Free classified marketing is one of the techniques which creates much argument on Internet marketing forums. There are those who swear by it, and others who have tried it and say it simply does not work. The largest of the classified advertising sites, Craigslist, is forever having to deal with masses of spammers who try to abuse the system and evade the controls which have been put into place to keep the system fair for everyone. These controls have made it increasingly difficult for legitimate marketers to carry on their business on the Craigslist site. Many marketers have tried to get round Craigslist's rules by using techniques such as creating ads in images or posting from proxy sites claiming to live in a different part of the world. Although these techniques may enjoy some degree of short term success, it is probably impossible to try and build a long term business when you are endlessly having to re-do your campaigns as previous ones are continually closed down. Add on to this the need for phone verification which Craigslist has now introduced, and you really are facing an uphill struggle with this kind of approach. Use Craigslist, and other classified ad sites such as BackPage, legitimately, and you can still see some good results. As with so many other types of Internet marketing, a lot of people become discouraged simply because they start out with unrealistic expectations. Just as one article will not make you a business, neither will one classified ad. By doing a bit of research, finding as many sites as you can, and getting as many ads out there as you can manage, you increase your chances considerably. Yes, it is a lot of work, but it can all be outsourced if you have the budget. The more testing you do, the more accurate the results will be. You can then make informed choices as to which sites and which ads are worth continuing with. This is the way you can be successful with free classified marketing.
In order to make classified marketing works, the trick is in the volume, i.e. the more sites you posted your ad too, the better the result, of course that will take a lot of your time to do it.
This is a good point. Why limit yourself to just one classified website. Craigslist may be the most viewed, but it also will have many competing ads. Sometimes you can make yourself stand out more if you place your ad where there's less competition.