That can be a very loaded question. Because the answer is, yes it can. But the answer may also be, no it won’t. But on the other hand, the answer could be, perhaps it will. Since there is no clear cut answer to that question, then it must depend on how the site is used and how much knowledge you have of how to use the site. If you are able to put together some great copy for your ad and also be able to find your target customers, then you will probably do very well on Craigslist. If, on the other hand, you don’t really know who your potential customers are and your ad copy is rather ho-hum, then you may not do so well on Craigslist.
The opportunity is certainly there for substantial financial gain. After all, all of the advertising and posting is free so you don’t have any financial commitment going into the process. You are not wasting a dime. And the traffic is phenomenal. There are about ten million visitors to Craigslist per month which translates into about four billion page views. So you don’t have to worry about traffic; it is there. But to make all of this work for you, you must know what you are doing and how best to work with the site. If you don’t you will be very disappointed.
DO SOME RESEARCH
Except for the volume of traffic on the site, advertising on Craigslist is not a whole lot different than anywhere else. You have to have a clear picture of your purpose and what audience you are going after. This requires doing quite a bit of research so that you are placing the ads in the right place on Craigslist. You also need to make sure that the wording of your ads is such that you are going to grab the attention of those reading it. This includes making sure that you have the right keywords present so that as people search they will come across your ad.
Now obtaining all of this knowledge can be daunting. You can do some of it online but some can also be done other ways. One very effective way is to provide some surveys to be filled out by members of that group you are trying to target. Based upon their answers, you can begin building an effective campaign which you can translate to ads on Craigslist.
WHAT ABOUT COMPETITION ON THE SITE?
If you perform a search on Craigslist it can provide you with some very valuable information. It will direct you to your competition on the site. By looking at their ads and their approaches, you can learn much about the direction you may want to take. You can see what is working for them and then use the same techniques yourself. But in addition, you will also be able to see what the weak points are for your competitors thus helping you to avoid those traps.
Use some keywords for your product or service and you will be amazed at the number of ads that will come up for the competition. You will then want to study these ads very carefully. How can you improve on what they have already done? How much more creative can you be than they were? And how can you write better copy than they did? Not everyone is good at all of these things. That is why it may be wise to enlist someone with SEO expertise. SEO is Search Engine Optimization. These people are skilled in analyzing this data and in writing effective copy which can more effectively achieve sales results for you. Using someone with this knowledge is very often the best way to go rather than trying to do all of this yourself.
Tags: Craigslist financial, Craigslist keywords, financial gain