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Customer control of craigslist website - Q & A

Jordan calls in from NY City to comment on the unique element that Craig Newmark has added to his business in allowing customers to have much control over his site.

Rich Sloan: Jordan, welcome to StartupNation Radio.  You have a comment or a question?

Jordan:  I do.  I have a question for Craig.

Jeff Sloan:  Go ahead.

Jordan:  First, hi, Jeff and Rich.

Jeff Sloan:  Hello.

Jordan:  Good to talk to you guys.  We actually met a few months ago at the book signing in New York.

Rich Sloan:  Oh, great.

Jeff Sloan:  Oh, you are one of those smart people who's read StartupNation.

Jordan:  I got the book, and a signed copy, actually.

Rich Sloan:  Okay, good.

Jordan:  And hi to you, Craig, as well.

Craig Newmark:  Hey.

Jordan :  So I'm a fan of StartupNation.  First, I think you guys are doing a good thing, in general.  And I listen to the Podcast, usually.  Should be interesting to hear myself speak.  And I read the website.  I read Joel Welsh's blog post that you're talking about.

Rich Sloan:  Yeah.

Jordan:  So right after Craig responded, saying he believed it was a culture of trust and genuine emphasis on community that makes Craig's List unique, I wrote back saying that I think it had a lot to do with customer empowerment, the fact that Craig's List hands over all the power to someone who visits the westbound site.  There's no one at the Craig's List organization that stands in the way of them doing business with other customers.

Rich Sloan:  Jordan, let me stop you there.  You know, Craig, this is a hallmark of what you've done with Craig's List.  You have essentially given ownership of this resource to the people who use it.

Craig Newmark:  Yeah.  The deal is, our site is not run by us.  It's run by the people who use it.  They've told us what should be on the site, people provide their own ads, and when there's a problem, people flag problematic ads and when other people agree with them, they flag them, too, and that gets rid of them.

Rich Sloan:  And so, Craig, is this one of the things that you think people should consider as a strategy to make a website more trafficked, and that is to let the visitors, to some degree, control what the website provides?

Craig Newmark:  I'd say so.  In pretty much any area, let the people who use the site have as much power as you can give away, because you're dealing with a product, either offline or online.  If the product is any good, you're gonna get fans.

Rich Sloan:  All right.

Craig Newmark:  And the fans will do a good job for you.