Last week I created a classified listing website for people in my state (ohio) and I have been posting like crazy on craigslist in the major cities in my state. I've got about 300 unique visitors inthe last few days. The first day of my site being up I got 15 new members, the next day I posted twice as many ads on craigslist and only got 4, the next day I got 2 and the last 2 days I've gotten only 1 or two. My traffic is slowly declining and I am starting to worry..I have been posting on cl every day, and maxed out my ads today...so I have to figure out other ways to get people using my site..I've just hit a brain fart. So what should I do? Pay others to post cl ads for me? ( I have 35 pre written ads. Or something else? If anyone has any advice for me id really appreciate it
You must use other ways to promote your website, in addition to craigslist. Search on this forum and you can find many articles on the topic of how to promote websites.
Collect a list of keywords which are relevant to you website/business and optimize the same to rank at top position on goolge or other search engines which you are concentrating. Referral traffic is very important but compare to that the traffic which you are getting to your site from the relevant keywords will really help you a lot in converting visits to revenue.
I'm starting a new niche site and working hard on it too. Posting on classified ads is one solution, but long term wise, SEO is the way to go. Try managing your time and work on both together.