I frequently see many of you posting that Craigslist is a good way to get traffic to your site. However, I am wondering who are the do's and don'ts you have discovered in terms of "what is okay" and what will get you flagged. I have no interest in spamming Craigslist, but if there are smart, legitimate ways to utilize it as a tool, I'd love to hear them. thanks!
I'd say if you are promoting anything affiliate related, you will most likely get flagged for spam...even if you don't consider yourself a spammer.
Hi HappyGal, Last time we moved and put up our stainless steel Kitchenaid appliances up for sale on CraigsList, they allowed it and we sold all of them that very night. A few people put up some tips in this forum on how to do it for home biz and affiliate sites. They said to put it in a certain section and to avoid certain headlines. I did that to a "T" but still got flagged. I even did it on the same account that I sold my Kitchenaid stuff on figuring they'd see it as "legit". Nope, no help at all. If you figure out a clever way to do it in this day and age, please let us know. I'm sure that a lot of us would love to try it. ~Newbie Shield~
I use it a lot for my furniture and I do get flagged at times with no rhyme or reason. There is a category for 'furniture dealers' under the for sale section and I think, this is just my opinion, but I really wonder if there are folks out there that think they are the Craigslist cops and flag stuff. For affiliate stuff, I have never had much success but I have used a variety of categories, such as the community section and every so often I go in there and post a small ad for my survival site. One thing I have learned to NOT DO - and that is to post more than a few ads a day... that gets their attention rather quickly in a not so good way. I have gotten flagged for most everything I have posted at some point or other...you know me - lol... so I guess you can get flagged quite a bit without losing your account. But for the most part, I think Craigslist readers are looking for 'deals' more than anything so it just depends on what you are marketing, I think.
I have a quite a few ads on Craigslist. Most in the Small Biz, Financial Services and Free stuff sections. I have had some flagged and deleted but most have stayed put. I only ever put 3 ads on one day. Barb
Barb, where do you drive your traffic to? Your web site? Do you see good traffic from craigslist to make it worth the time?
happygal, I have 2 main Websites and many Blogs. I send the traffic to those sites, either the front page or inner pages or posts and to reviews of products or programs. Yes, it is worth it. It doesn't take long to post 3 ads or renew ads. Barb
i wonder why i am not getting flagged till today . maybe i only submit my website and blogspot there and not affiliate link
I stopped wasting my time advertising my website on craigslist. I posted soo many ads on craigslist. All to find out they were flagged and deleted an hour after posting. If someone does figure out the formula, I'd like to know.
I've noticed that craigslsit has been a little more lenient with postings in one particular category. Its in the Services category under sm bz ads. I'm not sure if this is a new category, but I sometimes make posts there and they seem not to get flagged.
happygal: I frequently see many of you posting that Craigslist is a good way to get traffic to your site. However, I am wondering who are the do's and don'ts you have discovered in terms of "what is okay" and what will get you flagged. I have no interest in spamming Craigslist, but if there are smart, legitimate ways to utilize it as a tool, I'd love to hear them. Happygal, there are different reasons why posts get flagged. Aside from the obvious rules violations, there are indiscriminate flagging from individuals who have nothing better to do. Others are from competitors. If you want to post something on craigslist it will take a little wording finesse. I will give you an example: I wrote on my post- "What is the difference between sales and marketing?" I got a response from someone who is experienced in sales to network with. Not trying to sell or market to this person, i just wanted to make contact with someone and actually get input. My inquiry was genuine! This as opposed to writing-looking for a salesperson. Not that it would'nt get any responses but the fact that i left a question to be answered someone may "feel" a need to answer. If you want to get traffic to your website, you have to market in a way that will attract and connect with their emotions. I know there are other ways to "funneling" prospects to your site and eliminating "tire kickers". I just wanted to give an example. Hopes this helps.
It really comes down to using the right section to post. Granted some posting will get flagged, even if by disgruntled people, but you can get ads to stick. Placing home biz ads in the job section will draw a flag quickly as oppose to the small biz section.
If you place many ads in one day you will get flagged and have your ads removed,so don't spam.I have posted some ads with no problems.
I have posted a few times ads on craigslist and couldn't figure out why sometimes an ad was flagged when e.g. I posted in Dallas, TX and then the same ad posted 2 days later in Houston, TX did not get flagged. So I assume it's not craigslist that flagged me, it's some kind of individuals they just don't like the ad for whatever reason (competition, your price of the item is lower than the price what they might have it in their store for) But what's the problem? It takes only a very few minutes to place an ad new if you work with a template that you created especially for ads with craigslist. Just don't try to spam and you will be fine and yes, you will get quite a bit of traffic from craigslist.
There was one time that i profited a little by posting an affiliate link on Craigslist, but have not had a lot of success!
Paypal is the best way to sell items, either on ebay or on your own. It is a great tool to buy also because of the item protection they offer. Basically they hold all the payment information so neither of you know any account numbers, and they make the payment for the buyer and give you the money as the seller. Paypal is great and keeps you updated on the status of the transactions.
I find that if you post more than three per IP address per day will get them flagged. Using different computers using the same network will get multiples "ghosted" I go to the library and use their p.c.'s when I have to post CL ads.
