HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY GENERATING FREE LEADS WITH CRAIGSLIST C r a i g s l i s t Q u a The author and publisher of this ebook and the associated materials have used their best efforts in preparing this material. The author and publisher make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this material. They disclaim any warranties expressed or implied, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable for any loss or other damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. If you have any doubts about anything, the advice of a competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be sought. This material contains elements protected under International and Federal Copyright laws and treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. Web Based Lead Generators Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS Table Of Contents...2 Latest Survey From NAR...3 What Is Craigslist?...4 Direct Response Lead Generation And Craigslist.......5 Craigslist Marketing Strategy...6 Create A Craigslist Account...7 How To Place An Ad On Craigslist...8 How To Add Pictures To Your Craigslist Ad...10 Reviewing Your Listing...11 Craigslist Sample Ads...12 38 Luxury Fixers...12 Must Sell...13 Find Out What Your Home Is Worth...14 11 Things You Need To Know To Pass Your Home Inspection.15 Divorce...15 Fixer Uppers...16 Public Notice...17 Save Thousands...18 9 Buyer Traps...18 10 Tips To Sell Your Home Without An Agent...19 Getting Flagged...20 Making Your Craigslist Strategy Work For You...23 Craig s Success Formula...24 2
The latest NAR survey for 2007 notes that a whopping 98% of respondents view the Internet as either very useful or somewhat useful in gathering information concerning home purchases. 3
WHAT IS CRAIGSLIST? Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities, featuring free classified advertisements (with jobs, internships, housing, personals, for sale/barter/wanted, services, community, gigs, resume, and pets categories) and forums on various topics. The service was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark for the San Francisco Bay Area. After incorporation as a private for-profit company in 1999, Craigslist expanded into nine more U.S. cities in 2000, four each in 2001 and 2002, and 14 in 2003. As of September 2007, Craigslist had established itself in approximately 450 cities in 50 countries. As of 2007, Craigslist operates with a staff of 24 people. Its sole source of revenue is paid job ads in select cities ($75 per ad for the San Francisco Bay Area; $25 per ad for New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., Chicago and recently Portland) and paid broker apartment listings in New York City ($10 per ad). The site serves over five billion page views per month, putting it in 51st place overall among web sites world wide, ninth place overall among web sites in the United States (per Alexa.com on November 10, 2007), to ten million unique visitors. With over ten million new classified advertisements each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium. The site receives over 500,000 new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world. The classified advertisements range from traditional buy/sell ads and community announcements, to personal ads and even erotic services. In December 2006, at the UBS Global Media Conference in New York, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told Wall Street analysts that Craigslist has little interest in maximizing profit, instead preferring to help users find cars, apartments, jobs, and dates. The company does not formally disclose financial or ownership information. Analysts and commentators have reported varying figures for its annual revenue, ranging from $10 million in 2004, $20 million in 2005, and $25 million in 2006 to possibly $150 million in 2007. It is believed to be owned principally by Newmark, Buckmaster, and ebay (the three board members). ebay owns approximately 25%, and Newmark is believed to own the largest stake. 4
DIRECT RESPONSE LEAD GENERATION AND CRAIGSLIST Every year, real estate agents from all over the globe spend millions of dollars on colorful, beautiful and expensive brochures and advertisements. These polished pieces are filled with clever lines, prominent boasts and well-meaning promises of quality, integrity and service. And they DON T work. Because they look like what they are (i.e. self-serving advertising), and because they offer NO BENEFITS to prospects, they are as good as invisible. Worse, they are a terrible waste of your hard-earned money. These image ads WILL NOT cause your phone to ring. In fact, these ads probably won t even be noticed. This is why Direct Response is the ONLY kind of advertising you can afford to do in this business. With a Direct Response approach we will kick-start your business into action NOW; we ll get you started with some hot ads and a specific step-by-step plan for how and when they should run in the next two weeks. I want you to let that last part soak in for just a minute...do you realize that I am giving you the keys to the kingdom here? We are going to show you how to generate a steady stream of leads at absolutely no cost! It means some extra work, but it is work that can make a substantial change to your real estate business. Extra traffic means more sales; more sales mean more profits... now you can see why this is so powerful. Let s put it in perspective. If the average sale in your marketplace is $250,000 and your commission is $7500, how much would it be worth to you to make one extra sale per year? How about two extra sales per year? The reality is that if you could make one extra sale per month using my Craigslist strategies you can quite easily earn an additional $90,000 per year in income. 5
CRAIGSLIST MARKETING STRATEGY Now it s time to put it all together. I ll take you through my Craigslist marketing strategy and show you EXACTLY how and where we place our ads, and why you need to do the same. You will understand the value of tracking and testing your marketplace. As you know by now, I ve given you no shortage of ideas and ways to spend your advertising budget. This ebook will show you how my Coaching, Graduate and Platinum members use our materials to create effective and efficient marketing strategies which will enable you to reach your goals. Successful agents are always on the lookout for tools that offer an advantage over the competition. You're looking to achieve faster and more powerful communication and be able to offer superior service. While most real estate agents now realize the importance of having a website, 98% of agents are essentially throwing their money away on poorly designed, ineffective websites. According to a recent survey, only 2% of real estate sites are likely to be effective in generating substantial new business. The "2% that are doing it right" are making a lot of money, each and every month by making the Internet an integral part of their business. Understand this is a two part process. Only doing one part isn t enough. Let me repeat that. To be successful, you must do two things: 1. Create an ad for Craigslist. 2. Aggressively market your service classifieds and listings on Craigslist. If all you want to do is create one ad and post it one time on Craigslist, you are not doing enough. Sure you might get lucky, but let s face it, can you really count on luck? Not in this real estate market! Let s Get Started!!!! 6
CREATE A CRAIGSLIST ACCOUNT Creating an account will allow you to track your last 500 ads so you can clearly see the ads you have run to date. Start by going to https://accounts.craigslist.org/login/signup to set up a free account: Enter your email address and the 6 letter verification word that you see in the rectangular box and click create account. You will be sent an email within a minute that contains an active link. Clicking on this link will take you to a page to enter a password. Once you've created a password of your choosing, click on "Submit Password and Log in." Review the Terms of Use on the next page (at least glance at it!), then click "I ACCEPT" if you agree. 7
HOW TO PLACE AN AD ON CRAIGSLIST You are now logged into your account. To submit a post, select your city from the drop down menu in the upper right corner and click "go". Make the appropriate selections in the next few screens, until you get to the main posting form. 8
All fields with green text are required. Enter a title in the Posting Title field. This is what people will click on to see the details of your posting description. Your email address will be masked with a Craigslist anonymous address, but responses are forwarded to your email account. If you'd rather not receive replies by email, select "do not show any email address" and provide other contact information in the posting description. Once you have completed all the required fields, click "continue" at the bottom. You are taken to a review screen of what your post will look like. If you need to make changes, click "Edit." When everything looks the way you want it, click "continue." Your post will appear on the site in approximately ten to fifteen minutes. 9
HOW TO ADD PICTURES TO YOUR CRAIGSLIST AD Currently you can add up to 4 pictures to your post in the housing, for sale, and personals categories by selecting "Add / Edit Images" at the bottom of the posting form. Click the first "Browse" button, then search through your computer's directory to locate your first image file. This will automatically load the file, and the "X" for that first entry will change to an "O". Repeat this step for the second, third, and fourth images, if necessary. Click "continue" at the bottom of the page when you're finished. You will be able to see your ad, with the images included, before submitting the post. 10
REVIEWING YOUR LISTING Once you have finished the form, we will go to the review screen. This is an important place to review and proofread. You have spent this time getting your ad ready; don t waste your effort by producing something incomplete or poorly spelled. Typos, poor formatting and bad grammar not only make you look bad, they give people the impression that either you don t care or you aren t very good at what you do. Take the time to make a good first impression. 11
CRAIGSLIST SAMPLE ADS 12
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GETTING FLAGGED The biggest problem for reposting the same ad three times a day is that it can get flagged. Flagging is one of the ways that Craigslist is regulated. Postings can be flagged by the Craigslist staff (usually this is automated) or by the Craigslist community. This is Craigslist explanation of flagging: From http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/flags_and_community_moderation: Our flagging system allows Craigslist users to identify inappropriate postings for speedy removal, while preserving everyone's ability to express them. By using the flagging feature located at the upper right corner of each post, you can take action if you feel a posting is inappropriate, by clicking on: Miscategorized - wrong category/site, discusses another ad, otherwise misplaced Prohibited - violates Craigslist Terms of Use or other posted guidelines Spam/Overpost - posted too frequently, in multiple cities/categories, or is too commercial If a post receives enough negative flags it will automatically be removed (only one flag per person per post is counted). You may have noticed that a posting can get flagged for being posted too frequently even though there is nothing in the Craigslist terms of use that defines or describes what that means. I have found that if you delete your old posting and repost your ad, your ads will rarely get flagged. Let s take a look at the four areas that Craigslist checks ads that are posted too frequently: 1. Email Address 2. Title 3. Ad Content 4. Location of the Ad 20
GETTING FLAGGED Each of these areas is very important to the overall advertisement, so the website has been forced to monitor these areas. By correctly posting your ads, you will be able to get the exposure you need without having any problems with your advertising content. Let s look at the three of these items that we can control. 1. TITLE You will need to create variations of your posting title. These variations can be slight and should do. Here are some examples: Title: ***MUST SELL*** Title 1: ***MUST SELL IN YORK REGION*** Title 2: MUST SELL HOMES AVAILABLE Title 3: MUST SELL & FIXER UPPER HOMES Title 4: ***MUST SELL HOMES IN YORK REGION*** 2. AD CONTENT Each posting that you create should look a little different. You should change the body of your ad each time you post so that you won t get inadvertently flagged by Craigslist. It s recommended that you alter at least 10% or more of the ad. A little more work now is a lot better than getting flagged or banned. 21
GETTING FLAGGED 3. LOCATION OF THE AD It is really important that you post your ads in the correct category. For example, houses for rent should not be posted in the houses for sale section. Similarly, you shouldn t post your real estate ads in the garage sale section. While it is true that someone looking for garage sales may be looking for a home you would also probably irritate other readers and increase the chance that they flag your ad for spamming or being miscategorized. 22
MAKING YOUR CRAIGSLIST STRATEGY WORK FOR YOU Craigslist is the most popular free classified ad posting site in the USA and worldwide. I have long experience of posting ads on craigslist. Craigslist has very high Alexa ranking. Due to its huge popularity the site is number one target of the spammers. Craigslist is upgrading its system continuously to fight against the spammers. Now it is harder to post the same ad on different locations or multiple times in a particular location. Following are some tips for posting ads on Craigslist over and over again: 1. Unique description: You need to change the ad description each time. Otherwise, simply it is not possible to post the same ad over and over again. 2. Titles: Using a lot of different titles is also helpful. Particularly, it reduces user flagging. And obviously user flagging leads to staff deletion. 3. Post your ads in the right category This is very simple and straightforward. Don t list houses for sale in the rental section, or houses for rent in the for sale section, and don t list either in any other section. 4. Delete old ads before you post new ones Do not post your new ads until you have deleted the previous ads. 5. Write your listings well People consider buying a house as the most important purchase of their lives. They are looking at your ads as a reflection of the house you are trying to sell. Spell check your copy, proof read it and make sure it looks good before you send it. 6. Use http:// before the www. Craigslist will recognize it as an active link. Buyers and Sellers can then click right through to your website from Craigslist to the page that contains the information that they are looking for. 7. Use a picture in all of your ads. It doesn t really matter what it is just take a look at the examples that we have provided you. Ads that have a picture in them have a nine times greater hit rate than ads that don t. 23
CRAIG S SUCCESS FORMULA Craig s Success Formula Marketing Secret: the most effective least expensive way to generate leads is to offer prospects something they want and make it easy and non-threatening for them to get it Imagine a System that can free you to the extent that... 1. You'll never have to make a cold call again instead dozens of highly qualified prospects will call you. 2. You'll be able to take weekends off whenever you want to without decreasing your income. 3. You will be able to get out from under the ridiculous workload most agents like yourself put themselves under. Most agents ARE working at least 3 times harder than necessary to earn a top income in real estate. You probably are too. 4. You can choose to do only those things you love and are good at while the rest of your business runs smoothly and automatically without your constant interference. 5. You'll be able to transform your real estate career into a high-performance, low-stress automatic cash machine that easily gives you a high 6 figure income while allowing you to work 8-15 hours per week less than you already do. Key word: automatic. 6. Your spouse or significant other will NOT resent your career; will be proud of your success, and supportive of your goals. 7. You will actually HAVE FUN in the real estate business. Visit us at www.quantumleapsystem.com for more details. 24