The gigs board on craigslist is generally a huge waste of time. Maybe a little better in the bay area than any other city, but even if you do spot a decent project chances are if they are posting in the gigs board, the client isn't that committed. God knows how many useless meetings with flaky idiots I've taken through CL gig board ads.
My approach to CL is let them come to me, unless I'm desperate. That means post your resume, put an ad up in the services section, keep A/B refining it until you get hit with good emails.
One of the best approaches to finding local clients (that I rarely do and should attempt more) was actually cold-emailing local businesses that conduct a lot of web dev work. Back in 2004 I moved to the bay area with no clients whatsoever, and did 2 things - posted CL resume listings, and cold emailed every design agency I could find. At the end of a week, I had enough clients to last me the next 3 years.
My approach to CL is let them come to me, unless I'm desperate. That means post your resume, put an ad up in the services section, keep A/B refining it until you get hit with good emails.
One of the best approaches to finding local clients (that I rarely do and should attempt more) was actually cold-emailing local businesses that conduct a lot of web dev work. Back in 2004 I moved to the bay area with no clients whatsoever, and did 2 things - posted CL resume listings, and cold emailed every design agency I could find. At the end of a week, I had enough clients to last me the next 3 years.