How
to Make Money on Craigslist: Simple
Steps to Promote a Product or Service
I
subscribed to your newsletter and
you said something about talking
about making money on Craigslist?
I have read a few of your messages
and there hasn't been anything on
Craigslist mentioned yet. I was
going to buy an e book on making
money on Craigslist but wanted to
see if you had anything about it
coming soon. I heard you can't put
links in so what's the point anyway?
I'm in the service business and
haven't used the Internet to sell
my services much yet, but I'd like
to start soon. Any ideas on what
will be in the e-book?
Thank
you:
Keith
Hi
Keith -
I
guess the question you need to ask
yourself is - knowing what you know
to be fundamentally true about Craigslist
- what possibly could an * e- book
* teach you about how to make money
posting classified ads on a free
service that you couldn't glean
through some basic experimentation?
How many * insider secrets* are
possible to fill an e book on using
Craiglist effectively?
Very
simply - if you have a product -
or you have a service to promote
- you can make money on Craigslist
just using your ingenuity, creativity
and the strength of your offer.
If
you are a skilled tradesman, a dentist,
a landscaper or any similar service
oriented business - you can use
CL to post your ad for service for
free - to a potentially huge demographic
of potentially interested parties
( some CL cities get dramatically
larger pager views - obviously the
bigger cities are going to have
a larger populace to draw from -
but I've found that some medium
sized cities on the left coast performed
far better than larger cities on
the East coast where I live for
larger affiliate offers I've worked
with )
How
successful you are will very simply
be a function of how often you post,
how aggressively you mix and match
categories, and most importantly
- how well you write your copy -
( and how you position your offer
within the copy - ie - are you offering
a free white paper on the 7 mistakes
most homeowners make when installing
hardwood flooring - the 4 deadly
sins of teeth bleaching, etc )
My
simple rule for Craigslist - and
in any other marketing venture -
is when in doubt, be very aggressive..:-)
So
- if you are a service professional
in Portland, Oregon you want to
post your ad in multiple categories,
re-write the ad copy so that you
ad can be positioned in as many
categories as possible - (ie - there
is only a slender shred of copy
difference between making a business
offering in small business service
- vs - repositioning that offer
as a financial services proposition
- or within the creative category,
etc. )Be creative and think outside
the box a little bit. You'll find
most of your competition is not
only in the box - they've got wall
to wall carpet and are pretty comfortable
in there..:-) Re-post the ads every
two days - ( don't top post - or
post multiple times in same category,
same day - as eventually you will
be deleted and draw attention to
your copy, email address/account
- and depending on how aggressive
and who you believe - potentially
even your ip address ) Reposting
your Ads is simple - after 48 hours
- log back in to your Craigslist
account - click on the ad you want
to work with ( it's green if live
) and click delete this ad. You
will get a confirmation screen that
the ad has been deleted - go back
to your account - re-select the
ad - and hit re-post..:-) One category
and Captcha verification later -
your ad is live and at the top of
the heap once again. Spend a lot
of time on your copy - using direct
response principles in your CL ads
is equally as important as using
them in your squeeze pages, your
postcards, direct mail, etc. My
standard approach for doing Craigslist
work for a client who is in a service
business is to make a time sensitive
offer - write a great headline -
offer a free report or white paper
of some sort related to the topic
- and send the person to an opt
in form ( off CL obviously ) where
you are collecting a name, fulfilling
the free report or promise - and
then bringing that new person into
your sales funnel for follow up
relationship marketing. This works
- as you would expect - very, very
well.
If
you have an Aweber or Auto responder
account - rather than using your
own email address in the ad - just
plug in your Aweber list name. Then
- in the ad copy - very simply state
- if you are one of the first 29
people to email me/us before the
clock strikes 12 on Labor Day Monday
you will get a * free copy of whatever
*. This will dramatically increase
your response rate - which - as
you already know if you are using
Aweber - these people will be automatically*
opting - in * to your list by virtue
of emailing the aweber address to
receive their free gift. Of course
they will be required to confirm
their opt in as Aweber and other
auto responders require confirmation
on this type of subscription - but
so what? Put it in the copy - right
up at the top - and bottom of ad
- let them know that as soon as
they email you they are going to
get a confirmation email for their
protection ( because as we all know
- you hate Spam as much as they
do..;-) and once that is done -
they will have their free gift automagically.
Very, very simple - very, very effective.
Best way to build a list for free
that I know of - and - if you are
doing national or even international
Craigslist campaigns for affiliate
offers or even your own products,
if you aren't doing some variation
of the above - you aren't optimizing
your efforts.
Of
course you could skip the above
- and just send any prospective
customer/client directly to your
site where you make the offer -
which is also effective. I'm a big
believer in collecting names and
building a list as the primary driver
for any business building protocol
so I'm partial to that process.
But for simplicity - as long as
you are testing different headlines
and offers on your landing page
- nothing wrong with just sending
them directly to the offer page
if you are more comfortable with
that.
For
competitive industries with high
PPC prices ( adwords/yahoo/msn etc
) Craiglist is an absolute gift
- because, as it is as they say,
it's ummmmm...FREE? Rather than
spending a whole boatload of cold
hard coin trying your ad copy on
a PPC campaign - stick it up on
Craigslist and test it there.
Rotate
your landing pages with different
offers, different copy and keep
what works best, chuck what doesn't'.
Simply put on Google Analytics (
Free ) and measure everything that
you can control ( everything on
your side of what happens once they
click through or follow up in any
way on your offer )
Another
thing I love to do with service
related professionals is send your
Craigslist visitors to a page that
is nothing but testimonials -- >
If you are a Clown and perform a
kids Birthday parties - and a parent
is searching CL for birthday party
entertainment - what could possibly
sell your services better than a
landing page - on your site - with
video of a few 7 year old kids chattering
on about the great time they had
at Bobbies B-day thank to Cleo the
Clown..:-) Or give incentives to
the parents to have the kids write
nice testimonials - in their own
handwriting on your landing page
- and test that as another alternative.
Let them say it for you. No way
you can tell me that wont' work
- because it very simply just does.
As
far as links go - dont' believe
the hype. I've seen lots of people
say that Craigslist won't take links
- and it's just simply untrue. I
run ads with live links every single
day - and while I have had ads flagged
- it wasn't because of the links..;-)
In some categories they are tougher
than others - as well they should
be - adult oriented content, dating,
Erotic Services, etc - they are
much more aggressive in filtering
the ads. Even there though - it
is possible to sneak links in -
either by not hard coding them in
- ( ie - www.mysite. C-O-M , or
just simply mysite.com ) using images
hosted elsewhere with a URL embedded
in the picture, etc - these are
the sorts of things that an e book
is going to try to teach you to
do for 39 bucks - so save your money
- or better yet - donate it to charity
- but the above scenario doesn't
seem to be apropos to your needs
anyway.
If
I can help in any other way - please
don't hesitate to ask.
Best..:-)
Ian
--
---- --- Note ---- ---- -
Affiliate
marketing on a larger scale is somewhat
of a different kettle of fish on
craigslist - same basic principles
apply always - good copy - good
offer - solid product or service,
yet - it is much more fun to get
much more creative and titter totter
a little bit more on that proverbial
edge of TOS - ie - how to use links
on a far bigger scale - throwaway
domains, redirects, rotating copy
and cloaking your copy a bit more
using images in place of text, changing
up links for SEO, more email addresses,
sometimes more IP's, different affiliate
offers for testing purposes and
so forth.
If
you are willing to learn, and experiment
a little bit - Craigslist is easily
one of the absolute best places
to get started with direct response
marketing online - and with a pretty
light learning curve, you can be
making serious money, very quickly
- which I think is really exciting
for lots of people just starting
out.
I
am going to add a second piece to
this article on Making Money with
Affiliate Programs on Craigslist,
I'm hoping to have it finished within
a day or two - I will be covering
some more advanced strategies relative
to the ones highlighted in the letter
to kieth, as well as dealing with
some of the squirrelier issues that
people seem to have problems with
- ie - picking the right affiliate
programs, using auto posting software
vs outsourcing the work or posting
by hand, the ignominious world of
adult dating offers and much, much
more..:-) So if you are into this
kind of thing - ( making lots of
money and having a blast doing it..:-)
be sure to check back in a few days
for the update.
About the Author
Need
to Make More Money?
Ian
Hollander is tranforming the lives
of a new generation of internet
marketers teaching simple, effective
strategies that work!
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is short - Join Me as I help you
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