ccrraaiiggsslliisstt:: aann iinnttrroodduuccttiioonn ... · 4/1/2014 · craigslist: an...

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Submitted by:

George Osuna

Fall 2013

craigslist: An Introduction and Tutorial for the New User

G. Osuna Fall 2013 i

Table of Contents

Craigslist: An Introduction and Tutorial for the New User ................................ 1

1.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 1

2.0 Requirements .................................................................................................. 1

3.0 Recommendation: CL Email Account .......................................................... 2

4.0 Locating Desired Community ....................................................................... 2

5.0 Conducting Searches and Replying to Posters ............................................ 4

5.1 for sale .......................................................................................................................................... 4

5.1.1 cars and trucks ....................................................................................................................... 4

5.1.2 furniture ................................................................................................................................. 6

5.2 jobs ............................................................................................................................................... 7

5.3 housing ......................................................................................................................................... 8

5.4 Contacting Ad Posters ................................................................................................................ 9

6.0 Establishing an Account ...............................................................................10

7.0 Posting Ads ....................................................................................................10

7.1 Ad Design ................................................................................................................................... 10

7.2 Photographs ............................................................................................................................... 12

7.3 Executing the Post ..................................................................................................................... 13

8.0 Managing the Account .................................................................................15

9.0 Summary and Concluding Comments .......................................................16

craigslist: An Introduction and Tutorial for the New User

G. Osuna Fall 2013 ii

List of Figures

Figure 1: Craig's List Home Page ............................................................................................... 2

Figure 2: Orlando Homepage and Standard CL Layout .......................................................... 3 Figure 3: Initial Choices for cars & trucks ................................................................................. 4 Figure 4: Search Options for cars & trucks ............................................................................... 5 Figure 5: Returned Search Results for cars & trucks ............................................................... 5 Figure 6: Search Refined (in highlight) on Results Page........................................................... 6

Figure 7: Alternate Search Results for Administrative Jobs .................................................... 7 Figure 8: Search Results for Admin/Office Jobs ....................................................................... 7 Figure 9: Housing Search Example ............................................................................................. 8 Figure 10: Replying to Ads........................................................................................................... 9 Figure 11: Selecting Email Account for Reply ........................................................................... 9

Figure 12: Create Account ......................................................................................................... 10 Figure 13: Completion of Account Set-up ................................................................................ 10

Figure 14: Effective Ad Formatting .......................................................................................... 11 Figure 15: Ineffective and Poorly Formatted Ad ..................................................................... 11

Figure 16: Ineffective CL Photos ............................................................................................... 12 Figure 17: Well-planned CL Photos .......................................................................................... 12 Figure 18: Initiating the Posting ................................................................................................ 13

Figure 19: Type of Ad Selection ................................................................................................ 13 Figure 20: Location to Paste Ad ................................................................................................ 13

Figure 21: Insert Photos ............................................................................................................. 14 Figure 22: Posting Presentation ................................................................................................. 14 Figure 23: Account Management .............................................................................................. 15

Craigslist: An Introduction and Tutorial for the New User

G. Osuna Fall 2013 1


1.0 Introduction

Craig’s List (CL) is an internet site dedicated to providing a free forum for users to interact for a

wide variety of purposes, including buying and selling merchandise, advertising and responding

to job ads, social networking, and many other purposes. The name is based on the inventor’s

name, as explained on the website wiseGEEK:

CL is the brainchild of Craig Newmark, and has become one of the most popular sites on

the Internet. Started in San Francisco in 1995, it is perhaps the ultimate site for classified

listings. Financial information about the nonprofit company is not disclosed, but business

experts believe the site is worth over $10 million US dollars (USD).

One of the great attractions of CL is that while it is international in overall scope, it is built

around the concept of local communities. Starting from the CL homepage, users can quickly drill

down to their own city or whatever is the nearest major metropolitan area. Likewise, those who

are moving or traveling to a new location can easily search for items they may want to buy or

jobs they may want to apply for ahead of time. The layout and organization of each area’s

listings are the same, so once users are accustomed to the interface, the search process remains

the same from community to community.

The most appealing aspect of all is that CL is free to use, representing significant saving over

newspaper classified advertising rates. Those with items for sale or jobs to advertise have

flocked to CL, and those in the market to make purchases or apply for jobs have quickly learned

that CL may be their one-stop site to search for a wide variety of needs. CL’s enormous

popularity, however, has in some cases resulted in almost overwhelming amounts of information

being posted, as well as some postings that are scams and frauds. Users will, therefore, benefit

from learning techniques to optimize their CL experiences.

Overall, CL is a free, easy-to-use resource for buying and selling items, offering and finding

services and jobs, promoting events, exchanging information, and publicizing a wide variety of

information. Craig’s List has many benefits as well as limitations, but most computer users with

even only very basic skills and equipment will find that it offers a very useful service, if used

correctly and with full awareness of its benefits as well as its risks. This guide will be especially

beneficial for those who are somewhat occasional and novice-level computer users.

2.0 Requirements

Using CL requires minimal computer equipment and user ability. Ads are largely text-based with

photographs, eliminating the need for powerful or sophisticated hardware and software necessary

for complex graphics and videos. Navigating is merely a matter of clicking topics and learning

some helpful techniques for conducting searches. The following comprises the basic

requirements for using CL:

Functioning computer with internet connectivity and web browser

Email account



Digital camera for posting pictures with ads

The following sections will step new CL users through the processes of locating their desired

communities, searching ads, and establishing and managing their accounts.

3.0 Recommendation: CL Email Account

Although a new, CL-dedicated email address is not a requirement and many users choose to use

their standard email for CL activities, having a separate email account for CL is an advantage for

a few reasons. Because CL is free and contains literally millions of postings, it is a hunting

ground for scammers and non-legitimate users, as well as for casual web surfers who may

contact ad posters without serious interest and just for entertainment. Specifically, two scenarios

that make a separate CL email account a good idea are as follows:

When contacting CL ad posters, it is very common that you will be replying to an

“anonymitized” CL email address, meaning you will not see the poster’s true email address,

just a CL address that forwards your message to the poster’s email; but the poster will see

yours and respond to you at your actual email address. You may want to protect your privacy

and keep your CL activity separate from your day-to-day email usage.

When you post an ad, even though your email address can likewise be “anonymitized” to

viewers as a CL address, respondents’ messages to you will be forwarded into your email

inbox. Unfortunately, there are disreputable internet-savvy users who sometimes search for

certain key words and bombard legitimate CL posters with unwanted and, at times, unsavory

spam. You may want to avoid having your usual email account flooded with these

undesirable messages.

There are many options available for creating new, free email addresses, with Yahoo and Google

being two of the most popular and simple to set up. Simply visit www.yahoo.com or

www.google.com and proceed through the steps of setting up a new email account.

4.0 Locating Desired

Community

The CL home page (shown in

Figure 1) provides users with an

overview of the site’s vast

locations. To arrive at the desired

community, users can either click

on the map or scroll down to the

list of countries and cities below

the map and click their way to the

desired location. The latter method

is somewhat quicker and more

accurate. To arrive in Orlando,

which is used as the community for

this tutorial, proceed as follows: Figure 1: Craig's List Home Page

http://www.yahoo.com/

http://www.google.com/



1. Click “US” on the left directly under the title “craigslist”

2. Scroll down to “Florida”

3. Select “Orlando”

You will now be at the initial Orlando page, which illustrates the universal CL interface, shown

in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Orlando Homepage and Standard CL Layout

Note that all clickable selections are in blue. Once you have visited a link during a session, that

text will appear in a purple shade. This helps users keep track of where they have visited.

These standard features are important for users to note:

Far left side is dedicated to account access and interacting with CL.

Center section is dedicated to the categories of information.

Far right is dedicated to community locations, with details selections of other local areas

and links as well to expand to more remote locations.



5.0 Conducting Searches and Replying to Posters

Since a CL account is not required for conducting searches and contacting posters, this section

will be an orientation and getting-acquainted exercise so that users will become comfortable

navigating the site. A few popular topics will serve as examples: for sale, jobs, and housing.

It is important to note that although there is some monitoring of the site by CL by staff and

corresponding corrective actions for posting activity such as incorrectly categorized posts, spam

(over-posting same ad), and blatantly inappropriate content, this monitoring is minimal. It is not

unusual, for example, to search in the “jobs” section and find ads posted by people looking for

jobs, not offering them for which the category is supposed to be used. It is also very common

when searching in “for sale” to select “by owner” but find items posted by dealers as well. Users

can “flag” these ads as miscategorized, but the CL staff, given the enormous scope of activities

they must monitor, isn’t always responsive.

5.1 for sale

The “for sale” categories are among the most popular on CL. Because of this popularity, they can

also be the most populated and, at times, the most frustrating in which to locate precisely desired

items. Utilizing search criteria will facilitate locating items within the users’ desired parameters.

5.1.1 cars and trucks

Used cars+trucks, in the right column of the for sale category, serves as a good example for

learning the benefits of narrowing search criteria.

The first choice users have when researching used vehicles is shown in Figure 3. For purposes of

this exercise, we will search owner-only sales. Upon making this selection, users will initially be

confronted with a large and long list of vehicles; however, this daunting amount of information

can be made more manageable by taking advantage of the search options shown just above the

list, illustrated in Figure 4.

Figure 3: Initial Choices for cars & trucks



Figure 4: Search Options for cars & trucks

Note that “by owner” is now in boldface, indicating your location within the cars & trucks

category. Following is guidance on completing the empty search criteria boxes. It is important to

be realistic in completing these search criteria — for example, you will not get useful results

returned if you enter an unrealistically low max price for an-almost new vehicle year; or the

results will be for damaged or otherwise undesirable vehicles.

1. In the far-left box, type vehicle model desired.

2. For “min” price, enter a reasonable figure for a drivable vehicle; leaving it blank will

cause the search to return vehicles priced so low that they may be only for salvage or

parts.

3. For “max” price, enter a figure somewhat above your actual maximum offer, since most

sellers build in some negotiating room.

4. The two boxes for “year” are intended as a to-from range, so enter two years accordingly.

Figure 5 shows an example of a completed set of search criteria and the first few results returned.

Results are listed in the order of newest-to-oldest posted.

Figure 5: Returned Search Results for cars & trucks



Note that an entry for a Honda appears, even though the search criterion was for a Malibu. This

is because posters can include a wide range of key words that they want associated with their

ads, and in this case, the poster has included Malibu in order to steer prospective Malibu buyers

to his or her Honda ad.

The example just provided included the maximum search criteria, but users can elect to use

fewer criteria for a wider range of results. For example, users without particular affinities for

vehicle brands and model years may consider price the sole determining factor and so only enter

price criteria.

5.1.2 furniture

This section will illustrate another approach to conducting searches, using the furniture category.

Because furniture can be onerous to transport, users may want to focus on a location for their

search and then wade through all the items that appear for the area. Figure 6 shows a furniture

search conducted for Titusville, then refined by a search on the page for the word “chair,” now

appearing in highlighted text.

Figure 6: Search Refined (in highlight) on Results Page



To achieve these results, proceed as follows:

1. Use the city name as the search criteria (in this case, Titusville).

2. Leave other criteria blank.

3. When the results are returned, use the browser’s capability to search on the returned page

(in this case, the word “chair”).

5.2 jobs

Job searches are another of CL’s most popular activities. Employers have quickly found how

broadly and economically they can advertise positions in contrast to using expensive and more

complex tools such as CareerBuilder or local newspaper classifieds.

When searching jobs on CL, a

common problem is ambiguity or

uncertainty about job categories.

Referring back to Figure 2, users

will see a great number of job types

and may want to search specifically

within a category. For example,

Figure 8 depicts the results of a

search on admin/office jobs.

However, there are likely to be

similar jobs within other categories.

Another option for searching, then,

is to start the search from the

overall jobs category, and insert the

position desired in the search box.

Compare the results

in Figure 7, showing

administrative

positions within other

fields of work as

well. Using both of

these approaches

provides potentially

more comprehensive

search results than

using just one or the

other.

Figure 8: Search Results for Admin/Office Jobs

Figure 7: Alternate Search Results for Administrative Jobs



5.3 housing

Referring to Figure 2, you will note that there are several different types of housing to choose

from. In this example (Figure 9), the choice selected is within the “rooms & shares” category.

Like all CL initial search results, there are options for narrowing the number of items returned. In

this example, because Orlando is a potentially huge and sprawling metropolitan area, the search

has been narrowed to ads including “east” as a descriptor and min-max rental figures.

Figure 9: Housing Search Example



NOTE: Always use caution and

discretion when providing information

about yourself and arranging any in-

person meetings. While the majority of

CL users have legitimate motives for

posting ads, there are always some

individuals with ulterior and even

potentially dangerous motives lurking

on the internet.

5.4 Contacting Ad Posters

1. Locate the “Reply” feature in the

top left of the ad (Figure 10) and

click.

2. Drop-down menu selections will

appear (Figure 11).

3. Note the options for email

applications to use.

4. If you did not create a CL-unique

email address, select “Use

Default Email.”

5. If you created a CL-unique email

account, select the appropriate

type.

6. When you have clicked the email

selection, a window on your

computer screen will open with a

new email message begun,

addressed to the poster’s

“anonymatized” CL email

address.

7. Include any questions you have

for the poster and any information you

may want to include (your phone

number and general location, for

example).

If arranging to visit a poster’s home to

view items, do not go alone.

If practical, ask the poster to bring items to a public location to view instead, such as a

shopping center parking lot.

If anything seems suspicious or strange about the correspondence or phone conversations

with the poster, bow out of the meeting.

Figure 10: Replying to Ads

Figure 11: Selecting Email Account for Reply



6.0 Establishing an Account

Now that users have had a chance to get acquainted with CL and conducting searches, this

section provides step-by-step

instructions for creating an

account.

1. Start on to

www.craigslist.com.

2. Click on “My Account”

in upper left corner of the

screen.

3. Click on “Sign up for an

Account” in lower left

corner of the screen

(Figure 12).

4. Fill in email address and

click “Create Account.”

5. Screen will read “Thanks

for signing up for a

craigslist account,”

followed by instructions to

check your email (Figure

13).

6. Choose a password.

7. Screen will read, “You

have successfully set a new

password for this account.”

8. Click “Return to your account.”

9. Read the “Terms of Use” and then click “I Accept” at bottom.

7.0 Posting Ads

This section will cover ad design, style, content, photographs, and how to get your ad onto CL.

Because CL allows only very limited text formatting, users need some guidance on how to make

their ads attractive, yet simple and readable to viewers. Guidance on picture taking is also

important, to achieve the right lighting, setting, size, angles/views, and orientation.

7.1 Ad Design

To make ads as attractive and appealing as possible without making them gaudy and hard to

read, posters should employ basic formatting features such as lists, indenting, underscoring,

white space, and other manual techniques. CL does not provide for boldface, italics, and other

word processing features that most users are accustomed to, so creativity is important.

Figure 12: Create Account

Figure 13: Completion of Account Set-up

http://www.craigslist.com/



Figure 14 shows simple but effective techniques for formatting an ad. Since CL does not provide

for MS Word bullets, this ad uses simple text dashes instead. Also, setting off the heading with

repeated asterisks top-and bottom provides visual emphasis.

Figure 14: Effective Ad Formatting

In contrast, the ad shown in Figure 15 is quite unattractive and worse, difficult to read, especially

with the use of all upper case letters. Readers more easily recognize the pattern of combined

upper and lower case letters, and all caps should be avoided.

Figure 15: Ineffective and Poorly Formatted Ad



Figure 17: Well-planned CL Photos

Figure 16: Ineffective CL Photos

7.2 Photographs

As users will quickly see, when surfing through CL and researching different categories, that

pictures are a must. It is especially important to take well-lit, uncluttered photos that show the

subject matter to best advantage. Following is guidance for taking effective for-sale pictures:

Select an area where the items can be positioned with a clear background and plenty of

light, such as large open floor space, if inside, or a clean, vacant driveway or yard area if

outside.

Ensure the items are clean and display them in a way to show important features.

If items have a flaw or damage, it is best to show that in a picture and state it in the ad so

that prospective buyers are fully informed.

Position yourself to avoid having your shadow in the pictures.

Take photos from several different angles and distances; CL allows up to 24 photos per

ad.

For housing ads, make the rooms you photograph as clutter-free as possible. Items on

counters and dressers may seem natural and unnoticeable, but in photographs they are

distracting and obvious.

Figure 17 shows well-planned, effective photos; Figure 16 shows, in contrast, cluttered

ineffective photos appearing in CL ads.



7.3 Executing the Post

Create the ad in MS Word using guidance and examples for section 7.1, or other word

processing application. Keep in mind that formatting features such as boldface, underlining, and

bullets will not convey when pasting the ad to CL, so be sure to implement the features noted in

section 7.1. You may leave the file open, as this will be a copy-and-paste exercise to get the ad

into the CL posting page.

Take photos using guidance provided in section 7.2 and save them to an easy-to-access space on

your computer. Note: rename the files so that the titles relate to the content and you recognize

what each photo is by its title.

Now that you have the necessary

content, proceed as follows:

1. Log into your CL

account.

2. Select, on the far right

top, “new posting”

(Figure 18).

3. Next, you will see all of

the options for posting

ads. Select the type that

you intend to post (Figure 19).

4. You will then see the screen on which to paste

in your pre-typed ad (Figure 20). You may also

do some further editing at this point, which is

especially helpful when seeing the CL

presentation of the ad for the first time.

Figure 18: Initiating the Posting

Figure 19: Type of Ad Selection

Figure 20: Location to Paste Ad



5. You will now come to the screen to upload photos (Figure 21). When clicking “Choose

Files,” you will be asked to browse through your computer’s hard drive to locate the

pictures. This is why it is important to have named the files with meaningful titles. Select

your best photo first, then others, preferably in a descending order of effectiveness and

quality.

Figure 21: Insert Photos

6. Finally, you can see the ad (Figure 22) and will be allowed to return to editing, as needed.

Figure 22: Posting Presentation



8.0 Managing the Account

After establishing an account and posting ads, users will be able to mange various aspects of

their accounts. This includes deleting ads that are no longer relevant, renewing ads that are

eligible after certain prescribed time periods, and continuing to edit as needed. Figure 23 shows

the user’s account with some examples of ads and account management options.

Figure 23: Account Management

Keep all photos you have taken for ads in an easy-to-find location, as the pictures are not

retained with the ads and must be re-entered when you re-post ads.

CL has restrictions regarding frequency of posting and intervals for renewing ads. Attempting to

post the same ad too frequently or simultaneously in neighboring areas (such as Orlando, the

Space Coast, and Daytona) will trigger rejection of the ads.

For users in need of frequent and more expanded-area posts of the same or similar material,

subtle changes in formatting can often allow the ad to pass through the CL review mechanisms.

For example, referring again to Figure 11 depicting effective formatting techniques, replacing the

dashes with asterisk and slightly re-ordering the items in the list can often evade the rejection

mechanisms.



9.0 Summary and Concluding Comments

This introduction and tutorial has provided an overview of and starting point for CL geared to

those who are novice and occasional computer users. CL can be a very useful and worthwhile

tool for accomplishing many activities, such as selling and buying a wide assortment of items,

advertising or finding housing and jobs, seeking or offering services, social networking, and

many other undertakings.

The most important activity for getting comfortable with CL is frequent use, even on a practice

basis. Surfing the ads for a half an hour or so in the mornings or evenings will give users ideas

for their own ads and help them learn effective search techniques. Once acclimated, many

computer users come to find CL indispensable and extremely user friendly. There are also a wide

variety of options for activities through CL not covered in this tutorial. As shown in Figure 2,

there are personal ads, discussion forums, and community news areas that can be explored.

For inexpert computer users, all internet interactivity can seem a bit daunting, but by employing

preparatory measures, such as establishing a separate CL email account, practicing searches,

carefully formatting ads and pictures, and managing your account, CL can offer many positive

experiences, even for inexperienced computer users.

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