How to create a classified ads website in 45 minutes – Free guide

In this guide, you will find out the process of creating a classified ads website on the fly. And not only create it but how to run it, and how to make money out of it. Something that every business wants and needs these days. So read below what is the easiest and fastest method to launch your own classified ads website in this short tutorial.

Are you looking to create a classified ads website in a very short time ? That is like an online marketplace where a user can buy and sell stuff. Thats good, because this guide will teach you how to create the classified website in 45 minutes. You will be using our classified website builder, called the classified theme. And yes its possible to be done by beginners and advanced users or agencies. And , you do not need to write a single line of code, making it almost a no code solution which are becoming very popular these days. Also we will give you pointers about making money and monetisation options within your classified ads website. We think that our wordpress classifieds theme is one of the best classified themes out there. But lets dig in with this classified web template. This or any other marketplace software, as we offer multiple packages.

We are going to check on some money making techniques which will make you earn some cash through your listing platform website. And also learn about what not to do on your classifieds website that will cut profits and not generate as much money as you want. By the way this guide is a no-code guide, that means you will not have to write a single line of code. Everything is done through a visual admin panel.

What is a classified ad ?

A classified ad is a piece of content in a website that represents an offer usually of a seller of something for a potential buyer. This works very much like an ecommerce site. Where the sellers post local classifieds up for sale, and buyers will search the directory of ads and buy the items they need. Thats pretty much what are classified ads. And using our classified template will let you create a website like gumtree or craigslist.

Read below to find out and let’s get started. Below you can find a summary of this guide:

A. What is a classified ads website and how does it work ?

The function of a classified directory or ads listing is quite simple. Its made of a web portal for sellers and buyers. Sellers post the items they want to sell, and buyers will have a search interface and search for the items they want. The can filter by relevant category, location, price and other things. When they find the perfect item they are looking for, they can contact the seller via private messaging or chat and do the transaction.

Classified ads websites are used mostly for used stuff, or hand made things, or garage sales. I can give you a good example, and that would be a person getting a new computer, and wanting to sell the old one to add some more money and have enough to buy the new computer from the store. That way he can list his old computer on the platform, and sell it for profit.

The classified ads are organised by category, by city or location, by price and other tags defined by the website owner. And when listing a classified ad on the platform, the seller might be asked to pay a fee. But more about making money will be discussed a bit later in the article. As allowing paid classified ad submissions is one of the main profit generating feature of a classified website.

B. Choose your hosting package and domain name

If i can give you an advice here, you should get a solid hosting. None of the most cheap hosting package. I can tell you that is always bad. That is because shared hosting implies hundreds of customers using the same server. Giving that, we think the hosting plays an important role when creating a classified ads website.

I have written another more in depth article about getting the proper hosting and domain name, and it is more wise to read that. I will leave here the link to that article. Here is a small list of things you might look for in a good hosting service:

• good support preferrably 24/7
• they have live chat so you can contact them very fast
• excellent uptime
• good prices hosting plans to fit your needs

C. Choose the right classified ads platform and software

In the past few years, there have risen many tools and many classified ads software programs. Giving that, its quite hard to know what to choose. And specially if you are not a professional programmer the choice is even harder to make. But I have a good solution for you, and that solution is WordPress. Because wordpress is an open source cms, and has the following main advantages:

• super SEO friendly
• easy to setup
• has a website builder or page builder
• free and open source
• find lots of resources
• seo optimization
• many free add-ons , free plugins and free themes
• used by more than 33% of all websites

WordPress itself is one of the most popular cms systems in the world with over 35% of the websites in the world working with it. Usually hosting companies allow you one-click wordpress install and wordpress optimized hosting.

We have set that wordpress could be a good choice to start your classified ads website. But now you need the classified ads software, and that is a wordpress theme. I am showing you here the classified ads theme for wordpress, and this is the best theme out there to create a classified ads website. With a feature rich construction, it has all the needed tools.

D. Adding the classified ads template to the site

We have set that we will use wordpress for our classified ads website. As stated above, we will need a classified ads template or theme for the site to work. Luckily wordpress has so many themes available for you to choose from. But we propose our classified ads theme as is the most complete on the market, as said in 2022. Using this amazing classified web template.

Installing the classified theme into your site is just a few clicks process and you are up and running within literally minutes. Other php scripts can take more , from hours to even days, and require complex teams installing within your servers.

For launching a classified ads website or classifieds directory, we are going to use the classified ads theme for wordpress that our team provides. Here are some essential features that our classified directory theme provides:

User Registration Feature and Customer Management

One of the most essential features of any website, but more for a classified directory website, is the user registration and management. The theme comes with a way to let the users register and have their own themed dashboards. And the users are able to edit , post, and manage their classifieds advertisements from a dashboard.

Classified listings and Ad management

Any advertising platform website will have a custom post type called classified listing. Thats the heart and soul of the entire website. Basically that will be 90% of the content in that website anyway. And that makes the buyers and sellers get together in such platform. And the platform should let the admin manage the custom fields for the classified post type, add or remove fields from the post new form and so on. And the listing platform should have a module for ad management.

Classified categories

In any classified ads directory you will have a big amount of posts, essentially ads posted by the sellers for the buyers. When posting a listing in the site, they will have to choose a category for their product. Our theme allows the platform admin to set their desired categories for the user to choose from. In the post new form they will also choose the sub category and upload images, and preview the classified listing.

Search and filter functions

The theme also comes with an advanced search page, where the buyers will be able to filter the products or the items based on keyword, category, price range, shipping cost. And also they have a way to filter based on the custom fields that are added from the admin side. The classifieds software should come with great search functionality.

Single classified post listing

Each classified ad listing in the website is displayed in a nice template that will show you the pictures of that product, the price, who posted, information about the seller, and a way to get in contact with the seller.

Once the seller is contacted, the message will be displayed in the private messaging feature in the user dashboard. You can keep communicating with the seller or buyer through out the entire process. Here is a sample how the private messaging area looks like for sellers and buyers.

E. Configuring menus, categories, options

Configuring the classified theme menus, categories and options is very easy. It comes with a lot of options within the wordpress admin. You can edit almost anything. And even the pages themselves support elementor page builder. But of course other page builders like divi and beaver builder, or visual composer. Because our classified website builder is compatible with multiple page builders.

From here you can enable or disable different payment gateways: stripe, paypal, credit cards, 2checkout, authorize, payfast and others. Still from here you can add custom fields to the post new ad submission form and so many others. And also in the same dashboard, the user can add location based classified ads. And the theme comes even with radius zip/postal code search based feature. Meaning you can search for ad listings within a radius of X miles from a certain zip code or address. Like search for all laptops for sale within your neighbourhood or within walking distance from your house.

Adding locations from admin side

We are providing the platform owner a way to define their website locations. Like for example USA, you can add states as main locations, and cities as sub locations. This can apply for any country in the world. Or for a local classified directory, you could add the neighbourhoods in your area or something like that. These are customisable and you can add any values as locations that you need. And on top of that the radius search feature will use google maps and google api to determine the geo location of each seller.

F. Monetising and making money

Making money is the heart of any business and cash flow is very important. Business owners and site owners focus on generating cash for their businesses and are interested mainly in creating revenue. But in a classified theme you can charge for listing the ads on your site, probably charge a membership fee for the directory listing, or charging a user or ad to make them featured. There is more info about making money with a classified ads website on another article.

Payment Processing

When processing online payments, you have multiple options. The easiest is to use an online payment gateway or processor. And we can include through these options like: stripe, authorize.net, paypal, ccbill, 2checkout and others. Even local gateways like Payfast for south africa, or Australian gateways, or Canada gateways are important here. Our team can do custom development if you wish to integrate any custom payment gateway. But by default the classified directory website supports a lot of gateways and installing them is a very simple process. Paypal is always included.

Paid classifieds ads submission

You can let your customers pay for listing an ad, and generate income out of that. This is another money making technique for your website. And the customer can also choose a membership package to get several free ads within a month.

Featured classified listings

Another way to make money out of your classified ads website, is to charge the customers a fee for submitting a featured listing. The featured listings will appear first in searches and on top of each category archive page. Also the featured listing is marked with a featured coloured ribbon everywhere through out the website.

Membership based feature

With the classified theme you can create a membership based website as it comes with a membership extension feature. Even you can create a membership based content website with this thing. The content area can be accessed only by members and that way you create a true membership based content website with courses, ebooks, software products or anything of that kind.

Advertisement banners on your classifieds website

The classified theme comes with a feature where you can display advertisement banners through out the entire website. Because display ad banners is a good way to make extra income from your classified ads website. And our classifieds directory comes with ad spaces feature. As there are many people that want to advertise on your website, you have this possibility to offer them this.

Types of classified sites you can build with this theme:

• free local classified
• free ad websites
• online classified websites
• free classified ads sites of any kind
• classified advertising website

G. Promotion, SEO and Marketing

Promoting and marketing for any business is key for getting visitors or sales to your website. No matter what type of website, you need people visiting it. The users entering your website will pay you to list the ads in your website. Marketing and seo requires some specialised work and usually businesses hire an seo agency or a marketing agency to deal with that. Usually these are tedious and long processes and take lots of resources, so be sure you reserve a good budget for these. We even offer seo and marketing services, and you can get a free price quote by exploring what we can do.

Also we wrote a bit of small article, about the classified theme and seo guide and a very detailed guide about seo best practices.

H. Whats the difference between this and adifier and classipress ?

We think the main difference and most important between us and adifier and classipress is the superior support we offer. We go 10 steps above everyone on the market with perfect support and great options for customisation work. Also the features we do have are more tested in time and far more perfected and settled in. After all we are on the market since 2012.

I. Conclusion

Launching a classified ads website has never been easier. Even if you are a total beginner and are used with the no code solutions, this is for you. WordPress and the classified theme are the perfect combination to easily launch your classified ads website literally in less than 1 hour from purchase. And this is even better than other options out there like adifier and classipress. This is the perfect article to show you how to create a classified website. Check this for a more short version on creating a classified site. The perfect place if you are looking for classified page success.com or classified advertising websites.

J. Can we have an app too ?

Yes, we provide an app too, but thats more expensive. You can find the entrepreneur package and we do native apps for iOS and Android. In exchange of that fee we provide a complete working app and help you deploy to app store and google play store. Read more about the classified theme app to better understand it. Our classifieds software is the best classified website builder.