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Craigslist to Start Charging for Some Listings
rufey writes "In the coming months, Craigslist will begin charging fees for some of its listings. New York City real estate listings will be the first to get the fees. Starting on March 1st, it will cost $10 to list real estate on Craigslist for New York City. The fees may not be limited to New York real estate however. Job postings may see fees imposed for various parts of the country. The fees have been proposed as a way to combat the problem of people posting the same thing several times a day to keep their listing near the top of the list."
sounds like a good idea, it'll make the site better and reduce dupes etc. $10 is such a small amount that it won't put off anyone who wants to use it seriously but will make some dupers reconsider posting the same thing loads... although it might be so small that you could still pay $40 and think it was a good deal for 4 listings... I guess it depends on how much money you think you might make.
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I love craigslist.
But wouldn't it be effective if people could flag the types of posts that these measures are trying to curb?
"Flag this message 'dickwad'"
How can you spell "Craigslist" wrong three times in an article summary...about Craigslist????
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
when they say it's not about the money, it's always about the money
the real question i suppose is why so many feel such a need for greed
Perhaps one solution would be to allow one post per category per day. Anything extra would cost you.
Like the text ads and adsense on Google I would assume this was Craig's plan all along. Newspaper classifieds are going the way of the horse and buggy anyway. As soon as the routing, billing and favored content issues are sorted out we'll start to see the end of free email. A penny a message eliminates spam but doesn't slow me down.
OT somewhat: To me, the internet has so far destroyed more 'wealth' than it created. What was once the music business is losing the 'business' part (probably going to improve the music). Corporations that were worth $ because of song ownership / publishing catalogs are now involved in a market driven con game to claim they're still worth anything at all. Magazines that used to employ writers, designers, editors, mail room clerks are watching their industry go away, and some covering their own demise. The writers end up blogging where Googles current ad-revenue illusion can make them a couple of $$ a day. When the fraudulent aspect of click throughs becomes more evident, that revenue stream will ride off into the sunset.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
Craigslist is a bitter pill for newspapers - most metro dailies make a third of their advertising revenue from classifieds. McKinsey (insert genuflect here) has a new analysis piece on how papers can fight back. Relevant reading for anyone who follows the industry.
"It was a summer's tale: Just a boy, his Linux, and a head full of dreams..."
I find your two statements interesting together.
1. craigslist has wiped out much of the traditional classified ads industry
2. If craigslist starts charging, someone will take their place
It seems to me that 1 plus 2 equals that the traditional classified industry is dead, not because of craigslist specifically, but because the technology that made it possible.
People bitch about craigslist, but in truth it's an awesome display of market-clearing power. In the last two months, I have:
Sold my car on Craigslist, for more than car dealers offered, in cash, in under 4 hours.
Sold a Playstation 2 in under a day.
Sold all the major parts of a broken iBook, including the broken logic board, for more than the total offered by a computer salvage company.
Bought a 6-year-old laptop computer with the exact specifications I wanted, in under two days, for less than the median selling price of the same item on eBay (and of course, no shipping).
I will admit that I get frustrated with the people who call and say they are going to buy the item but then don't, and with the kids who want to buy your Playstation, but don't have any money or transportation and don't even know how to ride the bus, and with the African bank scams that automatically reply to every single listing. But in general it's a fantastic and free method for the buying and selling of anything.
Yeah I was going to say the same thing.
... I wonder if roommates wanted and rooms for rent fall under the $10 "real estate" category.
I don't understand why this is news. I think until now it was mostly just job postings, but there were definitely listings that cost money on Craigslist, at least in certain markets. I thought NYC was one of them, but perhaps not.
I've found a few apartments and rooms for rent through Craigslist
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