Craigslist do’s, do not’s, html code, templates and effective posting

I choose to write about Craigslist this week because of the recent interaction I have had with CL and ads for our broker (JK Realty). I will say that craigslist of CL has few rules you need to follow about discrimination and what you can post and what will get your post deleted, account closed and possibly a law suit ...here is a link to the FHA rules they have http://phoenix.craigslist.org/about/FHA.

So you have some listings that you would like to post on CL to gain new leads and get your name in the search engines. there are several ways to post your ads in CL :

• Use CL posting form which allows 4 pictures and a anonymous email.
• You can use a posting service like Postlets, Trulia, Point 2 and several other services that are free and paid
• You can build a template
• You can purchase templates
• You can pay for someone to handle your posts
• Or a hybrid of everything.

I have found in the past that I will build several templates that brand JK Realty which I prefer to use instead of the pre made templates that has someone else's branding on it. These link back to the host of the templates your using, this can lead to a client being confused and possible losing the post and thus losing a lead and that's why I prefer to just build it for JK realty. I will build a few templates and post them and follow my analytics to see which post id getting the most hits to the pages I have set up to land on. there are big differences in how an ad is laid out as to how much traffic you will get from that ad, here is a few tips I will give you that will help your ad to be searchable across the internet not just in Cl:

• Use alt tags with all your images
• Use good content with keywords/tags that will help your listing in the searches
• do not repeat information
• Keep information in a pattern that will land your prospective client on a Phone number, email or contact form.
• A little information will do ( don't list everything because then the potential client has no reason to contact you)
• make sure you have the MLS number posted
• Have a link to a page where you have the listing to insure you capture the lead.

Without giving any of our secrets out that is the basics of what you need to have to post a productive ad on CLL. These ads should inform your potential client about the basics of the property and with that they should hopefully contact you for more information, then you have the contact as a lead. I would like to remind people that use CL that these leads are great and should be treated like any other lead you would get from one of the paid listing websites.

Ok now here are some tricks I have found (trust me on these) If you code your own pages its best to post your listing using an individual listing rather than the account. I don't know why but I coded this completely awesome page for us to use and it would not show up...ever..I stripped the code down to basic HTML and it would not work. I was not happy at all. I even stripped it down to using just text and a few <img src> codes and it would still now post. When I finally posted the ads per a single post not using the account I set up..it worked. I am talking some heave coding that I thought for sure would not work and it worked and worked great. Here is a link to the HTML that CL supports http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/html_in_craigslist_postings/details

So I hope this has helped you a little with CL ads and some of the simple things to do and watch out for...remember that anytime you can track what you are doing will help you decide how, where, when and what information to use to advertise with.

Written by Jori Husar web everything and marketing at JK Realty LLC.