WSJ on CraigsList and Zen of Classified Ads

prostoalex writes "Wall Street Journal profiles one of the Valley's most mysterious and secretive Web companies. A leader in online classifieds space and by some measures one of Web's top sites, CraigsList is ostensibly anti-ad and anti-self-promotion. From the article: "One industry analyst has estimated that Craigslist could generate 20 times that $25 million just by posting a couple of ads on each of its pages. If the estimate is to be believed, that's half a billion dollars a year being left on the table. What kind of company turns up its nose at $500 million?""

Comments

Re:Reporter not so clever

[zaren]

Yes. MyPoints.

I've been signed up with them for several years, and they continue to email me ads from their sponsors. If I take the time to click their provided link, I check out the full ad, and I get a few points credited toward my account. Were I more diligent participant, I could have made out a lot better. As it is, I've gotten $40 worth of restaurant gift certificates for basically taking a few minutes out of my time every few weeks to check out some ads. I've even bought a few things from the ads, amazingly enough.

I'd post my mypoints referral link here, but that wouldn't be kosher - got enough stuff here already. You can always email me if you want the link :)