Craigslist Ghosting

• Craigslist began utilizing its ghosting mechanism as a means of eliminating spam advertisements. The mechanism looks for advertisements with duplicate content posted repeatedly on the website. It also examines Craigslist accounts that post a large number of ads per day and ads containing common spam phrases, such as "additional income" and "call free now." Craigslist ghosts ads immediately after posting but does not notify the user of this action.
  
  

Prevent Ghosting

• You can prevent your ads from being ghosted by first examining the advertisement itself. Look for words or phrases that might be considered spam-like and remove them. Next, you should schedule when you will post advertisements throughout the day. As a rule, you should not post more than one ad per section each day. This prevents the ghosting mechanism from flagging your account as an overposter.
  
  

Craigslist Spam History

• Along with its rise in popularity, Craigslist has seen a rise in the number of spam postings on its site. Spam advertisers post in every section of Craigslist, but they were especially active in the jobs section. Craigslist responded by charging every advertiser in the jobs section a $25 to $75 dollar fee to list a position as of this writing. This has essentially eliminated the spam issue in the jobs section, though its still pervasive in other areas.
  
  

Craigslist Posting Tools

• The past few years have seen the introduction of several Craigslist automated posting tools These software programs, when used properly, can help you streamline your Craigslist posting and minimize the chance of ghosting. These programs include CLAD Genius Pro and Craigslist Bot Pro. Both of these programs enable you to post ads at specific time intervals and host multiple Craigslist accounts.