If you’ve built your website but now you need traffic, what exactly are you supposed to do? Where do you focus your attention when it comes to generating traffic? Do you want long-term traffic? Or do you desperately need fast traffic? There is a big difference in how you get each one.
For this article, let’s cover one of the fastest methods to drive traffic to your websites. I’m talking about classified ads. Placing classified ads can be quick and easy, expensive or free depending on your ad, but it has been proven to be quite effective when done correctly.
Classified ads can be run for most types of services or products, however make sure it’s legal and that you check the site’s rules before posting anything you want to sell.
Posting your first classified is easy. Just sign up for accounts and follow their steps and guidelines. You’ll need to test your ads, such as your headlines and bids, to verify their effectiveness. I suggest reviewing other ads for products or services similar to yours for ideas before posting.
Here is a list of 5 of the best places to post classified ads.
craig’s list
Craigslist has become the largest online classifieds server on the Internet. At last count, Craigslist receives several billion hits a year. The once nice feature of this site is the location. You can post ads specific to your local market with ease. If you are providing a service, especially one that is not an online service, this makes it much easier to locate clients in your area. Best of all, most ads can be posted for free.
Facebook marketplace is likely the second largest classifieds platform online. While Craigslist has grown, there are a lot of people who don’t like the format of that site, but they all love Facebook. People of all ages flock to Facebook every day. Their classified sections are no different. The traffic that Facebook ads receive each day can easily be in the millions of views per day. They claim that their ads “reach 800 million users.” I have to like those odds.
ebay
For the size of eBay, being one of the largest sites on the internet and by far the largest auction site, many people still don’t know that you can post classifieds through eBay. eBay has some unique features where your classified ads can be viewed just like regular listings. This makes it easy to post HTML content and even videos, or if you’re used to eBay as it’s been around for a while. This could be why many people are unaware of eBay classifieds, as it can be hard to tell a classified ad from an auction listing. However, they still generate huge amounts of traffic with millions of hits a week for classified listings.
USClassifiedAds.com
This is one of the largest real classifieds sites. Craigslist is considered a Web2.0 social site, oddly enough. However, this site is purely about service announcements. However, your primary market is the US, but you can still have quite a global impact if you are marketing services or products online. These ads will be targeted at those people who are actively browsing classifieds. While even though Facebook gets a lot of traffic, those users are not usually “actively” looking for ads.
pennysaverusa.com
I love this site. I grew up with a local newspaper called the Penny Saver. Or at least I thought it was a local back in the 70’s. However, they have adapted to the Internet like a pro. One of the best factors about placing classified ads here is that your ads can also be included in your print versions. They provide regional hard copies for almost every corner of the US. This means that you not only get more traffic from internet users, but you can also have offline persistence for as long as people keep their copy of Penny Saver.
