Quote:
Originally Posted by Barefootsies
Whether your site/service if paid or free people want something that provides them a VALUE of some kind. Not everyone is a freeloading fuck, or cheapskate. If you provide a quality service, then people will flock to it, or pay for it. Which is why it's best to have a tiered system, again IMHO.
Craigslist is a great service, but what are it's flaws toots? The Nazi flaggers, the endless spam you get to almost every post because people do not have to sign up or have any accountability, their is not PREMIUM option where people like myself would PAY for a highlighted listing, stickied to the top, etc..
If you look at what their strengths and weaknesses are, build something better on a smaller scale, then over time it will take off just as those sites did.
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Craig is a douche and seems anti capitalist. There is a LOT he could do to make more money from that site, but I guess he just banked on keeping it almost all free so it would grow faster early on and get some one to buy him out. Didn't ebay buy a big % of the company some years back.
That site should have a paid function even if it was just $1 a month for "approved" users to cut back on spam. And like you said, a sticky post for 24 hours in some section in the bigger cities would sell for tons of money. Even google ad words on side of the page would make a lot of money. I never understood why subtle things like that weren't added, what a waste of revenue. Seems so sac-religious.
Although I can't complain about it too much. I've sold a lot of stuff on craigslist, from cars, boats to old refrigerators to sports tickets. I've sold it on craigslist before it would even get listed in a newspaper or an auction on ebay would be finished <- both of which would have cost me a decent amount of money. So you can sell something faster and free. Who can compete with that.