Problems posting ad on craigslist?

Question

Hi All,

I have been trying to post a rental ad on craigslist, to no avail.  It sends me the email confirmation, telling me it has been "published", yet, I can't find the ad when I go on craigslist.  I did a google search, and it appears this may be called "ghosting".  Has anyone else had problems with this?  Anyone know how to fix it?

Jimmy C. · Answer

Good point Jeff.

Its important that you wait 15 minutes or so before seeing if your post is there.

But unless you are posting alot within a small time frame you didn't get ghosted.

Account Closed · Answer

I keep having problems with my rental ads being flagged by someone and being taken down. I have had to repost sometimes three times in a day then go a a couple days with no problems.

I dont get it but I do have a system in place with extra deleted ads made to be reposted in case so I can take care of it from my iPhone on the road. I guess in a way the flaggers are helping me to repost at the top.

Melodee Lucido · Answer

I am ramping up my marketing to sellers and to buyers on CL and was just wondering if there could arise a problem with this frustrating site.

I wish someone would come up with a better system---give them the competition they soooo deserve :<

Sudhir Rao · Answer

Hello!  I ran into the same problem.  I get the email confirmation, I can click on the link they provide for "my ad".  I've posted after logging in to my account.  No issues in posting whatsoever, but the ad just doesn't show up.  What worse is that it seems like very few ads are getting through.  For example search on the keyword "ardenwood" under housing in the SF bayarea:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/hhh/
This should typically get you several   ads per day but I see the newest ad returned is dated 12/17/2011 ie., nobody has been able to post a rental ad with the "ardenwood" keyword in the last two days.  doesnt make sense.

Loretta A. Steele · Answer

Ghosting is a mystery and there does not seem to be one all-inclusive solution to this problem.  But there are some things you can try that might reduce the possibility of Craigslist ghosting your ads.  Give these a try;

1.  Never post a large number of similar ads in a given twenty-four hour period.

2. Have a number of different free email accounts.  And make sure to vary the name on those email accounts.  The idea is to appear as different or unique as possible.

3.  If you have more than one computer, post your ads from your different computers inorder to generate different IP addresses.
    
4.  Create three or four different ad texts that still get the point across, but are not mirror images of one another.

Hope these suggestions will help.

Greg D. · Answer

This is becoming a big problem with LLs posting to CL. CL is "ghosting" ads from accounts/IPs/phone #s that are somehow breaking the rules.

Some suspected things that can cause this:
-Linking to outside material 
-Using Postlets
-Posting too often or in many different areas
-Using any type of counter / tracker

Once your account or IP is tagged it can make it very difficult to post.

J A · Answer

I've been struggling with posting a computer ad on CL ... But I SOLVED the problem (for myself - and I hope this helps others). I read somewhere that CL has been making things tough for certain ads and/or sections - so I tested their system by re-posting an old ad (Wanted: German kid's books). It went on CL just fine. 
So I went into my account and deleted EVERYTHING from the old computer ad and then deleted the ad itself. Then I went into the Books posting and edited it: I pasted in the info from the computer ad, uploaded photos, and moved it to the Computers section. 
It is online now in the Computers section and shows up in a search.
What a pleasure to work around CL with their absolutely MISERABLE customer support!

Mat Lewczenko · Answer

Tod, interesting findings.
I wonder if copying my HTML code from v-flyer and postlets makes a difference as well.

Tod R. · Answer

I just posted my second CL ad. This one worked the first try...
I seemed to have had the same trouble with my first ad.  My account showed the post as active but it never showed up.  After digging more, I found out that special characters could cause it not to show.  Also, I read that you should not cut and paste your ad from a word processing software.  I did both of these. I created my ad in Word and used bullet points.  When I retyped the exact same ad (except for bullet points) directly in CL, it worked.  I suspect almost every other CL poster knows this but thought I would share just in case.

Aly W. · Answer

This happened to my ads several times in the last month. I had to create a second account. I had 2 ads running at the same time for vacancies in different states, so maybe the system thought I was trying to duplicate posts.

Problems posting ad on craigslist?

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