Craigslist implementing $5/ad for Boston and Chicago on Nov. 5th.
Craigslist Charging
Craigslist will start charging $5 per ad starting November 5th. See screenshot below.
Each ad will be active for 30 days instead of 7 days. Ad renewing option will no longer be available. Which means "refreshing" an ad will incur an additional $5.
Purchase Ads in Bulk
Craigslist provides a Paid Posting Account option to purchase ads in bulk among other benefits. You can visit the URL below regarding the details and how to create one. Although if you are looking to upgrade or create an account, please do so after November 5th, as it is not currently live yet for Boston and Chicago.
https://www.craigslist.org/about/help/paid_posting_accounts
Impact on Penny Posting
The posting process will likely change after the Nov. 5th roll out. Penny Posting is in the process of reviewing how these changes will impact the existing features. Please stay tuned for further updates.
NEW FEATURE - Office Paid Posting Account Management
In light of the coming Craigslist change, we anticipate that your personal and office posting needs and patterns will change drastically. It is common practice in NYC (Craigslist have been charging per posting) to setup an Office Paid Posting Account to allocate posting credits to agents as part of the overall compensation system.
We are working on integrating an Office Paid Posting Account into YGL to allow your office to assign posting credits to your agents. The first iteration will be launched shortly after November 5th.
How Will This Impact Me & My Office? What should I do?
Aside from the obvious fact that you will now pay for advertising on Craigslist, here is our initial take on the likely impact to the Boston & Chicago market.
1. No More Posting Wars, The Number of Postings Will Drastically Go Down
The number of postings in the Boston & Chicago boards will drastically go down! From what we see in NYC, the total number of postings will go down 10 fold and more from previous levels.
2. Each Posting Will Become More Effective
The bad news is that you have to pay, but the good news is that there will be way fewer ads, so each ad will get more exposure and become more effective.
3. Time No Longer Equals Leads, You Need to Work Smarter
It used to be that you can just work hard by posting more ads to to get more leads. That's no longer going to be the case. You will need to work smarter, finding alternative ways to generate leads and getting more mileage out of existing leads. As an office, efficiency, compensation package, tools will become more important.
4. Establish a Budget & Measure Your Return On Investment
You should start a marketing / advertising budget and start measuring how much a lead is actually worth. For example, if you know how many ads do you need to post to get certain number of leads to close a deal, you will know how much money you can spend to advertise. Once you know how much you need to spend to close a deal, you can work to improve it.
5. Good Listings & Good Data Become More Important
Image that you can only post 3 ads out of 1000s of listings, which ones do you post? Everyone will be posting their best listings, so having competitive listings, good photos and descriptions become ever more important. You will need a couple "lead listings" to generate the leads, and then try to sell other listings while contact is established.
6. Try Other Lead Generation Methods
You will have time freed up, since you won't be doing as many postings. You must also have a budget to spend. So, you might as well take this opportunity to try other marketing / advertising methods, such as social media, SEO, Pay Per Click, Zillow Posting, etc.
Stay Tuned For Further Updates
As we find out more info and as new features are being developed, we will send updates. Please keep an eye out for additional info and further updates. In the meanwhile, you can reach out to us with any feedback or questions at feedback@yougotlistings.com.