CraigsList Secrets Revealed
Transcript of CraigsList Secrets Revealed
CRAIGS LIST SECRETS REVEALED
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CraigsList Secrets Revealed By Mark Gabel
A definitive look at the newest, most exciting, and most profitable methods
for driving massive traffic to any website, blog, affiliate web site or webpage.
Copyright © 2007 Jmar Marketing Concepts. All rights reserved. This book may not be resold, copied, reprinted or reproduced by any means either electronic or mechanical without written permission. Violators
will be prosecuted by the fullest extent of national and internet copyright laws.
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1 – Posting Your Ad Posting Ads……………………………………………………………………….8
Types of Ads to Post……………………………………………………………...9
How to Begin……………………………………………………………………10
Posting Warnings………………………………………………………………..11
Ad Length……………………………………………………………………….12
Speak the Language……………………………………………………………..12
What to Include in the Body of Your Ad……………………………………….12
Posting Categories………………………………………………………………13
Ad Posting Details………………………………………………………………14
Posting Ad Images………………………………………………………………17
Ad Life Spans…………………………………………………………………...17
Chapter 2 – Creating Your Ad Subject Line……………………………………………………………………..18
How Does it Compare?…………………………………………………...……..19
The Body………………………………………………………………………..21
Using Images……………………………………………………………………22
Clip Art Examples………………………………………………………………23
Chapter 3 – Creating the Craigslist Sales Process Ad Creation Process…………………………………………………………….25
Squeeze or Landing Page Offer………………………………………………...26
Chapter 4 – Best Products to Sell on Craigslist Drop Shipping…………………………………………………………………28
Creating an Online Store………………………………………………………34
Affiliate Marketing…………………………………………………………… 35
Downloadables………………………………………………………………...37
The Right Affiliate Product for Craigslist……………………………………..39
Clickbank Rankings…………………………………………………………....39
Google Search………………………………………………………………….40
Google Search Marketing Using Craigslist……………………………………40
Creating an Affiliate Ad……………………………………………………….43
Generating Ads Using Craigslist…………………….………………………...45
The Squeeze Page Method..…………………………………………………...45
Lead Generation Only…………………………………………………………47
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Chapter 5 – Testing Test and Re-Test………………………………………………………………50
Tracking: the second half of ad testing……….………………………………52
Conclusion……………………………………………..………………56
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Introduction
About Craigslist.org Tap into the heart of the world’s most unique and popular Internet site. Craigslist.org gives new meaning to the word
“community,” while at the same time breathing new life
into the online marketing community. For the first time
ever, anyone can promote a product or service ranging
from real estate to fishing lures and do it very effectively – for free!
At first glance, Craigslist.org can be somewhat deceiving; it
has the look and feel of a small, sleepy local site that
doesn’t attract much attention. Admittedly, that’s exactly how Craigslist.org got started: as a small, sleepy local site
dedicated to the San Francisco community.
To be completely candid, Craigslist.org won’t be winning
design awards anytime soon. But behind that sleepy façade lies a giant classified ad hosting site that has turned the
virtual world on its ear.
Now rededicated to the whole world, Craigslist.org holds
tremendous potential for your marketing efforts.
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Behind CraigsList – Looks Can Be Deceiving
With over 5 billion page views per month and representation in nearly 500 cities throughout the world,
Craigslist.org defies standard Internet logic, partly because
it didn’t start out as a normal fledging start up. It had no
influx of capital, no unusual master plan, and it certainly
didn’t intend to take over the Internet.
Simply put, it was one man’s desire to bring a community
together in a simple and straightforward manner, using the
Internet as a vehicle.
Craigslist.org home page in its simplistic, unassuming format.
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It is said that Craigslist defies logic because it is not
operated by traditional corporate protocol. Indeed, this is true.
Wall Street experts were stunned when Craigslist.org’s
financial guru Jim Buckmaster admitted the site has little
interest in maximizing profits from the site, opting instead to support the community by helping users find cars,
apartments, jobs, dates, and the like by allowing free
posting of short classified ads.
As remarkable as it may be, the concept works extremely
well, as is evidenced by the nearly 13 million classified ads
posted each month; a number which continues to grow at
an amazing rate.
Founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark, a senior programmer
in the San Francisco Bay Area, Craigslist.org has established itself as an exceptionally reputable and
powerful Internet business with an extremely loyal
following.
Craigslist world headquarters in San Francisco’s Sunset District
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As of this writing, Craigslist.org is listed in 34th place
overall among world web sites, and in 8th place according
to Alexa.com. Only Yahoo, Google, Myspace, MSN, Ebay, Youtube, and the Facebook rank higher. With the bulk of
traffic coming from the United States, other countries are
catching on quickly.
As a matter of fact, it’s interesting to note that recently
bloggers have reported (and it has been confirmed) that
Yahoo uses Craigslist.org to fill Yahoo jobs.
Craigslist world headquarters in San Francisco’s Sunset District
Craigslist City Rankings as per Alexa.com sfbay.craigslist.org - 14%
newyork.craigslist.org - 10% losangeles.craigslist.org - 8% seattle.craigslist.org - 4%
sandiego.craigslist.org - 3% boston.craigslist.org - 3%
chicago.craigslist.org - 3% vancouver.craigslist.org - 3%
orangecounty.craigslist.org - 3% atlanta.craigslist.org - 2%
SIDE NOTE: Craigslist.org maintains the dot.org
domain name because it symbolizes its service mission
and non-corporate culture.
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Chapter 1
Posting Ads Craigslist.org is mostly free of charge; the only ‘for pay’
postings are in the jobs category, which is primarily used by large corporations. This allows free posting for most
any product or service.
But hold on a minute! Before you go hog wild and crazy
thinking you’re going to slam the entire site by posting everywhere, let’s take a closer look at the where- and
why-fors of posting an ad on Craigslist.org .
It would be natural to assume that with such a large
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audience ads could be posted in every possible category,
which would logically lead to obtaining tremendous results,
especially being free. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it
should be taken abused. Acting in a constrained and
respectful manner and abiding by the terms of service that
have been set forth is not only the right thing to do, it is
mutually beneficial and strengthens your effectiveness.
To create and maintain an effective environment,
Craigslist.org departs from the normal classified ad model
with its unique, member-driven, self-monitored approach. While this revelation may be bothersome to some,
spamming and unacceptable posting behavior is not
tolerated and will get you booted. More about that a little
later.
Types of Ads to Post
Two types of ad are possible: 1) commercial and 2) non
commercial, which also deal in forum-type ads. For our
purposes we will contain our discussion to commercial
postings.
Commercial ads may be posted in categories such as
resumes, events, gigs, for sale, etc. Each is governed by a
set of rules that differ depending upon the particular
category. (These may relate to the areas of pornography, harassment, racial profiling, national defense, etc. To
learn the details and how they apply to your posts, go to
Craiglist.org.)
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How to Begin
Of course, to start out it is necessary to sign up for a free
account. Once you’ve completed this short process you will be asked to confirm and enter a password. It’s that
simple.
Ad Posting Form
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Posting Warning
Be forewarned that it is not unusual to find that your ad
has been flagged and removed, not by a staff member, but by another member/poster. Yes, you read correctly: any
member/poster can suggest that an ad be removed by
flagging it if they feel it is contrary to the terms of service.
Such actions serve to keep Craigslist free from things that
would lessen the effectiveness of your ads. See terms of service.
Ad Flagging Form
I learned this lesson the hard way when one of my ads was
flagged during one of my first posting sessions. Upon
investigation, I found that it had been done by a
member/poster. It wasn’t until much later that I learned I had inadvertently placed my ad in the wrong category, but
I guess we live and learn by our mistakes.
Forums and sites such as Craigslist attract all sorts of people with varying attitudes; and at times, emotions can
run high - especially within certain categories.
For example, the other day I personally flagged a hate
post. It involved a realtor who posted derogatory remarks against his local competitor, something that is strictly
forbidden. I flagged him because I felt this was not in
keeping with a spirit of camaraderie and was definitely
contrary to the philosophy of the board. If that post were
allowed to remain, it would contribute toward diminishing the quality of the site and encourage similar behavior.
Following these simple rules will probably keep you from
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getting flagged and will likely lead to more sales
conversions for your ads.
Ad Length
In my experience, I’ve found that short, direct, to-the-
point ads work best. It’s important to describe your
product or service in a clear and concise manner using
common language. Try not to use big words. Create an ad just as you would say it. It’s a good idea to read your
ad out loud before posting it. This gives you a different
perspective from which you can improve it.
Remember that you’re competing with thousands of other
ads, and that readers have a choice. Make it easy for
them to read and understand your ad. If you don’t, the
reader will move quickly to your competitor.
Speak the Readers’ Language
Speaking the readers’ language doesn’t mean you should
use German or Italian. It means using language that your
reader understands - down to earth, common English.
Simplicity in language requires that you forget what you’ve
learned in English class and write just as you would speak.
The reader scans the ad for keywords that relate to what
he is looking for. If he finds those words, he will continue
to read. If not, he will go to the next ad.
What to Include in the Body of Your Ad
Think of your ad as a launching pad. It’s a spring board
for the reader to obtain more information, so be sure to provide a link to a web page, an email address, and God
forbid a telephone number that can supply the reader with
that information. For automation purposes, it is not best
to post an email address. This requires manual responses,
something that is not recommended. (More on this topic later.)
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It’s important to note that the goal of your ad copy is not
to sell the product; it is to create a call to action. This
important fact is easily forgotten, especially if you’re passionate about your product. Many posters tend to want
to go on and on about how good the product or service is,
how shiny it is, how light it is, etc. Try to avoid this
temptation.
Just plant a seed and tease the reader with short
statements that encourage him to seek more information.
There are many visual methods to call attention within the
body of your ad.
Here’s what one poster added: *********************************************************************** SIDENOTE: If you're in a hurry, go ahead and check out this URL to see what I'm talking about. ***********************************************************************
Note the use of *, as well as the “SIDENOTE.” It sets off the call to action.
Posting Categories
At the risk of sounding repetitive, it’s important and logical to post ads in categories relevant to the product or service.
This is where people expect to look. It’s a misconception
to think that everyone on Craigslist wants what you have
to sell. Zero in on who your prospect is and target him or
her specifically. For example, if you’re a computer geek posting your services, post it in “Computers” or a similar
category and not in apartments for rent.
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Posting your ad in an area that doesn’t suit your product or
service is also the fast-track to getting flagged (having
your ad deleted), or worse yet, getting permanently banned from further postings by the Craigslist staff. This
can be done because Craigslist.org not only maintains a
complete log of all postings and email addresses, but they
monitor each member’s IP address, along with proxy
servers. If your IP address is banned, you’re banned, and once that happens chances of returning to post are slim.
Ad Posting Details
are the best locations for your particular campaign. One of the most efficient methods is to log on to Alexa.com for
rankings on Craigslist.
It helps to know your
audience’s habits. It’s all part
of doing your homework and
posting in the areas which are going to get you the most
results and make the best use
of your time.
The first step in posting on
Craigslist is choosing the
geographical location.
Try to rid yourself of the
temptation to post only in cities
where you have a “gut feeling.”
Remember this is not about
your instincts; it’s about the results of your research.
There are a few strategies to
use to determine which cities
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Specifically, check the “where people go on Craigslist” topic
located at the bottom of the Alexa page linked above and
below. This will not only get your ad in the most effective geographical location, it will save a lot of time in the long run.
Another standby method is
to just “Google it”. This will give an excellent overview of
the popularity frequency of
ad posts on Craigslist.
If searching for “fishing
lures” try adding the word
“Craigslist” to your search like this: “fishing lures on
craigslist.” You will find
hundreds of listings which
have been crawled or listed by the search engine bots or
spyders.
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Craigslist.org is
further broken down into countries,
states, and cities.
More specifically,
Craigslist provides
population figures for each city. This makes it easier to determine where to
post your ad.
Each city will then have its own category as indicated below. Choose the one best suited to your particular product or
service. Clicking on a category will lead you to the specific
posting area.
If you want to post in a particular city
and it’s not listed, Craigslist.org allows
its member/posters to add cities.
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Posting Ad Images
Up to four images may be posted in one ad.
Your Ad’s Life Span
Normal postings are live for 7 days for classifieds.
Resumes, jobs, gigs and events postings remain for a longer period of time. To be sure how long your post will
be live check Craigslist.org for details.
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CHAPTER 2 – Creating Your Ad
The Subject Line
When creating your ad, create a subject line that grabs your
intended audience. This is not just important; it is crucial, because if your subject line doesn’t interest your reader, he
won’t view your ad.
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As a beginner on Craigslist, it’s wise to first peruse the
subject lines of various categories to find those that relate to your product or service. Doing this doesn’t mean that
you will want to copy your competitors; it makes you
aware of what your competitors are doing and how they
are promoting.
Your Ad - How Does It Compare?
Experts tell us to be sure to check ad positioning often and
review its competitive posture.
It’s always a good practice to keep track of ads that are
within your product or service category. Soon you will get
a feel for how you rank with others with similar ads. Ads
that don’t change over a period of time suggest that they are successful and successful ads don’t get changed
because they are pulling - why change a good thing? Ads
that are constantly changing suggest they are not pulling.
Usually after monitoring ads for a period of time you’ll find
that poor ads will disappear and better ones pop up. This is a great method of learning what works and what
doesn’t.
An alert business person is always on top of his advertising
efforts. He knows when to make changes and when not to. Craigslist.org makes it very easy to stay on top of
things. It’s very easy to quickly make changes when
necessary.
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In the following example, you will find subject lines that
appeal to readers along with some that don’t.
Those circled in red are subject lines that appeal to readers
and will most likely get opened. Those in green don’t
excite the reader and will likely get passed by. Make sure
that your subject line has the appeal to tempt, excite, persuade and motivate the reader into clicking on your link
and not the ones above and below.
Notice the use of all caps in some of the postings. To the
uninformed, the use of caps signifies yelling. Avoid this at
all costs because it does nothing for you and could potentially decrease an otherwise good subject line’s
effectiveness. If you feel compelled to use caps, there’s a
widely used and accepted method, which is to Capitalize
The First Letter Of Each Word in a subject line.
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There are as many subject lines as there are ads. One of
the most compelling and perhaps somewhat overused is
“As Seen On TV.” This subject line will work well if edited to read, “As Seen On The Oprah Show,” or “As Seen On
NBC’s Dateline.”
The Body
Next, let’s consider the ad body content. Don’t make the
mistake many make by trying to sell the product or service here. This area is designed to give the reader just enough
information to click on your link, call a telephone number,
or send an email to obtain more specific information.
Think of this as the second rung of the sales conversation
ladder.
According to Craigslist, adding an email address is your
choice. Usually you want to remain anonymous. Adding an email or URL within the body is recommended.
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Using Images One major consideration is whether or not to add an
image. I know, sometimes it seems like a waste of time
and sometimes difficult to include graphics because they
may be hard to find and can be more time consuming. Trust me; this is extremely vital to your ad’s success.
Chances are slim to none that ads without images will
convert to sales and here is why.
When you browse ads on Craigslist.org, did you happen to notice the little text just to the right of some ads that
reads, “img” or “pic” in yellow?
This
indicates that the
ad
includes
an image
of a product or service. It has been proven that a graphic image in any ad will increase the ad’s readership by as
much as 93%! The “pic” and “img” tag becomes an alert
that entices the reader to open that ad before the others.
As the old saying goes, it’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
I must confess that I will click only on subject lines that
indicate an image. If I don’t find what I’m looking for in
that ad, then and only then will I go for ads without images. I’m not a betting man, but I would be willing to
bet that you do the same thing - I rest my case!
For example, let’s say you’re searching for a used car.
Would your first inclination be to click on ads without images? Certainly not. You would most likely click on ads
with pictures of cars. Seeing the car, apartment, product
or a picture of the person who is providing a service is an
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important part in making your buying decision.
As my friend the clothing salesman once told me, “Get the customer in front of the mirror where he can picture
himself owning the product.” It’s no different in your ad.
The prospective buyer must be able to transfer his persona
into the ownership of your product or service through the
picture you provide.
No matter what you’re promoting, it’s vital to add an
image to all of your ads, and under the circumstances it’s a
waste of your time NOT to do this.
Don’t have an image of your product? If you’re an affiliate,
reseller, or partner, the company you represent will have
clip art or some form of advertising. If not, an excellent
source is Microsoft. They provide great looking, free clip art that is readily accessible and easy to use.
Clip Art Examples
Clip Art Examples
SIDE NOTE: Whenever possible, use a picture in your Craigslist.org ads to improve your sales conversions.
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Chapter 3
Creating the Craigslist Sales Process
One may think placing an ad is all that is necessary to sell
a product or service, but to be honest it takes more than just that. In creating an ad campaign (a campaign is
exactly what you are doing since just one ad won’t gather
many results), it’s important to remember that all the
steps that take place in a live sale must be replicated in your Craigslist efforts.
By following a simple procedure, you fill in the gaps, so to
speak, with a set of steps that replicate a live, one-on-one
sales presentation, even to the point of building up loyalty with the prospective buyer.
It must be noted that there are hundreds if not thousands
of competitors to your product or service. The old saying ‘it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease’ applies here.
Take advantage of everything possible to make your ad
rise above the sea of the dull and ordinary.
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Ad Creation Process
1. Ad Creation
a. Subject line – grab the reader’s attention
b. Body – create a call to action c. Graphic – increases opens by “img” or “pic”
addition in ads listings
d. Link – further product information
2. Squeeze or lead capture page offer a. Sales copy – can include incentive offer
b. Follow up – retain lead prospects
3. Email follow-up
a. Autoresponder - necessary to retain generated leads and sell up or back-end
4. Web tracking – Statistics record hits on selected
pages a. Tweak the ad body content
b. Tweak the subject line
c. Add or changing the graphic
d. Edit the ad or the “squeeze page”
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“Squeeze” and Landing Pages - What are they?
Squeeze pages are sometimes mislabeled as landing pages
and vice-versa. Actually, they are not the same. A squeeze or lead capture page differs from a landing page in
that it captures information through a form from a
prospective buyer while the landing page has no means of
capturing information but will contain product or service
information.
While squeeze pages can contain product information and
can be tracked with tracking software (we will discuss tracking software in detail later), they are extremely
valuable in the follow up process - don’t leave Craigslist
without one. Note that the copy
specifically
encourages
prospects to subscribe to
receive a 5-part
email series. My
reasoning for this
was simple.
I advertised in a
high traffic area to
obtain names of
people who were interested in
obtaining
information on
making money on
eBay. I knew that I couldn’t keep sending eBay information to them forever,
so I decided to mine the list further to find out which
people were interested in other products. So I did some
research to learn what products would be best suited for
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this target audience.
Through that research I quickly learned that Google AdWords was a good match – perhaps not as good a match
as Craigslist, but a good match nevertheless.
To sum it up, I created this squeeze page to feature the
new product offering to get the most out of my original list. The result was a success…both in terms of segmenting the
list and sales conversions.
A far as my list, what I did was to create another sub-list from my main list and began to back-end them with my
newly found product. Experts will agree, it’s better to split
or sub-categorize a list rather than run the risk of
subscribers canceling due lack of interest in what you’re
emailing them.
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Chapter 4 Selecting the Best Products In this chapter we will discuss two broad product
categories and the best methods for marketing them. There are basically two categories of product to consider
when placing ads on Craigslist.org: drop shippables and
downloadables.
Products
• Drop Shippable/eBay
• Downloadable/Clickbank & affiliates
Product marketing concepts
• Lead Generation
• AdSense Marketing
Drop Shipping Did you think you would get away without reading the word “eBay” today? I didn’t think so. Actually, Craigslist
and eBay make better companions than competitors, and
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here’s why.
Millions of people sell all sorts of goods and services on eBay; and I’m sure you’ve lamented the fact that the
competition is fierce, and there seems to be no solution.
Take heart, you’ve found it!
Craigslist.org is the perfect advertising vehicle to send prospects to your eBay store. If you don’t have an eBay
store, I highly recommend setting one up and adding
Craigslist.org to the advertising mix. You’ll thank me for
this!
Craigslist.org has the traffic resources to drive massive
amounts of traffic to your eBay site not only from the ads
you place but also from the exposure you will get from the
Google search engine.
Once you post an ad on Craigslist, search engines like
Google and Yahoo, pick up on it and list it. So voila,
you’ve got another audience for your eBay store - how
simple yet tremendously effective - and did I mention that it’s all FREE?
But, and there’s always a “but,” what will you sell on eBay?
Do you have your own products? If not, perhaps you should become a sales agent for a company who can
provide you with products of all types to sell. There are
several drop shipping companies that provide such
services.
For those who are not familiar with the term “drop
shipping,” it’s used to define products that are shipped to
the buyer from a location other than your own.
Drop shipping has multiple advantages, not the least of
which is the absence of stocking requirements. This
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means that there are no warehousing costs, no
requirements to purchase products up front; which is
excellent for those who are just beginning or working on a limited budget. Usually these companies charge a yearly or
membership fee.
Drop shipping companies offer all sorts of products, from
household items to sporting goods, and then ship them for their reseller to a designated buyer somewhere in the
world under your company name.
If you are involved with eBay, some drop shippers have a connection to, or are partnered with eBay. This
partnership can be advantageous for the reseller because
many of these companies do market research, which in
turn produces valuable advertising and marketing
information which they willingly share with their members in the form of advertising materials. This is not to say that
you must become affiliated with only these companies, but
this sort of affiliation or partnership is helpful in the
beginning stages of any business.
Let’s go back to our fishing lure example. Assuming that
you have an eBay store already set up (setting up an eBay
store is not a part of this discussion, but we will touch on it
a bit later in this chapter); using all the above mentioned
posting criteria, this is what the Craigslist ad would look like.
Notice that this ad is brief and to the point. It’s easy to
read and has a subject line that will make the reader want
to open it.
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But, as mentioned previously, be careful
that an overzealous
member/poster doesn’t
flag it for using a subject line such as “Big Mouth”
- someone may not
think it politically
correct.
Notice the link. It
makes no mention of
your eBay store, and it
really does not have to.
But there are two ways
to handle the link: one is
to cloak it as I’ve done in the example, and the
other is to post it as is.
Here’s how to hide a
link: <a href=”http://yourdomainname.com”>Click here</a>
Getting back to the ad copy, of course you could add more
to it, but to do so would require some testing. (Refer to
the up-coming discussions on testing.)
Those new to any form of online advertising will run the
risk of trying to sell every product in their line up in a
single ad. Try to avoid this temptation especially since
Craigslist is a free service.
More is better, right? Wrong!
This is definitely a no-no. Why? Simply because 99% of
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the time less is better, targeting is better, and focusing is
better. Get the picture?
It’s a proven psychological fact that given too many
choices, we humans have a tendency to choose nothing;
ergo, provide fewer choices. So it would stand to reason that if you limit the choices to one product, the more
chance you have of your prospect buying it.
Think twice about promoting fishing boots, poles, fish lines,
nets, boats and other fishing gear in one ad and focus on one specific product like “Big Mouth Bass Fishing Lures” for
example.
Proper Ad Placement
If you recall, previously we discussed advertising only in
appropriately targeted areas and not “shot-gunning” your
product or service in multiple no-related categories. This
approach won’t work on Craigslist, and will most likely get
you booted. So where should you place your ads?
The best and most effective place to place your ads is
within the category that is suggested
by your product or service. Since Craigslist has categories for anything
you may want to sell and then some,
let’s turn to our fishing lure example.
For instance, let’s say that we want to post in the “for sale”
category under “sporting goods.”
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After selecting the geographical
locations, we will post our ad
within the “for sale/wanted” category and once clicked the ad
can be posted and will appear in
the “sporting” category on the
main page.
In our example ad, even though
we are sending our prospect directly to our eBay store, there is another component that may be added between
Craigslist.org and eBay that would add to your sales
conversions, a “squeeze” page.
The squeeze page could offer something of value such as an e-book, perhaps “Bass Catching Secrets.”
This process will not only direct the prospect to the eBay
store but will begin to build a relationship of trust and
loyalty as well as to enable you to capture the prospect’s email address and follow up with future product offers in
the same basic sporting goods category. Experts in the
field call this ‘selling up’ or ‘back-ending’, which is
something that every good marketer should be doing
100% of the time.
Anyone who knows anything about marketing will plan for
and implement a backend or up sell stage to their buyers
as well as prospective buyers. Supermarkets and large mass merchants such as Wal-Mart and Target do it all the
time.
Walk into any Wal-Mart, Target, Sam’s Club, or Albertsons,
and look at the check out lanes and there you will see hordes of products that they are back-ending to you. Many
of the isles contain companion products. Wal-Mart sold
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record amounts of duct tape by back-end marketing when
everyone thought duct tap was not selling. So don’t try to
convince me that you never bought a back-end product like a candy bar just before checking out, I did!
It is important to remember that gathering names for a
mailing list is fundamental in any online or offline
marketing endeavor. By doing so, you are creating a list of potential buyers that are pre-conditioned to your
product category as well as your company.
The use of an emailing list or database to further your marketing efforts is highly recommended and extremely
valuable, and will be discussed in more detail in
conjunction with more on squeeze pages later on.
Create an Online Store
Previously we discussed the advantages of adding an eBay
Store and using Craigslist to drive traffic to it. Although we
won’t be going into any great detail on this concept, suffice
it to say that in addition to, or as an alternative to, the eBay store there is also a Yahoo Store which is very
popular.
Basically, the Yahoo store is easier to set-up and will cost a
bit more, but will produce longer lasting results. There are advantages to owning both because an eBay store is easily
outgrown and would need to be expanded. The best
method, if only one store is called for, is not to just open
one and close the other, but to gradually phase one in and the other out. To learn more about opening a Yahoo store,
visit Yahoo.com.
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Affiliate Marketing One of the easiest and fastest ways of earning money
using Craigslist.org is through affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing offers a distinct advantage over eBay/Yahoo and the drop-shipping concept because it
doesn’t require extra cash for stores or web sites.
Ultimately, affiliates have a limited investment and an
enormous opportunity for large cash revenues.
In affiliate marketing there is no limit to the number of
products that are available. A wide variety of individual
products can be found by doing a Google search. There
are several companies that host a myriad of products
under one umbrella.
Companies such as Clickbank, Advaliant, Search Cactus,
Performics, Commission Junction paydotcom.com
immediately come to mind. I’m sure there are others, but
these are the majors. For our discussion purposes, we will focus on Clickbank.
Clickbank attracts large numbers of affiliates because it has
become the Internet’s leading retailer of digital products,
dealing exclusively in downloadable software and eBooks. Please understand that not all affiliate programs are
downloadable, but the majority are.
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Clickbank offers a choice of hundreds, if not thousands, of
software products and electronic books known as e-books
with subjects that range anywhere from diets to keyword
software and everything in between.
With Clickbank, as with any other company relationship, it
is important to choose the right products to promote. On
the surface it may seem like easy, but trust me when I say
this is probably the most difficult and most important part of selling anything online.
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Downloadables
Downloadables are much easier to work with than drop.
First, there is very little up-front cash to invest. It’s clearly a process of advertising and marketing. Upon
investigation, the “newbie” will find that Clickbank has
hundreds of thousands of affiliates, which may be cause for
alarm. As a matter of fact, every affiliate company has a
large number of affiliates, but not all of them are active at the same time or promote the same products as you
might. Besides, the Internet is a substantial venue to sell
in, so don’t concern yourself with that issue.
Joining Clickbank is free and fast. Once you’re an affiliate
you'll have instant access to over 10,000 products with
commissions as high as 75%. You'll appreciate their fast
and accurate tracking system and especially their
dependable, on-time payment services.
When choosing the downloadable product to promote, it’s
necessary to take into consideration various factors that
will have a direct influence on sales conversions such as
customer and market appeal.
Does the product appeal to a large segment of the
population, or is it niche specific, meaning that it appeals
to a smaller segment of the market (such as a book on the
mating habits of the twin tailed blue marlin)?
Choosing a product that has wide universal appeal will
translate into large conversions. Usually the wider the
product appeal, the lower the price, and the lower the commission. All this means is that it is usually offset by
larger volume sales inherent in the product.
Let’s talk commission for a moment. Is there enough
money left over to sustain the cost of selling the product? In other words, is there enough money built into the
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commission to advertise the product? This is where
Craigslist is most definitely a big help. Remember, it’s free.
Next we need to consider the pitch or sales web page. Is it
appealing to the general public? Note that I said the
general public and NOT you? It’s necessary to remain
neutral in the selection process by not putting yourself into
the equation. Remember, you’re not the buyer. You may have different likes and dislikes. It’s better to rely on
good, solid research and not your gut feelings.
Generally speaking, pitch pages or sales pages are those that extol the benefits more than the product itself. This
may seem a bit unorthodox, but remember that this is the
Internet, and immediate satisfaction (and perhaps some
fantasy) is needed in order to elicit a response from the
reader. The more the reader can visualize the benefits of the product the more likely he is to purchase it.
Here’s the biggest no-no in your selection process: DO
NOT select a product that includes a telephone number on
the sales page. This encourages prospective buyers to call the number and most likely you will get cut out of a
commission if they place the order over the phone. Some
reputable companies will try to determine which affiliate
page the buyer is on, but in most cases this is next to
impossible. Usually, reputable and savvy companies will not engage in this practice, but be sure to check this out
before you make your final choice.
While there are other considerations that will affect your choice, such as your passion for a particular product, your
ability to work better with one product over another, etc.,
keep your choice of products within one general category.
It will be easer and much less expensive to advertise and
will produce bigger results.
Think of it as owning a brick and mortar store such as a
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sporting goods store, a gas station, or a pet shop. None of
these businesses have much or anything in common, and
you won’t be able to consolidate your advertising. It’s the same in the online business world.
Methods of Choosing Affiliate Products
for Craigslist There are two recommended methods used to effectively choose the right product: Clickbank rankings and Google
search.
Clickbank provides what it calls a Rankings System. This
makes available on-going survey results for product
performance in four different and distinct areas; net earnings, earned sale, referred, and gravity.
Clickbank Rankings
See examples below for details of each ranking category.
By applying these survey results to your product selection process you eliminate the risk of using emotion over solid
research.
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Google Search Once you’ve done your research in Clickbank Rankings
System, do a Google short and long tail search (short tail
keywords are phrases of 3 words or less, while long tail keywords are 4 words or more) to get a better feel of the
market potential for your product.
In searching for keywords, it
helps to automate the process.
I use a piece of software called
Ad Word Analyzer that scans the past thirty days of Google and
Overture searches and spits out
results in seconds. I can further
sort keywords into various
categories to suit my needs. Obviously, this is a task that
would take me hours to do by
hand, but with this software it’s
done in minutes, if not seconds.
Affiliate Product
Selection Using Google
As previously mentioned,
Craigslist effectiveness becomes
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ever so clear when the word “Craigslist” is added to your
Google search keywords.
By applying this same concept to choosing affiliate
products it’s easy to ascertain the validity of promoting one
product over another.
As we did before add the keyword “Craigslist” to the keyword phrase “make money at home.” The result will
turn up hundreds of pages of Craigslist postings allowing
you to further determine the market potential of your
product or service on Craigslist.org.
One important factor to uncover is the popularity of the
product. A large number of ads for on product may be a
red flag that you may want to pass it up for a less popular
one and one that can be advertised more effectively while producing a good commission rate.
Market potential should be in the forefront of your
research. I can’t stress enough the importance relying not on your gut instinct, but on good solid research.
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Craigslist.org & Google AdSense Next, let’s consider using Craigslist for AdSense. AdSense and Craigslist, I hear your cry? I admit, at first it doesn’t
make sense but after you read this it will be indeed make a
lot of sense. Craigslist is one of the best partners AdSense
can have!
I’m sure you are familiar with Google’s method of buying
space on web pages called AdSense. If not, let me give a
brief overview.
Google AdSense is a method website publishers use to display relevant Google ads on their website's pages and
earn money doing so. Because the ad content is related to
what visitors are looking for they’re matched to the
characteristics and interests of the visitors seek — a profitable way both monetize and enhance any web site.
When setting up an AdSense page or site, remember to
place legitimate content on it that pertains to one product
service or subject, otherwise the Google spyders won’t know what ads to show. So whether it’s snowboarding
baking bread, or information on buying stocks, you need to
have good content to begin with. First you must sign up
for an AdSense account.
Good content doesn’t mean that it should be repeated
page after page. Google has become smart to that and will
retaliate with low payments or disallow the site.
Remember to place your ads above the fold, that’s the part
that the reader sees without having to scroll down the page.
Don’t include any outgoing links to other pages or
products. You want your reader to exit through your AdSense links. Keep in mind that Google requires one
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legitimate non-AdSense link that links out of the site, but it
doesn’t have to be in a prominent location.
See the AdSense map, which
should give a better idea of what
an AdSense page should look like.
Since you’re not able to place AdSense ads anywhere except on
web pages, I know you’re
wondering how AdSense applies
to Craigslist.org.
Well, it’s simple; use Craigslist to
drive traffic to the AdSense site
by posting ads in categories
relevant to your AdSense site.
Imagine the ads that can be posted in every large city and
in categories that can be used only for non-products such
as information sites. Perhaps you have a site that contains information on cancer. This is not a product but
information and this can be placed in categories other than
categories such as “For Sale” etc.
Creating an Affiliate Ad Here’s an example of a Craigslist ad in the “Home, Do-it-
Yourself” decorating category. This ad is for a home
decorating e-book.
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As mentioned in previous pages, the subject line is the
grabber. Here we have chosen to use the “as seen on TV”
approach with the subject line that reads: “As Seen in
Woman’s Day & Family Circle”
The body is short and sweet because we realize that in
decorating pictures is what will sell the product. So we’ve
added two inviting graphics that in turn will require the
subject line in the ads area to show the “img” or “pic”
marking at the end of the subject line post ensuring countless clicks.
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Note that the link in the ad is the same as the subject line.
This is because it is familiar to the reader, and it confirms
why he clicked on the ad in the first place. Now he is more
likely to click the link to get more information.
Duplication is more effective on Craigslist ads than any
other mainly if the ad is less wordy.
Generate Leads Using Craigslist.org
Whether it’s a blog, an Internet convention, or a one-on-
one discussion of Internet marketing, the subject of lead generation seems to always come up.
There are all sorts of lead generation concepts, but to cut
to the chase, it’s common sense to assume that where there is massive traffic there has to be great potential for
generating quality leads. Craigslist.org certainly fills the
bill on this score as well.
The Squeeze Page Method We’ve previously discussed (See page 26) how to use a
squeeze page to sell affiliate or drop shipped products, and
using Craigslist.org. It is also possible to expand upon this
concept by using the squeeze page method.
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The squeeze page is fast-becoming a standard sale
technique among internet gurus because it has proven to be tremendously successful. Here’s how they do it.
They set up a short page with just enough hard-hitting
teaser information to entice the reader into giving them a
name and email address in the capture form. This goes into an autoresponder that immediately sends out a
confirmation email and subscribes the individual to an
email system that sends information regarding that
particular product or service on a pre-determined timed sequence. This is called “dripping.”
The squeeze page copy may go something like this:
“Amazing FREE Videos Reveal how A Little-
Known Marketer From California Accidentally
Stumbled Onto The Magic Formula For Writing
Effective and Attention Grabbing Email
Promotions That Pull Like Crazy!”
Is it Effective? Does this work? Should I consider using it?
I should say so. But don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself. I encourage you to visit a site that shows
in detail how to construct attention-getting emails that you
can use for your email follow up campaign. These six
videos are not a waste of your time, they are timely and
very well done. Oh yes, and they’re free. Free Email Videos
The Email/Squeeze Page Factor
Our earlier fishing lure example is a highly specialized one
because it appeals to a smaller percentage of the population. In order to monetize sales to the fullest, it is
necessary to follow up with related products via sequential
emails through the use of an autoresponder.
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Of course, your email list will be small in the beginning, but
don’t worry; it will grow as you place more ads on Craigslist. Eventually it will become the heart of your
marketing efforts.
It’s important that you keep this list clean and segmented
from the very beginning. Any changes made to it later when it is larger will be time-consuming and very technical
so it’s best to keep on top of it constantly. Also remember
to keep it backed up on a regular basis to avoid losing it.
Using a squeeze page along with an autoresponder is not
only an exciting concept; it can be very a very profitable
one that you will probably use for more than one product.
Lead Generation Only
In any type of online marketing it’s vital to gain the
person’s trust and eventually his loyalty.
So far we’ve discussed lead generation in conjunction with
other methods, so now let’s return to our original
discussion of using Craigslist.org and focus our attention strictly on lead generation and how we can capitalize on
using Craiglist to gain loyalty and increase an email lead
list.
The same processes we’ve discussed can be used here except that the sales copy as such is amended to
accommodate the promise of a free gift. Possibly an e-
SIDE NOTE: For this purpose, I’ve found that the best autoresponder to use is Aweber. It has many excellent web forms as well as tracking devices to track various portions of your web form process. The Aweber people are second to none when it comes to support by phone, email, or live chat.
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book, software, a free report, etc. Whatever it is, be sure
that it is in keeping with the reader’s interest or the lead
will be useless.
Assuming that you have offers for products used for
baking, it would be wise to offer information on how to
bake Toll House cookies. This will gather names, but
remember that they will be useless unless follow-up is done with emails on baking and related products or your
list will dwindle through cancellations.
In short, any list needs to be nurtured and must be followed up by sending sequential emails that pose a
problem that the subscriber relates to and then offering
him a solution to that issue.
For example, the problem could be that your prospect is not catching enough big mouth Bass, and the solution is
that your big mouth bass fishing lure will help him catch
more. Simple, honest, and effective to be sure!
Let’s use our fishing lures scenario again. If you want to increase your fishing products email list, you may want to
offer a free book on “Fly Tying.” You can offer a reward if
he tells his friends about it. They get the book; your
prospect gets a reward, and you get more names added to
your list. It’s a win, win, win situation.
Technically, this is called “TAF” or Tell A Friend. All the big
guys do it, and if it wasn’t working, do you think they
would continue doing so? Of course not, so why not you? Here’s a good place to find what we call “TAF” scripts that
you can add to your web page.
As you can see, lead generation spills over into the email
arena simply because the nature of sequential emailing lends itself so well to increasing sales. To enjoy the fruits
of your lead generation efforts, start thinking about what
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other products you can offer to your current lead database
to up sell them on. It will be wise to experiment with the
ins and outs of this process as well.
It’s not a secret that bloggers have attracted so much
attention this past year that online marketers have set up
blogs to sell their products and services through blogs.
Unless your blog is political in nature, one of the most
difficult areas of lead generation is generating traffic for
blogs. While there are many methods of getting traffic to a
blog, there isn’t one real good method that I can recommend at this time. I must recommend Craigslist as
being perfect for this. Because a blog can contain
information as well as selling products and services, it falls
into the ad categories we previously used for AdSense ads.
A simple ad that is meant to inform can be posted with a
link to your blog. In addition to information, you can state
the problem or issue and honestly and methodically reveal
the solution through the processes discussed above.
Because blogs are read more seriously and slowly than
other types of web pages, readers are more careful, they
read more than an email or normal website. So there is a
distinct advantage to blogging because of the very act of
rolling out a message in a methodical and succinct way. Here, it’s possible to get your point across without
jeopardizing the quality of your writing - something many
talented writers or would-be writers appreciate.
But as effective as it may be (there goes that “but” word
again), the writing must be done in an, honest and skillful
manner. Any quick attempt at selling something in a
blatant manner will be very transparent and reveal any
false motives, thus rendering your efforts useless.
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Chapter 5: Testing
Testing Your Campaigns
Test, Re-test & Test Again Anyone involved in online marketing for even a week will
learn quickly and tell you that it’s all about tweak and
retest. There is no telling which subject line, body content
concept, or image will catch on and which won’t.
“Can you hear me now?”, “Where’s the beef,” and most
recently the Jenny Craig ad, “Have you called Jenny yet?”
are just some of the craziest ones that no one knew would
catch on. No one knows for sure what will be an effective ad and what won’t. It’s all based on your research, but
then it reverts back to trial and error. It’s like that in any
business and in all advertising.
Have you ever thought of how a movie is made? Directors require take after take after take. The lighting may not be
just right; a jet my have flown over disturbing the sound
track; a shadow may not have been noticed before the
take, and so on. Retakes are necessary to get everything
just right. It’s very seldom that a movie can be made with few takes. For example, Frank Sinatra in “The Manchurian
Candidate” used long one-takes for most of his scenes. He
claimed it was because he didn’t want to interrupt the flow
of his thought and acting process. One long take, he argued, gave his most convincing and concentrated
performance. No one knows for sure what really works
beforehand, but testing will bring out the reality.
So, too, your ads and emails may not be just right the first
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time out. You may be forced to test and re-test to make
sure that you get it just right.
There were times when I reworked an ad 5 to 20 times to
get it just right. Sometimes it’s a matter of wording,
perhaps just one well-selected word. Other times, the copy
may be a bit confusing to the reader. In short, there are
many things that you won’t uncover until you test it out. Once you test, you’ll know almost instantly if it works or
not and what changes to make.
Internet experts sometimes put up two different variations of the same campaign and go with the one that tests the
best. Testing can be done by sending to a targeted portion
of your list. By sending each group to a different page it’s
possible to gauge the amount of visitors to each page thus
test the call to action of the ad.
Other tests can be done using different wording in the
squeeze page form. Using two different forms and
analyzing the results can be combined with other tests to
form successful results.
Even movie studios test their pictures before presenting
them to the general public. Their results may show that
the audience doesn’t like the ending, or that a certain part
may be a bit over the top or whatever the case may be. They then go back into post production to fix these things
and re-test again until finally they have a product that they
are reasonably sure will fly. Your business should be no
different. You’re dealing with the same audience - they’re called people - and people are your life line. Listen and
give them what they want, not what they don’t want.
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I’m reminded of a story on the news recently about the
Clorox Company. They thought their target audience for
their bleach product was women from 46 to 60. Can you
imagine their surprise after testing to learn that their target audience was young men from 26 to 35? Perhaps it
was a humbling experience, but nevertheless one that will
increase bleach sales now that they know who to direct
their ads to.
Tracking – the Second Part of Ad Testing
Speaking of testing, this is an excellent opportunity to set
up a testing system of your own by tracking statistics.
Statistics or “stats” as they are called, is an all-important method of learning about the traffic you drive to your web
page, blog, or website from Craigslist.
Tracking stats can be had by creating squeeze and/or
landing pages (even if your affiliate site offers tracking, it’s advisable to purchase a domain name and create landing
or squeeze pages that link to your various offers-more on
this later) for each ad so the results may be followed to
learn how effective your campaigns are.
Technically speaking, tracking is accomplished by installing
tracking software on the domain where your squeeze or
landing pages are located.
SIDE NOTE: Expert online marketers always test their offers. They realize that when creating a promotion they may not always be correct in their approach, and as a result are prepared to test, tweak and re-test.
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Many hosting companies now provide tracking features. If
you don’t know if you have this, call your hosting company.
In some cases where tracking is not provided, there is
individual software available for free and for purchase that
can be installed on your site.
In much the same way, marketing companies use this
technique all the time to track the effectiveness of radio, TV,
and newspaper ads by using different telephone numbers,
one for each media buy. That way they can make the most
effective use of their ad dollar by investing more money on the one that produces the best results and bring up the weak
ones by tweaking the ad content to make them more
effective. It’s ultimately the same with online marketing ads
on Craigslist.org.
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Going back to our now famous fishing lure example, if you create two ads, each with different subject lines and totally
different body content then send them to two different
squeeze or landing pages, the tracking statistics will provide
enough information to be able to know which page would
work the best. Information such as traffic count, downloads, referring sites, keyword searches, and much more all fall into
the statistical mix of results.
I check my stats every morning on every site that I own.
That way I can quickly change things to make my
campaigns more effective and obtain more clicks which turns into more conversions.
Effective tracking can be accomplished by the use of
“squeeze” or “landing” pages. These pages are basically
the next step in the sales process.
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This should be no different for your Craigslist efforts. Make sure that everything you’re doing has the potential to
gather the best possible results and conversions.
Remember to plan not only for immediate but future salesas well. Your mailing list you’ve generated�will becomelike gold - your lifeblood to sustainable online success.
Here are some excellent resources for free web site tracking software.
http://sitemeter.com/
http://www.sitetracker.com/
http://cqcounter.com/
http://hitslog.com/ http://jmarmar.salehoo.hop.clickbank.net/
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Conclusion
Online marketing can be a taunting and at sometimes an
expensive task if you’re not armed with the proper
knowledge and resources. Thanks to the free resources
provided by Craigslist.org, everyone can take advantage of
this amazing opportunity.
But as with any other endeavor in life, you only get out of
it what you put into it. If you take the time to conduct
proper research and choose the proper areas of interest
that appeal to you, you can easily develop a concrete and lasting business venue.
By following the methods outlined in this book, you can
easily make your mark and effortlessly expand upon it in
the future. Here’s wishing you happy posting.
This publication makes no claims to be a part of, or in any way associated with Craigslist.org, any of its properties,
affiliates, subsidiaries or companies. Craigslist.org Ebay, Yahoo, Clickbank, Search Cactus, AdValiant, Google, AdSense,
AdWords, Perfomics are registered trademarks of their respective companies. We
make no claims to be a part of these or any other companies or products
mentioned in this book.
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EARNINGS DISCLAIMER EVERY EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO ACCURATELY REPRESENT THIS PRODUCT AND IT'S POTENTIAL. EVEN THOUGH THIS INDUSTRY IS ONE OF THE FEW WHERE ONE CAN WRITE THEIR OWN CHECK IN TERMS OF EARNINGS, THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL EARN ANY MONEY USING THE TECHNIQUES AND IDEAS IN THESE MATERIALS. EXAMPLES IN THESE MATERIALS ARE NOT TO BE INTERPRETED AS A PROMISE OR GUARANTEE OF EARNINGS. EARNING POTENTIAL IS ENTIRELY DEPENDENT ON THE PERSON USING OUR PRODUCT, IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES. WE DO NOT PURPORT THIS AS A "GET RICH SCHEME." ANY CLAIMS MADE OF ACTUAL EARNINGS OR EXAMPLES OF ACTUAL RESULTS CAN BE VERIFIED UPON REQUEST. YOUR LEVEL OF SUCCESS IN ATTAINING THE RESULTS CLAIMED IN OUR MATERIALS DEPENDS ON THE TIME YOU DEVOTE TO THE PROGRAM, IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES MENTIONED, YOUR FINANCES, KNOWLEDGE AND VARIOUS SKILLS. SINCE THESE FACTORS DIFFER ACCORDING TO INDIVIDUALS, WE CANNOT GUARANTEE YOUR SUCCESS OR INCOME LEVEL. NOR ARE WE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY OF YOUR ACTIONS. MATERIALS IN OUR PRODUCT AND OUR WEBSITE MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT INCLUDES OR IS BASED UPON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS GIVE OUR EXPECTATIONS OR FORECASTS OF FUTURE EVENTS. YOU CAN IDENTIFY THESE STATEMENTS BY THE FACT THAT THEY DO NOT RELATE STRICTLY TO HISTORICAL OR CURRENT FACTS. THEY USE WORDS SUCH AS "ANTICIPATE," "ESTIMATE," "EXPECT," "PROJECT," "INTEND," "PLAN," "BELIEVE," AND OTHER WORDS AND TERMS OF SIMILAR MEANING IN CONNECTION WITH A DESCRIPTION OF POTENTIAL EARNINGS OR FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE. ANY AND ALL FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS HERE OR ON ANY OF OUR SALES MATERIAL ARE INTENDED TO EXPRESS OUR OPINION OF EARNINGS POTENTIAL. MANY FACTORS WILL BE IMPORTANT IN DETERMINING YOUR ACTUAL RESULTS AND NO GUARANTEES ARE MADE THAT YOU WILL ACHIEVE RESULTS SIMILAR TO OURS OR ANYBODY ELSES, IN FACT NO GUARANTEES ARE MADE THAT YOU WILL ACHIEVE ANY RESULTS FROM OUR IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES IN OUR MATERIAL.