Using On-line Classified Ads

[jeraman]

I recently reviewed material singing the praises of using on-line classified ads to build web traffic. Does anyone have any experience with classifieds?

Thanks
Ron
http://www.myhistories.com
Heraldry, History, and Tools for the Family Historian

[MannyR]

Hey Jeraman,

The only classified's I have ever done were free classified ads. Which many would recommend as a way to get started till you start making money. Honestly though...if you do so...set up a seperate e-mail account because you will get a lot of spam mail.

I have yet to gain any subscribers from my free classified's.

Manny Rodriguez
OvercomeFinancialDebt
www.overcomefinancialdebt.com

[Tubby]

I have experience with classifieds, but getting people to list adverts is not as simple as 'making it free', you still have the initial problem of getting traffic to your free classifieds section.

Once you have established a good base it does solve a great many traffic problems.

[jeraman]

Thanks for the info. Perhaps I should clarify my intentions. I would be a classified advertiser only. I don't want to add classifieds to the web site.

Regards,
Ron
http://www.myhistories.com
Heraldy, History, and Tools for the Family Historian

[jimmack]

I use classified ads all the time but for different reasons than what a lot of people would use them for.

I realize that the odds of my ad being seen are remote but it has happened my main reason for running a classified ad site is the free email program you get with it.

As most of you already know almost all the classified ad programs out there you can get for free are already listed in the World Wide Submitter.

Again I am sure most of you know that if you are new to the internet and you are trying to market something and run acroos the Free Classified Ads site and the World Submitter being new you will use it.

I will be the first to admit I did and yes I was flooded with e mails and opened up a lot of them and as a result I purchased a few things from time to time.

I never seen any of the ads but I sure had a lot of emails sent to me and having your own free classified ads site will do this for you.

Anytime someone submits to the World Submitter etc. your e mail gets sent to them OR your whole website via html.

Plus you get to have all the e mail addresses from everyone that submitted to boot sure lots of them are garbage but some of them are not.

So is it worth it? I think so it works 24 hours a day 7 days a week and cost NOTHING not a dime so what do you really have to lose?

James Mackinlay
JRM Website Marketing

[Gary Golden]

Hello,

Your right it is hard to get people to advertise using online classified ads even if they are free, I have a site which has been up for about a year and a half. No I do not spam my advertisers, in fact I rarely send them anything except for offering to install their pictures for them, I personally feel this is an emerging market and a great cost effective way to get the word out, wether it be advertising your website of selling an item.
Lets look at this another way! If you have a business (brick and mortar), do you just put it up and wait for business? No, normally you call the local paper to advertise your services or buy
signage to advertise.

Online how do you get business to your site?
1. Optimize your site for search engines
2. Add a links page
3. Advertise your keywords

Put your ad on a quality classified ad site that is well positioned with the search engines.

For example on my site which is located in Ohio,
do a search on any of the major engines for keywords on classified ads for ohio.
Example:

Ohio classified ads
cleveland, ohio classified ads
toledo, ohio classified ads
Akron, Ohio classified ads

Search practically every major city in Ohio and you will see our site smiling back at you. I know it is just a matter of time before people understand the value of online advertising as when I talk to alot of people about advertising they think just because they put up a site online they will get flooded with business, this could be not be further from the truth! It takes a lot of work and you have to treat your web business just like a brick and mortar business if you want to succeed online.

Occassionally I send out advertisements to people who are not already advertising on my site but anymore I usually call first then follow-up with an e-mail explaining our services.

So to summarize classified ads online, most are free but go with the ones concentrating on the area you want to target they will give you the exposure in the area you want to be exposed, additionally most concentrated sites like mine do not load you with any e-mail like the big ones do.
The large ones give us smaller guys a bad rap and you add will get lost in the masses!
As far as being cost effective have you ever price a classified ad in a major paper, usually in excess of $100. for 7 days for only 20 words and no pictures. Don't expect calls as you usually get lost in the masses. I have apartments also and normally any more I do not even use the papers, they are cost prohibitive.
With paper I understand that for example they sell 100,000 paper a day but understand this out of that 100,000 how many are looking for what you offer, usually a very small % and unless you spend $1,000's of dollars they on a quarter or half page ad they will never find you. Online I recieve in excess of 80,000 people a month to my site, you get 1000 words of text, 4 pictures, use of html, and so many features I won't even try to explain, all for FREE. No comparison! especially when you take into the fact my keyword placement of my site as compared to the other sites this is the most important factor anyways especially if you are trying to sell something.

I hope that this has helped you in understanding online classified advertising. Additionally I was not trying to sell anything since I do not charge to advertise anyways.