BANS/CJ/Craigslist - The Unholy trinity?

There is some talk on the BANS forum about using CL to advertise BANS sites. Apparently any kind of "affiliate marketing" is against the CL TOS. I'm just wondering if technically they mean the posting of direct affiliate links vs. a link to a BANS website. Does anyone here have any insight into this? I've had some luck in using CL, but I don't want any trouble. On the other hand sometimes there seems to be a bit of a chicken little mentality when it comes to these kinds of things and it's worthwhile to push the envelope a bit. Anyway, what do you know/think about using CL in conjunction with BANS/CJ/Ebay?

 

Interesting thread, i use bans and i have never heard of the use of CL.

 

what is bans?

 

It's against Craigslist's TOS to promote any kind of affiliate offer on their site.

There have been a lot of cases recently where Craigslist contacts CJ to report affiliates and they are banned. Surely you could get away if you're very careful, but all it takes is one person reporting you and that's it.

 

Ok, now doesn´t look so interesting
Thanks.

 

I think that when Ebay hosts it's affiliate program in-house, they will be cracking down even harder on CL marketing IMHO. I've done it in the past (pre-BANS) and was never penalized, though my ads were deleted pretty quickly. However, now that I have 14 BANS sites, I do not want to risk my CJ account. Kuania, BANS is Build a Niche Store software.

 

Any recommendations for alternatives? CL is hard to beat especially for targeting specific cities etc.

 

Forum posting has been a great tool for me. Since you are working with a specific niche, you can usually find a forum related to it. Unfortunately, it can be a little time consuming but it does pay off.

Organic traffic has been my best friend though. With one of my sites, I was able to get to the front page of Google pretty quickly. This is only theory, but I believe if you have a term or niche that has little competition, a sitewide link on a site with many pages will boost you pretty high in the serps. Once again, this is only my theory. I had one BANS site that had a sitewide link from a PR2 and made it to the front page pretty fast.

 

Yeah, I've had some success with targeted forum signatures as well, but it is time consuming. When you say sitewide links, do you mean paying like for a text ad on a site with decent PR or what?

 

Obviously, one with higher pagerank is better, but with little competition, I don't think it matters (once again, this is only theory). The sitewide link actually came from a site that I personally owned. It was a PR1 when I listed the BANS site but it still made the front page of google.

 

one alternative would be to promote your product but post a link to your site and not your affiliate link, thousands of people on CL do this.

 

That is exactly what I do. But I've been told by multiple people now that this is not allowed and could result in getting banned from Ebay/CJ.

 

I tried. It doesn't work. My ads got flagged and removed shortly after I posted.

 

I would say about half of my ads got flagged and when I realized it was a problem and not allowed I quit doing it.

I would suggest that if your serious about keeping all accounts not doing it.

 

you just gotta make the ad sound as real as possible i guess

but yea, there is a lot of flagging going on

it sucks cuz craigslist is a huge source of traffic, but what you can benefit from what uve already done is with the email addresses, if you get emailed about your products, keep the email addresses and start an emailing list, once a week or so.

 

While Craigslist may be the biggest classified ads site, don't forget there are hundreds of others.

Kijiji is a great one to use, lots of users, lots of traffic. You should also browse through the 'want' ads and e-mail users looking for something you're selling on your BANS site. Also look at local classified ads. Create a landing page with listings in that particular city (i.e. New York).

Just because Craigslist decided to be a party pooper doesn't mean the party has to be over.

 

very well said, but pretty much everyone is used to it and its so very well known

ill give kijiji a try and see how that goes

 

does anyone know how to post a live link in kijiji?

 

And the funny thing is Kijiji is also owned by ebay. Do your research next time. Its like jumping from water into fire

 

Why is it like jumping from water into fire? If Ebay owns it, they're probably gonna be ok with people sending traffic to their affiliate's stores, don't you think?