Craigslist Housing

Craigslist's Web Traffic

Craigslist is booming.

Traffic to the core Craigslist.org domain, which also serves as the local San Francisco site, has spiked dramatically over the past weeks. Hitwise reports the marketshare of total U.S. Internet visits to the craigslist.org domain increased 62 percent for the week ending July 23, 2005 versus the same period one year ago. For the week ending June 25, 2005 versus a year ago (week ending June 26, 2004), Craigslist's market share was up 73 percent.

Craigslist's local sites are also gaining market share. Hitwise reports for the 60 most popular local Craigslist domains, collective marketshare of visits rose 98 percent for the week ending June 25, 2005 versus same period a yearago.

For the week ending July 23, 2005 versus week ending July 24, 2004 the fastest-growing city sites for Craigslist were local sites, Fresno, Calif. (+174 percent), Providence, R.I. (+244 percent), Miami(+141 percent), and Dallas (+318 percent).

Top Craigslist U.S. Local Market Web Domains by U.S. Internet Visit Market Share, June 2005
Rank Domain Market Share, Week Ending June 25, 2005 Year-Over-Year Change (%)
1 www.craigslist.org 0.1160 73
2 newyork.craigslist.org 0.0273 26
3 losangeles.craigslist.org 0.0178 25
4 portland.craigslist.org 0.0144 173
5 boston.craigslist.org 0.0120 82
6 seattle.craigslist.org 0.0107 248
7 sacramento.craigslist.org 0.0070 134
8 washingtondc.craigslist.org 0.0069 148
9 chicago.craigslist.org 0.0064 172
10 sandiego.craigslist.org 0.0060 144
11 philadelphia.craigslist.org 0.0042 121
12 denver.craigslist.org 0.0034 296
13 atlanta.craigslist.org 0.0029 228
14 orangecounty.craigslist.org 0.0029 N/A
15 sanfrancisco.craigslist.org 0.0029 2,345
16 austin.craigslist.org 0.0027 273
17 phoenix.craigslist.org 0.0023 284
18 newjersey.craigslist.org 0.0022 N/A
19 lasvegas.craigslist.org 0.0018 211
20 dallas.craigslist.org 0.0017 322
Source: Hitwise, 2005

Craigslist's success has come at the expense of incumbent local media. According to a December 2004 study authored by Bob Cauthorn, former digital media VP at SFGate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle's site, Craigslist has cost between $50 and $65 million annually in lost revenues from employment ads for San Franciso Bay Area newspapers and their online divisions.

Not only are more users going to Craigslist sites, they search "craigslist" more on the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN Search). According to Hitwise, across the major search engines, "craigslist" is now the 30th most popular search term. For the week ending June 25, 2005, the search query "craigslist" accounted for .025 percent of all searches, up from .011 percent for the week ending July 3, 2004.

In reaction to competition from free Craigslist listings, many newspaper publishers' online editions of such as Tribune and Knight Ridder have begun to offer free classifieds in some or all categories.

"Craigslist may appear barebones, but its utility and ability to tap into local communities and marketplaces is evidenced by rapid audience growth in existing and new local markets," said Bill Tancer, Hitwise vice president of research, , in a statement. "Should Craigslist successfully scale and penetrate new markets like it did San Francisco, one lingering question is sure to manifest: how will established purveyors of classifieds listings, particularly local newspapers, adapt and compete?"

Meeting People on Craigslist

The Internet, and Craigslist in particular, is an excellent way to meet people. Whether the purpose of meeting people is to network, find friends who share a similar interest, find romantic matches or discuss important issues there is a place on Craigslist to help you find the people you are seeking. Although Craigslist can help people to meet others in a number of ways, this article will focus exclusively on networking on Craigslist and using Craigslist to find potential romantic dates. There will also be a brief section specifying a few precautions individuals should take when interacting with others online.

Can Craigslist Improve Your Business?

The answer to this question is yes and no and maybe. It all depends on the way in which the business owners utilize Craigslist. Savvy Internet marketers who are able to identify the target audience and create sales copy which entices the reader may find advertising on Craigslist to be incredibly profitable. Conversely Internet markets that do not do their research and take a spamming approach to advertising on Craigslist are not likely to see significant financial gains.
There is certainly an opportunity to gain financial benefit through advertising on Craigslist. Advertising for all products and services is free on Craigslist making it cost effectively. Additionally, Craigslist already receives extensive traffic with approximately ten million visitors generating four billion page views each month so there is no need to drive traffic to the website. While Craigslist offers so many advertising benefits, these benefits may be wasted if the advertiser does not do his research or evaluate the competition.

Answering Advertisements on Craigslist

Craigslist is an online community which has a great deal to offer to both individuals and business owners. Some of the features on Craigslist include sections for community events, activities and news, personals advertisements, discussion forums, housing opportunities, for sale items, services offered, small business advertisements, jobs and resumes. While some of these sections such as the discussion forum and parts of the community section exist exclusively for the purpose of exchanging information or ideas, other sections such as the personals, housing, sale, services, job and resume sections provide the opportunity for users to respond to advertisements for more information or to make a purchase. In these cases uses should exercise caution. This article will focus on specific precautions which should be taken when answering advertisements in the personals, housing and jobs sections of Craigslist.