How to put a Flickr Image on Craigslist
Years ago I wrote a small article on how to put an image on Craigslist. I thought it would help a lot of people – especially small businesses looking to advertise. Well it did but there are always more questions and ways to make things easier. Since this website has proven to be a great platform for sharing small business web development tips, today I’m here to show you how to put Flickr Images on Craigslist.
Why you might need to put your Image on Flickr
Craigslist allows you to put images on its site but for many markets it requires you to host it yourself. If you are and advanced web user comfortable with uploading images to a server and writing basic HTML code there is no reason you should change your current habits. However, if you don’t know your FTP from your IMG tags, this is the way to go for you.
Hosting your images on Flickr will make your life easier when it comes to showing them on Craigslist.
How to put a Flickr Image on Craigslist
Putting a Flickr image on Craigslist is easy. Just follow these steps.
Step 1: Get a Yahoo! Account
Yahoo! is a search engine and as a general rule of thumb for getting your business a stronger SEO profile (and thus a lot more visitors and business), you should create an account on it and include your website address. In this case, Yahoo! owns the website Flickr so by creating your Yahoo! account you will be taking your first step to getting your image on Craigslist.
Step 2: Sign up for Flickr
Flickr is a free photo service. You can sign in multiple ways but I prefer to have this linked to my Yahoo! account. Just go to Flickr.com and establish your free account there.
Step 3: Upload your pictures to Flickr
This is very easy. Just follow their instructions for uploading a photo here.
Step 4: Click the Actions link above your picture.
Now that you have a picture uploaded to Flickr you will see that there is a link above it called ‘Actions.’ Click that link.
Step 5: Select the Grab HTML/BBCode dropdown
The next step is to select the right option in the Actions dropdown. Just follow along with the pictures.
Step 6: Paste that code into your Craigslist Ad
Once you copy that code, just paste it into Craigslist and you’re all set!
A Few Final Words
It doesn’t End with Craigslist
Putting ads on Craigslist may help you get noticed and may lead to customers. A way you can supercharge your efforts is by making that image on Craigslist be a clickable link that takes them to a custom page on your site. That page could be a sales page or it could be a contact form – it could be anything. The point is that it directs users to something you can control and monitor rather than something that a 3rd party – Craigslist, in this case – monitors. You could build a ready list of warm prospects by doing this that will serve you and your business well for a long time.
Blogging is an easier way to get clients than Craigslist
Also consider creating a blog for your website. It will pay more dividends than making yet another Craigslist ad and it is just as easy. Take for example the short article I wrote years ago about Posting an Image on Craigslist. That one article has brought thousands of visitors to my site and created many sales and referrals for me. That was just one small article compared to hundreds that I have written. There are many cost-effective ways to do this. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments section below!
Get a website created in under 5 minutes for a few bucks!
I’m am interested in occasionally dropping photos into Craigslist discussion forums. Is there any way to do that without a personal website? Will FlickR work?
Will Flickr work on Gmail.com?
I don’t understand your question Kelly. Could you elaborate?
I want to post my chrome rims 17 inch rims on Craigslist
That’s great. You know this isn’t Craigslist, right? ;’)
I can’t put pictures on Craigslist, help
Hi Terry. Try the steps I outline here: http://www.postingtips.com/how-to-post-a-picture-on-craigslist/
Hi all, Craigslist is a very popular topic. So popular that I’ve decided to create an entire new website dedicated just to it.
Many things have changed over the years. Craigslist and other posting sites that small businesses use to gain customers and clients are no exception.
If you’re interested in learning more, please check out my website at Posting Tips
This article and all of the comments on it will be moved to http://www.PostingTips.com shortly.
Aloha CWD ~
Like Murphy, I am running into the same problem. This use to work like a charm but perhaps Craigslist has changed some preferences?
When I cut/paste the html link and then click out of edit to review my changes, nothing shows up. I’ve tried 5 times now and then thought, “Oh, perhaps it will show up when I publish.” Nope, nothing.
Any advise would help. Thanks!
Hi Annie, Craigslist has been preventing certain categories from adding HTML these days. I’ll have an article up soon exploring that. Can you tell me what category you were trying to upload to?
I just want to put photos of a china cabinet in a craigslist ad. Over the years I have never had a problem however nothing seems to work.
Would you please help me with some suggestions.
Sure, Murphy. Can you send me a link to a post you have tried to put images on that did not work?
How do you get a website.
Just ask! :’) I’ll contact you shortly, Scott.
Hi, just read this….only problem I see with Flickr is that it’s against their TOS to use images for commercial use?
That’s why I don’t use them for Google Places…oops, Google + Local now.
Good point, Mike. I’m not sure. My reading of Flickr’s TOS would be not to use other people’s images in commercial settings. Your own images would be fine, as you hold the copyright to them.
WOW! Fantastic resource. For years I’ve been trying to figure out how to add an image to a Craigslist service. Finally had the time to do some research, found your site. Your instructions were great. And it worked! Very impressed.Well done.
Glad to be of help, Mark! Any other web-related items you’ve been trying to figure out? Let me know and I’ll put together some tutorials or see how I can help.
I’ve tried this using both Photobucket and Flickr and I just get the red x. the Flickr link is as follows:
I tried deleting the first part of it as another poster suggested:
For photobucket, this is the link:
http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x438/basc1234/payrolladjpegfile.jpg
I pasted it into craigslist like this:
I fairly computer literate…I’ve built my own blog before…lol. So I don’t understand why this isn’t working. Please advise. Thanks!
It looks like my links aren’t posting.
For photobucket, the image link is above. I added at the end.
For Flickr the image link is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80838796@N06/7408985676/
Again, I used the img src tag like above.
I also copied the HTML/BBC code as show in the instructions. Didn’t work. Then I deleted the first part of it as another poster suggested so that the img src is the first part.
Please help.
Shelli – that link you posted ending in 76/ isn’t an image, it’s a page. You need to find the actual image – something that ends in .jpg or similar.
Ok, that is an image. Can you show me the code you are using to reference it?
I have solved the problem. Thanks anyway. No need to reply
Glad it worked out, Nancy.
I am having the same problem some of the other readers are having. I have pasted the HTML Dropdown code on the craiglist post but the picture does not appear. Any ideas?
These instructions worked perfectly.
Thanks!
Glad that helped. Nice web site!
Hello Ted,
Thank you for your help, it worked out fine. I also sent you a connection request on LinkedIn as a friend.
Thanks,
Ron
Glad to be of service, Ron. Invitation accepted.
worked like a charm. thanks!
Very welcome!
I paste the HTML code into Craigslist New Posting. Delete the first part of the HTML code (up to the first greater than symbol ( >)). Make sure the (<img src=) is the start of the HTML code. It works for me and it should work for you. Good luck!!!
Thanks for clarifying there, Scott.
I’m having the same problems as this person….
hello im having the same problem another user was having ive tried adding multiple pics to a craigslist ad and its showing up as a link to the flikr pic ( its not displaying the pic)
Please can someone help??!!
Stephanie,
Can you send me the code you are using or a link to the ad? I can help if I can see what you are submitting.
hello im having the same problem another user was having ive tried adding multiple pics to a craigslist ad and its showing up as a link to the flikr pic ( its not displaying the pic) your help would be appreciated
Can you share the code you are inserting or a link to the ad you are having trouble with? That way I can diagnose what’s going on.
When I paste the HTML code in craigslist, it shows up as a link to flickr, not the picture. How do I get the ad I am placing on Craigslist to show the pictures not the link?
Scott, If you share the link to your ad, I’ll try to see what is wrong with it. Be sure you are linking to the image, not the Flickr url. It should end in .jpg as shown above.
Hi! Ted,
I have the same problem: I’d like to use my photos at Photobucket.com to link my ad. at the Craigslist to show better images. But
As there is no place (box) at Craigslist to insert Direct Links of the 3rd party site, so, if I put the HTML code in the Description box, it won’t show the image! And I can not link the code in Add box directly.
Please explain.
Thanks.
Larry Tian
Hi Larry,
The principle is the same for Photobucket. Navigate to the image you want to embed and look for the ‘Share this Photo’ options on the right hand side of the page. Select all of the code in the HTML area. Once you copy that you should be able to post it directly into the Craigslist Ad “Posting Description” area.
If that doesn’t work, send me a link to your Craigslist post and I’ll check it out.
I’ve seen these instructions listed several times. I’ve tried and tried it ….it just doesn’t work for me. I follow this same method to post pics in several forums and it always works, but won’t work for me in my craigslist ads….please give me some advice if you can.
Patrick,
Can you describe how it is not working? What step are you failing on?
Thanks, Ted
Hi I just noticed your frustration about using Flickr as a ‘Image Ad’ on craigslist. It does work, matter of fact I forgot how to do it and came here as a refresher course. I just did it again and it works to a ‘T’…. If I can help, please let me know what you are having a problem with, it is quite simple; 1. Go to flickr and pull your image on the screen. #2: Click the share option button above your pic (Shows twitter & Facebook) click till it pulls down the menu option. 3. click the ‘Share’ button and choose Grab The Code! 4. Copy the code and IT MUST BE ON HTML, NOT BBCode! 5. Go to your Craigslist ad, and get your cursor in the MAIN BODY and now PASTE the code right there!!! If you are scared that this might screw up, try NOT ADDING any text before OR after the code, you might be overlapping the code with your text?
GIVE THAT A WHIRL and you should be on your way to BRIGHT & COLORFUL CRAIGSLIST ADS!!!!!!!!!!!
Let me know if I can help further.
Brad
Thanks for helping out, Brad.