In case you aren’t aware of craigslist, it’s a great place to find stuff that you might need.

And, if you have stuff that you want to get rid of, it’s a great place to post stuff.

If you are going to post, though, don’t be dumb about it. Use some common sense and follow the terms of usage when you do your posting. If you don’t follow the rules, you will likely find craigslist readers flagging your post as being wrong (in one way or another) and it will disappear on you.

To that end, here are a few things that I’ve noticed recently…

  • Post to the right craigslist. Craigslist communities exist for most medium to large towns. If you don’t know which one to post to, go to Google maps and plot the distance from where you are to where the possible craigslists are for. Find the closest one, and post to that craigslist. If you post in others, you’ll likely find yourself flagged for not posting in the right one.
  • Craigslist allows you to have a single running post for a given item. If you want to “bump” your item up on the listing page, delete the old posts for that item first. If you have 2 or 3 going at the same time, that’s a great way to get yourself flagged. Why should you be able to ignore the craigslist rules when everyone else tries to follow them? Oh, and changing the way the ad looks, but still advertising the same item just makes everyone think that you’re trying to be sneaky. Craigslist rules don’t say that you can advertise the same item as long as you change the presentation. They say you can’t advertise the same item multiple times. This also goes for the price. You can’t put up multiple ads for the same item with the price changed by a buck or two. Still the same item!
  • Oh, and even if you delete other postings for a given item, Craigslist still has rules that say you can’t post a single item more frequently than every 48 hours. If you try to post the same item every day, expect to get flagged.
  • Speaking of items.. Every post you do needs to actually be about an item! If you have a furniture store and want to write a post about a terrific new, one of a kind bed that you have, that’s great! Post it in the furniture section. Good luck, and hopefully you’ll find a buyer.

    However, if you decide to post a generic ad saying that you “sell furniture and would love to help people out” in the furniture section… Prepare to be flagged. Craigslist says that item posts need to be about an item. If you want to tell everyone that you sell furniture, put it in the Services section.

Good luck! Have fun using craigslist. Just follow the rules, and make it more enjoyable for those of us that use craigslist to find the stuff we need and want.

:)

Be Sociable, Share!