So I've been sitting at the feet of some folks who say that they've had success w/ Craigslist beyond spam responses. (they are actual agents, not people selling a system.) One thing I learned was to create an actual landing page for the listing and post only a "teaser" on Craigslist itself - 1 picture, basic info and of course your required contact info...then get them to "click for full info" with hopes of getting them to sign up for IDX etc. on your website.

I created this landing page.

What do you think? The idea is to be simple and to the point. I have not actually tried it out yet. Just finished the page last night. I'm thinking of creating one such page for every one of my listings. Not only will it be good for use on CL, but it should be excellent for building content for search engine purposes.

Looks good to me.
Very good idea.
I did not know you could incorporate so may things with IDX.

I think you have a great idea Perky. One thing I would do is make "Pike/Wayne MLS
INSTANT ACCESS!"

even bigger! And perhaps add "Get",or "Receive" or "Enjoy" in front.

Believe it or not, people will not be able to find how to see more listings

Karen, that does look professional. Hope you have better results with the "Craigslist nutcases" than I have experienced so far.

Did you know that the 'click for info' link on your CL ad is against their TOS? They only allow that on their services ads. I know, everyone does it, but they came after me last year and I still am not allowed to post some of my ads.

I don't like the single property ads, because it is so unlikely that a buyer for that particular property will click on it on CL. I prefer the 'free list of foreclosures' type of ad, because they appeal to many buyers.

If you are going to use a landing page like this, I think it should be more of a squeeze page so you can capture the buyer's information.

I have heard that before from others but I was under the impression that if you post the price and most of the pertinent info it is OK and I thought that the rule was really against posting links to eBay-type auctions and ticket scalpers... (but I am wrong and you are correct BK Estates, my apologies...I just haven't gotten caught yet! LOL)

This page that I created and put on my website is already on google! I think that even if I don't get any results from CL, I will at least boost my relevant content for search engines and can use this page for other purposes.

I'm assuming you posted here because you want some honest feedback so here you go...

That looks horrible...straight out of the early 2000's with way too much going on!

What has worked extremely well for us lately is to post a 4-8 line ad...text only...with a link for more info and photos. This link goes to our Diverse Solutions IDX which is where we capture the lead.

We post one for each listing (15-30), every day and get 1-4 leads a day WITH PHONE NUMBER!

Postlets and similar sites providing fancy Craigslist coding are cool but give viewers ALL the info. If you only giveaway little info and hold the rest back, you will get more leads.

Too much going on? Like what? The only thing going on is the info for the property and the "Search the MLS link" which is in essence a lead capture link. If you're referring to the links at the bottom, they are not obstructing the visitor from getting the info they want.

No it's not pretty. It's just a basic page with an MLS Idx listing, with the background from my main website (which gets a LOT of hits and leads btw, so I must be doing something right. lol) I can't change how the MLS displays the listing. I wish I could Not interested in spending unnecessary $$ to pay for a different IDX provider when this one works perfectly fine.

That's not the AD for Craigs List - it's the landing page linked to in the ad...which is short and sweet and one picture and a link to this page

Which by the way will end up getting your account frozen - good luck until you get caught. Happened to several people (including BK estates) Just happened to someone else in my office yesterday. Craigslist FORBIDS external links to commercial sites (our websites are commercial) except in their Services section. So enjoy it while you can. I haven't gotten nabbed yet but I'm sure I will.

I post 5 different listings daily with several clickable options & landing pages:

example craigslist ad from today

So far I have not been flagged off by the CL police.

I've run a few ads with links to sites with more info. Got flagged for the first time last week on an ad for our USDA eligible listings (2).

Since anybody can flag you, it could be other brokers / agents. I like the idea of teaser, which I guess, makes it worth the risk…?

My other teaser ad that I posted got me 4 registered leads on my IDX.

SO it is worth it I suppose!

Not bad but I bet you would get a higher click-thru rate without the image

Who cares if you get flagged?

If you do, just make a new account...BFD

Link me to one of your actual Craigslist ads

There is no clear call to action on your page (IE a giant button that you are naturally drawn to that will turn the traffic into a lead).

For example: San Diego, CA Del Sur Home For Sale

There is a large yellow call to action button in the middle of the page to Schedule a Showing that your eyes are naturally drawn to.

Based on the appearance of your IDX, it may be worth investing money in something better...just saying

It's not with this landing page - it was with a referral program my office offers. So I wanted to make my own to avoid using that program and use my own IDX.

This is the landing page from the program, and I hate it and I hate their search; it is not appropriate for this particular area. And I think this page is a lot busier than my page.

http://krice.pavacationhome.com/listing/...C-ECB09051CBC9/

No I'm not going to invest in a different IDX - this one has served me well and every year I've made more money than the year before, last year culminating in almost $5,000,000 in closed deals. I don't believe in spending money for the sake of spending money.

The buttons that are on there (schedule a showing, etc.) are default from the IDX. As I said, my IDX has not only served me well but I have also gotten LOTS of buyer feedback that my site is easy to use and that it was their favorite website of all the ones they had seen in the area. Since I ended up last year in the top 25 of all the agents in the MLS, then I think I'm doing something right even if you think it's ugly. ;0)

One of the ugliest sites I have ever seen generates TONS of business for the owner (an insurance site.) She knows its ugly and she doesn't care - it works so she's keeping it.

Obviously I need to work on the upper left hand corner - there is a big yellow button there to access the MLS (which requires registration).

Thanks for the feedback - it still obviously needs some tweaking.

I changed the landing page. There are two CTAs on the top and two included in the IDX provided link. Should be easy to spot now.

He is right. You ask for others opinions on your design then get offended when there is criticism. It is very old style looking and not very attractive. But if it works it works I guess.

I'm not offended. I made changes based on his constructive criticism. But no, I'm not going to pay an arm and a leg for a different IDX when this one has served me well for years.

I can't help it if my entire site has been successful based on being "old style." I think a lot of people put more weight on design than on functionality...but buyers don't care what it looks like as long as they get what they want easily: listings and information.

I made changes (changed the CTA mostly) based on his comments. Please do not assume that I was offended when I was not. I guess you have to say "Oh yes you're 100% right" in order to not be considered "offended?"

BTW, I used "pretty" and "modern" Postlets a LOT and got ZERO activity. At any rate I'm not stressing on this too much anyway as I have done fine so far without CL and if this doesn't work, OK, I'll move on.

The older look isn't a problem as long as the page gives the visitor the information they're looking for and has clear calls to action.

A good IDX is worth it's weight gold. Newer IDXs have a plethora of features that older ones do not. What do you pay for you current IDX?

What features do you feel are "must haves?" I have very few complaints w/ my IDX...I pay about $500 a year when all is said and done for it.

Well I have a couple complaints - the main one being a very clunky search widget. Other than that though - it does everything I need it to do.

That said, this page does suck cause I haven't gotten a single lead. LOL (then again the only ones I EVER get leads for on CL are under 100,000 properties so I don't know if the page is the problem or the property...)

So anyway - hope you didn't think I was being a pill or throwing a hissy fit - I guess I wanted a little more explanation from you...cause I know it's ugly but I know lots of ugly sites that work. lol

Found something that may help us over at Tech Savvy Agent with CL free ebook cracking the craigslist code

Looked interesting so I downloaded and read it. Tried their ideas and was immediately dinged by Craigslist. My account had to be reverified and the ads were deleted.

So much for that eh?

What did you do?

I posted 3 ads the other day but none were dinged that I know of. Not sure if they got "ghosted"

My friend posted an ad and got zinged. I think it depends on who is looking. Could be a competitor flagged you?

I had a few visits to my website due to the ads and got one lead

I think that download was helpful but I do not agree with everything in it. I found that if I do not post a picture the response rate drops dramatically, but I only post one pic and my call to action on CL ads is something like "For more info or pictures visit link "

Sorry you got pegged, I am getting ready to head over to CL and post my daily 5 in a little while.

I suggest that you always hide your email address also to cut down on the spammers.

I found about 11AM is the best time for me to post, too early I get covered up, too late and I miss too many people. What time works for you?

Actually I think they were ghosted, which I had never heard of until I read the book. But then no one is really sure what causes ghosting either. CL seems to like mystery..

I basically did the teaser headline / ad with a link for more info. After the third ad it told me I needed a new password (seemed like they were watching me). Then I had to phone verify again. I then posted a 4th ad and none of them ever were posted from what I can tell.

I'll try again in a few days and see if the problem repeats.

I posted 4 the other day at 10:00 a.m. I might try again after noon another time. the 4th one took a long time to "show up." So I'm only going to do 3 at a time now - I got the idea that the 4th one raised a flag somewhere.

I have not gotten dinged by them for anything yet other than once when I posted the same house in two different craigslists, which is kind of lame. We have two different one that have an overlapping geographical area, so it makes sense to post in both but craigslist doesn't like that. I got one pulled but never had to jump through any hoops or anything to post again.

I post a picture, (I think the thing in the book about posting a white graphic to make "img" show up in the listing is LAME and a great way to tick people off.) I post 1 picture and a link to more info that goes directly to the listing info - plus a link to search the MLS. Another agent in my office got "flagged" for doing the same thing but I did not.

Weird.

The guy that wrote that book are the root of the strategy I was mentioning earlier. Due to the strategies in that book coupled with our SEO, we had our first week with 1,000+ unique visitors on our site last week

We use seven different accounts to post. With gmail, if you add the plus symbol and words after email addy, the emails will all go to your regular gmail account.

For example username@gmail.com is the same as username+mon@gmail.com and username+tue@gmail.com. Now all you need are seven verifiable phone numbers

Lately I've gotten fed up with Craigslist. I post an ad or 2 and then have to phone verify. Do so then 2 ads later have to again. Wait 3 days, post an ad and have to verify.

Has anybody else run into this?

I keep seeing people say it's a great place to get leads and when I was able to easily use it I saw spikes in web traffic. But it's getting more cumbersome to deal with. Not sure it's worth the trouble. Even created a new account and same thing happens to it.

I got that the other day. I guess it's to keep robo-posters or "flood posters" at bay.

btw, my craigslist landing page did squat but I'm closing on the house on Friday anyway. LOL

I don't do CL as often as they say you should mostly cause it's a pain and I have other more important things to do.

If you really want to get responses from CL then you pay people to post for you html ads. You can get it done for 25 cents an ad and have them done 10+ times a day which greatly increases response. A little black hat but it gets the job done...

Get some one at fiverr to make you a nice html ad. Then use Freelancer to find low cost posters. Post in one city or several, depending on your goals.

We use three accounts, one for Mon, one for The and one for Wed so that we don't have to worry about that 48 hour repost rule.

We post an average of 30 ads per day an get about 3 leads from them. All ads are text only and drive people back to our site for photos and pricing.

I hope this helps.

I post once a week on CL and I get that verification page all the time. Annoying!