I have lived in San Francisco for more than 10 years and I have seen Craig's List this site grow from a quirky site run by a guy to keep in contact with his friends, to the internet giant it is today.

Craig's List is definitely tricky because of certain principles they have maintained. You see, in spite of every other major Internet site selling out in one way or another to large corporations, Craig List has not done so, not at all.

No, Craig's list maintains a community feel. The only revenue comes from business ads in the largest markets. This community feel is the reason Craig's list is able to flourish. Understanding these reasons will also allow you to understand the concepts behind how to approach your relationship with them.

There are three main reasons why people's ads get flagged or they decide to abandon a Craig's List marketing strategy for their business.
Those reasons are:

Flagged by the Community You post an ad and some busybody with nothing better to do decides to flag it, right? -- WRONG!! - You do not know what you are doing, that is the problem.

Flagged by the Craig's List Staff, resulting in a mass deletion of ads - Someone at Craig's List decides to delete all of your ads for some reason, right? -- WRONG? - It is nothing personal -- it is their 'bot deleting you because of certain flags in your ad or rules you have violated.

Duplicate content filters preventing you from posting the same ad time and again. At this point you realize how much time and effort it will take to write ad after ad to slide in under the duplicate content filters, only to have them flagged by either the staff (bot) or community, leaving you to conclude, Craigs List is impossible!-- right? -- WRONG

There is a way to create ads very quickly that will:
a) Slide under the duplicate content filters
b) Not set off the alarms with the Craig's list 'bot or
c) Get flagged by the Craig's list community.

If you discover these secrets you will you have a free flood of targeted visitors to your website whenever you want them. If not, you will keep having to grovel at the feet of Google, MSN and Yahoo.

Jeremy Lawrence is an independent business person and Niche Marketer. He has recently finished Craig's List Traffic Videos to help others navigate the subtle world of Craig's List Marketing. Craig's List Traffic Videos is available at his Website:
Craigs List traffic Videos

Niche Marketing To Craigs List by Jeremy Lawrence

Most businesses these days have to do some sort of Internet niche marketing if they want to keep their head above water. If you are a small-business owner like me, chances are you have had to learn some niche marketing strategies in order to survive, perhaps even begrudgingly. I know myself, I would rather be focusing on learning more about my craft and my business itself, not the ins and outs of niche marketing. Yet niche marketing has brought me a greater appreciation for my customers and their needs. In fact, I even enjoy it now.

In this article I will share with you general approaches for one of the most viable free traffic sources on the Internet: Craig's List.

The big "Internet gurus" are just finally getting around to noticing this incredible source of free traffic. Yes, Craig's list is a Goldmine of marketing opportunities awaiting you if approached correctly. If approached blindly however, you can waste a lot of time and not see any reward. There are a few unique strategies that I employ now that have sent my click rates through the roof.

You see, I live in San Francisco. (the birthplace of Craig's list) I have seen Craig's List grow from a very small list into a worldwide phenomena. I have been marketing on Craig's list for 10 years and know all the tricks. In fact, I have spoken with Craig many times (yes there is a real guy named Craig). To some people the Craig's List web site might look a little complicated. Do this right now, open up another browser window and I will walk you through a few areas of the web site, highlighting the potential free niche marketing options.

* Community * In the upper left-hand corner is this box. Listed as subheadings are "activities", "artists", "general", "pets", and others. The "General" category is an excellent place for any kind of free report or other free promotional activity. Really, anything goes in this category. Having said that, you do not want to post anything in here that mentions a fee or even has prominently displayed fee based services on your landing page. If you do, it will likely get flagged, quickly.

However you can market your free newsletters, free reports, free tele-classes. If you have a niche product that corresponds to one of the subheadings, all the better. For instance if you are promoting a book on dog training, the " pets" category here could be a gold mine.

Read the rest at http://ezinearticles.com/?id=464148