How do I edit or delete my ad?
- All ads are edited by use of a link. A link was emailed to you when you first posted your ad.
- If you need your link re-sent, please click here.
I never received a verification email. Where is it?
- Check to see if your email program or filter has automatically moved the email to a bulk or trash folder.
- Re-post your ad and make sure you have entered your return email address correctly.
- Your email provider may be experiencing delays and you may want to wait before re-posting your ad.
- Add support@backpage.com to your email address book.
- Try a different email provider.
- If you need your link re-sent, please click here.
How often can I post the same ad?
- If you’d like your ad to go back to the top of the list, you should post a new ad.
- You may post your ad once every 7 days.
- Your ad will be reported and removed from the site if the same ad is posted in more than one category, or in multiple cities on the Site.
How can I post anonymously and still receive email replies?
When posting an ad, you have three choices in some categories:
- Use your email address in the ad.
- Anonymous email address. A link will appear in the ad called "Reply: Anonymous-click here".
- Do not include any email address to respond. You will need to provide contact info in the ad.
I want to respond to an ad but there's no contact info.
If there is no phone/fax number or email address in the ad text, that means the user who posted the ad requested to remain anonymous and be contacted exclusively by
e-mail, via Backpage.com. At the top of most ads, beneath the title of the ad, you'll usually see 'Reply: click here' or something similar to ‘Reply:
someusername@somedomain.com'. If you click either one of these links you'll be prompted to respond via email.
My ad was removed/deleted.
If you have already tried deleting your cache and refreshing your browser and you still don't see your ad, it's more than likely that your ad was removed by the
community. Removals are automatically issued on a user request basis. All ads are monitored by the community. Users can report any ad that they feel violates the terms of
use by clicking "report this ad". If enough people report the ad, it will be automatically removed from the site. If the ads reappear and continue to be reported by the
community then the ad (or very similar ads) are sometimes automatically banned.
How are ads reported for violating the terms of use?
Ads are monitored by the community. If you feel an ad violates the terms of use, you can report it by clicking the "report this ad" link at the top of the post. If enough
people report the ad, the ad will be removed from the site.
What kind of postings violate the terms of use?
For a detailed list, please refer to our Terms Of Use
page. The most common violations of the terms of use are listed
below:
- Posting the same item or service in more than one category or more than once a week.
- Posting advertising or solicitation in categories that is not appropriate.
- Posting the same ad to multiple cities on the Site.
Someone posted an ad with my information!
Please email us immediately and ask to have the posting removed. Please include the posting title, category, and email address (if available). Please include in the
subject line, "posting prank" and your phone number so we may contact you.
How can I protect my email address from spammers?
Use a blind (anonymous) email address option when you post your ad. It gives you the best possible anonymity and helps to prevent email harvesters, spammers and
scammers from accessing your email address.
What do I do If I got scammed?
First read this page: Common Scams
We're here to do what we can to help. You can get advice about (or report) Internet Fraud by calling the National Fraud Information Center toll-free, 1-800-876-7060
(from outside the U.S., Canada, or Puerto Rico, dial 1-202-331-8590) Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Eastern Time. Additionally, you can learn more about the more common forms of Internet Fraud by following this link.
Here are some helpful tips that we collected from our good buddies at fraud.org:
• Know who you’re dealing with. If the seller or charity is unfamiliar, check with your state or local consumer protection agency and the Better Business Bureau. Some Web
sites have feedback forums, which can provide useful information about other people’s experiences with particular sellers. Get the physical address and phone number in
case there is a problem later.
• Look for information about how complaints are handled. It can be difficult to resolve complaints, especially if the seller or charity is located in another country. Look on the
Web site for information about programs the company or organization participates in that require it to meet standards for reliability and help to handle disputes.
• Be aware that no complaints is no guarantee. Fraudulent operators open and close quickly, so the fact that no one has made a complaint yet doesn’t meant that the seller
or charity is legitimate. You still need to look for other danger signs of fraud.
• Don’t believe promises of easy money. If someone claims that you can earn money with little or no work, get a loan or credit card even if you have bad credit, or make
money on an investment with little or no risk, it’s probably a scam.
• Understand the offer. A legitimate seller will give you all the details about the products or services, the total price, the delivery time, the refund and cancellation policies,
and the terms of any warranty. For more information about shopping safely online, go to www.nclnet.org/shoppingonline.
• Resist pressure. Legitimate companies and charities will be happy to give you time to make a decision. It’s probably a scam if they demand that you act immediately or
won’t take “Noµ for an answer.
• Think twice before entering contests operated by unfamiliar companies. Fraudulent marketers sometimes use contest entry forms to identify potential victims.
• Be cautious about unsolicited emails. They are often fraudulent. If you are familiar with the company or charity that sent you the email and you don’t want to receive
further messages, send a reply asking to be removed from the email list. However, responding to unknown senders may simply verify that yours is a working email address
and result in even more unwanted messages from strangers. The best approach may simply be to delete the email.
• Beware of imposters. Someone might send you an email pretending to be connected with a business or charity, or create a Web site that looks just like that of a
well-known company or charitable organization. If you’re not sure that you’re dealing with the real thing, find another way to contact the legitimate business or charity and
ask.
• Guard your personal information. Don’t provide your credit card or bank account number unless you are actually paying for something. Your social security number should
not be necessary unless you are applying for credit. Be especially suspicious if someone claiming to be from a company with whom you have an account asks for information
that the business already has.
• Beware of “dangerous downloads.µ In downloading programs to see pictures, hear music, play games, etc., you could download a virus that wipes out your computer files
or connects your modem to a foreign telephone number, resulting in expensive phone charges. Only download programs from Web sites you know and trust. Read all user
agreements carefully.
• Backpage.com encourages users to make all buy/sell/trade transactions in person and all purchases with cash.
For more specific information follow this link or copy and paste it in to your browser:
http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/internet/inttip/inttip.htm
Backpage.com assumes no responsibility for the ads posted within it's public community. Please review a portion of the Terms of Use that you agreed to when using
Backpage.com: Terms Of Use
Are my ads banned?
Bans are automatically issued on a user request basis. Normally users report posts for violating the Terms of Use. After numerous reports by numerous unique users the
ad is usually automatically deleted. If the posts reappear and continue to be reported by the community then the post (or very similar posts) are sometimes automatically
banned.
More than likely it's a term in your ad that is banned, not you specifically. Send an email to Support to get more
information and be sure to give them a copy of the email address you are trying to post with so they can find your information easily.
All that we ask of the users in our community is to read and review the Terms Of Use before posting so
to avoid being reported by the community.
When you post an ad you will be given the option to upgrade to a sponsor ad. If you missed out on this the first time don't worry. You can always use your verification
link to edit/delete and enhance your ad. Sponsor ads rotate every hour so if your sponsor ad appears at the bottom right part of the screen don't worry. Eventually everyone's
ad gets a chance at the top.
How can I get my ad in the actual paper? (Print Ad)
When you post an ad you will be given the option to upgrade to a print ad. If you missed out on this the first time don't worry. You can always use your verification link to
edit/delete and enhance your ad. Print ads will be edited by the paper's staff and are typically limited to 25 words. If you are interested in a larger print ad with images,
please contact your local ad rep for details and pricing information.
What is the Auto Repost feature?
Auto Repost allows you to specify how many times you would like your ad to be automatically reposted every 7 days. For example, if you know your ad needs to be as
visible as possible for a one month period, you can use this feature to make sure that your ad is posted at the top of the ad listings every 7 days.
This is a good way to keep your ad fresh for new site viewers without taking the risk of being flagged for over
posting.
Basic Html.
First off, remember not to use HTML tags in the title of your ad. Only in the body (description). If you do this your ad will be immediately removed and nobody wants that,
right?
When you’re in Step 1 of the ‘Post an ad’ form you’ll notice that just above the ‘description’ field there are three buttons that say ‘Bold’, ‘Italic’ and ‘Underline’. All you really
have to do is highlight the text that you’d like to be affected and then click the button of your choice. For example: if you’d like to bold the sentence “Backpage.com iz off tha chizain!µ all you have to do is highlight it and click the ‘Bold’ button and there you go! The tag will appear! However, if you’d rather enter the tag
manually, here’s how:
A tag will always begin with a less than sign, like this: <. The tags will end with a greater than sign, like this: >. An example would be the tag used to underline text: 
.
You would place this before the text you want to underline. This is called an opening tag, which begins the operation you wish to perform. In order to end the underlining,
you must use a closing tag. A closing tag will always be the same as the opening tag, but will have a forward slash before the command, like this: 
. So, if you would like to underline the phrase "BackPage.com is off tha chizain!", you would write the following in your ad text:
The result of this would be:
Backpage.com iz off tha chizain!
The same applies for bolding your text which would look like this:
The result of this would be:
Backpage.com iz off tha chizain!
And for italicizing your text:
The result would be:
Backpage.com iz off tha chizain
…and so on and so forth.
Not all tags will require a closing tag. An example would be the image tag, which will place an image on the page. It looks like this:
You can often find free hosting for your images on sites like Photobucket.com and Allyoucanupload.com just to name a couple.
A basic HTML file will have the format below. Read through and see if you can guess what the different tags will do: (Don't worry, I'll explain them at the end of the
example.)
If you’d simply like to add a link to a website all you have to do is type your website out in this format: http://yourwebsitegoeshere.com . Remember to add the “http://µ and
the Backpage.com Ad Form will do the rest of the work for you.
There’s all sorts of cool stuff you can do to modify your ad on Backpage.com with HTML. Coincidentally, there’s also all sorts of cool websites that teach the basics of HTML. If
this didn’t help you, you can always get on Google (or your favorite search engine) and type in “HTML tagsµ or something of the like and you’re bound to find something.
Remember: egregious abuses and over-uses of the HTML feature might result in a removal of your ad. So, please remember to play nice!
Optimizing Images.
Hello friends. If you would like to edit images for use on Backpage.com and do not have access to an editing program, all is not lost. On the internet, there exists a free
program which I shall now endorse. The program, for which I speak, is called Irfanview. It can be downloaded for free: Click here for links to download Irfanview
There are a lot of freeware programs like this one but here are some reasons I recommend it:
- Only one EXE-File, no DLLs, no Shareware messages like "I Agree" or "Evaluation expired"!
- No registry changes without user action/permission!
- It can read any file extension you throw at it. Yay!
So, let's say your image is too big, too small, or you are trying to upload a file type that Backpage won't accept. No problem.
Go ahead and click the first button on the left (The one that looks like an open folder).
Browse to the file that you want to edit and open it.
Now that you have the file open, click on (Image - located on the top menu bar) then scroll down to (Resize/Re-sample.) and click once.
From here, you can resize the image using the (set new size) box. You will notice the image's dimensions are determined by two variables, height and width. This can be
displayed in either pixels, centimeters or inches. Pixels, is the default selection and is fine for what we're trying to do.
Now, this is really up to you but I would recommend staying somewhere between 400 and 600 pixels for either the height or the width. Try typing a new value into the
(Width) field. Notice that the (Height) field changes as well. This is because it is fixed proportionately to the width.
For example, if your image has a width of 50 pixels and a height of 25 pixels, and you raise the width to 100 pixels, the height will automatically compensate by changing
itself to 50 pixels.
Let's say you just want to make your image twice as big as it is now. Or, twice as small.
Select the next box down (Set new size as percentage of original)
Here, for instance, you can set 200% in both fields and your image would be twice as big.
Or you could set it to 50% in both fields and it would be twice as small. Make sense?
Finally, there's the DPI field, in the third box down. DPI stands for (Dots per inch)
The standard dpi for a web image is 72 DPI. The standard for print is 128 DPI.
If your image is larger than this, don't worry. However, a DPI of 300 is about as high as you are going to want to go. Anything larger than this is unnecessary.
Now that you have set your fields to what you want, click ok.
Your image will now be displayed with the new settings. If it doesn't look the way you wanted, don't worry. Hold down the [Control] key and hit the [Z] key on your keyboard.
This will undo the changes.
Or you can select (edit / undo) from the menu at the top of the program.
If you like what you see, click (file / save) at the top menu.
If your file type is not accepted by Backpage, click (file / save as).
From here you can select from a list of file types to save your image as.
Jpeg or (.jpg) is the most common and optimal.
Save your file and go upload it to your ad! Now you're an Internet Scientist!
Deleting Your Browser's Cache.
If you've made changes to your ad and they aren't being reflected on the site, or you just don't see your new ad listed, you might be experiencing problems with your
web browser's cache. It might help to try clearing out your cache and revisiting your ad. To do so, find your browser on the list below and check out the instructions:
. In Internet Explorer:
1. Click Start, select Settings and Control Panel.
2. Double-click Internet Options to open Internet Properties.
3. Click the General tab.
4. Click Delete Files.
5. Click OK on the Delete Files dialog box.
6. Click OK.
. In Firefox:
1. Click Tools and select Options on the Firefox menu bar.
2. Click the Privacy Icon on the Option menu bar to open the Privacy Properties.
3. Click Clear across from the Cache option.
4. Click Ok to return to the browser main page.
5. Exit and relaunch the browser.
. In Netscape:
1. Click Tools and select Options.
2. Select Privacy under the Options tree on the left side of the screen.
3. Click Cache.
4. Click Clear Cache.
5. Click Clear.
6. Click OK.
. In Safari:
1. Open Safari.
2. Select Empty Cache.
3. Click Empty on the Are you sure message box.
4. Exit and relaunch the browser.
. In America Online:
1. Click Start, select Settings and Control Panel.
2. Double-click Internet Options to open Internet Properties.
3. Click Delete Files.
4. Click OK.
After you've cleared out your cache try following the confirmation link that was emailed to you when you posted your ad. After you've done this you should be able to view
your ad normally. However, if this doesn't help please feel free to shoot us another email and we'll investigate the matter further.
Backpage Central (Overview)
Backpage Central allows you to keep track of your ads in an easy, ordered list. Accounts are tied to one email address so any ads that you post with
username@domain.com will be listed (for all the cities you have posted in). Status such as "Live", "Expired" and "Removed by me" will be displayed to help you stay on top of
your ad management. There are also convenient links for editing your ad on the fly.
