Making money is something that we all want to do, but don’t always have the know how of how to do this. Craigslist is a great way to do this. You can be very successful at doing this, but please be careful.
If you are going to have someone over to your house to buy something off of Craigslist, first, always screen this person, make sure you have communicated with them several times. When they do come to your house, try to conduct the business in the garage, if possible, and make sure there is somebody else home, or if this is not possible, a neighbor knows this is happening, and make sure someone else knows this is happening, at what time, and be sure to contact this person after your transaction is done. Try to do it during daylight hours.
Try to meet the person in a public place, a well light parking lot, a storage unit or some other well lit, busy place. Always use caution when dealing with people you don’t know, and when money is involved. Safety first!
That being said, a lot of money can be made on Craigslist.
The easiest way to sell an item is to start with something you have around your house. For example, you want to sell your dining room table and chairs in order to get a different one for your home. Follow these easy steps to sell your table and chairs.
Step 1: Set up your table and chairs so that they look nice. Make sure they are clean and well light. Take about 5 or 6 good pictures of your table and chairs. Good pictures are very important in selling stuff on Craigslist If you just take pictures and post them, you probably won’t get as many people interested in them. Think about how you feel when you see a picture of something. If it is shiny and pretty, you will probably take the time to read about it.
Step 2: Research the product you are going to sell, this is important to know how much you will ask for the item, and how much you really want to get out of the item. It will also help in your description of the item, and cut down on questions that people will ask. Search on Craigslist for similar items to see how much other people are selling them for, and how they describe the item, as well as do a Google search to see what similar items are selling new and on Ebay.
Step 3: Decide how much you want for your item, if you are willing to trade, or partially trade, how much you are going to list it for, and how much your are willing to take for it. For example, let’s say you want $300.00 for an item, you would not list your item for $300.00, you would want to list it for $325 or $350 since everyone will offer you less than what you are asking for it. Craigslist is a bit of a barter system, and people do like to barter.
Step 4: Go to Craisglist.org and set up an account, this is easy and should only take you a few minutes to do.
Step 5: List your item on Craigslist. The fun part. Craigslist will walk you how to do this. The few things to think about is do you want to list it for, do you want to offer a best offer option, or are you firm on your price, do you want to list your phone number or just have people email you, if you are just doing email, make sure you check your email often and respond as quickly as possible. Also how much description to put in your listing. The more the better, make sure your potential customers have most of their questions answered before they contact you.
Step 6: Wait for your customers to contact you. Stuff can sell in a couple of hours or it can take weeks, if it is something you need to sell quickly, price it accordingly, if it is something you want to sell to make money, list it that way, but know it can take a couple of weeks up to a couple of months. Also remember to list things seasonally, if you are going to sell a motorcycle you should wait until it is sunny out to get the most money out of it.
Now the best way to make money on Craigslist, well sell anything and everything you have around your house that you don’t want or need, children’s clothes, your clothes, knick knacks, and what not. Then go to your local thrift store. Thrift stores are great, they sell stuff for under value, so go, look around and find something you like, if it needs to be fixed up a bit, fix it, and list it, and you can make money. Take an internet ready device when you go and look at the items, and look them up, and if you find that they are worth something, buy them and list them, and sell them. This can be a very successful way to make money.
Yard sales are another great way to do this. Go to local yard sales and find stuff that people are selling and re-sell them on Craigslist.
If you treat Craigslist like a business you will make money on it. Treat people professionally, make your listing look as good as possible and be available to meet people fairly quickly. Also, be prepared to spend some time working on your Craigslist business, spend four to five hours a day working on it. The more you put into it, the more you will get out of it!
When you are ready to move up to the big leagues and really want to make money, consider buying storage lockers. There are endless opportunities to making money on Craigslist! So good luck, get out there and happy selling!