This picture was taken over a year ago. If I took this same shot now, I would take the photo on the front porch, or retouch the edge of the rug out of the background.
Happy Friday, faithful readers! How did the picture taking go? I’m sure you have some beautiful, crisp, clear pictures to post on Craigslist this week! Are you ready? Read on, and let’s dive in...!
If you think that you will be listing a few things on Craigslist, the first thing I would suggest is to create an account. This is simple to do and doesn’t take long. Some people are not comfortable with giving strangers their personal email address. If this is the case, you may want to consider opening up a separate email account specifically for Craigslist communications only.
Once you have what email you would like to use established, go to your computer and enter www.craigslist.org into your browser. Find your state and city by clicking the selections to the right of the screen. When the home page comes up, you will see a heading that reads: “Post to Classifieds” at the upper left hand side of the screen… click on that.
This brings you to the “What Type of Posting is This” screen. If you don’t want to sign up for an account, you can scroll down in this blog a bit to continue. If you would like to sign up for an account (I think this is a good idea unless you really are only selling one or a few things… it will make it easier to delete your ad when things sell). You will see at the upper right of the screen an “Apply For Account” heading…. click on this. It will ask you for your email address and for you to type in a verification word. Enter this information, and then click “Create Account”.
Once you have done this, Craigslist will send a confirmation email to you. Either click on the link, or copy and paste the URL unto your browser. Create a password, and you can get started! When you have set a password, you can click “Return to Your Account” and start listing!
On this screen you will see a series of tabs at the top. Click “New Posting”. On the next screen it will read “Post a New Ad In [Your Town]”. Click “Go” and we are on our way! You should be back to the “What Type of Posting is This” screen, except now your email address will appear in the upper right corner. This means you are logged in to your new account!
For our purposes, you will choose the “For Sale” bubble. You can click “Continue” but it should take you immediately to a page with a plethora of options for categories. We are trying to sell a chair, so click on “Furniture- by Owner”. Now you have your posting title and description page! The title can be anything you want… funny or quirky, attention getting or flat out descriptive. You will have a limited amount of characters to work with (70 characters, I think… including punctuation and spaces).
Posting Title: I like to write in capital letters "FOR SALE:" then whatever my item is (you don’t have to, but I have so many items listed that for general search purposes, I can tell people to search “FOR SALE, downtown Ithaca” and most of my posts will come up with that method). For this ad, I will post in the “Posting Title” box, “FOR SALE: Vintage Upholstered Seat Solid Wood Chair!” This uses a few words that may catch people’s attention. As with the yard sale signs I mentioned a few weeks back, words like this can draw people in, and be the difference between someone clicking on your ad, or not. "Vintage", “Funky”, “Unique”, and “Eclectic” are a good few… if you are honest about it! Don’t list grandpa’s old nasty recliner as “funky”… that kind of funk people don’t need… Descriptors such as “solid wood”, “caned”, “rush seat”, or “cushioned” are good for a chair (depending on what kind of chair you have) in your title. Try to be descriptive enough, but not too much so. That is what the “Posting Description” section is for!
Price: Pretty self-explanatory. Enter your desired price here. If you don’t have a set price in mind, leave it blank. A lot of people will put “$1” in this box. Sometimes it is to entice people to open the ad; sometimes it is because they just plain don’t have a set price in mind. I don’t believe you can put words in this box (like “Make An Offer”), just numbers. Putting “$1” in this box (unless your item is truly $1) is technically in violation of Craigslist’s terms of use, and could subject you to having your posting flagged for removal.
(If there are terms here that you don’t understand, please feel free to refer to Craigslist Terms of Use tab on the homepage for further reference.)
Specific location: In this box, I would recommend that you NOT put a specific location, but rather a general location, mostly for safety’s sake. This is why I put “downtown Ithaca” as opposed to my specific address, so people get a general idea where the item is located. Otherwise you risk people coming knocking on your door uninvited (or worse).
Reply To: In this box, mark the “Anonymize” bubble. This will give potential buyers an anonymous email address to reply to (your email will show as: [email protected]) until you respond back to them. Otherwise they have no way to get a hold of you. If you would rather not deal with emails, you can mark the “Hide” bubble, and put down a phone number in the body of the description. This will show the words “See Below” in the “Reply To” box. I would recommend if you choose do this, to write a combination of spelled out numbers and actual numbers (six zero seven 5 five 5 one two one two), otherwise spammers will potentially be calling your number. I haven’t had that happen here, but I have had it happen in bigger cities when I listed things.
Overwhelmed yet? It is really easier than it looks. I am always free to answer any questions you might have... and once you get the hang of it, you will be a Craigslist pro!
Next Week: The Posting Description!
Once you have what email you would like to use established, go to your computer and enter www.craigslist.org into your browser. Find your state and city by clicking the selections to the right of the screen. When the home page comes up, you will see a heading that reads: “Post to Classifieds” at the upper left hand side of the screen… click on that.
This brings you to the “What Type of Posting is This” screen. If you don’t want to sign up for an account, you can scroll down in this blog a bit to continue. If you would like to sign up for an account (I think this is a good idea unless you really are only selling one or a few things… it will make it easier to delete your ad when things sell). You will see at the upper right of the screen an “Apply For Account” heading…. click on this. It will ask you for your email address and for you to type in a verification word. Enter this information, and then click “Create Account”.
Once you have done this, Craigslist will send a confirmation email to you. Either click on the link, or copy and paste the URL unto your browser. Create a password, and you can get started! When you have set a password, you can click “Return to Your Account” and start listing!
On this screen you will see a series of tabs at the top. Click “New Posting”. On the next screen it will read “Post a New Ad In [Your Town]”. Click “Go” and we are on our way! You should be back to the “What Type of Posting is This” screen, except now your email address will appear in the upper right corner. This means you are logged in to your new account!
For our purposes, you will choose the “For Sale” bubble. You can click “Continue” but it should take you immediately to a page with a plethora of options for categories. We are trying to sell a chair, so click on “Furniture- by Owner”. Now you have your posting title and description page! The title can be anything you want… funny or quirky, attention getting or flat out descriptive. You will have a limited amount of characters to work with (70 characters, I think… including punctuation and spaces).
Posting Title: I like to write in capital letters "FOR SALE:" then whatever my item is (you don’t have to, but I have so many items listed that for general search purposes, I can tell people to search “FOR SALE, downtown Ithaca” and most of my posts will come up with that method). For this ad, I will post in the “Posting Title” box, “FOR SALE: Vintage Upholstered Seat Solid Wood Chair!” This uses a few words that may catch people’s attention. As with the yard sale signs I mentioned a few weeks back, words like this can draw people in, and be the difference between someone clicking on your ad, or not. "Vintage", “Funky”, “Unique”, and “Eclectic” are a good few… if you are honest about it! Don’t list grandpa’s old nasty recliner as “funky”… that kind of funk people don’t need… Descriptors such as “solid wood”, “caned”, “rush seat”, or “cushioned” are good for a chair (depending on what kind of chair you have) in your title. Try to be descriptive enough, but not too much so. That is what the “Posting Description” section is for!
Price: Pretty self-explanatory. Enter your desired price here. If you don’t have a set price in mind, leave it blank. A lot of people will put “$1” in this box. Sometimes it is to entice people to open the ad; sometimes it is because they just plain don’t have a set price in mind. I don’t believe you can put words in this box (like “Make An Offer”), just numbers. Putting “$1” in this box (unless your item is truly $1) is technically in violation of Craigslist’s terms of use, and could subject you to having your posting flagged for removal.
(If there are terms here that you don’t understand, please feel free to refer to Craigslist Terms of Use tab on the homepage for further reference.)
Specific location: In this box, I would recommend that you NOT put a specific location, but rather a general location, mostly for safety’s sake. This is why I put “downtown Ithaca” as opposed to my specific address, so people get a general idea where the item is located. Otherwise you risk people coming knocking on your door uninvited (or worse).
Reply To: In this box, mark the “Anonymize” bubble. This will give potential buyers an anonymous email address to reply to (your email will show as: [email protected]) until you respond back to them. Otherwise they have no way to get a hold of you. If you would rather not deal with emails, you can mark the “Hide” bubble, and put down a phone number in the body of the description. This will show the words “See Below” in the “Reply To” box. I would recommend if you choose do this, to write a combination of spelled out numbers and actual numbers (six zero seven 5 five 5 one two one two), otherwise spammers will potentially be calling your number. I haven’t had that happen here, but I have had it happen in bigger cities when I listed things.
Overwhelmed yet? It is really easier than it looks. I am always free to answer any questions you might have... and once you get the hang of it, you will be a Craigslist pro!
Next Week: The Posting Description!
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