The Benefits of Advertising on Craigslist

Savvy businesspeople and Internet marketers who market on Craigslist are able to gain a
great deal of benefits from this advertising option. Craigslist is an online community
where users can exchange information, buy or sell items, seek jobs or even find friends
or romantic partners. There are a number of benefits to advertising on Craigslist. Two
of the most important benefits are the affordability and the ability to reach a large
audience. This article will focus on these two benefits and will also offer advice on
ensuring your advertising is not just reaching a large audience but is reaching your
target audience.

The Price is Right

Consider the cost of advertising on Craigslist versus advertising on other websites and
there is simply no comparison. The vast majority of Craigslist postings are available
free of charge to those who use the website. Only a limited number of advertisements
including job advertisements in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York and brokerage
listings in New York are charged a fee for posting advertisements. Even these advertisers
are only charged a nominal fee for their advertisements.

This means all commercial advertisements for products and services are posted free of
charge. Affiliate marketing, which offers business owners the ability to only pay the
affiliate when the advertisement generates web traffic, a sale or a lead is an excellent
bargain but even that is no match for the free advertising offered on Craigslist.
Advertising on Craigslist becomes even more financially appealing in comparison to other
advertising option where the business owner is charged for each time the advertisement
appears whether or not it results in a sale being made or even a lead generated.

Reaching a Large Audience with Craigslist

In addition to affordability another benefit to advertising on Craigslist is the potential
to reach a large audience. Craigslist receives approximately four billion page views per
month from approximately ten million website visitors. This is appealing because it allows
users to reach a large audience with only minimal effort.

Craigslist already has a large following and many Internet users already turn to Craigslist
for whatever they are looking for before searching other resources. Having such a large
audience means half of the work is already done for advertisers. They already have high
traffic to the website, now they just need to write an eye catching and engaging
advertisement that will attract customers.

A Large Audience is Not Necessarily a Target Audience

Craigslist certainly has a large pre-existing fan base of regular users but this large
audience does not necessarily ensure advertisers will have a target audience just waiting
for them to post their advertisement. Craigslist is an extensive online community and
finding members of the target audience is more important than reaching the entire
community.

Business owners can certainly invest a great deal of time and effort placing their
advertisement throughout the different sections of the website but this is not likely to
be effective. Craigslist is divided into a number of different sections and categories for
a specific reason. This is to make it easier for users to find the information they are
seeking. For this reason business owners should focus on placing their advertisement in
sections which are likely to be visited by members of the target audience. Additionally,
placing advertisements in multiple sections may result in the moderators of Craigslist
interpreting the advertisements as spam and deleting them. Whether the advertisements are
deleted as spam or rendered ineffective they are not likely to convince members of the
target audience to purchase products or services.

Written by Michael L. Mayhew
Michael Mayhew is the publisher of “Craigslist Traffic”.
You can get additional information at his website:
http://webmasterautomation.com/craigslist/
(c)2007