Using Craigslist for Outsourcing and Hiring

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I suspect just about everyone’s familiar with Craigslist, the free online classified portal. Maybe you’ve bought a sofa, sold a computer or reviewed a place to eat.

What you might not know as a business owner is that Craigslist has become a great place to find qualified employees and freelance service providers. I’ve had very good results using it this way as have some of my customers.

The process of placing an ad is extremely simple and responses generally start showing up within a couple hours. If you aren’t getting the right responses, simply change the ad. Ads can be targeted to specific cities or worldwide. You will be surprised at the quality of responses too. Now, because Craigslist is a bit of the wild west, you may also get some pretty nutty or off topic responses, but they can be sort of amusing.

There is no cost for using this service and no real monitoring so you have to do your own due diligence when it comes to building working relationships. If you are having trouble finding employees this could be a good way to reach an audience that might not be reading the print classifieds these days.

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Posted by: John Jantsch on Aug 01, 08 | 9:09 am
Category: Tools I Use | Tags: , craigslist

Comments

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Clifford

Personally I would steer clear of Craigslist for finding free-lancers.

Using a service like guru.com or eLance.com accomplishes the same thing but customers can leave feedback regarding their experiences with that specified free-lancer.

That way you know in advance whether you're getting a good or bad egg.

Lazy Owner

You say that ads can be targeted worldwide. How do you do that, without posting ads for each city (which is not allowed).

John Jantsch

@Clifford - in theory, I would agree, but I've not had much luck with elance. I just don't get very good replies. Also, the ability to get local responses from craigslist is significant sometimes.

Mike Smock

Hi John

I've been using Craigslist out here in San Francisco for 10 years for freelance and full-time creative gigs. They continue to outperform all other alternatives (Guru, etc.). They now charge for job postings in SFO - $75.

Link Moser

I have used Craig's list for finding freelancers and been very pleased. John is right. It is free, quick and easy to do. I also use ELance with good results, however, if I am looking for someone very local, Criag's List works best.

Steve Albers

I used Craigslist as an integral part of my job search process (before taking my current position). Had a few really good interviews through CL postings too.

The only downside is sifting through the bogus/get-rich-quick schemes that seem to be abundant in certain lists (LA area - Marketing list).

online advertising seo

I just closed a 5 figure PPC/Web Development deal that originated from craigslist. He was local but I still get 50% of my business from craigslist.

Greg Curry

I have used them a couple of times with limited effect to hire sales people for our site thriftyu.com. I will use them in the future, but not as my only resource.

PPC

Nice application for Craigslist. The traditional recruiters and recruitment agencies are going to find it harder and harder to get business, as more and more people start going direct.

Greenville SEO

About a year and a half ago when I started looking for a new job, I always leaned more towards the Craig Lists and job boards from other people's sites in the industry, instead of site's like Monster or Career Builder.

The funny thing is...the ad that I responded to and eventually got the job was at a site that the company had no idea about.

They all asked my how I heard of the company and when I told them the site and job board the ad was on, they just gave me blank stares.

Greig Harper

I think it's like any site, you find the ones which work best for you and the market you're in. CraigsList can be 'interesting' from the recruiters side - check out NotHired.

Chad

I have found my two previous jobs (which happen to be my favorite) on Craigslist. Both jobs I applied for didn't list the company name, which had me a little hesitant to go forward, but everything worked out for the best.

If you haven't read anything about Jim Buckmaster, you should definitely find some articles -- he is a rather interesting guy.

Patelligence

I agreed because i also find my job through Craigslist.

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