Craig Newmark, Founder of CraigsList Shares Site's Secrets To Success

It's easy to see why Craig Newmark and the community posting site he founded in 1995, CraigsList.com, have become so successful (7 billion page views this month! ): a simple vision, consistent follow-thru and the golden rule.

One of the great advantages of being located in a place like New York City, is you frequently get to meet people like Craig and learn from their wisdom and experience.  I was lucky enough to attend Craig Newmark's discussion today at NYU as part of the iBreakfast Series.

Here are some of the nuggets of advice and knowledge he shared today that will be useful to anyone building a community-focused company, product or service:

• Focus on 1 simple idea. From the beginning, CraigsList started as an event's list.  The list grew and grew to eventually include things like job postings and apartments, but the simple concept of the list has never changed.
• Follow-thru. Having an idea alone isn't much, unless you put it into action and execute. He mentioned the concept of follow-thru at least 5 times today.
• Have someone very high-up in the organization responsible for customer service. Craig says he spends 100% of his time managing customer service when he's not on the speaking circuit. Even though CraigsList is one of the biggest sites on the Internet, they only have 23 employees (13 tech/10 customer service)
• Don't forget The Golden Rule - treat your community like you want to be treated.
• Get out of the way of your community.  He mentioned how during Katrina, people started using CraigsList in a new way to help and find each other.  Even though people were using the system differently than intended, CraigsList let the community take control. He said, "As long as we stay out of the way of our community, and don't do 'corporate-like' things, we'll be ok."  And on Google he said, "If all companies operated with their ethical level, we'd be better off."
• There's good and bad when Anonymity is concerned.  It can provide necessary protections for whistle blowers or those who must remain anonymous (this is obviously an important issue for people sharing health information), but it can also reduce accountability.
• To implement a reputation system or not do implement a reputation system.  Ebay has one, CraigsList does not.  There are pros and cons to both.
• He credits the speed/efficiency/security of the site as being paramount to their success.