If you’re reading this, you’d probably like to use Craigslist to promote your business, be warned, it is NOT easy to post your ads.
If you are already promoting your business on Craigslist, you are probably reading this section because you’ve found that out the hard way. Your ads are probably getting flagged, ghosted or you are getting a “duplicate ad” error. We explain how all that works and how to get around your ads to go live and stay live in this section.
Once you figure out how to get your ads to go live, using Craigslist to promote your small business as online marketing strategy is extremely profitable, and (for some businesses) may be the most effective marketing tactic in existence at the moment. Whatever business you are in, it can be very lucrative.
Why Should You Market On Craigslist?
Huge Traffic
Craigslist.org gets roughly the same number of visitors as ebay.com, as Alexa measures it, here: Craigslist traffic. Wikipedia reports that Craigslist serves over twenty billion page views per month, placing it in 22nd place over all amoung all web sites in the world and 8th in the U.S. (Source, Craigslist page of Compete.com)
Low Costs
Basically every section of Craigslist is free of charge. There are just a couple sections in a few cities that actually cost money. However, for our purposes, we’ll assume that the whole site is free.
Right about now, your probably thinking…”This sounds great! Why is this supposed to be so hard? It’s just a free classified advertising site”…..
Craigslist hates Internet marketers and does everything it can to KEEP YOU OUT. Well that might sound a little harsh, but it is true.
Craigslist’s creator, Craig Newmark, started the site as a hobby and a service with the intention of providing free locality specific classified advertising. He’s very active on Twitter as @CraigNewmark.
The operation of Craigslist includes a team of professional programmers and managers who work on creating cookies, filters and ghosting protocol as well an manually policing the site. This protocol is being constantly updated and enhanced to make it harder and harder for the online marketers to post on Craigslist. This is the problem with marketing on Cragislist.
I am not knocking it. Craig has every right to run his site exactly how he see’s fit. This is a perfectly legal procedure and part of the terms of service. Plus, they do a heck of a good job at keeping the ’spammers’ at bay.
Craigslist still runs today as a .org domain name, so it is considered a not for profit site, but if you can manage to get your ads to stay on Craigslist, then it will definitely be to your business profits.
What You Need To Know Before You Use Craigslist
* Even though Craigslist is a free classified advertising site you will need to invest time and or money into your marketing campaign to see any results.
* As the ghosting (ghosting is when you ad shows as posted in your Craigslist acct but not showing up in the section that you placed the ad) programs are being constantly updated, so to does your Craigslist advertising routine.
Craigslist!
Words You Must Know
Ghosting – When you go through the posting process and everything goes smoothly but the filters block the ad from going live on the site.
PVA (Phone Verified Account) – A Craigslist account that is verified with a phone number. Only one account per phone number is allowed. The number must be either a contract cell phone or a land line. The number CANNOT be a pay phone, a pre-paid number or a virtual number. PVA's can be created through a text message or a phone call.
SoftBlocking – When Craigslist requires you to have a PVA in a category that doesn't usually require one. When this happens, Craigslist has 'softblocked' your IP address.
GEO-IP Blocking – Craigslist blocks all postings that come from an IP that is not located near the city you are trying to post in. For example, if you live in Tampa, FL and try to post in Seattle, the above three terms will all come into play. Craigslist will require a PVA (softblocked) then your ad will be ghosted because of GEO-IP blocking. Craigslist knows that the ad is not 'local' and they ghost the ad.
Flagging – When you post an ad, the Craigslist community has the opportunity to essentially vote to have the posting taken down. If enough people vote to have your ad taken down, the ad comes down. This is called Flagging.
* The steps outlined for you in this section are as accurate and detailed as possible. You may need to use a mix of the techniques and tips as explained below in order to stop your ads from ghosting.
1. The first thing to do in the, how to post on Craigslist action steps, is to consider how many phone numbers you have access to. The current account creation process requires a valid phone number to be entered. Once you work through the sign up process you will receive a phone call or text message with a validation code.
Now here are some ideas if you don’t have access to a lot of phone numbers:
a. Use your work number.
b. Use your home number
c. Use your cell number
d. Use your significant other’s cell number
e. Use your significant other’s work number
f. Go to a payphone that accepts incoming calls and use that phone number.
You may need someone at your computer to put the number in but then you can stand there and wait for the phone to ring and get the phone number.
g. Ask a few close friends if you can use their number.
h. Partner up with someone in your industry and brainstorm other idea’s. Perhaps one is willing go to a local train station of somewhere there’s a heap of public phones, while the other does the online work. This might sound like a ‘desperate’ step, however it could turn out to be a very profitable partnership. Use your network and close business contacts.
Repeat the process 10 times. Remember, you will need to go to each email account that you have set up and click on the link that Craigslist sends to each email account to activate each individual Craigslist account.
You can do a Google search for "craigslist phone verified accounts" or "craigslist pvas" or "phone verified accounts" or "pvas for craigslist" or "phone verified accounts for sale" and choose a company or provider that fits your budget.
2. If you have access to 10 different phone numbers then you will need to set up 10 different emails. Go to http://www.gmail.com or hotmail and set up your free 10 email accounts. Now you have 10 different email accounts that you use everyday to post from. You are essentially set up for 10 days or 2 weeks.
3. Once you have set up your email accounts, go to Craigslist and create 10 accounts with Craigslist. Go to http://www.Craigslist.org/.
Click on my account on the left hand side.
You will see a place where you can log in.
Underneath that, it says don’t have an account - Click on that.
Follow the instructions.
Once you get to a certain point, it will ask you to put a phone number in.
Once you put that phone number in, you will receive either a phone call or text with the code you will need to enter into Craigslist in order to have a valid Craigslist account.
4. Fourth, you need to set up your ads.
Never post the exact same ad twice - this includes your headline.
Duplicate posts are NOT permitted on Craigslist.
Try writing 10 ads and then sit down and try and get 10 different variations out of your original ads.
This gets you 100 different ads!
A common variation on the headline is to place a bunch of letters and numbers at the end. For example if your headline reads “Best Beef Jerky” alter it like so, “Best Beef Jerky________7r4f6FDe” & “Best Beef Jerky________Hw84HpF8″
This is a topic for debate, but unless you are using auto posting software and are changing your IP address regularly (perhaps every 3-5 ads) you should only post 3 ads every 48 hrs from one Craigslist account.
If you post 3 ads on the same day from the same Craigslist account, your last 2 ads will get ghosted.
When you activate or log into your Craigslist account the site places cookies on your computer. Now, if you don’t know much about cookies, they basically read, record and track data while you are browsing. Cookies are used commonly online and are a natural part of online technology - there is no need to fear. Cookies are not like a virus so will not do damage to your computer.
So why does Craigslist store information on cookies? Craigslist uses cookies, like most sites do, to track when you last logged in, how long you are logged in for, when to make you type in a password and also uses cookies to check to see if you are logging in with more than one account or are posting more ads that they allow per person.
Basically, all you need to know with regards to Craigslist cookies and posting on Craigslist is that you must clear them after finishing with each account. You should also clear your browsing history, temp passwords and temp internet files.
Each operating system will be slightly different, so use these this as a guide. Open you computer’s control panel. Go to network & internet. Internet options, then delete browsing history. Within that menu option you can select to delete your history and you want to check the box and clear all.
Sometimes the browser you are using is not the default for your computer. If this is the case try the following steps;
Instructions For Firefox
Menu option - tools, then clear private data (again you need to check all the box’s to clear them all.
Instructions For IE
Menu option - tools, then internet options (clear everything!)
The common term used to describe the automatic removal of Craigslist ads is, “ghosting.”
If you have attempted to place an ad and are not able to see it visible on the live site, then you have had a visit from the green ghost.
Ghosted means that Craigslist will act like your ads are posted but when you go to look for them, they do not show up.
Do a Google search for "Craigslist Ghosting" or "Ghosting or Flagging On Craigslist" for more info on this subject.
Stopping Your Craigslist Ads From Ghosting
The best way to create an ad that will not ghost is to view that ads that are currently being posted to that section. Look at the following:
the kinds of key words they are using in their ad copy
what kinds of words they are using in their titles
whether or not they are posting with images
don’t post a link to your website (unless it is in an image in the SERVICE SECTION ..NO IMAGES IN THE JOB SECTION OF CRAIGSLIST)
host your image in a public image hosting account like photobucket or imageshack
The section you are posting to will also determine how likely your ad is to get ghosted. In general, the easiest Craigslist sections to post to are Real Estate, For Sale and Services.
Test, test and then TEST again. Post 3 ads in 3 different cities then stop. It takes anywhere from 15 - 20 minutes for you ads to go live. If you go to the specific city and category and can see you ad live on the site, then you know what you did worked & you can run with that for a while.
If your ads are not visible, you simply start the process again.
How To Test for Specific Craigslist Flagging Aspects
If you think it may be your link that is causing the problem, post an ad with a different link and see if it goes live. Perhaps try an image ad instead or test running your ad without the link at all. Phone Numbers Go Great When Posting On Craigslist.
If you don’t have much time to invest in your Craigslist marketing then there are options. Some companies will manage your Craigslist marketing for you. These are called Craigslist posting services. You can also generally find Craigslist posting services on Google, here: Google search for Craigslist Posting Services.
Do it all yourself, but be forewarned, it is going to take you a fair bit of time to get it right and maintain any level of consistency. At the very least you will need to invest in something that will hide your real IP address so your real IP doesn’t get banned while you are working this out.
and No Money.
In a situation like this, you probably need to reevaluate your priorities, just from a life success perspective. What are you spending so much time on that you don’t have time to make a living? Perhaps Craigslist posting should be left until you can readjust your life to a more healthy place? Then you’ll have some time and/or money to get your campaign off the ground. While it is free to manually place ads on most of the site you will need to invest some time and money to see any real results. KEEP IN MIND CRAIGSLIST IS NOT THE ONLY PLACE TO ADVERTISE..THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF FREE PLACES TO ADVERTISE..SIMPLY DO A GOOGLE SEARCH FOR FREE PLACES TO ADVERTISE ONLINE!
Are you really going to give up that easily? No way!
Just post one ad every 2 days using your real IP address. You may end up having your IP address banned from Craigslist. So in the long run you will need to work on this issue.
Remember that Craigslist changes it’s cookies and spam filtering algorithms faster than I change my hair color, so what will work for you one day may not work the next.
Spend time viewing ads similar to yours that are active on Craigslist. If the ad is sticking then you know that the current cookies and monitoring systems on Craigslist have allowed that ad to remain active. You want to do the same with your ads. Learn from what successful ad posters are currently doing. This is KEY to your Craigslist success and at the very least will save you time in the long run.
If you visit alexa.com and find the traffic details for Craigslist there is a ton of useful information.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/Craigslist.com
When you scroll to the bottom of the page there is a heading…
Where people go on Craigslist.org
Listed in traffic volume you will find an up-to date summary of the most visited cities. It stands to reason that if you try and focus on these cities you are bound to get more visitors.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=Craigslist.org
To apply the above to other websites, simply substitute the extension =Craigslist.org for you desired website. eg =hubpages.com
IP’s (I.P. ADDRESS)
* Check what IP address your a using online at any given time, but most importantly for Craigslist marketing, it is the location of the IP that is the most significant. Make your initial posts in the wrong city and you account will be flagged and you will never post a live ad to that account PERIOD. Once you account, IP, headline, content has been flagged…never try and use it again. Once flagged by the Craigslist programs these resources are obsolete.
* http://www.ip-adress.com/
URL Shorteners
* There are plenty online for you to choose from. Simply google the term. Don’t bother trying to use the ones that are known for being popular with internet marketers, like, viralurl, tinyurl, yatu etc…
* Try this one to get you started. Scroll down midway on the screen and you will see a list of “services not reviewed” - these links will take you to external URL shorteners that are less common with online marketers (well maybe until now - the flip side of sharing all your secrets!)
* http://notlong.com/links/
Buying Domain Names
For as little as a couple of dollar’s you can purchase a domain name. (consider the cheapest options first) Set your domain up so that it frame redirects to another destination (your website or lead capture page for example). If you choose a unique name that has never been registered before this is better, cause then you know it isn’t blacklisted on Craigslist yet. This domain will do for Craigslist posting for a while until it gets picked up by the bots. It doesn’t matter what name you choose, but I wouldn’t use words like ‘make money’ ‘internet marketing’ ….
So by now you understand a little more about how Craigslist works and what types of things will get your ads ghosted.
Great! Let’s work the system and use Craigslists rules to our advantage.
How? Here is one of my best tips, but it requires a little more investment on your part. If you are already considering purchasing software, auto IP changing cards etc you can digg a little deeper and give your ads a better chance of sticking by adopting this trick.
* Pay for a ad in one of the cities where Craigslist is charging per post. The price to post in the paid cities in the jobs sections is $25.
* Using this domain, create multiple sub-domains to use for your bulk posting submissions. Too easy : )
* Just be sure to check that your domain service provider allows unlimited sub-domains at no extra charge to you. If yours doesn’t, simple, find one that does and use their service instead.
Your Craigslist Posting Guide
Whether you are a seasoned Craigslist veteran or just getting started in the online classified marketing world, we have put together a posting guide that is sure to give you a collection of information that you can take and further your posting success. This guide is a platform for you to use and learn from all information in here is not concrete as the rules of Craigslist change all the time. Make sure to do your homework in the classified world and continue to learn.
What Makes a Good Classified Ad?
When posting to Craigslist you need to remember that there are hundreds of new ads created every minute. So how are you ads going to stick out? The first area to focus your attention on is regardless of the product or service offered, you have to have a title that people will want to click on. The more people that view your ad the more responses or clicks you will receive to your site, in most cases. Your title should be tailored to the category that you are posting in and be unique to grab the viewers attention.
The next area for creating a good classified ad is whether or not to use images. If you are posting in an area where most of the other ads include images it is a safe bet to do the same. When the section only has a minimal amount of ads with images you have to decide what action you want for the user. For getting people to visit a web site image ads usually work better than plain text ads as long as the hyperlink is included. The biggest benefit of using images in your ads is that you have a lesser chance of getting your ad body flagged due to Craigslist filters not able to read images.
Many online marketers prefer to have text only based classified ads for a multiple of reasons. They are easy to create and can be quickly modified at any time. The ads can be a few simple words and a hyperlink and suddenly be shown to millions of people online. Unlike images they are faster to create and you won't have to upload them to Craigslist or use a 3rd party photo hosting site. The major down side is that text based ads can be scanned by Craigslist so you run a higher risk of being flagged or ghosted, this means you ads are either removed or don't show at all.
If you choose to use text based only ads it is a great plan to have various templates that you rotate through often and never appears as being used to frequently on Craigslist. Other professionals prefer to mix up their ads with a set of image based ads one day, text based ads the next day, and a combination of text and images together on the following.
Which Cities Do I Choose to Post In?
Some people believe the best option is to post in all cities of Craigslist that way your ads is everywhere. This is a timely process and can be effective, but a majority of Craigslist traffic comes from the biggest cities located in the USA. Depending on the category you are posting your ads to that also plays a big importance. Some cities may have less ads in your specific section, which means that the overall traffic is minimal. You should always check the amount of ads listed in the cities and categories you choose to see how much action is really going on.
How to Stop My Ghosted Ads?
Craiglist is known for ghosting ads. This means that you go through the post process and think that your ad is successfully online, but their filter have flagged your ad as abuse or spam to lead you to believe that everything is ok. Though you are given a link to see your ad online, it does not appear in the category listing. This means leaves you with an online ad that no one can access. Essentially the ad is dead and gone.
To avoid your ads from getting ghosted their are various items that you will want to check if you experience such a problem. The first area you should focus on is your IP Addresses. Craigslist monitors all post and through their IP's. If they see that you are abusing their site with frequent posts from a particular IP there is a high chance that you will experience ghosted ads. The way around this is to use private proxies, stay away from free proxies for they have already been used by many other on Craigslist and won't give you much success.
After checking to see if your IP address still allows you to post on Craigslist you have to go through the check list of items to investigate:
- Email Account
- Ad Title
- Ad Content
- Images Used
- URL In Ad
- Phone Number In Ad
- Name In Ad
Craigslist's filters can ghost your ad on any of these items or a combination of them. Your best bet is to create a test ad with a new title, content, and email address to see if it successfully lists in the category you are posting to.
Manual Posting or Automated Software?
Whether you are doing a few ads a day or hundreds you may think that there has to be a better way that doing it manually. Manually can be a full time job and devour a large part of one's time. The benefit of manually posting is if a single ad has an issue you are going to know during the process, excluding ghosting.
The way most professionals are gaining efficiency with posting online is with automated software. It allows them to setup campaigns for specific cities, schedule the date and time of ads posted, completely dynamic based ads, IP proxy support, posting status for knowledge of what ads are live, and many other possibilities. The time involved to learning these type of applications can be a few hours, but will save you time each day as you continue to post. To find the right automated posting software do a Google search for "Craigslist posting software" and look at your available options.
Any Other Tips and Tricks?
Other information we can share with Craigslist posters is always make sure to have a supply of fresh IP and email addresses. Free email accounts such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, and GMX all work great for posting. For IP addresses search for private proxies and though they aren't free they are worth the expense. By using private proxies you will have a lesser chance of being ghosted which be a massive time saver.
Also be aware if you are over posting the same ads. Craigslist filters grow smarter everyday and you should have a steady list of ads and title to post with. This way you can go days without using the same ad and each time it is used Craigslist see it as a unique ad. Use this same approach with the IP and email addresses you post with. These are all items that Craigslist looks for and can keep you ahead of the game.