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Craigslist change... Have you been affected

flosho

Boss
Dec 20, 2010
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Jason
Just wondering if anyone else is having issues with their software posting to CL. Apparently last Friday CL made some significant changes to their system that has stopped the use of posting software, for now.

Any input, guys or gals?
 
We use eBizAutos' copy-and-paste Craigslist system, so the only change was in the method of starting the post. I used to be able to use a bookmark to jump straight to the posting page for Cars and Trucks - By Dealer, but now I have to start at the account page and click through a few extra layers. A little tedious, but it's all good...it's greatly reduced the number of posting-too-fast errors!
 
I heard about quite a few posting tools having problems since the changes last week. Most of the auto-posting tools violate the CL terms of use, which I assume is why they made their changes. This is precisely the reason we handle CL the way we do, with the copy/paste method rather than auto-posting. It's within the CL terms of use and although it may take 10 seconds longer than an auto-poster, we don't have to explain to our clients why our tool doesn't work right now, because it does. I suspect more of our competitors will revert back to the way we're doing things, because CL will continuously try to prevent people from taking shortcuts with auto-posters, and from a development standpoint, it's much better to stick with a way that works (and is OK by CL) than to keep up the cat-and-mouse stuff.

Jake

Higher Turnover Websites
Specializing in Independent Dealers
Website Development, Craigslist Posting Tools, Inventory Management, Data Distribution
 
Jake - I know this is waaaaay off topic, but when I see higher turnover I think of "turnover" in regards to employment. I know that's not what is meant, but that's all I can think of. It is kind of ironic in regards to the industry you serve :lol:
 
Curious to know how many PVA's other dealers are having to use in order to post their entire inventory. I've always been under the impression that more is better, but obviouosly limited total of phone numbers comes into play. It seems like after 20 postings the show rate begins to decrease, and for a dealer thats trying to post their inventory of over 100 cars, it seems like having 5 PVA's or more would be more effective.
Does anyone out there share this same opinion?
 
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I do notice when CL is doing a lot of maintenance that Ghosting and the amount of time that it takes for ads actually go live increases dramatically. Also during Peek times on CL there servers do run slower which causes Delays. Having a fast and effective tool helps!