Affordable Advertising on Craigslist

Promoting on Craigslist is definitely affordable.For the most part you don't have to pay a fee majority of the posts that are written on Craigslist.Craigslist started first as an organization that was free but in 1999 they began to charge for some of there services.Now, there costs to keep the site running are paid by charging small fees for adverts that are asking for help that are put on the San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City Craigslist sites.Also, they charge for brokerage apartments that are listed in New York City.

A large amount of the posts advertised on the Craigslist which is over 300 sites don't pay any money.Because of these posting advertisements on Craigslist is definitely worth your while from a money making standpoint.Even though advertising is free time needs to be taken to post the advertisements properly because although even though there is no financial loss, poor posting may lead to a loss of time and resources if it produces poor profit potential.

Why Craigslist is Free

Even though the creator of Craigslist, Craig Newmark, was asked in 1997 about the chance of putting banner advertising on Craigslist to make a profit, he decided to keep Craigslist as a non-commercial site.

Even when Craigslist was changed into a for profit organization, it has not been infiltrated by big businesses websites or companies.Craigslist's mission statements show why Craigslist has continued to be non-commercial:

* Giving each other a break, getting the word out about everyday, real-world stuff
* Bringing back the human voice to the Internet, in a humane, non-commercial environment
* Making things simple, common-sense, down-to-earth, honest, very real
* Giving another option to impersonal, big-media sites
* Including every one, giving a voice to the disenfranchised, democratizing
* Being a collection of communities with similar spirit, not a single monolithic entity

Advertising on Craigslist vs.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another type of marketing which many business owners find to be both worthwhile and affordable.

For many the appeal of affiliate marketing is the affiliates are not compensated for their efforts unless the business owner sees some type of gain from the advertising.This gain may be in the form of website traffic in the case of pay per click marketing, in the form of sales in pay per sale marketing or in the form of potential leads when a website visitor performs a specific action such as registering with a website or signing up for an offer.

While affiliate marketing is very appealing there are others who prefer advertising on Craigslist.The advantage Craigslist offers to advertisers is, of course, that the advertisers never pay for their business advertisements and the community receives a great deal of website traffic already so driving traffic to the website is not a concern.

Why Free Is Not Always Better

Keep in mind, there are some particular times where free advertisement is not necessary the most beneficial kind of advertisement you have available.

If you think of a product or service that Craigslist doesn't have a relevant category for.In that case advertising using Craigslist is probably not worth your while because, even though the advertising is free, in that case it is not likely not to get a huge amount of attention from members of your targeted audience.So in that situation, advertising on Craigslist is probably a real waste of resources and time.

Another example of a time when Craigslist will not be the best advertising choice is if the market is an overcrowded one with a large amount of competitors and advertisements.In a case like that it will be very hard to convert them into one of your own loyal customers so it may be more worth your while to purchase some advertising in a less crowded market.

About the Author

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs

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