How to Post an Image or Picture on Craigslist. Photo modified from art by trialsanderrors

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.

Craigslist recently changed their photo posting policies. Adding images using embedded HTML codes only works on a few pages. If you’d like a step-by-step guide on where you can post pictures, how to post pictures, and much, much more, please check out this book.

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.

If you are using Flickr to host your images, check out this guide on how to put Flickr Images on Craigslist.

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:

1. Locate the picture on your website.
   In my case I am going to use the one above.
2. Write down the location.
   This one is at http://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!