5 Tips for Better Craigslist Ads

Whether you’re looking to rent a room, sell some furniture or offer a service, a Craigslistclassified is a great way to advertise.

We have taken a look at how to make the most of your Craigslist ads, offering some useful advice direct from the online service.

Take a look below through the suggestions we’ve pulled together. Share in the comments any advice from your previous Craigslist experiences.

1. Ace Your Subject Line

Be sure to write concise, clear subject lines. Use the space available to fit in as much relevant information as you can, keeping in mind what the most important key words are.

Craigslist advises not “screaming at your audience,” so avoid too many attention-grabbing exclamation marks, overly dramatic caps lock, etc.

2. Be Creative

Unlike traditional print classifieds, you have unlimited space on Craigslist to write a killer description.

Spend some time on your copy. Be creative, tell a story. A well-written, engaging advert is going to get a better response than a poorly worded paragraph.

3. Use Crystal Clear Photos

Do not underestimate the importance of photography. Don’t just snap a quick, poorly lit mobile photo — develop decent imagery.

Take the time to capture the best photos you can. If you’re really not a shutterbug, recruit the help of a friend to ensure the images you post are of the best quality.

Where possible, shoot in daylight. Make sure the images are uncluttered and clearly showcase what you are trying to advertise.

4. Tell the Truth

Word your ad very clearly so that your audience knows exactly what you’re offering, the condition, terms, etc.

“Don’t exaggerate.” says Craigslist. “It’ll only waste your time as users come to see your car for sale, your bike for barter, etc., and arrive to find themselves disappointed.”

Being honest in your copy is more likely to result in a successful transaction, as your audience will understand exactly what it is you’re offering.

5. Don’t be Afraid to be Funny

Finally, Craigslist says “humor is always appreciated.” Don’t be afraid to inject some fun into your listing.

Who knows, you may even find your ad going viral.

Details of 10 E-Commerce Platforms

When it comes to choosing a platform for an e-commerce website there are plenty of options. Having options can be a good thing, but in some cases having too many options can make it difficult to know which one to choose. In this post we’ll take a look at 10 leading options and we’ll provide some details about each. They are actually broken down into 3 categories: hosted, open source, and hosted shopping cart.

Hosted e-commerce platforms will charge a monthly or yearly fee, which will include web hosting, use of the e-commerce system, and support. You’ll have to host your site with them in order to use the system. The downside to this is that you won’t be able to choose your own host, but the upside is that you’ll get support for hosting and the e-commerce system from the same place, and they will know their own system very well. Also, since it is hosted they can take care of most security details.

Open source e-commerce platforms can be downloaded and hosted anywhere. You’re not committed to a particular host, which can be a good thing. The downside is that support is likely limited to a forum or wiki. For designers and developers, open source solutions can be a good choice. End users who are looking to set up their own site will likely face more obstacles with an open source, self-hosted system as compared to a hosted platform.

Hosted shopping carts will allow you to use the CMS and host of your choice, and they will just host the shopping cart and checkout process for you. So they’ll still handle the security details since the payment will be processed through their site, but you won’t host your entire site with them.

So now we’ll take a look at the specific platforms. Certainly there are plenty of other options that could be included, but we have tried to limit the number to a few in each category to avoid overload.

40+ of the Best WordPress eCommerce Themes

While there are plenty of options available when choosing an eCommerce platform, the possibility of using WordPress for eCommerce has become more enticing in recent years due to continued development of plugins and themes. Today there is no shortage of quality themes that can be purchased, or in some cases downloaded for free, to use WordPress for powering an eCommerce website.

One of the main benefits of having WordPress as an eCommerce option is that so many users and developers are already familiar with WordPress, so the learning curve can in some cases be shorter than with another platform. Another advantage is that WordPress is free to use and can be hosted anywhere. Many of the leading eCommerce options require your site to be hosted with them, which can be a good thing, but it’s not what every user wants.

Having a custom theme designed and developed is always an option, but the improving quality of available premium themes makes it possible to start a professional-looking eCommerce site with very little upfront investment. In this post we’ll showcase more than 40 eCommerce themes for WordPress, and every one of them sells for less than $100.

Some eCommerce themes come with their own eCommerce functionality built in to the theme, but most are designed and developed to integrate with one or more of the leading eCommerce plugins for WordPress. Those plugins include WooCommerce, Jigoshop, WP e-Commerce, and Cart66.

25 E-Commerce Web Designs for Your Inspiration

Over the years we have showcased a number of great e-commerce website designs for your inspiration. Today we’re featuring another 25 outstanding e-commerce designs from various designers. The sites showcased here represent a variety of different industries and you’ll also see a number of different styles of design. Hopefully the next time you are looking for some inspiration for your own e-commerce design this collection can prove to be helpful.

The Green Card


Money for the Masses, Yes.
Green Dot is the biggest example of a new financial-services company that aims extremely sophisticated technology at what might seem like a singularly unpromising demographic: the estimated 60 million American considered “underbanked.” Some of these millions subsist at poverty level; many others simply can’t afford the increasingly stiff monthly charges associated with traditional checking accounts.
Green Dot’s product is a prepaid debit card. It looks and acts just like regular Visa or MasterCard plastic, but it must be funded by the owner before it can be used. There is no credit, so there is no way to bounce a check, much less get buried with high-interest credit card debt via impulse purchases.

Paypal Access. A good idea?

PayPal Access is being launched this week, Paypal will only receive a customer’s shipping address; PayPal will keep the rest of the customer’s information to itself. The logic: by eliminating the need for customers to complete a registration and provide personal information to a retailer, the retailer may see improved conversions.

That sounds nice, but currently PayPal apparently doesn’t have much support, if any, from retailers. And if the statements made by PayPal’s spokesman are any indication, it’s hard to see where such support will come from.

PayPal Access, as described, may on the surface offer some possible benefits to consumers, but it’s hard to see how putting a barrier between consumers and retailers will really benefit either in the long run. After all, few things matter less to retailers today than data. In offering a ‘solution‘ that aims to circumvent retailers’ normal registration process, PayPal is really keeping valuable data about customers out of retailers’ hands. That data, of course, tells them who their customers are. Needless to say, knowing who their customers are is absolutely crucial for retailers. This enables everything from more relevant email marketing campaigns to the creation of a better, more personalized user experience. Via eConsultancy.

t-Commerce is born?

Many online retailers say half of mobile commerce is coming from tablet devices already, and more purchases are likely to come from tablets throughout 2011, according to a recent report from research firm Forrester.

Forrester half-jokingly coined the term “t-commerce” in the report section covering tablets and online retail. “In spite of the fact that the iPad was only introduced in the spring of 2010,” its analysts write, “it immediately proved to be a formidable driver of traffic through mobile devices. Many retailers report that already half of what they consider to be mobile traffic is coming through tablet devices.