How to Market Yourself

When your posting an advertisement about a service you’ll perform it’s important to remember that you’re essentially selling yourself. You can make up your own template but a good format to start with is one as follows:

1. Service to be provided

2. Relevant experience in subject area.

3. Examples of Work (Links or images)

4. Contact information and instructions.

The first thing you should mention briefly is what service you’re providing. It should be short and concise. Remember from earlier sections that it’s important to use keywords in your titles. Consider the following examples:

Mediocre title: “Got a leak? I can fix any sink and patch any pipe!”

Effective Title: “Experienced Plumber: I can fix any sink & repair any pipe”

The second title is more effective because it uses more key words (plumber, experienced, fix, sink, repair) than the original title. More people are likely to find this post because the title describes what they are looking for.

The next thing to worry about is what experience you have. It’s pertinent to mention how many years you’ve used this particular skill and whether or not you have a degree or certificate in the field.

If it’s applicable you should provide people with examples of your work. This can be a link to an external website that features your work or just pictures that you upload to Craigslist.

Lastly you should provide your contact information. In a résumé it’s important to have the contact information at the top but this is an internet sales ad and they’re read completely differently.

Avoid putting your full address or cell phone number in your contact information. It’s probably best to just leave your business e-mail and it’s completely acceptable to use the anonymized e-mail that Craigslist provides; just mention that so people know they can reach you that way.