Craigslist marketing

[jasonage]

So as i posted in the intro of myself, i started my business in early 2008. I started it from the ground up and my main source of jobs at the beggining was craigslist. I would norm get 10+ jobs a week from their site by advertising my services on there. This year is a big difference tho. Although i havent advertised on there hardly at all in the last year or so, when i do i think i may receive a .0001% return on the ads i place.. lol... anyone else goingthru or noticing this same thing happening? I think it may be due to the overwhelming and increasing of scams and span that is happening on craigslist! Im just about done with using their site cuz everytime i post an ad, i prob receive 10+ scams or spam deals per day on my email and it gets frustrating!

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

I think it may be due to the overwhelming and increasing of scams and span that is happening on craigslist! Im just about done with using their site cuz everytime i post an ad, i prob receive 10+ scams or spam deals per day on my email and it gets frustrating!

Yeah tons of spam. I have at least 10 scam emails a day too.

I get some work from CL but not enough to deal with reposting ads and redoing them when someone reports as spam. I'm one of the few with a legitimate business, insurance, licenses, in ad. I always put my ad in service section not general, barter, farm and garden. Somehow I abuse by posting.

The other reason is the CL group seems to be bargain hunters. I had a guy tell me I was the 4th to bid on mowing his lawn and he has 2 more coming. We're talking a 1/4 acre here. What the hell are you saving? 3 bucks... The other part is they will ask for bids on 4 different services, even though there only looking for 1.

[Hedgemaster]

I would have gotten nowhere without Craigslist.

I get ZERO spam. The fear of being spammed to death and attracting cheap clients was what kept me from using CL initially, but ultimately, I have gotten some really awesome clients through CL - people of all backgrounds, ethnicity, and income levels.

I solved the spam issue by making my ad a graphic. (an image)
I designed my ad and placed it on CL with some additional text below it including keywords to help people find my ad. Since my email and phone number are in the IMAGE and not in the text, the spambots that seek out that info can not harvest my info. Ta-da! No spam.

I also believe that your success with CL advertising varies depending on your location.

[kymd82]

I too thought that CL would be a good marketing technique to expand my business from a part-time company to a full-time LLC for next spring. I have not had any luck as I continue to repost my ad in the services section. Maybe CL is too overloaded with ads? Although Hedgemaster still seems to have a lot of good fortune with it. Hedgemaster, you mention putting "key words" at the bottom of your ad? Can you be more specific? Here is a sample of my current ad: http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/hss/2741206040.html. I am insured and will be transitioning to an LLC in January. Not sure what else I can do to get "hits". Maybe it is too late in the season....

[jasonage]

Same here, i wouldnt have gotten anywhere as fast as i did without craigslist. It seems as it was just this year that things really started to spam up my emails from cl. Hedgemaster, would u mind telling me the secret to making an ad as an image. I cant seem to find anywhere on there where i can post images under the services section.

[Hedgemaster]

I too thought that CL would be a good marketing technique to expand my business from a part-time company to a full-time LLC for next spring. I have not had any luck as I continue to repost my ad in the services section. Maybe CL is too overloaded with ads? Although Hedgemaster still seems to have a lot of good fortune with it. Hedgemaster, you mention putting "key words" at the bottom of your ad? Can you be more specific? Here is a sample of my current ad: http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/hss/2741206040.html. I am insured and will be transitioning to an LLC in January. Not sure what else I can do to get "hits". Maybe it is too late in the season....



Keywords are words that search engines pick up on.
Unless your ad is filled with words that people are using in their searches, your ad will not show up when they do a search.

This is what I have at the bottom of my ad...

keywords: pittsburgh, east, squirrel hill, point breeze, edgewood, forest hills, rt 30, route 30, 376, rt 376, route 376, churchill, penn hills,
15235, pennhills, wilkins, wilkins township, wilkins twp, monroeville, murrysville, plum, verona, oakmont, lawn servce, lawn-care, lawncare,
cut, mower, lawnmower, mow, insured, insurance, licensed, registered, estimate, edge, trim, leaf blower, blow, blowing, sidewalk, driveway,
walkway, mulch, mulching, mulches, spring, fall, clean-up, cleanup, twigs, weeds, branches, trees, recycled, recycling, compost, summer,
winter, rain barrel, weedwack, weed-wack, weedwhacking, weedeat, weed-eat, weedeater, shrubs, shrubbery, bush, hedges, forsythia, trimming,
cutting, pruning, fertilize, organic fertilizer, fertilizing, plant, plants, planting, beds, flowerbed, garden, gardens, raised garden, prune, annuals,
flowers, flower, rake, raking, shovel, digging, sweep, haul, hauling, debris, removal, honest, honesty, integrity, pride, diligent, reliable,
responsible, fair, detail-oriented, affordable, satisfaction, 15217, 15208, 15218, 15221, 15235, 15145, 15146, 15239, 15147, 15139, shadyside, swissvale, 15232, lawnmowing, grass cutting, lawn mowing, landscaper, landscape, landscaping, land scaping, cut grass, mowing grass, lawn, low priced, affordable, affordably priced, curb appeal, gardener, maintenance, lawn maintenance, mainenence, maintainence, fertilizer, organic, sod, low emissions, free estimate, estimates, green, handyman, water conservation, pond, fountain, fountian, thinning, removal, chain saw, lot, vacant lot, property, hauling, roses, bush, bushes, trimmer, snowblower, snowthrower, pole pruner, pruner, shaping, cutting, push mower, discount, referral discount, low priced, landscaper, landscaping, pet, pet friendly, pet-friendly, dog, pet safe, pet-safe, weekly, biweekly, bi weekly, monthly, annual, annuals, last minute, hurry, asap, quote



Note that there are commonly searched words in there that are misspelled, as well as variations on the terms. That increases the odds of someone finding your ad using the search feature.

[Hedgemaster]

Same here, i wouldnt have gotten anywhere as fast as i did without craigslist. It seems as it was just this year that things really started to spam up my emails from cl. Hedgemaster, would u mind telling me the secret to making an ad as an image. I cant seem to find anywhere on there where i can post images under the services section.

I think there are some threads around that show how it's done. I haven't run my ad since the spring, so I'm a bit rusty on the steps now, but essentially, you need to save your image somewhere - like a hosting site - Photobucket for example. (I used my website space because my file was too large for Photobucket) Then you use some HTML code to insert the image file into your CL ad.

There are tutorials available if you Google it.

I'll see if I can find a thread here with a "how to" and post a link to my thread that shows my ad...

[Hedgemaster]

Well, here's my thread for starters...

http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=13951&highlight=craigslist

You can see my ad, although much smaller than it appears on CL.
My ad isn't currently active, so I can't post a link to the actual CL posting.

[JeffK26]

As Hedge said, save your image to a hosting site. I use Picassa from my gmail account.

Use the following code where you create your ad.

< IMG SRC=”?”>

Replace the ? with the URL source of you image. pluse get rid of the space between the < and IMG. I had to put the space in so the code will show up in the posting.

add the keywords for your area.

Here's my ad, it's the most simple one i use.

https://post.craigslist.org/manage/2718259709

[Steve]

I also believe that your success with CL advertising varies depending on your location.

This is very fascinating. Now what I wonder is, for those that found success, was there still plenty of competition in your area with ads? Or were there few ads?

Could it also be that you who have gotten good results, just created a better ad and implemented it in a better way than others who didn't get good results?

[Hedgemaster]

This is very fascinating. Now what I wonder is, for those that found success, was there still plenty of competition in your area with ads? Or were there few ads?

Could it also be that you who have gotten good results, just created a better ad and implemented it in a better way than others who didn't get good results?

I think it's hard to nail down just one or two factors, since there are so many variables.

Is your location urban or rural? An urban setting will provide a much larger client base - it can also mean there is more competition.

I haven't kept tabs, but in the spring there were TONS of lawn care ads for the Pittsburgh region. That said, there were only a handful in MY section of town. Mine was the only one (locally) that had an image for an ad - all others were "classified" style.

It worked well for me. Most of the time you get what you pay for, but in this case, I got a lot more as a result of going the extra mile to create an ad that stands out from the rest.

[shadrach]

My experience has been that if you post a higher quality ad you get calls from a better clientele. The number of calls you get from Craiglist seems to have more to do with how often you post an ad & when you post it (time of day) than anything else.

[Steve]

how often you post an ad & when you post it (time of day) than anything else.

What's your advice when it comes to these to variables? Is there a better or worse time to post and also how often is ideal?