle or Law Dawgs. Look for contract positions in these sections. Don’t expect that to mean temp-to-hire and don’t burn a bridge here because contract employers can make excellent references. Just like Google, the right keywords can make the valuable content stand out. Don’t limit your search to one category. Search “All Jobs “and narrow down the ones that interest you based on their keywords and titles.

The Ever Refreshing “Gigs”

Computer and Creative are two categories that receive hundreds of posts per day asking for anything from “Help me install Windows” to “Build me a large corporate site like MySpace”. The average poster has a budget of about $5.82, and will include equity in their soon-to-be-worth-millions idea. Despite being flooded by posters with illusions of grandeur, this category is where I have had the most success in finding business in a slow time. These are not the high paying long-term projects that established companies need (usually), but consist of individuals wanting a blog re-design, small businesses wanting to upgrade their ’98 website, and start-ups needing a logo or business card.

This is one job hunting area where you should take full advantage of spending your valuable time trying to acquire projects that you would enjoy in some way. Don’t spend time writing an email for a job designing the back of playing cards if you have no interest in filtering through clip art and remaking illustrations so they don’t violate copyright.  Gmail’s Canned Responses plug-in is great for saving time on these. Describe your experience, what you specialize in, and that you would like to discuss the details further. This can expect a very small return rate, but if you customize an introduction or signature to reflect their specifics they will know you’ve read their ad and want to work with them.

The $5 Logo

The topic can never be preached enough, but if this is not your first time putting pencil to paper and you have spent thousands of dollars on education, years in time, and minutes alive you need to avoid these posts at all cost. Not only will they be Burner Clients, neither of you will have much respect for the other. That’s just how it will work.  The cost of a logo should be based on the effort you are expected to put into it, multiplied by the monetary rate you deserve for your expertise (time on project x hourly rate = fixed price). Promises of future work or referrals are all just the words of a salesman trying to get a good deal on your time. If a car salesman promises to tell people about the great free website you built him, you should get a free car to drive around and tell people about the great service he offers. And if you are spending $5 worth of your time on a logo, you either bill too low and hurt the design industry as a whole, or are cheating your client out of an important aspect of their business which they may not realize the importance of.

I have gained more experience in dealing with great and horrible clients through Craigslist than any other avenue. In whatever you decide to pursue in this wild free west, be honest with yourself about what you will get out of it.