Make Money on Craigslist

Imagine Craiglist as a huge virtual bulletin board. On the Main page of Craigslist you see there are a ton of different cities and regions to select. Each one of these cities or regions has a plethora of different categories in which any person can post different forms of comments. These include For sale advertisements for just about anything you can think of, Job offers and employment wanted ads, housing needed and for rent or sale, personal ads to find your true internet love, and of course the ever so popular erotic services section where you can find anything from someone to issue a much needed spanking, or pretty much anything from This list.

Craiglist is a service that was founded in 1995. Now it serves nearly nine billion page views per month to its users, making this site the 9th most visited site in the united states. (according to Alexa - Jan 2008)
The majority of Craigslist users favor its system over other similar posting forums or boards because of its huge reach of 450 cites in 50 countries. Another quality which Craigslist possesses is a remarkable user friendly posting form, which makes it possible to post an ad in less than 5 minutes.

Craigslist is laden with an amazing amount of ways you, yes you can make some cold hard cash! Selling used (or sometimes new) merchandise in the "For Sale" section, including Cars, Motorcycles, and Electronics can be profitable. Another way a lot of people make money with Craigslist is putting their resume up or an "Employment Wanted" ad (Jobs make money baby!) There are a few more ways that range from finding small gigs available in your neighborhood, to selling your body to some creepy 48 year old man. For the sake of not having to tell you how to sell your car, ipod, or body on Craigslist (They make it pretty simple) - We are going to talk about getting other people to pay you for your postings on craigslist.

So obviously if you are not selling some of your own actual merchandise, or as discussed before, your body, how are you getting money? Well, you can earn a great commission advertising products, services, and other things on Craigslist. What is great is if you want to do something with cars, you don't have to hunt down a car dealer to affiliate yourself with. You simply find an affiliate network, who will pair you with the type of advertiser you are looking for.

Previously we mentioned that users can post ads to, and look though, the for sale section on Craigslist. Most of these listings are people trying to sell their own stuff they either don't want, or sell for profit. We are going to take this a step further. Did you know that Ebay rewards you for traffic you send to their website? Oh yes, rewarded indeed! Not only does ebay cut you in an attractive percent of their revenue, but they pay you when you get a user to sign up and bid. (becoming an active user) We are not talking peanuts here either, $25 per new active user up to 50 users. Once you refer 50 or more users in a month, Ebay will pay you $28 per new active user (Yes! Including the first 50) this is what we call a tiered payment structure. Read more on the eBay Partner Network

Find what you want to advertise
Once you sign up for eBay's Partner Network you are given access to a plethora of neat tools to help you be successful. One of these tools is the Link Generator. This will allow you to surf to any eBay page (search results, specific seller's items, specific items, possibilities are endless), copy the URL, and make your own affiliate link. This affiliate link, will then take the user you give it to, to the exact page you want.

What do we do with this?
Your going to want to set up Meta Refresh/Redirect Pages for each on of the links you made.
If you made a link that returns all Ipods for sale on eBay, you could host this meta refresh/redirect on your domain as: SampleDomain.com/ipods.html or you could set up a subdirectory for the page like Ipods.SampleDomain.com.

How to make it work
Craigslist is very region/city specific. One of the best tips I can give you is do not be broad. Pick a region/city from Craigslist, then Narrow your search results on eBay for THAT CITY ONLY. What works EVEN BETTER is listing specific products in the city or region selected.

EXAMPLE:
Post listings for cars for sale in the Louisville, KY area. Make a meta redirect page for each seperate item. An example for a page title: SampleDomain.com/97FordMustangLVKY This would send the user to the exact listing for that 97 Ford Mustang for sale in Louisville, KY.

The Posts:
Keep them simple, a general description of the item for sale, a picture, and tell them to EMAIL YOU about the item in question. Emphasize email! Once the user emails you regarding the product, simply reply and inform them they can gain more information, pictures, and contact information by following your link (SampleDomain.com/97FordMustangLVKY)

Why it works so well:
Face it, tons of people use ebay - we can't even put an exact number on it! People who are interested enough to take the time to email you about what is being sold are definitely interested enough to click a link in the email about the product. Even if the user shows no interest in the item you send him to, if he is still a member, you will earn commissions on any of his winning bids for 7 days after visiting your link. Not to mention if they are not a member, and do sign up and place a bid, you get at least a $25 bounty from eBay for it.

Use your imagination to find all kinds of items that people are looking for on Craigslist, electronics, cars, boats. Whatever it is, eBay is sure to have it, and you can make big commissions sending people their way.

Another thing Craigslist is notorious for is their Personal ads and casual encounters section. These are normally full of guys looking to get some action, right away, 10 minutes ago if possible. What we are going to do is find these men, by either going to them, or having them come to us.

First thing is first, find a dating offer you want to promote that has a decent payout. Some of these dating offers include: Adult Friend Finder, Amateur Match, and Dating Gold. I would contact whichever Affiliate Network you are signed up with and ask them for a list of their best converting dating offers.

Next, take a look at a Men For Women personals section for any city on Craigslist. There are normally a lot of males on here looking for tail, so start cranking out those emails! What you want to do is email the guy looking for the date and make yourself appear real.

EXAMPLE:

"Hey cutie, I seen your ad and really wanted to send me a message! I'm JUST about to log-off though but I am going to be on my webcam later. If you have an AmateurMatch account you can watch me on my cam. I also have some pics of me in my bikini and lingerie that I can't email. AmateurMatch is way better anyways. It's totally free, there are tons of sexy people chatting there, and they let you use webcams. Go get an account so we can chat! (Include your affiliate link here)

Another Way:
Post as a young woman looking for a guy. Be creative, women have dirty minds too, and it drives the boys wild. This means- You'll have tons of guys shooting you off emails to hook up with you. Reply with a variation of the above sample email, and Poof like magic you will be on a successful start to making money on Craigslist.