Can You Put Links In Craigslist Ads
How to Post a Web Address on Craigslist – Small Business …
Craigslist, the popular classifieds website, allows you to insert clickable Web links into your ads to, for example, send visitors to a contact page on your site. There are two types of links that you can embed into Craigslist ads: plain links, also known as simple links, and links with anchor text. While simple links simply display the full Web address of the page you are linking to, anchor text links let you specify the phrase or word that should be displayed to users. Simple Link Open your Web browser and navigate to Select your geographical area and click on the “Post” link. Select a suitable category for your ad. Enter your email address twice and type your ad’s body. Insert a simple clickable link by typing the entire Uniform Resource Locator address of the Web page, prefixed by “” without quotes, in the ad’s body. Click on “Continue” and follow the instructions to finish posting your ad. Craigslist automatically turns your URL address into a clickable link. Link With Anchor Text Load in your browser, select your geographical area and click on the “Post” link. Choose a suitable category and fill in the ad-creation form with your email address and your ad’s body. Insert a link with anchor text by typing the following Hypertext Markup Language tag: Visit my website Replace “” with your page’s URL address and “Visit my website” with the anchor text you wish to use. Click on the “Continue” button and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the ad-creation process. References Writer Bio Jane Buchanan earned a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Virginia in 1991. Since then, she has worked as a journalist and copy editor for the “Daily Press” and the “Arlington Connection. ”
How to Include a YouTube Video in Craigslist – Small Business – Chron …
Craigslist is a great way to advertise products or services online, but it can be hard to make your ad stand out from the rest. One method of grabbing the attention of potential customers or clients is to include a video with your listing. While Craigslist does not allow you to embed a YouTube video directly in your listing, it is possible to use HTML codes to add an image, as well as link to the video, which will yield the same results. People who view your listing can then click “play the video” to get a better understanding of what your business has to offer. Navigate to YouTube (link in Resources) and click on the video that you want to include on Craigslist. Click the “Pause” button to stop the video from playing. Press the “PrtSc” key on your keyboard to take a screenshot of your screen. Click the Start button and then click “All Programs. ” Click the “Accessories” option and then click “Paint” from the list of accessories. Click the “Paste” button on the top left of the Paint window to paste the screenshot of the YouTube page into Paint. Click the “Crop” tool and then click and drag your mouse cursor over the image of the YouTube video that you have pasted. Start from the top left corner of the video and move down to the bottom right corner. Click the “Crop” tool again once the selection has been made to crop out the rest of the image, leaving you with only the picture of the video. Be sure to include the player controls in the image so that viewers can see that it is a YouTube video and what the duration is. Click the “Paint” button on the top left corner and select “Save” from the list of options. Enter a filename and location for your image file. Upload the image file to a free photo sharing website like Flickr, Photobucket or Picasa (links in Resources). Navigate to the Craigslist website (link in Resources) and select the site nearest to where your business is located. Click the “Post to classifieds” link at the top left of the page. Select the type of posting and then click the “Continue” button. Select a category for your posting and click the “Continue” button. Enter a title for your ad in the “Posting Title” section and a price in the “Price” section. Enter a location, if applicable, in the “Specific Location” section. Enter the email address in the “Reply to” section and then enter it again in the text box marked “Type email address again” to verify that it is correct. Type the text for your advert in the “Posting Description” box. Enter a HTML link to the image that you uploaded to the free photo sharing website. For example, if your image is called VideoClip and you uploaded it to Photobucket, the coding would be as follow; Replace the text between quotes with the exact link to your uploaded image. Enter the HTML link to the YouTube video that you want to include. For example, if your video clip is called Product, the exact code would be as follow; Play Video Replace the “product” text with the direct link to the YouTube clip. Click the “Continue” button and click “Done With Images. ” Review your ad to make sure everything is correct and then click the “Continue” button. Confirm the email sent to you if you do not have a Craigslist account. If you do have a Craigslist account, the ad is posted immediately. References Resources Writer Bio Virtually growing up in a computer repair shop, Naomi Bolton has held a passion for as long as she can remember. After earning a diploma through a four year course in graphic design from Cibap College, Bolton launched her own photography business. Her work has been featured on Blinklist, Gameramble and many others.
Top 5 Rules to Keep Your Craigslist Ad from Getting Ghosted or Flagged
Allen Cook
Sr. Vice President of Sales at
Published Nov 4, 2014
(What we learned from 321, 021 Craigslist ads)
If your properties regularly advertise their vacancies on Craigslist, they have likely experienced having their postings ghosted or flagged. Having a post ghosted or flagged means that either a user of the site has clicked the ‘prohibited’ flag at the top of your post or that the Craigslist bots have removed your post due to exceeding a threshold in one of their algorithms. These activities are in place as an attempt to rein in the scammers and spammers on Craigslist, but oftentimes legitimate businesses get caught in the web.
Here are a few simple rules to follow when posting to avoid user flagging and/or algorithmic ghosting, presented in order of severity:
1) Don’t post in more than one city from the same email/account
Why? Because Craigslist promotes local connections and a common practice of spammers is posting in multiple cities from a single central location.
What to do. If your email account in Craigslist is and you post in Atlanta, then you should only ever post in Atlanta. Avoid posting in any other city with that same email account. If you must post in another city, use a different email account like
2) Don’t post identical content
Why? Having ads with identical content on Craigslist can get those ads ghosted or flagged because Craigslist forbids posting the same thing more than once.
What to do. Vary your ad content with each post. Alter the titles, the order of the images uploaded, and the body copy every time you post an ad.
3) Don’t post back-to-back ads
Why? A craigslist search results page that contains many ads with similar content and the same contact information looks “spammy. ” Technically, Craigslist even forbids having two ads in the same category, even if you are legitimately selling two different things.
What to do. Allow some time to pass between ad postings. Exactly how much time depends on the individual market. Each market has varying volumes of ad postings. With very active markets, you need only wait a half hour to an hour between postings, other less active markets, you will need to limit your postings to one or two per day. The idea is to let other ads come onto the site as a buffer between your ads.
4) Don’t use “spammy” words
Why? Craigslist is on the lookout for words and phrases routinely used by scammers and spammers. Once again, legitimate businesses can get caught in this search.
What to do. Avoid using words and phrases that tend to be used by spammers such as “free” or “credit card” or “weight loss. ” Avoid using ALL-CAPS in your titles. Also, avoid filling your ad with keywords unless those keywords are included in legitimate sentences and phrases. Finally, ensure that your ads have obvious telephone contact information. People in the Craigslist forums regularly admit that they flag ads simply because they can’t find the contact information.
5) Don’t look too commercial
Why? The Craigslist user community frequents the site because of the “free marketplace” feel of it. Corporations posting using traditional branding messaging do not do as well in this environment.
What to do. Avoid HTML tagging, like bolding and underlining. Avoid posting an excess of photos. Vary the content so the ads do not look too “templated. ”
While the rules of the game are constantly being re-written, if you follow these 5 rules you are much less likely to have your posts ghosted or flagged. Here at Rooof, we have developed a posting tool that incorporates all of the 5 rules in a single browser extension that creates Craigslist ads automatically by pulling data and images directly from your website. There is no need to rely on your already busy on-site leasing staff to create effective Craigslist ads. Let our software do all the work for you. For more information, please email me at
Frequently Asked Questions about can you put links in craigslist ads
Can you use HTML in Craigslist ads?
While Craigslist does not allow you to embed a YouTube video directly in your listing, it is possible to use HTML codes to add an image, as well as link to the video, which will yield the same results.
How do I embed HTML on Craigslist?
Having a post ghosted or flagged means that either a user of the site has clicked the ‘prohibited’ flag at the top of your post or that the Craigslist bots have removed your post due to exceeding a threshold in one of their algorithms.Nov 4, 2014
