When posting in “Services” you now need to sign up for a Craigslist account, but not only do you need an accuont your account needs to be verified via phone.  This extra touch will minimize the amount of SPAM received in the Services category.  This may have become a feature in other categories but Services is all I’ve encountered.  I have been told that this has already existed for the Erotic category for some time now, but since I never post there I had no way of knowing.

So what does all this mean?  It definitely does not mean SPAM on Craigslist is gone forever, it just mean new ways are being developed to defeat the system.  I actually learned about this because my Craigslist auto-posting software crapped out on me and I was like what the f*ck is wrong!  So after several attempts of trying to post with the auto-poster I decided to try to manually post and was greeted with the following:

Thinking I done blew something up and raised a flag which got my IP under investigation for suspicious activity, I simply thought that this was related to my IP — or maybe even cookies, so I first deleted all my cookies and tried again … same message … definitely something wrong with the IP address I was thinking … so I logged in from one of my remote locations which sits on a completely different C class IP address and different subnet — no relationship whatsoever with my home computer.   BAM!  Got the same message again, that’s when I knew it was a Craigslist new feature.

So I went ahead and signed up for an account.  I thought no biggie!  I already have 100 gmail accounts which I use for this sort of stuff.  So I signed up for the account and figured I’ll create about 20 accounts just to do my auto-posting thing, but to my surprise before I could post I had to verfiy my account … not by email but by phone this time!  BUMMER!

This not only discouraged my entire plan to auto-post my classified listing this also meant that I would now need to find a way around this phone verficiation thingy!  Well, not so bad — since this has already been a feature in the Erotic section many have already had a work around for such a thing.  With services such as Google Grand Central or Brring.com it is almost a simple task to get as many phone numbers you need for verification.

I actually like this new move by Craigslist because the fact is it will probably discourage many spammers and many competitors from posting.  Right now, the way it is the winners of the game will be those who are able to continue posting in multiple categories and multiple cities without being affected by the account sign up or phone verification.  This actually leaves the door wide open for the survival of the fittest.  I strongly suggest you jump aboard now and get your postings out there before this system gets exploited and things are back to normal with Craigslist full of SPAM or competition.

Looking at some of the major cities I noticed that the “computer” services section is only displaying about half a page to a page of listings for any given day when normally any given day would show about 2-3 pages of listings which tells me that the SPAM control is working.  I think this SPAM filter took place on May 7th so if you look at the listing prior to May 7th then you will see what I mean.  This is definitely going to be a good thing for those who can get past this SPAM filter early in the game.

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Big brother sues little brother. 

http://news.ebay.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=305980

Ebay a shareholder of Craigslist.org is suing Craigslist.org with claims of having their stake unfairly diluted.  Of course Craigslist has denied these allegations and is attempting to clear its name.

Craigslist is thinking that Ebay is planning a hostile takeover of Craigslist.org or a sale of their stock to an unfriendly party.  Craigslist is dismissing all negative comments by eBay.  If what Craigslist says is true then it’s a real shame eBay chose to do business this way. 

Is eBay being a bully?  Will we soon see Craigslist fully owned by eBay … ending their partnership??? 

I know Craigslist have attorneys but they are going up against eBay (who did $7.7 billion last year).  Hey, Craig it might be time to put ads on Craigslist.org — it’s time to get your money up so you can fight back the right way!  My grandpa always said “If you not saved by God then hire a team of lawyers!”

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Skybus was short lived (first launched 5/2007), they went out of business today!  Bankrupt!  For those that don’t know, Skybus was a new airline that had competitive rates.  They had flights for as little as $50 one way.  Skybus was able to deliver the most competitive rates by sacrificing other luxuries of airline travel such as no serving or stocking of food or snacks.  They also had select airports which they flew out of, these airoports were mostly minor airports on the outskirts of the major cities - the smaller airports are cheaper to fly from for airlines.  To ensure the lowest rates you were subject to Skybus flight schedule, available flight dates, available flight times, and airport locations. 

I never flew, but I always kept their airline in the back of my mind in case I need it.  It’s not the best flight for business travel, but for leisure travel it seemed to be a okay deal, the cheap seats feel didn’t ever go over well with me, because I felt if they were penny pinching on all luxuries, then are they penny pinching on maintenance and flight staff as well.  Like, did they only adhere to the law when it came to maintenance, but never went above and beyond with A+ inspection?  Did they mostly employ pilots who were fresh out of school and completed their training, just to save money.  The other reason I never flew is because the available airport was an hour away.  I stay 10 minutes from a Airport, but Skybus didn’t have any airlines there.  Regardless my quirks, I know longer have to contemplate – now the airline is out of business!

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Rooket Media is one of mine — self promotion

SEE THE PRESS RELEASE HERE

 RemoteGurus.com is a website similar to GetAFreelancer or ScriptLance.  It is where you will come to either find jobs or find outsourced talent.  The goal of course is to build traffic and loyalty.  It’s a very basic design, because I am no web designer, but I think the current look can still take me to the next level.  In time I hope to get a custom professional design.   The site actually been around for a little while, but I never took it serious until now — I just didn’t have the time.  

RemoteGurus.com makes it easy to find SEO jobs and projects or to find SEO talent as well as all types of freelance or outsourced opportunities.  Freelancing is the act of selling your skills and experience in an open market.  Buyers who are seeking skilled outsourced talent will post their job/project on RemoteGurus then providers will receive an email about the newly created job/project if it relates to their provided services.  The provider will have the opportunity to place a bid for the job/project and the buyer will select a winning bidder.  It is a pretty slick way of doing business and finding new business.

Currently, RemoteGurus.com is 100% free to post & bid on jobs, this is only for a limited time.  In the future the site will charge a posting fee and bidding fee, just not sure when yet!  But I’d suggest joining now, because early birds will always have more perks, even when paid options are in place.

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