CraigsList Founder - Craig Newmark Craig newmark, founder and owner of Craigslist, is one of the most respected online developers today. Craig Newmark runs his business out of a house in San Francisco and has grown his business to one of the most visited sites in the world today.

First off, thank you so much Mr. Newmark for taking time out of your day to help us understand how we can become successful in the online industry like yourself.

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Your name, location, hobbies, etc.
Craig Newmark.
Cole Valley Heights neighborhood of San Francisco
No real hobbies, read a lot, fair amount of TV, hang around cafe with friends
Focusing on effective groups helping others.

2. What does a typical day look like for you?
wake up, around eight am
customer service
coffee and paper at cafe
goto office
customer service
lunch
customer service
home
customer service
dinner, might go out
customer service, around ten or eleven
and so to bed

3. You started Craigslist in 1995 and it has grown to be one of the
most visited sites in the world today. What gave you the inspiration to start Craigslist?
I had seen a lot of people helping each other out, on the WELL, and use net newsgroups. Early ‘95, I decided to give a little back, and started a simple mailing list to tell friends about arts and technologies events in San Francisco

4. What initial marketing and advertising strategies did you use to
start Craigslist?
None; all word of mouth.

5. I really find that Craigslist shows how powerful viral marketing is. Do you think that word-of-mouth advertising really pushed your site?
That’s it.

6. Now for the question that millions have asked themselves. Other
than the 11 cities you charge for job and real estate listings, how does Craigslist make money?
We charge for job postings in (soon) 18 cities and for apartment listings in new York. In ‘99, I asked people how we should handle all this, they said we should charge people who pay too much for less effective ads.

7. From what I have heard, Craigslist actually operates out of a house
in San Francisco. What gave you the motivation to do this rather than have a headquarters in a normal commercial building?
We wanted to stay in the neighborhoods, that felt right. We do need more space, have searched without success for some years.

8. One of the great features of Craigslist is how simple it is. Personally, I find this to be an inspiration to young webmasters who don’t have tons of capital for a design. After Craigslist started to boom, what made you decide to keep the simple design?

I have no design skills, and only know simplicity. Jim Buckmaster has done a great job of preserving that approach.

9. With the amount of traffic you get, you could really earn some serious cash off of advertising and other sources of income. What makes you keep it so simple?
The community doesn’t need us to do that, and we don’t feel the need.

10. What is the best tip you ever received?
“Brevity is the soul of wit.”

11. If you could give one tip to our readers here today, what would it be?
“Treat people like you want to be treated, which implies good customer
service.

Thank you so much Mr. Newmark for teaching us about yourself, Craigslist, and how we can become more successful. Thanks again for your time.