Making a Living on Craigslist - Part 1

Making a Living on Craigslist - Part 1 - Craigslist.com is an amazing resource. It is a phenomenon that has grown to giant proportions on the Internet and at the same time has done a miraculous job of humanizing and bringing Internet users together in a way that is unparalleled. Craigslist.com has done this in the most simple and unassuming way with a humble, if not elementary looking home page. Even so, it would be a terrible mistake for anyone unacquainted with craigslist.com to underestimate the potential power and effectiveness the site contains.

This is the first in a series of articles about some of the unconventional ways people are using craigslist.com to actually make a living. At first glance, craigslist.com is obviously site devoted in great part to classified want ad style postings for thousands of jobs. These jobs range from highly technical to simple grunt work, and from long term positions, to part time, or even one time "gigs". There are, however, thousands of individuals around the globe who are carving out, developing, and inventing new and, in some cases, extremely unique entrepreneurial endeavors. Some of these enterprises are far from profitable, and are being pursued for entirely idealistic, moralistic, and/or humanistic ends. Some, however, are profit driven in every sense of the word, and are well on the way to establishing heretofore unheard of markets, market niches, market shares and market icons and legends. It is truly an entrepreneurial alchemy lab that is open 24 hours per day to anyone and everyone connected to the Internet.

Let's begin this examination of this laissez-faire incubator with a look at one of the most basic supply and demand equations currently being solved by thousands of craigslist.com aficionados around the world.

Free lunch: Busting the myth that there's no such thing.

Craigslist.com has a section devoted to items people are giving away for free. Updated every 12 minutes, this section contains listings for everything from autos to masks from Zimbabwe. People practice sustainability by offering eco-conscious giveaways that include clean fill dirt, flora and fauna, and all sorts of recyclable materials. Some people offer esoteric concepts like karma, or services like haircuts which are usually put up by students seeking willing participants on whom they can practice their developing skills.

The vast majority of items, however, are tangible things that, for whatever reason, have lost their desirability in the eyes of their current beholders. From the full medical charting system and inventory that was listed earlier today in my area and had an original retail value of over $38,000, to the box that was also listed and contained two can openers and three old kitchen knives, there is no end to the plethora of soon-to-be-homeless / want-to-be-loved possessions that find their way into the postings under the "free" heading.

The next article in this series will showcase several craigslist.com startups that are earning their operators well over $30,000 per year; some on a part time basis.