Part 1 of How to Find Writing Clients on Craigslist will discuss how to use Craigslist writing advertisements to find new clients. Part 2 includes how to find clients by browsing the Craigslist Writing Gigs section.

Granted, Craigslist isn’t a reliable place to find writing clients–there isn’t a guarantee they’ll pay your invoices on time (or at all) or offer a fair price for your web content. But this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s impossible to find writing clients on Craigslist–in fact, one of my highest paying clients found me through Craigslist.

How to Find Writing Clients on Craigslist

There are two ways to find writing clients on Craigslist: post an advertisement yourself or browse through every major city’s Craigslist for writing opportunities. The latter takes a lot of time. With the first option, you may need to spend more time advertising because of high competition.

Posting a Craigslist Writing Advertisement

In my personal experience, I’ve had higher response rates when my advertisement included the following:

1. A niche. There are plenty of content writers advertising on Craigslist, but few specialize in a niche. Highlight your experience in a certain niche, such as health or marketing, to draw in more potential clients. Make sure to include your niche with your title when you post. Back it up with experience, either gained academically or professionally.

2. Rush order availability. If you’re available to write rush orders (writing a set of articles within a day or so), make sure to mention this in your advertisement. Clients want things fast. Craigslist clients evidently want it faster. Bonus tip: You can charge more for these rush orders, giving you a higher payout at the end of the day.

3. A website or portfolio. This adds more to your “trust factor”–if the client can trust you to write good content for their website. A good “writer’s” portfolio should include relevent experience, samples to previously written work, current rates, contact information and information on what types of content (such as articles, promotional copy or landing page material) you can provide. Include it with your advertisement and make sure it’s clickable–clients will rarely make the effort to copy and paste your website address (it’s just too much work).

4. A picture. This may sound strange, but I’ve had higher response rates when I included a relevent picture–or in my case, a picture of myself. When I asked one of my clients if my picture had anything to do with his decision to contact me, he said it did because it created a more personal connection, which made him feel that I was more trustworthy. While I can’t say this will apply to every client that browses your Craigslist ad, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to include a picture.

Combining all four points won’t guarantee you new clients, but it can make you more visible to them, which is always a good thing.

How to Find Writing Clients on Craigslist is part of WJR’s series on Online Writing Tips.  To see the full series of tips, click here.