Do you advertise on craigslist?

Just wondering if any fellow FPF facepainters advertise on craigslist. I CONSTANTLY see adds with snaz images and the like, but I rarely see any for the more legit facepainters in my area.

I do, but not regularly. I rarely get good gigs out of it except for custom halloween party faces. It's a good way to clog your inbox with lots of spam!

Plus, there's several painters in my area who post things like:
"I'm a stay-at-home mom who loves to paint. I charge $20 for a four hour party. Why pay more?"

/ facepalm

I advertise on Kijiji and it generates a lot of inquiries, and a good amount of bookings. I advertise in as many categories as I can manage to "fit" the ad too... entertainment, services, beauty, etc.

And I only use MY photos!

Kijiji here too... it brings me quite a bit actually. Not craigs list... I don't think many people in my area use it.

I've thought about it and will atleast give it a try, but like Julie said the competition is selling themselves for pennies.

Shannon Fennell wrote:I advertise on Kijiji and it generates a lot of inquiries, and a good amount of bookings. I advertise in as many categories as I can manage to "fit" the ad too... entertainment, services, beauty, etc.

And I only use MY photos!

Kijiji isn't big here.
And WOW! That's progressive of you. Please keep in mind though that not all of us have your talent and experience
Now I'm off to figure out how to remove a watermark from a gorgeous design that I saw on the forum...nobody will notice that I don't paint like Pashur, Mark Reid, or Lynne Jamison in real life? Right?

OK, I tried thumbtack.com, but have just ended up investing rather than getting any bookings from it. Has anybody tried it? Tips?

stick with free classifieds is my advice... at least until you know what the people in your area are reading. I started with free ads on Kijiji, then when I was getting a good amount of feedback from it, I started occasionally paying for the top ads once in a while.

Kijiji is pretty big here. I posted on some other free classifieds too but get NOTHING from them. Bizcafe is one.

I will run multiple ads in the same category too... they have to be substantially different content as it they won't let you repeat ads. But around Halloween for example I was advertising for SFX, for kids, for parties, etc.

I actually get quite a few good gigs with Thumbtack. It's like Gig Salad in that you don't *have* to pay but you can if you want to upgrade (never have, personally). The nice thing is that you usually don't have to pay to contact the inquiry since they include their contact information on the gig email.

I have also used Thumbtack to create a nicely formatted Craigslist post with pics - just make sure to edit the HTML to include your website URL so clients are not forced to go through Thumbtack to find you!

I have advertised on both Craigslist & Kijiji this last Halloween. I have gotten some really nice legitimate work through Kijiji.
My first Craigslist inquiry was a man asking how much it would cost to paint his "weenie". I told him it would cost a LOT of money because I would have to go out and buy special micro-goggles and little teeny, tiny instruments in order to find his "weenie". He hung up on me.
The next Craigslist inquiry was a woman who wanted to know how much it would cost to paint her with a full body Avatar, I told her it was $100/hour and I needed to know if I would be painting clothing on her (which would take more time and therefore cost more). She told me that she was "kinda cute" and I could use her photos for my book. I could get exposure. I used a FPF line and told her "I could die from exposure". She hung up. Two weeks later, the woman phoned me at 10am on the Saturday of the Halloween party booking and said that the paint alone would cost $100, so she was ok with having me do her full body avatar tonight. I told her I was booked, I only had a few 15 minute breaks during my day beginning at 2pm until 9pm. She said that she would wait and that "I could go ahead and buy her those Avatar prosthetic ears". I told her I was booked. She said it was ok...she would wait as long as I needed to get her painted in between those other bookings. She didn't want to inconvenience me. And, I could still go out and buy her those prosthetic ears. I told her "no, thank you" and I hung up the phone. Thank goodness people were not given the studio's address until I spoke to them on the phone.
The people who booked with me through Kijiji were lovely, charming and great to paint. I did not get a single booking through Craigslist (although I now have some funny stories to share with the Forum, thanks to those oddballs).
I will advertise next year again on Kijiji. I will only advertise on Craigslist again if I find the time in the upcoming year to go out and purchase some micro-goggles, & some teeny, tiny weenie finders.

I do advertise on craigslist. I don't get a lot of great leads from it because most craigslist shoppers are bargain hunters. BUT, I figure if nothing else, it really helps with website search engine listings. Just make sure there are a lot of key words in there and there is a link to your website and/or business facebook page.