My smart blog news service just emailed me a new article “Craigslist ad design service” - see it at http://www.samrathacks.com/2008/11/craigslist-ad-design-service.html

They wrote

If you are starting a new website then you need to take much care about your site design and layout. Many people will love your site only if it has got a good design. You need to know about Craigslist also if you need to promote your site. You need to design your Craigslist ads in such a way that more people click them and you get more and more visitors. When advertising on Craigslist, you should know that Craigslist ads with images and custom Craigslist ads tend to perform better than just plain text advertisements. People are more inclined to click on your Craigslist ad when they see there is an image with the ad, instantly makes you stand out more, look more professional and should get you more leads as well.

… and I agree with them.

But do you really need a professional web design company to design good quality Craigslist ads?

You want your ads stand from a crowd - make it with simple tags - and it’s free if you are doing by yourself. Is it difficult? No. Type your text and make some part of it as a header - how to do it? - use header tags, do not forget to open and close them. Headers tags are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 where H1 makes text bold and big and H6 makes it bold and not so big.

Type <H1>My new business Funny Frog</H1> and you can see -

Funny Frog

You want your text in different color - it’s easy - add style to your text.

How to do it - type a <p style=”color:red;”>my text</p> and you can see my text… Do you want to make it bold without using headers H1,…H6. Add tags <b>my text</b> or <strong>my text</strong> and enjoy your text in bold.

Such small changes can bring three-four times more customer’s responses to your ads. I did it - it worked.

Do you want to spice your creaigslist ad with a cute picture but do not have one. Type “free images” in Google and you can find really gold here. My favorite of the day is http://www.freedigitalphotos.net. I’ve got a great image of a horse and add it to a simple text ad.

WITHOUT IMAGE:

Large Barn Rental for horse Boarders. Includes paddocks,some pasture,outdoor

riding ring and hot walker. Barn has hot water, tack room, and hay loft and

extra storage room. Savings barn is included. There are 12 padded stalls.

WITH IMAGE - EXAMPLE 1:

—————————————————————————————

Large Barn Rental for horse Boarders. Includes paddocks,some pasture,outdoor

riding ring and hot walker. Barn has hot water, tack room, and hay loft and

extra storage room. Savings barn is included. There are 12 padded stalls.

—————————————————————————————

WITH IMAGE - EXAMPLE 2:

—————————————————————————————

Large Barn Rental for horse Boarders. Includes paddocks,some pasture,outdoor

riding ring and hot walker. Barn has hot water, tack room, and hay loft and

extra storage room. Savings barn is included. There are 12 padded stalls.

—————————————————————————————

How to make it.

1.  Chose image that you like and find its web address. It’s easy tpo do with FireFox - click on the view image and copy its address.

2.  Add image tag about your text - for those who do not know - <img src=”"> and place your image web address inside the image tag, it looks like <img src=”http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/photos/aqua_(38).jpg”>

3. Type the brake tag <br> (or two brake tags) below your image

4.  If you want your image to be on right or on left, not on top, you need to use styles - the simplest way is to add style to your image tag, for example <img style=”float:left;margin-right:15px;” src=”http:/ijiwjiw.com/yourimage.jpg”>

This simple code and free images can really spice your ads and attract 5-10 times more responses. Enjoy…

I wanted my craigslist ad to stand from the crowd. I’ve looked through the similar ads and found that most of them were on a white background. Why not to have a colored background? My ad was very simple, it’s only two sentences. My text in bold on an yellow background would catch people eyes. And it’s not difficult to do it - I know html, I know styles (basic style and html is enough for this simple job) so why not to create a cute yellow background. When I started I anderstand Why - it’s a litle tricky to add a background to a craigslist ad.

Step 0 - Go to Craigslist, choose where to place your ad, click on “post to classifieds”,  “Posting Description” field - this is where you need to type your code

Step 1 - to make text on a yellow background -> place the text inside a division and add style to the division’s background

CODE:

<div style=”background-color:yellow;”>I’m looking to buy an Entertainment 2009 book. Please email if you have one!</div>

RESULT:

I’m looking to buy an Entertainment 2009 book. Please email if you have one!

Step 2 - To make my font bold -> add font-weight: bold

CODE:

<div style=”background-color:yellow;font-weight:bold;”>I’m looking to buy an Entertainment 2009 book. Please email if you have one!</div>

RESULT:

I’m looking to buy an Entertainment 2009 book. Please email if you have one!

Step 3 -Make my font bigger -> add font-size:22px -> BUT it did not work, I was sure my result would be bigger font on an yellow background, in reality it becam:

I’m looking to buy an Entertainment 2009 book. Please email if you have one!

All my styles inside division disappeared.

I had to use old-fashioned font tag.

CODE:

<div style=”background-color:yellow;font-weight:bold;”><font size=”4″>I’m looking to buy an Entertainment 2009 book. Please email if you have one!</font></div>

RESULT:

I’m looking to buy an Entertainment 2009 book. Please email if you have one!

To make it looks a little better I used break tag before and after …WORKS!!!

RESULT:

I’m looking to buy an Entertainment 2009 book. Please email if you have one!

I’ve got 16 response emails in the first two hours; for my previous ad with the same text I’ve got only 3 responses. Colored background makes a difference…

Remember when you are trying to create a background Craigslist may delete your code - so be careful and if your tags deleted use something different. I used font tag instead of font-size for styling and break tags instead of padding …You can experiment with  other tags and find what work…

Written by Liz from http://craigslist-templates.com. You can email her liz © craigslist-templates.com

Blue borders around an image that linked to a website is a common problems for many craigslist ads that created by people with basic knowledge of html or those who use software to create an ad template. The first, do not use anything except your hand to code or your ads will end with with some missing parts or worse with code unexpectedly showing on the ads. The second, always check how your ads look like online. Sometimes you see your image with blue border such as - see below:

What to do - Open your code - more likely than not your code includes <a href=”#”><img src=”yourimage.jpeg”></a>… Type border=”0″ inside img tag and ugly blue borders will disappear. The code will be <a href=”#”><img src=”yourimage.jpeg” border=”0″ ></a>

Example of Craigslist ads - found in RESUME

Web designer/ developer/ web marketer moving to Kamloops from Vancouver..
You can view my portfolio at http://www.artroute.com/webroz
Looking for a job and/or local (Kamloops) web/ graphic specialists to team up our skills…

Written by Liz from http://craigslist-templates.com. You can email her liz © craigslist-templates.com

Craigslist ads code - Example: image, two links and text

See the code below:

<table style=”border:2px solid gray;”><tr><td width=”580″ align=”center” style=”font-family:arial;”>
<h1 style=”color:red;font-size:24px;margin-bottom:5px;”>Native Art Gifts from Vancouver</h1>
<div style=”font-size:18px;margin-bottom:10px;”>
<span><a href=”#”>Native Art Gallery</a></span> <span>
<a href=”#”>Frances Hill store</a></span>
</div>
<div>
<a href=”#”><img style=”margin-right:25px;border:0px solid white;” src=”http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1295/746238708_53cd5f1c23_m.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″>
</a>
</div>
<p style=”text-align:left;padding:5px;font-size:13px;”>
Welcome to ABC Native Art on the web.
Here you will find a selection from our four Native Art galleries in beautiful British Columbia, as well as a number of items from our sister store, Frances Hill’s, located in Gastown, Vancouver. There is also a great deal of content, from the meanings behind the masks, to the artists who carved them, and the Nations they belong to. Take your time to enjoy some of the finest artwork available anywhere in the world, made by the hands of native artists from right here in Canada.
</p>
</td></tr></table>

text for this example is from http://www.hillsnativeart.com and photos are from http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouvergo

Written by Liz from http://craigslist-templates.com. You can email her liz © craigslist-templates.com

Maybe I was wrong about Vflyer.com free services for creating ads using their templates. I’ve tried and did not succeed. I could not uploaded my photos and when I wanted to change text my browser became frozen. But I’ve received a response from my friend who was able to create an ad with photos using Vflyer’s template plus he emailed me an article with a step-by-step explanation how to create ads.

Ok, now we have that question answered, but what about all those websites I mentioned above. Isn’t that going to cost me a lot of money and a lot of time to get on those websites? The answer. Not at all. As a matter of fact you can a create an online property listing and have it listed on all those websites in 10 minutes and a total cost of $0 dollars. How does that sound to you? So let’s learn about how to do that and then I am going to show you how to take that free online listing and convert it to a single property website for $3.19! Interested, then follow these simple instructions:

1. Go to Vflyer.com. (click here for video demo)
2. Create a free account that will allow you to post and syndicate your listing to all the real estate search websites consumers use for up to five listings. (if you have more they have a premium service for $12.95 that allows for up 10 listings, $19.95 for 25)
3. Choose the correct flyer type (house for sale, condo for sale, land for sale, etc.)
4. Fill in the info about your listing
5. Add pictures
6. Add contact info
7. Add links, such as a free virtual tour, your blogsite from Texas Real Estate Blogs maybe?
8. Hit publish at the bottom of the page
9. That’s it. Your Listing has now been sent to all the real estate search websites and for free.

You can read a whole article at http://texasrealestateblogs.com

Let try it and let me know - liz @ craigslist-templates.com

I’ve received a link to a Craigslist ad that impressed me…. It’s only one image but tells a lot. See it below:

The ad is found on vancouver, BC craigslist > creative services > Tue, 08 Apr.

The ad did not use Craigslist uploading options. There is a very simple code written by hands - <a href=”http://www.spreadmedia.ca” rel=”nofollow”><img src=”http://www.spreadmedia.ca/images/stripped_female.jpg” border=”0″ align=”top”></a>
- as you can see it’s only an image and link tags, that’s all.

You can create the same Craigslist ads in one click if you have your own image - replace image address with your image address and use your website address instead of theirs. But if you do not have your own image - it’s a different story - creating a great image that can tells all about your company is the base of the ad’s success. Find a local design company on the our favorite Craigslist, pay them and get your image done - and be proud to support local businesses.

Written by Liz from http://craigslist-templates.com. You can email her liz © craigslist-templates.com

Yes, it’s true that Craigslist rules do not allow a direct link to your (or third party) website from your Craigslist ads. I do not remember where I found these rules but I am sure that they exist. And people do flag ads with direct links.

We, human, are very creative and of course can find ways to avoid what we want to avoid.

Here are example of clever ads with hidden direct links:

EXAMLE 1 - FilmMaker (NYC)

Click the pic

The ad found - new york craigslist > manhattan > creative services

EXAMPLE 2 - $$TOP CASH PAID FOR JUNK CARS$$

………………………………………………………………

Has that old car of yours finally runs its last leg? Do you find yourself having to push it to the opposite side of the street just to avoid a parking ticket. Why not let the experts at KK Towing pay you cash $$$ for your JUNK CAR. One of our associates will assess your car and pay you cash $$$ on the spot for your JUNK VEHICLE. NO TITLE or NO KEYS ===> NO PROBLEM!!!!!! CALL TOLL FREE 1-888-706-9555 or Local 1-718-207-0011 ANYTIME!!!

………………………………………………………………

The ad is found - new york craigslist > queens > automotive services.
The idea of the ad is very smart - they can link to their website from each letter and from their photo. I do not know why but they link letter to the third party website (not junk removal website) and do not link their photos. Anyway I love this ad - feel sorry that i do not have a junk car now. I got rid of mine months ago.

Written by Liz from http://craigslist-templates.com. You can email her liz © craigslist-templates.com

I’ve just found a very strange Craigslist ads with a hit counter instead of an image.

Centrally located townhouse in great family neighbourhood…… Features include: * 3 Bedrooms * Freshly painted, new carpets, lino, and Tile * Finished Rec room * 2 Spacious storage rooms * Fenced patio/new deck * Southern exposed back yard * 2 car parking in front * New appliances * New soaker tub in main bath * New built in Pantry MLS LISTING # MLS®: F2803328 CONTACT: GARY TIWANA Century 21 Apex Int’l (Abb) @ 604-807-6477 OR OFFICE# 604-854-5585
hit counter

The Ad is found on vancouver, BC craigslist > real estate for sale > 4 Apr 2008

If the ad is for marketing this particular hit counter - it makes sense to create such ad so it’s against the Craigslist rules and more likely than not the as will be flagged and removed.

I can guess that the ad is not for marketing the hit counter. The ad is for selling a townhouse. A little HTML TLC and a photo of the townhouse can make a huge difference for this ad (and for those who see the ad and trying to understand what is all about).

Below you can see the same ad with some HTML TLC done:

……………………………………………………………………………
Centrally located townhouse in great family neighbourhood
Features include:

• 3 Bedrooms
• Freshly painted
• New carpets, lino, and yile
• Finished Rec room
• 2 Spacious storage rooms
• Fenced patio/new deck
• Southern exposed back yard
• 2 car parking in front
• New appliances
• New soaker tub in main bath
• New built in Pantry

MLS LISTING # MLS®: F2803328 CONTACT: GARY TIWANA Century 21 Apex Int’l (Abb) @ 604-807-6477 OR OFFICE# 604-854-5585
……………………………………………………………………

Wise advise - before hitting a button publish please check your ad and edit it; Craigslist allows you to edit even after your ad is placed online. Do a little HTML and add images with one click and add and that’s all - you potential buyers will appreciate it.

Written by Liz from http://craigslist-templates.com. You can email her liz © craigslist-templates.com

You want to make the name of your website or company or your own name or any text in your Craigslist looks cool. You can do it even if you are not a graphic designer and you do not have a graphic software installed on your computer. You can do it online and for FREE. You can use online “text image generators” and “logo generators”.

My favorite one is http://cooltext.com. Look what I was able to create using their free logo generator.

You can do the same an more - go to their website http://cooltext.com, choose a Logo Style, type your Logo Text, choose Font and Font Size (I used 40 for size), choose Color (play with color palette and picker - it’s easy and interactive), there are some other cools features you can use - then click on “Render Logo” button and wait till your logo rendered. Even cooler - you can use any of the generated graphics in any way, shape, or form without asking permission.

Download your logo ( the generated image will only be kept on the Cool Text servers for an hour). It’s easy to download your logo as well as any image on FireFox - right-click on your mouse, choose “Save Image as…” from drop-down menu, name your image and save on your computer.

How to use these images for your Craigslist ads - very easy. Craigslist’s “Create posting” form allows you to download up to four images so click and download your logo from your computer and it will appeared on your ads. You will need to put the image files on your own web host.

Read - more with rendered images

Written by Liz from http://craigslist-templates.com. You can email her liz © craigslist-templates.com