The Cleveland Park Listserv has a commercial and professional advertising program.  Click here to learn how your paid advertisement can reach the readership of the Cleveland Park Listserv, the largest neighborhood email list in the USA.  Read on to find out what kinds of messages about businesses and services can be posted for free on the CP Listserv.

Rule #10 of the Cleveland Park Email List rules says "No free commercial advertising on the CP Listserv."  But list members talk about businesses and services quite often; they recommend contractors, doctors, and other services freely.  Teens offer to cut lawns; parents post on behalf of babysitters seeking extra work; housekeepers write in to say they have some available slots to fill, and so forth.  We (the moderators) have no problem with these sorts of posts.  And yet, from time to time, we write to members who submit posts about a type of service they provide for a fee, with a note that says, “Sorry, this post is commercial advertising.  It can't be posted for free on the Cleveland Park Email List.”

Sometimes the turned-down poster writes back to ask why a similar-seeming post was approved, while theirs got the ax.  Because it is time-consuming for the moderators to respond every time a poster has a question about a posting decision, we are providing a list of the categories of messages about businesses, services, and sales that may be posted for free.  If your intended message does not fit completely within any of the categories below, don't give up!  Just visit our Paid Ads Page  to learn how to send in a sponsored message.  The following types of messages can be published on the Cleveland Park Listserv for free:

Recommendations.  Please note that all recommendations must be written and submitted by a list member who has no financial or personal stake in the business, service, or professional being recommended.  To learn all about writing a recommendation that may be published on the Cleveland Park Listserv, please see our recommendations policy page.

For Sale Items.  Messages selling personal items are allowed, as long as your message identifies you as a resident within the listserv coverage area and your ad meets all the points on our CP Ad Checklist .  (Be sure to use that checklist  before you send in your ad, as there are many, many restrictions on free advertising, and any ad that does not meet all of them will be deleted.)

Housing Ads.  You can post a free ad for your home or vacation home, whether for sale, for rent, or for sublet -- just once a year.  All subsequent ads must be purchased.  Free housing ads need to be by the owner without any realestate agent or management company involvement. 

Notices from or about in-home helpers.  It's fine for employers to post recommendations for their housekeepers, nannies, babysitters, elder care givers, and house-sitters, or for any of these categories of workers to submit a self-recommendation a few times per year.  We don't consider in-home care givers to be running a business so much as joining a neighborhood household.

Notices from or about students, teens, tweens, or retired people offering to do odd jobs.  We consider notices sent in by neighborhood kids looking to earn some pocket money to be different from notices by adults offering professional services:  It's the 21st century version of having a neighborhood kid knock on your door and ask if you need any odd jobs done.  So, for example, a college student who lives in the neighborhood could post a notice (without paying the ad fee) offering afternoon homework help, but a full time teacher who offers professional tutoring or SAT prep would be asked to pay for an advertisement.  However, if the college student appears to be running a professional tutoring business (has a web site, has regular business hours, and a professional-looking program, etc.) we may consider the message to be professional advertising and ask for payment.  In other words, ads need to be low-key and neighborly in tone to be allowed under the free advertising rule.

Notices about business sponsorship of charity events or benefits.  It's fine for local merchants to let list members know about their support of good causes, whether neighborhood-based or citywide.  For example, if a restaurant is participating in the annual "Food and Friends" AIDS fundraiser by donating 25 percent of the day's receipts to that cause, that can be announced on the CP Listserv.  And we are happy to let a business announce that it is sponsoring neighbors who are running in the "Race for the Cure" or let a local elementary school use the listserv to urge people to patronize a local bookstore on the day that a percentage of the profits will go to that school's after-school program.  If you are not sure whether your business/benefit event fqualifies for our listserv's free announcements policy, you can learn more on our fundraising policy page .  Or you can contact the listserv owners at Cleveland [dash] Park [dash] owner (at) Yahoogroups (dot) com.  (Be sure to put that address in standard email format; we have spelled it out to foil spam-bots.)

  

Here are the types of notices and messages that can be posted only with payment:

Professional employment notices.  This mean all ads for "job wanted" or "job available," except for the in-home helper ads, as noted above.

Repeat Advertising.  Payment is required when the the poster has already used the listserv for free ads (that is, to sell different things) twice within the past 12 months.  Please note that an ad for the same item (or items) can be run for free just once.

Advertising by Out of Neighborhood Residents. Payment is required when the ad comes from a list member who lives outside of our listserv coverage area.

Housing for Sale or Rent, Not By Owner.  Payment is needed for any ad written by or submitted by a real estate agent, rather than the homeowner. The same goes for advertising of homes located outside of the listserv coverage area (except for vacation homes, for which we allow one free ad per list member per year).

Crossposts.   (A crosspost is a message sent at the same time or within a few days to more than one email list.)  To keep the neighbor-to-neighbor character of the CP Listserv, we require that all messages be addressed just to your neighbors on this listserv.  If you want to use the CP Listserv to sell something or announce something here and other places at the same time, then you need to purchase space on the CP Listserv for that purpose.  This includes not only for-sale ads but political fundraisers and events, art openings, and other non-commercial events. If you have a for sale item pending on eBay or Craig's List you may not post a free ad on the Cleveland Park Listserv, until after that ad has expired. 


Note:  All advertisements, notices and other messages must conform to applicable laws, including but not limited to, the Fair Housing Act.  List members are responsible for the content of their messages. 

Please consult our advertising checklist before posting an unpaid advertisement: http://cpadcheck.notlong.com 

The Cleveland Park general email list rules are at http://cprules.notlong.com.

For answers to most questions about how the listserv works, please visit our FAQ page. 

The short URL for this page is http://cpnoad.notlong.com.

Wow!  As you can see, the Cleveland Park Listserv is a very busy place in cyberspace, and takes a lot of time on the part of the volunteer moderators.  You are welcome to show your support by making a donation.  The moderators appreciate the good karma that comes from knowing that Listserv members appreciate all the hard work that goes into running the Cleveland Park Listserv:


 Want to send a birthday, anniversary or other special wish to somebody on the Cleveland Park Listserv?  Find out how at http://cpday.notlong.com.