Craigslist Conundrum

Craigslist is a wonderful (and free!) tool to market your business. However, it’s not the easiest system to navigate. There are plenty of rules and regulations with Craigslist, but if you take the time to learn, you’ll have a free lead generator for your business!

If you don’t have an account, start by going to www.Craigslist.org, click on Post to Classifieds and then Apply for an Account at the top right hand corner. Type in your email address and the verification word. An activation link will be emailed to you and you can follow the steps to activate your account.

Once your account is set, go to the appropriate city (for South Jersey businesses, make sure to click on the New Jersey link on the right and then click on South Jersey). Once in the appropriate city you want to place your ad within, click on post to classifieds on the left.

Now select your category to post within. The Services section is the only category permissible by Craigslist to promote your business. I would also suggest a posting under the For Sale/Barter section if you are willing to trade services.

Once you’ve chosen your type of service, enter the headline. Headlines should be simple and say exactly what you do. Then post your message in the body section. Keep it short and sweet – readers will likely click off the page with a lengthy description. Include a call to action - ‘visit our website’ or ‘contact us for a complimentary consultation.’

Craigslist does not allow repeat postings in multiple categories – but if you alter your posts slightly, you can re-list again the next day. For example, if you are posting under the Financial Services category on a Monday - go back into your account on Tuesday and write a different headline and description. You can do this for every day of the week –post a different product or different promotion each day. This keeps your ad at the top of the list.

If you want to add a picture to your listing, your photo must be hosted somewhere else on the web. If your photo is hosted on your website, and you need the HTML code to paste, please comment below and I'll send it to you.

If your image is not hosted on your website, you can use a free photo server like www.photobucket.com to do it for you. The following How-To is from the Photo Bucket website:

1. Open a free account with Photo Bucket.
2. From the navigation bar at the top of your album, select the "albums & upload" tab.
3. Left click in the 'HTML Tag' field for the image you wish to link to Craigslist. This will automatically copy the code for you, as denoted by the yellow 'Copied' message that pops up.
4. Open up a new browser window, or tab, and locate the 'Posting Description' field that you are looking to link your image to on Craigslist.
5. Paste the HTML Tag code that you copied from your Photo Bucket account right into the body of the Craigslist posting.
6. Your image will now display in your Craigslist posting!

A sample posting can be viewed here: http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/crs/558481647.html

Any questions? Need more information on Craigslist? Leave me a comment!

Don’t forget to sign up for the FREE Marketing by Melissa newsletter before our February issue goes out! Visit www.marketingbymelissa.com and sign up on the homepage.