Tuesday Tutorial: Selling Products on Craigslist – A Step by Step Guide

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the power of craigslistAre you interested in making money online?

What money making methods are you using to see positive cash flow with your new online business?

Are you using Craigslist.org as one of the online money making solutions?

Craigslist is arguably one of the fastest ways to make money online as you’re starting an online business.  Not only can it break the ice and help you actually gain confidence that online commerce is real, but it’s FREE (for the most part).

Happy Tuesday Eve! This Tuesday Tutorial is coming a day early per the request of a few clients who want to get listing right away on Craigslist.

Here are some things to be aware of as you get started selling items on Craigslist:

All craigslist postings are free, except for:

1. Job posts in the San Francisco Bay Area. The fee for posting a job in the SF Bay Area is $75. This fee pays for one job in one category. (One job posted in two different categories would cost $150.)

2. Job posts in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Orange County, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle, South Florida, and Washington DC. The fee for posting a job in these cities is $25. This fee pays for one job in one category. (One job posted in two different categories would cost $50.)

3. Brokered apartment rental listings in New York The fee for posting a brokered apartment rental in New York City is $10.

4. Erotic services posts on craigslist sites in the United States. The fee for posting ads in the erotic services category is $5.

Those $5 fees for #4 can really add up 🙂

There are limitations to what you can sell on Craigslist.  (you may want to review this before you attempt to sell your neighbors annoying dog)

A step by step guide to listing an item on Craigslist.org:

Step 1: Go to Craigslist.org.

Step 2: Select your state or country.

listing-products-on-craigslist

Step 3: Select the city that’s closest to where you live.

Sometimes, on this step, I may select a bigger city where more potential visitors will see my listing.  Just remember: test, test, test!

listing-products-on-craigslist-2

I may even list in a different surrounding area.  Just make sure you don’t list word for word the same content in two different areas – this is forbidden by Craigslist.  The main objective of Craigslist is to be a Local Classified Ad – so be careful when branching out.

Remember, the most effective way to sell on Craigslist is by being able to meet the potential buyer in person.

Step 4: Find the best category for your product.

One suggestion is to do a search for the type of product you plan to sell once you get to your state and city.   Keyword research will again come in handy here as you are trying to determine how to list your products.

how-to-list-products-on-craigslist-3

Since we’re talking about selling products on Craigslist, you’ll probably want to focus on the “For Sale” section in the center of the page:

selling-products-on-craigslist-4

Step 5: Be aware of the potential scams.

Scams can and WILL happen on Craigslist if you don’t follow the advice they give you.

At the top of the category page, you’ll see warning links like these:

tips-to-avoid-scams-on-craigslist-5

Make sure to read them over to avoid getting taken advantage of.  Here are the most important tips to avoid scams on Craigslist (in my opinion):

* DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON – follow this one simple rule and you will avoid 99% of the scam attempts on craigslist.
* NEVER WIRE FUNDS VIA WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM or any other wire service – anyone who asks you to do so is a scammer.
* FAKE CASHIER CHECKS & MONEY ORDERS ARE COMMON, and BANKS WILL CASH THEM AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE when the fake is discovered weeks later.
* CRAIGSLIST IS NOT INVOLVED IN ANY TRANSACTION, and does not handle payments, guarantee transactions, provide escrow services, or offer “buyer protection” or “seller certification”
* NEVER GIVE OUT FINANCIAL INFORMATION (bank account number, social security number, eBay/PayPal info, etc.)
* AVOID DEALS INVOLVING SHIPPING OR ESCROW SERVICES and know that ONLY A SCAMMER WILL “GUARANTEE” YOUR TRANSACTION.

Step 6:  Click Post in the top right corner of the screen.

Now that you’re at the appropriate category page, the Post option will be at the top right corner:

posting-an-item-on-craigslist-6

Step 7: Create a Craigslist User Account.

login-or-create-a-craigslist-account-7

This isn’t a mandatory step but here’s why Craigslist recommends it:

What is my craigslist user account? Do I need one?

You can manage posts efficiently with a craigslist user account. The process of creating posts, editing and deleting them, and re-posting ads that have expired is much easier.

If you post frequently, or if you need to post paid ads, it makes sense to set up a user account.

Another question you might have:

How do I create a user account?
* Go to the account signup form.
* Enter your email address, type the five-letter verification word that appears on the screen, and click “create account”.
* We’ll send you an email with the instructions for completing the account setup process.

If you’re still reading this post, type a YES in the comments section below 🙂  If not, I need to shorten the Tutorials!

Step 8: Re-select your category and POST THE ITEM!

For time’s sake, I’m going to skip all the information about registering your account, getting the email, etc.  You’ll see a page that looks like this:

craigslist-category-page-8

Select the best category and proceed!

Step 9: Fill out the appropriate information.

The listing page will look like this:

listing-products-on-craigslist-9

The main things to remember on this step are:

  1. Use a “keyword rich” Post Title.
  2. Post the price you’d like to sell the product for.
  3. Add a detailed description, preferably using bullet points so it’s easy to read.
  4. ADD IMAGES.  This is found right about the “Permissions” section where it says “Add/Edit Images”.  It will look like this when you click the button:

    5. adding-images-to-a-craigslist-listing-10

You have now listed your first item on Craigslist.org – Congratulations!

I’m excited to hear “Craiglist Success Stories!” 

Please post your Craigslist experience in the comments section below!

craigslist photo courtesy of www.nevblog.com

Comments

  1. I love Craigslist! Its funny that two out of three things that have ever hit the front page of Digg (by me) were articles about selling on Craigslist! Great tutorial here Nate. You readers should have success after reading this!

    Reply

  2. I literally sold a washer & dryer I had in 5 minutes on Craigslist! I hit post and I had 5 emails in a matter of minutes. They were sold to the very first person I talked to on the phone. However, I have had a few ideas go completely unnoticed.

    If you don’t have a picture, you are killing the chances of getting a sale. Just from my own experience, I click on ads with pics first and then others from there. The right titles are the hooks for me. Finally, you have to give enough information in the ad itself.

    Reply

    • Thanks for the comment – I’m preparing to sell my 2000 Honda Accord on Craigslist tomorrow – hopefully my results are as quick and effective as yours.

      Thanks for the tips and reminder about the importance of pictures on your listings (although the last car I sold on KSL.com didn’t have a picture – I was lazy 🙂 )

      Talk to you soon!

      Reply

  3. Nate, great tutorial. I think Craigslist can be a very effective tool to use as an online business whether you are a large, medium, or small size business. It can even be very successful as an individual as well. I have sold many things via Craigslist for my business including overstocked inventory, returns, etc. I also sold my car on craigslist in just a few short hours. Good post!

    Reply

    • Great link about how you sold your car on Craigslist! We’re in the process of selling our car on Craigslist right now too and will use your tips. Thanks for the comment!

      Reply

  4. We were very excited when we made our firt sale on Cragislist (for a lava lamp). We also learned to make sure verify meeting places and times before you meet up which we forgot to do our first time.

    Reply

  5. tHANKS FOR Craig’s List Tutorial. I’m signed in so I’ll go check it out now but I wanted to stay with you to the end. Good job.

    Debra Stevenson
    Miami, Florida

    Reply

  6. Nate,

    Very nice and easy to follow tutorial. I posted items on Craiglist but didn’t sell anything, but I got a lots of inquiries. I will be re-posting them and more.

    Reply

  7. Thanks for letting me know about this sight. The tutorial is
    is easy to understand. I’m currently trying to put a post. Already thinking of new things to list.

    Reply

    • Yes I am still reading and the information is of great help for me to start posting about helping people find work..

      Reply

  8. Yes, I am still reading. I listed our two vacant rental properties and got a response on one within the first 50 minutes. Can’t wait to post my “for sale” items!

    Reply

    • I CAN GET AS FAR AS POSTING AN ITEM . I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO ADD A PICTURE. I GET AS FAR AS PLUGGING IN MY CAMERA AND ALL MY PHOTOS COME UP WITH ALL PICTURES HAVING A CHECK MARK IN A BLOCK UNDER THEM FROM THEIR ON I NEED HELP. THANKS DON YOUNG IF YOU CAN HELP ME OVER THE PHONE MY NO. IS 610 442 2018

      Reply

  10. Thanks for a very clear tutorial Nate.
    I posted some books individually with no results. I’ll now put several books together in a set and see if that results in a sale. Are larger items easier to sell?

    Reply

  11. I do everything right, but when I gert to the ADD pics part, I cannot get the pic—which is on my LUMIX simple view screen –to move into the ad that I am trying to post. Should I put the pics in a diffrent folder or what? Please help, I am getting very frustrated with this.
    Thanks

    Reply

    • Hello Anita,

      Sorry about the delayed response.

      Most likely the problem is due to the size of your pictures.

      You can attempt to resize pictures in a free program like Gimp.org.

      Hope this helps.

      Nate Moller

      Reply

  12. Thank you for providing this step by step guide to posting on Craigs list. It was a breeze. To early to tell if I will sell my items or not though.

    Reply

    • Yes, I’ve just joined, still a little confused yet excited.
      I have a great support team so I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it soon.
      I’m still on setup mode. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

      Reply

  23. Can please someone tell what form should the website in the add have? I copy and paste the website that I have created with Payspree but I cannot publish the add because it says that craiglist does not accept epsprosperity.

    thank you

    Reply

    • Please expand on this question. By “posting ads” do you mean listing new products or something else? Look forward to helping you.

      Reply

  26. Hi Nate,

    I love your tutorial and this is my 1st time postings ads EVER on Craigslist and so far it was working and I was getting responses to my ads. It was great!

    However, I say was because now they deleted one of them and blocked my other ads and I cannot even posts any new ones and I don’t know what happened.

    Can you please give my some insight on how to correct this problem. I am in desperate need of your help.

    Thanks………….nm

    Reply

  28. I did great ads but have not got any results in the 3 days since I have joined. I need this to work! Until I get employment, I need this to work. I have not been able to post my landing page in the ad text without trying to disguise it. For example e p s pro sperity hotline (DOT) com / rhondaconner1
    Enter whole above phrase with NO SPACES, a period for the “DOT”, and no w-s as address.
    epsprosperityhotline(DOT)com/rhondaconner1 If I enter my landing page address in normal, it is flagged or deleted. Please help. Thank you much!

    Reply

    • I’m just starting out with EPS and was wondering if you have resolved this problem. Please email me at [email protected]. I would like to talk to someone who has been doing this for awhile. Thanks.

      Reply

      • I’m just starting out with EPS and was wondering if you have resolved this problem. Please email me. I would like to talk to someone who has been doing this for awhile. Thanks.

        Reply

  33. Hi Nate, this is some great step by step training. I will bookmark this so I can view again and again. Have a great day!

    Reply

  35. Yes i read it till the end!
    I just have 1 prob. Am in 1 of those city in high traffic so they automatically ask for a $25 to post.
    How do i post to a low traffic 1!

    Reply

    • You do not have to post in your own city or in any city that charges $25 for an ad on Craigslist. To become successful with EPS, you need to publish your Craigslist ads around the world, not just in one location. Keep working on it, and it will happen for you.

      Reply

  48. This is my first try reading through the tutorial. I am new to this and would need some assistance along the way. This programme however, is indeed interesting.

    Reply

  53. Really your article is helpful for me but I want to know about how to manage CL clients who sell her product.Please help me

    Reply

  54. yes still reading also.. The only thing is I see so many step by step tutorials that show their steps and yet things can be so different and confusing at times. You see different options on the tutorial that I dont see when doing the steps, and also the other way around also.

    Thanks for the Tutorial.

    Reply

  56. I am a mature aged female and have never tried online jobs before. I don’t understand what craigslist has to do with the $25 email process application. Although I joined over one month ago since I paid my fee I haven’t heard back or received any emails to process. Please tell me what I am missing or what it is I am not doing right.

    Reply

    • You have to go to whom ever you signed up under! You were supposed to receive something in your email after making your $25! That person was supposed to contact you as soon as he/she received your payment. He/she would have gotten an email and they was supposed to send you a link with all of the information so that you could get started. That’s how the person that signed me up did with me! Sorry this happened to you!

      Reply

  57. I am a new member and I noticed that this information is very OLD 2009 , do You have more recent Information about how to post an ad on craigslist , not a for sale this is about getting people to work from home responding emails right ?

    Reply

  58. Thanks and yes I’m still reading, so don’t shorten the tutorial! I’m new at this and need all of the help that I can get. I’m still not clear on where I can post in CraigsList for my ads. I’m just starting out and don’t want CraigsList to kick me off for doing something wrong. I was so excited until I kept reading what we can and cannot post on CraigsList. Kinda scary! If I’m using CaigsList to post opportunities, I don’t know which area to put them in without having to pay for them. Can you please let me know how to go about doing this?

    Reply

  59. I always like Craigslist but it seems they are getting more and more strict as to what you can post. My ads have been rejected recently, even though I was simply selling a product I was promoting. They won’t answer my emails as to why I was rejected. The scammers are MAJOR on craigslist, too, so Beware!

    Good article though for beginners!

    Reply

  60. The tutorials are great! If you want to understand and know how to do everything then go to members site and watch every video and click every link and read everything, its all there in different places. I suggest doing that before you start. I didn’t realize how easy it is to do your own web site till I watched the tutorial for example. And it is FUN I think. But I did upgrade and the website is so much nicer more eye catching and a video for 37 Bucks! that’s a bargain.Just make sure you get a business pay pal or upgrade the one u have, (still free) making your own button to get to your paypal is easy. If you upgrade Jay will need your button first to build it. Can’t wait to start. I am going to post on anything I can and see how it goes..

    Thank-you Jay

    Robin

    Reply

    • Hi there,
      Yes it is helpful to post on your city, but other cities like you suggest do not work out.
      Reason is cause Craiglist asks for phone verification, & only numbers for the USA & Canada.
      So how do we suppossed to post free ads on other 3 cities if they ask us to verify our phone number?

      P.S. I also did it all, but the free 3 ads per day on 3 different cities it is not possible

      Please, help

      Thanks

      Reply

  62. YES!!! I WAS STILL ON STEP #4, TRYING TO FIGURE OUT ALL THE INFORMATION TO MAKE SURE I POST CORRECTLY & IN THE RIGHT CATEGORY.

    Reply

  64. I have read this all and was excited at first to start EPS but now I am worried. I hope I can start making money soon. I just lost my fiance to cancer and he took care of me financially. I need to start making money or my son and I will be homeless soon. I see some people are having a hard time posting and the support team on here I guess said they never heard of epsproperity.

    Reply

  67. Reading the instruction that you have given for others to follow was very easy and informative. But here is my question, when i opened a Craigslist account i didn’t see anything about typing some bold letters. All i had to do is type in my email and there was a statement that said to check my email and click on link to activate my account. Did i mess up anything? Just making sure:)

    Reply

  68. Hi there,
    Yes it is helpful to post on your city, but other cities like you suggest do not work out.
    Reason is cause Craiglist asks for phone verification, & only numbers for the USA & Canada.
    So how do we suppossed to post free ads on other 3 cities if they ask us to verify our phone number?

    P.S. Then we have to send the code so we can post a free ad on craiglist?

    Please, help

    Reply

  72. It’s great. It is long, but you can skip through what you don’t want on the comments.

    Reply

  73. THANKS! This was very helpful I had to really keep going back and forth before I understand all of the information.

    Reply

  87. Hello, has anyone found out how to post 3 free ads on Craigslist without getting flagged or will I have to pay the $25.00 for the 3 ads which is $75.00?

    Reply

  89. yes I am still reading this. I’m new to this but I want to try it for myself first and if I still have questions I will contact you then.

    Reply

  96. I just opened my Craigslist account. I’m based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and I’ve got my settings to show that this is where I’ll be posting to.

    The problem is, if I try to initiate a search, it takes me right to the San Francisco search page.

    Anyone else had this problem?

    Reply

  98. It’s 2019. Joined 5 days ago. Going to post my first ad today on Kjiiii and roll it. Has anyone posted on Kjiiii or Craigslist yet? How soon did you make a sale?

    Reply

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