Can an individual really make money on Craigslist and Fiverr?

I'm going to have to combine some of my website topics as I have to fit four subjects into two posts. I'll give my reasons in my next blog.

Let's start with Craigslist. This is a relatively simple marketplace website. Sellers post items they wish to sell locally. An interested buyer clicks on the button which sends a secure email to the seller. The seller then decides whether to send the buyer their contact information.

I quickly set up five items for sale, all household goods. I already had the photos on my computer, so keep in mind that if you want to try it now, you'll still need a good hour to find items to sell, clean them off, take photos and upload to your computer.

The listing only took minutes between entries. Craigslist does require your postal code now, likely for security reasons. Don't forget to unclick that map or else you'll be telling the world you have a $10,000 gold coin for sale at 555 Five Avenue, Anycity.

Here are my listings of my household items for sale. This should clear out one whole cupboard in my kitchen. I'll let my readers know how I did on this site by next Wednesday.

RED CUPCAKE/CAKE/TREATS CONTAINER/CARRIER

WILTON 12 PIECE CAKE DECORATING KIT

SET OF TWO CAT CAKE PANS

SET OF 5 ROYAL ALBERT AMERICAN BEAUTY TEACUPS AND SAUCERS

BEADED RED CANDLE HOLDER ORNAMENT DECORATION

I'll now relate my experiences with Fiverr. Just who are they? While you can make crafts to sell online, this website is far from an online used products marketplace. Here people pitch their gigs starting at $5, from cute little crafts to making videos and writing articles. There's even some fun stuff on here. People will do tarot card readings, they'll dance for you, they'll paint your house or promote your ideas. Anything within reason as long as it's family-friendly.

You can find my five gigs here by clicking on my profile. While I had some gigs up for more then a week, I posted the fifth one yesterday, so I'll give it another week to see how I do.

Initially you can only post a gig for $5. Once you have some sales, you can start pitching for $10 or more. I found the website tricky to use. First of all, it doesn't work on Explorer, you have to use Chrome, if you are on a Mac. If you're a PC user than likely you need to use Firefox or Chrome also. The requirements for the photos are so finicky I wanted to throw my computer out the window. Even when I had five gigs posted, the editors emailed me and said my photos weren't up to their standards. I couldn't figure out what exactly was wrong with my photos. Then they'd just remove my photos and without photos my gigs were suspended. I'd view other gigs and find ones with terrible photos so I don't know where I went wrong. Finally, after about ten hours on this site I had five gigs posted and ready to go. I think even the editors were happy.

In other words, don't expect to get rich quick on Fiverr. If you want to have some fun, great. If you're a writer who normally makes $400 a day then you'll want to skip it.

Stay tuned on next Wednesday to find out how my sales went on Fiverr and Craiglist.