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How to Embed YouTube Video Into Craigslist

15 Jun

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A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a million.  And with free online tools like YouTube and cheap video cameras like the Flip camera,  it’s not surprising video is becoming powerful tool for business.

Unfortunately, Craigslist does not yet support embedded video.  Sure, you can include a link in your post, but people are generally reluctant to click on them.

There is a neat workaround, though.  Here’s what you can do:

1.  Go to your YouTube page and take a screenshot of the video

2.  Edit the screenshot so it’s just the video screen – nothing else

3.  Host that image somewhere online.  Example: Flickr.com

4.  Create a Craigslist ad using this HTML code:

<a href=”http://www.YourYoutubeLink.com” rel=”nofollow”>
<img border=”0″ src=”http://www.YourImageLink.jpg” width=”480″
height=”295″>
</a>

5.  Post your ad

Using the above workaround, your ad will look like a video screenshot, but will actually by an image of a video which is linked to your YouTube video.  The user sees your ad, is enticed by the video pic, clicks on it to watch it, and voila!  The video plays.

Use this technique for all sorts of Craigs ads, including employment ads.

Here’s an example of a Craigslist ad I was playing with last Friday night: http://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/act/2719811635.html

The above link shows you the finished Craigslist ad.  If you click on the video-looking pic in the Craigslist ad, it will take you to the website and play the video.  Note:  You can play your video from any website.


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5 Responses to “How to Embed YouTube Video Into Craigslist”

  1. Interesting way to meld the two. I will give this a try.

  2. This did not work for me.  Nothing shows up in the ad.

  3. Yes, video is very powerful.  People are more little to watch video than read text and more likely to retain what they see than what they read.  We humans love video.  That’s why YouTube is so popular :)

  4. Excellent work around, I use it in my own Craiglist ads all the time. Video is where it’s at, and it’s
    an invaluable tool for for marketing on Craigslist with attractive html ads.

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