Craigslist bots: do they actually work?

by laraku
160 replies
Hi guys

I messaged someone on this forum about Craigslist posting. He claims to have an entire automated posting system already set up.

His website looks legit and he says I just need to add in content and my ads will go live. Only thing is that I have to pay a monthly fee up front ($95).

Sounds to good to be true. Especially since it's automated.

New here and don't want to get scammed out of $95. I'm still starting out so that's a bit of money for me....

Can any of the more experienced members here vouch that automated Craigslist bots work?
Or anybody have a list of questions that I can ask him to see if he is the real deal?
#bots #craigslist #work
  • Profile picture of the author MikeChrest
    Whitehat Craigslist online marketer here for 5 years.

    You should also follow ALL of the Craigslist TOS and not pursue any of these fraudulent postings you are considering!! You have been warned.

    ---

    That said, I want to be constructive instead of white knighting.

    So, while I have heard Craigslist bots working, this sounds a little dubious.

    That said, I would ask him a few questions:
    1) If it really works, can't you just ask for a trial?
    2) What are his live ratios for other clients?
    3) How can he guarantee live ads if he doesn't know your niche or product?
    4) How many hours does he rest between posts with his accounts?

    You know what they say about sounding too good to be true.....
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  • Profile picture of the author Regional Warrior
    Originally Posted by laraku View Post

    Hi guys

    I messaged someone on this forum about Craigslist posting. He claims to have an entire automated posting system already set up.

    His website looks legit and he says I just need to add in content and my ads will go live. Only thing is that I have to pay a monthly fee up front ($95).

    Sounds to good to be true. Especially since it's automated.

    New here and don't want to get scammed out of $95. I'm still starting out so that's a bit of money for me....

    Can any of the more experienced members here vouch that automated Craigslist bots work?
    Or anybody have a list of questions that I can ask him to see if he is the real deal?
    "People do and promote all sorts of things that are specifically designed to breach third-party terms of service. That doesn't make them sensible, reasonable or advisable, though - and it's part of the reason why as internet marketers, collectively, our reputation is what it is. The people who aren't part of the solution to that tend to be part of the problem.( not my quote)" Also look at the TOS of CL
    $95 is way to much and you would have to be making 4 x that to be justifiable spending that much.
    Jason
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  • Profile picture of the author munir ahmed
    HEY BUDDY,

    As you are new in the market you
    will come across many fancy looking
    shiny object that sounds too good to
    be true....

    You Know Why?

    BECAUSE IT IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE...

    Just ignore them and dun look
    for no short cuts as it just don't
    exist...

    If you wana make money and
    reach your goals and the dreams
    you have then do it the hard way
    and work your way up there...

    KEEP EDUCATING YOURSELF....

    TEST AND TWEAK.....

    You can find all the answer from
    warrior forum and be careful what
    you take in as not all will be spot
    on.

    I wish you best of luck
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  • Profile picture of the author laraku
    Thanks for the advice guys... I really feel like a sheep sometimes haha!

    I'm going to go ahead and ask for a trial. See what he says. Mike, those questions are great... do you have any more? I figure the more info he gives the better.

    Would appreciate any and all other advice from the members here.
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  • Profile picture of the author modgerody
    Simple answer....No.

    Craiglists requires lot's of accounts, special proxies and unique post content, and you are not going to get anything for $95.

    $95 in the craiglist game is peanuts, you won't be able to get anything setup for that cheap. People charge big money for non-ghosted live Craiglists postings. Its not an easy thing to accomplish.

    Also I don't get why you didnt post a link to the website in question so we could examine what you are talking about.

    You want peoples advice, yet you are so secretive about the bot.

    But then again it doesn't really matter because no Craiglists bots work, especially a $95 one.

    Each Craiglists account can only make so many posts, and each account needs a special Craiglist proxy and an account that's been created and phone verified. These things are expensive and the costs add up fast. $95 won't get you very many of that.

    There is a difference between posting ads....and actually posting ads that go live and don't get ghosted.

    How is a bot going to magically create Craiglists accounts in different locations around the United States for you and hook up a proxy to each account and then phone verify the accounts for you? It's not possible.

    The only thing a craiglist bot can do is manage your existing Craiglists accounts and proxies so you don't have to manually login to each to post each time you want to.
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    • Profile picture of the author irawr
      Banned
      Originally Posted by modgerody View Post

      Simple answer....No.

      Craiglists requires lot's of accounts, special proxies and unique post content, and you are not going to get anything for $95.

      $95 in the craiglist game is peanuts, you won't be able to get anything setup for that cheap. People charge big money for non-ghosted live Craiglists postings. Its not an easy thing to accomplish.

      Also I don't get why you didnt post a link to the website in question so we could examine what you are talking about.

      You want peoples advice, yet you are so secretive about the bot.

      But then again it doesn't really matter because no Craiglists bots work, especially a $95 one.

      Each Craiglists account can only make so many posts, and each account needs a special Craiglist proxy and an account that's been created and phone verified. These things are expensive and the costs add up fast. $95 won't get you very many of that.

      There is a difference between posting ads....and actually posting ads that go live and don't get ghosted.

      How is a bot going to magically create Craiglists accounts in different locations around the United States for you and hook up a proxy to each account and then phone verify the accounts for you? It's not possible.

      The only thing a craiglist bot can do is manage your existing Craiglists accounts and proxies so you don't have to manually login to each to post each time you want to.
      I'm not into CL but I don't understand why you think much of that couldn't be automated. There's bots around that can easily manage a bunch of simultaneous proxy connections (the functionality to do that is built into microsoft .net, anyone with some C# skills could code that.) As far as the phone verification, it wouldn't be automated but there's ways to do this with VOIP, call forwarding, and there's a few ways to get free numbers (temporarily) from prepaid cell phone companies.

      If you don't want to screw around too much you could just get a legit prepaid phone for 10-20$/month and then not pay for additional minutes after you verify.

      I don't know how much people make from one CL account but here you go: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TracFone-6...19.99/45111498 and you can get phones new for like 10$.
      http://www.walmart.com/ip/TracFone-H...Phone/36202749

      3 months of service for 20$, if it's not CL don't answer it. Phone is $8.07

      I have a phone similar to this in the glove box of my car with a charger in case of emergencies.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeChrest
        Have you done any of the things you have proposed?

        Craigslist blocks VOIP and can detect call forwarding. Free numbers are also cross-referenced and blocked as well. I've never tried prepay either.

        Proxies are hosted in a datacenter and those are also, likewise, blocked.

        While it's tempting to try to automate because there are so many dollars at stake, it is a losing game. Everybody should play by Craigslists' rules.

        Originally Posted by irawr View Post

        I'm not into CL but I don't understand why you think much of that couldn't be automated. There's bots around that can easily manage a bunch of simultaneous proxy connections (the functionality to do that is built into microsoft .net, anyone with some C# skills could code that.) As far as the phone verification, it wouldn't be automated but there's ways to do this with VOIP, call forwarding, and there's a few ways to get free numbers (temporarily) from prepaid cell phone companies.

        If you don't want to screw around too much you could just get a legit prepaid phone for 10-20$/month and then not pay for additional minutes after you verify.

        I don't know how much people make from one CL account but here you go: (Email Delivery) TracFone 60 Minute/90 days $19.99 - Walmart.com and you can get phones new for like 10$.
        TracFone Huawei Prepaid H110C Double-Minute Cell Phone - Walmart.com

        3 months of service for 20$, if it's not CL don't answer it. Phone is $8.07

        I have a phone similar to this in the glove box of my car with a charger in case of emergencies.
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        • Profile picture of the author irawr
          Banned
          Originally Posted by MikeChrest View Post

          Have you done any of the things you have proposed?

          Craigslist blocks VOIP and can detect call forwarding. Free numbers are also cross-referenced and blocked as well. I've never tried prepay either.

          Proxies are hosted in a datacenter and those are also, likewise, blocked.

          While it's tempting to try to automate because there are so many dollars at stake, it is a losing game. Everybody should play by Craigslists' rules.
          I started the post by saying I'm not into CL. So If they only verify phone #s from whitelisted land lines, I wouldn't know that. But I've seen posts on these forums that would lead me to believe there must be a way to do it. I was just suggesting potential ways it might work and I know for a fact some of the techniques work for other services. Have you tested virtual offices? From what I understand, some of them do use physical land lines but forward the call. Also to be clear, I know some basics about phone systems and I'm very confused as to how CL could possibly know the call was being forwarded. There's also 1-800 number services that forward the call, but they could disallow those numbers easily by the prefix.

          As far as the automation, you sound really defeated. There is definitely a way to automate much of the work and do it in a way that's not detectable. You're saying lots of money and can't be automated, I'm calling BS on that. Somebody has figured it out I'm sure, their software might be private, but it's possible.

          I have some tools I developed for marketing and they are private, they are not for sale, I won't even show you a screen shot of the tool or tell you what it does. I don't even keep a copy of the code on the computer I use in the case I somehow got hacked. I've met a few other people/agencies other the years who have similar tools. Sorry, some information is too valuable to discuss online. Even if you're willing to pay for it.

          As far as proxies, I can make my own personal private 100% legit proxies since I have VPS accounts at multiple ISPs. It's a couple commands in a shell to set it up. I actually do this all the time to log in to some of my facebook accounts. You're saying the IPs have to be residential, but again, I'm a little bit confused as to how they can enforce that. That's also not really hard to work around, there's ways to do that, but I can't think of anything that isn't at least unethical.
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          • Profile picture of the author MikeChrest
            Originally Posted by irawr View Post

            I started the post by saying I'm not into CL. So If they only verify phone #s from whitelisted land lines, I wouldn't know that. But I've seen posts on these forums that would lead me to believe there must be a way to do it. I was just suggesting potential ways it might work and I know for a fact some of the techniques work for other services. Have you tested virtual offices? From what I understand, some of them do use physical land lines but forward the call. Also to be clear, I know some basics about phone systems and I'm very confused as to how CL could possibly know the call was being forwarded. There's also 1-800 number services that forward the call, but they could disallow those numbers easily by the prefix.

            As far as the automation, you sound really defeated. There is definitely a way to automate much of the work and do it in a way that's not detectable. You're saying lots of money and can't be automated, I'm calling BS on that. Somebody has figured it out I'm sure, their software might be private, but it's possible.

            I have some tools I developed for marketing and they are private, they are not for sale, I won't even show you a screen shot of the tool or tell you what it does. I don't even keep a copy of the code on the computer I use in the case I somehow got hacked. I've met a few other people/agencies other the years who have similar tools. Sorry, some information is too valuable to discuss online. Even if you're willing to pay for it.

            As far as proxies, I can make my own personal private 100% legit proxies since I have VPS accounts at multiple ISPs. It's a couple commands in a shell to set it up. I actually do this all the time to log in to some of my facebook accounts. You're saying the IPs have to be residential, but again, I'm a little bit confused as to how they can enforce that. That's also not really hard to work around, there's ways to do that, but I can't think of anything that isn't at least unethical.
            Fair enough regarding whether bots exist or not.

            It's fairly easy to enforce residential IPs... you can just run an ISP lookup. I suppose if your VPS is linked up to a TWC ISP, that would pass but then you would only have 1 IP for 1 account.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeChrest
      Originally Posted by modgerody View Post

      Simple answer....No.

      Craiglists requires lot's of accounts, special proxies and unique post content, and you are not going to get anything for $95.

      $95 in the craiglist game is peanuts, you won't be able to get anything setup for that cheap. People charge big money for non-ghosted live Craiglists postings. Its not an easy thing to accomplish.

      Also I don't get why you didnt post a link to the website in question so we could examine what you are talking about.

      You want peoples advice, yet you are so secretive about the bot.

      But then again it doesn't really matter because no Craiglists bots work, especially a $95 one.

      Each Craiglists account can only make so many posts, and each account needs a special Craiglist proxy and an account that's been created and phone verified. These things are expensive and the costs add up fast. $95 won't get you very many of that.

      There is a difference between posting ads....and actually posting ads that go live and don't get ghosted.

      How is a bot going to magically create Craiglists accounts in different locations around the United States for you and hook up a proxy to each account and then phone verify the accounts for you? It's not possible.

      The only thing a craiglist bot can do is manage your existing Craiglists accounts and proxies so you don't have to manually login to each to post each time you want to.
      Yep, great answer regarding how challenging it is to work, describing very clearly why Craigslist is so challenging. $95 IS peanuts. Working posting software would go for tens of thousands of dollars a month.

      Add on top of the fact that Craigslist makes it hard to phone-verify by only whitelisting landline numbers. AND the IPs also need to be residential.

      This entire seller sounds like he's trying to make a quick buck.

      As others have said, get a demo. It works or it doesn't. Simple as that.

      Make 100% sure that the posts he claims are live have your keywords or contact in them. Best of luck
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    • Profile picture of the author laraku
      Originally Posted by modgerody View Post

      Simple answer....No.

      Craiglists requires lot's of accounts, special proxies and unique post content, and you are not going to get anything for $95.

      $95 in the craiglist game is peanuts, you won't be able to get anything setup for that cheap. People charge big money for non-ghosted live Craiglists postings. Its not an easy thing to accomplish.

      Also I don't get why you didnt post a link to the website in question so we could examine what you are talking about.

      You want peoples advice, yet you are so secretive about the bot.

      But then again it doesn't really matter because no Craiglists bots work, especially a $95 one.

      Each Craiglists account can only make so many posts, and each account needs a special Craiglist proxy and an account that's been created and phone verified. These things are expensive and the costs add up fast. $95 won't get you very many of that.

      There is a difference between posting ads....and actually posting ads that go live and don't get ghosted.

      How is a bot going to magically create Craiglists accounts in different locations around the United States for you and hook up a proxy to each account and then phone verify the accounts for you? It's not possible.

      The only thing a craiglist bot can do is manage your existing Craiglists accounts and proxies so you don't have to manually login to each to post each time you want to.
      Thanks for the advice. I'm skeptical too, which is why I posted here.

      I'm not secretive about the bot. There is nothing to see without login credentials. It is literally just a fancy looking login page.

      He says that he posts 1000+ ads/day and I asked him your questions regarding the $95 and PVAs:

      [19:45:31] Richard Market: First answer to: "Each Craiglists account can only make so many posts, and each account needs a special Craiglist proxy and an account that's been created and phone verified. These things are expensive and the costs add up fast."
      [19:46:02] Richard Market: Yes, this is true. We have achieved economies of scale by provisioning many, many Craigslist accounts over the past five years. The good news is that the cost of our IP solution is very low and you only need to phone-verify once now (you used to need to phone-verify every month back in 2010)
      [19:46:25] Richard Market: Second question: "How is a bot going to magically create Craiglists accounts in different locations around the United States for you and hook up a proxy to each account and then phone verify the accounts for you? It's not possible."
      [19:47:50] Richard Market: It is possible. I've done it. Our automated system runs on a hacked browser and posts to all the major cities. The accounts are phone-verified over time using mechanical turks.
      [19:48:23] Richard Market: Third question: "it doesn't really matter because no Craiglists bots work, especially a $95 one."
      [19:48:56] Richard Market: $95 is the first tier of pricing. We also charge on a per-ad basis. That is just the monthly fee to use our system.

      Like I said, I'm going to do a trial and see what happens.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeChrest
        Originally Posted by laraku View Post

        Thanks for the advice. I'm skeptical too, which is why I posted here.

        I'm not secretive about the bot. There is nothing to see without login credentials. It is literally just a fancy looking login page.

        He says that he posts 1000+ ads/day and I asked him your questions regarding the $95 and PVAs:

        [19:45:31] Richard Market: First answer to: "Each Craiglists account can only make so many posts, and each account needs a special Craiglist proxy and an account that's been created and phone verified. These things are expensive and the costs add up fast."
        [19:46:02] Richard Market: Yes, this is true. We have achieved economies of scale by provisioning many, many Craigslist accounts over the past five years. The good news is that the cost of our IP solution is very low and you only need to phone-verify once now (you used to need to phone-verify every month back in 2010)
        [19:46:25] Richard Market: Second question: "How is a bot going to magically create Craiglists accounts in different locations around the United States for you and hook up a proxy to each account and then phone verify the accounts for you? It's not possible."
        [19:47:50] Richard Market: It is possible. I've done it. Our automated system runs on a hacked browser and posts to all the major cities. The accounts are phone-verified over time using mechanical turks.
        [19:48:23] Richard Market: Third question: "it doesn't really matter because no Craiglists bots work, especially a $95 one."
        [19:48:56] Richard Market: $95 is the first tier of pricing. We also charge on a per-ad basis. That is just the monthly fee to use our system.

        Like I said, I'm going to do a trial and see what happens.
        Those are fairly good answers. Please ask him my questions.
        I still stand by my statement that Craigslist cannot be automated but I am indeed curious.
        They have hundreds of the best engineers working around the clock to improve their algorithms.

        I am pasting my questions here for your convenience:
        2) What are his live ratios for other clients?
        3) How can he guarantee live ads if he doesn't know your niche or product?
        4) How many hours does he rest between posts with his accounts?
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by laraku View Post

    Hi guys

    I messaged someone on this forum about Craigslist posting. He claims to have an entire automated posting system already set up.

    His website looks legit and he says I just need to add in content and my ads will go live. Only thing is that I have to pay a monthly fee up front ($95).

    Sounds to good to be true. Especially since it's automated.

    New here and don't want to get scammed out of $95. I'm still starting out so that's a bit of money for me....

    Can any of the more experienced members here vouch that automated Craigslist bots work?
    Or anybody have a list of questions that I can ask him to see if he is the real deal?


    Get an app. demo, either it works or it doesn't.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mattdawg841
    In my experience with Craigslist you actually have to do the posting. I've tried many things and would always run into these problems…

    Have to phone verify your phone number after so many postings…
    You have post limits on how many posts you can make at a time…
    It's full of flaky people who are looking for some type of ridiculous deal…

    You can try it, just be wary and don't get your hopes up too high as after all, it's Craigslist…

    Hope that helps and good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author modgerody
    ^^Not to mention....why the hell would anyone let random people post random posts that could get his accounts banned without first screening each and every post you make.

    That doesn't make sense on his part....if he is posting 1000 ads per day and they are all going live, the dude would be able to make so much money to where even talking to you and answering your questions would be a waste of his time.
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  • Profile picture of the author semahsedut
    does anyone pass the flag test on CL ?
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    Hey everyone on WF, didn't want to make a new thread because I was offered something similar recently.
    I've been trying to post on CL now with no success.

    Recently, was invited by a friend to an invite-only trial that claims they have an automated posting service.

    Issue is that they have a monthly service fee for support that I have to pay up-front before I begin.

    On one hand, my friend does vouch for them (and gets a referral bonus as well). On the other hand, I'm wary to pay up front for something that I haven't even tried and where a lot of people are saying that it won't work?

    If it makes a difference, I'm posting in the computer gigs niche/section.
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  • Profile picture of the author bashca03
    As far as I know, there is no such thing. So don't even try. I've been in the business long enough to know that the best way to post on Craigslist is manual posting. Craigslist has thousands and thousands of intelligent engineers actively working on thwarting these kinds of services. Everybody knows this.

    CLADGenius doesn't work either, before somebody says. I've tried almost every type of automated poster out there, and most of them have been disappointments.


    I would hire a manual poster. There are plenty around here.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    I think it's just time to admit, Craigslist is dead. Let it die, move on to other areas.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by bashca03 View Post

      As far as I know, there is no such thing. So don't even try.
      Fail.

      Why not try something, what's going to happen, burn through a disposable email. OMG!








      Originally Posted by ChrisBa View Post

      I think it's just time to admit, Craigslist is dead. Let it die, move on to other areas.
      Fail.

      CL has some of the most active buyer traffic on the interwebs. A lot of that traffic doesn't even attempt to do comparison shopping outside of CL which makes markup/selling easier.
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  • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
    As far as I know, there is no such thing. So don't even try. I've been in the business long enough to know that the best way to post on Craigslist is manual posting. Craigslist has thousands and thousands of intelligent engineers actively working on thwarting these kinds of services. Everybody knows this.

    CLADGenius doesn't work either, before somebody says. I've tried almost every type of automated poster out there, and most of them have been disappointments.

    I would hire a manual poster. There are plenty around here.
    I have heard that Craigslist outsources the design of their ad filters to a Think Tank company with a staff of at least 80 Phds. We have tried many of the automated solutions which don't really keep up with the constantly evolving ad filters. We only do manual posting and that is the best way to adapt to these evolving, un-written posting rules.
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    Thanks for the reply and suggestions.... I've tried a lot of manual posters here. They all unequivocally don't work or have bad service

    Also tried Clad Genius too... .they don't work. Really buggy program that crashes all the time.

    So I'm guessing the consensus is to not try it then?
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  • Profile picture of the author bleght
    While I have zero knowledge about the particular product you are considering subscribing for, I am 100% certain that building an automated system that would achieve this result is squarely withing the realm of possibilities.In other words, technologically speaking, it's feasible and doable, no problem with that. It's just a matter of high quality proxies or VPNs and human looking automation. Craiglist will surely be fighting this, but they can by no means catch everybody, especially people that know how to write this type of bots, pay attention to details and don't abuse their methods too much.

    There are two main dangers purchasing a subscription like that with not reviews and no money back guarantee. Danger one, which is something you seem to be aware of, is that you will get scammed, pay the fee and get nothing in return. This is absolutely possible, but unlikely since a service like that would be outed pretty quickly and would not survive for very long. If you are considering them, search the internet for reviews, that's why you have Google. Danger two is that too many people will be using this service and therefore the same method leaving a very similar footprint, so Craiglist are likely to catch them sooner or later as they get bigger and start gaining more clients.

    A great option you might have for something like that would be to get a custom bot that you will be the only one using. You could learn how to build one yourself, or get professional developer to build it for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    i hear they are clamping down on this, since many CPA marketers, are advertising and doing this on CL.

    whoever said above, Craigslist outsources the design of their ad filters to a Think Tank company with a staff of at least 80 Phds is right.

    Their ad filters and flags are much better now. Must be automated, instead of someone going in manually.

    Craigslist seems to be more a back yard website, where as now it seems they are spending money to make it more commercial. SO as that evolves, you will see many changes, and that does not end well for people trying to jip the system, and how the pages work. Just my 0.02 cents.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stfenhuse
    The truth is that *working* automated services DO exist but they're obviously, they're not publicly available or they would go out of business quickly. You need to have the right connections and referrals. So I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand so quickly.

    We might be talking about the same service that I use to post because they're also invite-only and have a monthly support fee.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
    His list might be dead, but I hope Craig is well.

    I recall the Twitter bots were clamped down upon swiftly. In the time they were utilised people did speak of effective leads, but it's all underhand stuff.

    Daniel
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  • Profile picture of the author bashca03
    I would still be wary about trying any kind of service that claims that they have a working solution. I've been around the block and I've NEVER seen a Craigslist automated poster work. At all.

    Stfenhuse is clearly lying or doesn't know what he's talking about. Look at this forum, for example. If such a thing DID exist, then why wouldn't it be more widespread?
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    • Profile picture of the author nobaddays
      Originally Posted by bashca03 View Post

      I would still be wary about trying any kind of service that claims that they have a working solution. I've been around the block and I've NEVER seen a Craigslist automated poster work. At all.

      Stfenhuse is clearly lying or doesn't know what he's talking about. Look at this forum, for example. If such a thing DID exist, then why wouldn't it be more widespread?
      I have one that works but it will only re-post or renew an existing ad.
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  • Profile picture of the author mrkhan21
    I've tried a lot of manual and automated posters too. The automated ones don't stay in business for very long... the manual ones have such shit communication that they are generally unreliable and impossible to work with. I don't EVER want to be called "sir" again.... sigh.

    It makes sense that a successful automated posting service would be private and invite-only.
    Stfenhuse, if you dont' mind me asking, what is the name of the Craigslist posting service that works for you?

    I am currently trying to scale from 50 ads/day in a niche to more as I'm finally starting to make a "liveable" amount of money off of this!
    Thinking an automated solution would work for this.
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  • Profile picture of the author RefuseToLose
    Nobody is going to sell a working craigslist bot for $95. Most of the people who actually need ads posted on craigslist outsource the service to craigslist poster services. If you are being sold a bot, it's most likely an old botting software that might of worked a few years ago.

    That's not saying it can't be done, but nobody is giving that up for $95.

    On top of that you really don't want to build your business off craigslist traffic. Especially if you are an affiliate. Most affiliate networks will ban you and keep your commissions if they find out you are running craigslist traffic.

    Focus on building up your business with legit traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author laraku
    OP (original poster) here who originally asked about whether a Craigslist bot would work.

    I realized that I never updated this thread. The solution I had tried before DID work and I've been happily posting for the past few months
    They are also "private" and not public. I had to find via an invite too.
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  • Profile picture of the author LocalSEOTwins
    If you are posting on CL you really should only post on it manually. Yes there are automated ways to do it but if you need it done quickly I recommend going to Fiverr and paying $1 per post. Most CL posting services will charge $1.25-$1.50 per post but Fiverr has always been my "go to" when needing to mass post on CL. Manual posting always guarantees your listings not to be ghosted. It is not cheap if you have 100's you need to do daily but I highly recommend paying actual people instead of using automated software.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rajbir1994
    Laraku, good to hear that things worked out for you. Would you mind sharing your experience with them?
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  • Profile picture of the author intellg
    There is a lot of FUD in this thread.

    SHORT ANSWER: Yes, I've been in the Craigslist game for a while and I can tell you that Craigslist bots are alive and well.
    LONG ANSWER: The reality is that the answer is quite nuanced.

    At the end of the day, there are many of us who have made a lot of money off Craigslist via scaled posting.
    This is not an easy feat and I would *HIGHLY ADVISE* you to NOT go through the manual freelancer posting path. It's extremely painful to deal with bad freelancers. I, myself, have always gone the Craigslist posting bot route (HINT: all the public ones out there suck).

    Craigslist updates their algorithm every few months.

    For instance, aound March of 2015, they implemented an OCR system that can detect text in images. Manual freelancers didn't know this and most of them got screwed.

    The guys that are clever enough to be able to write a posting bot usually keep up. The trick is that you just have to find them.
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  • Profile picture of the author mrkhan21
    intellg, thank you for the thoughtful response.

    Would it be possible for you to refer me to ones that you recommend?
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  • Profile picture of the author laraku
    My experience with the posting service (that seems to be 100% automated) was fairly simple.

    It's pay-per-post so I only pay if the ad goes live. And then I had to pay a monthly support fee - their customer service was great.

    I was a little skeptical at first, but I decided to make a leap of faith and luckily it worked out.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeChrest
    Been posting on Craigslist for a little bit and had commented on this thread a while back.
    Great to hear that things worked out for OP....

    Questions for OP as well as the others using a Craigslist posting service successfully.

    - How are live ads presented to you? Do you check them by hand? A lot of the freelancer teams I've used generally send me a spreadsheet of ads and I have to go through them one-by-one. Not only that, a lot of manual posters are SCAMMERS, so I'm intrigued by a working Craigslist posting service.
    - How many ads/day do they support?

    Thanks,
    Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Moffatt
    Craigslist has been known to sue repeat spammers to their site and I remember reading years ago they have a pretty hefty monetary penalty in their TOS for each piece of spam created. Obviously they can't enforce it all, but they have gone after people.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeChrest
    Thanks for the update, Mary. That answers a lot of my questions and concerns.

    Good to hear that it's a website and not some guy on Skype saying he'll post for you. Those are the biggest scammers, in my experience.

    - Do they advise on the niche to post in? Or handle content in any way? That's what I'm struggling with now.
    - How many ads/day do they support? You mentioned 20 but I'm looking to post a lot more.
    - Can you send me an invite?

    Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author Winnipegtech
    Just want to chime in and say that I hired a few freelancers from this site that fit the description of "guy on Skype selling you ads". No real sophistication. The communication was bad and I got scammed also.

    Not really looking to get into the Craigslist game because outsourcing sucks so much. Glad to hear it worked for you though.
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  • Profile picture of the author aizaku
    yea, automation makes life super easy i know..

    but make sure you don't spam CL.

    put it this way:

    if you were to explain your business to someone, when it came to the part of you placing ads on CL. Would the word "spam" fit?

    If "yes" then NO, dont do it.

    -Ike Paz
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  • Profile picture of the author djhickory
    There have been lots of Autoposters in the Past Years, Most of them Work and they Die Out because they couldnt adapt quik enough, there updates would take 1-3 weeks, there are a few out right now that work perfectly fine, they all run 95 99 100 a month and i pay for all of them, i have been with them for the past 3-5 years, most of there updates are Instant.
    For those who are saying it is a waste of time and money, lol , I still manual Post til this Day, and most proxy providers are all thrown in the Cess Pool , the idea the guy said above about buying Throw away phones from Walmart is good, you can utilize this and even get a smart phone and use the Internet to make Fresh Virgin acounts, sh1t you can go down the isle and experiment like i did with all the providers, i have problably 30-40 late model prepaid phones laying around my house, Don't listen to these negative comments, if there ad's aint getting threw, there most likely getting ghosted due to Bad Proxie / Ip - Shit Acount - Mac Adress - Content - Picture Size Etc - the CL Game is for ON POINT players
    I charge $100.00 an Hour to Setup Via Teamspeak + Your Setup Fee's $100.00 Monthly + Virgin Smart Phone with Internet Access and New Computer, I have Setup problably 30 People Selling House's Car's Services - All Automated - Well you have to Login and Pick what ads you want to Post every Day which takes 20 Secs
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  • Profile picture of the author intellg
    My conclusion is this.... Craigslist marketing definitely works.

    Proof: my experience and many others on this forum who have been making a steady living off it. Just go to the search tool and check out all the different posts about Craigslist monetization. Supply and demand, friend.
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  • Profile picture of the author extrememan
    I appreciate you for mentioning your new. We have all been there and know how overwhelming it can be when getting started? I have done classified advertising in the past and it works well but not with automated softwares of any kind. You will likely run into problems. So I would stay away and focus on actually posting classified ads and your own content inside these websites.
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    For those interested, I've tried manual and automated.. usually here are the differences, using questions posted above.

    - Do they advise on the niche to post in? Or handle content in any way?
    Manual: No advice on which niche to post in. Think of them as middleman. There are *some* that might handle content for you. I'm not sure what the success rate of this is... anybody else want to chime?
    Automated: No advice on which niche to post in. No handling of content. I've gotten advice on what kind of content to post, but nothing substantive.

    - How many ads/day do they support? You mentioned 20 but I'm looking to post a lot more.
    Manual: I find there's a limit of about 20-50 ads/day.
    Automated: There's no limit as far as I know.
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  • Profile picture of the author opensourcenetork
    Manual freelancers are a good stepping stone between posting by hand yourself --> automated.

    You can generally find out how well things will scale with a manual freelancer... then when you want to move up the volume, you move to automated.
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  • Profile picture of the author laraku
    The difficulty there is that manual freelancers are very dodgy.... check all the other posts about being scammed. I would start with automated all you can.

    Nothing about what you said is unique to manual posting. You can start small with little up front cost with automated too.
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  • Profile picture of the author toprankservice
    I'm wondering then.... how do these services provide phone numbers to create the account? Or are they posting with the same account over and over?
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  • Profile picture of the author intellg
    @maxsi

    "too good to be TRUE. My experts tried tons of bots => waste of time/money"

    Another useless comment that provides no substantive proof.
    Maxsi, I respectfully invite you to provide the "proof". Certainly, there are many bots that are a waste of money but the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
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  • Profile picture of the author justincamp
    Ok, so I gave one of these automated posting services a shot, based on a recommendation from one of the other members here.

    I have a lot of clients that are looking for leads and will pay a good amount for Craigslist leads in my niche.

    PROS
    - Posting works. No frills, everything worked smoothly. I talked to a guy on Skype who guided me through it and pretty much everything was automated.
    - I enter in my content and it posts every morning. I don't need to argue with any freelancer.
    - Live ads are marked automatically. A good touch.

    CONS
    - It is a little pricier than the run-of-the-mill freelancer you might find on Upwork.
    - Customer support is not 24/7
    - Sometimes the site is a little buggy, but customer support is pretty quick to fix these things.
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  • Profile picture of the author roy mag nuson
    Good to hear that posting services are alive and well, but hidden. I've been posting on Craigslist for a while and looking to outsource the work as it's getting to be a bit too much to handle sometimes.

    Any advice for someone starting out on where to find someone reliable?
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  • Profile picture of the author minishuu
    I would recommend the following for finding someone reliable:

    1) Verify that they can speak English (I'm serious). You would be surprised at how bad freelancer English gets once you hire them. Of course, there's no way to know this FOR SURE without losing some money.

    2) Ask for a free trial. No free trial = it doesn't work. This is just sensible.

    3) Check all of your live ads to make sure that they're there. In y experience, manual freelancer or "consultants" try to skim off the top by marking deleted ads as live... bad practices.
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    • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
      Originally Posted by minishuu View Post

      I would recommend the following for finding someone reliable:

      1) Verify that they can speak English (I'm serious). You would be surprised at how bad freelancer English gets once you hire them. Of course, there's no way to know this FOR SURE without losing some money.

      2) Ask for a free trial. No free trial = it doesn't work. This is just sensible.

      3) Check all of your live ads to make sure that they're there. In y experience, manual freelancer or "consultants" try to skim off the top by marking deleted ads as live... bad practices.
      From our experience, posting the free trial posts also let's us get first-hand experience screening a prospect's ad content for any potential ad filter trigger words. Make sure your free trial ads remain live for 24 hours.

      Once you start your regular campaign, you should also get detailed daily reports with clickable links and Post Credits for any flagged ads. Also, only hire a posting service where you can get cell phone access to them as a backup to Skype. You can use the WhatsApp service to text or call them directly for free if they are overseas.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rajbir1994
    I've been using an automated service for the past few days now and it's working quite well. I can post a review later, if people are interested.

    One thing that frustrates me is that there is a little bit of a learning curve to use the site. Especially when you are unfamiliar with everything, it can really lower your productivity. I suppose beggars are not choosers.

    I am wondering if somebody here might be able to help guide me through the system.
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  • Profile picture of the author wiretree
    It seems like the general consensus is that Craigslist posting services DO work but it's hard to find them.
    In my experience, there's just too much noise in the Craigslist posting industry....

    I'm still working on finding a profitable niche and it's been a while since I've posted on Craigslist. It's good to know that there's still a feasible way to do so when I'm ready.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anek Sartitos
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
      Originally Posted by Anek Sartitos View Post

      Hi everyone,

      I hired a WarriorForum member off this website to do some Craigslist posting. They were manual and not automated (no website or service).
      They said they would post 10 ads/day but ads keep getting flagged and deleted. They won't refund me the money.

      What can I do?
      This is why you should always insist on getting free trial posts before paying in advance. You would also have the option of disputing the payment and getting a refund if you used Paypal for payment.
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  • Profile picture of the author Winnipegtech
    Hey Anek,

    I've been in the same situation with freelancers overselling what they claimd to have. Even if they seem good to begin with, it's no guarantee that they work at all.... that's why I always ask for a free trial now, just to gauge. Unfortunately, there's not much yyou can do. If you paid the via Paypal you can always file a claim.
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  • Profile picture of the author bashca03
    Rajbir, I'd love to hear more from you about your experience. I'm still skeptical and posting services do sound too good to be true.
    I'm working on a few niches that I discovered through Google Trends and Keyword tool that could be profitable if I can scale up.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnTimmins
    Do not try any robots. 99.9% of them are fake and can harm you. So..Beware from them and do it manually. You can do it. Don't worry
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeChrest
    What's the best way to figure out whether content will work for Craigslist. Any ideas? So far, I've resumed to hiring manual freelancers to write my content and that seems to be working well. But it's quite expensive.
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  • Profile picture of the author opensourcenetork
    Rajbir, is it generally customary to have a free trial? A lot of people that I've talked to won't give free trial unless I pay them up front. Which is weird...
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  • Profile picture of the author minishuu
    Anek, sorry to hear about the scam. Happens all too frequently which is why I only rely on trusted reviews. A lot of times, "freelancers" will private message you and seem legit , but they end up scamming you anyway. Word of mouth is best.
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  • Profile picture of the author Digitallabz
    Looking for some information about Craigslist posting services and how to post on Craigslist successfully (maximal conversion)

    1 - how are these services helping you with content?
    2 - how are these services maximizing your conversion rate? Do they even do this
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    • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
      Originally Posted by Digitallabz View Post

      Looking for some information about Craigslist posting services and how to post on Craigslist successfully (maximal conversion)

      1 - how are these services helping you with content?
      2 - how are these services maximizing your conversion rate? Do they even do this
      1. We advise all our posting clients to generate their base ad content (5 - 6 ad versions). There is noone more qualified than a business owner to convey the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and their business edge over the competition in their ad content. Any competent posting service can then spin further ad versions using this base ad content.

      You should also keep your ad text very concise (5 - 10 one-line bullet items) as people on Craigslist are in scan mode. Similar to any other website, you have a few seconds to capture their attention. This concise ad copy format also minimizes the risk of flagging as there will be less potential ad filter trigger words in your ad copy. It's vital you use teaser ad copy and leave a little mystery in your ad so people are motivated to contact you to learn more about your product/service. Many businesses make the fatal mistake of posting too much ad copy on Craigslist with information overload leaving people no reason to contact you to learn more.

      You should ONLY craft your ads once you have done a thorough competitive analysis. That way, you place yourself in the shoes of your target audience knowing their choices and what will make your business stand out from the crowd. This also applies to your ad titles (max 70 characters) so that the title conveys your distinct business edge or offer. This will optimize your ads' click through rate. This competitive research is no different than what you would do on any other major marketing platform like Google, Facebook, etc.

      2. Doing all of the above will contribute towards maximizing your ad conversion rate as you will properly distinguish your business from the competition in the target city on Craigslist you are posting to.

      Hope this helps
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  • Bots do work on craigslist , no doubt in that , but whenever craigslist make changes in it's system bots can not figure out new pattern and you may start facing issue of flagging and ghosting..
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  • Profile picture of the author intellg
    I personally find it funny how those who say bots don't work have no argument, proof or anything whatsoever. I just chuckle to myself when I see these posts now.

    The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheMechanic
    Can anyone name a good posting service/ bot for craiglist?
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnVianny
    The best answer is : PAY when the AD is LIVE.

    For at least 3-4 hours.


    Consider that 95 usd is not so much for testing: which has pros and cons. Pros are clear, and cons are that is TOO CHEAPER.

    So test it and get us updated.

    If u wanna make money online you have, in any case, you have to consider that some amount of money u'll waste in testing.
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    Mike, I've been posting regularly with the service that I mentioned a few posts before (the one I wrote a review for).

    The best way to see if your content works is to try it out. Normally, I would assign "tags" to certain listings that have particular features and then I check the live percentage afterwards. The posting service has a system that allows me to organize everything conveniently so it is constant experimentation.
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  • Profile picture of the author justincamp
    The split-test tracking of automated services is easily the best feature out there that you can't replicate manually. Being able to test out different content to see what works and what doesn't work is crucial.

    If you have ads that don't even pass the basic Craigslist filter, you're doomed.
    If you have ads that will pass the filter on a large scale, you stand to make a lot of money.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stfenhuse
    The key to posting on Craigslist successfully comes down to 3 things:

    1 - your content
    2 - fingerprint trail (IP / digital fingerprint)
    3 - posting frequency

    A posting service by default should abstract #2 and #3, leaving you to handle #1. Or in some cases, they will handle the content themselves too (via spinning or other methods).

    If you're handling #1, you want to make sure that the content you have works consistently with a large sample size (think 50 pieces of content).
    In short, your testing process should be something like this:

    1) Split content pool into 3 "characteristics"
    2) Run the content through the service (or post manually)
    3) Check live ratio for each of the pools
    4) Tweak the pool and retest steps 1-3.

    Doing this will get you consistently higher and higher live ratios.

    Craigslist has a system that dynamically calculates which "keywords" are most associated with "bad listings" (as they define them), then they weight against your content. Think bag-of-words machine learning.

    Good luck!
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  • Split-testing is not mentioned enough in internet marketing forums, though it is very popular amongst engineering forums. The idea is to maximize the conversion for an ad in a scientific way. You want to be able to create "hypotheses" for different ad copies, that involve various keywords. Then on a large scale, see which one does the best.

    This is the key to successful Craigslist posting.

    If you have a completely automated solution, that is only one step of the process. You also want to make sure that the system is processing your ads systematically such that you're able to tell which ad copy "works". And constantly improve.

    In July 2016, Craigslist drastically changed their ad filters. This is likely just them adding more "training data" into their machine learning model. As a result, a lot of keywords that were previously OK are now being flagged. What to do? You go back to the split-testing process and find out what works again.

    When I work with my clients, I always make sure to screen out bad "ad keywords". No matter how good your IP solution or PVA, you won't be able to post with blacklisted keywords.

    Experiment, experiment, experiment.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicoms91
    Hey guys,

    I was thinking to posting in Craigslist to generate traffic to a couple of email submit CPA offers. My strategy here is to post in low-competition categories, cause I have seen that the flag ratio is lower in theese. What do you think? Is this method already burned?

    Thanks in advance!
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnVianny
    my question is:

    **** DO YOU HAVE A PLAN? ***

    Despite you find an automated or not automated system, the basic question is that the core is NOT the instrument itself but the plan.

    If you rely on Craiglist as a source of traffic, it isnt acceptable that the only time affordable way you have, is if you find some trick to game the system itself.

    It's better yyou hire a freelancer for some ads and start relying on other more legit ways.
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  • Profile picture of the author laraku
    In my opinion, that's what is nice about software (although it has its downsides too) -- everything is automated and checked by a program which is relatively impartial.

    The other solution is that you can write your own script to do live checking and pull in the spreadsheet. Or they can make the information available to you via other means (think API)
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  • Profile picture of the author minishuu
    Almost all Craigslist services worth their salt should be able to provide the live ads in any format. I would be very hesitant to give someone my business if not.
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    • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
      Originally Posted by minishuu View Post

      Almost all Craigslist services worth their salt should be able to provide the live ads in any format. I would be very hesitant to give someone my business if not.
      Could not agree more with what CraigslistPostingClub so eloquently stated above involving testing. Secondly, every Craigslist section has their own separate ad filters which dictate what the ideal ad format is. In some sections, an ad format with images is a scale-able strategy while in other sections is definitely causes flagging. Same point applies with website links in the ad. Craigslist has has a clear anti-link policy in their history of updates. The reason for that policy is that links lead to traffic leakage off their site.

      So, the upshot of all this is that you cannot insist on any format in any section. You have to adapt your ad format and content to Craigslist and not vice versa.
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  • Mike,

    It's always important to take on a free trial when you can from any service. Each one has their own methods.

    A good trial will give both sides the perspective they need as to how suitable/compatible their campaign is. For instance, some campaigns... no matter why good the PVAs and IP solution is... will *never* be able to get ads live. Why? Because the ad keywords are already triggered.

    Craigslist keeps a probabilistic model on which keywords are "not good" and which keywords are "good". In this way, you can see how trials are important for both parties.

    Anybody who claims they can get any ad live 100% of the time is probably lying.
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  • Profile picture of the author EDWARD COLLEY
    Trial and error.

    I've been writing ads since 2011 and I find that the best ads that will stick are ones that are short, simple and use common keywords. Unique keywords don't really do much towards helping your "Craigslist score"
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  • Profile picture of the author Digitallabz
    Regarding maximization of leads, do people find that leads tend to convert better via the phone calling route or through the Craigslist email relay system?
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  • We find that the best lead channel often varies with campaign. It really depends on your demographic... if you are targeting older generations, then using the phone channel would be more likely to convert than email. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and experiment!
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  • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
    Totally agree that it varies with demographic. Many of our clients are using phone services which accommodate the ability to receive both voice and text responses. There is a definite trend towards allowing people to respond via text message.
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  • Profile picture of the author Winnipegtech
    Connann, What you said makes n o sense whatsoever. You say that we need to have a plan and that it's not "acceptable" to use Craigslist as a source of traffic. Well, what are you optimizing for? Many of us here have made thousands of dollars per month just from CL leads.
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  • Profile picture of the author wiretree
    OK, I have been experimenting with Craigslist posters and am fairly new to the game, so please bear with me.

    What are the most important attributes to posting succesfully? I know many have mentioned split-testing content and that's fine and all... but I would like to know the overall factors so I can plan ahead.
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  • In my experience working with clients, the most important factors are the following:

    1 - Content: do you have trigger keywords that will result in auto-flagging? I mentioned this above, but you have to split-test your content depending on each section. Craigslist will have different rules for each section, so things will vary. Experiment!
    2 - Technical solution: You want to make sure that you don't leave a campaign footprint across accounts. What I mean by this -- do you have the same domain/phone number across accounts? Easy way for them to track. Are you posting from the same IP? How about your fingerprint? Do your timezones match?
    3 - Posting frequency: Are you posting too quickly on Craigslist? Stick to the Craigslist Terms of Service and only post once every 48 hrs. I find that longer duration has a higher success ratio too.
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  • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
    We advise our clients to optimize their ad content for their main target keywords.

    You also should plan ahead for your target keywords so your ads rank well for them. That means making sure you include those keywords in both the ad title and ad text. You can target a different keywords in different ad versions.

    Please make sure NOT to stuff your keywords in lists as many spammers do at the bottom of the ad text. That practice is specifically listed as being against the Craigslist TOS. So, just sprinkle your keywords naturally in your ad text.
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  • Profile picture of the author Digitallabz
    Regarding content, if I have 5-10 pieces of content for my business (furniture store) and want to post nationwide, am I able to recycle those 5-10 pieces of content over and over again to different cities?
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    • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
      Originally Posted by Digitallabz View Post

      Regarding content, if I have 5-10 pieces of content for my business (furniture store) and want to post nationwide, am I able to recycle those 5-10 pieces of content over and over again to different cities?
      In our experience posting in that section, 5 - 10 ad versions should be a good start. Each version should be 40 - 50% different than the others. If you are posting with a phone number. having a phone local to each state you are posting to is advisable. Posting a website link could be an issue across that many cities as it can represent a potential campaign footprint through which Craigslist can track and flag your ads.

      Regarding images, the image dimensions and filenames can be be varied to diversify your ad content as well. You can also use various image borders to mix up the content.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rajbir1994
    My best live ratios come from having concise pieces of content that really call to your proposition (no fake promises, no overdelivery). You want to leave just enough room for people to take action. In that sense, I would recommend rotating out your pieces of content. I wonder what others here think though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stfenhuse
    It really depends on the section you're posting to. Sometimes, with less moderated section, you can get by by re-posting the same live ad again to different cities, but why? There is a renewal feature for that and Cragislist will tend to bias AGAINST you in that situation.
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  • Profile picture of the author wiretree
    For those who have experimented with Craigslist posting bot/service, can you write a review here on what works and what doesn't work? I'm thinking about trying it myself.
    With the help of a lot of other WarriorMembers here (in the joint venture section), I've found a few niches that I'd like to test out.
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  • Profile picture of the author libel lusasso
    Wiretree, in my experience, it's best to test out your campaign by posting manually and only going to more "powerhouse" posters when you're ready to scale up. That's important because you want to lower your costs in the beginning...
    I made the same mistake a few years ago and it almost bankrupted my business when I found out that my niche wasn't economical.
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  • Profile picture of the author wiretree
    Well, one of the reasons I want to test drive some of these services is because I want to factor the cost of posting into the payout. If I can advertise the niche product and focus on just the conversion maximization, it might be economical for me to do so.
    Thank you, though, it is definitely worth considering.
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    I had written a review in one of the earlier posts and I can provide an update for you.

    The positives are that I'm able to focus on the business, while the marketing / lead generation is essentially "autopilot". It's great to be able to calculate an easy Customer Lifetime Value metric, as so many other marketers do.
    With Adwords or Craigslist, we can have a steady, predictable level of leads on a weekly basis.

    Going with a posting service was one of the best decisions I made for my business...

    Now the cons:
    - Craigslist changes its filters a LOT. So you'll want to find someone who has good support that can accommodate those changes. Sometimes, my campaign changes would take about a week to update, which means a drop in leads, which means a lot of times I was left hanging.
    The service I'm using has definitely improved on this, though.
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  • Profile picture of the author wiretree
    Thanks, at this stage I'd rather walk before I run, so won't be changing my campaign too much.
    When you outsource lead generation, how do you handle the leads that come in? Are they just from the Craigslist masked relay or from phone?
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    I can get all the emails forwarded to a master email and handle all the leads from there.

    Make sure you're not sending the same email over and over to your leads as Craigslist will then block your messages.
    Nowadays, I make sure to give each email lead a good response that is quite personalized to them, asking for more information. At least this is how it is in my niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author ocomok
    The best way to find out if the Craigslist service works is to try it.
    I'm having difficulty finding one of these "hidden" Craigslist services -- would they show up on Google?
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  • Profile picture of the author bashca03
    I posted here before being skeptical about this whole Craigslist posting situation. You can look at some of my posts way back.

    After being invited by one of the helpful members here and trying it, my opinion has changed (in a minor way).

    I've been trying to post on Craigslist since 2014, and been finding it incredibly difficult to do so.
    While the posting service I've used was incredibly professional and able to get many of the ads live, it also *seriously depends* on your campaign.

    I could get 50-100+ ads live, but at the end of the day, my campaign wasn't any good. It's not easy to make money off Craigslist and I would only recommend it to someone with a serious business model.
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  • Profile picture of the author EPoltrack77
    Its like the facebook auto posters. You'll get away with it for some time but eventually they catch on and when they see you are using software they will terminate your account then you need to start again.
    Signature
    Working to achieve higher results...
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  • Profile picture of the author libel lusasso
    Rajbir, you had posted earlier that you were trying out one of these posting services successfully on an invite.

    Can you update us? I am looking at a few niches in cars/trucks + apts/housing and would like to scale up my campaign.
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  • Profile picture of the author EDWARD COLLEY
    Anybody have experience with the personals section? Everybody seems to talk about all the other sections, but not this one.
    It seems like it's one of the most tightly filtered sections. I am wondering if these posting services are able to post in any section, or just specific ones?
    - Edward
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  • Profile picture of the author laraku
    Original thread poster here.

    I've had a lot of experiences with different posters, mainly from Upwork. Posting services do come in a variety of shapes and sizes,
    and the best way to tell is to simply get a trial or invite (if you're able to get one).

    One thing I do have to say is that the invite-only posting services are NOT a magic pill.

    Your campaign still needs to be optimized, and if your content contains any forced "trigger" words, Craigslist is flag them no matter how good the service is.
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    That's been my experience as well. I've been using this posting service for the past few months with great success (80%+ live ratio in my niche).

    However, I also had a few niches that I wanted to test out... mainly looking for Facebook account users to help with PPC advertising.

    While I could post fine in the other section of upwards 250+ ads/day, I couldn't post a single ad in the computer services section for Facebook.

    I realized that it was the "content trigger" that was getting my ads flagged.
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  • That isn't how my experience with Craigslist works. I post in a particular niche and get nearly 95-100% live ratio with my posters.

    Luckily, I haven't ventured into the more tightly filtered niches. It's pretty easy to make money on Craigslist if you know which niches work well.
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  • Profile picture of the author PolicyMaker
    Yes They Do...But i'll suggest...
    Focus on a Long Term Strategy...
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  • Profile picture of the author rswami65
    I think bot will not work for you as your email will get blocked.
    Here is a way to get published your post in Craigslist.
    Use VPN and make some Gmail Id's
    Use 1 email for 1 location, i mean while posting in London location use same gmail id.
    It will work for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stfenhuse
    Long-time Craigslist poster here and I've noticed there's a lot of misinformation about how the content filters work.

    In simplest terms, Craigslist works by assigning a "reputation" to each piece of content.

    Each word or "group of words" is put through a classifier and assigned a chance that it might be "bad content".
    The classifier runs through the entire piece of content and at the end, there is an overall heuristic.

    You want your content to have a good rating for an overall heuristic.

    This heuristic is then combined with "ratings" for your account, your IP etc. and that determines whether your post goes live or not.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stfenhuse
    Personally, I think it is a balance of the "content heuristic" and "account heuristics".

    For instance, the word "Uber" might have a medium rating (not good or not bad).
    Then, that combines with the account heuristic. Imagine you have a very aged PVA.

    A neutral rating + good rating = post goes live
    A neutral rating + bad rating = post gets deleted

    That's why with the best posting services I use, they already have many aged accounts... so they already reach the economies of scale when posting 600+ ads/day
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  • Profile picture of the author shoarma
    War Room member here and long-time Craigslist poster.

    Some background: I've posted a lot of Warrior Special Offers here and this forum is a treasure trove of information.

    Craigslist posting services absolutely work... as others have said. You just need to trial and error + test the right one.
    But even the best posting service won't be able to post your content if you have bad ad copy.

    The first thing I'd recommend anybody to do before looking at outsourcing their campaign.... is to focus on your ad copy.
    Test different versions of your ad copy and make sure that they can go live first.
    Then make sure your campaign is profitable. Once you're ready, you can scale up.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    test and track.

    Craigslist are clamping down, but there is still people doing well with CL. BP and a few others.

    You can hire people on FIVERR to do this too, but I have mixed experience there.
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  • Profile picture of the author nomel
    I have been messaging back and forth with a few posting services. What is the best way to weed out the bad ones and keep the good ones?

    A lot of times, these services can post 5-10 ads/day but then volume becomes an issue if you're trying to scale up leads.
    Obviously, bad communication is an easy one to weed out. But are there any other signals that I can watch out for.
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  • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
    An effective posting service will offer the following

    o Free trial posts to prove they can post your ad content
    o Detailed feedback on potential flagging risks with your ad content
    o Recommendations on ideal ad format for the Craigslist section(s) you are targeting
    o Post Credits for any flagged ads
    o Detailed daily reports showing city coverage and post hourly coverage with clickable ad links
    o Clear communication and plan on how they would resolve any flagging issues that may arise
    o Most importantly, prompt and clear customer support 7 days a week via Skype, email, text and cell phone

    Accept nothing less because we don't
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  • Profile picture of the author opensourcenetork
    Nomel, if you don't have a word-of-mouth connection vouching for a service, then I would check the following:

    1 - make sure that they're able to post a few ads with your ad copy to ensure they're able to do it
    2 - don't pay for a trial in advance... they should be able to post for you before hand
    3 - mostly anybody who claims that they have a 100 percent live ratio is almost a bad pick.
    4 - check their opinions on live ratios / which sections are the best.

    On top of that, there is plenty of good advice on the thread, I would recommend that you search through it.
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    • Profile picture of the author celente
      Originally Posted by opensourcenetork View Post

      Nomel, if you don't have a word-of-mouth connection vouching for a service, then I would check the following:

      1 - make sure that they're able to post a few ads with your ad copy to ensure they're able to do it
      2 - don't pay for a trial in advance... they should be able to post for you before hand
      3 - mostly anybody who claims that they have a 100 percent live ratio is almost a bad pick.
      4 - check their opinions on live ratios / which sections are the best.

      On top of that, there is plenty of good advice on the thread, I would recommend that you search through it.
      some great tips there. Especially with the live ratios.

      But doing a search on here in WF like "bots" or "Craiglist bots" There is a huge amount of infomation to troll through.
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  • Profile picture of the author shoarma
    I find that a lot of guys that claim they have a software poster are usually using some other 3rd party tool.
    I tried checking on a lot of these 3rd party tools and most of them are rip-offs and scams. Beware of cl-ad-poster...

    To check if they can scale your campaign, it's also helpful to have them make ad edits to prove that they actually own the sample ads they send you.
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  • Profile picture of the author laraku
    Original poster here... Craigslist seems to have recently made changes to their ad filters... and a lot of services are struggling.
    The one I'm working with is still doing very well, thankfully.
    I've tried a bunch, so I would recommend checking out to see if they're able to handle the Craigslist updates that come every once a quarter or so.
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  • Profile picture of the author nomel
    I'm trying to focus on my ad copy, but of course I simply don't have the manpower to be able to run it and see if it triggers the keywords.
    I am considering a posting service and have talked to many members here, I'll let you guys know if I find a reliable one.
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  • Profile picture of the author onlineincomes247
    Banned
    I would stay away from BOTS. Just find someone that is really good at posting via outsourcing. I am getting over 100 leads per day into my main biz. No ROBOTS Needed.
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  • Profile picture of the author wiretree
    Does Craigslist monitor the keywords and content passed through their email relay servers?
    I am trying to move a lot of leads through the email onto the phone, where I can properly convert them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stfenhuse
    Nobody knows for sure what Craigslist monitors, but it would be fairly obvious to say that they do monitor and filter out certain keywords in an email relay.

    Think about it, Craigslist passes content through their own servers to protect the anonymity of the poster.
    However, they can also run analytics on the content, in the same way that Gmail is able to run analytics on theirs.
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  • Profile picture of the author laraku
    I have empirical data on this, actually. When you try to stuff certain words... it triggers the Craigslist email relay and you get a message back saying that "Craig can't lick stamps fast enough".

    The posting service I went with can post successfully at a high volume, but they don't deal with the keywords that Craigslist monitors. So ultimately, it's up to you to try and experiment.
    You need to find out what works best in this way.
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  • Posting on Craigslist is half the challenge. As many of the members here have discovered, even if you have a Craigslist automated poster working, you still need to focus on conversion and monetization.
    My advice is to think long-term and make sure that you know what you're doing if the services ever fail.
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  • Profile picture of the author shoarma
    I have a different experience and opinion. I have been posting on craigslist through the **SAME GUYS** and what I've found is that, no matter how much Craigslist switches things up, they will adapt and keep up.

    It is true that Craigslist has been pushing more and more aggressive updates that weeds out a lot of the basic posters. But if you find experts, they will keep up no matter what.

    So, a lot say to think long-term and that you can only run for a while. But my experience, from the **SAME GUYS**, is that you should find experts that know what they're doing.
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  • Profile picture of the author ocomok
    I ended up trying some of the Craigslist posting services. I DID end up finding some good ones to post through.

    Here is my 2cents, take it or leave it.

    - The ones that show up on Google are generally scams and they tend to go away fairly quickly. So don't search there.
    - Word of mouth tends to be the best, but even then a lot of people are collecting affiliate fees and tend to misrepresent...
    - A google search of the posting service and having nothing show up... is not indicative of a bad posting service.
    - Always ask for a trial. Always
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  • Profile picture of the author metusela
    I have hear of CL for a very long time but anytime i visited the site my country was banned even the IP address is also banned for visiting or even registering with the site. Please can someone help me to know how to register with CL and work in that site please. I am from Nigeria but my country was banned in many e-commerce site and it has affect legit guys who want to do business on the web. Any useful tips on how to go with CL without ban ban I will be grateful.Thank you
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  • Profile picture of the author stevetickolo
    Can someone post about how well Craigslist bots work? Not particular posting services... but I'm looking to cut down my costs of posting by using something automated.

    Not looking for white-knight responses or speculation. I'd like to hear about 1st hand experiences. Thank you.

    - Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author EDWARD COLLEY
    I find that a lot of Craigslist software or Craigslist bots just don't keep up with the constant updates that Craigslist is pushing.

    I think the value proposition is very enticing when you factor in the cost-savings you get by going with software. But when you factor in the long-term struggle/difficulty, it is just not worth it.
    First hand experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author stevetickolo
    What do you mean by long-term difficulty? I am looking to cut costs and move away from posting services. even though they work.
    I'd really like to squeeze out every penny from my Craigslist leads. I can post live with these guys, but it would be nice to increase margins.
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    I have used a lot of Craigslist posting software in the past and I can second what Steve is saying.

    Once a new update has been pushed out, I find that the software tends to be buggy and break. If you are counting on your revenue to be consistent every month, you should look elsewhere.
    The support is also generally bad because you're not paying these guys on a monthly basis to keep up. It's more a 1-time fee.
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  • Profile picture of the author EDWARD COLLEY
    By long-term costs, I mean the frustration of dealing with buggy software. Like Mary said, if you are expecting revenue to be a certain amount to balance out your costs, then software just isn't the way to go.
    Look for a posting service that can keep up. Or at the very least, make sure that the software you're paying is monthly basis so they can keep up too.
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  • Profile picture of the author ocomok
    One of the services I am using allows me to pick how often I am posting (aka the frequency). Any recommendation on this? What are the best timings to post?
    I'm optimizing for live ratio.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rajbir1994
    Posting frequency should be at least 48 hrs per post. Unless you have very, very aged accounts, you won't be able to post more than that.
    So for the posting service, you should configure it to post every 48-72 hours for best results. Newer accounts need longer times.
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  • Profile picture of the author wiretree
    I tried to add different keywords/emails in the email relay, just to experiment. Craigslist started blocking a lot of the emails coming back.
    It doesn't seem like replying via email relay (and converting to phone number) is a good approach.
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  • Profile picture of the author to pang
    Can someone recommend what is the best way to go about finding these posting services?

    I read that online, it's difficult to find ones on Google because even they don't do a very good job. They are a bait/switch.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bahar Hossain
    As a Craigslist AD posting I can answer you with one Word and that's NEVER.

    There is no such system for posting ads successfully.
    Let me be more clear.

    You can make bot which can post from your account according to given information. But posting ads and making ads live are completely two different things. You won't be able to make any ad live using any bot.

    If you need more help you can ask me.
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    • Profile picture of the author djhickory
      Originally Posted by Bahar Hossain View Post

      As a Craigslist AD posting I can answer you with one Word and that's NEVER.

      There is no such system for posting ads successfully.
      Let me be more clear.

      You can make bot which can post from your account according to given information. But posting ads and making ads live are completely two different things. You won't be able to make any ad live using any bot.

      If you need more help you can ask me.
      NEVER for you , you guys crack me up
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  • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
    Agreed. There is too much trial and error involved in the posting process related to removing trigger words and campaign footprints. Even a parameter as subtle as ad spacing can represent a campaign footprint and be tracked by Craigslist. All that methodical testing requires a human perspective. This is especially true when Craigslist releases updates to their ad filters as recently occured in the Jobs and Gigs sections.
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    • Profile picture of the author djhickory
      Originally Posted by craigsposterpro View Post

      Agreed. There is too much trial and error involved in the posting process related to removing trigger words and campaign footprints. Even a parameter as subtle as ad spacing can represent a campaign footprint and be tracked by Craigslist. All that methodical testing requires a human perspective. This is especially true when Craigslist releases updates to their ad filters as recently occured in the Jobs and Gigs sections.
      This is True in the Beginning, you need to Test and Trial and Error, , you can make 100-200 new ads a day that all go threw 100%, if only 40-60% go threw , then check the ads that didnt , and change content pic properties , and try again, once you get 100 percent live post, then its all down hill , when they realese ther updates , the ads will still go threw fine,
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  • Profile picture of the author Anek Sartitos
    After a lot of trial and error, I finally found one that works. I would try all the approaches in increasing order:

    1) Check on the forums - there are plenty of good posters. Make sure that they can communicate well. If their pricing is above $1.50/ad, they are probably not worth it.
    2) Ask other forum members here for word-of-mouth referrals
    3) Can check upwork and elance

    Best of luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author stevetickolo
    I started posting with an automated bot and set it on a regular schedule. It's working OK so far... still not getting up to the volume that everybody cited.
    Main issues are the following:
    - Imprecise scheduling... sometimes when I set it for 1pm, it posts at hours of difference. This is problematic for my niche.
    - Flag ratio is fairly high. But this might be an issue with my content rather than the system itself.
    - Very buggy... crashes extremely easily
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    • Profile picture of the author djhickory
      Originally Posted by stevetickolo View Post

      I started posting with an automated bot and set it on a regular schedule. It's working OK so far... still not getting up to the volume that everybody cited.
      Main issues are the following:
      - Imprecise scheduling... sometimes when I set it for 1pm, it posts at hours of difference. This is problematic for my niche.
      - Flag ratio is fairly high. But this might be an issue with my content rather than the system itself.
      - Very buggy... crashes extremely easily
      if it's posting off the time sceduled, adjust it/ ADAPT
      if your ads are getting flagged, then most likey its the content / pic demensions size , you need to purifiy your files with a program called Batchpurifier

      and if its crashing / bugging out, most likely the pictures your uploading are to big 700k pics usally slow them bots down, i change in photoshop 7 to 400k file pics , then the posters run like a cadilac in the background while im working / other reason it's buggy, your computer might not be up to date etc
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  • Profile picture of the author bashca03
    Many claim that there are "automated" bots for Craigslist. The main fact of it is that Craigslist changes too quickly for any bot developer to keep up.
    In my experience, Craigslist updates their filters every month. And some of them are extremely complex.
    Craigslist recently updated price filters on their sections. So if you price too low, for example, your ads get flagged.
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    • Profile picture of the author djhickory
      Originally Posted by bashca03 View Post

      Many claim that there are "automated" bots for Craigslist. The main fact of it is that Craigslist changes too quickly for any bot developer to keep up.
      In my experience, Craigslist updates their filters every month. And some of them are extremely complex.
      Craigslist recently updated price filters on their sections. So if you price too low, for example, your ads get flagged.
      they update every 1-2 months, and they have a different setup for each County /State Country etc , there always updating and changing filters etc , and it only takes 1 developer a 1-3 hours FIY
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  • Profile picture of the author minishuu
    Do you really think a few bot developers can outsmart 50 PhDs working together to make it hard to post?
    I've tried a lot of different Craigslist bots and services and few of them actually work. Be careful of the ones you choose.
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    • Profile picture of the author djhickory
      Originally Posted by minishuu View Post

      Do you really think a few bot developers can outsmart 50 PhDs working together to make it hard to post?
      I've tried a lot of different Craigslist bots and services and few of them actually work. Be careful of the ones you choose.
      My guy's have update ready within hours, the past few 3-4 years
      CL Employees are a bunch of lazy fux,
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  • Profile picture of the author wiretree
    How are people handling the content aspect of posting? I'm struggling to be able to find good, scalable content without scraping.
    My niche is unique enough that there is no content to scrape. I don't want to go towards spinning because that sacrifices readability.

    Also, I don't think that automated spinners are any good.
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    • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
      Originally Posted by wiretree View Post

      How are people handling the content aspect of posting? I'm struggling to be able to find good, scalable content without scraping.
      My niche is unique enough that there is no content to scrape. I don't want to go towards spinning because that sacrifices readability.

      Also, I don't think that automated spinners are any good.
      It's well worth the time to just manually write 5 - 6 ad versions which are concise and each 30 - 50% unique. People have short attention spans and are in scan mode on Craigslist, So, you don't want to use very long, verbose, paragraph style ads anyway. We advise people to craft ads which are 5 - 10 one-line bullet points max. The second advantage of that is you run less risk of embedding any trigger words in your ad text if it's more concise.

      So, with that in mind, you really don't need to scrape or spin ad cintent.
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  • Profile picture of the author shoarma
    Best way that I've found to post scalable content is to hire a team writers cheaply. I recommend going on Upwork and setting the following filters:
    - Article Writing
    - Entry Level
    - Philippines (good English, communicative, cheaper)

    You can find a lot of article writers there. It takes time to gather good ones, but it's a process, just like anything else.
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    I wrote here a few months ago that I was posting successfully. Things are still going well, but struggling with content as well.

    I would like to hear people's opinions on spinning... the margins in my niche are too thin to continue handwriting every piece of content.
    Also, how often can one recycle content?
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  • Profile picture of the author Stfenhuse
    While it largely depends on how competitive your niche, simple spins generally won't cut it for the content filter that Craigslist uses.
    Craigslist weights different keywords as "good" or "bad". If it continues to see the same type of content from the same IP pool, it will eventually block you.

    This is why it's important to have good content on-hand before you scale up.
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  • How long does spintax generally last on Craigslist? I feel like I can get basic tiered spinning but if I run it for a few days, it starts getting flagged.
    Any insights here?
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  • Profile picture of the author Stfenhuse
    It depends on a few things. the first is... how many tiers are you spinning your content to?

    For instance, you should start with base spinnign the words (1st tier), then go to sentence spinning (2nd tier) and then paragraph spinning (3rd tier).
    Once you have all of those components, you should make sure that each generation is unique and that you are not duplicating content by chance.

    Spins in this way should be handle most of your content.
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    • Profile picture of the author djhickory
      Originally Posted by Stfenhuse View Post

      It depends on a few things. the first is... how many tiers are you spinning your content to?

      For instance, you should start with base spinnign the words (1st tier), then go to sentence spinning (2nd tier) and then paragraph spinning (3rd tier).
      Once you have all of those components, you should make sure that each generation is unique and that you are not duplicating content by chance.

      Spins in this way should be handle most of your content.
      if you want to Spin the Ad, i have found out that just adding a few letters/words in the begining/ ending and spaces here and there work perfect, take trial and error
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  • Profile picture of the author nomel
    What are the general rates for Craigslist posting services? It seems like they range from extremely expensive ($2 per post) to extremely cheap ($0.50 per post)?
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  • Profile picture of the author susansavana
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author djhickory
      Originally Posted by susansavana View Post

      Bots just works when you know how to use it.
      Exactly, most of these people are very negative, give up quik , don't know how to think outside of the box
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  • Profile picture of the author intechtips
    hay, I saw so many people answering you concern. Everyone says he is an expert so I am not gonna say that, Lets come to the point.

    During 2012 - 2014 and few month on 2015, a craigslist auto poster called "CLAD Genius" really works great. I had used that software, an expensive one.

    After March 2015 craigslist make a huge change in its filter system and CLAD Genius fade away. After that i tried a few other auto poster but didn't work.

    If you use same ip to post a lots of ads then your ip will be blocked so auto poster won't work.

    Then I start manual posting by human ad poster not any automated posting software. Now it works better.

    So I recommended not to use an auto poster instead use an manual human ad poster.

    Moreover, $95 seems a scam because [ i don't know how many ad he will post on that $95 ]

    For example $95 is not enough to post 100 ads and I am talking about 100 live ads. No ghost or flagged ads,


    One more info for you , During 2012 - 2014 automated posting software were good for only service section in craigslist.

    Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author craigsposterpro
      Go for a good balance of quality and cost.
      Quality of support and close communications can make or break any campaign. There will be flagging at some point in any campaign. In order to properly analyze and resolve that flagging, there is no substitute for that close level of communication to determine potential campaign footprints, isolate trigger words, adjust ad content, phone numbers, etc
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    • Profile picture of the author djhickory
      on the note that autoposting software didnt work 2012 - 2014 , and you couldnt post 100 live ads with 1 Acount daily is BS, i have an acount that i use til this day that goes back to 2013 and havent changed anything since, and you can go into my cl acount and see the ads posted years ago, so much misleading information here guys
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  • Profile picture of the author shoarma
    Consider the fact that Craigslist posts are quite commoditized, if you can do it right. This means a live post is a live post, no matter the provider.

    Don't go for extremely expensive providers ($1.60+ per live ad). Or too cheap ones who will sacrifice quality service ($0.50 per live ad)
    Go for a good balance of quality and cost.
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    I find that a lot of the extremely expensive Craigslist posting services ($2+ per live ad) are basically middlemen trying to get a cut of the action.

    You can easily find cheaper solutions by asking around and going direct to the source. That's what these middlemen are trying to do anyway.
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