We only just finished our Hurricane Craig Tracker in time to watch the bitter end.
Did you see it? The change rolled through Florida all of last week. And it hit Texas on Friday. Today, all of the sudden, it went nation-wide and into Canada.
Dubbed Hurricane Craig, this change is a seismic shift in Craigslist’s posting policy throughout North America. Many of the most commonly-used HTML tags in Craigslist are now disallowed. This includes images, tables, most text markup, and anything but the most bare-bones of links.
If you are posting to Craigslist, what does this mean for you?
Practically every Craigslist template ever written can now be put through the shredder.
- You have to upload your photos using the much-lampooned Craigslist photo gallery. Pro tip: when selecting photos to upload, use the Control key (Command key on the Mac) to select all the photos you want to upload in one go.
- Readability just became much more important. Your template and over-sized photos will no longer carry the day. Renters are now going to have to face down page after page of mind-numbing text. So structure yours for an easy and quick read, with the most important items first.
- Details are going to matter more. With all that slick and pretty in the bucket end of the shredder, including details like laundry on-site, dishwasher, and two blocks from Starbucks will help to carry the day.
- A clear call to action is now a force-multipler. Again, the inspired and inspiring templates with sweeping views of the property are gone. So how do you distinguish your post, your company and your level of service?
Obviously, ShowMojo is here to help with items 2, 3, and 4. Really — when your prospects can schedule a showing online right from a Craigslist post — what better call to action can you possibly have?
We could launch into an eight-paragraph diatribe about how Craig Newmark took a beautiful and precious open market, added a gut-full of arrogance and hubris and stupidity, refused to listen to his customers and innovate, and ultimately nuked the crap out of it. But we’ll restrain ourselves to that one run-on sentence.
Check out our video for more details on what really happened last week and how to survive in Craig’s brave new world.
Stay safe out there everyone.