I’ve posted before about Craigslist flagging problems, ghosting (ads not showing up) and programs to help with your Craigslist marketing efforts but something that I didn’t think to mention at the time – and thought might be an interesting tidbit for those of you who don’t know this, is that Craigslist literally has a flagging forum and an army of flaggers – I like to refer to these people as the ‘Big Brother of Craigslist’. They watch all!
These flaggers are in addition to your competition who will flag your ad to keep theirs at the top and try to dominate the business; or just PITA people who are just plain annoying.
The ‘Big Brother’ clan of Craigslist apparently watches ads that are posted and if they feel that any rule has been broken whatsoever they flag it- this includes multiple ads, ads they feel are miscategorized or feel are misleading, ads posted in caps, and a million other reasons – some maybe legit but many petty.
These watch dogs ban together and help each other flag. They will share the ad that they feel needs to be flagged and everyone joins in and flags it. It appears they literally have people that do this all day and all day – as if it’s their life. They take it way too seriously.
So what does this mean for you as a Craigslist marketer? It means that you have an army of people firing the flag button for any reason at all and often even for no good reason. It means that not only do you have a forum of people ready to take your ads down but you also have other marketers (your competition) having your ads removed using flagging software. And you even have some people who just have nothing better to do and find it to be fun.
Unfortunately, with all of these odds stacked against you, the only thing you can really do is fight back.
You can use a Craigslist Auto Ad Poster, Account Creator, Ad Rotator that will automatically post your ads for you (and much more) including ad rotation, auto ad posting, ad scheduling, IP changing, automatic account creation & pretty much every other CL need you have).
I use it to successfully manage many Craigslist campaigns and stay ahead of the wolf pack! They can’t touch me now!
Craigslist will probably never take care of the flagging abuse and problems so all you can do is arm yourself with the proper tools.
December 29, 2009 at 8:06 pm
which auto poster/flagger is the best to purchase? I see that there are several to choose from. Thanks, Gail
January 22, 2010 at 2:46 am
Here’s my new review on the best one you’re going to find. I’ve tested tons of these things & this one rocks. http://reviews411.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/craiglist-ghosting-flagging-autoposting/
August 8, 2010 at 1:35 am
The irony I’ve seen on CL is that legit posts in the “Free” section will get flagged off. Meanwhile, someone makes a post saying “stop calling my ph#…all those ads for free (whatevers) were fake and used my ph#! Stop calling me!” So, the flaggers will flag a real ad, but all the fake crap just slides right through.
Since a lot of scammers use CL to farm email addys’, I’m starting to wonder if they flag legit posts so their fake posts can show up and generated more responses.
October 31, 2010 at 4:41 pm
LOL yes CL is a rather ironic place! I want to choke those flaggers sometimes. Those people in the flagging forum CANNOT possibly have any kind of a life, they sit in front of CL all day flagging people for no good reason; they ban together and flag, flag, flag…even the most legit of ads. I def believe that they flag off legit posts for a variety of reasons…one being so that their ads are the main ones there. That’s what I love about this software, it helps save time and keep ads posting so it keeps them busy but still keeps your ads up there! They give us no choice but to fight back!