Thursday, 5:23PM

Hi There..:-)

The following 30 page document is a rough collection of thoughts, strategies and stream
of consciousness rants, pontifications and process maps on how YOU can make more
money using the avalanche of eyeballs that Craigslist offers. And, for the most part – for
FREE.

I share these with you with the purest generosity of intention and cooperative spirit, as
many of the foundational elements within these successful strategies were gleaned from
others I have met on my own path.

I ask of you only one thing: Don't look at these ideas as simply ways to profit on
Craigslist. Rather, look at how you can incorporate many of these disparate
approaches to make money in a variety of new ways to build a REAL business.

Free traffic from CL is great. It's profitable and it provides a unique opportunity to gather
momentum, often overnight, in areas that would ordinarily require a much more
significant investment of either time, or money…or both. But to simply look at this
opportunity as one to make a few quick bucks, and giggle at your good fortune is
silly, shortsighted, and ultimately won't portend well for a successful future in the online
marketing space.

Building a real business, using CL as part of an overall strategy, is no more difficult,

takes no more real effort, and only requires you think a wee bit more strategically than
the guy selling in the spot beneath you.

Sacrifice short term pennies, for long term dollars. Build a list. Build real sites. Be
adventurous. Be generous. Offer value to people and you will build relationships that
endure, contacts and joint ventures that may one day help feed your family, and have a
hell of lot more fun than everyone else out there trying to squeeze 30 bucks a day out of
affiliate offers.

Thanks for reading and best of luck!

Ian
 Are Your Craigslist Ads Being Flagged? Try This Next

I promised a few people I would post a few simple and unique ways to tackle the
ignominious "flagging" issue that seems to have leapfrogged to the front of the line in
terms of obstacles people are having in keeping their ads live. So rather than not going
green, these are ads that are being flagged by either editorial staff, or – more commonly
in my best guess, by other peers with too much free time and too little tolerance for good
old fashioned competition. I've had my fair share of ads flagged, and it's almost
ALWAYS in the same categories, which leads me to believe it's more of a function of my
peers, rather than problems with the CL review process. (As none of the ads are
inflammatory or a TOS violation beyond the obvious..:-) Plus there are a few auto posters
that have (flawed, but still) plugins or add ons that are explicitly designed to flag
competing ads.

Overall – I think, if looked at through the right lens, flagging is good for us as marketers,
as it keeps us from getting lazy, and forces lots of adaptive approaches to writing good
copy for CL. How? One of the most obvious reasons to be flagged in over posting. No
one wants to see the same ads over and over again, in profitable categories, especially
when they're own ads aren't making it up. Spite, jealousy, anger, a sudden self righteous
bonding with the law of the land, etc – these are in my opinion, the primary reason why
your ads are get flagged. ( It takes a *few* flags to bring down an ad, but remember, the
amount of eyeballs viewing your ad on the competitor side is growing larger day by
day). So the key is – to simply keep your ads as unique as possible, WITHOUT
obviously having to write an inordinate amount of ads each day in each market you are
posting. As there is very LITTLE you can do about the people who will willy nilly flag
any ad that competes with them, or offends their sensibility, let's instead focus on what
we CAN control – the uniqueness, or at least APPEARANCE of uniqueness of our copy.
Here is what I'll do:

Wordpress is your friend.

Whenever I promote a new affiliate product, I will at a minimum, register at least one
new domain for that topic (usually many more). I will upload at least 10 unique
templates for each domain. This process, as most of you know, is VERY quick – in less
than 30 minutes I will have a minimum of 10 different aesthetics for my content. Now,
and this isn't totally necessary, I will usually customize my templates with a little more
detail – i.e. – I will use a graphic header logo on some, others I'll leave the default
Wordpress title call, etc. As I'm pretty familiar with the templates I use, I can get this
done in a few hours, even while paying close attention to the Flavor of Love reruns, my
favorite TV show of all time. I will then write a good solid piece of content that
prominently features my content, and will take SCREENSHOTS of that content using
every available template I just installed.

What does this do? It leaves me with a minimum of 10 different looks for the very same
offer, simply by changing the theme in the presentation of my Wordpress admin panel.
No coding, no html or CSS editing, simply 10 reasonably unique ads in 5 minutes or less
once the first step is complete. I do use some premium editing software to make some
changes to each image – i.e. – adding URL's – putting call to action icons in appropriate
places, etc – some I will leave totally as is, and so forth. The truth is, on really close
inspection, obviously the offers are the same – as if you are prominently positioning a
free eBook, or opt in form in your image, one of your more astute competitors WILL
eventually notice. But – and I speak from experience here, you CAN have multiple ads
like this running simultaneously, even in a small city…and have no one be the wiser.
People really don't pay that close attention too many layers down from the surface
in any area of life – and I this one is no different.

Of course you can even scale this up a few notches in the creative chameleon approach to
Craigslist…but I will have to leave some of this to your OWN imagination ( rather than
mine..:-) But suffice it to say, you can have one affiliate product covered 14 ways from
Tuesday – redirects, site building, using SEO keywords for natural traffic and site
building, generating a list – you name it, this strategy is great for saturating a market and
simply dominating it on CL. It's "bending the web" at it's finest, only using the simple
captive audience and power of Craigslist to do it in a fishbowl.

And of course if you are worried about being too obvious – simply get multiple domains
for the very same effect, each new domain you incorporate adds an exponential degree of
scalability and flexibility to the process. I have a few really good Wordpress templates I
use for this – a really GREAT one for writing killer copy that simply stands out perfectly
for these sorts of offers is Stripped by Upstart Blogger, it's a totally free and makes for
fantastically prominent CL copy – especially for those who can't get their hands dirty
with design.
Have fun!

How to Convert More of Your Craigslist Leads into Sales

The most common question I seem to get via email these days is "how do you maintain
your good looks well into your thirties?" My answer? Drink lots of water, watch at least
a half hour of Keeping up with the Kardashians every day and 20 minutes of Vipassana
meditation first thing in the morning, and then again before bed.

The next thing that people ask is – "how can I convert more of my Craigslist leads?"
Simply stated, if you are using Craigslist primarily as an affiliate marketing channel, you
are most likely making the whole process a whole hell of a lot more complex than it need
be. If you are promoting affiliate offers from Clickbank, for example, you are probably
finding your conversions are 1 in 200…or even less. Why? It's quite simple. Even on far
more targeted traffic Clickbank coverts pretty badly (depending on the type of traffic you
sending it could be 1-2%) so it should be no surprise that far less qualified clicks
emanating from Craigslist are simply converting at a low percentage. The key, in my
opinion, is too simply re-arranging your priorities as it pertains to each visitor.
For an example – most of the people I speak to (who are able to get their leads to stick,
which is a small percentage of you) are still not making any money, or at least enough to
justify the time or opportunity cost. Why? Because they are primarily re-directing to an
affiliate offer – without collecting the name, without doing ANYTHING in between to
develop a relationship with this particular CL customer. How can you change this? Very
easy.

• Find good converting affiliate programs on Clickbank and CJ like always.

• Find programs that have a good opt in sequence (simply by signing up for a bunch
yourself)
• Put an opt in form on your own landing page rather than redirecting to the affiliate
directly on visiting your ad URL
• Offer them the VERY same e-course that the affiliate is – simply by taking the
EXACT same message sequence that you are getting, and plugging it into your
own sequence.
• (* note – obviously you want to re-write it a little bit – but simply compile the
spirit of each email in the sequence into your own words..this is NOT unethical –
you are SELLING their product, and they WANT you to make sales using their
materials, many top performing programs will offer you a sequence to use for this
very reason)
• When they opt in – if you are using Aweber or another commercial grade auto
responder, simply put YOUR affiliate cookie in the "thank you" page –
sending them to the affiliate AFTER you've got their name.
• Now you're previously worthless Craigslist click is actually on your LIST –
which means you are building a real business, PLUS they are cookied with your
affiliate link as you forwarded them to the affiliate offer once the squeeze was
completed in your Aweber admin.

You can email these folks the sequence you lifted from the affiliate merchant, plus you
can send your own personalized modifications, additional messages, etc as you see fit. On
top of this, you can send them OTHER offers that may suit their needs better if they don't
buy the one you are offering. I.e. – "if you didn't like this diet eBook Joe – how about
some popular diet programs before the sizzle of summer sets in and you find yourself
avoiding the beach yet another year?"

This is called being *somewhat* more strategic in your marketing mindset – rather
than simply throwing stuff against the wall (your CL clicks directly to the affiliate offer)
and hoping something sticks (you make a commission). Without question, this is the key
to making real money on CL, and anywhere else for that matter online.

There are of course, far other even easier ways to make a few bucks with each ad you
run, especially with content pages that are wrapped with high paying contextual ads,
think adsense arbitrage through the creative Craigslist lens, but we'll cover those another
day, plus they really are tantamount to a small minded mindset as well, i.e. – you aren't
going to liberate yourself from real life with this strategy, although you may make some
easy money where before you were making none.
I've got some really exciting plans for this blog ( I think) for May….so you may want to
stay tuned as I plan to put my money where my mouth is and illustrate how to build a real
business online, that anyone can emulate, with up, down, pass or fail real time results that
you can watch, mock or follow. And totally without a net – sort of like when Criss Angel
did the whole helicopter stunt in the Nevada desert with only fish hooks holding him to
the aircraft. Only I'm afraid of heights and my own blood makes me nervous, so this is
probably a better stunt for my skill set.

Stay tuned.

How to Sell More on Craigslist: Ghosting Redux & More

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 6th 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!

How to Create a Compelling Money Back Guarantee on Craigslist: (or not )

Here is another example of a brilliant Craigslist Ad that simply decimates any slender
shred of doubt through the vibrant and colorful use of the personal guarantee. As
consumers, we are naturally reluctant to act without some measure of recourse should our
expectations not be met - fully understanding this natural apprehension, Mark allays our
fears through the recursive use of multiple guarantees. Regardless of what he may be
offering at the link below, the one sure thing we come away with is…well, he
guarantees it. Other guarantees of course Mark has recently made ( Mitt Romney would
win the Republican primary nomination, Britney Spears would find god in rehab and
Barak Obama would reveal a long and lustful love triangle with Oprah and Dr. Phil)
should not be held against him here. Check out Mark's full guarantee at the link below. I
guarantee you will be the first to do so.

MONEY MAKING (WEBSITES)$$$$GUARANTEED$$$$$$Reply to:

markbailey2003@aol.comDate: 2008-02-07, 3:46PM ESTMAKING MONEY ON
THESE WEBSITES$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ( GUARANTEED)
$$$$$$$$$$$$$HTTP://HOMEBIZ-REVIEWS.ORGTHESE WORK I (
GUARANTEED IT )I WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO ADVERTISE IT

Write Better Craigslist Ads: 5 Simple Steps For Success

As we all know, the key to making money on Craigslist in your copy. Sure, a great offer
is important. A nice landing page will increase conversions. A free giveaway will build
your list. All very true and valuable to work on, but without exception, when I go back
and look at my most profitable CL campaigns, I can ALWAYS track them back to good
headlines on the main page. No more, no less. A terrible offer with a kick ass headline
is FAR better than a kick ass offer that no one is reading. The bad news is if you are
posting frequently, and in multiple cities and categories, you have to write lots of
headlines. The good news is, there are a few simple tweaks that I have found to raise
CTR pretty much across the board, regardless of city, category or type of underlying
offer. And if you are tracking your CL links and redirects – (which if you are not – you
are operating totally blind and most likely getting your red rear end slapped by those
of us who are) you can simply measure which ad approach works best for your offers.
Let’s take a quick look at some easy ways to tweak your campaigns – and some live
examples of my own.

1) Use Unique and Cool Keyboard Characters:

One of the very first major improvements I started to see in my CTR was using the wide
variety of keyboard functions to create a more visually engaging ad. Want to know the
truth? I saw other people doing it, and had NO IDEA how to get it to work. I am not
proud to say I probably spent an hour trying to figure out how these folks were getting
musical notes in their ad copy, and after wasting 60 minutes of my already way too
wasted brainspace – simply found a nice grandmotherly figure online who was selling all
14 gazillion key combinations for 99 cents in one fat pdf. I can now say "your credit
sucks" in Japanese keyboard characters; can print out much of the I Ching in small sun
symbols as well. While neither of these signs you have mastered Far East linguistics will
help your ad copy, they will make you feel like a much more cultured craigslister - and
make your headline stand out far easier than it would without them. And if you post on
CL often in competitive categories, you understand this more than half the battle.

2) Indent. And use ALL CAPS. I know, I know. No one likes people who use all caps
just about anywhere else…but on CL, it simply works. It's that simple. It might not next
week, or next month – but right now, EVERY one of my ads that has caps and runs wider
to the right side of the screen ( indented) simply does better. And visually, you can see
why. Even if the copy ain't great, the eye is going to track something that stands out when
surfing a sea of sameness in an otherwise crowded space.

4) Rhyme. Use words creatively. Entertain people with your headlines. Irritate them.
Simply Stand out. Do NOT blend in. If you want to blend in, you aren't going to do well
on Craigslist, or really anywhere else in the marketing arena. I like to rhyme, mostly
because it comes very quickly and naturally to me. I'm Similar to Jay Z, just with better
taste in shoes and a more liberal view on gun control. Here are some of mine:

Ho, Ho, Ho! Your Credit Score is Low! (was going to go with "blows" but didn't want
to push my luck..:-)

No More Chubby Tummy for MY Hubby!

Jingle Bells, Your Credit Score Smells – Your FICO laid an EGG! (not my favorite –
but worked!)

5) Use Alarm. Panic. Urgency.

STOP! Do NOT BUY THESE DIET PILLS, OR –

WAIT! BEFORE YOU…..

HOLD UP! I NEED TO…

Again – this works well for me, and can help with some quick copy creation when your
ordinary creative juices stop flowing…You can interchange these easily, they appear
"unique" for CL spam filters, and are pretty much equally effective in getting people to
take a quick peek at what is so DAMN important that you had to startle them to get their
attention.
5a) Shock and Confrontation.

Let's face it. You are FAT!

Be honest. Bad credit has RUINED your LIFE!

Very simply – you are going to get responses from this approach. Call it tough love,
confrontational selling or simply being an asshole, you will get a visceral reaction from
your intended audience (in CL parlance this also means you will be "flagged" more often
even if the ad is fine otherwise) but people DO respond to this. Think of ways YOU can
incorporate and integrate this into your marketing mix and your bottom line WILL thank
you for it. Remember – if you are helping people in need – occasionally rocking the
boat a little bit to get them to see they would benefit from your help isn't necessarily a
bad thing.

And of course, track everything. If you are using a program like gotrythis for your links,
simply integrate subcampaigns on the fly to identify what kind of ad you are running for
that module – ie abc.com/credit-ho , or abc.com/diet-donot, etc.

Remember, at the end of the day, 95% plus of this applies to ALL of your copywriting
and magical marketing maneuvers….These are not strategies indigenous or unique to
Craigslist, I do the same thing for articles, press releases ( where appropriate) , blog
comments, link bait is perfect for this, and so on.

Good luck, and as always, ask questions if anything was unclear.

 How Do I Make Money on Craigslist?

(photo credit PeterVanAllen)

Lots more questions…….And a lot less time to answer them. Here is a quick question
from James - and a long, hopefully not too rambling response that I think covers SOME
of thinking I try to incorporate into my CL campaigns, and broader strategy in my own
business…I re-read some of this a few minutes ago and I think I even confused myself,
so if it doesn't make sense to you, be sure to let me know. But hey - it is the other side of
2 AM once again, and I'm getting less sleep than Amy Winehouse these days, so…Part
two to follow!

Hi Ian! Thanks for the great Craigslist tips! I've tried to promote a lot of different things
though and still can't make money. I'm not sure but I think my ip is being blocked. I'm
not a good copywriter and was hoping you could show some examples of some of your
ads if you don't mind. Are affiliate sales the only thing you sell on Craigslist? If I can't
make any conversions there, is there another way? What did you start when you were a
newb? Thank you. James

Hey there James –

Thanks for the note..:-)

A few things regarding your questions: One – unless you are REALLY overposting, and
using an automated solution, I doubt your IP is being blocked. Most likely, you are
making any number of the mistakes with your ads that I have made, others have made,
and are covered here at greater length in different posts addressing ghosting and other
problematic posting processes. As I have done myself, and recommended to others – I
would simply tear it all down, clear your head and start again. Fresh email addresses and
fresh CL accounts – and in your case, if you aren't converting, maybe fresh affiliate
programs too..;-)

Very simply, CL is a successful, but supplemental strategy for me. I know that I am
getting a good amount of organic traffic on Craigslist posting problems, and as a
consequence, lots of the questions are being asked about CL ( like yours) which makes it
APPEAR like this is a huge part of my process. It isn't. It is a meaningful channel for
free traffic, and affiliate sales, but due to it's ephemeral quality (shelf life is fleeting and
requires constant upkeep) even though it is reasonably easy money to make – I know that
it is not a long term strategy for me personally, and I only have limited hours in the day –
so I keep it under control.

(note – You can easily make a few hundred bucks a day if you are diligent and sequential
and STRATEGIC – some probably make far more ( higher end services with big dollar
leads are ideal on CL – mortgage money, personal injury, etc – one conversion a week/4
a month could be a simple, six figure revenue stream even for a complete beginner)

►►►►► Sidebar

Actually – before I even lose that thought – here's an idea. If you are someone who is
getting your ads through but not converting on the affiliate revenue side, especially if
have an autoposter, simply sell leads – create a simple squeeze page for a free report on "
the Seven Mistakes First Time Home Buyers Make When Applying for a Mortgage" –
collect the name ( you can probably get the guide for free online – re-write an existing
one, or even get promotional materials from a lender you approach to work with – Then
sell these names to a financial company for a pre-determined dollar per lead – the PPC
value of these ads on the adwords side is very high – you could probably get anywhere
from 10-50 bucks a pop, ( or a straight fee on a processed application) depending on how
qualified they are - especially if you establish the value of the leads up front – ie – "I'll
give you 25 names for free, no cost….Contact these 25 on me, and we'll talk after you've
had a chance to verify my process. This could be as simple as opening a phone book and
cold calling 20 small brokers in your area – they work on commission, are typically
young kids who are aggressive, just out of school and a closed loan could mean a few
grand in their pocket.
Remember, just because there are tons of spammy ads on CL for finance related offers
and such, the VAST majority of business people have NO idea that you can actually use
it for anything more than getting a full body loofah massage on a Friday night from a girl
named MaryBeth who has soft, supple hands and a very sad life story. Not that I've ever
done that of course. But I'm sure other people have.
♫♫♫ End Sidebar

Here are the ways that I identified early on, in a "note to self", directly from my own
chicken scratched, dog eared yellow legal pad many moons back with the little asterisk
notes I made while writing it up in the parentheses section.

(note I don't use all of these now – and some were sort of redundant once I put them into
action so I 86'd them, and others, while VERY PROFITABLE..made me feel dirty in the
morning. Hopefully this will give you a few ideas to add to your own list)

1) Use CL to sell other peoples stuff

2) Use CL to sell your own stuff

3) Use CL to build a list (aweber/need to opt in for more/gmail/gateway magic page)

4) Use CL for SEO

5) Use CL for Adsense

6) Use CL for automatic auto reply (set up ebook ads, on autoreply, set it+forget it)

7) Use CL for community sites/niche sites (combination of SEO and brandbuilding –

look into other areas of CL to build communities, etc – drive to membership model sites,
free info, etc)

Use CL to promote Adult dating sites ( use images, url redirects, post text ads and
use an autoreply)

And a few of the techniques that I played with early on that were effective (and most are
still today)

**Use image ads – centered – text in header – same as text in headline listing – rotate 10
headlines – 10 sub heads -one hosted sales letter image underneath – looks like one long
letter, each one unique

**Market segmentation – use aweber or other to segment the market – ie – NYC ad –

creditnyc@aweber.com opt in – free offer/content/video etc for name – back end sales
funnel of related products geared to demographic and niche interest
creditdc@aweber.com, creditmiami@aweber.com, etc.

Sequencing – post 10 ads 12 pm sharp on Mon – rotate accounts and email address-
10 new ads on Tues – same market, different cities. Login 12 PM sharp Wed –
DELETE original 10 ads, immediately re-post (48 hour threshold has passed).
Repeat Thurs for Tuesdays ads – etc - net effect – each niche 10 ads – 10 cities every
day.

Now – with the benefit of hindsight, I can tell you that the most effective approach for me
has been selling other peoples stuff, and then selling my own stuff (primarily my own
consulting services)

I sell other people stuff, as I've covered on here ad nauseum, by either:

1) Driving the traffic to a squeeze page on my domain, collecting the name and then,
immediately forwarding the visitor to the vendors landing page visa vi the
autoresponders destination page URL on opt in.

2) Simply using any variety of straight text/image and cloaked redirects from the
CL ad itself.

I sell my own services by –

1) Sending the traffic to an opt in form with the promise of a series of business
building follow ups

2) Simply sending them right to the home page of my site and trusting that there is
enough good information on the pages to stir their imagination, and interest.

I never really had the time to fully explore the hardcore list building strategies (although I
have certainly collected a good amount across 5 or 6 separate niches not including my
own services) nor did I ever really delve into the market segmentation approach, but I do
believe that for an ambitious marketer with a little bit of free time, this could be a
veritable untapped goldmine.

For example – if you have a few days to get this set up properly – this would absolutely
kill, the copy, in combination with a properly segmented list and a collection of back end
offers, this would work well for both short term cash flow (straight up sales) as well as
longer term business building (a segmented list that you could follow up with solid
relevant offers.

Take 20 cities – 20 ads – each one personalized to that specific city.

"An open letter to ANYONE in Philadelphia with credit problems…."

"An open letter to EVERYONE in Seattle with a low Fico score…"

 "A simple plea to EVERY man in Dallas with a humiliating credit rating"

Each city is targeted by name. This will have (and has for me the VERY little that I've
played with it, but personalization works plain and simple) a dramatic positive effect on
your open rates. ( finance – in my example is especially difficult as there is so much spam
– I'd recommend picking a different niche as my ads here are performing lower today
than even a month ago due to the sheer quantity of competing people, postings,
autoposters, and advanced strategies being employed by many more people – there are
still very many EASY areas to dominate)

Use an autoresponder to collect the name – (the email they must respond to redeem your
"FREE" offer) - they get the free doohickey from you in their welcome email (they will
most likely need to double confirm to conform to your list servers regulations) you
redirect them to the sales page of the product…And you now have a name that you know
is on your New York Credit list. The same thing happens in Boston, DC, Miami, and
everywhere else that you have this set up. So while you have one FREE ebook to offer,
and one primary affiliate program you are promoting ( of course you could even rotate
affiliate programs by embedding multiple destinations in the URL) you have
COMPLETELY segmented demographic markets. Why would this matter? Well, you
might be able to:

1) Offer similar products and services to each list that are only redeemable in their area –
bringing your conversion rates through the roof and providing better value to your
subscribers. (ie – a secured credit card that only extends credit to NY residents does 95%
of your list no good – but if you've identified that you have a list of 900 New Yorkers
with shitty credit - for that 5% - segmented properly, you might convert at 25% or better.
Scale this out in each area – more work but well worth it!)

2) As long as your "fine print" acknowledges this, simply sell these names to local
marketplace vendors that can serve them well. High risk lenders, credit repair companies,
etc. just make sure you disclose this somewhere linked to where they originally signed
up.

More ideas for stupid, EASY money on CL…..

Forget about writing good ads completely. We aren't interested in clicks from WITHIN
Craigslist, ( although it will be a nice bonus) rather, we are going to target the natural
SERP results where we know these exact, yet awkward phrases are being typed in as is.
Get a list of 25 keyword phrases related to your niche – the very same ones you would be
advertising on if you were running an article marketing or longer tail PPC campaign.
 "how to fix your credit" "credit repair companies" " self help credit repair". Etc.

Simply use these VERY phrases, exactly as is – (use a tool like Nichebot to get the exact
embedded phrase with low competition and decent volume) – Write One article – " The 4
astonishing lies they DON'T want YOU to know about your credit". This is your landing
page. Optimize this page for the HIGHEST paying keyword phrases for credit repair ( or
whatever market you working in). ( I use Keyword Country for this - as I've covered in
another post) This is the old "adsense arbitrage" approach – yet, you aren't paying for the
traffic on the front end…it's free! So you have 25 keyword rich titles, 25 CL ads with
those titles in the engines on low competition phrases with decent daily search volume –
you ARE going to get traffic to your ad – you are going to send traffic to your article –
and you are going to monetize that article simply by virtue of the normal clicks that occur
on these content pages without worrying about an affiliate conversion occurring for
you to get paid. I know a few people who send ALL of this traffic to a simple page with
an optimized headline, a few sentences, optimized for the HIGHEST paying phrases in
the niche - and simply a few 336X280 adsense boxes. Nothing else on the page other
than this and they convert VERY well on CTR. (watch out for Google Gods though)
This has worked beautifully well for article marketing for years (ie – the bum marketing
method approach) and works equally as well for CL if you need quick cash. I use this in
concert with article submissions, press releases, and social networks to dominate
keywords in some very highly competitive markets – often holding on to half of the top
page listings for my chosen keywords simply by aggressively attacking the market from
many angles. CL is an important part of this strategy as illustrated below by the second
result in the google results for "credit repair myself" which was the keyword phrase I
wanted to hit here - as you'll see covered in both the top listing ( an ezine articles
submission by me, and the 5th result ( I erroneously marked the #3 as mine - it is NOT
the 5th is though - a US free ads article with same title -that simply redirects through yet
another credit repair URL I have to a popular E Book. Plus I also had another first page
result yesterday ( now gone from first 3 pages completely..:- as well which is one of
my credit repair websites - with again, you guessed it - some derivation of these three
kewords in my title, and a slightly different article than the rest). Was "credit repair
myself" a particularly tough phrase to rank for? No, not at all. Does it drive tons of
traffic to these offers? No, it doesn't. But it certainly sends some. Like just about
everything else I do - it is a function of simple scale, the aggregate effect of lots of small
footholds in a larger landscape.

Part two of this is coming within a few days…:-) Stay posted as we'll cover some other
ways to use free resources (and some inexpensive tools if you have a few bucks to spend)
to make some money in time for the weekend.:-

Why People Fail to Make Money on Craigslist:

Desconstructing A Real Life Ad
(photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/gypsyrock/)

I was looking at a few different potential categories to post to a few minutes ago for a
new affiliate offer, and was checking out some of the ads that were already running for
similar products in that market. And this sort of coincides with what I've been saying on
here forever - what other people who use CL successfully have been saying forever - and
what people who aren't making one cold slippery nickel while busting their asses on CL
have been missing forever: It's all about the copy. No more, no less. You can make a
few bucks on Craigslist on sheer volume, but you'll make MUCH more in far less time by
writing good, clear, compelling copy before you ever even get a sniff of planning your
posting protocols. (cities, frequencies, etc)

I am incredibly distracted online - mostly because I belong to like 12 different dating

sites which I obsessively refresh every 3 or 4 minutes to see why no one is writing. So
for this reason, I do the vast majority of my process mapping away from my computer, so
I can keep a good positive attitude before beginning a new campaign..:-)

Take a look at this ad - (not MINE - not anyone's I KNOW - just a random CL ad I pulled
from the scrap heap of bad ads) and see if you can figure out what this guy (or girl) is
doing wrong:

Headline: I wish I had this book before I started

Actually - this isn't terrible. It has a curiosity factor element (which book?) and is sort of
a simple, statement of fact approach that can work very well. Look - I clicked on this ad
when checking out competing products, so - if nothing else, I guess you can argue this is
an effective headline. My preference is always to put some emotion into it if possible -
you could preface the simple headline with some sort of exclamation and kind of give it a
little bit more umppph….but this may be a stylistic thing. ( I might have done a Sh*t!! I
wish I had this book before I started! as I believe this would get a better open rate, and
generally does for me in other similar efforts.)

Ad Opening: This book will save you Months of Work and LOTS of Money!! Email
me, I'll send it to you free!!

I like this! I think it's genuine, simple, believable and enthusiastic. I made a similar pitch
during an IRS audit once. (I'm hoping his results are better) There's no hyperbolic
grandstanding - (ie - I make 143,098.87 every week on Autopilot ) and of course, we all
want stuff that saves us time and money. (Especially network marketers, who are usually
broke and don't live as long as normal people.) Again - it's not going to crush on results,
but I think sincerity sells, and I'm intrigued at this point.

Graphic: He has one. Good choice. Pictures outsell text every day and twice on
Sunday - ESPECIALLY on Craigslist. People are inherently visual creatures, and yes,
you may find that odd market where this isn't true - and yes - I've seen "studies" that say
differently - but in my own experience, a good graphic is ALWAYS better than not. He's
got a solid one that you would expect to see for this sort of product - not stellar - could be
improved - but there. All good.

Process: He's asking for an email - which will presumably send the e-book via
autoreply. Or maybe he's manually sending them out after getting the name. Either way
- this is the lowest hanging fruit approach on CL from the standpoint of being flagged. I
rarely do this - as while safe - you are going to get a much lower response rate. Or
maybe he's posting in MANY cities, and has trouble before, so this is the emergency
strategy (I doubt it here). Either way - he could easily spruce this up by simply buying a
URL - and having that on the book - or even better - simply incorporate that book into a
larger image that houses the URL. I do this everyday in areas that my links are flagged -
and get a few hundred people a day (across many cities) manually type in my URL which
takes them to an opt in page, an affiliate redirect - or even a real site (like the one you are
reading ) but with affiliate offers, contextual ads and other interactive content related to
the niche.

I'm going to guess this person has not yet elevated their strategy to this point - but
hopefully they will as they go.

Layout: I'm a terrible designer (but an excellent dresser) and it is sort of cosmically
unfair for me to have an opinion on web aesthetics - but - the layout here could be
improved as well from a salability standpoint - I would center stuff, use some different
fonts, etc - but again, not terrible and is not going to be the primary driver between
success and failure.

But this is.

Second (the closing) Sentence: I was thinking that you will be successful after reading
this, So remember where you got it.

What does that even mean?

" I was thinking that you will be successful after reading this, So remember where you go
it"

I'm confused. A little threatened. And already gone.

Without even realizing it, this dude (ette) just killed any good will they created in the first
half of this process. The sentence makes no sense - sounds totally disingenuous, and a bit
like Tony Soprano might have started a second life selling Amway. It's funny - lots of
good copywriters will tell you there is "copy fatigue" - (although this two sentence
compilation shouldn't even have broken a sweat..:-) where people just poop out at the end
of a sales letter, or ad copy - or whatever it is. They simply get tired, want it to be over,
and throw in the metaphorical towel with a happy ending cheap close.

You can't do this on CL - ( or anywhere else for that matter - article marketing is a good
example of the same thing in the resource box) you have to finish strong and COMPEL
your reader to take that next step. I went to synagogue a few weeks ago for the first time
in a few years, and they offer cookies and milk at the end. It's the same thing. A snappy
close that keeps you in the building till the end with the promise of happy tidings if you
stick around and follow through. (excellent cookies, by the way)

My guess is these folks got an ok response - maybe 5 or 7 emails on the high side - if you
scale this out over 20 cities and use a gmail autoreply - you could make a few bucks ( and
they very well may) everyday with pushbutton simplicity. But this is still an example, in
my estimation - of mediocre planning, execution and implementation, and with a few
simple tweaks could be made far more profitable.

More Good Questions: Craigslist, Copywriting and Copyright

(Photo Credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/aturkus/)

Thanks to every one who has submitted good questions the last few days - and at this
point, I have to sort of selectively post the ones that seem to be most universally
applicable to everyone who is reading (seems a lot of people are arriving via Craigslist
keywords and submitting CL questions, which is sort of interesting considering that is
only a VERY small part of what I do - and not sure I am the best authority to answer a lot
of them- but I appreciate the submissions anyway..:-)

On Copyright (or possible infringement thereof for Splashcast videos) received this
yesterday:

I read your posts about splash, however, my concern would be with

copywritten work(or with what people perceive to be so.) I see where you
have stated "searching public media sources (Like You Tube for example)
for multimedia tagged with your keywords." I have been reading your posts
and have come to the conclusion that you wear a white hat with black socks
and are an aggressive marketer. As someone just starting out with very
limited money the last thing I would want is to make a great splash with
culled video from people who put tons of time into their work contacting me
because they feel their work is theirs alone. So, how do you avoid
confrontation with angry parties, just take video from sites that are
explicitly regarded as being in the public domain?

My Response (Albeit maybe a self serving rationalization, below)

Hi there -
You tube allows anyone who uploads video to preclude the video from being shared by
stripping out theembed code option - Splashcast will aggregate and collect the videos that
are available to be shared from these sources. Of course - you are right, there is the
potential for someone to be unhappy with this - (although you have to remember there
are all kinds of very nebulous copyright sorts of issues that run top down from search
engines like Google, all the way down to publishers like you and I) and if someone sent
me an email saying - hey, you are using my video without permission - I would take it
down!

(remember - using spashcast - you can simply remove the video from the appropriate
channel with one simple click without screwing up the whole show so to speak)

It gets a little bit "iffier" when you are using redirects and text branding overlays (my
recent post a few minutes ago) but I have never had a problem - although to be fair - if
someone was branding my videos with their site and redirecting to an affiliate offer, I
might ask them to stop…:-) It just depends I guess - my posts for example, through RSS
- are found on many different sites that "pull" my content and use it for their own
otherwise content (less) sites - from which they monetize with ads and such. Article
directories like Ezinearticles.com - publish articles for you - and allow others to re-
purpose my/your/our content similarly - ( keeping attribution intact) etc - Ezinearticles
founders, far from being an altruistic source (although a great RESOURCE) are making a
FORTUNE with google ads on their site(s) on the back of these articles. (etc)

No simple answers - I feel I am honest - and if someone pointed out that I was hurting
their efforts in some way, I would most likely just stop whatever it was that made them
feel so.

2) And on Craigslist - I will paraphrase here, because there have been several.
"How do your write a good CL Ad?"

Honestly, this is the reason that so many people will NEVER make money on their CL
ads - they don’t care enough about the copy to make it good. You can buy the very best
autoposter in the world and make money on sheer dumb luck, because enough eyeballs
will see your stuff that it would almost be harder to NOT make money, than it would to
stumble into a few bucks. However, you aren't going to do REAL well, or for any
appreciable length of time, unless you can write good copy. So learn it. COPY it! You
need a good headline. And some decent body text - that is really it. One of my most
successful ads for credit repair - which I pulled off a few weeks back (and posted it here
if you want to RIP IT OFF completely) is very simply my having COPIED the very
famous ( and immensely successful)

"They Laughed at me when……..Until I,……"

They laughed at me when I sat down at the piano, until i started to play.
They laughed at me when I started a new network marketing career, until I pulled up in a
fire red brand spanking new Ferrari

They laughed at me when I told them my Name was Michael Vick, until I pulled out my
prison ID card.

You get the idea. I only thought of it to use a month and a half ago while driving to work
and listening to a Rosetta Stone Language Learning CD offer on the radio - and they are a
pretty big business…..And they test, and tweak and invest big bucks in their national ads
campaigns, and low and behold, with all of the creative genius they could create or
muster with a big budget - they just lifted the exact same thing.

They laughed at me when I told them I wanted to learn French, until they heard me order
the wine ( bread - whatever, I forget..:-)

A sentence or two later -

If they thought my French was impressive, then wait

until they hear my Spanish.
Same thing - the old " if….then" proposition.

Here is an Example -

If it's good enough for Rosetta stone to use on their 5 million dollar ad campaign, then
it's good enough for you to use for your knock off Viagra pills on Craigslist. Capiche?

Anyway - this is the central part of any success I may have had, or will hopefully have in
the future - all successful direct response marketing can be traced back to good,
compelling copy. Whenever I get lazy, my results (or lack of them) show. Some of the
best ads that I have personally run are very site, city specific on CL - when I was trolling
for consulting work a few months ago during baseball season - I advertised fairly heavily
out in San Francisco. So - my ads were very targeted to san fran - and baseball - and
controversy - and generated more potential leads than I could handle. And it was
something to the effect of - "does your small business need a little extra juice? Give me
15 minutes and I'll give you a minimum of 3 ideas you can use today to make more
money. And I won't give you a shot in the ass either" Or something to that effect - a
play on the Barry Bonds steroid thing - and I got tons of emails, a lot of them angry and
kind of silly of course, but made some great contacts, a few friends and some reasonably
easy money as a result. I had tried other ads in the same market that were boring and
standard fare sort of stuff with a negligible response. In the end - I just decided to be
myself - and that worked far better even if annoying some people.

Anyway - that would be my best advice - spend an extra few minutes and make your
copy not only stand out - but stand alone. Go out there on the frothy edge a little bit in
what you write, and how you make your offer - not only will you have more fun, you will
get a FAR better response rate - even if you have to filter out the few knuckleheads to
take it all a wee bit too seriously.

Good luck!

Craigslist Power Posting Pointers: Avoiding the Ghost

If you devote any appreciable time and effort to posting ads on Craigslist, you have most
likely run into the decidedly unparanormal but incredibly annoying phenomena of
“Ghosting”. Essentially, ghosting refers to the process whereby your ads appear to go
live, show up green ( active )in both your account, as well as when you check the URL –
yet, are nowhere to be found in the live, real time results in the CL section in which you
posted. This is either Craigslist way of telling you your ads are alive and well in a parallel
universe where you are incredibly rich and successful, or, they are just playing some sort
of demented, passive aggressive mind f**k where you are being punished for over
posting.

In fairness to CL – many categories have indeed become spam havens where some sort of
policing is required – for Craigslist to have enduring value to us (marketers) there has got
to be some sort of vetting process where the spammers are regulated and reigned in from
overwhelming the board with nonsense.

However, the seemingly arbitrary way this is being handled – where ads are “approved”
on the surface, but being kicked out by either the CL spam algorithms, or some sort of
human edited black listing, is causing more havoc, in my opinion, than benefit.

The reason is simple: If you post a lot, you know there is only a so – so likelihood that
your ads are going to make it up. So lots of people are just posting like maniacs, sending
the same ads up over and over, ( especially in small business sections like financial
services and services offered) diluting the effect and drowning whatever good value
propositions there may be in the lot.

If your ads are being ghosted – well, it just feels like a monumental waste of time. I have
had ads in the same sections I have been posting for months, suddenly just not show up.
These aren’t spammy offers, rather simple, benefit oriented affiliate offers to very
specific CL demographics that for some odd reason (one of several ) are being pulled
before they even hit the stage. I would much rather have the ad rejected, or be given some
sort of formalized policy on why this is no longer appropriate, than to have the ads show
as running, yet – be nowhere to be found.

Anyway, it appears that the reasons you are ads will be ghosted are:

• URL in the ad
 • Ad copy triggering some sort of Spam filters. Especially in Finance. ( and Adult,
but I don’t post there)
• Image in the Ad ( depends on category)
• Over post – ( or very similar to another ad you have run, or unfortunately,
someone else has run)
• Hidden Text. Typically a sign of either an automated posting solution ( which
inserts hidden, or “ghost white” text into the post to make each piece of “spam”
unique, theoretically CL visitors don’t see it, but the CL Bots do, making the
same ad appear different)
• Domain name. If you have one domain name that you use for multiple offers (
especially people who are using one primary URL for several different affiliate
redirects) you will eventually have your posts ghosted. This has happened to me
for sure.
• Your IP. I think this is very, very rare. I think an IP ban is probably relegated to
people are hitting it really hardcore, and I mean in quantity of Some recommend,
if you are making yourϑposts, as well as category of content… living on
Craigslist, to use a dial up connection when posting for this reason.

Ok, let’s look at a few very simple workarounds.

Rather than growing homicidally frustrated, the key is very simply to recalibrate your
offers, and your approach. For me, it is incredibly important that I be able to display
images in my ads, because most of my offers are sales letter sorts of affiliate offers that
look like text, but are really .JPG’s. This allows me to run the same basic offer on a
consistent basis without triggering the text spam filter, or duplicate post problem. It has
however, opened another set of problems, as these images are hosted on domains under
my control. And when things are going well, human nature is to grow soft. And I have
grown very soft and lazy. So if I have 10 different markets that I am playing in, and each
offer is an image, displaying a unique affiliate oriented product or service, I have very
simply hosted the majority ( ok, all ) of these images on one of my primary domains.
And, I would very simply make the image a live link to a certain sub-page on my own
domain, on which I would have a very simple redirect script sending the visitor to the
affiliate offer using my ID or cookie. Very, very simple – right? Nothing abusive here,
no hardcore over posting, one offer per day, per city, per market. 10 markets, 10 ads.
Maybe not within the CL TOS, but – nothing like some of these hardcore spammers who
use all CAPS in their posts and make you want to reconsider your generally affectionate
feeling for your fellow man. Well, suddenly – about 10 days ago, my ads just stopped
producing. Mostly because they stopped running. Here is what I have done to fix it.

1) First, you have to tear it all down and start again. There are so many variables, so
many different permutations as to which of the above is causing the problem that you
need to get a new email address or CL account (s), and starts anew.

2) Rather than post live text links (which I have had A LOT of luck with, even as others
have said they don’t work) use your URL in an image. Simply type it out, highlight the
URL with a different color, make it larger, a different font, etc. TELL people EXACTLY
what they need to do – i.e. – ‘TYPE THIS INTO YOUR BROWSER NOW, TO GET
XXX”, etc. There is an old saying in direct response copywriting by John Carlton, who
said something to the effect of, when referring to selling stuff via infomercial a decade
ago – “you have to envision your prospective customer as a slumbering sloth, who will
resist every urge to get off of the sofa and take action on your offer”.

The same thing applies online – even though they are only a short mouse click away!
Here is an example of an
ad I am running on CL in
the credit repair niche
using an image ( I
removed the actual URL
which is part of the image
in the ad )

3)Host your images with a

well known, and accepted
online image repository!
This is HUGELY
important. CL might
blacklist YOUR domain
when you host an image
there, but they ain’t going
to blacklist all of the
hosting services used for
purely non commercial
purposes on CL. Find out
which ones those are and
open a free account. I’m
not going to publicly post
the one I am using right now, but just do the same things I did – find ads with images
(you will see the img denoted in the listing) – open the ad, right click on the image,
COPY the image location and PASTE it into your browser. You will see where the image
is hosted, and if the ad is live and in a section you want to use, guess what? It’s obviously
kosher to use. If, like me, you spend about 15 minutes doing this, you will find that there
are a FEW very popular image hosting services that are common to Craigslist, and for the
time being anyway – you will be able to host, and post images from there for free.

4) Once I saw that my images were live, and were not subject to the same “ghosting” that
I had been running up against, I started to edit my ads by adding live links. So even
though the ad already had the URL in it as mentioned above, I would go back and insert
the appropriate anchor text to link to my affiliate re-direct as before, with one new
incredibly powerful wrinkle…….

5) Rather than using domain re-directs as before (i.e. – all of my affiliate offers
redirecting from sub pages on my domains using either JavaScript or meta-refresh code )
I bought, and have been using GOTRYTHIS - an incredibly powerful, flexible and
nefarious tool for sending people wherever you want them to go using some pretty nifty
php scripting manipulations that I would do a pretty inadequate job of describing. Suffice
it to say that you can do * uhhhhh…A-hem * , A LOT of let’s call them INTERESTING
things with redirects, affiliate cookies and testing with this fairly expensive, but
unbelievably powerful program that I wish I had last year when it came out. Lots of fun
too – and very worth checking out if you are a hard core affiliate marketer. ( * Note –
I’ve had a few people point out that a lot of what this script does is decidedly on the
DARK SIDE of the affiliate marketing side of the STREET and I do agree – but a script
has no inherent ethics, it’s how you use it that makes it so * )

6) The last option that many affiliates (or even people selling their own stuff ) tend to
consider on Craigslist, but the one that is undoubtedly the safest from a long terms
strategic standpoint on CL – is simply crafting your offer in such a way as to have it be
delivered via the email address you post with the ad. This requires no image, no URL, no
redirect, and very few headaches at all. And why should it? This is quite simply what
Craig Newmark probably had in mind in his utopian vision of how CL would evolve as
an online marketplace to begin with..:-) While, as you would expect, your response rates
will definitely go down, your ad acceptance rates, should you be having problems getting
them through, should be at 100% with this strategy.

Simply, all you are going to do is post an attractive, benefit laden text ad, use any number
of the popular free email accounts that has an auto response setting ( I use gmail very
happily for this) and you will just put your offer URL in the default response that
everyone gets when they reply to your ad. Very easy – set it, and forget it. I have covered
this at greater length on other posts in this category, you can get more sophisticated with
an Aweber sign up list for your reply email .( hence, * squeezing* your responders onto
your list when they reply – although most commercial auto responders will require a
double confirm for this )

Anyway, overall – I’m hoping this has been a help to anyone who is having problems
with their ads not showing up on CL – even whilst appearing to be good to go. It’s
infuriating, frustrating and really can make you question weather using Craigslist is
worthwhile in the long run. I believe it is, and for the foreseeable future, believe the
above workarounds will work as well for you, as they have for me. And again, in fairness
to CL – remember, moderation truly is key. As an entrepreneur and business owner, as
well as a consumer – I can certainly see and understand their concern in keeping the bad
posts, and the serious spammers, under the proverbial covers – where they belong.
 How to Make Money on Craigslist: Simple Steps to Promote a Product
or Service on CL

Thanks for another good question - this one by Keith on promoting his service oriented
business on Craigslist - he didn't share a lot of info (ie - what kind of business he is in )
but I thought this would make for a good contribution to the site as it seems to conform to
the type of stuff a lot of people are struggling with - how to get free traffic - and how to
convert that traffic into paying customers. If it were only that easy, right? Well - maybe
- with some good advanced planning and a little bit of follow through - it really can be
that easy. Let’s take a look:

____________

Hello Ian -

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 automatically. 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 – don’t 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.
Please Visit KarmicConsulting.Net for More Mini Morsels of Marketing Magic.

If these posts have served you well, if you've learned anything new, have reframed an
existing angle, clarified, rectified or amplified your own efforts, or simply gleaned any
positive perspective that has helped you do more business online or off, I'd love for you
to share them with me!

Ian@KarmicConsulting.Net

Or – Simply stop by my blog and leave me a comment.

http://KarmicConsulting.Net
Recommended Resources Referred to in Preceding Posts:

• Keyword Research: Nichebot ( They have a $1 Two Week Trial) – dummy

simple way of augmenting your articles, on site SEO and watching your CL
listings rank highly in the Serp's. Simply pick good long tail keyword phrases as
your post titles, use the same in post headlines, and link to your money pages.
• Aweber.Com: Best way to build a real business is a list. The cornerstone of any
successful marketer that has enduring value can be summed up in one word.
Relationships. Build a list. Every site, every offer, every market. There are lots
of good list building services. I use several and Aweber is my favorite.
• Gotrythis (Blackhat Version): Fantastic link cloaking/tracking script that does
lots of cool things for dummies like myself who don't like getting our hands dirty
( or mind muddled) with lots of code. One of the best investments I have
personally made online, but – not currently available for purchase. ( although a
waiting list is set up) Great product – but, not so great follow up on version 2
which has been promised to be forthcoming for over a year. Good example of
brilliant product development, piss poor PR on follow through. Still use it daily
and very worth checking out when next generation is released.

If you have read all of the preceding material, and still have questions about CL, affiliate
marketing, blog building, writing articles, press releases, PPC, social networking, or any
other online marketing conundrum – I will offer any reader of this document ( or regular
reader of my blog) one hour of phone consultation for $97.

I can't parallel park, have a terrible sense of direction and am partially color blind. But
when it comes to streaming, channeling and illuminating buckets of ways to turn tired,
tepid business ideas into a smoking hot success in rapid fire turn around time, I am the
am the answer you have silently prayed for to a god who didn't appear to be listening.
Until Now..;-)

Thanks again for reading, and I wish you all of the health, wealth and prosperity you
hope for yourself.

Ian