1 Online Classified Ad = 2 Lessons

by Bonnie Boots

A recent experience with Craigslist taught me two good lessons about marketing.

My husband had decided to sell his motorcycle. We'd used newspaper classifieds before and always been unhappy with the high cost and low response. My husband said,” I’m going to give Cragislist a try. If that doesn't work, I'll go back to using the newspaper."

So after a couple of days of doodling around taking photos and writing the ad, we finally posted it on Craigslist, on a Tuesday evening at 5:45 p.m.

My husband had just turned away from his computer and said to me," Well, it's online. I wonder how long it will be before we get any response?"

And the phone rang.

It was someone looking at the ad on Craigslist. They bought the bike. And all I could think was "MUST START MARKETING ON CRAIGSLIST!!!"

And here comes Lesson Number 1: Social Proof Rules Your Brain

 Social proof is the term used for the psychological phenomena that says, “People will do things that they see other people doing.” Social proof is especially influential if the thing you see other people doing bring fast rewards.

When I saw my husband sell the motorcycle in minutes, it had a huge impact on me. My brain said “Holy cow, Craigslist WORKS!”

 Keep in mind that when this happened, I knew about Craigslist. I had 6 or 7 ebooks stored on my hard drive about using Craigslist for internet marketing. I'd even read a couple of them. But they had absolutely no impact on me. I had never even looked at Craigslist until the night we posted the motorcycle ad.

But after I saw my husband sell that motorcycle in minutes, I was filled with a terrific excitement for Craigslist. Suddenly, I couldn’t wait to use it!

The fact is, there are so many means and methods of marketing that no one can possibly make good use of them all. So we all pick and choose. And what we pick and choose is greatly influenced by the PEOPLE we know personally and what we SEE working for them.

That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to get to know as many people doing online business--and actually making money--as you can. And I mean personally know them. Because you may hear about and read about all sorts of marketing methods, in books and blogs and forums, but you are most likely to TAKE ACTION on the methods that you see being successfully used by people you know.

And what is Lesson Number 2? Just this ….Free Online Classified Advertising WORKS!

I’m no fan of paid classified advertising in newspapers. In the past, I’ve been frustrated by the high cost, the limited space—usually three short lines—and the lack of response. But until online classified advertising, newspapers were the only avenues open for people that wanted to sell an old van or patio furniture.

Although there are many sites offering online classified advertising, Craigslist is the site that really put online classifieds n the spotlight. They’re better than newspaper classifieds in these three ways—they’re free, (yippee!) people all over the world can see them, and they offer you enough space for text and picture to fully describe your goods or services in detail.

Craigslist is quite simple to use. If you’re selling a solid object, like a motorcycle or boat, you want to post if for sale in your local area. Go to the home page of Craigslist, click on your state, then start drilling down to the list for your hometown.

If you’re selling a digital product or service, you can post ads—multiple—in many different sections, not just in the U.S but all over the world.

Craigslist has a few simple rules, like no adult material and no New York apartment brokers. Read them before you post. Then just let loose and have fun because it’s free!

Craigslist may be the most famous name in online classified for now, but a new contender may be poised to change that. It’s called Oodle, and because people with vast experience and deep pockets founded it—a group of former executives from both eBay and Excite—it’s likely to turn into a real internet powerhouse.

Oodle differs from Craigslist by offering both free ads and paid ads. The paid ads are more attractive to businesses, who can bid for higher placement.

Oodle recently teamed up with Wal-Mart. A Wal-Mart spokesman says, "This free, community-based resource allows customers to buy and sell items locally, find local jobs and learn about events in their area.”

After examining the site, Elmer Hurlstone reported,” The categories of the sites that interest marketers are the Employment - Work from home and Employment - Everything else sections. The main Oodle site shows over 12,000 "work from home" listings and in excess of 44,000 "everything else" listings. The Wal-Mart branded site shows only 7,900 "work from home" ads but about 41,000 "everything else" listings.”

Hurlstone points out that this might be a good opportunity to get good exposure with less competition by going in through the Wal-Mart side of Oodle.

Besides helping you make sales, online classifieds, can also affect your search engine rankings. One anonymous marketer reported that running free ads in Oodle had helped him rank #1 on the front page of Google for particular keywords. But, he cautions, it’s not permanent. They slowly derank as the classified ad grows older.

Ebay, which own about 25% of Craigslist, introduced a new classified ads web site last year. Kijiji focuses on local areas in more than 1,000 cities worldwide. eBay says that the classifieds category is the company's fastest-growing business unit.

I haven't paid enough attention to online classified advertising, but I will certainly be giving Craigslist, Oodle and the others more serious attention from now on.

Wal-Mart's classifieds site: http://walmart.oodle.com/

Oodle: http://www.oodle.com

Kijiji: http://www.kijiji.com

Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org

 
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