The Key to Making Money on Craigslist

Until now, I have never read, or even heard of a book that specifically was written for making money on Craiglist. But why not, which is exactly why I jumped at the opportunity to receive a free copy of this book.

Craigslist is not a business model I have ever considered, but at closer examination (with the help of this book), I realized how similar it is to selling on Ebay. Which is one of the points I liked about the book – you can translate most of what you learn (and that is a lot), into your Ebay business.
The Key To Making Money On Craigslist is about paying attention to detail, from taking pictures (a chapter is dedicated to that), to pricing, to funding (another chapter) your inventory. I am also very happy about the fact that the Author talked about safety. Let’s face it, I have never considered this business model, for even a second, due to the potential safety concerns. Steven Fies has tips on how to stay safe during transactions.

I love the fact that he showcased real-life examples throughout the book, very detailed and open about every step of the transaction, and how he emphasizes on working within a niche (which is essential for any online business venture)
The one thing I did not like is, that his data is rather outdated. He emphasizes on his statistics at the end of the book but mentions that they are from 2013. With a quickly changing market and advances in just about everything, such outdated data brings no more value. Anything before 2015 – heck actually anything before last year – does not give me any true insight on a potential money making opportunity. So an updated version of the book would be very useful.

That said, this book is still useful, as it contains evergreen points, that can be easily translated into an online business, or adapted to anything you want to try offline.

This book review is scheduled to be posted on 4/25/17 on my book blog http://withinthepagesofabook.com

This is an extremely well written book on buying and selling on Craigslist to make extra money. I have read a couple of such books and this one leaves them all for dead. The author uses his own experience to explain how to get started, bartering, decision making, keeping records, haggling and working within an area that you know (for him it was musical instruments). I highly recommend this book to anybody looking to make some extra money selling (or buying and selling) on craigslist.

Whenever I’ve looked at Craigslist in the past, it has always seemed to be disorganized and filled with junk offerings. Steven Fies treats it in a different way in his book “The Key to Making Money on Craigslist: How I Make Thousands in My Spare Time”. He sees Craigslist as a source for inventory procurement and the sale of musical instruments. Fies recommends that anyone interested in making money on Craigslist establish a niche. By establishing a niche, you become highly knowledgeable about a certain type of product.

Once a niche is determined, Fies warns the reader that he may never be successful unless he also adopts a certain mental attitude about buying and selling. Indeed, this is important as a good part of the beginning and end of the book address mental attitude. Thinking and treating your Craigslist activities as a business goes a long way toward ensuring your success and mental well-being when dealing with rejection.

There are several chapters in the middle of the book that give you tips and techniques for making deals. Those chapters are filled with examples from Fies’s own experiences that illustrate the point being made. Fies also includes web links to resource sites that may prove useful in starting a Craigslist business. At the end of the book are several appendixes. Some have resource links and others explain simple accounting principles that are beneficial to the business initiate who should be keeping track of their buying and selling activity. According to Fies, it’s important to know how you’re doing numerically as well as instinctively.

This book is a great resource book for anyone thinking about starting a business, whether on Craigslist, eBay, or elsewhere appropriate to their niche. It’s also a book that the reader will come back to from time to time when he or she hit the inevitable stumbling blocks in their businesses. The appendixes were probably included in the book with that thought in mind.

If you're looking to make some additional cash, develop a side hustle, this book will show you how to earn some extra money by smartly using Craigslist. You'll learn how to find bargains, negotiate bargains to buy right so you can resell at a profit. Using many of the tips revealed in this book, I have been able to buy top quality pre-owned items, use them for as long as I like, then re-sell them for more than I paid.