–         Go to craigslist.org

–         You can log in, or proceed without an account.

o       Having an account might give you more flexibility / easier access to edit, but you then need to be more careful about the content and frequency of your postings

–         Select US at the top, then choose a state / city

o       Large/major cities cost money, so it works well to choose cities on the peripheral of a large city (i.e. Rockford for Chicago)

–         Once you’ve chosen a city, go to the top left under “craigslist” and click on “post to classifieds”

–         Choose “job offer” and click continue if needed.

–         Read through guidelines and click through on the “I will abide by these guidelines”

–         Choose “real estate jobs” and continue if needed.

–         You will then be looking at a screen to create your ad.

o       The “CL mail relay” response option has worked well so far and then you don’t have to put your email in a public spot, but the responses still come back to your email if you created an account.

–         Put your “posting title” in – your subject line

–         If you want it marketed to a specific area, we often put the posting city in the “specific location” section.

–         The “posting body” is your ad message / copy.

o       There doesn’t seem to be ways to have special fonts / bolding / colors, so format your message in a way that is easy to read for the eye

o       This could be a good place to put a link to a website for them to log in under your site / a request to have them respond through filling out info on a link.  Or you could simply request replies to the ads (as some people will do that anyway)

–         for the “compensation” area, we have been putting “Commission Only” or “Commissions”, but if that changes for your situation, state here how the interested parties would be compensated.  You can also put an estimated monetary amount to draw attention to the capability.

–         You are then done with this screen, unless you have a specific location to post.

o       Review your content for misspellings / errors and click continue on the bottom right

–         This next screen is to add an image if you want. It gives you 2 simple points to consider for your images.

o       If you have one, click on “choose files” and upload your image.

o       If you want to proceed without an image, simply click through on the “done with images” button.

–         It will bring you to a page with a draft view of your ad.  Make sure again that it looks good and click “publish” toward the left to make it official.

o       If you want to edit after seeing the draft you can choose either “edit text” or “edit images” and repeat the previous steps to get it how you want it.

–         You’re done!  Make sure there is no other tab that says mentions publish or review this draft and your ad should be posted.

o       It may take a few moments for it to show up in a search, but you can search for key words to find your ad and verify its posting.

o       If you’ve done this through an account and logged in, you should get an email for this ad so you can edit / go back to it easily.

Extras: make sure that you have a plan to follow up with any leads that come in through your ad.  Some cities may give more results than others, so try out a few and see what happens.  Be creative with your ad and try things that create intrigue/interest for people to seek out this opportunity.

Things to consider to include in your ad:

• try a simple or catchy subject line – this draws people in
• what type of person are you looking for?
• a brief description of the tasks and what the person would be doing (don’t post the pay in options here, but word it so they know it’s a self starter opportunity, not an employee opening)
• you could include a special theme for a holiday, that time of the year, etc
• try moving around outside of the “real estate” category to see if that works well for you
• include a best way to get in touch with you / reply to the ad if different than a direct reply
• posting events / training is another option
• mix it up a little if you’re posting several – so you don’t get flagged for posting the same content, and also to try for different results
• consider images to include to add interest
• if you have testimonies, use those as able (after you get established a little)
• post in an area you are willing to service