Today went well. After some heavy thought, I created a bunch of ads and posted 80 of them again on Craigslist. 100% of those ads stuck. Meaning nothing was ghosted. And I only had 4 ads flagged by users. The best part about today was that I was able to use hyperlinks yet once again. Not the normal hyperlink using a href and anchor text. Just writting http://domain.com automatically creates a hyperlink within Craigslist. I would rather use anchor text, but a link is better than no link at all.
Happy New Years Eve to everyone. Stay safe!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Results from Non-Hyperlink CL Ad
The last couple days have been tough getting ads posted on Craigslist and getting them to stick. I've talked to a few other people and they have been having the same problem that I have scene. Craigslist is dynamic and constantly changing. What works today, may not work tomorrow. So you much test, test, test, and keep trying.
I was finally able to post 95 ads yesterday, of which only 5 ads contained a hyperlink. Out of the ads that I posted I had a dozen flagged, and 10+ ghosted. Still pretty good compared to most people I think. But not up to the standards I would like to see.
I only received 169 new visitors directly related to my Craigslist posting yesterday. However, I made $11 dollars in Google Adsense revenue and got 20 opt-ins. So even though my visits were cut by 75%, my income and opt-in were only down a little bit.
I didn't really like my ad yesterday either. I had the look and feel of SPAM. It wasn't professional by anyones standard. In fact, I'm amazed at the results I got.
Today is a new day. Of course it's New Years Eve also. I'm not sure how much of an effect these holidays are having on posting Craigslist. I would assume that most people who visit Craigslist are pre-occupied right now with the holiday season and festivities. It will be interesting to see what kind of results I start seeing in January, after the holidays are over.
I was finally able to post 95 ads yesterday, of which only 5 ads contained a hyperlink. Out of the ads that I posted I had a dozen flagged, and 10+ ghosted. Still pretty good compared to most people I think. But not up to the standards I would like to see.
I only received 169 new visitors directly related to my Craigslist posting yesterday. However, I made $11 dollars in Google Adsense revenue and got 20 opt-ins. So even though my visits were cut by 75%, my income and opt-in were only down a little bit.
I didn't really like my ad yesterday either. I had the look and feel of SPAM. It wasn't professional by anyones standard. In fact, I'm amazed at the results I got.
Today is a new day. Of course it's New Years Eve also. I'm not sure how much of an effect these holidays are having on posting Craigslist. I would assume that most people who visit Craigslist are pre-occupied right now with the holiday season and festivities. It will be interesting to see what kind of results I start seeing in January, after the holidays are over.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Craigslist Must Be Going Through Some Changes
Today started off just about the same as yesterday. Nothing worked. However, after some testing I found out that I was able to put some ads up without a hyperlink. That kind of sucks! But an ad without a hyperlink is better than no ad at all right? So I went on to post 55 ads on Craigslist without a hyperlink.
Then I decided to do some testing. I started posting some ads for a friends Transmission Shop. With all new ads, I started posted with a hyperlink in the body of the ad. I was able to post 2 ads successfully. On the 3rd ad I received the following error:
Similar Posting Already Submitted: Error 6557550
I tried changing the hyperlink, still got the same error. I tried changing the anchor text, still got the same error.
Next I put the ad back to it's original state and decided to ad some random hidden text before and after the ad. It worked! I actually hate doing that. However, if Craigslist is not allowing me to post unique and different ads, using the same hyperlink. What are my options here?
It was a test, and not very scientific. I only posted 5 ads total that way. It will be interesting to see if later in the day, or even tomorrow, Craigslist will allow me to post my hyperlinks again without having to put random hidden text in my ads.
Stay tuned! This is actually fun, and pretty informative for myself too!
Then I decided to do some testing. I started posting some ads for a friends Transmission Shop. With all new ads, I started posted with a hyperlink in the body of the ad. I was able to post 2 ads successfully. On the 3rd ad I received the following error:
Similar Posting Already Submitted: Error 6557550
I tried changing the hyperlink, still got the same error. I tried changing the anchor text, still got the same error.
Next I put the ad back to it's original state and decided to ad some random hidden text before and after the ad. It worked! I actually hate doing that. However, if Craigslist is not allowing me to post unique and different ads, using the same hyperlink. What are my options here?
It was a test, and not very scientific. I only posted 5 ads total that way. It will be interesting to see if later in the day, or even tomorrow, Craigslist will allow me to post my hyperlinks again without having to put random hidden text in my ads.
Stay tuned! This is actually fun, and pretty informative for myself too!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Today Was A Bust!
Don't know what happened today, but nothing worked. I posted 80 ads or more, and at least 90% of those ended up being ghosted.
I tried using new email accounts, new passwords, new CL accounts, new IP addresses, new ads, new headlines, new anchor text, new urls, everything that I could think of. I also noticed that there wasn't as many ads being posted today in certain cities. For instance, one city and category that I post in averages about 75 posts per day. Today there were only 15 posts! I noticed this in many cities and categories throughout the country. So I don't think I was doing anything wrong. I think something was up with Craigslist.
Today was a waste as far as posting, and revenue was down also. I was only making half of what I normally make in Adsense revenue. The good news is that the previous ads I posted are still there. And they are still making money for me and people are still reading those ads and still opting-in.
I tried using new email accounts, new passwords, new CL accounts, new IP addresses, new ads, new headlines, new anchor text, new urls, everything that I could think of. I also noticed that there wasn't as many ads being posted today in certain cities. For instance, one city and category that I post in averages about 75 posts per day. Today there were only 15 posts! I noticed this in many cities and categories throughout the country. So I don't think I was doing anything wrong. I think something was up with Craigslist.
Today was a waste as far as posting, and revenue was down also. I was only making half of what I normally make in Adsense revenue. The good news is that the previous ads I posted are still there. And they are still making money for me and people are still reading those ads and still opting-in.
Creating Websites for Craigslist
One thing that I cant stand, and it's a personal pet peeve of mine, is people who use the same ad over and over and over again, in an attempt to send traffic to their affiliate or MLM squeeze page. The flip side of that coin is that it must be working or people wouldn't continue to do it over and over again.
I decided two things prior to posting on Craigslist:
Over time, maybe 30 days or so, I will have a better idea of what sites convert better than others. I'll keep the sites that do the best, and redesign the sites that convert the worst. At least that is the plan :-)
I've also been making money with Google Adsense for years now. So I decided to implement Adsense as an additional stream of revenue on all the sites I build. As an added bonus, that I really wasn't anticipating, it has proven to be quite successful in my opinion. Making between $20 and $30 per day just on the sites I created for Craigslist.
I decided two things prior to posting on Craigslist:
- My ads would be unique
- My website/squeeze pages would be unique
Over time, maybe 30 days or so, I will have a better idea of what sites convert better than others. I'll keep the sites that do the best, and redesign the sites that convert the worst. At least that is the plan :-)
I've also been making money with Google Adsense for years now. So I decided to implement Adsense as an additional stream of revenue on all the sites I build. As an added bonus, that I really wasn't anticipating, it has proven to be quite successful in my opinion. Making between $20 and $30 per day just on the sites I created for Craigslist.
Background Work Prior To Posting On Craigslist
I'm a newbie at this. Not a rookie. I've never posted on Craigslist before. I've never sold a toaster, purchased a computer, or found a date on Craigslist. However, I have been promoting and marketing different items or services on the Internet for about 7-9 years now. Some successful and some not so successful. I've also been doing web design for about the same amount of time, and I code everything I do by hand. The number one goal I have when building a site is SEO, and load time. I try and use as little graphics as possible and I try and make extensive use of dynamic sites using PHP.
I probably studied Craigslist, the ads that were placed there, and the other methods people use there for about a week before I decided to give it a try. Then I spent another week brainstorming and designing websites and landing pages for the product or service I wanted to promote.
I probably studied Craigslist, the ads that were placed there, and the other methods people use there for about a week before I decided to give it a try. Then I spent another week brainstorming and designing websites and landing pages for the product or service I wanted to promote.
Google Analytics
Well, yesterday I blew it! I got up this morning to see and report my results and noticed that I forgot to setup goals for Google Analytics on my site. So the first thing I did was setup a goal and create a funnel. At least I'll be able to report the results the next time around. What an idiot. Well learn from my mistakes and TEST, TEST, TEST, before you bring a site live.
You may be wondering how I was able to reported results for the other days and not today. Well, that's easy. I have 4-6 web sites that I promote on a rotating basis. I just forgot to setup the web site that I was sending traffic to yesterday. Learn from my mistakes.
You may be wondering how I was able to reported results for the other days and not today. Well, that's easy. I have 4-6 web sites that I promote on a rotating basis. I just forgot to setup the web site that I was sending traffic to yesterday. Learn from my mistakes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)