Why Does a Person Need a Craigslist Account?
Craigslist’s classified ads service is open to registered and unregistered users alike. Such accessibility may well be part of the reason it sees millions of visitors every month. According to, Craigslist had over 62 million unique visitors in June 2011. If you regularly post ads to the site, you may find it more convenient to open an account and gain access to its members-only tools. Overview Unlike popular online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist does not require posters to register for an account before they can post or reply to an ad. Such anonymous posting is convenient for people who do not use Craigslist often. However, owning a registered account has a number of privileges and posting ads is easier, including the ability to prepay ads and re-post expired listings. If you frequently advertise on the site, register for a free account. Account Privileges Managing your Craigslist ads is easier when you use a registered account to post them. As a registered user, you have access to a control panel where you can publish new ads, edit current listings or re-post expired ones. Craigslist also saves basic user information such as email address and default geographic location. Without a Craigslist account, there is no way to manage a post except through a link in an email that you receive whenever you post as an unregistered user. If that email gets lost or if you lose access to that email address, you will not be able to modify your post. Paid Posting Special features are available when you make a paid posting account. Craigslist charges fees for job postings in some major U. S. cities, brokered apartment rentals in New York and therapeutic services ads posted to U. Craigslist sites. With a paid posting account, you can post such listings with special tools, discounted rates for bulk ads, and the ability to purchase blocks of ads in advance so you won’t have to enter your credit card information with each post. You can also authorize multiple users to manage the same postings. Note that a paid posting account is not required to make a paid post. Security and Verification All Craigslist postings must undergo verification regardless of whether you use a registered account or not. Whenever you create a post on Craigslist, you will be asked to submit a verification code before the post is approved. If you post an ad without using an account, Craigslist will send your verification code to your email address. If you post via a user account, you must enter a verification code that appears on the screen. Sometimes Craigslist requires verification by phone, which makes it harder for spammers to flood the site with their junk ads. References Resources Writer Bio Jay Leon began work as a writer and blogger in 2007. Her clients have included content provider Averheld and Loudoun Rewards Club. She writes about computing, web design, the Internet and travel.
Why Does a Person Need a Craigslist Account? – ItStillWorks
i Images While you don’t need an account to access Craigslist, it’s a good idea to make one before you create a posting. In some areas of the country, you’re required to post from an account. In others, you can make a post with just your email address — but having an account still offers benefits. Craigslist accounts are free. Creating an AccountYou can sign up for a Craigslist account from the account sign-in page (see Resources). To create your account, you must provide a working email address and complete the Captcha to prove you’re human. Before you can finish creating your account, you have to verify your email address by clicking a link sent from Craigslist. After you click, you create a password at the destination Web page. You now have a Craigslist account. VerificationYou verify your account once with an email link check; you use that email to log into your account. Craigslist also requires a second kind of verification to make posts in some areas: a phone verification. You can choose to receive a call or text and then enter a number in the verification box provided to prove your identity. BenefitsThe major benefit to having a Craigslist account is that you can access and edit past posts from it. Some posts are saved for years. You can read the text of past posts, edit them and resubmit them if you want to make the same post again. If a post is removed because it’s been flagged, you can still access it from your account. You can also start a new post and manage drafts of posts you’ve written, but not completed, from your account. Paid AccountsSome posts can’t be made for free. Job postings in some cities, including New York, San Francisco and Chicago cost between $25 and $75 per post. Listings for brokered apartments in New York City cost $10 each, while listings for therapeutic services cost $10 for the first post and $5 per repost. You pay for ads individually when you make a post. If you’ve purchased $2000 worth of paid ads — or want to pay for $2000 worth of ads up front — you can apply for a paid posting account. These accounts have additional features, like multiple authorized users, the ability to pay for ads up front so you don’t have to enter credit card information every time and discounts for large purchases. References Writer Bio Melly Parker has been writing since 2007, focusing on health, business, technology and home improvement. She has also worked as a teacher and a bioassay laboratory technician. Parker now serves as a marketing specialist at one of the largest mobile app developers in the world. She holds a Master of Science in English.
Can You Make Numerous Craigslist Accounts? – ItStillWorks
i Jupiterimages/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images If you’re drowning in usernames and passwords for website accounts, you’ll find a change of pace on Craigslist. You can post in its forums and advertise on your localized version of the Craigslist website with nothing more than an email address through which to finalize your ads. Accounts make it easier to pay fees for ads that require them and to manage listings on a unified activity page. You can use Craiglist without an account, but you’re limited to one per person. Community MonitoringCraigslist considers itself a community resource and structures many of its policies and practices accordingly. Although listings for therapeutic services undergo manual ad-by-ad pre-posting approval by Craigslist staff, most of the ads you read on the site go through volunteer monitoring by site visitors. If an ad or advertiser breaks the Craigslist rules, any visitor can click on an ad page link to report the infraction through a practice that Craigslist calls flagging. An ad that accrues too many flags faces automatic deletion. The flagging standards constitute proprietary information, so you won’t find posted statistics about how many flags add up to too many. The totals vary depending on factors that include the community site on which the ad appears and the ad category in question. Along with fraud, miscategorization and other infractions, flaggers look for any other signs of rules violation. If you post in the Craigslist help forums, mentioning the use of multiple posting accounts will draw a swift citation of the terms of use. Terms of UseThe Craigslist Terms of Use govern your conduct on the site and in the ads you post. They explicitly forbid any subscriber from opening more than one account and from listing ads on anyone else’s behalf. Just because you know someone who claims to have two separate Craigslist accounts or find a blog post that discusses how to sign up multiple times doesn’t make the practice viable or acceptable under the Craigslist rules and regulations. If the content of your ads somehow betrays a shared source between listings associated with different accounts, you face flagging or worse. Liquidated DamagesAlong with the potential loss of posting privileges and involuntary closure of Craigslist accounts, people who violate the terms of use also face the prospect of liquidated damages. The rules that spell out these monetary penalties enable Craigslist to impose fines that range from $25 up to $25, 000 for a wide variety of infringements. Maintaining more than one account can carry a $100 penalty for each account and each instance in which you use it to post. Other ConsiderationsIf you’re considering opening more than one account to separate your personal from your business activity on Craigslist, don’t risk losing your posting privileges. You can accomplish your objectives and still follow the rules. To keep your identity confidential, take advantage of Craigslist’s anonymization feature. When you use it, Craigslist generates a randomized email address to which prospective buyers reply and forward messages to you, keeping your real email address private until you reply. To minimize or even eliminate the consequences of that disclosure, open a throwaway address through a free email provider. References Writer Bio Elizabeth Mott has been a writer since 1983. Mott has extensive experience writing advertising copy for everything from kitchen appliances and financial services to education and tourism. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English from Indiana State University.
Frequently Asked Questions about craigslist account sign up
How do you set up a Craigslist account?
How to sign up for a Craigslist ProfileFrom a web browser, go to Craigslist.Select the My Account link in the upper left of the screen.A login screen will appear.From the screen, choose the Create an account option.More items…
Do I need to create an account to post on Craigslist?
Unlike popular online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist does not require posters to register for an account before they can post or reply to an ad. … However, owning a registered account has a number of privileges and posting ads is easier, including the ability to prepay ads and re-post expired listings.
Are Craigslist accounts free?
While you don’t need an account to access Craigslist, it’s a good idea to make one before you create a posting. In some areas of the country, you’re required to post from an account. In others, you can make a post with just your email address — but having an account still offers benefits. Craigslist accounts are free.