Craigslist For Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs and Marketers: Get Your Customers for Free.

Craigslist For Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs and Marketers: Get Your Customers for Free.


Hi, my name is Zhenya, and the fact that you are reading this makes it the best thing that has happened to you in the last couple of months.


Two years ago I decided to move from Russia to New York City to pursue the American dream. Back then I had to save every dollar that I had because my future was unclear. As a foreign citizen, I also didn’t have a work permit so I couldn’t have a work permit so I couldn’t be officially employed. That being said – there was no use for my degree in economics and finance. P ionate about entrepreneurship ( and having a huge ego ), I refused to take odd jobs or work as a waiter.



But I still had to pay my bills every month. I had to borrow money, month after month, until my debt reached over $5K. I needed to come up with an idea to not just make ends meet but to also get out of that miserable lifestyle.


I recalled how I once fixed the broken screen on my Nokia cell phone. I decided to give it a try and started fixing electronics.


By watching YouTube, I learned how to fix iPhones and iPads and was ready to start helping humanity with their gadgets. The only problem was – where do I get customers?


The compe ion for electronics repair in NYC is rigorous. It isn’t a new niche and old established companies have been advertising in newspapers, magazines and online for years. How could I possibly compete with their marketing budgets? I had to act smart and apply some guerrilla marketing strategies.


I knew Craigslist as a website where you go if you need to find an apartment or a room to rent or if you want to buy something used but don’t have an eBay account. I tried to search for "IPhone repair" and found many different ads. If there was a supply, then there was a demand.


I posted a couple of ads offering cell phone repair. At that time I was just starting and didn’t know all the ins and outs of Craigslist posting.


All I had was three lines of ad copy and a stock picture of a cracked iPhone. Four ads resulted in 3 customers who weren’t even scared to meet with me on the street and go to my apartment where I fixed their iPhones( of course,I didn’t have money to pay for an office). Just a couple minutes of my time posting those 4 free ads resulted in hard cash. As an entrepreneur , you may be familiar with that feeling of making your first buck. I knew that I was into something big. Craigslist proved itself as a legit source of paying customers.


My first thought was – I need to post more ads on Craigslist. And I’m glad that I committed that mistake. If life hasn’t taught you yet, you should know by now that quality is better than quan y. I was spending my time posting ads and fighting with Craigslist anti-spam protections instead of improving my ads and conversion rate. I remember that I still couldn’t make enough money from my business to even rent a whole room for myself – I was renting a half of a room. On top of that – my $5K debt also didn’t go anywhere.


I started constantly working on my Craigslist ads, refining them, looking for the best techniques and secrets, and developing my own. I encountered many obstacles and issues along the way. But as the old Russian proverb goes: patience and hard work will grind everything ("???????? ? ???? ??? ????????"). After 6 months, I,d gotten so good at posting on Craigslist that I had more phone calls than I could handle. That was time to expand – I found a partner,hired my first employee and rented a small office. Want some proof and details? We had 10 to 15 customers coming from Craigslist every day. Our price policy was – at least a $40 profit on each service. For example, the most common service was cell phone screen repair – $25 parts + $40 profit, 5 days a week, 4 weeks per month totaling anywhere from $8000 to $12000 per month in PROFIT, not revenue. Rent was $3K (not the store front, but an office in midtown NYC) $1.5k was my istants salary, and $500 was for internet, a landline, cleaning and other utilities.


At that point, I came up with a free technique that allowes you to have a so-called "lifetime" of ads, something that will always bring people. Once created – the ads will always work for you even while you are sleeping. You don’t even need to continue posting on Craigslist. But you can’t get to those ads before you p the… Go to store


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