Tips for Posting Ads to Craigslist

• Registering for an account
• Not getting branded as a Craigslist spammer
• Posting a Service Ad
• Posting a Merchandise Ad

Registering for an account:

• First-time users visit www.craigslist.org and select my account. If your region (city) is not set you may need to update it.
• On the Account Log In page select the Click here link.
• Enter your email address and fill in the security verification word, then select to create account
• If you have an aggressive SPAM filter you may need to add help@craigslist.org to you accept/allow list in order for the verificaiton email to come through.
• Once the email comes through you select the continuation link and complete the registration process.
• If successful, you will be redirected to a postings page.
  

Don't SPAM Craigslist:
Over posting on Craigslist will get you banned, blacklisted and/or have your postings removed. To avoid these situations follow the guidelines.

• The minimal guideline is to not post the same ad daily; keep a minimum of 48 hours between similar postings, 3-4 days is safer.
• The second simple rule is to post within context; you will inadvertently make mistakes, but don't intentionally post incorrectly classified messages.
• Rule #3 - don't post filth, porn, spammers list of weblinks, etc.
• Think it through - if it sounds iffy, it probably is...

Post a Service Ad:

• From the posting window select your region from the pulldown and click on Go.
• Select services offered
• Select service
• Create catchy title, but both in the title and Description, don't overuse UPPER CASE
• To close the ad, add something like Print this ad and bring it to us to receive a 10% discount off your first service.
• If you plan to add images to the ad, we will go over that on the tutoring lesson.

Post a Merchandise (for sale) Ad:

• From the posting window select your region from the pulldown and click on Go.
• Select for sale / wanted
  
• Select cars and trucks (or whatever) - in this case cars and trucks will include used and new automotive parts
• Follow the same suggestion regarding UPPER CASE in the ad context.
• In the ad context you can add links to images you have posted on another website; don't add to many links or it will begin to look SPAMmish.
  
• Check the appropriate For Sale By radio button.
• Images -- if you want to include images in the ad select Add / Edit Images.
• Craigslist will allow you to upload up to 4 images per ad. If they are too large in size, they will scale them down to an acceptable level.  Once you have browsed to the images you want included, you click on Continue at the bottom of the page and it will take a few seconds to perhaps minutes to create the ad and upload the images.
• As with a Services ad before you complete the posting you will be able to re-edit as necessary then Continue and you're done.