Classifieds... Will that be Paper or Electrons?
A friend of mine owns a couple of houses and wanted to rent
one out. Being a little "old school" he was going to list
it in the Saturday paper.
When I told him, "Why not put it in CraigsList.com
instead?" He looked at me like I was some kind of space
alien, until I compared the two.
If you list your house in the Saturday paper. Only people
buying the paper and looking for a house, will see the ad.
You'll have people calling at all sorts of times. And
you'll have lots of explaining to do.
If you list the house in Craigslist, anyone with a computer
can see the listing. You can provide a photo and a lot more
details about the house. You don't even need to take phone
calls, if you don't want to.
In addition, you can tell people that the house will be
shown, and applications will be accepted, between 2-4 PM
only, on a certain date. That way, you can be outside the
house with leasing applications and be done with it in a
single afternoon.
That Saturday, just one day after the ad went live in
Craigslist, over 50 people came to look at the house. He
ended up with several qualified families to choose from.
All that from one tiny ad in Craigslist. If he had put the
ad in the local paper... he'd probably still be getting
phone calls to this day. But thanks to Craigslist, he's
locked in a lease for another year, in less than 48 hours.
Your milage may vary... and your town will be different
than mine. But if you're selling any kind of product or
service, that you used to advertise in the classifieds, or
on bulletin boards in malls and Laundromats... consider
using Craigslist instead...
That is, of course.... unless you like getting lots of
annoying phone calls, even weeks after the place has
already been rented. ;-)
Paper, or electrons? One moves at the speed of light. The
other takes years to grow. Which do you choose for your
classified ads?
