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Comment by ryanwaggoner | Hacker News Reader

I've been doing contract work for three years; 95% of my work has come from Craigslist or from referrals from people who I connected with through Craigslist. You have to wade through an incredible amount of junk, but the volume on CL can't be touched anywhere else, and there is good stuff in there. I look in computer gigs and I also periodically post an abridged version of my resume in the resume section.

Other places I've found stuff include Dice.com, 37signals Gigs Board, Freelance Switch, and AuthenticJobs.

I get a lot of recruiters for contract jobs contacting me through Dice, my resume post on CL, and my blog. That might not be the kind of thing you're looking for, but it doesn't hurt.

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I agree. More than half of my work has come from CL. The nice thing about CL is being able to win work locally if you are in a larger metro area.

Even if you are not in a big CL city, many replies to job ads are from overseas or from developers with limited communication. If you can communicate well and provide a solution for exactly what the customer is asking, you can win some good (and potentially long term) work.

But as Ryan says above, you need to weed through a lot of bad listings and be persistent in your search.

Can you give a rough percentage of people who respond to you from CL?

I've only recently started hunting for gigs via CL. I've picked 3 and responded (I took time to write what I thought was a good, carefully-worded response) within 24 hours or so but no one's responded back. I know sales is all about volume, I'm just trying to get an idea of what to expect.

3 to 1 sounds about right for initial responses, assuming you pick jobs that you are obviously qualified for. this goes up and down, obviously, depending on how qualified you appear to be for the position you are responding to.

Once you get the initial response, there's still a pretty good chance of the gig falling through for whatever reason. Contracting is rough this way, really no matter where you get your clients.

I've had luck with Craig's List as well. Look at big cities like New York, LA, etc and make sure they don't specify being on location. Also, Freelanceswitch.com has a decent job board. But watch out for job posts like this: http://thedon.me/2010/09/29/freelance-job-post/

I agree from the other side too. As someone who hires freelancers more than freelancing, I've had the best success with:

- Craigslist (specifically SF & Seattle) - Authentic Jobs - 37signals

I've landed a number of good gigs with CL in Atlanta, definitely worth a try.

do you think a small software to help filter and notify jobs of interest from CL can be helpful? what kinds of them do you use ?

really helpful.

Thanks :)

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