Advertising on Craigslist…why not…it’s FREE!
maria gudelis | July 29, 2008Advertising on Craigslist (Craigs List) is worthwhile for not only real estate professionals, it is a golden key for just about ANYONE! Whether you are a business offering products or services or simply want to become an expert ‘reseller’ of goods…you must master Craigslist and your bank account will thank you! What is great about craigs list is that it is free and ANYONE can use it, from a work at home mom, to a teenager selling his iPod or used sport equipment…to myself how has sold thousands of dollars worth of real estate, cars, assets on Craig’s List!
Craigslist is very simple to use and the best way to get started is to purchase a VERY inexpensive ‘How to Advertise on Craig’s List’ educational program…I’ve pointed out one below that is quite good!
Discover How to Advertise on Craiglist Like I did to Make Thousands…Click Below:
Click Here!
Whether your products are offered through ecommerce websites or physical stores or you simply need some QUICK CASH by clearing out some of your household goods…you can see financial gains through advertising on Craigslist.
Firstly unlike other advertising opportunities there is very little risk involved in posting on Craigslist as it is FREE to post your advertisement! With the exception of job postings and housing postings in specific markets, advertising is free on Craigslist.
My first experience with Craig’s List was advertising one of my rental properties for rent…within 6 days I got the house rented! After that…game over, I was hooked on craigslist and quickly started to sell other things on Craigslist, from RV’s to real estate investment properties to personal services such as internet marketing consulting, Craigslist has been a powerful tool in my business arsenal!
When signing up for Craigslist, users are asked to agree to the terms of service of the community and are expected to follow specific guidelines when posting advertisements but there are no financial obligations to those placing advertisements on Craigslist. This means those who post advertisements do not have to be concerned with whether or not the advertisement they place will meet their expectations in terms of sales generated.
Reaching Potential Customers on Craigslist by Geo Targeting
Another reason why posting advertisements for products or services on Craigslist is so worthwhile is the likelihood of reaching a large audience of potential customers in a specific geographical area. A review of the Craigslist fact sheet reveals pertinent information regarding the amount of traffic the website receives.
I personally geo-target my market, so for instance, in selling an RV for a client, I know that Orange County, California and Canada where strong areas of demand for purchasing an RV and advertising in those areas quickly brought emails and calls to my client who was looking to sell a very nice RV.
According to this information Craigslist receives approximately four billion page views each month with ten million people using Craigslist each month. From these statistics it is clear that advertisements placed on Craiglist are likely to receive at least some attention from potential clients. One of my recent craigslist ads for an item brought me 3 to 4 solid prospects a day!
With so many visitors using Craigslist each month the advertising possibilities are limitless, however, there are no guarantee any of these visitors will be interested in your products or services. Like any marketing campaign, your advertisements on Craigslist must be intriguing, informative and in a location where you will reach your target audience.
Finding Your Target Audience on Craigslist is the KEY
We’ve already discussed the number of visitors using Craigslist each month but the key to taking advantage of these numbers is to target your advertising in a way aimed at reaching your target audience as opposed to a wide audience of individuals who have no specific interest in your products or services.
This is also why PPC is so powerful and you can create the same effect with Craigslist. It is much more worthwhile to reach a small audience of those with a keen interest in your products or services than to reach a much larger audience of those who are not interested. Those who have an interest in your products or services are your target audience.
The key to reaching your target audience on Craigslist is placing your advertisement in the most appropriate locations and create a compelling TITLE. Craigslist has a specific section for businesses to advertise their services. This section is broken down into a number of categories.
Those who are in the business of computer repair would be wise to place their advertisement in the computer section as opposed to the automotive section because individuals looking for computer help will naturally migrate to the computer section. It may sometimes be appropriate to place an advertisement in more than one section. This is acceptable as long as it does not cross the line to spamming the section.
If there is not a specific section for the products or services offered by your business there are a couple of options. Business owners can place an advertisement in the section for small business advertisements where it might be found by those doing a search in this section. Alternately the business owner can contact Craigslist to suggest the addition of a new category. They might be willing to oblige if they believe this category warrants an addition.
The Difference between Advertising and Spamming
Advertising on Craigslist is one thing but spamming is quite another. Placing an advertisement in an appropriate section of Craigslist is acceptable; however, placing the same advertisement in nearly every section of Craigslist websites for a number of different geographical regions is considered spam. Spam is ineffective for a number of reasons. First of all potential customers who see a particular advertisement in a number of different locations are likely to recognize the spamming techniques and be less inclined to patronize this business. Also, if Craigslist detects the practice of spamming they may delete all of the postings and could potentially ban advertisements from the individual in the future.
Wow! Gotta use this trick. Thanks for sharing it mate!
This is a great inspiring article.I am pretty much pleased with your good work.You put really helpful information. Keep it up.
Craigslist is a great resource if you can manage it sucessfully -this article helps thanks
Hi! I would want to try Craigslist but as I click on the link you provided, It says that the site is under construction and try again in a few weeks. So, must try it in a few weeks time. Thanks!
Thanks Maria!! Great post & Blog….
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Your blog was by far the best blog
I have tried before, but now that I am armed with new information thanks to you I will give it another shot thanks!.
very informative. CL is huge, and it's important for someone to know the difference between advertising and spamming!
I think that free account is really cool however I think you would need a pay account and like thus to post multiple..
Some advantages which I noticed for Advertising on Craigslist are; this offer free edition plus it is more useful than any other procedure…
Twitter: http://adambarratt.com
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You know this is relevant because the condo that I just closed on last year I had found the listing through craigslist, and it was right down the street from my uncles, and the real estate got the sale for free advertising haha, I use craigslist for everything
Great tips to advertise on Craiglist. Maybe it would be easy for me now to advertise there or post by following your guidelines. I have tried registering to craiglist and post some comments but always rejected.
The fact that it's free is much more awesome and a better reason to use it. It's free and you have a good chance. Thanks for taking the time to coach.
Maria..as a follow up to the spamming aspect of Craigslist…I ran some tests with ads on Craigs List…ie..putting a ad into a different category….and lo and behold..with 24 hours..it was flagged and removed. So fo those of you that think the site has no monitoring..think again.
Its a wonderful site to do ad experimenting on..testing headlines and copy..especially since they now frown on running the identical ad more than once a day..
But thanks for the article..You always post great content…
Your blog was by far the best blog for the information because of its simplicity and easy to comprehend.
Excellent article.
Great post. Craigslist is a wonderful resource for advertising almost anything. I'd highly recommend this website to anyone because it's very easy to use and doesn't require a membership or anything complicated.
Maria, another great post!
You inspired me. Thanks
Great article, I never thought of advertising on Craiglist thanks so much for the hint, Cheers John
i appreciate your work! nice post too!
Twitter: mariagudelis
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Thanks Warez!
Twitter: alchemydigital
says:
Really good article, Maria. In addition, to targeting the right audience I would also suggest adding an image into the ad. Making your ad stand out from the others will help to make sure it gets read. We post our ad in Craigslist about once a month and it has been really successful for us.
I, myself, relies heavily on images too.. Pictures make our advertisements stand out from the others and catch attention easily, it arouses curiosity hence, increase our traffic. By doing so, we take advantage of internet marketing through craiglist without too much effort.
Craiglist is really a huge gold mine if you know where to digg. I just started a small business and i must admit craiglist really helped me build it strong in a matter of weeks.
Now i am learning about facebook and it's major benefits and there is huge potential to this one too. Maybe you should write an article about Facebook's benefits too. You can also target your audience really accurate but the bigger plus facebook has is the design and applications it offers.
So, craiglist is #1 but facebook is definitely a must too if you want best results. Cheers !
I was never much of a technology savvy person when it comes to matters about business. That was a few months ago before my niece introduced me to Craigslist. She's 19-years-old.
Needless to say, it has been a major part of my business since then. It never fails to amaze me how popular and functional the site is.
Hello,
I have tried to add my web site with Craigslist and after a long sequence procedure it reported that there was problem with my contect number, so they were unable to confirm. Is there no other way for confirmation? Email I mean…
Hello Maria. Really nice post I must say. I've heard a lot about CL and really want to get some leads for my e procurement software business but I'm not sure how to advertise it correctly, can you please suggest a few categories to start of?
Thanks
Twitter: mariagudelis
says:
Describe your eprocurement sw benefits – you can go into biz services offered, you can also have FREE webinars on it and put it in the events / announcements section.
Craigslist is great.
i used to sell some products on the Internet and craiglist addition to being a safe way to do this, it is easy and fast. recommend to everyone.
So craiglist is one of the solutions for my business online. Thank for this post.
Automation for Craigslist posting is key. I use Adzilla Pro… it is free and I would suggest giving it a go.
oh wow, this is ooold
i remember craigs list, but am i right if i say, that it's not so relevant anymore, as you have tons of social media platforms nowadays?
Twitter: mariagudelis
says:
Craigslist is still good as a marketing channel or finding clients and suprising enough, as is eBay (yes – eBay is not dead!) – great for SEO backlinks! But yes – I do declare you must have a social media platform/strategy in place!
Hi Maria, Good creative post with some great insight. I've used CL successfully in a couple of my businesses. I just found you blog and really like it. Thanks.
Maria, you are a GURU! I love your stuff. It helps the little fish compete in the big pond. Keep it up.
<a href="http://www.notesellernetwork.com" target="_blank">Sell Your Real Estate Note</a>
Twitter: mariagudelis
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Thanks Scott! Cheers, maria gudelis
Craigslist is amazing. It is one jumbled up ball of listings in a strangely organized fashion but people flock to it for just about anything these days.
There is plenty that CL could do that would bring in more income. They are choosing not to maximize their revenue. They could very easily offer some basic ads spots (even just links or ads similar to google ads) on their citynamehere.craigslist.org that would likely bring in significant revenues, without causing any issues for their traffic flow or user base.
Alas, they are making enough money and don't care. At least they won't go down the same stupid road as Starbucks.
Craiglist has certainly provided some good oppurtunities and chances in advertising. The fact that it's free is much more awesome and a better reason to use it. It's free and you have a good chance. What more would you want in advertising.
We get a lot of traffic from our CL ads. Maintaining them is key.
I had looked around for several blogs that would show me what your blog ultimately have. Your blog was by far the best blog for the information because of its simplicity and easy to comprehend. Thank you for sharing!
I love reading about different perpectives on marketing on the internet. I have never used craigslist before and will have to check it out. Thanks for the detailed info on how to get started.
i have been on craiglist many times and it seems to disorganized. half the stuff was already gone or no one responded.
Do you show how to put multiple ads and even the same ad at the same time in all states etc…
I can only put the same ad in once a day, in one place even if its in a different state.
Rich I think you need a pay account to post multiple times or at least daily.
Maria you are one classy chick!
I appreciate you so much.
Twitter: mariagudelis
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Thanks Cheryl!
Thanks for taking the time to coach. Good stuff.
Twitter: mariagudelis
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Thanks Peter!