Whether you want to more visibility to your classified listings, or just feel like abandoning Craigslist, here are six alternative services at your disposal.
So you’re sick and tired of Craigslist playing drama queen in light of its new “exclusive license” agreement, in which anything you post on the site becomes a Craigslist copyrighted material. You’re not alone. While we give Craigslist credit for being the go-to online classified ads website, there are plenty of other services that do an equally fine job with a prettier interface. If you’re looking to get the most exposure to whatever’s being listed or you’re just over Craigslist, here are six additional sites you can use to target a new audience or switch to altogether. And yes, they are all free.
eBay Classifieds
Formerly known as Kijiji, eBay Classifieds is one of Craigslist’s largest competitors, thanks to eBay’s credibility. Like Craigslist, eBay Classifieds covers the scope of most categories: selling, renting, job opportunities, and community events. Not included under this umbrella are personal ads, so you’ll need to head somewhere else to find your Missed Connection or potential love interest.
Using eBay Classifieds might be an even better option than Craigslist, thanks to the user-friendly interface. You can also sort items by price and view them in photo thumbnails, which is far more helpful than having to read all the Craigslist headlines and hoping the image attached is not some boring stock photo. Ads on eBay Classifieds also stay on the site for 60 days compared to CL’s 7-day limit in most cities.
Oodle
Oodle acts as its own classified ad service, but also aggregates posts from eBay, ForRent.com, and other competitors to make your search experience more thorough. Oodle has also been a service of choice for many companies in the past who used to offer classified sections, such as Aol and The Washington Post Express. And yes, Oodle has offer a personals section. Users have the ability to link their posts to respective Facebook accounts as well to add more credibility or increase exposure via the Facebook Marketplace. If the same user has posted several items, you can sort them all under the same lister.
One thing Oodle has over eBay Classifieds is the ability to post if you’re a seeker — meaning if you’re looking to buy, rent, or need certain services. You can also access these listings or edit your own post from its free iOS app.
Backpage
Much like Craigslist, Backpage offers a minimalist design interface: The listings are sorted by date, headlines, and location just like you’re used to seeing on CL, and a tiny camera icon denotes that the post contains pictures. Backpage offers “paid upgrades” to give your posts more visibility. This includes the option to automatically repost your listing at the top of the page every certain amount of days for certain amount of times, or paying to make your post a Sponsored Ad with a highlighted location on the page.
Backpage has recently come under fire, however, for some excessive prostitution ads and sex trafficking activity, so we probably wouldn’t recommend it for its Adults section.
Recycler
Recycler does exactly what its name sounds like: help buyers and seller swap items using the site as the medium of communication. While you can also post home rentals on the site, it seems more popular among sellers looking to get rid of used items. Recycler offers listings in most major cities in the United States only, so those in rural areas might have a tougher time trying to target their group of audience through this site.
Adoos
Adoos does a good job highlighting various sections of classified ads, such as real estate, for sale, vehicles, community, services, and jobs. The little icons and pops of color are nice on the eyes and help organize your flow of content better than what you might find on CL. If you do not select your city, Adoos will search listings from the across the country, which might be helpful if you’re looking for online coupons or vouchers that aren’t location-specific. You can log into the site using your Facebook account as well, for maximum exposure. Unfortunately, you’ll have to sort through some spam as Adoos listings are often just advertisements for external sites.
Hoobly
Back on the minimalist front, Hoobly is a basic classified ads site that is helpful for those who want just snippets of photos to accommodate their search. The site can scour its listings from around the world or country-specific, and shows you each headline with a small excerpt to give you an idea of what the ad entails. Unlike Craigslist, Hoobly users need to register their e-mail addresses before posting, rather than just receiving a verification e-mail when you are about to publish. This could, however, help with cutting out the spam.
Source : digitaltrends[dot]com
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