If you don’t have the time–or don’t want to make the effort–to create your own ads to attract new clientele, there is another option: taking advantage of the site’s features to find clients already advertising writing work.

For writers, here comes a legitimate concern: how do you differentiate scammers from trusthworthy, real-paying clients?

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.

Some writers use Craigslist to snag new writing gigs (writer Carly Schuna credits her freelance writing success to the site), and while there’s nothing wrong with that, not all writing job posts are legitimate. Some may be elaborate money scams, veiled attempts to promote websites that really don’t pay for content, or people trying to find “sample articles” to steal for their own unscrupulous purposes. It’s definitely not cool, but it’s a fact of life if you want to find writing jobs on Craigslist.
But how do you separate …