Craigslist - How Does it Work?:

When the Internet first became popular, a site like Craigslist was destined to be a huge success. Started in 1995 in the Bay Area as a local email list for events in the area, the site has slowly evolved to now serve over 550 cities in over 50 countries worldwide. The site first was focused on the San Francisco region but as the founders realized that the interest levels were high for others cities to follow, they quickly expanded to other core cities in the United States like Los Angeles, Portland, Boston, and New York City. The beauty of a site like Craigslist.org is that there isn't much programming to do to keep it up and running. With the Internet momentum of the late 1990's and early 2000's, the site exploded in popularity since it gave people that local feeling when searching through online classified ads. As of 2008, more than 40 million monthly users are on Craigslist making it one of the busiest sites on the web. The site has always remained loyal to it's followers but not flooding the minimal white pages with ads, popups, or promotional offers. The owners have run it like a non-profit only taking in fees for job ads and apartment listings in a select group of cities. All the other classifieds you see on the site are listed for FREE.

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Traditonal newspapers that rely on print ads and people paying to sell things like cars or rent apartments have taken a big hit on their bottom lines as their daily readers are now turning to sites like Craigslist to get what they need. It's a win-win situation for buyers since they can now find things locally on one main website and sellers can list their goods at no cost. How does Craigslist stay in business with no (very little) advertising on the site? They only have 25 employees so expenses are low and the revenue they do get from apartment listings in NYC and jobs ads in 10 cities easily pays the bills each month. Some say if they wanted to monetize the site they could earn billions each year with really no increased expenses since most of the site is automated and works without much human involvement. Ebay acquired 25% equity in the company back in 2004 and should make out well if Craigslist ever goes public or charges more for their online classifieds. Craig Newmark is the founder of the company, hence the name and Jim Buckmaster has been the CEO since 2000. If you go to Craigslist.org you will find a list of cities that they cover so you can quickly click on your local area. Then choose from topics like housing, personals, jobs, services, for sale, discussion forums, and much more. You can browse for free and check out what others have posted. If you are interested in applying for a job or buying something in the for sale category, just respond to the email given in the ad. You will dozens of daily postings in the apartments, vacation rentals, and real estate sections. Want to find some used toys for you child, just go into the "for sale" section and find what you need. After spending a few minutes on the site you will realize how much better it is to use than browsing your local newspaper ads. The Internet has taken over for classified ads and the multi-billion dollar industry is fast turning to Craigslist as a FREE source of placing ads. The newspapers are losing classified ads revenue by staggering numbers as sites like Craigslist offer the same opportunities at no cast. Other competitor sites like Backpage.com are following suit and making life on the traditional print newspapers even harder.

Selling Online:

Selling an item using Craigslist couldn't be made much easier. All you have to do is go into the city that you live in (or nearest location) on the main Craigslist site and then choose the category - bikes, boats, household, electronics, etc. Once in the category, look in the right hand corner for the word "post". Click on that link and it will take you to the area to fill out what your online listing will say. You can either give your email address out or just have any responders to the ad email you through a temporary email address setup through Craigslist. You can post pictures with your ad (this is a good idea) and list a URL if you want people to go to another website for more information. Some people list their phone #, but ultimately that's up to you. I recently sold our baby crib and dresser set and literally within 5 minutes of posting the offer on a Saturday afternoon I had a buyer. Amazing speed of sale, something you could never expect from a newspaper ad. Anyone that advertises a classified ad in a newspaper is missing the boat with Craigslist. The reach is far greater in terms of daily users and you can sell your item for NO FEE. Give it a try.

Buying on Craigslist:

Ok, many of us have bought items on Ebay only to have to use Paypal or get the item shipped because the person selling it doesn't live near our city. Craigslist eliminates all that hassle by listing only local items in your neck of the woods and you can take care of the transaction with a personal check in most cases or simply by paying cash. As with all transactions that originate online, we suggest not bringing a bunch of cash to buy any item. Some scams do exist on Craigslist where buyers are told to meet the seller in a strange place and to bring cash. The buyer is just a thief who takes your money. It's rare, but be careful. Most sellers will take a personal check and some even offer PayPal services if you have an account setup. There is no bidding like on Ebay which to me is much less stressful, just phone or email the seller and buy what you want. I thought Ebay was a great site, but I have to say that I use Craigslist much more often now simply because it's local.

Craigslist - The Problems:

As much freedom as the site gives to those that are posting ads or news online, it also opens up doors to potential problems with those peddling prostitution or looking for underage sexual encounters. In recent months, we have heard of lots of police stings with people answering "personal ads" that are really a front for prostitution. There are online predators who use sites like Craigslist to meet girls online and in some cases they have coerced the girls to runaway with them. With millions of new postings each day, you can imagine the amount of work it would take to track all those ads with only 25 employees. The company relies on the users to "flag" postings that seem bogus or link to paid search results on other sites. The community of users can only do so much to keep up with those that are using Craigslist for their own malicious purposes.

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