Craigslist

Ever notice how your feelings about Craigslist change based on outcome? Well, mine do. I post there fairly regularly with mixed results. It seems to be the place to 'go to' when you're feeling a bit desperate......at least I do. When work is slow I hope upon hope that a job will present itself there, and sometimes they do. Unfortunately, the jobs posted seem to be by people who have no clue what artists work is worth, and they're also there hoping upon hope.
Once in awhile though you get lucky in a different way. Today I met with two lovely young ladies at the KIPP Charter School in Philadelphia. One of my first questions to them was, "So who was it that was brave enough to post an ad on Craigslist?" They placed an ad looking for a muralist to volunteer to do two murals at their school. I'm all for educating the young and this school is all about that. They've got my support. Silly me.....I didn't even ask them if anyone else had responded or if they were meeting with other artists, but if they like my sketches and would like me to do the work for them, I'll be there as soon as I complete the mural work at the Hospital of The University of Pennsylvania (HUP) that will be starting in a few days.
This would be my 'canvas' at the school (part of it anyway), I seem to have a hallway thing going on lately, HUP is also a hallway mural, but way bigger:
Mostly now though I use Craigslist to get more exposure on Google searches. I'll place and ad and use the url of the page my ad is on to list on the google search engine. Seems to work pretty well.....I do the same with video posts that I put on YouTube. Seems Craigslist and YouTube are more search engine friendly than my website.
So theres my artist tip of the day...if you want to try and get more people to your website post an ad on Craigslist, click on your ad and use (copy and paste) that url when submitting to google's search listing. When you title your Craigslist ad make sure you use words that people would be searching for.....use key words as your title, don't worry that it doesn't make sense, and put pictures of your work in your ad and your website address (a live link to it). I know I can be lazy, if people don't post a live link to their website....I don't bother with it.