Daype Classifieds

With over 10 million unique users per day, Craigslist.org can be an excellent, cost-effective way to market a product or service. To be truly effective, however, you have to know how to make the most of your postings. The following will give some quick and easy tips for the most effective, simple-to-execute postings.

The first thing you should do when you begin to use Craigslist is to sign up for an account. Once you’ve done this, your ad posting will be quicker and much easier to do. After sign-up, you must confirm your e-mail address. The next step is, naturally, to read all of the Craigslist.com guidelines for the site and you should also review the terms and conditions to make sure you fully understand them.

When you are ready to post, begin in the “Help” section. You should just take a look at the “Classified Postings” area if this is your first time visiting the site. If you have some experience, feel free to skip this area. Particularly if you are trying to execute a business posting, you should definitely check out the FAQ’s. This section will give you a good idea of some of the issues that can arise when posting, and how you can avoid them.

Always keep in mind that you can only post ads that are actually related to the services or the products with that product or service category. Your ad will be flagged if you attempt to post it in an area other than your specified category, and it will be deleted. This is a waste of your time and energy, so make sure to follow this guideline.

As for Craigslist policy on flagging ads, they don’t flag ads, users of the site do. If your ad is flagged by enough users, it will be deleted. Its kind of interesting to note some of the recent postings on Craigslist.com. It seems as though there are a lot of lonely people in cyberspace, and some crazy people too! They have appointed themselves the ad police and even if you feel your ad is a good one, and it meets the terms and conditions, it can still be “blackballed” if more than one person thinks its irrelevant, or incorrectly placed.

Additionally, you are only allowed to post a single ad related to 1 product – and then you can only post every 48 hours – no exceptions. You can’t post the same ad twice either. You can post it the first time, then come back and renew the post when it expires (however, with my ebook you will find all the ways around this!).

Another common issue is posting too many ads or posting in the wrong category. For example, you can only use a commercial URL in the service category. There are, however, ways to get around some of these requirements. The first work-around is to use all Caps in the headline on one ad then upper and lower case on a different ad for the same thing. This is sort of risky, however, because since all caps is considered “shouting” on the internet, it does put some users off.

The best way to get attention for your posting is to right an interesting headline, but not oversell or shout. Additionally, do not use your URL in the headline. This is thought of as bad form. Your headline is about 80% of the reason people will respond to the ad, so you are wasting some great ad space by including it, and it won’t be a point of interest for your user. Just save it for the ad itself. You will have plenty of room there for your URL and other product or service descriptors.

Be careful of the text font that you use. You want something simple and easy to read so that users immediately understand your proposition. If its real products you are posting, you can do this almost anywhere on the site, but you can’t use a URL. If your are selling an affiliate product, you should cloak the link or something else that will not tip off the fact that its an affiliate product. Because you are not supposed to post affiliate links on Craigslist.org any more.

You should also keep in mind that some Craigslist users are really value-driven and therefore are always looking for the low price. This may not be an issue with certain goods or services, but can be with others. That being said, there are still a good deal of small businesses that use the site for their own marketing with very high success.

Craigslist may not be for everyone, however. If you are selling a luxury item, or if you need walk-in traffic, you should look elsewhere for marketing tools. If your product or service offering is a good value, and personalized to the user, it can be a great vehicle for local marketing. Some services that have done well with Craigslist include hair stylists, tutors, consultants, mechanics, real estate agents, and the list goes on. In addition, selling goods like certain collectibles, used vehicles, instruments or furniture also can usually find a home on Craigslist.

Craigslist works well when used as a community site. People don’t trust companies that just try to execute their post, sell and move on. They like to interact with those they do business with in the “virtual Main Street” section of the site, or people who also respond to other people’s postings and don’t only sell all of the time. This way, users see you as a buyer, as well as a seller.

In some ways, you have to use some marketing strategy when you use Craigslist, but its also incredibly simple. Since Craigslist is a city/region-based, so your products or services should be posted in all relevant geographical sites. Don’t forget, however, that regions can overlap too. If your service area encompasses more than one city, make sure to post on other nearby city or region sites. You will really have your work cut out for you if you have a national reach to your product or service.

The main thing to consider when posting on Craigslist is just to understand the guidelines and either stick directly to them, or know how far you can go outside of them without getting flagged. Craigslist is not a site that tolerates spamming or going over the top with your advertising efforts. If you can stick close to the rules, however, you can gain some wonderful awareness and business.

One great tip is to develop an ad that is customized for the city you post in. Also, its an excellent idea to put your focus on a specific product or service, then rotate it according to a schedule you set. Also, don’t post a exact replica of an add within the 48 hour period, and remember to delete your older. These Craigslist visitors can easily spot those who abuse the site and will not be very understanding of it. With the power of spam control with all of the users, you really need to be careful in the ways you handle your ads.

Be considerate and smart, and Craigslist can be a great addition to your marketing and sales efforts.

By Social Networker
April 22, 2007
source: socialnetworking.thingstoknowonline.com