First off, I'm new to the forum and have found a great wealth of information here, so thank you to everyone that has contributed to this fantastic community. Now on to my issue. I'm trying to post on craigslist for one reason only, to promote my video game console modding service. I've read, re-read, and read again, the sticky about getting your CL ads to stay up, and while it does help temporarily (ads last 2-5 hours at best, then go down to 10 minutes) it nothing reliable. I've created a nice image-based ad, no links, rotate gmail accounts daily (10-20 different accounts daily), images are renamed and on several different image hosting services, IP change after every ad now, and 39 different titles. Here's where I'm a little stumped. My title needs to have some relevance to my service, otherwise no one will find it. However, anything with "mod" and "wii" in the same title seems to go down immediately. So I try obscure things like "Cheap Wii Games", "Play Wii Backups", "Wii Essentials" and so forth. These work better but stick for a couple hours at best. Do any of you have any suggestions as to how to get my ad to stick while still showing in the search results, or at least being visible to the people who are searching for it? Thanks!

It's been my experience that image ads get flagged very quickly, as it's quite obvious why you're using an image instead of text based ads.

I am, by far, no expert on posting to CL, but I have a lot more luck posting plain text ads, even with a URL in the ad (provided I follow the rest of the tips outlined for getting ads to stick - rotate accounts, only post so many per day, rotate proxy servers, etc).

I use E*asy Ad Pos*ter which outsources the reCa*ptcha automatically and allows you to use "tokens" to vary your ad copy.

Thanks for the response BravoSix. I started using text ads initially, also using EAP. That never worked for me too well. Images work better, but they still don't stick. Since craigslist has cracked down more and more over the last few weeks/months, I can't get one ad to stick even for one full day. Frustrating, but I'm determined to get this to work. Thanks again for the suggestions!

Hey, no sweat.

I'm convinced that there is a large contingent of CL surfers who simply flag EVERYTHING. I've had completely legitimate, local ads flagged when I was giving something away for free. It must be some sort of lame power trip.

Are you including a little text along with your image ad, so that it's not just an image link as your ad?

And yes, there are some flag-happy assholes on craigslist. Mental fucking midgets, they are. Have you noticed any competition in your niche? Think it could be a jealous competitor?

About a month ago CL was littered with local modders, then they dropped the guillotine and I seem to be the only one still attempting. So, if I can find a way to keep my ad up, it will be outstanding for business. I've befriended some of the modders and they've been nice people so I'd like to think it's not the competition that's flagging.

I have not been including text. Should I use the random phrases? I read in the sticky that that's not such a good idea. I guess I will try it and see how it goes. At least it can't get much worse.

What is more beneficial random phrases or tokens relating to my ad? The problem with relating to my ad is anything with the word Mod in it seems to get flagged almost instantly. ughhh. They're douchebags, I tell you.

Thanks again for your help guys. I'm open to any and every suggestion you can throw my way!

Hi. I just started doing image ads myself and all of them get flagged. Doesn't CL know it is next to impossible to get an ad up. I don't even put up very many and none stick. They did have a lot of spam before but now it's just crazy. How will they ever have any ads up when all are flagged.

Agreed. I'm not even trying to mass post. I would be happy having one ad up for the whole seven days but they give me no choice. Sheesh.

Here's my 2 cents worth:

If LISH can't get a post to stick, nobody can!

That is how bad CL has gotten.

It has gone down the tubes, and nobody over at CL seems to care.

I literally used to write Craig himself which usually resulted in a quick, curt reply, but now, not even that.

For one particular section (out of Tucson) that cannot maintain more than 6 or 7 ads at any particular time (when it should have 400 or 500 posts remaining) his response was simply:

Must be a lot of spam there.

No Craig. There must be a lot of bullsh*t flagging going on, pal.

He seems to be quite intent that his pet little flagging system is essentially foolproof.

Of course, he has now demonstrated that beyond question, he is an idiot.

Ok maybe that was 3 cents worth.

So it must be exclusively people flagging that is getting my ads kicked huh? Sucks. I thought it might be the CL filters, but apparently if CL deletes your ad you won't get a "flagged" email. Is that correct? I always get those emails.

Then why do you think that all modders were flagged at the same time and have been unable to keep an ad up since? Do you think CL lowered the threshold on the amount of flags for this certain area? (By the way, I'm in the SF Bay Area) Is anybody having luck posting these days? Like jbage said, I'm trying to post a relatively legit ad. I know modding is not the most "legit" thing in the world but I've had no problem posting for the last year and a half. How are you guys getting your ads to stick? Man, how I miss the good ol' days...

Just go on over and shove yer foot up his ass... bang bang bang.

... Maybe then he will listen

In my experience, using random phrases gets your ads flagged very quickly. Most saavy CL users recognize the open white space for what it is, and they only need to highlight the area to see the text. When they see the random text, they instantly flag it as spam.

Unfortunately, it seems that no matter what you do, the CL police will come running to flag your ad. All you can do is make your ad seem LESS like spam, so I would use the tokens.

You'll still have to deal with the flaggers who think your service shouldn't be advertised.

I reckon if you put any other contact details in your ad.....especially in an image ad, then you will get flagged.

Unfortunately its getting to the stage where you are better off just accepting mails through craigslist, then harvesting those e-mails in the best way.....Putting any other kind of comtact mechanism apart from a phone number will have you flagged..........

Lastly......what do you think the flagger thinks when he flags a potential spammer/scammer?


Sapmister

.........................

I was wondering if I could get a bit of help from ya....I am not a beginner in the CL marketplace....I post prolly close to a thousand ads per day no problems with ghosting whatsoever I have gotten over that hump.....my main issue is my ads keep getting flagged...for instance in the cars section where I market within an hour during the day my ad is gone from most cities....during the late night not even an issue they are all there....it did not used to be this bad...but I am trying to troubleshoot how to fix it....I was thinking maybe overposting in a catagory day after day but most cities may only see one of my posts a day...maybe people see my familiar ad and recognize it and flag it...but with so many users it seems unlikely...I use plenty of links and emails and switching ip addresses I was thinking maybe making 5 ads jpegs instead of one and rotate them....I have plenty of titles and variables and as I mentioned no ghosting...all ads go live...but just getting them to stay live...

Could you give me an idea of maybe where I can start trying to fix this or is it even anything that is fixable? As I mentioned the flagging has gotten progressively worse...at first it was a couple hours....now alot of times even during the day its within an hour or even for big cities within the first 5 mins of the post being live...I am using a hyperlinked image BTW...The onlt text in my ad is the lipsum file which is random text and the links themselves...


Any help would be appreciated..

Chris