4 takeaways from Craigslist’s insane profit margins💰

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Wednesday is not exactly the most glamorous day of the week, so it’s a good excuse to highlight the success of the most boring digital product in history. Craigslist. This website has never had bells or whistles. 

Simplicity is its best feature and responsible for ridiculous profit margins. 

We’ll look at insights from the OG Craigslist founder and his CEO so you can simplify your products and services or at least the messaging for your offers. 

After that Feature Story, you can sift through the following sections: 

• The Knowledge Base  

• Self Help (job opps) 

• Facts & Stats (4%-ers)  

• Get Hacking (raise the bar) 

Appetizer: What is branding? 3-minute video crash course. 

Ok, let’s peel open today’s Feature Story…

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Feature Story

4 Takeaways from the Success of Craigslist

I spend a good amount of time hating on Big Tech. I should spend more time showing love to people like Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist. Why?

Because this company has never tried to wring every drop of money or data out of its users. More on that refusal to ensh*tify their digital product coming up. First, use the 4 takeaways below to make your life simpler and your business more appealing to customers. 

#1 Question whether enhancements you’re planning are really enhancements for the customers.

#2 Remember, "good enough" often beats "perfect."

#3 Resist pressure to “modernize” your website, email campaigns, or social media posts due to some guru saying the old won’t work anymore.

#4 Listen to what customers ask for, not fancy upgrades you’re copying from competitors.

Some folks reading this will dismiss Craigslist because it gets little press coverage and isn’t full of glitter-n-rainbows. But…

Craigslist Makes More Profit Per Employee than Google or Microsoft

Craigslist’s text-based website looks outdated and kind of abandoned but earns $6 million per employee versus Google's $1.67 million per employee!

There are only about 50 people on payroll at Craigslist. They do more with less.

Just as crucial? Leaders of the company know when enough is enough.

They don’t aim to be the wealthiest folks on Earth. Don’t need to find idiotic ways to extract the final penny from customers or turn their “valued customers” into digital junkies. 

In my eyes, that also sets Craigslist above non-tech corporations — like the NFL. NFL leadership covered up the devastating effects of concussions for years (allegedly). All to make just a few more billion.

I love capitalism. Love seeing folks get rich. Just never understood why companies lose their soul once they get to a certain size. 

Anyway, Craigslist is better than that. So, I guess I coulda added a #5 takeaway above→ Earn big money without letting greed erase your humanity. 

One more thing from the OG founder of Craigslist that can help you in your business. 

Know Your Role

Highly recommend watching Craig Newmark’s interview on Theo Von’s show. 

Dude seems to be an open book (and pretty funny). Must be brilliant and ego-less because few people would give away the CEO role of a booming company like Craigslist back in the day.

But Newmark knew his strength. And it wasn’t managing people. He was a coding nerd (compliment) who built a successful product and then got the heck out of the way!

Jim Buckmaster was chosen as the CEO. This guy’s management principles were almost anti-corporate. 

Some of his quotes are below.

• “No meetings, ever. I find them stupefying and useless."

• "We are consistently in the black, so if we do better or worse in any given quarter, it is absolutely irrelevant."

• "Put speed over perfection: Get something out there. Do it, even if it isn't perfect."

What’s the ultimate success story with Craigslist, though?

Leaving Money on the Table

Yeah, Zuckerberg, Musk, and Bezos are impressive. Still, I say it takes something special to willingly leave money on the table. 

And that’s what leadership at Craigslist has done. On purpose. They could’ve generated a ton more money with stuff like:

• Banner advertising (could add at least $100M annually, according to analysts)

• Subscription tiers

• Premium features

• Mobile apps with push notifications

For who? For what? It’s almost like Craigslist is taunting other Big Tech companies - “See, we could earn more. We’re just not that into it.”

The Bottom Line on Craigslist

Has revenue fallen for “the ugly little website that could?” Yep, competitors snatched away some of their users. Doesn’t matter. Craigslist is still massively profitable.

So, if you take nothing else away from this post — aim to keep your business and marketing simple.

If something’s working, be careful not to update it into something prettier but less useful to customers.

The Knowledge Base is coming at ya now…

Self-Help

Today, 11,000 people will turn 65 in America. Tomorrow and the next day too. 

The market for senior services is exploding.

Not a moment too soon for workers unable to get a white-collar job currently. 

Many of these services don’t involve medical care. They involve technology tutorials or home-repair. Stuff like that. Which pays well and might be way more rewarding than slouching in a cubicle eight hours a day.

Facts & Stats

Bonus: Craigslist’s estimated profits in 2018 were $1 billion, with an insane ____% profit margin. Answer at end of email.

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Get Hacking

A specific strategy to implement today

If it’s worth a shot for the popular 1440 newsletter, it might also be for your content marketing. 

Earlier this year, I noticed 1440 creating “Topics” - deep dives on subjects beyond its newsletter editions. 

Last week, 1440 published 193 “Topics.” 193! Many were tiny summaries of other outlets’ stories instead of deep dives. Likely AI-written since so many were churned out. 

Now, you could do exactly what 1440 is doing with summaries to add evergreen content to your website. Or go the extra mile and create short video summaries instead. 

After all, anyone can create exactly the same text output as 1440 is doing using AI tools. 

Video snippets would be unique to your brand and more appealing to short-form video-loving audiences.

Thanks for reading Inbox Hacking. Please share it with your peeps - it’s sugar-free but stings a bit.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

Bonus answer from Facts & Stats section: Craigslist had an estimated 80% profit margin in 2018 (Poynter).

“Different is better than better.” ~Sara Blakely