Monday, February 2, 2009

Whatever Happened to Free Classified Ads

By Alex Wu

You can find anything from a wedding dress to a lost dog in the free Classified Ads. Free Classified Ads have been around for centuries. "Classified" means divided into different classes. Ad of course means advisement.

The first written ad for a community was found on a stone in Pompe. In the 15th century hand written notes were posted in public areas. In the US, the first printed ad was in the first newspaper published. What about the cavemen? Maybe some of their etchings were advertisements to trade or sell.

Most communities have a weekly paper besides their town paper. In some communities it is called the shopper and you can place free classified ads there. Each paper covers a large district of towns close to one another. There are some odd postings sometimes.

Web Marketing on the Internet changed the world of advertising. There are many Internet sites that offer free advertising. It sounds to good to be true. Maybe the advertising is free period aof time and after that they charge a fee. In communities you will still find ads plastered on bulletin boards in schools, store windows and bars. Even churches sometimes have ads in their bulletin.

There is another way to get free advertising to sell or trade things off the Internet. Local radio will have people call in daily to sell, trade or give away things. The seller calls the radio and announces what he or she has to sell.

The first commercial advertisements on the Internet were in 2000. To get on the Internet you had to be sponsored. It was difficult for the seller to advertise their product. Not long after that, the Internet became a big shopping store. There are thousands of web sites selling products. You may get some free advertising for a short amount of time after which you will have pay for it.

Craig Newmark created Craig's List. When he first started his intention was to develop a mainling list. He would also advertise local events and indutries. Crag's list is the largest and free place to post an ad.

Internet advertising is here to stay. It is a big market. People with web sites will often partner up and advertise each other's product on their site. This is often done with multiple sites. They will not pay each other for the service and if the buyer first cane to your site to buy the product you will get revenue too.

Google engineers developed Ad Words. Ad Words enables marketers to get people to their site. If you start with a business you can get some free ads in the beginning of your product launch; but after that you will have to pay for it. There are many free classified sites on the Internet to check out.

Another place people can get publicity and perhaps consumers is on Wikipedia. Wikipedia replaced Nu pedia. They can post the definition of what you are trying to sell. Wikipedia is a global resource and is written in many diffeent languages. You can still get some free classified ads. The Internet is a great place to place an ad but you have to pay for it in most cases. - 16651

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