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12 May 2008

How Much Do You Think Craigslist makes on the fees for job and real estate ads? Go ahead, get a number in your head, and then come inside and see.[More:]From the linked article: Though nearly all listings remain free, Craigslist has added modest fees for job listings and real estate brokers in certain big cities, and from those fees the company generates $80 million to $100 million in annual revenue.

I feel like I was discussing how much money Craigslist makes with someone in the Mefi/Mecha sphere lately (maybe at the last meetup), so this article was timely.
Meanwhile, the article mentions that Craig is posting on Twitter, and links to Twitter.com- would it kill them to link directly to the source of what they're talking about? I'd like to read his Twitter, and it would be nice if they'd help me out instead of making me search like crazy. Gah, NYTimes is so annoying sometimes.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 12 May | 13:01
What interests me is the graphic showing the coverage area -- there is still only one craigslist for all of Maine, and not much on that, frankly. Yet I keep seeing things here and there on the web talking about how classified ads are dying, and don't look for an apartment anywhere but on craigslist, etc. Hurry up, stupid revolution! What's taking you so long??
posted by JanetLand 12 May | 13:18
Whoa! that is not a small amount of money.
I just posted some jobs on Clist for my company, and I was thinking about the days when posting jobs was free or cheaper. It's funny how they charge different amounts depending on where you post. I was posting in CA and LA was the priciest board to get on.
posted by rmless2 12 May | 13:23
I love craigslist. That is all.
posted by small_ruminant 12 May | 13:24
Well, when I posted a job ad in my local newspaper recently, it cost $240. IT's still quite the deal.

Yeah, JanetLand, we're slow to catch up. I read both the NH Craigslist and the Maine one. NH is catching on a bit better, but for apartment searching, the newspaper is still much better (they'll also send a daily email of apartments within your search specs). There's little overlap between what's on CL and what's on the local paper so I have to check both. Ther'es just not a big enough user community for CL here yet.
posted by Miko 12 May | 13:30
Teeps - you can read his blog. Or his twitter.
posted by muddgirl 12 May | 13:35
Ha. First town they mention is my own. (And it's up and running, too.)

The local paper is furiously working to launch a jobs and local business portal of its own.
posted by stilicho 12 May | 13:46
It's still all free in Pittsburgh and since there's no job market and not much of a real-estate market, it'll probably stay that way.
posted by octothorpe 12 May | 13:49
I love craigslist, too, even though the one here in Lawrence is small. I'm a little surprised to see that they're rich as Scientologists, but not too surprised.
posted by interrobang 12 May | 14:39
I like craigslist a lot, and between Austin and San Antonio there's a pretty vibrant craigslist community, if you can call it that. We bought our lovely, sturdy, large, hand-crafted dining room table (with 6 chairs) for $75 bucks, and sell lots of stuff on their, too.

Classified ads is really one place where the internet can, hands-down, outperform print mediums. Print space is expensive, and web space is cheap.
posted by muddgirl 12 May | 15:54
Gah, replace "their" with "there".

It's been a really, really long week.
posted by muddgirl 12 May | 15:58
Agreed, muddgirl - plus, with print there's a lag time, with web it's lightning-fast.

I have similar things to say about Freecycle. I've been subscribing to my local one for about two weeks, and am absolutely amazed at what good stuff is changing hands and how quickly.
posted by Miko 12 May | 16:00
Why didn't we think of Craigslist?
posted by LoriFLA 12 May | 16:05
I think Craigslist is a pretty interesting case study in value creation (and I mean strictly economic value). It's become almost a truism that Newmark et al are forgoing immeasurable value by staying private, growing judiciously and caring for its customer-base. But I think if they stay on this path, when it's all said and done, the Craiglist founders may have generated more cash wealth than most comparable tech/web entrepreneurs who took their company's public. And if not in absolute terms, than certainly in risk-adjusted terms.
posted by mullacc 12 May | 16:10
Not that we have craigslist here, but we have given up advertising jobs in the newspapers here and rely totally on Web advertising on our own jobs site and on seek.com.au. Newspaper ads are way expensive, they only have a life of one day (maybe two for the Saturday paper) and only unemployed people read the job ads in papers, apparently.
posted by dg 12 May | 16:32
I've been thinking about trying freecycle, but I'm afraid a lot of stuff I want might be, "free to haul away," and I drive a tiny, tiny car.
posted by muddgirl 12 May | 16:51
Not having a vehicle at all makes those "free to haul away" deals even worse. You're basically limited to anywhere within walking distance. But I can't complain- I've been wanting an exercise bike for awhile, and last week, someone down the street left one outside. It's very old, which is good, because if it didn't have the old-school exposed front wheel, I wouldn't have been able to roll it home.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 12 May | 16:55
Omigod, the blog says Snowman is dead. He was one of the cat modeling greats.
≡ Click to see image ≡
posted by ethylene 12 May | 17:35
Craigslist is pretty useful in Portland. I bought my house on Craigslist. I love that CL has no graphics, flash or java, so it loads fast. The mods are quick to respond to flagged posts. Not so fond of junky ads for non-local crap, or spammers who respond if you post.

One of the ways google got to be google is that they took ads, but clearly identified the ads and paid placement. Prior to that, altavista, for instance, took $ to place search rankings higher, which affected their credibility. Google was transparent and honest, and it's worked. Same deal with craigslist, long may they ... something.

My local paper has sucked for quite a while. They mostly provide a vehicle for finding out what's on sale at Macy's and what's at the movies. Lots of canned news, lots of filler, little good reporting. CL is blowing them out of the water. I wonder what will happen to actual journalism?

Love freecycle, and taxis are not too bad for getting stuff home.
posted by theora55 12 May | 18:49
OH NOES, ESSEXJAN CAT IS DEAD?

≡ Click to see image ≡
posted by mullacc 12 May | 19:05
This is the most Awesome Record Ever. || I think I've gotten bit by the gardening bug.

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