Editor's Note: This is Part IV of a four part series: All About Online Classifieds If you missed any part of the series, you can read it here: Part I: Why Classifieds Have Migrated to the Internet Part II: Getting the Most From Paid, Low-cost, and Free Online Classifieds Part III: Writing Effective Online Classified Ads

To get the most online exposure for your listings and services, you'll need to turn not only to your daily newspaper and its affiliates, offline and online, but to an assortment of portals, ISPs, and online classified ad companies.

The following is the ultimate list of where to find and place your online classified ads. Remember, browsers lead to search engines which lead to advertisers and individual commercial sites.

Browsers

Netscape - You'll have to go to the real estate section and then key in "classifieds," but you'll be rewarded with a number of sites to place your classified ad, including metropolitan and regional-specific classifieds.

Portal/Search Engines

Many -popular portals such as Lycos and Looksmart do not feature real estate sections, but you can find a number of classified advertising sites by keying in "classified ads homes for sale" or keywords of your choice in the search boxes.

• Yahoo! Classifieds - This search separates commercial and residential property searches by state, and then resale homes by brokers/agents and their counties. You can submit an ad after you sign up for an Yahoo! I.D.
• Excite - Excite divides its classifieds into agent/broker-sponsored ads, new homes, for-sale-by-owner, and timeshares.
• HotBot - Categorizes searches by Homes and Family, not real estate. Key in "classified ads homes for sale" to be delivered to free online classifieds sites.
• Snap - See Home and Lifestyle. Use keywords.
• About.com - The real estate section is under Home/Family. Use keywords.
• Google - Keywords return the best classified ads homes for sale list yet.

Portal ISPs

• AOL.com - A prominent real estate section is right on the front page.
• MSN.com -A keyword search for classifieds in homes defaults directly to HomeAdvisor. Be sure to sign up for a free Web page and place your listings there with the Broker Direct program.

Classified Services

These are free classified ad distribution services.

• classifieds2000.com - This company powers the classifieds for Excite. It is prominently featured on most search engines.
• Poweradz.com
• classifiedwarehouse.com
• CityView.com
• NewsDirectory.com

The search engines offer free classified ads to Realtors and others in order to build traffic. The more they have to sell, the more people will visit the site. That's because people who are searching classifieds are more motivated. Classifieds are divided into a number of areas, including real estate. Nothing's really free, as you should know, so the price for your free classified could be registration, such as requested by Yahoo!. Not that there's anything wrong with that. For brokers or agents who have more than 100 listings, there is an invitation to become a Yahoo! partner in the Classifieds Express program.

Classifieds by Region

Remember that people search by region and state also, so you will need to find other places to advertise your classifieds. Real estate guru and author of the Real Estate Pro's Internet Guide, Barbara Ling, recommends that you do the following:

• Go to an online search engine such as Yahoo! and key in "your state homes" (NJ homes) In this case, you'll see New Jersey Houses and Homes at http://arsdata.com/njhh and NJ Home Guide at www.njhomeguide.com
• What if your state abbreviation means something else? Maine's abbreviation is "ME" as in me me me. In this case, you'd search on - Maine homes - and find Maine's Property Toolkit at http://www.maine-realestate.com.
• How else can you find regional resources? Go to Websitez, set the last dropdown menu to "Web Site Names" and search on, say, - California real estate. You'll find The California Real Estate website.
• You can mix and match words like the state name, state abbreviation, "homes," "houses," etc. until you come up with a site that services REALTORS® in your area.

Ling says, "Never be constrained by only one kind of searching. By broadening your scope, you'll be able to locate resources you never knew existed."

Editor's Note: This is Part IV of a four part series: All About Online Classifieds If you missed any part of the series, you can read it here: Part I: Why Classifieds Have Migrated to the Internet Part II: Getting the Most From Paid, Low-cost, and Free Online Classifieds Part III: Writing Effective Online Classified Ads

Published: December 14, 1999

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.