craigslist

[jford1995]

okay so ive seen all kinds of guys talking about how craigslist helped them land all kinds of jobs and is the best advertisement because its FREE. free advertisment is great advertisment! but i dont see how craigslist works. can someone please fill me in on craigslist works and how to do it right to make it affective? thanks- jeremy

[Hedgemaster]

Lawn care business tips

1. Place ad. 2. Answer phone. 3. Bid job. 4. Do job. 5. Get paid. Lather, rinse, repeat. i dont see how craigslist works Can you elaborate? I can read that a few different ways.

[jymie]

The most important thing that you want to remember is to make your ad appealing to the eye. Some guys go with strictly text ads, some go with display ads. Text ads to me don't really get the proper response that you might be looking for. Now display ads on the other hand their very eye catchy. The thing to remember If you do a display ad, That you have to include some text somewhere in the ad for your keywords or your ad will never be found when somebody searches for your services. The best keywords would be, the towns you service and the zipcodes, plus list the services that you offer all in text. Because the display ad by itself is not going to be searchable. In order to do a display ad in a Craigslist ad, you first have to host your display ad on an external site that hosts pictures.

Here is some simple directions on how to post a display ad on Craigslist.

Instructions

1 Visit the Craigslist to which you want to post your ad. Try to be as specific as possible ** Craigslist is often divided by cities, and in rural areas, regions.

2 Click "Post to Classifieds" on the top-left of the website. Select the type of service you are offering or looking for under "What Type of Posting is This?," and click "Continue."

3 Choose a category for your listing. If you are buying or selling an item, choose the type of item. If you're looking for romance or hoping to find a person, select the correct category under "Relationship."

4 Type your "Posting Title" in the text area. This is what a Craigslist user will see on the main page, so make it eye catching and original. Add a "Posting Description" which highlights your display ad ** the features, price, or conditions. If you are looking for a personal connection, write a brief description of yourself or what you're looking for.

5 Add your contact information. Type your e-mail address in the "Reply to" box, and click "Add Images" if you want to include a picture with your advertisement, then click "Continue."

6 Wait for the Craigslist confirmation email. After confirming the post, the ad will display on Craigslist. Hang on to the email because it is the only way to delete or edit the Craigslist advertisement.

If you wish to do your ad with a display ad that you made like a flyer of some kind, once you have made the flyer, save it as a jpg. Then go to any photo-host site such as photobucket or imagecoast and save it there. Then copy the address of the flyer so you can paste it into the craiglist listing.

In the area that you type the ad, use the following code:

< img src="replace this text with the url location of your flyer">

in order for the code to work, remove the space I put between the < and img at the beginning of the code. There cannot be a space there or it will not work. Also make sure that the quotations are around the location of your flyer. For example "www.myflyer.com">



You can also make the display ad clickable, meaning if someone clicks on it, they can get to your website.

To do that use the following code:

< a href="replace this text with the URL of your website">< img src="replace this text with the url location of your flyer">

Again, for this code to work, remove the space between < and a href, make sure the space between a and href remains. Also remove the space before img. Also be sure to keep all the quotations intact.

I hope this helps you, good luck!

[dpld]

maybe it varies from state to state but where i live in new jersey craigslist is a waste of time and you end up getting hooked up with all kinds of spammers and deadbeats.

99 times out of a hundred every business that advertises there probably just started their business that week and 99% of the customers are looking to get something done for nothing or screw someone out of something.

craigslist is good for selling stuff and even buying stuff but its the last place i would look for a contractor or a job.

most employers advertise there because it is free and usually offer low paying crappy jobs that are always listed day after day because they can not seem to find anyone who will stay, i wonder why?.

i know everyone has to start somewhere and i am not knocking anyone for that all i am saying is when people start a business that the first concern is drumming up work and starting a name for themselves and in that proccess you try anything and everything to the point of you are leaving yourself open for trouble.

craigslist has been around a while but it really took off when this economy failed a few years back and there are a lot of savvy theives, scammers and dead beats on that site that prey off of a newbie.

being in a business is to some degree like prostitution, you are always pushing yourself on others and always looking to score. the big difference between most conventional ways to promote a business and craigslist is like the difference between a legitimate escort service thats in the phone book and a street walker standing on the corner and craig is your pimp.

like i said i am not knocking anyone, just adding my two cents as well as throwing in how it is in my area and i do fully understand it varies from state to state and i am sure there are much better places then the nnj board on craigslist.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

It might vary from state to state.

I found it useful my first year when I was green on bidding and were willing to deal with hagglers. Once I was established I seen it as a headache. I had people that wanted biweekly mowings ask for quotes on 3-4 different services that they werent even shopping for. I would give a discount for multiservices and they would say they wanted this that and this and when I show up its ohh just cut the grass.

Then I had people tell me I was the third quote and he had two more coming. 5 quotes for mowing? I had people slam doors in my face saying the other guy did it for $20 and so on. I had people sign up for weekly mowings, just to call every week and say it doesnt need to be cut this week. When I told them its a different price for weekly and biweekly they were irate. Even though thats how I bid it in the first place.

Just recently I gave a estimate on a driveway seasonal and per push. The guy wanted the seasonal but for one month. I told him thats not how it works. You would have to be per push.

If I was looking for a lawyer I wouldnt go to craigslist. If I was looking for a accountant I wouldnt go to craigslist. Craigslist and professional service just doesnt connect for me.

[jford1995]

jymie.. thank you so much instructions is what i was looking for! the other guys.. as i am 17 ive been mowing for 5 years on my own. my dad and grandpa would carry me around to my clients till i turned 16. when i was 16 i had i believe about 13 clients. i see where yal are coming from and i dont want all that trouble. what other ways do yall suggest to score new customers?

[cruzgardening]

Originally Posted by jford1995

jymie.. thank you so much instructions is what i was looking for! the other guys.. as i am 17 ive been mowing for 5 years on my own. my dad and grandpa would carry me around to my clients till i turned 16. when i was 16 i had i believe about 13 clients. i see where yal are coming from and i dont want all that trouble. what other ways do yall suggest to score new customers?

Hey how are you? well craigslist is an amazing service despite what anyone tells you. It has real legitimate services and yes you encounter lots of cheap people looking for the cheapest service but it is up to you to service them or not. This is going to be my second year on my own and i can tell you craigslist has given me a lot of business specially during the warm months, from Feb-oct here in Southern California, i am hoping to get up to 100 accounts this year i started with little over 25 accounts when i bought my route around May, I am at 65 right now i lost some and gained lots more, just make sure you add lots of keywords and like they arleady told you make ur add catchy simple and to the point.

once you got enough client advertise elsewhere and pass out flyers Best of luck!

[dpld]

Originally Posted by cruzgardening

Hey how are you? well craigslist is an amazing service despite what anyone tells you. It has real legitimate services and yes you encounter lots of cheap people looking for the cheapest service but it is up to you to service them or not. This is going to be my second year on my own and i can tell you craigslist has given me a lot of business specially during the warm months, from Feb-oct here in Southern California, i am hoping to get up to 100 accounts this year i started with little over 25 accounts when i bought my route around May, I am at 65 right now i lost some and gained lots more, just make sure you add lots of keywords and like they arleady told you make ur add catchy simple and to the point.

once you got enough client advertise elsewhere and pass out flyers Best of luck!

from day one you need to properly advertise to get your business the right customers for your business.
just any customer is not what a business needs to grow, well, maybe if you got a corner store but in the landscape industry you need specific types of consumers to prosper and i know it varies from state to state with CL but one thing is certain the consumers i am talking about don't exist on CL in any state.

i would not want to be the owner of a business full of CL customers because most of these people allready know what it is gonna cost and then they turn to CL to see if they can find some hard up sap to do it even cheaper.
if you think small thats all you will ever be small and if all you are looking to do is replace a paycheck from a old job and say you are your own boss then you might as well go back and get your old job back because it will be a lot less of a hassle and probably more profitable.

as the old saying goes nothing good in life is free or easy.

[Hedgemaster]

Craigslist is working for me.

I hesitated for the longest time - fears of spammers and cheap-assed tire-kickers. Eventually, I discovered a way to eliminate the spam and have gotten a really nice group of clients who never complain and pay on time.

I thought I would get nothing but calls from "poor people", but it's been a mix of young, old, wealthy, and poor - black, white, and other.

I think that by using an actual advertisement (image/display ad) as described by Jymie above you can set yourself apart from the dozens of "line ads" that are filled with misspelled words and things that scare away the "good" clients.
That's what I did and I had a lot of clients comment that it was what made them call ME over "Joe's grass cutting".

That said, your ad needs to be a good one - not a glorified version of a classified ad.


Like most things - it's not "black and white". Craigslist can (and surely does) "work" just fine under the right circumstances.
Also, as money starts coming in, start to expand - don't just advertise in one place.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

I use image ads with a typed description. I leave the email blank and still get spam. I know about keywords my site ranks first under several search terms. A good site with seo will out perform CL any day. The largest companies out here never advertise on CL. I see them working everyday with a dozen trucks. There doing this off of reputation.

The image ad I use is a smaller version of what I put in banks. I suggest people get creative with advertising. Theres a cab company that has a ad display on top of the cars. Almost like a pizza delivery thing. I did this for a month and picked up more customers then CL all year.

The bottom line is every region is different. The same way every customer is. Some have great results with newspapers, others direct mail, others door hangers. I think you have to use a mix of all and find out what works in your area.