Turning junk into cash has always been the basis for side hustling. In fact, you can now do this easily online through Craigslist, a popular public forum found in many cities around the world. But, can you make money selling on Craigslist? In this review, we’ll explore the platform from various angles to help determine if it’s truly worth your time.
What is Craigslist
Craigslist is a website whose main purpose is to feature classified advertisements. The founder’s goal, in the beginning, was to feature local events through an email distribution list. However, with time, people took to the site because posting ads is free and easier than doing it in local newspapers.
Within a year, it expanded beyond its San Francisco origin, featuring more classified categories in other cities worldwide. As a global resource, it’s currently one of the most sought after web services in the U.S., allowing users to post as well as view ads for various trading and business activities.
How to Sell on Craigslist
Selling on Craigslist is fairly easy. It requires nothing much from your side other than a computer, the items you intend to sell, an email address, and a camera. The site provides a simple user interface for listing your first ad.
Since it is created for local transaction purposes, most users usually start with their own cities first which can be found on the right-hand side of the craigslist main webpage. Alternatively, you can use the name of your city in front of the URL i.e. sanfrancisco.craiglist.org to go straight to the page. If such a link isn’t available, just choose the city nearest to your current location.
After successfully setting your location, you can proceed to post your ad. You don’t need an account for this. All you need to do is to click on “create a posting” and it will prompt you on the type of posting you want to make. In this case, you may select either one of the three;
- Sale by owner – if you are an individual spontaneously selling used items.
- Sale by dealer – if you are a professional seller.
- Services offered – if you intend to get paid for a particular service rendered.
Clicking any of these will direct you to another page that categorizes your products into numerous categories. Here, you will choose the category that best fits your selling intention. If you cannot find one, simply choose the “general for sale” category.
Following that, you will insert the product title, description, and price. And then, if you like to make it public, you may include contact information such as your location, email address, and phone number, but keep in mind that this comes with some risks which I’ll discuss later. The next (optional) step is to upload up to 24 images featuring the item you want to sell.
At this point, you may publish your ad if you feel it is good to go. It takes about 15 minutes for the ad to go online if you have an account. If not, you need to first respond to the confirmation message sent to you via email before the 15 minutes begin to elapse.
That’s about it. Now you just need to wait for interested buyers to reach out to you.
How Much Can You Make on Craigslist
Your earning potential very much depends on what you are selling as well as the appeal of your ads. You can basically sell anything; a couch, a car, or even a dog walking service. If there is a huge market for your product or services within that local community, then you’re likely to sell much faster. Nonetheless, your ad still speaks for your item and plays a big role in influencing the buyers’ interest.
For this reason, you need to ensure that you provide catchy titles as well as simple-to-read descriptions. You can couple this with some well-taken professional photos to give buyers a clearer picture of the item. Obviously, the more items posted for sale, the more money you stand to make.
The Advantages of Selling on Craigslist
- It’s free – Unlike other listing platforms, setting up an account as well as an ad will cost you nothing on Craigslist. However, charges do apply for some categories but even then, it will cost less than it would on other platforms like selling on eBay or on the Etsy marketplace.
- Sell locally – If you are looking to tap into your local market, then Craigslist is a good place to start. Craigslist sites are location specific, exposing your ads only to the people in your specific location. This will also make it easy for you to arrange meet-ups or pick-ups with buyers since they are likely to be within your reach.
- Expand your customer reach – As a seller, you want your product to reach as many potential buyers as possible. The site receives millions of visitors daily and thus increases ad views and sales conversion. If you run a local business, the ad can improve exposure to your company’s visibility. Here, you might win yourself some repeat customers.
- Quick and easy transactions – All you need to do is list an ad, accept an offer from a buyer, meet with the buyer and have him/her pay you in cash in exchange for the item. The transaction will be complete within no time. There is usually no bidding, the use of third party payment such as PayPal, or shipping arrangement, making the whole transaction pretty straightforward.
The Disadvantages of Selling on Craigslist
- Re-listing- Due to the high numbers of users, hundreds of ads may be listed daily. Although your ad may remain active for 30 days, you still need to take the time to re-list it. Otherwise, it will get pushed down the list by newer ads, thus reducing its visibility.
- Flagging – Craigslist has a feature that allows users to flag an ad, which then risks removal if they feel it is inappropriate for one reason or another. Some people misuse this privilege by flagging their competitors’ ads. This can be challenging for some sellers who are trying to make some extra cash.
- Scammers – Fraudulent activities and online scams are common in public domains and it’s something you’ll encounter often on sites like Craigslist. Some people will take advantage of your offers so you need to be vigilant during sales transactions, be it processing payment or doing meet-ups. You must always safeguard your money as well as your safety.
- Crime – Even though face to face transactions have their advantages, they can also be risky for users. When meeting a total stranger, you might fall victim to criminal activities such as robbery or violence, especially when dealing with high-value items. Criminals can plan a robbery at your house or shop using the information provided on your ads so, refrain from sharing your personal information whenever you can.
So, Can You Make Money Selling on Craigslist?
Craigslist offers a convenient method for selling second hand or bargained items locally. I wouldn’t really recommend it for businesses because it doesn’t look professional unless you’re doing a clearance sale. But if you’re looking to get rid of your junk, there’s no harm trying out the platform and see where it leads you to.
Unfortunately, for those of you who don’t have anything interesting or profitable to sell, this site has very little to offer. Yet, that doesn’t mean making money online is out of your reach. Ever heard of affiliate marketing? It lets you earn sales commissions by referring customers to products and services that you endorsed.
This is made possible with any businesses or stores that have either an affiliate or referral program. The niche can be related to your hobbies or your job skills and signing up is usually free. Once you’ve obtained the affiliate links, you can then promote through blogging, social media, or even paid advertisement.
Feel free to visit my recommended training platform to find out more about this opportunity and learn how to get started on a shoestring budget. I hope this review has taught you a thing or two about selling on Craigslist. If you’ve anything else to add or ask, please let us know in the comment area below.
I have seen Craigslist on television and heard people talk about it, but never looked into it personally. Other than this review, it seems to be really popular and a money make, but as you said, it will take time and patient to make some money.
I am sure that those who are interested in Craigslist will find the break down of this information helpful.
Hi Cathy, thank you for an interesting review! I never used Craiglist, but I usually sell my used stuff in a very similar Portuguese programe – the OLX. It is free to list an item as well, and I only ship the item after payment.
It works fine but we have to be patient because sometimes second-hands stuff can take several months to sell. I have to agree with you, if I own a website, I think it would be easier to sell my stuff. But if I haven’t so much second-hands things to sell, what should I do with a website?
That’s a great question, Alex.
Posting a couple of second-hand stuff isn’t going to bring you a ton of online traffic. However, if you write product reviews through affiliate programs, then you’ll have more information to beef up your content. With an affiliate website, you don’t have to worry about creating or shipping any products. The merchant will handle that tasks and your job is just to write honest opinions why you would or wouldn’t recommended a certain product to the readers. Your income will come in the form of sales commissions.
If you like to learn more on how to start an affiliate business, Wealthy Affiliate’s training program here.
Hello Cathy! This was a great, well laid out, well formatted and informative article. I’ve found that while Craigslist used to be a great platform to advertise, the good quality content seems to be eclipsed by some of the scams and spam posts. I think you provided some great feedback however, as to how to get the best value from advertising on Craigslists.
Hi Cathy
I was probably living under the rock, as I have on countless occasions heard of Craiglist, but never ever knew what is was all about until I came across your site.
I think this one is not for me.I would rather go the eBay way, if I have to. Personally, I prefer your last option of having my own website. Hands down, it is safer. Yes, it may take longer and you have to work harder, but it is still more sustainable.
Can you suggest some ways one can earn money via their own site?
Sure Roopesh,
Creating your own physical products (T-shirts, soaps, etc.) or digital products (eBooks, podcast, videos, etc.) is a good way to kick-start an online business. However, if you want something less time consuming, starting an affiliate business in a targeted niche has more potential to drive traffic in a shorter period of time.
If you like to know the steps to this, check out my recommended training program here.
Hi Cathy,
I’ve sold on Craigslist before, but only stuff that I’ve had in my house for a long time and was ready to part ways with. I have heard of people who find things on Craigslist (e.g. motorcycles), fix them up, paint them and re-sell them for a nice chunk of change, but that’s beyond my abilities 🙂 And I never meet a buyer unless we agree on a populated public space and my husband always accompanies me. Having said that, there are safer, faster ways to bring in extra money selling things online!
Hey Alyssa,
Creating a website is one way of selling stuff online without having to meet a buyer face-to-face. You can sell recreate/produce your own products OR recommend a good product through affiliate programs. Either way, a website will open doors to a wider audience thus offering more opportunities to make money online.
Great article on Craigslist Cathy!
I like the way you explained the steps involved with setting up an account to sell your stuff. Very clear and informative. I have used Craigslist a few times to sell some items I no longer needed and it worked great. However, I certainly would recommend being very careful about dealing with people like you said.
Using your own website would actually be a good idea as I would think that would eliminate many scammers since they wouldn’t take the time to go deal with another individual site. Definitely worth checking into if you do a lot of selling. Thanks for the info.
Yeah, even setting up a free website to list your stuff isn’t a bad idea. At the very least, there is no competition in the same webpage and you can promote the item in any ways that you like.
It’s been a while since I’ve used Craigslist to list anything, because of the unknown of ‘what if’. Meeting up in a parking lot is kinda scary these days. Definitely makes me very hesitant about even considering selling anything on Craigslist again. I agree with you that creating a website is a safer way to go about selling your used goods or new goods. What a great idea!
Ensuring your safety and giving you more money in your wallet. You have given me some great ideas here. I do have a question for you and I hope you don’t mind me asking. I was wondering, what if you wanted to start up a website, but you only have a couple things to sell. Is it still a good decision to build a website?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for your comment Jenn,
Having a website gives you an added advantage to put your voice on the internet. If you only have a couple of things to sell and would like to keep it that way, I say you could create a personal blog with SiteRubix and share it within your local community via social networks. At least that way, you don’t have to compete for publicity like in Craigslist.
However, as someone who advocates about entrepreneurship, I would encourage more people to start their own online business either by selling their merchandise (not just old stuff) or through affiliate marketing, which is a lot easier to start because you don’t need to stock any products yourself.
For example, when selling old books, you can consider doing book product reviews as well and monetize from that on your blog. Any product that you can think of, there’s an affiliate program for it out there. You just got to learn how to find for it.
If you like to know more, visit Wealthy Affiliate to learn how to get started.
Hello Cathy,
This a great run down of the workings of Craigslist. I remember using it about seven years ago when I was living in Phoenix, AZ and thought it was a bit dated then but after seeing your screen shots, ‘not much’ has changed. But it works! You are right some people do make a good living from Craigslist and they have done for quite some time and they are old hands at it.
It may be not so easy now however I did like your idea about setting up your own website and sell your own things. But many people might think this will be a difficult thing to do building a website and then getting traffic. Can you help people with that ? I would be most interested in the answer.
Welcome to my blog, Peter.
Creating a business website isn’t that difficult these days. You have the choice of going for the simple website builders such as GaDaddy or use a more organized web publisher such as WordPress in SiteRubix. I would recommend the latter if one is planning to start an online business selling stuff online because it has better SEO settings that yields better web ranking.
As far as traffic is concerned, you really want to have a good web foundation by creating good quality content and engaging in comments with your readers first. To learn more about this, one can sign up for a free trial at Wealthy Affiliate which provides a sound training on how this process works.
Hey Cathy, I think there are ways to get your ad back to the top of the list. I believe you can “refresh” it every 48 hours or something like that. At least that’s what it was like when I was working in the leasing office of a big apartment and in charge of their Craigslist advertising.
I’ve had various successes with Craigslist selling stuff. It was an incredibly useful platform when I was moving to South Africa and trying to get rid of nearly all of my possessions. I ended up selling about $500 worth of stuff, most of which I got for free, over a two week period.
The most annoying thing though was that until you have the cash in your hand, the buyers have no sense of commitment. There were multiple times I had set up a meeting with someone to make the deal and they no-showed. That was super annoying. That aspect alone would make me hesitant to build a full business on Craigslist, however, I can see how it might be a nice side-hustle, especially if you have a lot of crap laying around you could get rid of!
Great to hear from you again Dustin.
$500 is a lot to gain from second hand items. Obviously if you go around gathering and polishing them to look presentable, you are likely to get a buyer either from Craigslist or even local ads.
But the thing with second hand buyers is that, they take their time to make a decision and they are more prone to compare prices from various sources – the cheaper the better is the mentality, which isn’t wrong. It just makes selling a bit ‘slow’. I guess that is what makes them appear non-committed.
I didn’t know they have an ad-back feature to the list though. Will have to check that out. Thanks Dustin 🙂
Hi Cathy,
I have used Craigslist a lot in the past to sell furniture. I sold almost a full house of furniture before a big move I made 7 years ago! I had become an expert at writing up ads 🙂 And putting good pictures of the articles. I just do not understand people who sell their items on CL without placing any picture in their ad.
But as you mentioned, selling items on CL has its downfall. Including the spam emails one gets from fraudulent buyers and all the time one needs to spend answering questions in emails and meeting with the buyers. But I would still use it to sell more items.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Emily.
Craigslist is very popular for selling furniture. It’s good to know that it works for you. I am sure it has given you more experience with the selling system and what kind of buyers to avoid from getting into trouble.
I used to sell on eBay, but I’ve never really tried Craigslist. To be honest, I thought it was a lot more difficult than what you’ve posted here! You mentioned frauds earlier on in your article – is there a serious enough problem with this type of thing on Craigslist? What should one look out for ( if they are a seller ) on Craigslist? Thanks for your help.
Thank you for your question Chris.
Craigslist is an open marketplace so there’s really no one to help you monitor for fraud activities. As a buyer or seller, I suppose you have to use some instinct to judge for yourself. If you are really meeting someone who wants to buy your products, you should do it in a public place, preferable on a day time or go with someone so that it’s less risky in case something unfavorable happens.
Hey Cathy,
I stopped using Craigslist for the reasons you mentioned above, and also since I have been away from the States for a while. But I am curious to know; is it still possible to find a good deal through Craigslist or is it just as dangerous to buy as it is to sell?
Hi there Andrew,
I believe there are good deals in Craigslist, but as a buyer, I find it very challenging to search for reliable products on the crowded marketplace. If I spend the entire day researching, who knows, I might find something that I like. As for selling, I think it’s even harder. I tried posting several items before with what I thought was a very good product description, but I have no luck getting good buyers with that either.
Hello Cathy,
This is a very useful information for those who wants to make money selling on Craigslist. The selling system is okay for me, but not that profitable if you want to make a great passive income. I’d prefer to start my own online business. Besides, I heard that Craigslist have some suspicious activities going around there.
Hi Edy,
Craigslist is a place that lets you advertise your stuff so you are basically relying on a passive traffic to make money. Creating a business website, on the other hand, has the advantage of bringing in active traffic so the chances of people buying from you is much higher. Obviously, that’s the better way to earn an online income.
Yes, there are a lot of ‘funny’ things going on in Craigslist because anyone can join for free. As such, you really got to be very careful who you are dealing with.