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Craigslist is a network of online local communities, featuring free classified advertisements and forums sorted by various topics. Founded by Craig Newmark in 1995, it currently serves over 20 billion page views per month and is the 11th most popular website in the United States.(See Wikipedia)
What is Craigslist’s attitude toward commercial activity?
Although it is not a non-profit, Craigslist has always prided itself on providing a “relatively” non-commercial environment for buyers and sellers and has frequently emphasized that its primary focus is not the generation of more revenue(See Craigslist Factsheet). As a result, it’s important to be careful to respect the Craigslist community and adhere to Craigslist’s terms of use
Does vFlyer’s Craigslist HTML content conform to Craigslist’s terms of use (TOU)?
Yes. In November and December 2006, we worked with Craigslist management to ensure that all their concerns about our flyers were addressed. This included removing all external links from our flyers, disabling the tracking of our flyers on Craigslist and other changes that brought us into full compliance with their terms of use.
Because vFlyer is Craigslist-compliant, does that mean my ads will not get flagged or blocked?
No. See the questions relating to flagging to understand how and why ads get flagged.
Can my ads be automatically posted to Craigslist?
No. Craigslist does not support or allow automated postings of any kind. (See in TOU..)
If I make changes to my flyer and re-publish it, will it automatically be updated in Craigslist?
No. Just as vFlyer cannot automatically post your ads to Craigslist, we cannot automatically update ads you have posted. You’ll need to either edit the post or (if it’s been at least 48 hours since you last posted the ad), delete the existing post and repost the flyer using the updated HTML code.
Can I have external links in my ad?
According to Craigslist, this is against their terms of use. (See in TOU..)
Why did my ad get flagged?
Your content is flagged it is usually because several Craigslist users clicked on one of the flag links at the top of each post.
Because Craigslist’s flagging system is community based, anyone can flag any posting they see. This usually happens for the following reasons:
- the ad is posted in the wrong category or wrong location
- the ad is posted too many times or too often
- the ad is considered spam or exploits certain keywords
- Finally, anybody can flag any post for any reason, so sometimes there is no good reason
For more information on common reasons that posts get flagged, take a look at the Unofficial Craigslist Flagging FAQ
What can I do if my ad is flagged?
If your flyer has been flagged, it’s best to wait at least 48 hours before reposting it. Before you repost it:
- if you have external links in your flyer, try removing them
- if the description in your flyer is longer than a couple short paragraphs, shorten it (and re-publish the flyer after you make any changes to it)
- make sure you are using the Craigslist HTML for your flyer and not the HTML code intended for another website
- DO NOT manually modify the HTML for your flyer in any way. This will generally result in your ad being flagged and it is against vFlyer’s Terms of Use.
- make sure you are posting to correct category in your local community
- avoid posting your flyer in multiple locations on Craigslist
- post the flyer no more than once every 48 hours
What does it mean for a Craigslist post to be ghosted?
When a Craigslist post is ghosted, it appears as though the ad was posted successfully, but it does not show up on Craigslist. Through it can be difficult to know why a post is ghosted, it’s often in response to one or more of the following:
- overposting
- posting the same ad in multiple locations and/or categories
- a large number of commas in the post (this could suggest keyword stuffing or hidden text to Craigslist)
- use of certain keywords that trigger Craigslist’s filters
If your ad is ghosted, review the content of the flyer, remove any content identified above, and re-publish the flyer. Wait at least 48 hours and then try posting the flyer again.
Other Resources
faqs_craigslist.txt · Last modified: 2010/06/22 12:04 by dan
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