Selling Products on Craigslist

The great thing about the Internet is that you can do a lot of things for free. You can post messages on discussion forums, create your own social networking profile, as well as shopping for products that are hard to find at your local stores. Likewise, the World Wide Web has given businessmen and entrepreneurs opportunities to sell their products or services through free advertisements.

This is where Craigslist comes into the picture. Based in San Francisco, it is a free localized classified advertisements listing for almost everything from gadgets, furnitures, jewelries among others. Craigslist is available in almost every major districts in the United States, as well as around the world.

If you have a business and plans on offering products and services through Craigslist, here are what you should do.

Check if Craigslist is available in your city

Go to Craigslist.org and look for your state or location. Listings are according to major US cities that have high number of Craigslist visitors, as well as US states, Canadian provinces, and major cities in other continents.

Once you have found your local area, click on the link, which could lead you to another list of major districts. Keep on clicking on the links where you are closely located. If your city is not listed, you can go their forums and post a suggestion. It may take a while for your non-listed city to be included.

Check if you are selling a common item

Once you are settled your local Craigslist, look for the "Search Craigslist" box on the left side of the page. Type in the product or service you are offering, then click on the drop-down menu for a more specific search category like "for sale" or "services."

Once the results are displayed, check how many other ads for your products or services are shown. It would be difficult to compete with products or services that are commonly displayed on Craigslist, but at the same time you may have difficulty looking for clients if what you offer are rarely listed.

Post an ad on Craigslist

Click on "Post to Classifieds" and choose which category and subcategory fits what you are selling. Type in what you offer on the title box and elaborate about it on the description section. Then, provide a valid e-mail address as you will be provided with your own proxy e-mail address to protect your privacy.

Do note that queries sent to the proxy mail is directly forwarded to your inbox. Finally, enter the verification word, accept the terms of use, and click "Continue." You may even want to "Edit" your ad before publishing it.