Guest Blogger

Today I have a guest blogger - my friend JN. Below is his post. Feel free to post any comments on his post on the comment page!

"Thanks to TPF for hosting me as its inaugural guest blogger. It is an honor to contribute and I hope you find this interesting.

I have been amazed by the limitless boundaries of Craigslist as a social tool and business opportunity. Craigslist has effectively dug the grave for newspaper classifieds and revolutionized the way we view classifieds. More people have access to Craigslist than print newspapers and because most categories are free, it is an effective tool for people that would not ordinarily post an ad in the newspaper.

I would like to share a few personal stories about Craigslist. Thanks to Craigslist, I found a great job. I was surprised that my employer found itself on Craigslist. Perhaps they were targeting a certain demographic.

A friend of mine found herself to be the target of a news journalist writing a story about business school students moving back in with their parents after graduation due to the state of the economy. She listed her apartment on Craiglist to rent for the summer. It turns out that she is not moving back in with her parents, but the journalist was still able to obtain an opinion for the article.

A few weeks ago, I came across a purse in the middle of a street. There was a substantial amount of money in the purse with no identification or cell phone. I decided to post my finding on Craigslist to see if I could find the owner. Still no claimant. I was not sure how else to find the owner and was disheartened when the people I told the story to said they would never have thought to check on Craigslist if they lost their purse. I was quite surprised by the Google generation.

Please post any Craigslist successes or failures that you have experienced. There are some interesting ones on the internet like the guy who offered the contents of his neighbor's house for free. Needless to say, the owner of the house was not pleased when he found people rummaging through his house taking his belongings."