Has anyone heard of craigslist?
8.5 million people visited a Craigslist site in February, up from 3.7 million a year earlier. That's astonishing growth. What started as a simple, free community board in the spirit of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and Mother Earth has grown to more than 205 sites covering cities in every state, as well as cities in 35 foreign nations. It is a category killer and the category is the online classified advertising space- 3.1 billion in sales this year — a 17 percent jump from last year — and will reach $4.7 billion by 2010. Newspaper classifieds, by contrast, will reach about $15 billion, up just 5 percent from last year.

I was surprised when I got to read a very expensive research report entitled Outlook 2006, about online recruitment advertising. Ok, I've been busy growing my business but I was shocked to see that CraigsList has overtaken Monster and is the 2nd largest job board, second only to America's Job Bank.

Anyway, I'll write more on the job boards maybe tomorrow (but I can't commit). Today I wanted to talk about the Contenders to CraigsList.

There's Google Base at base.google.com

Google Base is a place where you can post anything and then list the attributes that make it "findable" by a google search.

And now, Microsoft unveils its latest board- Windows Live Expo- expo.live.com and according to today's times "nother node in its growing network of Internet services, and a direct stab at Craiglist's vital organs: free, local classified ads."

I mention it here because its new and its free. I encourage all of you to use it and take advantage of every avenue to find and keep talent to your organization. The price is certainly right. Please let me know how you do.

	craigslist	monster	career builder	hotjobs
NYC	$25	$395	$389	$299
LA	$25	$395	$389	$299
SF	$75	$395	$389	$299
Boston	$0	$395	$389	$299
Chicago	$0	$395	$389	$299
Seattle	$0	$395	$389	$299
Denver	$0	$395	$389	$299
Miami	$0	$395	$389	$299
Dallas	$0	$395	$389	$299
Phoenix	$0	$395	$389	$299
DC	$0	$395	$389	$299
Phila	$0	$395	$389	$299
Atlanta	$0	$395	$389	$299
Detroit	$0	$395	$389	$299
Raleigh	$0	$395	$389	$299

Job Board Effectiveness*
craigslist	4.25
careerbuilder	4.00
monster	3.79
hotjobs	3.50