Free Classifieds Milestones -over 1,500 Wisconsin Want Ads

**keith** · 05-15-2006, 04:22 PM

Just adding this to track the number of free classifieds at theBubbler.com.

We went over 1,500 today! 1,504 as of now.

We got a new Member today who added about 20 free classifieds and pushed us over the 1,500 mark for the first time.

When we started theBubbler.com back in 1995, we added about 100 free classifieds ourselves, for places that advertised elsewhere. We called them up and got permission. The free Wisconsin classifieds remained little used for a few years though. Toward the late 90s, we hovered at a couple of hundred. A web hosting and marketing client told me she had a great experience around '98. She bought a new vehicle and tried everything to sell the old one. Journal Sentinel didn't work. Paid ads in free weeklies didn't work. Paid ads in free and paid vehicle publications didn't work. One day she saw my card for theBubbler and thought "what the heck, it's free." Next day, someone saw the ad at theBubbler.com and came buy and bought her old vehicle. That reignited my interest in free classifieds as a service to draw Members to theBubbler.

Early 2000s we ran at several hundred free classifieds. By 2003 that was over 500 free Wisconsin classifieds. By 2004, six or seven hundred, and by 2005 we were running about 1,000 free Wisconsin classifieds on average. That number was in the 11 hundreds by the Fall of 2005, in the 12 hundreds going into 2006, and jumped up to the 1400s about a month ago. Seeing our free classifieds in the 1,500s now is way cool!

We continue to monitor the free classifieds, making every attempt to keep them free of scammers and spammers, and keeping our free want ads based in Wisconsin (though we also take free ads from border counties in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and we are happy to over the upper peninsula of Michigan for free classifieds - the UP should be part of Wisconsin anyhow).

Please, tell your friends and family in Wisconsin about theBubbler.com. Use the 'Tell-A-Friend' feature in the black menu bar on every page to send info about the page you're on to associates, friends and family.

Regards,
Keith

**keith** · 08-02-2006, 07:06 PM

We went over 1,600 free classifieds for the first time today!

We've been hovering in the low 1,500s since may, but over the last week we've hit new highs daily and got to 1,602 as of this writing!

Woo-hoo!

Unfortunately we're devoting more time than ever to weeding out the scams, too. The number of scam ads placed is constantly on the rise, perhaps double or triple the number of just eight or ten months ago. We continue to do the best we can to keep them out entirely, though there are no guarantees.

We look forward to giving our audience a rating system, much like ebay and amazon, so buyers can rate sellers and vice-versa.

In the meantime, we celebrate 1,600 free Wisconsin classifieds at our favorite Wisconsin site!

Regards,
Keith

**keith** · 09-24-2006, 12:41 AM

We have fifteen new free Wisconsin Classifieds categories for Music and Musicians in Wisconsin!

The following is taken from the free Wisconsin classifieds section of theBubbler.com that we created. The numbers in parenthesis are the current number of ads in each category. We need your help to spread the word so we can truly make this an outstanding resource for Wisconsin musicians!

Regards,
Keith

Music and Musicians in Wisconsin (16)
Please use theBubbler Calendar to list Wisconsin music performances for free. We're pleased to introduce Music and Musicians in Wisconsin as a free classifieds group as of the week of September 17, 2006.

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Bands and Artists for Hire (2)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Bands and Artists Wanted (1)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Bands and Artists, Promotional Services (1)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > DJs, Karaoke Services Available (0)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > DJs, Karaoke Services Wanted (1)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Music - Professional Services (2)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Music Lessons and Instruction (2)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Musical Instruments For Sale (5)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Musical Instruments Repair and Tuning (1)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Musical Instruments Wanted (1)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Musical Talent Available (0)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Musical Talent Wanted (0)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Rehearsal and Performance Space (0)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Sound, Lighting and Recording Gear For Sale (0)

Free Classifieds for Wisconsin
Music and Musicians > Sound, Lighting and Recording Gear Wanted (0)

Hope everyone will Tell-A-Friend about theBubbler's Free Wisconsin Classifieds for Music and Musicians!

**keith** · 10-01-2006, 12:51 PM

The Free Wisconsin Classifieds at theBubbler.com reached 1,655 ads this week, a new record.

We've been in the 1630s for about ten days, with a couple of those reaching the 1650s.

It is amazing to me that more businesses don't take advantage of the free Wisconsin classifieds here. Businesses not only benefit from the ad itself, but from the link to their site (which increases their 'link popularity' and thus, their search engine results).

Regards,
Keith

**keith** · 10-03-2006, 12:35 AM

TheBubbler.com's free Wisconsin Classifieds reached a new high of 1,664 this evening.

Hope everyone will tell-a-friend and we'll eclipse 1,700 this month.

Regards,
Keith

**keith** · 04-06-2007, 02:47 PM

Good news!

TheBubbler.com has 1,730 free Wisconsin Classifieds as of this writing!

Good stuff, too.

I was concerned for a while. We had dropped into the 1500's again. Slowly got to the 1600's ~ up and down there for a while. We've been over 1,700 for at least a few days now.

As people do Spring cleaning and the weather gets better with rummages and all I'm hoping we'll eclipse 1,800 and ultimately go over the 2k milestone.

Regards,
Keith

**keith** · 04-20-2007, 09:42 AM

1,779 Free Wisconsin Classifieds as of this writing!

Now I'm starting to dream about breaking 1,800 free classifieds, then 1,900 and 2,000 and ........................!!!

The quality of the free classifieds continues to improve. The real estate people using our free classifieds tend to be excellent at writing listings (though given their writing skills I'd like to see more of them in the Forums).

Hope to have a rating system in place. We still have some trouble with people answering their ads in a timely manner. At least we don't have the schlock ads you'll see in some free classifieds. We don't allow them.

So, hope we go from what is now an all-time high in the upper 1,700s in our free classifieds for Wisconsin to become THE PLACE for Wisconsin free classifieds!

Regards,
Keith

**keith** · 04-23-2007, 09:04 PM

We've hit the 1790s every day since the last post...only to fall back to low 1780s overnight as older ads expire. So close to that 1800 free classifieds mark!

Hopefully the videos on the FAQ page with another (soon) about Tell-A-Friend will help.

Regards,
Keith

**keith** · 04-25-2007, 09:33 PM

OK, it's the 1812 Overture!!!

We only dropped back to 1,791 free Wisconsin Classifieds overnight last night, so I was hopeful...and lo and behold, we have 1,812 free Wisconsin Classifieds going on right now!

That's after getting rid of the daily dozen or so bogus want ads that we end up deleting virtually every day to keep the garbage out as best we can.

Cool! Now I hope we'll stay right up there! Tell-A-Friend!

Regards,
Keith

**keith** · 04-29-2007, 10:50 AM

We've maintained our 1,800 free classifieds even after the overnight drops due to expiration and due to us getting the bogus junk out!!

Just barely! 1,800 yesterday morning. 1,802 this morning. Hope we can grow this. I'm looking for over 2,000 so I can say we have "thousands of free Wisconsin classifieds" at theBubbler!

Regards,
Keith

**keith** · 04-30-2007, 10:29 PM

1,812 again late last night - then only 1,777 when I looked first thing this morning...a drop of 35 overnight. Fortunately we got back to 1,810 already today with new ones. Someone had 8 different individual ads for dogs (once part of the same litter it sounds like...we don't support puppy mills).

So - we're back to 1,810 and hope to stay above 1,800 for good. That's the only way we'll get past that 2k mark.

Regards,
Keith

**keith** · 05-05-2007, 07:19 PM

We set a new record yesterday of one thousand, eight hundred and forty-three - 1,843 - free Wisconsin Classifieds!

We're at 1,829 today.

Regards,
Keith