Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Free classifieds do work. Gumtree is a good example

One of the big developments on the internet over recent years has been the massive rise in the number of online free classified sites. There does seem to be a strong perception that the market is saturated, and they just don't work.

While I think the first point is true, the second isn't. You just have to find the right ones. (Or just place your ads on so many of them that you eventually hit the bullseye by accident!)

I have used them in the past to sell stuff and had some success. And recently I got a very good illustration of their effectiveness.

Having just moved back from Sydney to Perth, I was looking for a place to live. I scoured the newspapers of course, and also the big Real Estate site and found some places to look at. I also looked at the Perth Gumtree site. I saw an ad that looked good and called the contact number listed and arranged to see the place.

When I showed up there were at least 3 other people there. I had a look and saw it wasn't to my liking so I left pretty quickly. But there could well have been other people showing up subsequently.

Maybe the ad was also placed in the newspaper but I don't think so. I'd looked very thoroughly through the latest issue and I'm pretty sure it wasn't there. I also can't recall seeing it on the Real Estate site - and anyway it was a private listing, and all or most of the ads there are placed through agents.

So I suspect that Gumtree was possibly the only place it was listed. And if it was placed somewhere else, it was probably another online classified site.

So there is no doubt in my mind that this method of advertising works. As well as Gumtree, Cracker also has a good reputation. And of course there's Craigslist, the king of online classifieds.

If you placed an ad at some or all of these sites you'd be sure to have some success. Then of course there are all those other lesser known ones as well. Some are bound to be very effective.

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