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 How to Sell More on Craigslist:  Part 1 

In this article we are going to take a look at selling more STUFF on Craigslist, and regardless of the kind of stuff you sell, I'm pretty confident that some of the ideas in this upcoming series of advanced marketing strategies will help you sell more.  Let me make a quick qualification:  None of these ideas are really "advanced" per se, but rather, I'm hoping, will help you re-frame your approach a bit as you structure your sales process to optimize both the amount of your ads that make it (and STAY) live, as well as maximize the real dollars you are able to squeeze out of each and every post you make.  Craigslist is great, make no mistake – if you are on the proverbial fence about whether or not it is actually worth your time to post, don't waste another minute in confusing contemplation.  It is – and you can (as evidenced by the many people who are getting rich on CL) build a business quickly, easily and ethically simply by being persistent and resourceful in your posting protocols.  I can't' help you become persistent – you either have this quality within in you, or you don't.  Resourcefulness though, can be taught, emulated and even copied outright – so here, I'm very confident I can help.  Let's take another look at the biggest problem most people are having on CL – and see if we can't come up with some quick and easy consensus approaches to sliming the green ghost of Craigslist, once and for all..:-) 

I get at least one email every day from people who are having an insufferably bad time getting their ads to stick.  They've read the cacophony of ways, means and approaches I have posted here from my own experience, have read the similar successful approaches used by others, and inexplicably, have STILL not been able to get their ads to stick.  Invariably, when I take a closer look at what they are doing, it is usually conspicuously absent one or two of the major variables that we've all seemed to identify as either necessary, useful or both.   The following is my EXACT protocol when attacking a new CL market, and while I do very little hardcore CL posting these days simply due to more pressing opportunities elsewhere, as of March 08 – right now, this exact formula last week (of which I shared with several people privately) resulted in just about a 100% success rate (49 out of 50 ads went live) in one specific CL category without any real trickery, heavy lifting or mental strain.  Remember one last thing – just because your ads go live, does NOT mean they are any more profitable than those that don't.  It just means you are in the game.  Lots of people get their ads to stick – but quite frankly, can't market their way out of a paper bag.  You have to think strategically, be process oriented (i.e. – create a sales funnel of some sort) and look at this as a business, not a smash and grab approach to sending some vacuous traffic to a random affiliate offer…and expect to quit your day job anytime before the next member of the Bush clan wins the White House in 2017.  It's not that easy…and if it was, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun..:-)  Let's take a closer look. 

The art and science of Creative Emulation. 

•       The very first thing I do is research.  Take an hour, or two, and simply find the most successful ads in the category you want to post.  Look for ads that are in multiple cities, on multiple days ( i.e. – go back a few days and OPEN the ads that are still up and amenable to your offer).  Examine the characteristics of these ads.  Do they have live links, Yes or No?  Do they have an image, Yes or No?  Is the ad one big image with a little bit of intro text, Yes or No?  If yes….where is the image hosted?  Write it down.  Are they using keyboard characters in the title, Yes or No?  ( As I've written about before here…keyboard characters can often set off your ad copy in powerful ways visually for your audience, BUT it ALSO adds a dimension of individuality and uniqueness to each posting – as this is tantamount to unique copy)  Write down everything. 
•     If I know I'm going to post aggressively in a new market, I will ALWAYS use a CL account that has a good clean history of good, green live ads.  This requires a little bit of FORESIGHT as you will simply need to plan a little bit ahead.  This means NOT using the same CL screen name that has a bunch of ghostings, floggings, etc from days/weeks gone by.  Does this really make a difference?  I have no idea.  But I am superstitious, and similar to when I wore the same socks for three months straight in little league after hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the 6^th against CH West Middle School, I stick with what works.  Have this account ( or two available and unsullied from any ignominious past problems)
•    Copy your new ad in a notepad file.  Make your ad as CLOSE to the one that appears most successful in your research during step one.  If they use photo bucket for hosting, use photo bucket too.  If their image is primarily the whole offer, with just a tad of text leading up to the copy ( i.e. – a few superlatives often precede some of the most popular CL image ads – like "wow" or " this is great!") do this too.  Make sure the areas of your html file are clearly identified in your text editor for replicating this ad once it goes live.  I create simple DIVIDERS in my ads – as I can paste the very same ad into 25 cities easily……and I only need to edit the top text part of the file, where I will often simply change the text to match the city.  ( if the generic text says – "Credit Repair" for example – it is very easy to change this to "San Diego Credit Repair – Wow"/ "Austin Credit Repair – Hooah!", etc)
•      Once you are comfortable your ad is how you want it, and your landing page and so forth is constructed and ready ( a completely separate discussion…but one where 95% of those whose ad's stay live without problem will drop the ball unfortunately) load up the big list of Craigslist cities and post to the VERY FIRST city on the list.  Don't cherry pick, or move around to the bigger cities first.  Simply start with Atlanta and post that one city by HAND. ( This means if you have an auto poster and have been having problems – leave it off for a while).  Wait until the ad actually IS live – and you see it in the results before moving on. 
• Once this ad is up, go to the next city.  Copy the ad from the LIVE editor within your account rather than the notepad file( again, superstition..:-) and post in the next "A" city the very same way.  Wait for this to go live – and, staying with the SAME account, same hosted image, same everything, as Jerry Seinfeld once said….DON'T BREAK THE CHAIN.  Just keep going, one after the other, ALWAYS waiting for the previous ad to show up live before posting the next one.

 This works for me, right now, with LIVE links, one email account per offer, and I am able to get my ads live freely, in just about every market I post.  Some places are tougher than others to push live links through – but to be totally honest with you, I have a better general conversion when I don't use live links anyway.  ( less clicks – but a more interested audience by default, as they MUST type in the URL to see the offer) 

A few quick points.  Don't be an egghead with what you are asking people to type in from a URL standpoint.  Don't use sub-domains, or http://www.abc.com/this-is-a-great-deal-for-you213.html.  ( I had someone write me a nasty letter about following my FREE advice, applying the URL in the image approach to displaying a link – and when I looked at the URL in the ad she was using – it was like 300 characters long.  Don't be this person.) 

Also – don't use random text, or if you do – don't make it visible.  It looks completely amateurish – and there are FAR easier ways to introduce random characters rather than a whole mess of gobblygook at the end of the offer that people DO see.

 And lastly – keep it simple.  And be careful where you seek your proverbial problem solving salvation.  There are a lot bad ideas from many dim witted people who don't have your best financial interest at heart when it comes to Craigslist ( or really any other online marketing machination method) that failure is often times the byproduct of bad advice, and overcomplicating a reasonably simple endeavor.   

Persistence, resourcefulness and creative emulation is ALL you need to turn it around, starting tomorrow.  Watch the people who are making it work – understand that they are NO smarter than you are…and simply copy their process until you are scaling it up and out the very same way.  Remember….some of these people who are posting 500 times a day in credit, mortgage, etc ARE making huge money – and they all started with a simple idea and pursued it relentlessly.  Nothing stops you from following their footsteps to the exact same place of prosperity.   

We're going to move into some other areas in the next few days with this – mostly into some creative ways to test your message once your ads are up – and amp up the marketing muscle a bit as well.  Affiliate re-directs and such are ok if your goal is to make 100 bucks a day – but if you are trying to build a REAL business, CL has a far wider window of opportunity to those that can see the whole picture, beyond the blur of the frame.   

Have fun, and check back -  as this will be an evolving series on CL and utilizing free traffic sources to kick your business hard in the ass overall..:-) And if there is any marketing niche, topic or area that you would like to see covered more on these pages ( I get a little bored talking about Craigslist so much to be honest!), please do share what you'd like to see in the comments below!

(photo credit http://flickr.com/photos/lifeontheedge/)