A Step by Step Guide to Use Craigslist

[Pages:24]A Step by Step Guide to Use Craigslist

Table of Contents

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3 What is Craigslist? ................................................................................................................. 5 Tips to Get Started ................................................................................................................ 6 How to Use ........................................................................................................................... 9

Marketing and Advertising .......................................................................................................... 9 Low Cost Advertising ........................................................................................................... 11 Networking ......................................................................................................................... 12

Offline Networking .................................................................................................................... 12 Online Networking .................................................................................................................... 12 Discovering Networking Opportunities..................................................................................... 13 How to Make a Living with Craigslist.................................................................................... 14 Independent Contractors .......................................................................................................... 14 Small Business Owners.............................................................................................................. 15 How to Market with Craigslist ............................................................................................. 16 Basics of Affiliate Marketing ..................................................................................................... 16 Find Potential Affiliates ............................................................................................................. 17 Affiliate Opportunities............................................................................................................... 17 Craigslist for Your Business .................................................................................................. 18 Craigslist Marketing for Emerging Startup Companies ............................................................. 18 Craigslist for Existing Companies .............................................................................................. 18 Analyze Competition with Craigslist..................................................................................... 20 Analyzing Your Competition...................................................................................................... 20 Analyze Competition with Craigslist ......................................................................................... 20 Target Audience with Craigslist............................................................................................ 22 Discussion Forums..................................................................................................................... 22 Find Your Target Audience on Craigslist ................................................................................... 23

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Introduction

Craigslist is an innovation in internet marketing and searching. This eBook is a useful guide that tells the basics of craigslist. Craigslist, in some form, has been available since 1995, yet may people are not aware of the idea behind it or how it is used. These people are missing an amazing opportunity of being a part of a community that is continuously evolving and growing. Craigslist can be an amazing platform for purchase and sale of things, discussion of important topics, or searching for dates, friends, information or jobs.

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Community

The community section features local information. This section includes; local news, politics, lost and found, events, among many others.

Personals

If you are looking for a lifelong companion or a casual friendship, the personals section is for you. However, you need to be 18 years of age to use the `personals' section.

Discussion Forums

With this section, you can inquire and reply to questions, exchange information, give voice to your opinions or keep in touch. Discussion forum has many different categories. You can even find people with similar interests.

Housing

The housing section covers your local area along with approximately 450 locations. It includes; apartments, parking, sublets, commercial space, amongst many other things.

For Sale

As the name suggests, this section is for trade, sale, requesting or giving physical items. Like other sections, this also has many categories.

Services

Services section is idyllic for service providers' business owners, along with owners trading in physical goods. Make sure that you post your ad in the suitable category.

Jobs

This is the largest section of Craigslist. There are many different categories listed in this section, including part-time, full-time, work from home, contracted work or office job.

Gigs

These are short-term opportunities, one-off with few categories. If you are looking for something temporary, post your ad here.

Resumes

If you are looking for a job, post your resume in this section. It does not have any subtopics, so use a catchy headline for your post.

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What is Craigslist?

Craigslist offers almost everything that is offered by any virtual community. Other than goods and services listings, activities, and events, it features `discussion forums' where individuals can share their point of views regarding many different issues. Though, Craigslist gets many page views each month and is valued by users realizing its worth, there are many who either don't know about it or do not understand it completely. It may sound confusing, but it is not. Go to their website , you will notice how clear it is. Along with that, it is a useful tool for people who are looking to buy or sell things, or for any kind of information. It is also a very convenient tool as it divides a large chunk of information into categories and sub-categories.

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Tips to Get Started

If you have used Craigslist by now, you would probably be aware of the universe of things that can be found on it. It offers almost anything you can ask for, from a sewing machine to a rare car part. Following are a few tips that can help you to get started and most likely produce a profit!

Open an Account at Craigslist Although, it's not required if you want to post an item on Craigslist, but it is beneficial to have one. Having an account will get your post online faster. If you have an account, after you have posted your ad, you will be given an email telling you that your post will appear online `within a few minutes'. On the contrary, if you don't have an account, after posting your ad, an email will be given to you asking you to first `confirm' that you want to `submit' your post. With an account at craigslist, you can view, edit, and follow your posts for maximum 180 days. If you intend to posit regularly to Craigslist, you should track your posts so that it saves you time, specifically if you want to repost any of your posts that has been terminated. Post Your Item's Picture

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If you want to sell an item, than you should include a picture of that item with your post, for a probable buyer to see. Nobody buys something unseen. It also cuts down on multiple emails you

would get asking for a picture of the item. Agreed, even if you post a picture of the item with your ad, you might still get emails from people asking for more pictures. However, these are the people who would be genuinely interested in buying the item. Adding pictures is easy. When you are creating your post, below the box `Posting Body' is a button `Add/Edit Images'. Click on this button. Once you click, it will give you four options from where you can select the pictures you want to add to your post. Once you have added images with your post, they will be uploaded to the server of Craigslist and will remain there until your post is active.

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Post the Item's Size/Dimension

Along with adding pictures of your item with your post, it is important to mention its size or dimension as well. For some items, this may not be needed but for others this is a very important piece of information. The biggest example of the latter is furniture. If you do not mention the size/dimension of your furniture, how will the buyer know if this piece of furniture will fit into the area where he/she wants to place it?

It is also important that you include a very detailed description of the item you wish to sell. The more details you add, the higher chances you will have of selling the item as soon as possible (as you will not get any emails asking you for details you would have already mentioned in your description).

See Other Postings

At the left side of the homepage of Craigslist, beneath the Event Calendar is located a link `bestof-craigslist'. This link includes those postings that were nominated by regular users of Craigslist as weird, amusing, interesting, or just crazy. Not to forget that none of them are Craigslist staff's endorsement and some of them might even be offensive.

Going through this link will give you numerous ideas on how you can be more creative when advertising your product or service. Creativity in posting your ad may be all you need to appear above all others and earn extra profits. These tips can help you in advertising your product or service much more efficiently and effectively.

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