Craigslist Success

Craigslist may be living in the past because of its white background and boring blue writing, but it’s surpassed phone books and MySpace because of its extreme utility (I think I’ve visited the site almost daily since at least May). It’s easy, it works, and it doesn’t try to be anything that it’s not.

My parents think I’m crazy because I love and use Craigslist so much, so I thought I’d share of few stories of why i LOVE Craigslist.

MY CRAIGSLIST SUCCESS STORIES

APARTMENTS

Craigslist apartments was the main tool used to find the house I lived in senior year of college, the apartment I live in now, and what I’m using as a tool to find my next apartment to live in come September. My sister successfully listed her apartment on Craigslist a few years ago to find a roommate, and has lived with the same girl ever since. Although kind of weird to respond to a bunch of people to live with them that you’ve never met, it works. Sure, you still want to meet them in person, and see the apartment real time, but it is a great tool to find what you’re looking for, where you’re looking for it. It is also so widely used by people my own age, it seems people FIRST post on Craigslist, then consider posting on other sites like roommates.com if they don’t get a great response.

FURNITURE

Throughout college, I never once bought furniture I didn’t get a 100% ROI from. We bought a couch for our junior year apartment (which was old, but fine, even though my parents refused to sit on it) and it stayed with us until the end of senior year. Because it was a five piece sectional, we were able to sell it to the ladies moving into our house next.

Although a lot of people worry about bed bugs and other such ailments from buying used furniture, I think it’s a rather effective system. People want cheap furniture, and Craigslist is a great place to sell it on. At the end of senior year, the girl moving into my room didn’t want my bedroom furniture I bought from the guy who lived there before me, so I sold it on Craigslist. I moved my desk and chair into our mud room with an envelope for the girl to put $40 in on the morning of graduation. While you may assume everyone is out to scam you on Craigslist, she left me the $40 in the envelope, without ever having met me.

JOBS

I think Craigslist is great for job searching. Although they receive a LOT of responses, and sometimes never get back to you, a LOT of companies still use it well. Your best bet when applying to jobs is to write something specific to grab their attention in the body of the email (BEFORE your magnificent cover letter) so that they become interested in you.

WILL CRAIGSLIST BE SOCIAL?

I think Craigslist’s main competitor is oodle.com because it is linked to the Facebook marketplace. As with most things, making a decision with your friend’s help is much easier than making a decision without their help. But for some reason, Craigslist continues to be used more than oodle thanks to its simplicity, transparency of people who post on it, and perhaps, its anonymity.