DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, we receive a commission.
Entrepreneurship or digital marketing is a tiresome and hectic profession, with all your focus going toward your product. However, the most confusing part is choosing a suitable advertising platform for hosting your product or service.
With many such platforms and websites in hand, one might wonder whether Craigslist is a solid option. Hostings give you the means to store your data on a server or another computer so that it can be accessed over the internet.
Fortunately, Craigslist is one such platform offering an online hosting marketplace to its users. With that said, what exactly is Craigslist, and what does hosting mean on the website? Read on as we dissect just that!
What Is Craigslist
Craigslist is a global online platform for classified ads, developed in 1995, connecting the “sellers” and the “buyers” of the same offerings. These offerings include products, services, jobs, and even apartments.
With different websites in 70+ countries and 700+ cities, hosting on Craigslist may mean creating an advertisement post or starting a new discussion within that platform. Here, the target audience is the potential seekers of the product/service within the area where the ad is posted.
What Does Hosting Mean on Craigslist
Hosting On Craigslist
Once you’ve understood the fundamental concept of how Craigslist works and what it offers to its user base, it’s time we discuss what hosting on Craigslist means. Starting off as an event notifier, Craigslist has expanded to host ad posts and a discussion forum, which includes a community section. Let’s dive into these in detail:
Advertisement Posts
Creating ads on Craigslist is easier than ever, with or without creating an account. Moreover, due to Craigslist’s classification, it is even easier to post it on a designated page rather than posting on an all-purpose page where it would disappear after a moment due to newer ads.
One advantage of hosting on Craigslist is that creating a new ad post is primarily free and rarely paid. Let’s see this in detail:
- Free Posting
Here, you are able to freely select the category, enter the description, add images, and publish the ad post with zero charges. This is the main feature that distinguishes Craigslist from its competitors. You can create your own ad post using these guidelines.
- Paid Posting
Not all ad postings are free, but they are minimal, even when charges are applied. This is how their entire revenue is generated for their small team to keep the website operational for their customers.
Craigslist’s charges are applied to particular ad postings depending on the area. Again, you can view their detailed list of posting fees over here.
| Product/Service | Area | Fee (US Dollar) |
|---|---|---|
| Job Posting | US/Selected CA Area | $10-75 |
| Apartment Rentals | Boston/Chicago/NYC Area | $5 |
| Commercial Real Estate | US | $5 |
| All for sale by-dealer | US | $3-5 |
| Cars/trucks by-dealer | US/Vancouver BC | $5 |
| Furniture by-dealer | Vancouver BC | $5 |
| Cars/trucks/RVs/motorcycles by-owner | US | $5 |
| Gigs | US/Selected CA Area | $3-10 |
| Services | US/CA | $5 |
Discussion Forum
Craigslist also hosts a large community section with discussion forums with many topics available. After clicking the forum, you can see multiple threads with replies. One thing to note is that you can only reply to a line once you’ve created your account. You can even create your own thread, which also requires a valid account.
Note: You need a valid email address to create a Craigslist account.
Security Awareness
Where Craigslist has its pros, it has its shortcomings as well. This is because the same features which add to its recommendation are the ones that the scammers misuse.
Hence, if you’re planning to host or buy a product or service on Craigslist, it is always better to be knowledgeable about different scams before it’s too late. The least it would do is protect you from undergoing similar scams which previous users had gone through.
Some ways of avoiding Craigslist scams are:
- Deal locally and face-to-face.
- Beware offers involving shipping.
- Transactions should be between users only, with no third party involved.
- Never give out your financial info.
- Never rent or purchase sight unseen.
Conclusion
Hosting on Craigslist is the simplest and takes little to no time. This is also because the founder, Craig, has expressed his motive to give back to the community rather than exploit them by accepting third-party ads on his website. Furthermore, Craigslist even has a help desk where all possible queries are descriptively explained.
