So, you like craigslist! You love to sell your junk to anyone and everyone who will give you the money! Well, wouldnt it be nice if you could see how many people are actually looking at your listing? As of this posting, craigslist has no tracking software built in, so you have no way of knowing if your carefully crafted ad is getting any views at all!
Also, sometimes I place links in the ad, in case I am selling the item on another place. For example, I am currently selling my home, and I am using a psuedo realtor. Its a manufactured home, so I dont have a real realtor. Which means since I know more about the internet than she does, I need to get out in the trenches sometimes. So I would like to track 2 things. First, I want to track how many people are even looking at my ad. That for me is the most important. And secondly, I want to know when people actually click on my ad. The trick I will be using today, uses a URL shortner. A URL shortner is a website that takes a long website like http://www.example.com/whatever/huh/ilikepomeranians.html and shrinks it down to http://shor.ter/13234. As you can see, the second one is quite shorter, and a tool like this is wonderful! Normally I would recomend you use a website called http://bit.ly but craigslist has blocked bit.ly probably due to people injecting viruses into the links (according t0 Sociallyengagedmarketing, its because craigslist is trying to stop tracking, but I have to disagree. It would just be simpler for craigslist to block html, then it wouldnt even be possible). Well all is not lost. Google released a wonderful url shortner that does the exact same thing! You can find it at http://goo.gl. I actually like it better because I can use my google login to track it, which is very nice. Now, if craigslist ever blocks goo.gl, simply create your own url shortner using http://yourls.org/. This is only available if you already have your own webserver, and are able to install cms’s on it. I will write a review on it soon. Anyways, your here to see how to track, so lets move on!
Step 1
Find a picture of a white square. Honestly, it doesnt matter what the picture is of, but a white square will go completely unnoticed, so its is key. Size doesnt matter, The smaller the better. If you are into making your own picture gallery using html, then you can use one of those pics as your counter. After you have chosen a picture, figure out the exact address. For example, this square:
Can be found at: http://www.blochcoulter.com/CommonImages/BlackSquare.gif
I just did a quick google search for it. Now, we need to track this image. Go to goo.gl (just like that, no dotcom) and either login to your google account, or create a google account, and login. It will then ask you for the long link. See below:
Step 2.
You will then get a new address. Now, you might not know this, but Craigslist accepts HTML, so all you have to do is insert this code:
Just replace the link with your picture. So when a person clicks on your ad, the picture is loaded. Everytime the picture is loaded, it counts as 1 on your goo.gl tracker. Keep in mind, that it will also count when you go to the page, so after you post it, try not to look at it. Instead, simply go to http://goo.gl and count the amt of views that you are getting.
