How to Display Large Photos in Craigslist Classified Ads
92Craigslist.org is a great website to place free online classified advertisements. But craigslist forces all the photos and images to a small, 300 x 225 size. The purpose of this page is to show you an easy way to ‘make’ craigslist display large photos and images ‘full-size’ in your online classified ads.
Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities, featuring free online classified advertisements – with jobs, internships, housing, personals, for sale/barter/wanted, services, community, gigs, résumés, and pets categories – and forums on various topics. Alexa Ranking: On February 23, 2009, Craigslist.org had a traffic rank of 10 for the United States.
I use craigslist.org to buy and sell items for household or personal items. For most ads, it is best to have one or more photos included. But craigslist will automatically reduce the size of the photos to 300 x 225. Sometimes that is a large enough photo to show the item. But sometimes I really want a larger photo, like 1024 x 768.
Craigslist ad with 300 x 225 photo
Example: Selling some old LP record albums:
I wanted to sell some old LP albums. I spread 16 LP record albums on the deck and took a photo. At 300 x 225, the photo is too small to be able to clearly read the album covers. If I create an ad using the reduced size of the photo, I must list all 16 titles of the albums, like The Byrds Greatest Hits, Donovan’s Greatest Hits, Best of Bee Gees, The Association Greatest Hits, The Mamas & the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel, The Ventures play Telstar, etc. – a lot of typing!
To the right is the craigslist ad with the small photo.
But at 1024 x 768, the photo should be large enough for the viewer to read the titles - no need to write out the 16 titles in the ad text.
Note:
Since craigslist saves only the smaller photo, and the larger photo is still on the user’s hardfile, then we need to put the larger photo on the web. Although there are several photo websites, photobucket.com (Alexa Ranking: On February 23, 2009, Photobucket.com had a traffic rank of 17 for the United States.) makes it easy to get the HTML code to insert into craigslist. Actually, I found a few craigslist ads with large photos, and when I viewed the source code, they all pointed to photobucket.com. And when I clicked the large photo on craigslist, it took me to the photobucket.com web page showing that photo, and the following message:
Welcome message from Photobucket
So Photobucket was expecting craigslist users!
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Photobucket Image link code area
Step by Step Procedure:
On craigslist.org
1. Open an Account with craigslist.org and create/post a new Ad. Do not Add Images.
On photobucket.com
2. Open an Account with photobucket.com and upload your larger photos.
3. For each photo, in the “Image link code” area, click on the HTML Code field. "Sometimes" the code is automatically copied to the clipboard - if not, then do: right click - copy.
4. For each photo, paste code in a text file.
Go back to craigslist.org – your account page
5. Select the new Ad and edit it.
6. Insert the photobucket.com HTML code into the craigslist.org HTML box after the advertisement text.
Edit the craigslist HTML box
7. View changed Ad – large photo(s) should display.
Craigslist’s Title for the Ad now indicates “img” instead of “pic”.
Craigslist search results - "img" at the end
New ad with large photo
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Comments
My page was just about how to improve a craigslist classified ad when it could benefit from having larger photos displayed. Craigslist is mostly for local ads - not global like selling on EBay. But a person could misuse craigslist and place an ad for a city, but instead have a link to a website instead. But this is annoying for people who use craigslist to buy locally. But craigslist does have Discussion Forums which could be used to direct someone to a webpage.
Thank you for that advice websense.
For the small to medium sized business, "Craigslist" and/or numerous other social media sites, are an excellent vehicle to establish brand recognition via the internet. Small to medium sized businesses have been systematically constrained regarding the utilization of the most profitable marketing media today.... commonly outbid by deeper pocket corporations for premium placement in search engine results.
You can in fact optimize any social media presence, Craigslist included.While there may be regional and/or national advertising efforts employed by others, Craigslist is a fantastic opportunity to enjoy a powerful geo-targeted readership in your immediate area.
You can optimize the suggestion provided by "Websense" by incorporating a one hundred word description below the picture enhancement. Utilize a keyword density of approximately 15% .... vintage LP's, etc.
This optimization will increase the value of your posting within the search engines and you should experience a decent position in the results, accordingly.
Fantastic advice Websense. Great Job!
Very nice!
Nice step by step explanation. Thumbs up for a informative hub.
Thank you SO much for this concise and easy to follow advice. Much appreciated!
thanks for this info
Thanks for the encouragement, especially since it was my first hub.
Thanks for the informative hub. I never knew this could be done.
Cheers for this
Hi websense,
You have cracked the code. thumbs up. i have rated this hub up.
Jyoti Kothari
Hey, I just found a way to make a flyer to sell something, and then put the flyer on Craigslist. I'll write that one up soon.
I like it great easy way to boost sales. You know what they say a picture is worth 1000 words and a bigger picture is worth - priceless!
Great little tip!
Gary Rust
Wow, thanks for this tip. I have been trying to do this for weeks.
Great Hub! Very informative with lots of sound advice. Works for me!
I love your tips.
Nice walkthrough, I enjoyed this hub.
I enjoyed reading your hub. It was very informative. I will come back to read more of your other hubs.
Thanks, very informative and good tips.
Very useful - I never would have thought of using photobucket. I'm wondering if this works for Flickr and Picasa as well. Thanks!
dawei888,
Any photo website will work. I think most of them provide the html code now.
thanks for the advice on CL,Ii didnt realise this could be done.
Thanks.
It works!!!!
I've always wanted to do that! Thanks!
I have done this very thing because I saw other Craigslist members doing it. I have a website where I put up the photos, uploaded the photos to the main directory of the website, then just linked with the html image tag in my ad. But now they wont let me post it. It got flagged 3 times already! And it happens right when it gets posted. Sooo annoying. All I am doing is selling a car, I see other dealerships putting up huge photos, and they never get taken down! Starting to hate Craigslist..
Bee - I also used vflyer.com to create a graphical flyer for a townhouse I was selling, and vflyer.com gives instructions on how to insert into craigslist. Vflyer allows 2 free flyers to be active at one time. I did this about 3 months ago - so I don't know if craigslist is blocking it now.
This is an excellent way to get more attention to what you are trying to sell. Thanks for the tip!
As a SAHM trying to earn a few extra bucks, this is a great way to really show off my items! Thanks so much for the easy-to-follow steps and clear instructions! Very much appreciated!
I always wondered how that was done. Thanks!
Good Hub, I also use Photobucket, but mainly use Picasaweb.google.com so I add big images. I sell cars sometimes online, more big photos help. I have Picasa desktop software, I capture photos and transfer it to Picasa, which transfers it to the web in seconds.
Thanks for all your work in explaining everything !
Excellent! This works great. Thanks!!!
I need help. I followed the steps and placed a large picture ad on CL. But I don't want people to be able to click on the picture and be linked to my Flickr account. How do I remove it? Thank you!
Mike, it's been a while since I was testing this out. But I have seen it work both ways - with photo only and with a photo that is also a link to the photobucket.com website.
In step 6 above, if you delete the "a ref= ... " HTML code, and keep the "img src= ... " code, that will get rid of the address link to photobucket. Similar way if using Flickr.
That way, only the photo should display and it will not be a hyperlink to a website.
Hope that works for you.
nice tip... this definitely falls under the "why didn't i think of that!" category >.<
thanks!!
giimasterone,
I use CL once or twice a month to buy/sell, with very good results. I don't notice any spam in the For Sale category in Raleigh, NC.
I just used your advice to sell my truck on Craigslist. Thanks for such a great tip. The photos are really an advantage now!!
Happy Holidays!
hipattrick says:
10 months ago
Do we get any traffic or any other benefit by placing adds on craiglist?