Posing for-sale ads on Craigslist -Made easier! (FREE too)

[tuprox]

I thought I would post an idea that I had about making it easier to post the items you have for sale on Craigslist. I do a lot of posting and CAN't update things when I sell them on each individual thread but I can do one central update if it can dispearse the rest of the updates to all postings -oh and it's SUPER easy! Sound good?

What I do is make one posting on a forum that has it formatted so it looks nice and is easy to read. I then take a screen shot of that page, crop it and edit to how I want it, post it on my web server and then create a post on CL with the entire posting being just the html tag like this:

<img src="http://images.mywebsite.com/stuffforsale.jpg"

Now what I do is update each of my for sale category pictures nightly and upload it to the server and it automatically updates what is on the CL posting because it is just a picture. I could change the picture to a dog and they would see a picture of a dog instead.

Now, I just thought what happens if people do a search, they won't see any of the results from what is in the ad. Bummer. My work around is to make a comma or semi-colon seperated list of the main key words from the sale. you could add others to help search rank as well.

I'm also wondering if CL will display PDF's as I can create a PDF of the page that has the text and it is searchable.

Finally, I know that I could create an HTML file but I haven't found a way to create one central HTML file and have that file displayed on the CL ad. The easiest way to do all this would be to create the Ad in Dreamweaver, upload the html file to my server and have CL display the HTML file, but I can't seem to find a way to do this.

Is it possible?

 

[VirtualLarry]

This is explicitly against the terms of service of Craigslist, and if you have agreed to the new TOS, they can ban your account, and find you liable for damages. If you want to get sued or have money extorted from you due to violating CL TOS (oh, sorry, I'm not allowed to use the term "CL" outside craigslist either, according to their TOS), then go right ahead.

This technique, putting text inside a picture, is a technique that many chinese spammers use. So you would likely get lumped in with them.

I wouldn't do it.

Edit: Not to mention, if you have so many ads on CL that it's a pain to manually go through each posting and either delete or edit it, then chances are, you ARE a spammer anyways.

 

[Soundmanred]

I flag every CL posting with this kind of nonsense.

 

[tuprox]

This is explicitly against the terms of service of Craigslist, and if you have agreed to the new TOS, they can ban your account, and find you liable for damages. If you want to get sued or have money extorted from you due to violating CL TOS (oh, sorry, I'm not allowed to use the term "CL" outside craigslist either, according to their TOS), then go right ahead.

This technique, putting text inside a picture, is a technique that many chinese spammers use. So you would likely get lumped in with them.

I wouldn't do it.

Edit: Not to mention, if you have so many ads on CL that it's a pain to manually go through each posting and either delete or edit it, then chances are, you ARE a spammer anyways.

Thanks for the update. I read the TOS a while back and I didn't see that, but that was probably 5+ years ago, maybe more.

Well that sucks. I'm not spamming, I don't think. is 5 different posts with 100+ pieces of hardware over them all spam? I only post to my specific location and not all over. It seems that a lot of people do what I was talking about, especially business owners that sell cars. I would say that 50% of the car ads by businesses are done with a picture and keywords. I guess they didn't read the new TOS either.

I wonder how often they update the TOS? I know that I'm not reading them each time I post something but will read them if they are updated. Is there a way to tell?

Thanks again.

 

[Meghan54]

I sell more than a little bit of stuff on CL. So, to make life easier, I've created a basic html template that I reuse....just change the description, specs, and pictures in the template. (I host my own pics, so it's just change the url for the pic.)



Seems a lot easier than what you're doing, OP.

 

[oogabooga]

I sell more than a little bit of stuff on CL. So, to make life easier, I've created a basic html template that I reuse....just change the description, specs, and pictures in the template. (I host my own pics, so it's just change the url for the pic.)



Seems a lot easier than what you're doing, OP.

I just use a basic template (don't even have HTML, just Text) and it's pretty quick. If I edit a section, I can quickly modify every listing I have if I have multiple up. I just keep the item information separate from something that might get modified for every listing.

 

[amdhunter]

This information will help me sell free iPods greatly.

 

[tuprox]

I sell more than a little bit of stuff on CL. So, to make life easier, I've created a basic html template that I reuse....just change the description, specs, and pictures in the template. (I host my own pics, so it's just change the url for the pic.)



Seems a lot easier than what you're doing, OP.

Well it depends. I had spent a lot of time formatting a vBulletin post that had all my equipment on it, broken down in 5 sections (Hard drives, Memory, servers, Networking, Graphics cards). I just take a snapshot of these and then upload the pic to my server. Then if I have a 7 day old post, it just updates the picture that is being displayed.

I just found out that it is against the TOS of CL. I say a ton of car dealers doing this so I kind of got the idea from that. I'd say 50% of the car ads are like this on CL in my area.

A user above said I was spamming but I can't see how that is spam if I make 5 posts, each with specific types of hardware.. Now if I did this for each area listing instead of just my own then that may be different

 

[cardiac]

Car dealers do pay a little $$ for their ads....

 

[amdhunter]

 

[FoBoT]

dude, that'll buff right out. just use a little toothpaste and a brillo pad
no worries and you get a free flatscreen

 

[CZroe]

Hot-linking an image in place of a description is a big red flag that someone is trying to scam me. They have the ability to change anything with no third-party record of it. I've seen it happen too.

 

[tuprox]

Hot-linking an image in place of a description is a big red flag that someone is trying to scam me. They have the ability to change anything with no third-party record of it. I've seen it happen too.

That is a good point. I hope people are looking at this to use it in a legit manner. I was only thinking of simplicity of updating.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

lolololol

 

[jagec]

Hey, that IS pretty hysterical...to us.

 

[dud]

I used to love CL.

I've spent over $10K buying phones/laptops/cars ... etc. Unfortunately, crap like this and other nonsense has made it very difficult (as a buyer) to do business there. It's funny but you would think that CL would want to "clean up" their website to allow buyers/sellers to exchange funds easier and with more confidence.

You would think that ...