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Why so down on Craigslist?
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[Flowmotion] “just this week I turned down two cable tv ads for $500 each”
Even those can be worth doing.In my case I’m blunt up front about what they’re getting. The ad must be simple enough for the whole thing, shoot/edit, is done in an 8 hour day or less. In addition, I became an ad agency and I get 15% on the cable buy. The buy has to big enough to make it worthwhile though. That’s learning the Comcast way of thinking.
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Without going done point by point, my own observations and experience of craigslist is clearly very different than yours.
I’ve gotten work from descent mid sized businesses on craigslist. I’ve been contacted and have seen ads from nationally known companies. Yes, generally these are smaller divisions within such companies and some are new to video.
There are MANY good reasons businesses advertise or respond to advertising on craigslist. Sometimes it’s somebody who isn’t surrounded by people who can recommand others. Sometimes they want to cover for their lack of knowledge. Sometimes the people the company uses are beyond the budget for a given project. Sometimes their job entails so much other work that craigslist is easier for them then spending time doing research.
. . . AND I did get my home/office from craigslist too!
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“Sometimes they want to cover for their lack of knowledge. Sometimes the people the company uses are beyond the budget for a given project. Sometimes their job entails so much other work that craigslist is easier for them then spending time doing research.”
And these are all good indicators of a potentially bad client experience:
1. Covering for lack of knowledge – You don’t have to know video production inside and out to know how to type “video production company” or similar into Google. What it DOES indicate is that they might lack general knowledge of best business practices, research, obtaining information, evaluating video related work etc. All of these mean they might also be slow to provide information needed to complete the project, need things explained over and over again and probably won’t be very appreciative of your work since they have no clue what it entails. For example, the old “why does the edit take 3 days? After all, I could do it in Windows Movie Maker in 2 hours!”
2. Beyond the budget – Enough said.
3. Job entails so much work they can’t properly seek out a vendor – This also might mean that they will be so busy with the “other work” involved in the job that they will leave you hanging for days, weeks or more, not responding to voicemail or email.
4. Easier than doing research – If they are too lazy to do any level of research, as my previous post lays out, that does not bode very well for the type of client they will end up being.
You sound plenty happy with the jobs you have received from CL, and that’s all that really matters. By the tone of your post, it DOES sound like you realize you aren’t getting ideal clients and probably aren’t getting very good budgets out of the deal either. While that may very well be untrue, many of the studio owners I speak with echo my sentiments on the general quality of CL leads. Not true for everyone, without a doubt, but more often than not they are more work than they are worth.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
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In reading all of these posts, one thing becomes clear.
CL is part of the major shift in the way business is done today.It’s sort of like life in an aquarium. There are bottom feeders, and everything up from that.
There are more of us in the aquarium these days because working life spans are longer. We now have 20 somethings and 60 somethings in the same market. That’s pretty extraordinary.
CL hasn’t given me the quality of leads that some of you have gotten. I see mostly “do it for free for your reel or ridiculously low cost.”
I’ve had much better luck with local and regional crewing services.
Regards,
Ty Ford
Ty Ford’s “Audio Bootcamp Field Guide” was written for video people who want better audio. More at: https://home.comcast.net/~tyreeford/AudioBootcamp.html
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Ty,
I do think craigslist requires a different type of marketing and sales then one might use in other mediums, in order for it to work.
It might be worth starting another thread on how to market on craigslist. And still another thread on how craigslist has affected some portion of the industry. All this so we can learn to use craigslist as a tool (and like any tool it’s not on size fits all).
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Hi Bob,
It was actually more than $4k in August; I’d forgotten about the wedding shoots I’ve been doing on Saturdays. It comes down to three different Craigslist connections that I made last year. One connection that started as a two week editing gig at an ad agency has gradually turned into a steady $3k a month for the last two months. It might last longer, it might not. Another connection has been on-location editing for a company that does a bunch of corporate events. That has only been two gigs in the last year, though. And, I’ve been shooting weddings on weekends for a couple of local companies. That has been solid all summer long and I’ve got four more shoots this month.
I’ve been actively responding to Craigslist postings for about a year and a half. I would say in that time, that I have responded to 35-40 postings. I am pretty selective. If there are misspelled words in the ad; forget it! It has to sound and feel like a professional gig.
I am in Everett, WA; about 20 miles north of Seattle. I’m certainly not the only game in town in the Seattle market. But, after 9 years of this, I’m starting to get good at my job. The only thing that can limit my success is a lack of effort. Like I mentioned before, I’m “marketing challenged”. I’m not very outgoing, but Craigslist has been a relatively painless way to market myself.
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I use standard approach with Craigslist. I have a decent resume with excellent references and a pretty good demo reel. I see Craigslist as a long term investment. There is very little chance of making big bucks fast, but a very high probability of gaining excellent clients and making a lot of money over the long term.
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This kind of makes me chuckle…’cause after reading his ad I would NEVER have considered him for a serious shoot. Just from the way the ad was presented….and being on CL.
Its a perception thing…if fact, I still wonder if its really the same guy…hard to believe.
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