We’ve created a guide to fit all your Craigslist needs. Learn everything you need to create your own Craigslist account, one awesome looking ad with the TeachStreet Craigslist ad builder and post it to Craigslist. Also, learn a bunch of our Craigslist tips to get the most out your ads.
Posting to Craigslist is a great way to promote your TeachStreet listings to different audiences, and get more students. Did we mention that posting to Craigslist is free and with our Craigslist ad builder it requires hardly any effort or time to make one good looking ad that entices prospective students? It’s so easy, there is no reason not to do it today.
We have put together a guide for TeachStreet teachers that provides an introduction to search engine optimization (SEO), what TeachStreet does in SEO, and tips for how teachers can use SEO, keywords and links to place higher in search results. View the guide below, or download it to have it with you at all times.
This is an evolving field, so from time to time we will update the document and this post so you can always have the latest version available at your fingertips.
Having good listing and session titles and descriptions is an important part of marketing your business online and on TeachStreet. To help your classes get placed higher in search results, use keywords strategically in your listing and session titles and descriptions.
To get started with keywords, go to Google Adcenter: Keyword Tool. This is a very handy tool that will generate keyword ideas based off a descriptive phrase or word. For example, if you teach a class in piano. When you go to the Google Adcenter: Keyword Tool, you can start your search with the simple term of “piano”. The results below show the related keywords in order of search volume. For teaching a Piano class, good keywords to take from this list would be: “play piano”, “free piano”, “piano lessons” and “learn piano”.
You can also use this tool to make decisions on whether to use “class” versus “lessons.” In the case of piano, the term “lessons” has a lot more search volume than the term “class.”
Once you have your set of keywords, you can now think about how you are going to title your listings and sessions. Still using the example of piano, take a look at the listing and sessions listed by Anita Manuel in the image below. The title of her listing is “Piano Lessons Downtown – First Lesson Free.”
We know from the Keyword Tool that the some good keywords Anita should have in her titles are “free piano”, “piano lessons” and “learn piano”. Looking at her listings she does a good job of have the “Piano Lesson” and “Free lessons” in the title of her listing. When someone does a search on Google or TeachStreet.com, having those common keywords in her title will help Anita place higher in results.
One common mistake in creating a title for a listing and session is to forget about keywords, and focus on making the title catchy and fun. Giving a catchy or witty title to your listings is great, but remember to add those keywords to help make your listing more easily found in search.
Examples of various Piano listing titles:
Fun, witty title: “Flying fingers to jazz up your life”
Keyword focused title: “Free piano lessons – learn piano today”
Witty with keywords title: “Flying fingers – Free piano lessons”
Also, the listing description is a great place to use both keywords and witticism because it has more space and freedom plus you have the added benefit of being able to add tags to your listings. This is just some of the quick ways you can use keywords in your listing and session titles to help your classes, events, or workshops place higher in search results.
One of our favorite (and most regular) Article Writers is Lisa Kothari, the founder of a wonderful website called Peppers and Pollywogs. Her site is all about kids parties, and she’s organized hundreds of wonderful events, and works to share her best tips and tricks with parents everywhere.
And, today, she launched a new Kids Party Marketplace, where you can find kids entertainment, venues, food and more — if you’re looking for chidren’s birthday party help, give it a try — she’s wonderful!
What a great way to start the week — on Monday morning, I had the pleasure of speaking with Kirsten Winkler of Edukwest via web video interview, and you can listen in on our conversation via the video below. It’s another example of how the world of education (and everything) is changing, and we’re all helping make that change happen. Kirsten’s in France, and I felt like we knew one another for years, as I’ve seen her talk with Jon Bischke (of EduFire) in the past, and many others. Edukwest is her brainchild — she’s an “edublogger” and uses Edukwest to blog about hacking education, educhange, democratization of education, and most broadly, about the education revolution that we’re all part of. I highly recommend you check out her site to watch and listen to interviews with EduFire’s Jon Bischke, and others.
We are very happy to introduce our new Question & Answer feature now live at TeachStreet.com. People can ask questions they have on any subject and anyone can give answers and advice. It’s a great opportunity for learners to ask questions they have, either anonymously or not, and get real answers from the people who know best – teachers!
One unique feature of Q & A is that any teacher on TeachStreet can sign-up to get email notifications of varying frequencies about submitted questions in their area of expertise. This means that learners will get prompt and meaningful answers. Also, teachers who answer questions receive a bunch of benefits such as:
Help others;
Share your knowledge and expertise;
Boost your profile in search;
Display your answers on your profile (coming soon).
Check it out today! Ask a question, give an answer. It’s all about sharing your knowledge, helping others and learning something new.
Happy 2010 to everyone! Looking forward to this New Year, and we’re starting it off right. We’ve added several more colleges to our ever growing list of continuingeducation providers.
Community Colleges of Spokane (Spokane, WA)
Spokane Community College, Spokane Falls Community College and the Institute for Extended Learning have come together to provide the community a wide array of courses in continuing education. Totaling over 200+ different classes, they have a comprehensive selection of classes from gardening classes to career development courses for this economic climate.
South Puget Sound Community College (Olympia, WA)
Looking to learn how to draw or paint and don’t know where to begin? Need to update your computer skills? Have you always wanted to play the guitar? You’ve come to the right place—whether you want to learn a new skill or just sharpen up one you already have. South Puget Sound Community College has over 190+ classes in the Olympia area for anyone looking to learn something new.
Looking forward to having more colleges join TeachStreet in 2010.
We are always working to make TeachStreet the best website possible. We love the feedback we get from teachers, and take that into consideration when making changes. In the last few months, we have made some big changes to the site and want to take this time to go over what’s new at TeachStreet.
Teacher Tools Page
Now when you log in to TeachStreet as a teacher, the “Tools” tab becomes your “Teacher Tools”. This will display the alert bar, where important notices are circulated. Below the alert bar is a list of actions and tools you, as a Teacher, use on a regular basis. These include your dashboard, your message center, manage payments and listings, request reviews, and more.
Another key feature is the logged in bar. This green bar at the top of the page contains a series of important links, and will be displayed the entire time you are logged in to your TeachStreet account. With this bar, you can easily navigate to your profile, message center, payments, listings, articles, settings, and log out all in one click of a button, no matter where you are on the site.
OnlineClasses
You can now list online classes on TeachStreet. When you create a new session, you have the option of making that session available online. Online classes will be displayed in ‘Online Classes’ search results, regardless of where the student is searching from, as well as in additional Online Classes promotional slots throughout the website.
Session Schedule
We have created a new Session Schedule page. Now when you are on a Listings Page, you can view the different sessions available by clicking the “View Session Schedule” button. This will display the sessions in a table easily identifying the title, when, where, type, taught by and price of each session.
These are just some of the changes we have made to the site recently. Now is the perfect time to check out the changes yourself by logging in to your account today! If you have any questions about the new things at TeachStreet, please check out our Help Center for more information.
Last week we held a Seattle meet-up and did our first ever TeachStreet webinar on Edufire. Thank you to everyone who came to the meet-up, it was a pleasure to meet you all in person and we hope you found the meet-up useful. Also, huge thanks to everyone who participated in the webinar, we loved hearing your questions and feedback.
Did you miss out on the Seattle meet-up? Couldn’t make it to the webinar? Well, now you can view both the slide show and the webinar at your own leisure!
At both the meet-up and webinar, select members of the TeachStreet Team discussed a variety of topics from what’s new at teachstreet.com and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Social Media marketing and Listings. By viewing the the slide show and webinar, you won’t miss out on a thing.
Thanks again to everyone who participated in the meet-up and webinar, and to Edufire. If you have any questions about the information presented in the webinar, feel free to visit our Help Center to find out more!
They just keep on coming. We’ve just added our largest college to our site in Bellevue College who boasts over 400+ classes in the Bellevue area. Along with Bellevue, we’ve already added classes from Green River Community College. We’re starting to get really great coverage from Shoreline Community College to Clark College loaded in previous weeks to what we’ve loaded just this week.
Bellevue College (Classes in Bellevue, WA)
As the third largest institution of high education in the state Washington, they also have a great Continuing Education program with over 400+ classes. From technology classes to local cooking classes, they most comprehensive selection of classes among technical and community colleges in Washington state. Bellevue College also has classes that begin every week and are offered during the day, evening, and weekend to suit your schedule.
Green River Community College (Classes in Auburn, WA)
With over 170+ classes in the Auburn, WA area — Green River Community College believes in learning as a lifelong process. Whether you want to learn to play the guitar, travel, start your own business or get valuable professional certifications, they can help. Their continuing education classes are convenient, affordable and flexible—you can take them in the morning or evening at one of our campuses or online.
