Monday, February 23, 2009

Classified Ads For Free, Are You Sure?

By Alex Wu

Just about everyone has placed a classified ad in the newspaper. If you have something to sell you want people to know about it right? Everyone knows that classified ads cost money. Sometimes something everyone knows is wrong. You can post classified ads for free.

Newspapers are the old school way of doing things. Newspapers provide a limited audience for what you want to sell. The classified ad in the paper is limited to only those who get the newspaper and then only those who are interested in buying something. A free classified ad posted on the Internet gets you more exposure and no cost.

Anyone with access to a computer can post free classified ads. A simple Google search for free classifieds will produce over 50 pages of websites that provide free classified ads for what you want to sell. You do however want to take some time and think about what customers you want to expose your ad to.

Chances are you have heard about Craigslist. Craigslist is a website that posts free classified ads. Posting a free classified ad on this website involves little more than putting the item you want to sell into a category and then deciding what city or town you want it to fall under. Other websites use this same technique to make it easier for someone to find a particular product in a particular place.

Unlike Craigslist, some websites provide free classifieds that are tailored to a particular locale. To find a website for free classified ads in your particular location, simply begin a Google search with the city name, Memphis for example, followed by free classifieds. Chances are that you will get a result with over a dozen pages of websites that offer free classified ads for that particular location.

Suppose you have a business and want to get nationwide advertising for the product you sell, select a website that doesn't discriminate by geographic location. Choosing a website like this will allow you to place your free classified ad in a defined category along with others for the same product from anywhere in the world.

We know that there's no free lunch so someone has to pay for this. Who is paying and why? The answer to that is companies pay the website to run their banners or paid advertisements along with the free classified ads. When you visit a website, it registers as a "click". Companies pay the owner of the website a small fee for each click. These companies get their product advertised and you get to post a free classified ad. Maybe there is a free lunch after all.

If you are a startup, mom and pop company that desires to achieve national exposure for your product, free classified ads provide a no expense method of getting your product on the market. If you simply want to sell something that you don't want or use any more, free classified ads can bring your item to more people at no cost to you. Free classified ads really are a free lunch. - 16651

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