How I Successfully Post On Craigslist

[jstover77]

Hey all!! Just made a video which explains how I effectively post on Craigslist.

YouTube - CLposting.avi

Let me know if anyone has any questions.

Cheers,
John

[mexiclanboy]

you did a great job!

[AndyCamden]

Excellent video! I learned some stuff that I didn't know. So the broadband card just changes the IP address every time I assume?

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by AndyCamden

Excellent video! I learned some stuff that I didn't know. So the broadband card just changes the IP address every time I assume?

Yes, every time you disconnect, and then reconnect it changes the IP.

Another caveat...the reason I don't suggest Sprint cards is cause I heard CL was catching on to it, and banning whole blocks of IPs that Sprint used for their broadband cards.

[jimcal]

Hi,
Great Info!
What type of response do you get from 8-9 ads. If you don't want to reveal your stats, I understand or you could PM me if you don't want to make it public. You may want to make a WSO of your business model in a generic way if you are making good money.
Thanks,
Jim

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by jimcal

Hi,
Great Info!
What type of response do you get from 8-9 ads. If you don't want to reveal your stats, I understand or you could PM me if you don't want to make it public. You may want to make a WSO of your business model in a generic way if you are making good money.
Thanks,
Jim

Thanks for the compliment. Honestly it depends on the creative, the city, the section, ect, but generally you should get anywhere from 50 to 100 uniques from 10 ads. The best time of the day is to post in the morning (around 5 am), and 3 pm est. Best around 3 pm to 9 pm, cause those are the heaviest traffic times on CL.

I do well with CL, but believe it or not Backpage.com gets me more traffic simply due to the sheer volume I can post with the software I use. BP doesn't track IPs, you don't have to change your ads up, you can post up to 50 ads on one email address. It's completely automated. Great little tool to have. I know someone at BP, and they send me their analytics every month. They got 15 million visitors this month, 300 million page views. That is up from 4.5 million in June.

I am actually working on a video training course on how to use the BP software, but it is on the list of things to do. I do offer one on one consulting for the BP software, and I will give any Warrior members half off. PM if anyone is interested. Great tool for CPA offers, affiliate marketing. Or anything else for that matter.

John

[schabotte]

Originally Posted by jstover77

Yes, every time you disconnect, and then reconnect it changes the IP.

What about using AOL and a dialup connection to accomplish the same thing?

Its been a long time since I played with AOL but I seem to recall that bypassed ip address issues back then.

[Gorilla Writer]

Cool video! Quick question though, what software do you use for posting on backpage?

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by Gorilla Writer

Cool video! Quick question though, what software do you use for posting on backpage?

BPBotPro. Hit me up if you are interested in buying it. I'll answer any questions you have.

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by schabotte

What about using AOL and a dialup connection to accomplish the same thing?

Its been a long time since I played with AOL but I seem to recall that bypassed ip address issues back then.

Ya, I know there are some people using dial up, but I never really understood how it worked? I always thought about how slow that process would be.

[schabotte]

A new ip address gets assigned each time you dial up from the pool assigned to that particular ISP. In the case of AOL, they have some sort of gateway to the internet so there is some sort of internal/external mapping that happens but for others like netzero, an ip is assigned on dialup.

[23hitman]

A few follow up clarifying questions:

• Do you change up the HTML ad between the 2-3 postings on the same verified account, in between disconnects?
• Can you simply create 10 different HTML swipe pages, different image names, image targets and use those on different verified accounts/change IP addresses?
• 10 variations of the Title....per verified account? Or 10 different ones period? For example, one verified account has 10 different titles. The next verified account has 10 entirely different titles?
• What about using special html characters in the title? Good? Bad?
• If u keep changing IP addressed, varying the titles, verified accounts, in theory you could post all day? Hundreds?

Thanks

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by 23hitman

A few follow up clarifying questions:

• Do you change up the HTML ad between the 2-3 postings on the same verified account, in between disconnects?
• Can you simply create 10 different HTML swipe pages, different image names, image targets and use those on different verified accounts/change IP addresses?
• 10 variations of the Title....per verified account? Or 10 different ones period? For example, one verified account has 10 different titles. The next verified account has 10 entirely different titles?
• What about using special html characters in the title? Good? Bad?
• If u keep changing IP addressed, varying the titles, verified accounts, in theory you could post all day? Hundreds?

Thanks

1) Unlike what is in my video I have a swipe file with 10 different ads and 20 different titles, I then variate them starting from ad one to ad 2 and so on.

2) Yes, exactly. I use tinypic.com and just upload the same image 10 times or whatever you choose. This in turn give the same image, with different strings of code. If you want an easy trick on how I create clickable images check out my YouTube page over to the left.

3) I only post 2 ads per account so I will start at the top and then move to the bottom. Once done all 20 I will start back at the top.

4) I never use special characters. Seems they get flagged more often, but this is just my opinion. No solid proof.

5) Yes, but it is very time consuming, and that would entail creating a massive amount of redirects. Eventually they will catch on to your URL and ban you for life. I try not to spend more then an hour a day doing this, cause I like to spread myself out and concentrate on other things. Ten to twenty ads a day gets me plenty of traffic for what I need. My PPC campaigns, videos, referring sites, blogs, articles, ect do all the rest.

One more thing I forgot to mention in the video also. After you post your ads on each account, try to wait until the ads from that set have posted. Then move to the next account. I have found that doing it too quickly will get you ghosted completely.

Cheers,
John

[Davegfx]

John I appreciated the post as well, and I have a couple additional questions:

- with this method, does your URL not get picked up in some way by the CL bots? Do you cloak your URL in any way?
- are you able to track your ads in any way? I put in some free code on mine that allowed me to see how many times they were getting hit, but I think this may have eventually led to them being picked up and ghosted. Thoughts?

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by Davegfx

John I appreciated the post as well, and I have a couple additional questions:

- with this method, does your URL not get picked up in some way by the CL bots? Do you cloak your URL in any way?
- are you able to track your ads in any way? I put in some free code on mine that allowed me to see how many times they were getting hit, but I think this may have eventually led to them being picked up and ghosted. Thoughts?

Honestly, I have been using my URL for months now, and haven't had any issues with it. This is allows me to simply track my clicks through Awstats and Analytics. But again, I do not post more than 10-20 ads per day. I have clients that tell me they were posting hundreds of ads per day and all of the sudden they couldn't get posted. Most likely this is due to Craigslist's bots or police(whatever you want to call it) finally putting the hammer down on their URL.

I don't get super crazy about this whole thing like some people, i.e-proxies, cloaking, ect. I just wanted to show what works for me.

You can use many different redirects, but as far as I know you can't track hits with redirects.

I hope this helped.

John

[23hitman]

Follow Up to the FOllow Up of the Follo.......well you get the idea =)

"4) I never use special characters. Seems they get flagged more often, but this is just my opinion. No solid proof."

Does anyone have experience/knowledge if special html characters in the title get flagged more?

2. Do you use blended html font color codes for date, month, year in the bodies of the html? Before/after the image tag?

Boston though huh?

[23hitman]

Oh wait another one!

I have three websites and hosting. Would using the various sites to host the images and say PhotoBucket and TinyPic assist in the CL posting?

By changing up the html image source code by changing the image hosting location? Thats it?

[brucerby]

John thanks for the video - very interesting!

I used to do a lot with CL (something like $800 a week) but got so tired of all the cat and mouse to get ads up. BUT, your method might cause me to try it again.

I do think the weak link in this (pardon the pun) is the linking to your url as was mentioned. THAT"S what I heard is catching some posters now. Its anybody's guess whether 10 ads or 15 or 20 ads will trigger a more aggressive search by CL then.

So, maybe the trick is to go fairly light and never exceed 10 or 15 a day.
I also found that a small group of cities produced most of the traffic.
_______
Bruce

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by brucerby

John thanks for the video - very interesting!

I used to do a lot with CL (something like $800 a week) but got so tired of all the cat and mouse to get ads up. BUT, your method might cause me to try it again.

I do think the weak link in this (pardon the pun) is the linking to your url as was mentioned. THAT"S what I heard is catching some posters now. Its anybody's guess whether 10 ads or 15 or 20 ads will trigger a more aggressive search by CL then.

So, maybe the trick is to go fairly light and never exceed 10 or 15 a day.
I also found that a small group of cities produced most of the traffic.
_______
Bruce

Ya, I agree that small amounts is the best policy. I know what some people are resorting too is actually taking the www out or www.website. com...stuff like that. Obviously this hurts your CTR, but it protects you from having your URL banned.

Can you share with everyone which cities you are getting the best traffic from? I find NYC, Philly, LA, San Diego, Dallas, San Fran, Atlanta, Miami, and Chicago pull best for me. I think I am forgetting something.

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by 23hitman

Oh wait another one!

I have three websites and hosting. Would using the various sites to host the images and say PhotoBucket and TinyPic assist in the CL posting?

By changing up the html image source code by changing the image hosting location? Thats it?

Like I said I use TinyPic. I never used photo bucket, but I heard a long time ago that CL was not liking them. Tiny Pic does the job for me.

So..to answer your question, I believe so.

[kierenm]

Thank dude thats awesome!

Will have to look into backpage too by the sound of it..!

[brucerby]

Originally Posted by jstover77

Can you share with everyone which cities you are getting the best traffic from? I find NYC, Philly, LA, San Diego, Dallas, San Fran, Atlanta, Miami, and Chicago pull best for me. I think I am forgetting something.

Well, this is the most productive cities I remember from a year or so ago:
NYC, Chicago, San Fran, LA, San D, Dallas, and perhaps Phoenix or Denver.
(In general, it was the WESTERN states cities and Chicago and NYC that pulled the best.)
So, I guess we are seeing pretty much the same results. :-)

Also, wanted to mention I am rather surprised that you pull so much from Backpage?
That must have really improved in the last year or so.

[blairezon blenn]

Thanks for the info. you've done pretty well...

Cheers!

[greenovni]

I too got tired of the cat and mouse game but seems like I'm going to try it again.

[greenovni]

Autoposter for BP has a ton of add ons @ $99 a piece. Are all of the necessary?

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by greenovni

Autoposter for BP has a ton of add ons @ $99 a piece. Are all of the necessary?

You only need the captcha exstension to make it completely automated. So $199 is all you need to spend. Professional, captcha exstension.

John

[brendan301]

Originally Posted by jstover77

You only need the captcha exstension to make it completely automated. So $199 is all you need to spend. Professional, captcha exstension.

John

does this captcha extension work on cl? from what i was told the only way around it is to enter it in or join a captcha entry service like captcha hawk.

[googleplex]

Very nice job on the video.

[mmickey]

I'm giving my first precious thanks to you, my friend

thanks for your generousity.

I am sure many people here are having success with cl, but they either are not willing to share, or are only willing to do so by charging a fees for it

I myself not making big money on cl, but i do make some with it, i do get my ads to post up and i can tell you guys John does know his stuffs.

Frankly speaking, I selfishly hope that he did not tell u guys coz he's making me more competition. Kidding...

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by brendan301

does this captcha extension work on cl? from what i was told the only way around it is to enter it in or join a captcha entry service like captcha hawk.

It works with AdsOnCraigs for free, and the other ones I believe you have to pay companies like catcha hawk to do it. But who knows how long that will last with all the companies getting sued. I talk to the owner of Adson once in awhile and will find out for you. PM me with your email.

[jstover77]

UPDATE!! It's funny. Like the CL gods were watching this post. As of today, I believe my URL finally got banned. LOL!! So what you have to do is either buy a bunch of redirects, or take out the www in your URL. I started doing it like this WebTraffic2night.com or WebTraffic2night .com, and they started sticking again (why I came to the aforementioned conclusion).

Another thing you can do is just create an image with your URL in it. Here is how you variate the image code.

Using TinyPic

Example 1(this code is a clcikable image)
-----------------------
With the URL in the code. As you can see the first string is where it is directed too. www.yourwebsite.com"target..ect...ect

<BODY><A href="http://www.yourwebsite.com" target=_blank><IMG height=92 alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic" src="http://i34.tinypic.com/i1wvnp.png" width=640 border=0></A>
-----------------------------
Example 2 (this will make the image unclickable)

This is for code that you want to display your URL in the image, but not make clickable

<IMG height=92 alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic" src="http://i34.tinypic.com/i1wvnp.png" width=640 border=0></A>
----------------------------

Here is a little trick to make the image code unique

<IMG height=92 alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic" src="http://i34.tinypic.com/i1wvnp.png?dlkjdsfklskj" width=640 border=0></A>

As you can see I added a string of letters after "png". Use a ? first.

You can also use this method with Photobucket, but I find that to be way more annoying, cause you have to create an account each time to get a unique link.

As you can see, I spend way to much time on my computer.

Cheers,
John

[jstover77]

Here is my video on how I make clickable images.

YouTube - ClickableImages.avi

Sorry the watermark is so big. I am not trying to prostitute my website. LOL.

Hope this helps all!!

John

[sama]

very good job now i know what to do thank you very much

[clarissa25]

Great info. I'll have to try this out.

[Eric Evans]

John,

This is great stuff. Thanks! I'm gonna try your clickable images method tonight.

[wiresaw]

Nice tips.. I will try it now..

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by Love To Deal

Your details and care are very much appreciated. Best post I have read in years!!! Do you mind shooting me a PM so I have your contact details?
Thank again John.

I actually just made a new video. I realized in that if you don't over post, say 30-40 ads per day, you can post on the same IP without an air card.

Here is the new video.

YouTube - NEW How To Post On Craigslist

Cheers,
John

[jmidas]

Hi John, thanks for the info.

Have you experimented with not providing clickable links to your site and just posting the URL as an image - where they would have to physically go type your URL in? My thought/understanding is that you will get less traffic by some amount, but what you do get will be a more serious prospect.

Any thoughts on this?

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by jmidas

Hi John, thanks for the info.

Have you experimented with not providing clickable links to your site and just posting the URL as an image - where they would have to physically go type your URL in? My thought/understanding is that you will get less traffic by some amount, but what you do get will be a more serious prospect.

Any thoughts on this?

Image ads don't seem to get picked up by CL's filters. If you run a text ad with the same content the ad will get picked up, even on separate accounts.

If you want to use an ad that is text, what you do is write it out how you want it to look and then screen shot it. Then follow my steps on how to create a clickable image. This way it looks like a regular text ad, but is really an image ad.

Here is an example of what I mean.

DO YOU LIKE RESIDUAL INCOME?

John

[jmidas]

Thanks, I understand that nuance, but I am wondering if you have compared making your image ad clickable vs just showing a URL for them to have to go manually type into their browser to get to your site.

But, I think it seems you have not had any issues with clickable ads - except your note above about getting a url banned.

My thinking is that if the ads are not clickable at all (no active link) they will never be able to ban a domain. As I said above, my guess is that traffic will decrease some, but maybe (??) the people who do make the effort to type in your URL are more serious and more likely to buy whatever you are offering. Just wondering if you have experimented with this.

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by jmidas

Thanks, I understand that nuance, but I am wondering if you have compared making your image ad clickable vs just showing a URL for them to have to go manually type into their browser to get to your site.

But, I think it seems you have not had any issues with clickable ads - except your note above about getting a url banned.

My thinking is that if the ads are not clickable at all (no active link) they will never be able to ban a domain. As I said above, my guess is that traffic will decrease some, but maybe (??) the people who do make the effort to type in your URL are more serious and more likely to buy whatever you are offering. Just wondering if you have experimented with this.

Yes I have, back in the days when I was using posting software. It could be true that people are more serious, but I find for the most part that is there is not a link to click on most will just go bye bye.

Plus, from what I understand, it's not just the URL that the filters read, but also the content. So you have to go through the process of writing a ton of different ads. I just find clickable images to be the easiest way, and most efficient.

John

[Big Mike75]

John,

Solid videos man. I too got frustrated last year with all of tricks to getting multiple ads posted on CL, was using software but got away from it knowing CL is cracking down on companies that produce posting software. But I'm definitely going to use your techniques...again great videos!

[kellysharali]

Awesome Posts! being new to WF, I did learn a lot about posting on CL from you guys. Keep up the good work.

[jstover77]

UPDATE ON CL POSTING!!

OK, some of you might know Craigslist did one of their infamous verified phone sweeps the last two weeks. They also made their filters a bit tougher to get past. So, after many many hours of research, and testing in the last week or so, I have finally figured it out....until next week. LOL!! Here is a step by step guide on how I have been posting the last couple days, with very good success.

***Now for some this might seem a bit to much work, and seem like a waste of time, but for me it is not. I get massive traffic, and leads from CL, so it is worth it to me. For anyone who has any questions feel free to PM. I also do training sessions with BP, and CL posting software***

First...I only post in the services section, so this is geared towards that.

What you need that cost money
1) Phone Verified Accounts- Run between $6 to $10 a piece. I can get them for $6 if you need them. You can always call all your friends and relatives or go to pay phones, but that is annoying! Rule is no more than 1-2 ads per 48 hours. This means 48 hours!
2) Broadband Card (only verizon), dial up (ouch), or DSL. I prefer Verizon broadband card.

Organization
Create a file in Word or Notepad. This is how a typical swipe file looks for me.

Verified Accounts
email@email.com (password)
email2@email.com (password)
ect, ect ( I have 200 lined up in a row)

Titles
Have a good amount of variations of the title here. Try to use different word variations.
Title 1
Title 2
ect

Ads
<a href="http://www.yourredirect.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/15viqb.png" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

<a href="http://www.yourredirect2.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/15viqb.png" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

***I have about 10 ads I line up. This is an image code I use which I create through TinyPic.com. Some people use photobucket, but I like to use Tiny cause you don't have to create an account each time. I buy redirects (domain names which are redirected to the site you want), cause if you use the same URL, CL will ban it.*****

Hint 1- buy .info sites. You can get them at godaddy.com for $1 a peice.
Hint 2- Here is a video I made on how to create clickable images very fast

YouTube - Making Images Clickable for Craigslist...

Hint 3- to make the code in the image more unique ad a string of random numbers and letters after the png.

Example: <a href="http://www.yourredirect.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/15viqb.png?wuehweprowepropweori" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>


You guys cross eyed yet? Trust me once you get it down, it's really not that bad.

OK, so now is the easy part.

Step 1
Log in to your first account. Pick the city you want to post in. Copy paste (title, ad code). Always put the city that you are posting in. Put the captcha code in, and post it.

Step 2
After the ad has posted, clear your private data. You can find it in the tools section in Firefox (PC) and I believe in the "options" in Internet Exploder. On a Mac just go to "preferences".

You want to clear your
a) cookies
b) catche
c) authenticated sessions

Step 3
You also want to disconnect from your broadband card, dial up, dsl (reset modem) after each ad to create a new IP address.

Step 2 and 3 have to be done after every post!
CL filters seem to track ads that are posted on the same IP in a certain amount of time, so it is imperative to change your IP. Sorry people with Cable or FIOs. Much more of a process.

The key is to randomize everything. The more unique your ads, titles, IPs ect..the best chance you have to have a sticky ad.

Best of luck,
John

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by dps

You fail to mention that you need a Verizon EVDO data account with that USB adapter, which is a minimum 1 yr contract for 500MB/mo transfer @ $39/mo. I've got the $59/mo pkg that offers $5GB/mo, but in the nearly 18 mos I've had it, I've barely used 1GB TOTAL. (They didn't have a lower-cost plan available when I got mine.) I also got my adapter for free with a 2 yr contract.

Or ... do you have some other means of connecting without a Verizon data acct?

Ahhh. Data card..broadband card. It doesn't matter what model. Just need a verizon Internet card. If you use it just for posting, it doesn't matter what plan you get. As long as your not downloading movie files, and software programs you don't have to worry about surpassing the size limit. I use the $59.99 plan, just cause I travel and use it all the time, but the $39.99 should be just fine for posting.

Originally Posted by dps

Also, I don't do much with CL, but what you're saying here implies that they run global searches over the entire database looking for various "signatures" that appear to indicate stuff that's not supposed to be there.

How long do your ads typically stick around?

They have bots that search for any familiarity in a post. Post that get caught get ghosted, and can lead to getting the ad accounts suspended. The post can also be flagged by the community.

Originally Posted by dps

What's your typical call-to-action? Do you have them click the image? Or just enter your web site URL? Then what -- a squeeze page? Or do you have them call a number?

and for those of us illiterati ... what's a "phone verified account"? (As I said, I don't do much with CL, but this is an interesting discussion anyway.)

Thx

Yes, as I mentioned in the post above, I use clickable images, which then lead to my landing page/splash page/website. depends on what I am promoting. There are many people who simply put their phone numbers in the ad.

Phone Verified Accounts (PVAs) are needed in many sections of CL now to even post an ad. There are some smaller cities that you can post with just an email address. PVAs need to be activated when CL's phone system calls you and give you a code.

[Noel2010]

Thanks for this. The video in post 46 seems to end before you completed the steps.
I still don't understand what to do after I make the screen capture but I am looking at some other videos on youtube.

Do I still need a PVA if I use dial-up to get a new IP?

[jstover77]

Originally Posted by Noel2010

Thanks for this. The video in post 46 seems to end before you completed the steps.
I still don't understand what to do after I make the screen capture but I am looking at some other videos on youtube.

Do I still need a PVA if I use dial-up to get a new IP?

After you screen shot the picture, go to TinyPic.com and upload the image. It will then give you a code like the one below.

<a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/15viqb.png" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Copy paste it into a swipe file. Then take out the "tinypic.com" in the first part of the code, and replace it with your URL. That will make it clickable.

There are some sections and smaller cities in CL that you can post in without a PVA. JUst replace PVA with gmail email.

[judyrey]

All very interesting information. Learned a lot. Thank you.

[Walter Cruickshank]

This is a great idea. I will have to try it, does it matter if you are living in Canada?

[Samuel Lee]

Great post jstover77, always wanted to use craigslist effectively! Thanks for the updated info, I hit a snag earlier on due to the update going through their system, but it seems to working fine now once I established a phone verified account to make submissions. Cheers!