Craigslist for adverising: worth the hassle?

[NathanJK]

Since I'm WAY at the low end of the photographer spectrum and I'm still trying to find some portfolio building clients I'm looking into ways to get a few weddings under my belt to expand my portfolio. I browsed over to craigslist wondering if it might have gotten a bit nicer, but I am pretty hesitant to do any advertising/listing anything on there since

A: it will generate TONS of spam mail
B: the quality of the clients might be less than desirable, although this might be a moot point since I'm just starting out.
C: people might not take me seriously.

Does anyone have an opinion? I cant decide if its worth it or not, but I haven't been able to come up with too many ideas on how to get clients without any real portfolio to show them that is actually wedding specific.

Edit: maybe it'd help business most if I learned how to spell advertising

[Daniel Bates]

A. Yes, it will. I listed two cameras on Craigslist, and got at least half a dozen scam offers. I can't really evaluate how much spam it generated, since I used my usual spambait email address when signing up (and that address gets A LOT of spam).

B. I don't really have an informed opinion on this one.

C. No offense to your photographic skills, but I don't take anything seriously on Craigslist, more so if someone were advertising as a wedding photographer. It's kind of like shopping for your wedding dress on eBay... or Craigslist for that matter; the brides I know (okay, both of them) wouldn't think of it. They actually went with the photographer that the cake designer recommended (or something like that).

[NathanJK]

Yeah, I haven't been over to Craiglist in a LONG time because well, its usually trash. However, I did notice that there were a lot of photographers advertising there, and I assumed most were hacks...however, if they are getting business and I'm not, then maybe I should consider it you know?

[epoh]

It's worth it if you are willing to work for free, and that's all I'll say about that.