What Craigslist Is Best Used For (And What It Isn’t)

Craigslist has been an extremely popular site for a long time, but, what these days, what is it best used for… and what is it not? Like all other websites which have been around since nearly the dawn of the internet (or close to it), Craigslist has evolved over time (though certainly less than most sites of a similar age). It’s not used in all the same ways it was before, but it certainly has it uses, still, to this day. Regardless of whether you’re a buyer or a seller, you’ll benefit from knowing when to use to use it, and when to use an alternative.

 What To Use Craigslist For

The first thing which Craigslist is excellent for, is definitely job posting. There are very few places where you can post a job for as cheaply as you can do it on Craigslist. Now, granted, this is the one place where Craigslist actually costs money (the other sections are free to post in) BUT, it’s still a great deal. Why? You simply can’t find a cheaper place to post a job than you can on Craiglist. Competitors like Monster.com, Dice.com, HotJobs.com, and all the others, typically cost a FORTUNE. So, Craigslist is a surprisingly great place to post your job. On the same token, for people looking to get a job, it’s a great place to apply, and get yourself out there, in front of prospective employers where you can be seen.

Another great thing you can get off Craigslist is various virtual assistants to do certain tasks for you online. These can typically be found under the “services” area. There are a lot of great virtual assistants who advertise in the U.S and other first world areas who are willing to work for as little as $2 per hour. There’s a whole assortment of things they can do for you, including writing work, graphic design, research, data entry, customer service and more. Granted, there are other websites where you can get this sort of thing done for you, such as Fiverr, Elance, Freelancer, and more, but Craigslist is still a great option for this.

What Not To Use Craigslist For

Now that we’ve covered what you SHOULD use Craigslist for, let’s go into a couple things in which Craigslist ISN’T as good for. While the job section can be pretty decent, to the contrary, the “gigs” section isn’t nearly as good, so it’s not recommended. It’s hard to find decent gigs, and most of it’s people looking for freebies or generally difficult clients who are looking to pay very little. This isn’t how they all are, of course, there are SOME good gigs to be found on there, but for the most part, it’s disappointing.

Aside from that, another area you should stay away from on Craigslist nowadays, is the discussion board area. They aren’t moderated extremely well, and for whatever reason, there are just better discussion boards out there on literally every topic which they present on that forum. It can be good if you need the discussion to be with local people (after all, it’s all about location on Craigslist) but overall, these discussions tend to be of lower quality than most well-moderated discussion boards.

Last but not least the personals sections don’t tend to do nearly as well as dating sites, such as Match.com, eHarmony.com, Plenty of Fish, or even Yahoo Personals, so it’s recommended to give these a try before trying your luck with Craigslist.