Dealing with the response rates on Craigslist

Just like applying for any job, you are likely to only get a few responses. Maybe the poster already found someone else, or they're late in responding, or maybe they just aren't interested anymore. Often you'll reply to a job ad, only to hear from the poster 2 or 3 weeks later...

You can use this to your advantage! If you apply for 20 jobs in one weekend, the breakdown of responses might be something like this:

Because people are busy or lazy, the response times will vary wildly. This is one way to ensure you have a steady source of jobs. If I can complete my first job in a week or two, and I get a couple new responses while I'm working, I can schedule those people in at a later time and keep a good continuous stream of work.

Cast your net wide and deep, you'll never know what (or when) you'll catch. :)