How to Post Graphic Ads to Active Rain, Craigslist and others!

As the owner of a marketing company, we are always trying to make things really stand out above the crowd, especially in Real Estate Marketing. A graphic ad is always better than any plain text ad. We've all heard that "A picture is worth a thousand words", and this is absolutely true in almost all types of marketing.

In this post, we'll go through how to post an image that will link directly back to your Website into Craigslist Of course, be reasonable, and do not Spam! The web-gremlins will not like you!

Step 1: Create Your Image/Advertisement

• Create your image in any photo editing program that can publish into a jpeg format.
  
• You really want to get your entire final image down to 600 pixels wide possible.
  
• Be sure to place text onto your image, and use multiple images if you can.
  
• Always include how to contact you directly via phone, email, and your website.
  
• SAVE your image as in .jpeg format
  

Step 2: Create a free account at PhotoBucket.com and upload your image that you created.

• Go to www.Photobucket.com and sign up for a free account. This is easy.
  
• Go to your Home page on photobucket and click upload images
• Click on "Browse" and find the image that you have just created and select it and click enter/upload
• Once it is uploaded, give your image a Title and description. Click enter.
• Leave this page open and go to step "3"

Step 3: The Code to copy/paste to Craigslist

• Open up a "Notepad" from your start menu and copy/paste the following code.

<a href="YOUR WEBSITE" target="_blank"><img
src="DIRECT LINK FROM PHOTOBUCKET" border="0" alt="Visit My Website"></a>

• Proceed to Step 4.

Step 4: Place your Website Link

• Locate the area in the code that says (YOUR WEBSITE)
• Replace (YOUR WEBSITE) with your website or link that you want the ad to be linked with.
• IMPORTANT: Leave the perenthesis and make sure that your website starts with http://www. (i.e. http://www.printmyrealestate.com)

Step 5: Place your PhotoBucket Link

• locate your image on your Home Page in Photobucket.com and copy the "Direct Link" to your clipboard.
• Highlight the text that says (DIRECT LINK FROM PHOTOBUCKET) and paste the link that you just copied in its place.
  
• IMPORTANT: be sure to leave the perinthesis in place.

Step 6: Post to Craigslist

• Open up your Craigslist account like normal, and proceed as you would post any other Craigslist Ad.
• When you get to the actual posting page, simply copy/paste the code that you have in your Notepad to the description area, add your title and location like normal... then post.

Congratulations! You have now posted a Graphic Craigslist Ad for your Real Estate listing or Business!

This code actually works on hundreds of different platforms including your website, Blogs, Craigslist, Corkin.com, and many many more. With a little practice, you should be able to create these graphic ads in under 5 minutes!

This is an example of one that my company recently submitted for an actual Real Estate Listing and is connected to a Virtual Tour rather than a website:

Cheers, and Good Luck to you in all of your Marketing endeavours!