You need to know some code. a href with tags around it and quotes. This is simple html code. You can learn it on myspace.

How does google decide whether or not to give credit for a backlink?

If the link has a no follow attribute then Google will disregard the link juice it should pass, read more http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html

To check if your link has a no follow attribute (aside from looking on the code directly which is time consuming) you can use this add ons for Firefox http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html

If the link turns to red that means it has a no follow attribute.

both Craigslist and Backback are great

Looks like as of today or yesterday I can't post any links with anchor text as in

<a href="http://www.bouma.ca/oshawa_real_estate.html">Oshawa Area Homes</a>

Apparently too many spammers are using this to hide ulrs and they're doing away with it. Some other HTML can still be used.

oh that bites. can you post a plain link though?

anchor text really doesn't matter on craigs list since it's nofollow tags anyway

I would like to know if anyone in here would be interested in a site that is similar to Craigs list but only real estate related? Realtors and agents are able to create and maintain there own page and have unlimited listings.

Let me know what you think

sure as long as it's free - and gets traffic. right now craigs list is the best thing going of that type of website. it's the most used and most well known - much like eBay eclipses all other auction sites that may actually function better...

The thing that I don't like about Craigs list is that when you post a listing a day later it is on another page. There is too much updating that needs to be done.

People still find it though - most people are smart enough to scroll back to other pages. Some of my listings that are a week old still get hits - I can tell because it shows up in my website stats that they got to my website from a particular craigs list page.

It is not a good idea to spam craigs list with your listings every day. Once every two-three weeks is enough. If realtors keep spamming craigs list we'll soon see even more crack downs - maybe not allowing us to post anything at all as a realtor.

Craigs has a search feature. I think most folks use as they can place in keywords such as location or home features. It also has a spot for inputing minimum/maximum price range.