Jan
10
Because I live in San Francisco, I have used Craigslist for almost everything in my life. Searching through the classified ads on the site – or posting ads of my own – was how I got my apartment, my furniture and many of my friends. As a freelancer, Craigslist used to be one of the primary places I found my jobs. And Craigslist was also a tool that I used to drive a surprising amount of traffic to one of my main blogs.
Here are some of the ways that you can use Craigslist as a (free) tool for blog promotion:
• Community. The community section of the site, located in the top left corner of the main Craigslist screen, provides many opportunities for publicizing your blog. The blog that I was promoting was for artists, so I would post about once a week in the “artists†section of the community. I made sure to provide interesting information, usually about a local artist, with a link to the full article on my site. The “general†section was good for the same type of promotional posts and “local news†worked when I had something on my blog that was particularly newsworthy for the city. I also solicited guest bloggers for the site through the “volunteers†section here.
• Classes. This section can be found in the community area of the site but can also be reached through the calendar on the lefthand side of Craigslist. To use this as a blog promotion tool, I held an online class about a topic related to my blog. Using online conferencing tools, I invited people to attend a short twenty minute online class about my topic. I was surprised by the number of people who turned up to the online class and the surge of traffic that came to the site afterwards. I imagine that an in-person class or event would do even better. If you have enough knowledge on a topic to have a blog, you have enough to teach a short class.
• Barter. I posted in the barter section on several different occasions. A watered-down version of this post was something like: “I have a blog about xyz and am seeking someone to promote it for me in a creative way. Send me an email with your promotional idea and what you’d like in exchange.†I received many interesting responses and creative ideas that I would never have come up with on my own, including a musician who offered to host a party with my blog named on the fliers as the sponsor. What I exchanged for this was a series of blog posts about the event. Other barter posts that worked for me were link exchanges and other more direct blogger-to-blogger trades.
• Services. Advertising about my blog in the creative and computer services seemed to drive a moderate amount of traffic to the site. I used posts that offered the service of blog writing and listed my link as an example of my work. I also used posts about the service of my blog’s industry (services for artists that I do as a writing consultant) and pointed to my blog as a way to contact me. There are many services listed in this section so various blogs would be able to use different parts of this section of the site.
• Gigs. Writing and creative gigs is the section where I frequently found my initial freelance jobs. Sometimes these jobs included a byline that gave traffic to my blog. On occasion, I also posted asking for guest bloggers in these sections, offering either a byline or moderate pay in exchange for quality posting. The bloggers who were guests on my site always drove traffic my way.
• Forums. I never made use of the Craigslist forums myself. However, I am guessing that a creative blogger would have no trouble generating interesting conversations on the forums that could translate to blog traffic.
Craigslist is a staple of San Francisco life so it was easy for a blogger from the area to use the site for traffic. However, the potential for blog promotion through Craigslist isn’t limited to Bay Area bloggers. There are Craigslist sites for many cities throughout the country. And if your blog has nationwide appeal, you can post on one of the major city sites (like San Francisco or New York) to gain a new audience.
Be aware that there are rules that need to be followed on Craigslist to keep the community useful to everyone. You shouldn’t post your promotional materials in sections that don’t suit it. And you should use promotion in conjunction with offering services and information to make yourself useful to the community there. Being helpful and respectful are always the best ways to get good traffic to your blog through any community. Check out the Craigslist “help†section before posting to better understand the rules of the site.
Question of the Day: Do you have any other Craigslist blog promotion success stories to share?
Popularity: 29% [?]
These are great tips, Kathryn. I never thought of using the barter section for promotion, but I certainly will now.
Thanks Sharon. Barter’s definitely one that’s worked for me. Of course, it’s Craigslist so it can be hit or miss but it’s something that I certainly think is worth a try (or two!) Have you used the other methods successfully?
Like you, I’ve never used the forums, but I do check the gigs section for writing jobs (or did, before I discovered FreelanceWritingGigs. And I’ve used Services too. I’ve also posted my resume a couple of times, though that didn’t work out so well (My site works better for that). I think listing a specific service as you suggest would be more fruitful.
I love FWJ for seeking out new writing gigs. As you know, much of what they post is pulled from Craigslist in different cities which is nice since it means you don’t have to go back and forth between cities yourself. I think that’s one of the big frustrating things about CL – the fact that each city is a separate site. Makes promoting within it a little more difficult, although it opens you up to other markets at the same time, I suppose.
I’ve wondered before how well posting a resume works. It does make sense that posting a specific service and then linking to your site where a resume is would be more helpful. Once you get people to your site, they can really see what you’re all about!
These are great tips! I just started using Craigslist to promote one of my blogs the other day, and hadn’t thought of the things you mentioned.
I posted in the Community section announcing my new community blog, and asking for advertisers. I got a lot of traffic, and it helped my site get indexed quickly by Google.
I’m going to try the other methods soon. Thanks!
I’m glad to know that it’s working for other people, too! Was it just the general community section that you posted in?
Wow those are some nice tips. This is probably the first legitimate guide to Craigslist I’ve ever seen (since everything else is either spam or at least unethical.)
I might have to start some online classes this year
True, there’s definitely a lot of spam stuff on Craigslist. It’s really a downside for a legitimate business person because people have trouble finding your ads in the midst of all the junk that’s on there. But I do think it’s possible … and I think that as more people start using it legitimately, we could see a better community built there.
Some really sweet tips Kathryn.
Do you think these would work for an ecommerce business blog that sells some sort of widgets?
Thanks! I do think that this is something that could work for an ecommerce blog …
You could advertise what you offer in the “small business ads” and “computer” (or “creative) services section … You could hold an online class about how to use the widgets and advertise that under classes/events … You could list the widgets under the “business” section of “for sale” …
Those are just a few of the things that come to mind. I think that if you get creative with it and stay persistent, Craigslist can generate traffic for almost any kind of blog. What do you think?
Craigslist is so huge that developing ways to use it for marketing just makes sense. I myself have never used it, but I have more than one friend who has made some really thrifty purchases from it.
I guess I just need to jump in and start.
Excellent promotional tips. I’ll have to see how effective Craigslist is in promoting my blog for a significantly smaller market than the Bay Area… Santa Barbara.
How to Use Craigslist for Blog Promotion
Because I live in San Francisco, I have used Craigslist for almost everything in my life. Searching through the classified ads on the site – or posting ads of my own – was how I got my apartment, my furniture and many of my friends. As a freelancer…
Kathryn, this is one of the most useful posts that I have read in quite a while, thank you so much. I’m going to check out the site this weekend….I appreciate you pointing out exactly where to go on Craig’s List for the different areas to post in (I’ve never used it before).
Your site was helpful. I look forward to more future postings. Thank You
I just started using Craigslist to promote my live video stream show Yin Yang TV, which is a special broadcast about topics from my blog “Yin Yang Data Report”.
Thank you for the information. I actually have a lot of information I would love to share by hosting online lectures. How do I go about it.
I followed you here from the article you posted on HubPages. thanks for sharing. I hope my new strategy will work out on Craig’s List. I will email you my findings….or better, I will blog it in the next few weeks. thank you for being a good blogger!
Kathy – what great tips on using Craigslist – I hadn’t gotten that creative but I can see the opportunities.
Kathryn,
This is of the most useful tips I found when it comes to using the Craigslist for getting indexed. And you provided a couple of choices…excellents tips.
That part about Barter, that’s real creative! Thanks.
Resty
The only problem with craiglist is that I keep getting accounts deleted. (I dont even think my posts are spam)
@James
Same here, may be it was reported by your competitors, who know
What a great idea about promoting bands. I also use Criags to promote my posts about art exhibits, events, and other stories.
I’d been wondering for a while if you could use craigslist to promote a website, these are great ideas. Thanks!
Craigslist can be a good way to promote your blog. I think the best way is to offer some free ebooks and promote in free section or in services. And put this ebook download in your blog so people can go through your blog .
Nice share thankyou.
Just find the article, looks very useful, thanks for sharing!
You know craigslist is not even good anymore due to people flagging too much, I have had my own legitimate ads flagged down from Craigs Hitmen at http://www.craigshitmen.com
[...] Craigslist. There are many different ways that you can use this classified ads site to build links. Barter something you have for new links, make use of the forums or advertise your site on the services section in the hopes of getting linked to that way. [...]
This is the best post I’ve seen on how to promote a blog! Thanks!
Really great tip about Craiglist… I am a newbie. Need to learn more about Craiglist!
Coming from the Netherlands it is impossible to understand how Craigslist is so populair in the states. I mean we are kind of used to nicely arranged sites, but still, cool tips!
Thanks for this great post! Will be following more of you.
Hi there,
I’ve come across this UK classifieds website claiming to fight spam and scam ads. I don’t know if they manage to do this successfuly but they have a positive feedback on digitalpoint.com reviews (that’s how I found them). Anyway, that seems to be a good start in fighting scams on the Internet. btw, what do you think, will they change the world somehow? LOL
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[...] it on purpose because I wasn’t so sure of this next one. I found one post that suggested to promote your blog on Craigs List. It sounded like a decent idea; not saying it’s new, but that it might be a consideration [...]
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
Hi Kathryn – thanks for the tips I’ll look into them -