What is Craigslist?

For those of you who find posting on Craigslist fun, or profitable, I have created this website to keep everyone informed about all the things that happen behind the scenes at Craigslist that they don't want you to know about. Yes, All the Dirty Little Secrets of Craigslist. As an added bonus, I will also be including many different ways to beat Craigslist for those of you who have trouble posting on Craigslist. A "How to beat Craigslist" manual! A constantly up dated manual on how to beat Craigslist at their own game, and much, much more. I will give you the edge you need to be able to survive the constant idiotic rules that the people at Craigslist come up with. Rules which in fact only HURT the innocent but do NOTHING to stop the scammers, crooks, and trouble makers who prowl around Craigslist. For those of you who may be unfamiliar, let's start off with what is Craigslist?

Craigslist is an online, internet advertising site (or online classifieds ) that was started a several decades ago by a geeky nerd who couldn't get a date and hung around his mother's house too much. The site itself (Craigslist) languished for a few years and really went no where until a few years ago some savvy investors decided to plug some money into it. Some people actually thought it had potential. It is actually a reasonably good idea, unfortunately it is poorly run and managed. So anyway, like I was saying a few investors plugged some money into the Craigslist website and through some clever marketing they made Craigslist more popular.

The entire marketing scheme behind Craigslist dates back to the old hippie days of the 1960's. They even utilize the old PEACE symbol as their logo. Unlike the old Hippie days, Craigslist is far from free, or open. In fact Craigslist has gone so far as to Register and trade mark the PEACE symbol. Now what self respecting Hippie that is into peace, love, and sharing would take a symbol that no one owned and claim it to be theirs and only theirs? A fake hippie using the symbol only as a ruse, that's who. Craigslist likes to propagate this idea that they are here for the people and by the people. That's where the whole community thing comes from. The whole thing about Craigslist just being there for the people and by the people is a total load of BS anyway. Craigslist is there to make money for the corporate managers. The staff at Craigslist likes to push the community idea because it makes their users do the work of the staffers for free. Free labor, you gotta love it! The fact that they are free is also a falsehood since now they have implemented a paywall and you have to pay to make a posting. So much for FREE classifieds. You'll learn more about this later.

Yes, they advertise Craigslist, and the whole buzz around Craigslist, is that it's free, but it actually isn't, not completely. For some types of ads you have to pay. So this whole free notion is more or less a marketing ploy. Even though the company bears the name of Craig, Craig Newmark has taken a lesser role in the company over the years. Maybe top management thinks geeks just aren't good at marketing.

So you go on Craigslist and post your products or services for sale, you find someone interested in what you have to offer and everyone ends up happy right? Well, maybe in theory but not in practice. There are so many things wrong with Craigslist itself and the entire concept, that it will take many posts to dissect the problems and elucidate on them properly. I am writing this blog to enlighten people about the problems and dangers of Craigslist so they can better understand and work with it as opposed to many people who are being hurt by it.

Here is a great Ebook that explains more about Craigslist. It is aptly labeled "Craigslist For Beginners"  and also "What is Craigslist". While some things in them may be a little out of date, they are a good starting place if you are totally unfamiliar with Craigslist.