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How Craigslist Makes Money

forbes.com

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Re: How Craigslist Makes Money

#101

Post by smelendez »

colmvp wrote: post #54
madamelic wrote: post #8

I think they are doing it right. Just find a niche and work at it progressively through life. No need to raise $100M D Rounds, no need to have an explosive exit, whatever. I think it would be nice to just steadily have six figures, work on something I love and live life (a la Basecamp). Most of all: Have complete control of your destiny. No investors, no bosses, etc.

I know hindsight is 20/20, but it's interesting to me that they could've created Airbnb, as they had both the reach and finances to potentially create a side-project that was specific to short-term rentals. They already had sublets and temporary rentals as a sub-listing since forever. I know that Airbnb comes across as warm and fuzzy hosts who engage with guests, but it's progressively more commercialized with a good…

That would have completely changed the company, though. Airbnb works by introducing ratings, insurance and being an intermediary someone can at least theoretically call if a renter is crazy or the listing isn't as advertised.

Craigslist has 50 employees and minimal vetting of anything. It's great for what it is, but I would never use it to rent anything​ site unseen.

Re: How Craigslist Makes Money

#102

Post by fivestar »

bubbleRefuge wrote: post #95
troncheadle wrote: post #70

Forbes is unequivocally the worst website I have the displeasure of being linked to on a regular basis. Readability is quickly approaching 0. This page kept hijacking my scroll thru the article to keep an ad at the top of my window. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Overall, most press/journalism sites I use are terrible. Performance stinks, flash everywhere, ads that nobody clicks on. Horrible.

Not to mention all the "adblock detected" crap. I used to disable adblock, but anymore I just give up and go away. They can all FOAD for all I care.

Re: How Craigslist Makes Money

#103

Post by fivestar »

accountyaccount wrote: post #69
easilyBored wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craig probably did some math and found out that even if he lives to 800 years old, he will not be able to spend it all so why go nuts? This way everything is manageable and he doesn't need to report to anyone.

I'm surprised that more successful people don't do this? Is the drive that lead them to absurd success what leads them to continue well beyond needing to? I find it hard to imagine hitting $10 million and not just dropping everything and spending the rest of my life on random hobbies and traveling. Maybe that's why I don't have $10 million?

Hell, I have just over 1/10th and I'm trying to extract myself from the workaday life. What is truly ridiculous is that I can't yet do so, largely due to the high cost of buying health insurance yourself. It's like the whole US is designed around debt slavery and moving the goalposts further and further out.

$5-10M is probably the low bar for living a kick-ass non-tied-to-employment lifestyle in the US. Certainly people are doing it on less, but I'm not talking trailer park or RV , I'm talking decent house in a decent neighborhood, with few compromises on travel and doing what you want.

Re: How Craigslist Makes Money

#104

Post by thedarkginger »

bubbleRefuge wrote: post #95
troncheadle wrote: post #70

Forbes is unequivocally the worst website I have the displeasure of being linked to on a regular basis. Readability is quickly approaching 0. This page kept hijacking my scroll thru the article to keep an ad at the top of my window. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Overall, most press/journalism sites I use are terrible. Performance stinks, flash everywhere, ads that nobody clicks on. Horrible.

It kind of blows my mind that even real, serious journalism outlets cheapen their product like this (nearing the mid-2000s music lyrics website threshold).

Got a NYT digital subscription to see if it was worth it, and I like it. Would be more likely to keep going if it extended to other publishers, and I could consistently access an ad-free, ad-blocker gate free experience.

Re: How Craigslist Makes Money

#105

Post by SimbaOnSteroids »

accountyaccount wrote: post #75
ryandrake wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to imagine hitting $1 million and not just dropping everything for hobbies. The answer is that $N figure is different for each person.

Fair point. I just don't relate to what pushes a wealthy person down the path of ludicrous wealth. Do they really just love doing what they're doing?

Power and influence, setting up your kids for that life, your grandkids for that life, or they just enjoy it.

Re: How Craigslist Makes Money

#106

Post by jandrese »

ryandrake wrote: post #71
accountyaccount wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised that more successful people don't do this? Is the drive that lead them to absurd success what leads them to continue well beyond needing to? I find it hard to imagine hitting $10 million and not just dropping everything and spending the rest of my life on random hobbies and traveling. Maybe that's why I don't have $10 million?

I find it hard to imagine hitting $1 million and not just dropping everything for hobbies. The answer is that $N figure is different for each person.

I think it was Nolan Bushnell who said that business is the ultimate game. You keep score with money.

Never underestimate people's drive to win, even if winning is meaningless.

Re: How Craigslist Makes Money

#108

Post by cryptarch »

fivestar wrote: post #102
bubbleRefuge wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overall, most press/journalism sites I use are terrible. Performance stinks, flash everywhere, ads that nobody clicks on. Horrible.

Not to mention all the "adblock detected" crap. I used to disable adblock, but anymore I just give up and go away. They can all FOAD for all I care.

Get an anti-adblock killer list, it's great :)

I basically enable every list in uBlock. Suprisingly it almost never blocks too much, when I get blocked it's consequently for being on a VPN.

Re: How Craigslist Makes Money

#109

Post by fivestar »

YCode wrote: post #85
accountyaccount wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised that more successful people don't do this? Is the drive that lead them to absurd success what leads them to continue well beyond needing to? I find it hard to imagine hitting $10 million and not just dropping everything and spending the rest of my life on random hobbies and traveling. Maybe that's why I don't have $10 million?

I imagine many do, you just don't hear about them. For example I know a few people who are millionaires but you wouldn't know it to talk to them. They don't live overly extravagant lives. They have a nice house, some hobbies (e.g. a very nice car(s), a private plane, an art collection), a job they enjoy and friends they spend time with. At least for those I know didn't strike it rich with some novel idea, they ran a…

That's because that's basically all you can do with only $1M these days! The US is nothing but a grievous lie--we have allowed a tiny few to extract all the wealth to the tippy tippy top. I can't even believe people work for like $50K in most places anymore, they should be taking up arms at this point.

Re: How Craigslist Makes Money

#110

Post by cryptarch »

fivestar wrote: post #102
bubbleRefuge wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overall, most press/journalism sites I use are terrible. Performance stinks, flash everywhere, ads that nobody clicks on. Horrible.

Not to mention all the "adblock detected" crap. I used to disable adblock, but anymore I just give up and go away. They can all FOAD for all I care.

Get an anti-adblock killer list, it's great :)

I basically enable every list in uBlock. Suprisingly it almost never blocks too much, when I get blocked it's consequently for being on a VPN.

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