Today, we continue the “A Free Online Dating Guide” series. CraigsList is a well-known site for apartment hunting, buying stuff, and selling stuff. However, its personals section is frequently overlooked. There are many advantages to using craigslist, locality factor being the most important one. Of course, it’s possible to search by zip code on all other sites, but craigslist is targeting the particular area. The second advantage is - you don’t have to register - you can browse personals all day anonymously without people knowing you’ve ever landed on their page. Don’t you just hate how some sites allow you (and others) to view profile’s of people who looked at your page and page views counter. I was really upset one time when 10 ladies looked at my profile and none of them wrote me. Had I used craigslist, I would not have been thinking that maybe my posting title doesn’t sound interesting enough.

Also, with craigslist personals’ another useful feature is search. It doesn’t look very sophisticated at first, but with the “search for” you can try to play with various keywords. I tried “BEER”,”WINGS”, “ESPN” today, and there was a match! You usually contact people you liked via anonymous craigslist email - no guarantees they will respond though. I’d say that ladies have an upper hand with options, since men post more pictures. Guys usually have to write introductory emails first (many use templates), email the picture, and only then hope to get one in return.

The disadvantages - there are not that many. First, not all geographic areas are equally active. Some areas (such as NYC and SF Bay) have hundreds of new postings per day, and some areas might have one or two. The worst thing for chicks is that some people have been known for emailing their privates. And as for guys - there are many ads that are hidden ads for escort services.
So, have fun, but be careful!