 great how to
I greatly enjoyed this book. As someone who is a little "challenged" by electronics and the internet age this gave me the specific tools to get in and try my hand. The book was very good at explaining Craigs List and how it operated. The language was clear and the steps specific. I still go back to it for reference. A good, helpful, book
Calling All Entrepreneurs!
Craigslist is ubiquitous--from Amsterdam to Zurich, from Utah to Kenya, from Shanghai to Venezuela, it's there. And it's free. According to author Skip Press, and his book //The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Money With Craigslist//, craigslist is a goldmine, with rich veins awaiting the miner with the right tools and a good work ethic.
Press endeavors to show the reader how best to utilize craigslist to earn extra cash, get a job or a "gig", or even find bargains, entertainment, or a spouse! And there's a lot of good information in here for the mining. I've used craigslist for the past ten years but shortly after reading Press' text I listed a set of books for what I thought was quite a bit of money and they sold in five hours. Although I consider myself very familiar with craigslist, I had never been successful at selling anything on it before; so I can verify that the advice he gives is absolutely, totally spot-on.
This book is dense with fact, and assumes some basic pre-knowledge of business and the internet. However, if you're thinking about expanding your business to include an on-line presence, you absolutely will not go wrong starting out right here.
Reviewed by Claudette Smith
Way more than I expected
This book is great. I had used craigslist once to buy an ATV, but never sold anything. My son went back to school, with classes from mid afternoon to late, and has had a hard time finding a job outside of normal working hours. I thought this book may help turn a lot of stuff into a little extra money. It will, but I haven't even gotten to that part yet because there was so much other good information.
This book gives a lot of different ways of making money besides just an online garage sale. We are starting to use the jobs and gigs (which I didn't know existed) information now, and with a little imagination there are several other ways making money.
If you want a get rich quick deal, this isn't it. If you want some great ideas, or just want to understand craigslist a lot better, this book will definitely help.
 Not really about making money with craigslist
Skip Press seems to be a nice guy who is 1) genuinely trying to help people, and 2) make a buck doing it. Obviously there is nothing wrong with either activity.
But this book strikes me as being something that was simply cobbled together.
The definition of "making money" is stretched to the breaking point and possibly beyond. The definition here includes getting a job, bartering, buying and selling cars and houses and establishing connections with foreign companies to get goods among other topics. There is a huge amount of filler material on subjects like optimizing your resume, staffing your company from craigslist, craigslist vs. eBsy, how to choose a business form and so on. (craigslist, by the way, is all lower-case as the author correctly states.)
There is a lack of organization, too many attempts at humor that (in my opinion) don't work, filler material on things like web safety and net neutrality that really don't fit with the subject, but add to the page count.
In short, the book is a hodgepodge, a well intentioned hodgepodge, but a hodgepodge all the same.
The only thing that keeps me from rating this with 2 stars is the tone of the book and the author's website which left me with the feeling that Skip Press is a nice guy who had an idea that he couldn't fulfill for a simple reason: craigslist simply isn't that difficult to figure out and learn to use. The nature of craigslist as a community oriented operation keeps you from posting in all the markets craigslist serves, so you can't mass market with it. In fact, Press comes close, but doesn't really say, that a there is a sizable contingent of really nasty people on craigslist. Postings are often flagged for removal when they violate no rules - there are gangs of people who roam craigslist deciding what is permitted and what is not. It varies from category to category, but it is a problem.
In sum, this is neither a very good book, nor one you need. If you want to learn how to use craigslist, just hop in and do it.
Jerry
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PersonalDollar.com
