A little over a year ago, one of my clients mentioned that she was following my encouragement to increase her income by advertising her baby-sitting service on Craigslist.org. I checked into it and was absolutely amazed at the variety of products, services and even bartering offered on the site. I told my wife Lori about it, and she's since listed several items on it for sale.

Recently, we bought a dryer (our 18 year old one finally quit) on Craigslist.  We found a high efficiency model (only about 3 years old) that's drying our clothes in about half the time as our old one for $75 -- about $500 less than a similar model at a local discount appliance warehouse.  

I found it very easy to use and gets a good response; you can also promote your eBay store/listing, seasonal service (can you say "Christmas lights that would make Clark Griswold envious"?), or the extra fake tree in your attic.  Entrepreneur.com featured a great article on how to market your business on Craigslist.  Be aware that Craigslist has established a firm set of rules that prohibits advertisers from over-posting or spamming users.  Follow the rules and you'll do great. The main thing is to develop unique ads for each city in which you post (if, for example, you post in both San Antonio and Austin Texas), narrow your focus to specific products or services, and rotate them on a regular schedule. Never post the exact same ad within 48 hours, and be careful to delete your old ad.

Check it out, and let me know how you do!