Recently I saw that Seth Godin mentioned Craigslist does not support picture hosting. It seems silly since pictures really help you sell and advertise – key Craigslist functionality.
He suggested that Craigslist could write a FAQ on how to post photos there. Considering I frequently recommend that people advertise in their local Craigslist, I am often describing how to put images on those ads.
How to Post an Image or Picture on Craigslist
So, you don’t know how do get a picture on to Craigslist. That’s OK, it’s easy to do. Here’s your step-by-step guide on putting images up there to really make those submissions stand out.
Step 1: Get the Picture On-Line
You need to have a picture on-line already before you can put it on Craigslist. The easiest and best way is if you already have the picture on your own website. If you don’t have your own website, don’t worry. There are plenty of other free places out there you can put your picture on.
Some things you need to keep in mind when getting that image on-line:
- You must own the image. Stealing other people’s or website’s images is illegal.
- The image must be sized right so it will fit and load quickly.
- The image must be accessible to everyone.
Remember, some places that host images like MySpace or Facebook will not work because those sites do not provide access to those images for everyone. If you want to use an image on a site like Facebook, you will have to move it to a place where it is accessible to everyone. That’s why I really recommend using your own website for hosting the image; you’re in control of everything.
Free Places to Host Your Image
If you can’t put a picture on your website, don’t worry. The steps are the same after this one. There are some free places out there. Try Posterous or Flickr or Picassa. Get your picture on one of those places and write down the location you uploaded it to.
Your own Picture Hosting.
If you have your own website, this is very simple. Just upload the photo and write down the location.
Either way
You should be able to take the location (URL) of that photo – on your own site or someone else’s – and paste it into a new browser and see it.
Example:
- Locate the picture on your website.
In my case I am going to use the one above. - Write down the location.
This one is athttp://www.CharlotteWebDevelopment.com/Charlotte_Website_Design_Logo.jpg. You’re might be on your own site.
Step 2: Create an HTML Image Tag
Yes, this is coding. But it’s really, really easy! Trust me! You have the location of your image from Step 1, right?
Create an HTML Image tag. That is what will let the browsers know where to look for the image. Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit. In fact, you can just copy this code below and change the URL to be your website and file name.
The code for the image tag is:
<img src="http://www.CharlotteWebDevelopment.com/Charlotte_Website_Design_Logo.jpg">
Step 3: Put it in Your Craigslist Post
Now all you have to do is put that code into your Craigslist post as shown in this picture:
After Craigslist publishes your item, you will get a result like the one below:
Hopefully, that all made sense. If not, never worry. I’m here to help. Just write a comment below telling me what your sticking point is and I’ll help you out. If you got it to work, share your success below!
As always, if you have any other website questions at all, please let me know and I’ll do my best to help out. If you’d like to get free tips like this delivered to you via email, please put your address in the form at the top of the page. That will stay absolutely private, I promise. Thanks for reading!
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve tried everything I know to produce a link and images from Craig’s List to my website (commercial). I followed your excellent directions without success. If a fee is involved to expedite this, I am more than willing. Can you help me? Thank you.
All,
After Glenda posted this question I worked with her on-line to help her out. The one issue she missed was that the image had to be hosted somewhere on-line. You cannot upload a picture to Craigslist but you can put in code that points to an image somewhere else on the web.
If the instructions above don’t work for you, or if they seem too technical or confusing, write a comment here below as Glenda did and I’ll be happy to help out based on my availability.
If you need immediate assistance, Contact Us here, describe your issue and we will create the ad for you. There is a small fee for this service, but you get to choose what it is!
I have an ad in pdf format with jpeg images, but no website.
This is just a local deal for Austin.
I can e-mail it to you if you want. I work on a Mac.
Thanks,
S.
Ted, thanks so much for helping me do this! I still haven’t gotten any “gigs” from my Barbie Party post, but at least I have a pretty picture up thanks to you.
I really appreciate your know-how and persistence, and patience putting up with me.
Sincerely,
Shannon aka Barbie
Of course, any time Shannon. Best of luck going forward!
Hi,
I’m having problems posting a photo from my flicker account onto craigslist.
After typing in the address of the photo like you indicated and hit “continue”
I either get a small box with a ? in it or I just get the address of the photo,
not the photo like your demo shows.
Appreciate any help you can give me, this is how I type the address
I know one has to type everything perfect can you tell me what I’m doing wrong?
Thanks,
Kris
408 607 5566
knutson_1@charter.net
Hello,
I am listing an antique car for sale on Craigslist for a friend. He has 13 pictures.
I uploaded the pictures to Picassa.
Example: http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ofGwB8lQarg/S1dKpOGpaKI/AAAAAAAAAD0/SlioHjQbVVQ/s640/Car%20in%20Parade.jpg
So on the Craigslist ad in the posting description I have it listed like this: (except <img is on the same line as the rest of the text.) All I get is a small icon box without a picture. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong? The link above works just fine.
Thanks,
Kari
Kari,
Try taking that link text that you pasted and put where I have the X in this next line:
Whoops. Forgot about my code prevention there. Try this:
<img src=”X” />
Okay, this is what I put there: One thing I noticed after it fails and I go back into it – all it says is <img and everything else is gone.
Still not working.
I also hosted the pictures on my own website and still no luck. Used this code.
Kari,
Can you post a link here to the page you are trying to show this image on? If I can see the code in action, I can help change it.
Thanks, Ted.
Do you mean my website or Picassa or the Craigslist Ad?
On my website they are as thumbnails on the ‘SHOP’ section. I linked them to the larger version. http://quicksilverdesign.org
On Picasa the link is: http://picasaweb.google.com/kdoctor33/OnEbay#
Thanks for your help!
In the mean time, I just added the 4 pictures I am allowed to put on Craigslist and removed the html text. I even tried a new listing with the new code you wrote me, but maybe I have the link wrong? I also tried Photo Bucket and copied the html code that it shows. Still did not work for me.
Kari
Kari,
For you to display the images on your site on Craigslist, use the following pattern:
<img src=”http://quicksilverdesign.org/publishImages/shop~~element97~~0.jpg”/>
Just replace the src part with the individual name of the image for the others you want to use.
Thanks, Ted.
Thanks for the useful blog.
Those tips for displaying an image on craigslist was really helpful. Thanks!!!
Glad I could help, Ray! Let me know if there are any other useful tutorials I could put up!
I’m trying to post from posterous a pdf into a craigslist add
here is the link in posterous http://rebeccashare.posterous.com/for-sale-473
I am inputting
It comes up blank every time.
What am I doing wrong? Thanks
i need help on this
Hi Rebecca.
You are trying to insert a flash document from Scribd. That is not an image. You’ll have to find another image host. Try Flickr!
tried saving the pdf as jpeg, posted to flicker and it still comes out blank!
I’m Trying to put the below image from PhotoBucket into a Craigslist services ad. I get what Glenda got, a small image icon without the pic. Below is the copied HTML code. I tried it as is & also with removing the first part up to after that. Neither worked, Can you tell me exactly how it should be typed in my ad? Thank you in advance!