Craigslist

[choosenow]

Are there members who have used Craigslist? If so, do you have reccomendations?
A while back I came across ads from folks who do Craigs postings for a reasonable fee. Have any of you used these... and, if so, can you reccomend any.
Bottom line, I am interested in anything folks have to share re Craigs. I use it a lot as a consumer and am looking at both affiliate marketing with it and marketing my coaching practive w it.

Thanks all... I am glad I found 'yall... there's a lot to read and learn

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi choosenow,

Welcome to 5 Star. I don't know of any CL posting services. I'm sure you know you need to be careful because affiliate links are not allowed and other members will turn you in.

"I am interested in anything folks have to share re Craigs."

A friend of mine wrote a book about marketing on Craigslist.
The Unofficial Craigslist Book. It's only 19.95 and I've heard it's good.

 

[Oregon Coast Guy]

With a bit of work and dedication, you can get the word out about whatever you wish to a ton of people using Craigslist.

The software that I use for all my Craigslist postings is EZAd Suite at Essential Craigslist Tools

Regards,

Tony

 

[choosenow]

Thanks Tony and Linda... both of your resources look good. I see that Tony's addresses the issue of getting flagged.. anything more on that score that you could add?

And Linda, you helped me realize that for my affiliate sites I need to create a simple personal site and probably gather folks optins because, of course, I can't just send craigslisters to my affiliate page... even forwarded there via a personally hosted domain.

Thanks again.. any more tips from anyone would be welcome.
Emily

 

[Liquid1]

You also need to be careful because that is a direct violation of many network TOS and of the TOS for many programs. For instance, if I find an affiliate link on craigslist, that affiliate is given a warning and all commissions from it are reversed no questions asked. If they do it again then they are permanently removed from all of my programs.

Your best bet is to build your own traffic and not violate Merchant and Network TOS.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Adam, I meant to mention that. Many of the big places to get traffic are targeted by all kinds of spammers and black hatters. So companies like Craigslist, Myspace and others have TOS that prohibit affiliate links.

So many merchants and networks prohibit too. I know in the case of. Myspace there were even some affiliate networks that were sued. Right after that lots of networks cracked down and said you won't be paid if we find you are advertising on Myspace. If affiliate links are against the rules, the merchant or network could be held liable for the affiliates actions so they are strict about it.

Realize that if you do advertising that is against the rules you may not get paid for you efforts. So it's not just that you have to worry about CL banning you, or a member or other affiliates turning you in, you also have to worry about the merchant/network catching you and withholding payment.

 

[lilac22]

I too have used CL to promote affiliate programs, with good success. It is easy to target high populated areas. Now, under services, they require you to submit your phone number for a call back in order to post there. I have noticed now that the postings are less under that catagory.

 

[greenflash]

I used to use Craigslist and it ROCKED!! But very recently, they have changed the rules in there, and now it is EXTREMELY difficult to use CL properly (i.e. non-spammingly), so I don't recommend it anymore.

but if you can think of a strategy, I'm all ears!!

Doug

 

[lilac22]

Like Craigslist...

There are other sites like Craiglsist, but not as busy. Maybe they will though, be at some point.
kijiji.com
backpage.com
The problem is, these sites do not cover all areas.

 

[marketingmama]

Craigslist gave me my very first dose of "hell yeah, keep it up" I EVER had. It's NOT hard. Try GIVING SOMETHING AWAY first in exchange for contact info. Try that out and use that to test advertising "feels."

I started my contact building/database building success right on Craigs. I still teach my capture page users from the free leads stuff I posted many many moons ago, and still get hits from every day! I show them how to use Craigs to do many things at once:

1. Build a database of contacts
2. Build backlinks with good keywords
3. Post without getting thrown off
4. Making what you do now keep working for a LONG LONG time no matter what you do as far as ads
5. Not being obnoxious and "salesy"

It's not as ahrd as it's made out to be. I was able to make this one work tons of magic, AS A NEWBIE. Yep. It's easy enough for a newbie.

But it's surprisingly widely misunderstood according to all the responses I get to get people to fill out contact forms (trans: lead capture system or lead generation) and this should not be mistaken for a MLM thing. You can build a database for ANYTHING you want.

Don't judge a "MLM term" by it's stigma, ok? Lead capture can mean many things to many marketers. OK?

Sheree

 

[Linda Buquet]

Because there is so much black hat, gray hat stuff targeting Craigslist, I think we need to be careful about the advice we give.

I know Sheree is a high integrity marketer and probably does this in a highly ethical way, however many marketers do something similar and it's not ethical and is against the TOS of Craigslist or could be interpreted as an infraction.

So I just want to point out that even if you are only generating leads for your own purposes (not reselliing them) but the purpose is "commercial in nature" as in you plan to use those leads to try to sell them something later on, then you are still skating on very thin ice. (This isn't pointed at you Sheree, it's just general info to our readers.)

Since affiliate links aren't allowed on CL one of the black/gray ways affiliate use to try to get around the rule is to offer something free. Get their email, then later send an email to try to sell them something. This could be seen as simply subverting the rules because you are still using an affiliate link to sell them something, just not on CL. BUT you are getting their email to promote something later due to an ad you place on CL. Affiliates HAVE gotten caught doing this and HAVE had their commissions pulled. So be careful.

There are also all kinds of other rules on CL about how many posts, what sections you can post certain things in, etc.

So here is the TOS. Be sure to carefully read before doing anything.
craigslist terms of use

The other thing to remember if you even skate a gray line - is other marketers will turn you in. They can reply to your ad then turn you in saying, I only gave them my email to get this freebie but then they... So be careful.