Classified Advertising?

[scottiecl]

Are online classifieds a potential source of good links?

Just reading some interesting sites geared to stay-at-home moms looking to start their own business (one of my target markets) and many offer and recommend classifieds.

Looking through a few of them, the "free" ones seem determined to get a valid e-mail from you at any cost (and post it along with your ad), don't offer a link, or have actual ad listings on pages with PR0.

A few of them though seem to have good PR on the listing pages, offer a direct link to your site, and cost very little- $10-$50 for a month to a year.

For commercial sites, this would seem like a good way to get some incoming links from carefully selected classifieds sites but it seems too easy. I must be missing something or it would seem that every site who was aware of link pop would be buying these ads.

After our "guestbook" thread, my issue with that was abuse of the site owner's page. Classifieds seem to be a similar type of link but invited by the site owner and usually involve a small fee.

Any thoughts?

[Kal]

Interesting idea. Can you post some of the classified sites to help us get a better feel for this? My first thought was that it would be paradise for email hijacking software (all the better to spam you with my dear ;) )

[scottiecl]

Here's a few off the top:

http://www.hyt.com/ads/adcatgry.htm

http://www.advertsdirect.com/classifieds/XcClassPro.asp

http://www.successedge.com/classifieds/


Beware: you are entering pop-up territory!

[Webmaster T]

When I first came online Classifieds were really popular places to promote sites. And Yes, they would definitely be real interesting to email harvesters. Many are also selling lists that is why they are so big on forcing an email out of you. If they are looking for addresses and phone numbers then really watch because those are sold to direct marketers.

My experience with them was not very effective and they are a lot of work to maintain. There are a few services that automate the updating and mangement of them, although it's been a while and the names aren't coming to me.

[dsearchguy]

My first thought was that it would be paradise for email hijacking software (all the better to spam you with my dear ;) ) [/B]

I use free classifieds if it pertains to my business or current clients. I have created a special email account on my mail server to use in these ads. I use that email address ONLY for the boards and forums ... I get about 40 spams a day.

Then to have fun ...
I take all of the spam addresses everyday and send them a nice note saying they could be doing better things with their time - like using my services !!! :D