Craigslist SoftwareThe number of people who use Craigslist.org is expanding at more than 100% per year -- a growth rate any venture capitalist would covet.
But the people who run the 10-year-old community Web site, which gets 8 million unique users and more than 2 billion page views per month, seem to have little interest in exploiting new sources of revenue, going public or even adding to their 18-person staff.
The bare-bones site -- a trusted resource for everything from finding roommates to selling used cars in 105 cities in 23 countries -- charges for very few classifieds, doesn't serve up traditional ads and plans no major changes to its business model.
Instead, founder Craig Newmark told Associated Press editors and writers in a bureau visit, his newest fascination is community journalism.
Newmark hopes to develop a pool of "talented amateurs" who could investigate scandals, cover politics and promote the most important and credible stories. Articles would be published on Internet sites ranging from Craigslist to individual Web logs, or blogs.
Craigslist.org gets more than 4 million classified ads and 1 million forums postings each month, and Newmark -- who no longer runs it but remains one of three board members -- is often blamed for decimating classified advertising revenue at regional newspapers. But he says he has no desire to steal readers from mainstream media.
But he believes the reason why newspapers are losing circulation is that too many traditional journalists are willing to quote politicians and business executives even if they're blatantly lying -- merely for the sake of perceived objectivity. He'd prefer an "open source" model of journalism where legions of volunteers act as writers, assignment editors, and fact checkers to challenge mainstream journalists.
"People are looking for attitude and guts in reporting -- not full-on gonzo journalism, but hey, tell us what you think," said Newmark, who described himself as having Whig values -- strong on defense, fiscally conservative, but socially liberal.
"Maybe Hunter Thompson had it right," Newmark said, referring to the late cultural icon whose rollicking, first-person narratives of drug addiction, the Hells Angels, and the 1972 presidential election shook up the media decades ago.
Newmark isn't ready to unveil any new ventures, but said he's been brainstorming with Dan Gillmor, a former technology columnist at the San Jose Mercury News and founder of Grassroots Media Inc., and Jeff Jarvis, buzzmachine.com blogger and a former critic for TV Guide and People.
Newmark hopes the ideas take shape in time to supply voters with a "trustworthy" daily political report before the 2006 midterm elections. Young people, he said, particularly need credible online news, since the Internet is the top source of news for 18- to 34-year-olds, besting second-ranked local television by a 41-to-15% margin, according to a recent Carnegie Corp. study.
Newmark still spends about half his 40-hour work week at the Craigslist headquarters, a Victorian storefront in San Francisco, filtering through e-mailed complaints of fraud and investigating potential scams. The vast majority are "bait and switch" scams and other frauds perpetrated by landlords and apartment brokers in New York, the site's largest source of rental listings after San Francisco.
Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster says fraudulent postings -- from Nigerian money-laundering scams to solicitations for multilevel marketing pyramids -- represent less than one-tenth of 1% of listings. But the New York section is now so rife with con artists that they may begin charging landlords to discourage illegitimate listings.
Buckmaster emphasized that eBay Inc.'s 25% stake in Craigslist hasn't changed the site's "noncommercial" bent -- and that eBay founder, billionaire Pierre Omidyar ,joined Newmark and Buckmaster on the three-person board to learn more about the online classified business, an area of intense interest not only to eBay but also to e-commerce rivals Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc.
All the revenue of Craigslist, which remains private and profitable, comes from the $25 to $75 it charges per help-wanted ad in its three top markets, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.
Virtually all other advertisements and postings are free. Charging individuals for participating in the forums, or accepting money for banner ads or other commercials, would go against the site's philosophy.
Newmark, who rode public transportation to the AP office on Thursday, said he already has all the riches he needs. Still, he says, "sometimes I've winced when I thought about how much money I've walked away from."
Research before Posting on Craigslist
But the people who run the 10-year-old community Web site, which gets 8 million unique users and more than 2 billion page views per month, seem to have little interest in exploiting new sources of revenue, going public or even adding to their 18-person staff.
The bare-bones site -- a trusted resource for everything from finding roommates to selling used cars in 105 cities in 23 countries -- charges for very few classifieds, doesn't serve up traditional ads and plans no major changes to its business model.
Instead, founder Craig Newmark told Associated Press editors and writers in a bureau visit, his newest fascination is community journalism.
Newmark hopes to develop a pool of "talented amateurs" who could investigate scandals, cover politics and promote the most important and credible stories. Articles would be published on Internet sites ranging from Craigslist to individual Web logs, or blogs.
Craigslist.org gets more than 4 million classified ads and 1 million forums postings each month, and Newmark -- who no longer runs it but remains one of three board members -- is often blamed for decimating classified advertising revenue at regional newspapers. But he says he has no desire to steal readers from mainstream media.
But he believes the reason why newspapers are losing circulation is that too many traditional journalists are willing to quote politicians and business executives even if they're blatantly lying -- merely for the sake of perceived objectivity. He'd prefer an "open source" model of journalism where legions of volunteers act as writers, assignment editors, and fact checkers to challenge mainstream journalists.
"People are looking for attitude and guts in reporting -- not full-on gonzo journalism, but hey, tell us what you think," said Newmark, who described himself as having Whig values -- strong on defense, fiscally conservative, but socially liberal.
"Maybe Hunter Thompson had it right," Newmark said, referring to the late cultural icon whose rollicking, first-person narratives of drug addiction, the Hells Angels, and the 1972 presidential election shook up the media decades ago.
Newmark isn't ready to unveil any new ventures, but said he's been brainstorming with Dan Gillmor, a former technology columnist at the San Jose Mercury News and founder of Grassroots Media Inc., and Jeff Jarvis, buzzmachine.com blogger and a former critic for TV Guide and People.
Newmark hopes the ideas take shape in time to supply voters with a "trustworthy" daily political report before the 2006 midterm elections. Young people, he said, particularly need credible online news, since the Internet is the top source of news for 18- to 34-year-olds, besting second-ranked local television by a 41-to-15% margin, according to a recent Carnegie Corp. study.
Newmark still spends about half his 40-hour work week at the Craigslist headquarters, a Victorian storefront in San Francisco, filtering through e-mailed complaints of fraud and investigating potential scams. The vast majority are "bait and switch" scams and other frauds perpetrated by landlords and apartment brokers in New York, the site's largest source of rental listings after San Francisco.
Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster says fraudulent postings -- from Nigerian money-laundering scams to solicitations for multilevel marketing pyramids -- represent less than one-tenth of 1% of listings. But the New York section is now so rife with con artists that they may begin charging landlords to discourage illegitimate listings.
Buckmaster emphasized that eBay Inc.'s 25% stake in Craigslist hasn't changed the site's "noncommercial" bent -- and that eBay founder, billionaire Pierre Omidyar ,joined Newmark and Buckmaster on the three-person board to learn more about the online classified business, an area of intense interest not only to eBay but also to e-commerce rivals Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc.
All the revenue of Craigslist, which remains private and profitable, comes from the $25 to $75 it charges per help-wanted ad in its three top markets, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.
Virtually all other advertisements and postings are free. Charging individuals for participating in the forums, or accepting money for banner ads or other commercials, would go against the site's philosophy.
Newmark, who rode public transportation to the AP office on Thursday, said he already has all the riches he needs. Still, he says, "sometimes I've winced when I thought about how much money I've walked away from."
Research before Posting on Craigslist
Advertising on Craigslist is similar to advertising in other forms of media. Despite the existing heavy traffic flows to the website, successful marketing campaigns require extensive research. This research should provide the Internet marketer and his staff with insight into where post the advertisements to most effectively reach the target audience, how to word the copy of the advertisement to make it most appealing to the target audience and which relevant keywords should be included in the advertising copy to make it likely for members of the target audience to find the advertisement easily when searching for products and services offered by the company. Research of this capacity can be conducted either online or offline. One of the most effective forms of this type of research is to have members of the target audience fill out market surveys. The answers provided by the participants should give the marketer a good idea of what the target audience is seeking. Incorporating this information into the marketing campaign can make it noticeably more successful.
Meeting People on Craigslist
The Internet, and Craigslist in particular, is an excellent way to meet people. Whether the purpose of meeting people is to network, find friends who share a similar interest, find romantic matches or discuss important issues there is a place on Craigslist to help you find the people you are seeking. Although Craigslist can help people to meet others in a number of ways, this article will focus exclusively on networking on Craigslist and using Craigslist to find potential romantic dates. There will also be a brief section specifying a few precautions individuals should take when interacting with others online.
Spotting a Fake Listing on Craigslist
Most of these tips were derived from an Interview with Craig Neumark, Craigslist.org Founder.
Try to deal only with locals you can meet in person. If this is not possible, try and get a physical address from them. If the seller sends you a name and address to send payment to, look it up on a White Pages service, such as Yahoo! People Search. If the name and address matches a listing in the White Pages, that's a pretty good start. Also try looking up the person on a search engine like Google to determine whether any other information pops up about his/her reliability.
Insist on cash. Fake checks and money orders are common, and banks will hold you – not the buyer – responsible.
Never wire money to anyone under any circumstances. Most payments made by wire transfer are fraudulent.
Craigslist plays no part in transactions. Any reference to craigslist “buyer protection” or “certified seller” is bogus.
Use common sense. If an inquiry seems suspicious, disregard it. For God's sake, don't go giving out credit card numbers via email!