WHY DO IMAGE ADS GET FLAGGED MORE OFTEN ON CLASSIFIED SITES LIKE CRAIGSLIST?

WHY DO IMAGE ADS GET FLAGGED MORE OFTEN ON CLASSIFIED SITES LIKE CRAIGSLIST?

Good question.  If you are posting the same image in each of your ads and notice those ads tend to be flagged much more than those without images, it might seem that Craigslist, Backpage, Kijiji, eBay Classifieds and GumTree are able to identify your PC through the image upload process, right?

Web sites are able to track you online when you are uploading images through a variety of means, such as....

THE DIRECTORY PATH

If you are uploading from C://users/robinhood/myimage.jpg

The web site will know it's you because you are uploading each time from C://users/robinhood

As a result, always upload your images from the C:// itself.

For example, instead of C://users/robinhood/myimage.jpg.

Upload it from: C://myimage.jpg

But, that's not all....always make sure you change your image name each time, and slightly alter the image somewhat using a program like Photoshop to resize it a bit.

Some web sites can use advanced technology to read your images, so avoid putting phone numbers, web URLs, that are blatantly recognizable, instead, make them blurry and look like a part of the background.

Are you a realtor?  Then photoshop a yard sign in front of the house, with your NUMBER on the sign saying CALL ME.

However, web sites can still get you through the metadata, so let's talk about that.

THE IMAGE'S METADATA

If you are also uploading the same photo, but changing the image name and the image itself, that might not be enough as the image metadata might be telling the web site, this is the same photo as this other one named wtf.jpg that was posted using a proxy (spam signal) and an account with 80% of its ads deleted (spam signal).  Guess what?  Now your new IP, your new account, is now SPAMMED too.

How to avoid that penalty?

REMOVE THE METADATA.  Your image will contain with it things like thumbnails and so on, which can tell a web site it's the same photo uploaded from a different IP or ACCOUNT that they might associate with SPAM.

One easy way is using a program such Batch Purifier Lite, you can google it or go to the below site to download (please note, I do not know if the below download is legit, it just came up on Google so sharing it here):

http://www.digitalconfidence.com/downloads.html

One other way that's been recommended is to change it to a .gif image (which removes the metadata) and then change it back.

USE A LOT OF DIFFERENT IMAGES

If you are posting in more than one city, these best practices are recommended:

• Never post the same image once per day.  Have a graphic designer use templates to create one unique image ad per daily posting.
• Never use the same phone number in an image more than three times per day.
• Never use the same company name in different cities, even in the image (this goes for other things like web site URLs).  

ALSO:

• Use local phone numbers in your image that match the city, and are also the same phone number used to verify the account with.  
• Never use a phone number in your ad DIFFERENT than the one used to verify your account.  

Yes, the above might seem complicated, you might be saying, that is just way too expensive and time-consuming to do!  However, there's several options here:

• You can GET CHEAP NUMBERS from a site like LINESPAN.com.
• You can also buy a pre-paid cell phone, and use that if posting a smaller amount, and forward it to your main line.  This option is EXPENSIVE unless you're just posting 10-20 ads a day and the ads BANKROLL YOUR BUSINESS.  In which case, it's a recommended investment because unless Verizon goes belly up, you always know your phone will be ringing.
• You can get an out-of-work graphic design freelancer, or intern-level college student, able to create the templates for you at a fixed price on a site like freelancer.com.
• You can also hire someone from freelancer.com for a fixed price to manage the above and set it up, so you're not spending time doing it.
• You can also hire a service like ours to post the ads for you and take care of all the above (probably the recommended option unless you're low on money and need to go the DIY route, mainly because it's always best to let the experts handle ad posting, and as much as everyone wants to be a professional poster (yeah right!), it's always best to approach posting with a grain of humility.  You are competing against a dozen or so very well-paid developers at Craigslist, that develop the hell out of their shit to make it very hard for you to get live ads, and the best way to beat them isn't too beat them at their own game, it's hiring someone that's spent years learning how to do so so you don't have to spend all that time to learn for yourself (at which point, things will have changed so much, you might be right back where you started).  Just like you wouldn't want to fix a car and let a mechanic do it, same principal applies with ad posting, let a professional fix things for you so you get on your way forward without any ad issues or setbacks to your leads/sales.

Finally, if you are going the DIY route and you find that even though you took all the above steps, but your image ads are still getting flagged while your text ads are not, then the below is recommended (although technically it shouldn't matter):

• Change your PC name.
• Change your mac address using a program like Technitium.
• Change your HD serial ID using a program such as HD serial number changer.
• Or, set up unique virtual machines using vmware to post the ads (you can get a free windows OS using the Windows developer kit for it that will last 90 days) and then rotate the machines.

In most cases though, assuming you cleared the metadata and changed your image names and the file itself, the issues with the flagging will be that you have soft-blocked IPs, accounts, or you're doing something with your cookies or content that Craigslist does not like or associates with spam (as they rely heavily on automated systems to remove most flagged ads).