It was ridiculous how many irrelevant keywords were used in each ad (like the name of every car manufacturer in business along with their current model names) and at the same time how much important information was left out. Every car ad should have the make, model, price, transmission type, mileage (if used) and type of vehicle (sedan, compact, SUV et cetera). The color and included features are helpful too (even if you have a picture).

Factual keywords are helpful within the text of the ad. I prefer driving a stick-shift- if a car has a manual transmission, say so or say 5 speed or all of those things (make it easier to find) don’t just put A/T or automatic for cars that have it and not mention it if it doesn’t. Some people want a hatch-back or a 4 door, a station wagon or a pick-up truck- put that info in there. Not all people are going to search by make and/or model. And be sure to put the price in the box next to where you enter the title so people can search within a price range. If someone is looking in the $5k-$10k range, there is NO REASON for them to see your luxury car ads because it won’t convince them to splurge on your certified pre-owned Mercedes. You’ll only make them mad, and YES they might be pissed off enough to flag ALL your ads.

One other thing that I should mention is that Ebay and Craigslist are still suing each other, and the only advantage that craigslist has is public opinion. If they keep allowing these kinds of activities they are going to remove any advantage that they still have. Also keep in mind that Ebay is a company with no morals at all. They constantly are removing ads and closing people’s accounts, with no reason at all. If they even think that you are doing something wrong they shut down the ad. So fighting a company like that is not going to be easy. Ebay has already had thousands of suits against it, but Ebay always wins. They also bought part of carigslist, learned how they do it, and then started their own service. Ebay is too big and if craingslist stands any chance of winning they need to fix this. And personally I feel that Ebay will win, regardless of who is right or wrong. Money is power, and if you have money and are ruthless you will always win, unless it gets too much media attention

If someone is looking for a ford explorer and they find all your toyotas because you have ford explorer in keywords, you will get flagged 25x as much as you would without those keywords.

Why? Those other people would never see your ads. So just forget the brilliant idea of putting unrelated keywords. Personally I don’t think it’s helpful putting *any* keywords in craigslist ads. People aren’t stupid. They know how to search and they recognize bogus results.

Avoid *being* the bogus results and you won’t be flagged.

For someone just starting out, the other solutions are a great way to test the waters & build your blogging style.

@Kevin – Of all the other choices, I’m a fan of Squarespace – easy platform, plus they have a nice iPhone app. now.

@Paul – look forward to seeing the guide.

Someone else can. And at that point they can post whatever they choose.. Say Twitter.. Even if your not going to use it. Sign up put up a post to your site and be done. Not what I recommend for use but at least you wont be dupped.. I would suggest the same for vox and the bloggers.. Why not have them? But do not make them your only..

If you are going to have them use them. The problem you have then though is you are creating your own competition in venues that may serve your competitors or oems ads. Not so with blogger but absolutely with Vox, wordpress.com and many of the other free services.

Just my opinion…