Classifieds refer to a collection of small advertisements captured within a magazine, newspaper or website. These are organized for instance by jobs available or variety of items for sale.

Classified advertising refers to a form that is especially common with newspapers, as well as online and with other periodicals that may get sold or distributed for free. Newspaper advertisements are in typical form short since these are charged for line-wise and a newspaper column wide.

Printing news of publications or other information often bear classified advertisement sections, and certain publications are exclusively meant for advertisements. Such adverts get grouped into classes or categories like “for sale – telephones”, “services – plumbing” and “wanted – kitchen appliances”, thus earning them the term “classified”.

The reference “classified ads” or “classified advertising” has gone through expansion from merely bearing the print advertisement sense in periodicals to including similar advertising forms on computer services, radio, as well as television. This is particularly with cable television but also broadcast television on occasion.

Just as majority of printed media forms, classified ad has made its way to the World Wide Web. Typically, internet classified ads do not utilize per-line models of pricing and are, therefore, longer.

Owing tot their low-cost structures and self-policing nature, certain companies provide free classifieds at international scale. Other companies mainly focus on their local hometown area, whereas others cover urban areas via postal codes.

Specialized Classifieds

An increasing number of companies and sites have started providing specialized classified marketplaces online. These cater to niche market services and products, which include pianos, boats, pets, as well as adult services among others.

Several online services known as aggregators crawl then aggregate classifieds from such sources as RRS feeds and blogs. This sharply contrasts with relying upon listings submitted in manual form.

In addition, other firms offer online advertising tools and services that assist members in designing online ads with the help of professional ad templates. The finished ads then get distributed to diverse online ad directories as part of service provided by the companies.

Statistics for Classifieds

The classifieds market within the US in 2003 was $15.9 billion for newspapers and $14.1 billion online, according to reports from Classified Intelligence, a market researcher. Estimates of the global market for these ads at this time stood at more than $100 billion. Market statistics vary greatly relative to the total available market for classified ads on the internet, perhaps owing to absence of a reporting standard. Gradual decrease has been observed in revenue obtained through newspaper classifieds advertisements, with growth of the internet. Classified advertising at certain larger newspaper chains fell by 14 percent to 20 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, traffic to classified websites grew by 23 percent.

Specialization of Classifieds

There is growing emphasis towards specialization as the sector of online classified advertising goes through development. Vertical markets for classifieds are undergoing quick development alongside the general marketplace which serves classifieds websites. Just as search engines, classified websites are often of specialized nature, with sites offering platforms of advertising for niche markets of sellers and buyers. Classifieds are relatively inexpensive and do not include graphics, being typeset by the publisher or printer of a given publication.