Comments on: Craigslist Ad of the Day: The We Flatter Ourselves Ad

By: Angela West

Angela West — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:40:05 +0000

LOL Jeremy – I love it when they get all defensive about their rate right in the ad – shows they are up to no good. Unfortunately there is a down side to that; people with a low self-esteem and/or lack of experience can fall for it. Hopefully they stumble across sites like this one and get themselves educated.

By: Veronca Shine

Veronca Shine — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:23:21 +0000

Hi Jeremy,

I saw that ad also. I laughed becasue they wanted 25 to 30 articles a day. All those words for like maybe .000000000005 cents a word! As they say in NYC, fud ged about it.

By: Amy Derby

Amy Derby — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:57:51 +0000

Thanks Jodee! That ad you saw is pretty funny.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:20:54 +0000

I just saw a Craigslist ad that pretty much takes the cake:

Articles must be at least 400 words each.
Articles must show proper grammar.
Articles will be on various topics.

Payment is set at $1.00 per article. You will not find freelance publishers who pay more than this.

Serious applicants respond ASAP.

By: Jodee

Jodee — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:41:50 +0000

I saw an ad in my CL travels this morning where instead of paying their writers, this “green” site will plant trees in your name. Just when I think I’ve seen everything….

@ Amy: I like your Halloween costume!

By: Jude

Jude — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:25:01 +0000

that just made my monday!

By: Amy Derby

Amy Derby — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:22:17 +0000

By the way, Deb, I SO miss the Curmudgeon, but am happy to hear about the greener pastures (after all, I’m in my sheep halloween costume over here)… Please send dear CC a postcard from me. I was mostly a silent fan. But do let him know he’s missed.

By: Amy Derby

Amy Derby — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:17:44 +0000

OH NO!!! That’s just wrong on so many levels I can’t keep the coffee from jumping out of my nose.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:15:07 +0000

I think my experience with craigsList is just like Andy’s: every CL ad that resulted in work included the company’s name. I doubt I’m the only person who likes to know where I’m applying!

By: Marie

Marie — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:12:05 +0000

A friend of mine just had an operation that will keep her home from work for several weeks. She’s so happy that we can “hang out all day” now. Yeah, cause that’s what I do when everyone else is working.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:54:17 +0000

Hilarious breakdown.

By: Toddie Downs

Toddie Downs — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:53:39 +0000

That would be hilarious if it weren’t so offensive.

By: Genesis

Genesis — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:48:01 +0000

Ick. I hate that so many people target work at home moms. Why on earth would they think a mom has time to write for free? :S

By: Rebecca Haden

Rebecca Haden — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:41:08 +0000

Do you think it’s possible that these ads are gathering up personal info and selling it — lists of gullible people, say?

By: Andy Hayes

Andy Hayes — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:40:14 +0000

I’ve just been looking over my marketing logs and notice that I’ve gotten really poor traction at craigslist. I also don’t like the fact that when the ad goes, so does your contact point, so you’re sort of left hanging.

Every contact I’ve gotten work from on craiglist actually had their company name, details, etc. on the ad.

Perhaps it’s my luck, but I’d like to think it reinforces the fact as everyone has said – be careful!

By: freelancerM

freelancerM — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:36:15 +0000

I am a WORK at home mom, and can I say that whenever I read those kind of ads all I can picture is Charlie Brown getting the football pulled out as he’s about to kick it. ‘ARRRGGGG”

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:09:22 +0000

Great post! These ads are every where, especially for travel writing. If you go to TravelWriters.com, they have a listing of the “help build our website ads.”

Unfortunately, I took the “bait” of an ad that was for a travel writing position. It was one of these “sign up with our website, post an article, and our creative director will contact you about getting paid to write for our website.” I was never contacted. Good thing I only posted one article, which was the “test article.” Live and learn!

By: Ann G.

Ann G. — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:44:26 +0000

I remember years ago when my daughter was MUCH younger, I was in an online group for stay-at-home-mom’s. We had a supposed male member enter who said that SAHM’s were sex deprived therefore read “romance novels and ate bon-bons” all the time. What was worse was that it was later revealed that her person behind that direct quote was a working mom who felt we had it so much easier.

I’m not convinced people will ever truly know exactly what a stay-home parent does unless they’ve lived it.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:18:23 +0000

What’s been getting me lately are all the “do my homework for me!” posts. You can tell when the end of the semester looms…

I considered offering to tutor the guy who offered $200 for 9 chapters worth of math problems, by Dec 1st (he’s got the answers, but needs to show his work), but I suspect it’d be a wasted effort.

They are tempting, though. Damn my academic honesty…

By: Hazel

Hazel — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:59:32 +0000

Do you think it’s because stay-at-home moms and/or graduates DO or DON’T know something about hygiene?

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:47:26 +0000

Deb I had a feeling…

By: Deb

Deb — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:35:27 +0000

@Michael – I know someone who recently sold an STD blog for about 90 grand. If you’re going to do it, don’t do it for free for someone else.

@Tish – Craigslist Curmudgeon has moved on to greener pastures.

By: Mel

Mel — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:24:37 +0000

Well said, Deb! I’ve gotten pulled in to way too many of those ridiculous ads. I have a PNN.com account now because (silly me) I thought they would compensate me for the time I’m putting into my fashion writing. Uh huh… right.

By: tish

tish — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:14:01 +0000

Cuz stay-at-home moms have nothing better to do, doncha know? And I don’t know where or why apostrophe S have become so prevelent. Want to pluralize? Just add apostrophe s! No one will know the difference. Argh!! And this makes me wonder: What ever happened to Craigslist Curmudgeon? Anyone know?

By: Michael Carnell

Michael Carnell — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:59:28 +0000

Not much to say other than – Too Funny! I wanna write about personal hygiene for no pay! Oh, and maybe venereal diseases too…