Craigslist is the 9th largest website in the world. It generates over 1 billion visitors per month worldwide. Considering the large majority of the ads that are posted on Craigslist are free, it’s no wonder why so many business owners are trying to post.

Craigslist was built for “communities” and they have gone to great lengths to help with that premise. Unfortunately many companies are trying to post ads outside their communities and are experiencing difficulties. This article will address some of these issues.

Before we go any further, there is a term that many experienced ad posters dread –“ghosting”. Once an advertiser completes the posting process, Craigslist will say “Thanks for posting with us. Your ad can be seen at http://xxx.com/323423423.html” however that’s not always true. If you over-post, post outside your local community, have any HTML errors in your ad code or leave important elements out of your ad, your ads will not appear when you try and search for it.

Here are some steps you can take to help reduce or eliminate potential ghosting issues.

Do NOT post identical or even similar ads unless they are at least 20% different from your other ads within a 48 hour period.

Don’t post more 3 ads per each Craigslist account you have within 48 hours.

Don’t post ads outside of your local area. Even though you may get them to “stick” on occasion, they WILL get ghosted if you post on a continuous basis in different areas.

Don’t use TEXT ADS. Instead, create 100% unique “IMAGE” ads for Craigslist that are compelling, colorful and easier to read. Keep in mind, Craigslist has very sophisticated technology that can read normal “text” based ads, but not image or graphic ads. This allows you to communicate the same message within a graphic or image.

When using images for your ads, upload them to an image/graphic server such as photobucket.com or flickr.com. Before you do, be sure to make multiple copies of the image – all with different names. Once uploaded, you will reference ONE of these images in each ads to help make each ad at least 20% different from your others.

Don’t include a direct link to your website in your ad. Instead use a “redirect” page where visitors will be sent to first THEN forwarded to your main website.

Setup up multiple Craigslist accounts in order to post more than 3 ads per day. To accomplish this, you will need addition phone numbers and email addresses for each new account. Don’t bother with Magic Jack, Google Voice, Vonage or any other VOIP phone lines – they won’t work. However, you can “rent” numbers for 60-120 days for the purpose of setting up additional Craigslist accounts. Just do a web-search for “PVA numbers for rent”. They’re inexpensive to rent.

Add addition content in TEXT FORMAT in your ad to help make them even more unique. All you need is just a couple of unique sentences in.

Add important key words. People can sure on the content in your image, but can based on your keywords. Be sure to mix them up in each ad to the copy will appear differently.

Pay attention to your headlines. If the headline is not appealing to the reader, they won’t click the ad. We highly recommend you test your headlines so you know what works and what doesn’t. There are companies now offering Craigslist Ad Tracking Software. Just do a search and see what comes up. Usually it is a simple as adding a sentence to the end of your ad.

Lastly, use Firefox to post your ads and you’ll find you’ll get more ads to “stick” by turning on the “privacy settings” prior to posting.

About WebEditGuru.com
WebEditGuru.com specializes in helping small businesses generate better responses from Craigslist ads. They provide a free analysis of your existing ads and will give you advice on things you can do yourself. For more information, contact Stafon Levine at 205-530-0023 or visit www.webeditguru.com to learn more.

Media Contact: Stafon Levine, CEO, WebEditGuru.com
Email: [email protected]
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
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