Wednesday, December 24, 2008

How to Place Free Classifieds

By Alex Wu

The local paper wants to charge you a large fee to advertise something, and the fee is almost as much as the item you want to sell. Try the Internet free Classified ads. They are a great money saver for those of you that have items to sell. You can sell anything from real estate to jewelry. The Internet targets a larger audience for you. They will target local and statewide audiences, and some even global for those small items that you want to sell.

You know that the people looking at your Internet classified ad are people that are interested in what you have to sell. That is why they go onto these sites. You will get better exposure and save the cost. It is a good option for many people. Even selling on E-bay you have fees this is the better way to do it.

The secret to where the free classified sites make money is in the click ads that appear on the pages of their website. They get paid per click. They also charge for premium features such as adding a picture to your classified ad they do quite well with this.

When you decide to place a classified ad on the Internet, do your homework and find out which ones rank highest on the search engines. You can use Google Analytics for this, or just do web searches as if you were looking for something on the Internet classifieds. Once you get the results make a note of the top three results as these will be your most looked at classified ad websites. You should advertise on more than one.

Once you know what you want to sell and where you will place the ad, make sure that you have a good, clear, and brief ad describes your item or service and set your price and method of payment accepted. Place a contact e-mail address not a phone number. You do not want your number all over the Internet.

Be precise in the method of payment that you require, and never send your item without payment first. PayPal and Money Orders are two methods that are good. If you accept checks make it clear that no item will be sent until the check clears. You have to protect yourself. There are people who are out to scam others just like anywhere else.

When you decide on a website to sell on, check to see if they have a forum or message board there. Read them to see how well the ads on this website work. Get involved and ask questions as well. The better informed you are will make you a better seller.

When you decide on the website that you will place your classified ad on, look into the terms of service and use. Make sure you know of any costs that they charge, and for what they are charged. Know what restrictions they have as far as what you can advertise on the website. The ads usually run between seven and thirty days, know what yours will run for. Do your homework and you can sell many things for free on the Internet. - 15246

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