Craigslist Tutorial
Using Your Web Page To Sell Items On Craigslist

    This lesson will assume that you have studied HTML at one or more of our recommended Design Sites ...if you haven't done that yet, go do it and return here and we will show you how to use Your Web Page to Sell Items On Craigslist

Craigslist allows users to use HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) in their ads (unlike many other classified web sites that do not)... HTML is the simple markup language that you must know and use to construct a web page... so this is a BIG Advantage to you as a seller... because readers of your ad on Craigslist can be directed (by you placing a HTML Link into the ad) to Your Web Page... rather than having them contact you via the funky Email System that Craigslist provides, or by contacting you from your Phone No that you placed into the ad (not always a good idea unless you want to wait by the Phone all the time)... so instead if you build your web page (following the guidelines below), readers will find out where and when to contact you when they get to your web page, and they will also be given a Contact Email Form there, to contact you if they have further questions (after browsing your web page) ...

In addition and perhaps More Importantly (especially if you are a continual Craigslist Seller and have OTHER Items available), the readers will be shown other things that you have for sale at Your Web Page and perhaps purchase something else besides what they originally were interested in! The important thing to understand here is that you WANT the readers to go from Craigslist to Your Web Page...

So for example let's say you were trying to sell a Chair, then in your Craigslist ad you would describe the Chair a bit, and then place the info perhaps like this:

IMPORTANT: Make sure you select the tic for "No Replys To This Email" so that users will not be able to email you and will instead use your webpage address to contact you, (by copying & pasting it)!

You should use the Craigslist Help Section to learn how to post an ad...

Here is an EXAMPLE of one of our CL Ads:

    AS WE SAID CL allows HTML Code in it's Ads... here are the HTML Tags that it allows (NOTE: only a few are needed for your typical ad): Click Here ... so for example, in our Example Ad above, we used the <h2>heading2 text here</h2> tags to Enlarge & BOLD certain text... and we use the <br> tag and the <u> tag and the <i> tag to further enhanse and IMPROVE our ad...

Watch How To Use HTML In A Craigslist Ad
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After you Study and Learn HTML, read our HTML Tutorial 1 to learn more about how to build a web page...

Here's our EXAMPLE PAGE which goes to our "All Used Furniture .Com" WEBPAGE which we are going to use as a Guide for building Your Web Page and which has the INFORMATION that we are going to suggest that you use as a Guideline in this tutorial: www.AllusedFurniture.Com

If you look over that page, you'll notice THREE distinct bits of information, these are the Minimum Bits Of Info that you MUST provide for the Readers, if you want to add extra Info, feel Free to do so but don't CLUTTER up your page... readers are always in a bit of a hurry for REAL Pertinent Info!:

1. A Map to your location and the best days, and time of the day that you want readers to come... or your Hours of Opperation
2. A Presentation Of All The Items For Sale that you currently have... or your Services Etc.
3. A Contact Page so that readers can contact you further if desired (after they are exposed to your web page, and have seen All that you have to offer)...

Now lets go over each of these in detail...

1. The Map and Time To Come Info: The time to come is at your descretion depending on your Particular Content on your web page... The Map can be gotten from a Google Map Search (of your address) and then Captured and Sized (by using a Screen Capture Tool) and placed into the web page source code as an HTML Image... You can download a Nice Screen Cap Tool (and learn how to use it) from our Design Links Page ... alternately if you have an account with Google, you can use the information on This Page to set up a Map on your web page...

2. The Presentation of your Items For Sale should be PICTURES with appropriate descriptions (try not to be too subjective here)... IMPORTANT: But you should create a separate web page for each TYPE Of Item and Link to them in your Main WEBPAGE! (as we have in our Example Page) Or if you have other Services or Ideas to offer, place them accordingly...

3. The HTML Contact Form on your Contact Page is constructed by using HTML Form Codes and a Formmail Script... Read our Forms Info Here

The Form Mail Script that we use for almost all of our "Contact Pages", is from Source Forge and is a Free Downloadable Script, which comes with a README File, that will clearly explain how to use it...

By Viewing The HTML Source Code for Our Example Page (Right click on open space, then choose View Source)... you can see how we constructed the page

WATCH OUR: View Source Media Tutorial Movie

Finally, as a responsible Craigslist Seller... you MUST REMOVE any data when Items are Sold... from both your Webpages AND from your Craigslist Ads ...this means being a responsible WEBMASTER...of your page(s)!!!

If you want to allow readers to Make A Deposit (Or Purchase An Item Outright) from your web page (a BIG Advantage For You and For Them)... you need to learn how to build an eCommerce Web Page... Read Our eCommerce Tutorial