If you market affiliate products and services (or your own products and services) on free classifieds sites like Craigslist, Backpage, Kijiji, etc., sometimes your ads may not show.

Sometimes it can be due to over-posting or over-marketing of something that goes against the guidelines of that particular site, or even a technical glitch. Other times, however, it can be more sinister. As in, a competitor may be hiding their ads.

Here are six things you can do to combat this.

Note: I use the back page of the site a lot, so most of these tips have been applied to this site. However, they will work for almost any free classified site you use to market.

6 Tips for Dealing with Ad Signage/Ghost Ads on Craigslist, Backpage, Kijiji, etc.

i) Use more than one free classified ads site. Craigslist is by far the most popular of these types of sites. But, there are tons of others. If you ran just 10 or 20 ads across five or six others, you could still make money marketing your products and services online.

ii) Use more than one form of marketing: I started using the Backpage free classified ads site in January 2009 to market an affiliate product. Since then I have sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of electronics (no exaggeration). I was so successful using the site that I started marketing my own electronics there.

But I also use other online marketing methods i.e. article marketing. That’s why I can earn money online, consistently, without worrying if I’m running ads on any given day.

Why it’s worth marketing on more than one free classifieds site, especially if you don’t do other marketing

I understand how you can get addicted to a marketing method if it is successful. But don’t. It’s a recipe for disaster. For example, what if your favorite free classifieds site was down for a couple of days, or the way you can market there changed, or was bought by another company? Your income could suddenly stop.

That’s why your online marketing efforts should always be mixed.

iii) Take advantage of their advertisements. What do you mean by this? If your ads are being hijacked by a competitor, especially promote another product/service, then add a link to the other (main) product you want to promote in that ad.

iv) Report the culprit. Earning money online can be difficult, and some people are unscrupulous; although the vast majority are honest and hardworking. If you think someone is hiding your ads, please report it to Backpage, Craigslist, Kijiji, or whatever free classifieds site you’re using.

v) Promote another product: At any given time, I’m promoting 4-6 products on Backpage (my own products and affiliate products). Again, it keeps my profits steady online because if the demand drops then I still have others selling well online.

vi) Out of the guilty: If you know who is hiding your ads on Backpage (Craigslist, Kijiji, etc.), then remove the person on your website/blog (if you have one), on your social media accounts, on forums, etc.

At the very least, it gives them something else to focus on, since they will have to respond to their actions.

Sometimes this will stop them altogether, and may cause others who may be promoting the same product to take action as well (for example, contacting the offending party’s host company, domain name registrar provider, sites on those that are advertised, etc.).

However, be careful when going this route. Some people are unbalanced.

There is a lot of money (and I mean a lot) to be made in marketing on free classifieds sites like Craigslist and Backpage. I can attest to this personally, and I only do affiliate marketing part-time (my full-time job is freelance writing). One day, I made $900 in affiliate sales just by placing free classified ads on the back cover. Yes, in one day.

So if your ads are ghosting on Craigslist, Backpage, or another free classifieds site, don’t let that put you off. Find a solution and continue.

Learn exactly how to make money online by marketing on Backpage, a very popular free classified ads site.