Craig’s List 101

What is Craigs list?
The service was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark for the San Francisco Bay Area. After incorporation as a private forprofit company in 1999, Craigslist expanded into nine more U.S. cities in 2000, four each in 2001 and 2002, and 14 in 2003. As of September 2007, Craigslist had established itself in approximately 450 cities in 50 countries. Craigslist is a centralized network of online urban communities, featuring free classified
advertisements (with jobs, housing, personals, for sale… etc.)

What does this mean to you?
Craigslist is an advertising opportunity that allows you to promote your products in a
open environment and help your link popularity and drive traffic to your website.

Getting Started
Start by going to www.CraigsList.org. I always suggest reviewing the FAQ section. You can find this in the lower left corner of the site. You will need to scroll all the way down to the bottom. Prohibited or restricted items: Obscene material, Weapons and related items, Fireworks, Controlled substances, Alcohol or tobacco products, Prescription drugs and medical devices, Stolen property, Burglary tools, Counterfeit currency, Bulk email or mailing lists etc.

• Sign up for an account: I suggest creating an account with Craigslist. You do this by clicking the link on the upper left side of the page. The link is titled “My Accountâ€?. It will ask you for your email and I suggest using an email address that is connected to your Website. This will appear more professional.
• Benefits of having an account: One of the best parts of having an account is 1. quicker submissions, and 2. the ability to track and keep a history of your posts. This will help you to track the progress of your posts and see which ones are doing the best.
• How to post: Once you are ready to post your product, click the “Post to Craigslistâ€? link on the upper left part of the page. Next you will want to select the category where you want to post, follow the steps until you are at the posting page.
• Writing your post and title: Now that you are ready to post you product, you will want a catchy title. This should be something that will get their attention and make them want to click on your ad. If you look through the list of other ads you will see some techniques used to grab attention. My personal favorite is humor. As an example, I recently posted an ad that was titled: “1 Gb Laptop DDR2, My motherinlaw is good for somethingâ€?

Needless to say I got a good amount of traffic. When writing the post description you want to keep to the details of what you are selling, but make it interesting. Always list your Business email and Website address at the end of each listing.