“Craigslist, the “free classifieds” site that offers community advertising in 570 markets worldwide but charges only for a tiny percentage of its ads, will generate $100 million in revenue in 2009, the AIM Group / Classified Intelligence estimated today. That’s an increase of more than 23 percent from Craigslist’s estimated revenue of $81 million in 2008, making clear that the company continues to grow significantly while many classified advertising publishers are reporting year-over-year drops of 50 percent or more in certain categories.” by Peter M Zollman of AIMGroup
Despite the controversy surrounding Craigslist sections called “Casual Encounters” and “Erotic Services,” the fact remains that Craigslist is a peer to peer community driven web portal. Created in 1995 by founder Craig Newmark, Craigslist has more than 20 billion page views per month and projected revenue of $100 million this year.
I think it is ironic that the Business (for sale) category is less than one inch to the right from the Casual Encounters category. Craigslist defies all the rules of ecommerce when it comes to website design: no banner ads; no Google Ad Sense; no big banana buttons that scream, click here. So why is it so successful? I believe one of the central reasons for its success is the constantly updated content created by Craigslist users.
Automotive, Jobs and Real Estate are some of the top categories with large volumes of inventory. As a Tallahassee small business digital media consultant, I have worked with automotive and real estate companies who have listed inventory and/or properties on Tallahassee Craigslist. One of my clients who owns several rental properties has leased a property in less than one hour on Craigslist. Another client lists their automotive inventory priced below $12,000, and receives multiple calls per day.
Similar to its cousin Ebay, the success in listing on Craigslist is photos, descriptions and multiple points of contact. I have seen listing after listing with no pictures, poor descriptions and no phone or email listed. Putting a link to your business website or blog is another “best practice” and allows for good web traffic tracking through tools like Google Analytics.
Tallahassee businesses posting job listings are reporting over 300 to 500 responses per listing! If you are looking to hire and are looking for a low cost alternative, Craigslist is a great resource. Taking the time to write a good job listing, including detailed job description, educational requirements and skills needed will help reduce the number of unqualified applicants.
If you haven’t started listing your products or services on Craigslist, your competitor probably has. One tool for monitoring Craigslist is CL Desktop. CL Desktop is an application built on Adobe AIR. This tool is a very well designed tool for searching and tracking listings by topic. CL Desktop is a free application to download from Adobe AIR Marketplace.
Craigslist Social Media Monitoring Tool
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