Josh Schoenly, who blogs about real estate investments and operates Capitol City Investments in southeastern Pennsylvania, says Craigslist.com helps generate quality leads for his business.

Here are his six steps to getting the most out of Craigslist as a low/no-cost marketing tool:

· Create an account. If you don't already have an account (you don't have to have one to post), sign up.
· Pick your campaign. Decide what kinds of leads you want to generate. For instance, first-time home buyers, or buyers in a certain school district, or luxury-home buyers.
· Create your campaign. Create several ads to post and generate traffic. Craigslist won't let you post the same ad over and over. So in order to post frequently, you need several posting options. Design the ads so they send consistent traffic to your landing page or to your e-mail or phone.
· Put it to work. Post the ads at least twice daily during the week and once on weekend days. Don't post early in the morning because the ads will fall to the bottom of the list quickly. Be consistent about posting. If you don't have time, assign it to an assistant or hire your children.
· Follow up. Collect e-mail, phone numbers, or both, and follow up with something attractive like a free list of homes new to the market or recent foreclosures. Send out a new bonus list once a week. Other free offers could income teleseminars, home tours, or group open houses. The trick is to find something that will motivate buyers and/or sellers to work with you.
· Track and tweak. Track the results and see if you can improve them by identifying which ads generate the most e-mail and result in the most sales.

Source: RISMedia, Josh Schoenly (09/25/2009)

Pennsylvania