Using Craig's List for Affiliate Marketing?

[Unagi]

anyone else here involved with affiliate marketing?
Craigslist gets a ton of exposure for the right categories (your ad will be read a few hundred times if it is anything related to a work opportunity, etc)

But to get around craigslist red flag about this issue I am experimenting with setting up gmail vacation auto responder to give affiliate link in there....

[Modee]

It could work, and people definitely do use Craig's list for affiliate marketing. But, as you point out, Craig's Listers are vigilant with pushing that flag button. Anything that seems remotely commercial doesn't seem to stay up too long.

The only way to keep a commercial listing up is to camouflage it as something else. For example the Nigerian scammers who post rental units, complete with pics of beautiful hardwood floors and granite kitchen countertops, built in side by side Sub Zero fridges...they try to make the ads look like legitimate rentals. And the brokers who really just want you to click on over to their websites to look for something else, make their listings look like private owners putting out one unit only.

So...to quote County Commissioner Pat Webb in the movie "Casino," "if you'll think about our little problem along them lines," you might come up with something.

[SevnSins]

I haven't done any affiliate stuff through Craigslist, but there is a lot of exposure. You can find all kids of Craigslist tricks at 406 Not Acceptable

There are others, but this is the one I follow regularly.

[John14789]

Do not ever try to us CL for affiliate marketing purposes. First of all the advertisers will find out rather quickly and will not give you the commissions for the sales or leads. The advertisers will also ban you off from any of their campaigns. Then you will have your CL listing flagged a couple hours after you post them. If you keep having your listings flagged then craigslist will close your account.

[SevnSins]

Very true John, but their are ways around that.

For starters; never use the same email. Create a new one each time, and just set them up to forward to one of your real inboxes. As I said previously, checkout the blackhatseo forums for more CL insight.

[Modee]

It is true that as far as I know, Craig's List tracks via email addresses only, nothing else (not cookies, flash objects, IP address, etc.).

[SevnSins]

If many of your posts have been flagged, they will ban your IP.

CL is partially owned by eBay, and you should use the same steps in making posts.