Greetings!
Have you planned ahead enough to know what you might
do with all those Christmas presents you received
that aren't quite what you need or want? if you
can't return them to the store, perhaps you could
sell them on Craigslist.
I love Craigslist (www.craigslist.com), which allows
individuals to list (for free!) possessions for sale
locally. When I recently downsized my living
quarters, I sold over 40 items in Minnesota through
listings on Craigslist and then
purchased about 15 items for my new home and home
office in Colorado.
In this process, I earned and saved a great deal of
money, but I learned even more about applying the
5Cs of good writing (good writing is complete,
consistent, clear, concise, and
correct) to my
listings.
Craigslist is a visual medium: At first, I
thought
it was enough to shoot one quick picture to show
readers what my advertised possession looked like.
When I got
better with “staging” the pictures by covering the
stained garage floor with sheets or shooting
pictures at different angles and various lighting, I
received more responses because my message was more
clear. Note to self: Be explicit, and
creative, with
marketing graphics.
Know your readers: Although there is
apparently no
limit on the amount of advertising text on
Craigslist, I wrote in my usual minimalist style and
quickly learned to be more complete. I listed the
dimensions of my oak desk but I was too concise.
Buyers wanted to know the composition, age, and
brand. I realized I didn’t know what my readers
wanted, and I learned their needs directly from
their questions, just as usability studies do.
Be creative in advertising copy: As a technical
writer and teacher of technical writers, I’ve worked
hard to strip out emotion from writing. When I first
advertised my hand-built, double-insulated dog house
for sale, I received almost no hits. When I changed
my message to a “custom-built palace for your best
friend,” I found the perfect buyer. I had to figure
out what would motivate a dog lover to look at, and
buy, this huge house that took four people to lift.
Imaginative advertising is consistent with the
medium of Craigslist, but it wouldn’t be consistent
with the medium of procedures, for example.
Be correct but don’t proofread on screen:
Typing in
the wrong price in an ad will either result in NO
responses or TOO MANY responses. Because it’s hard
to read onscreen, I’ll always suggest to you:
Proofread a hard copy to avoid embarrassing typos.
Of course, communication is all around us all the
time. Because of that, we can learn from every
channel, and I learned that Craigslist is a great
place to hone your communication skills and sell and
buy all kinds of goods at great prices.
Links for more information:
Craigslist
fact sheet
Craigslist,
the movie
Craigslist
according to Wikipedia
