Craigslist automators

[Vivid Color Zack]

I've just started using craigslist a little more in the creative services section. I was approached by a few services offering automated placement in select cities, etc.

Anyone have experience using a craigslist auto poster?

[vangogh]

Yeah, it's called spam. You're only allowed to post in one city. Those automated placement services have helped turned craigslist into a less and less useful site.

[Jen Taylor]

I recommend against it. Here's some of my opinions.

1. It's spammy (to use the technical term).

2. If your url shows up to many times, your posts will get auto banned or "ghosted". There's been some debate on this but most of the threads I've read on this tend to agree that posting too many times will turn your url into a red flag.

3. To get around this, some of the auto posters are posting the ad as a image. Since it's a image, you don't enjoy the benefits of people searching for a keyword. However someone could still add keywords after the image but it's not as good.

4. Would you trust a company that post their sales page as a image? Just seems suspicious to me.

5. Depending on the section (Services for example)the cost per post can be quiet high. You're probably better off just throwing that money into a google adword campaign.

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Jen.

All good points. A lot of people do attempt to use automated posting, but the people who search Craig's List consistently will recognize your ad showing up over and over and flag it as spam. Trust is an important part of doing business and the auto posting is a quick way to erode trust.

[rezzy]

Plus its against their TOS to use automated generators. I was working on an app to scrap their webpages, looking for information and in the terms of service it forbids these types of applications.

My suggestion is dont do it. Zack, have you seen any business off of craigslist?

[Jen Taylor]

Originally Posted by vangogh

Welcome to the forum Jen.

Thank you! It's the posts from Dan Furman, CBSCreative, and yours that convinced me to join.

And the other great posts as well from other members. =)

[vangogh]

Thanks for the compliments on the posts. Glad we could get you to take the plunge and sign up. While Dan, Steve, and myself now have swelled heads and egos, I'll add that we have many great members here with lots to say and share.

But feel free to keep lauding the praise on the 3 of us

[Dan Furman]

Originally Posted by vangogh

While Dan, Steve, and myself now have swelled heads and egos, I'll add that we have many great members here with lots to say and share.

But feel free to keep lauding the praise on the 3 of us

Confession - I've known Jen for years - best photoshop person alive, amongst other things.

Awesome to see you here, Jen.

[vangogh]

Funny. I thought I noticed you two showing as friends on your profile. Does that mean the recommendation for your posts doesn't really count now and me and Steve get to split the extra ego boost?

[Vivid Color Zack]

I've had great response using craigslist in multiple cities across the US in the past two weeks. Probably 20-30 new accounts created from it just posting in the creative services section. Craigslist traffic has been way higher than my adwords traffic. I was thinking if I used some kind of auto poster (yes its spammy but it's not like it's not legitimate advertising and I wouldn't be flooding the place in every category or anything) to post in more cities.