About launches new self service classifieds

Not yet live but they are taking names.

[skibum]

Haven't seen a press release yet, but if you look at most any [websearch.about.com] section of About, there is a little pink box in the upper right hand corner of the page promoting it. Sounds like it might be similar to the AdWords program.

[Lisa_Lia]

I think that has to do something with the Sprinks program they have.

[europeforvisitors]

No, it's not Sprinks, it's a new classified-ad program.

About.com--then called The Mining Co.--tried classifieds a few years ago, but the experiment was a failure (probably because the ads cost too much for the number of impressions and clickthroughs that they generated).

FWIW, I just tried clicking the links in the classified-ad boxes at several About.com sites, and the links didn't work. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence. :-)

I think the real challenge for About will be competition from its own Sprinks. Why pay for impressions when you can pay only for leads?