Leads From Craigslist

I'm often asked if it's worth advertising on free ad sites like Craigslist to acquire leads. In my opinion, no, it's not. It's been my experience that leads from free advertising sites convert very, very poorly. So I personally don't attempt to acquire leads that way anymore.

Considering the poor returns, in my opinion, it's a waste of time and energy. What has been your experience with leads from free ad sites like Craigslist? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment?

Dale King -Dale King

Dale

I do not agree. I feel that for the minimal time it takes to copy and paste (once the original ad is written) your ad on the free sites, it is definitely not a waste of time. You can never have too many leads and/or too much business. This is especially true for new sales reps that have very little marketing dollars.

Success,

Rory Wilfong -rwilfong

My experience Dale is similar to yours. I've posted ads on Craiglists several times and leads were generated but not the caliber of leads that I wanted. Results are going to vary obviously depending on the target audience. -AZBroker

Rory, I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on that last statement. You can indeed have too many leads - especially if those leads are of subpar quality. You can easily end up spinning your wheels if you're not cognizant of the quality of your leads.

Time is our most precious commodity. I prefer not to waste it by chasing smoke disguised as leads from free ad sites. I'd much rather spend my time and energy on more productive pursuits.

Dale King -Dale King

Dale

Everything has to do with your business plan, ROI and profit margins. If it is FREE you have to try and then maybe try again in 6 months or a year later when you are mixing things up and re-evaluating your business plan.

I have to further disagree that you can NEVER have too many leads if your business model is structured properly to handle leads and turn them into clients. Everything does not have to be a 1 man show....many great sales people have an even better assistant.

Success,

Rory Wilfong -rwilfong

Rory, I'm not one to endlessly debate issues back and forth. That's just not my style. I don't have the time, energy or inclination to do that. I presented my point of view, and you presented yours. I countered with another point, and you in turn countered with another point which I completely disagree with. I could easily continue to counter your counterpoints, but like I said, that's just not my style. So let's just agree to disagree. I'm cool with that. cl2;

Dale King -Dale King

I agree with your assessment Dale and I also agree with what you said about subpar leads and spinning your wheels. Important points. thmbp2; -Houston

Thank you, Houston.

Dale King -Dale King

Dale

Totally agree....my comments are totally intended for others to comment not just back and forth between us. Chat with you in future threads.

Success,

Rory Wilfong -rwilfong

Sounds good, Rory.

Dale King -Dale King

Well, from my perspective as a consumer, craigslist has been wonderful for me.

I got to this forum via craigslist in a round about way:
craigslist > classes > ChrisHoward > Google 'Brian Tracy' (from ChrisHoward's seminar since he mentioned Tracy by name) > SalesPractice.com

What are the odds of me finding salespractice.com by myself? Nil.

Also, I am taking advantage of S.C.O.R.E, a volunteer organization helping small business get started. How did I find them? Craigslist > classes. In fact, I attended a S.C.O.R.E workshop last Saturday. The presenter asked how many learned of the workshop via the flyers they've sent. Zero. He then asked how many via craigslist. Most of the students.

Lots of computer savvy folks scan craigslist, and so in my opinion, it is a fantastic way to generate leads. -MrAngelCruz

I'm on the fence on this one, as I agree partially with both points of view expressed. Yes it can be a waist of your time dealing with the free sites, and yes you can have too many unqualified leads taking up too much of your time. But it really depends on how you go about it, for instance, I use the free sites as somewhat of a filter I never give them my contact information on the free sites, just a way to respond back to the add via email, and I communicate with the generated leads via email in my spare time qualifying the leads that way until I am sure that it's actually worth my time, then after I acess that they want or need what I've got, I'll give them other avenues to contact me.

I can see that If you advertised your contact information on the internet free sites that you would be inidated with calls, emails ect that in the end 90% wont even pan out but in my situation I sell big ticket items so If I get one customer out of 100-200 emails in the end it's just generating another source of income for me, that only cost me 15 minutes or less every other day. Now if you sold items costing less than a few thousand dollars it might not be worth your time.
Example:
Last year I advertised a piece of property on Craigslist that I originally purchased two years prior for $115,000 this was 58 acres of raw land that I did nothing with, two years later I listed it on Craigslist for $250,000, after 6 months of emailing back and fourth I had my list of suspects down to three prospects, all three were interested, I showed it twice and got an offer of $226,000 from the second guy (which I accepted) making over $100,000 profit for myself just off of that one transaction. Would you consider that a waist of my time?

As long as you filter the craigslist to your advantage it could serve as a valuable reasource, just a thought.

Good luck to everyone whatever you decide.

~James -Mr. Cesario

I am a web developer who was working for a real estate web developing company in 2007. At one point I decided to ask for a raise and they raised me, they sure did, they raised me from my desk to the street. During the time of unemployment I got hired by two other companies but I my self took the decision and quit. Then I had this crazy idea and begun to advertise in Craigslist. I advertise in all cities and all days and since 2007 I never went back to work for another company but my own.

You need to understand something; the people that goes to Craigslist is the same that goes to eBay, they are in search of the big bargain and what this represents is that you need to bring down your prices but at the same time design a strategy that will compensate for the loss. Another thing you need to capture is that there are times in the day when you should not advertise. The best times are after dinner time and lunch time and the best day; Sunday.

I could write a book about Craigslist, in fact I had to delete my articles in my blog because all the traffic I was generating was related to Craigslist.

But the bottom line is that with some adjusting of your services or products and the proper research you should be making more than a living out of craigslist.

Pedro Montero

-designed

I got traffic from it, but never any sales... just calls and you could tell they weren't qualified. (my fault for ad content) -OneLead Guy