The craig bots cannot see the content in an html image ad. Only a human viewer can understand them. This can be invaluable when it comes to content the bots are trying to eliminate like "make money online." However it serves an even more valuable service. You can keep posting the same image and it is not seen as a duplicate ad which craig will block and tell you to re-edit.

Of course 2 image ads without any other content will be seen as duplicates even if the image is different. So in the body of the ad, at the bottom, post a couple of sentences that are different (I will give you some code in a minute) in each ad and the bots will be happy. It doesn't even have to be relevant to the ad to work if it is placed well below the fold. Most viewers will not even scroll down and see it before either leaving or clicking on your image.

However I like to use relevant content for those two sentences and place a two or three word anchor text link back to my site for some juice. I just take random sentences off my site. This looks more natural and a flagging Bounty Hunter is not likely to be offended. Avoid bolding anything in the sentences or even the link. You don't want to draw the attention of a flagging Storm Trooper! Unique content is the goal.

I like to make my images 675 X 420 (jpegs) but you may like something different. I am more concerned about CTR then trying to give them a college education. A few pictures and a few lines of text including a call to action like "CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO" or something similar seems to work best. Move them on to the sales page!

Here is an example:

I don't have the time here to teach you how to create an image ad but if I can do it anybody can! I'm sure there are some vids on the subject on youtube.

Each one you make will get better an better. But perfection is not the goal... your on craig for crying out loud... average does best, no need to make the flagging competition jealous!

Once you have an ad upload it to your image hosting account and copy the html code. It will look something like this.

Then edit this code replacing the first URL with the url of your choice.

For example I want to use the above image code to send my visitor to my site

http://trycanadianfishinglodges.com/

so I put that in the first part of the code like this

Now pasting this code in my craig ad's body creates a click able image that links to my web site.

Some additional code will center my ad and push the content below the fold and provide a anchor link to my site like this...





























































Ontario Walleye Fishing Bytes: Ontario Walleye Fishing is best early in the morning and late in the evening. This is because this is the predator’s favorite time to prowl. Walleye have an unusual advantage that they like to exploit at these times, their eyes.

Now That I have the body of my ad laid out I need to create a title and decide on a location to advertise in.

For this example I will place ad in Duluth, MN craig...

Location: Ontario

Title: Ontario Walleye Fishing Guide Service and Lodging @ Clearwater Lodge

The title can have a max of 70 characters. Be sure to have your keywords in the title since craig has a "search" function that visitors can use. Keywords are also good in the body but don't over do it a make it spammy.

TIP: Once You Have This All Laid Out Be Sure To Save It To A Txt File That You Can Use To Post More Ads Later.

So below is some images of me actually placing the above ad.

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Notice how the code pushes the text content well below the fold...

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*************************************

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Now after about 15 min go to your email inbox associated with you craig account and pull up the "posted ad" notification.

Click on the active link in the body and you will be able to view you ad on craig's site.

There is what your ad looks like to the visiting public. If you notice at the top you will see an active link to the category you ad is listed in.... click on it to make sure the ad is "live" and not ghosted.

Look for your listing, you may have to scroll down a bit to find it. In the example below it is at the top.

Notice how it is a different color than all the rest of the listings...

CCcleaner does that for you. That really helps to keep track of things as you post.

If you can't find your ad you may have come to the page too early. Craig refreshes the listing about every 15 min. wait a bit and refresh the page. If you see new listings but yours is not there then your ad is most likely ghosted.

To make sure copy and paste your ad title (get it from the email) in the search field at the top. Only use actual letters in your title, minus any other symbols or numbers otherwise the search feature will not return any results. (I made the mistake once and then deleted over 50 ads that I thought were ghosted that were not... ugggg!)

If you ad is ghosted don't panic. There seems to be a random ghosting troll that will take an ad once in a while for no reason, even when you are behaving yourself. Craig is just letting you know who's boss.

I have noticed that a lot of times after phone verification one of the next 3 ads will be ghosted. No worries... just delete that ad and carry on. Post another ad just be sure to change the content text. As long as you do that you can use the same title and image.



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Moll Premium
Glad I finally received a vote!

I was beginning to think I may have created some junk nobody was interested in... Thanx
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klrrider Premium
@ Peter Y, I would suggest running CCcleaner first before logging on to craigs and posting any ads. This will give you a clean slate. Then after you are done posting on craig go to the cookies in CCcleaner before running and you will see both of them. Save the post.craigslist.org and leave the other to be deleted. It is best to do all of this on a new user account this way you will not eliminate any cookies that assist you with any online banking or cc cards bill paying etc.
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Moll Premium
@ Peter Y, I would suggest running CCcleaner first before logging on to craigs and posting any ads. This will give you a clean slate. Then after you are done posting on craig go to the cookies in CCcleaner before running and you will see both of them. Save the post.craigslist.org and leave the other to be deleted. It is best to do all of this on a new user account this way you will not eliminate any cookies that assist you with any online banking or cc cards bill paying etc.
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Peter Y. Premium
This is awesome, thanx. I just tried to do this step but I can't find the cookies. I made the first ad, logged out and checked the cleaner as it says here and didn't see any craiglist cookies. should I just ignore it and go on?
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krd999 Premium
This is awesome, thanx. I just tried to do this step but I can't find the cookies. I made the first ad, logged out and checked the cleaner as it says here and didn't see any craiglist cookies. should I just ignore it and go on?
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