Free Classifieds And Their Benefits

Free classifieds have been popping up all over the Internet for years now. Craigslist was one of the first online classified sites, and has grown to become the biggest classified source, bringing in over 14 million unique visitors a month according to comScore Media Metrix. Of course with that many visitors, you also have a lot of over-saturation. You could have the best ad in the world, but it doesn't necessarily mean 14 million people are going to visit it. This is why it's important to post on a few different sites, maybe even ones you have never heard of before - obviously they exist, so they have to be known to someone! One of the major benefits of free classifieds is that they are... FREE. This means you can post as many ads that you want to (without spamming), and that you can post on as many sites as you want.

Some sites are paid, but these are the ones I usually try to stay away from unless it's optional. When you post free ads, you are essentially "advertising" to people that visit that website. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?!? Secondly, your ad will be a targeted search, well, as long as you follow the rules it will be. For example, if you are selling fishing tackle, post it in the sports or entertainment section and you will find actual people interested in buying the tackle. Post it in the video games section, and you could just end up annoying people with your lack of instruction.

Next, you have a variety of ways to post free ads. You can either do a very plain black and white ad, or you could spruce it up a little bit. Some classified ads sites will have html incorporated, while others will use a Rich Text Editor and some will let you post unlimited amounts of pictures. Personally, I like the sites that have the rich text editor because I really stink at html and in order for me to bold this or underline that, I have to go to WebMonkey and look at their cheat sheet and it really just takes more time than I would like it to! If you use a site that has the Rich Text Editor, it means YOU don't have to know any html codes.

Just highlight the words you want to change, click the correct button and voila, you are done. You can change the font size, color, add in highlights, whatever you want. One tip: Don't use neon colors! We're not trying to blind the visitors that look at your ad, we're trying to attract them enough to click the link! Lastly, one of the major benefits to classified ads is the placement. If you want to sell something in your location and you don't want people to pay for shipping and handling, you can quite find someone in your location - for pick up.

Or, if you don't mind making the person pay for shipping and handling and you want a larger client base of people, you could advertise world-wide. Most sites will have all the US states, plus a few dozen countries across the world, so make sure you look out for this and use whichever site necessary.