For the past week or two I’ve been seeing TV ads for Postaroo – a site offering free online classified ads. I assumed it was similar to Craigslist. Upon review – it is similar to Craigslist… sort of.
Its an open format with no real verification or review process other than having you submit an email and then click a verification link. I think that will cause them to get a ton of spam – as some of that is already evident. I’d be surprised if they don’t put a clamp on that rather quickly.
In digging a bit more I noticed they are also based in the greater Baltimore area, in Maryland (I too am in the Baltimore area). The domain name was registered on September 20, 2005 – so they are really quite new. Fairly impressive in registering a domain, getting the branding, designing a site, testing it, launching it, creating TV ads and running them in that short of a time period.
It appears that their parent company is Sinclair Broadcasting Group – a Baltimore-area media/broadcasting company. Apparently they control over 50 television stations.
I would guess that this relationship with Sinclair not only got Postaroo some discounted TV ads, but also helped them build over 3,000 inbound links in just a couple of months back to the Postaroo website according to Yahoo. A quick manual review of those links shows most of them are indeed television broadcasting stations. Now that’s being resourceful!
Update: 08/03/2007
Postaroo has released a new version of their site. I think its a nice improvement. Sometimes you need that initial time to see how people use the site, and then build upon it.
This is not the only case I’ve seen of traditional media companies creating and managing various websites and internet-based-businesses that leverage there media networks. Its not a bad strategy.
Aside from Postaroo, another one that comes to mind is BaltimoreatHome.com, which is somehow owned and/or affiliated with CBS Radio. I hear their radio commercials all the time which attempt to drive traffic to the website, and then encourage you to make it your home page aka start page. Note that BaltimoreatHome.com also looks strikingly similar to BuffaloatHome.com.
Where is Postaroo for Canadians???
It’s been advertised on Canadian Television and I think it’s a great idea.
I just listed two black powder guns on the site. Within 24 hours I received responses (2) that wreaked of scam. One individual, posing as some important lady of culture. asked a lot of questions in “her” first email. Are you the original owner, condition, why selling, name address, phone number, etc.? I did not give any personal information. Second response was “she” wanted to send $2,000 for a $125 Item. Wanted me to keep an extra $100. She would send a courier to pick the gun up. She claimed to be from some foriegn country.
Second person was a Dr. So and So, claiming to be a dentist from Canada. My guns were “just the items he had been searching for.” You can still buy both of them from catalog for Heaven’s sake! Similar deal, wanted to send a courier, etc.
I blew both of them off. Sounded alot like “the rich guy in Saudi Arabia who needs your help.”
Do you know anythihng about all this?
I too am getting people e-mailing me and wanting to send me large sums of money via money orders and a third party pick up the “merchandise”. I sell puppies for heavens sake. I just tell them no. I’m sure there is a scam going on there.
Robert – I don’t know anything about that specific incident. But I can tell you that spam and scams are going to happen with any large, popular, community-driven website. For instance:
MySpace
Craigslist
eBay
Postaroo is no exception, though they’re certainly not the size of those other three. Postaroo has nothing to do with these scams – its just a minority of sketchy people that have chosen to use/abuse their service for sketchy practices. It happens. Thankfully its the exception and not the rule.
Check out my experience with Craigslist. And I love Craigslist. A little spam/scam comes with anything good though, unfortunately.
I noticed that the website postaroo is now down and no longer accepting ads? why???
i want postaroo back
I think they just did not have the resources to keep it running. In my area hardly anyone would use the site and the majorty of ads were spam. Navagation of the site was the worst you had to use the back link on the ad you were looking at and to flag a ad you had to enter ur email ect so time consuming. And if you hit the back button on your browser the page would mess up and u would have to refresh the page. Craigslist is also filled with spam but navigation of thier site is a lot better and flaging a ad takes an ad down a lot quicker and almost imeaditaly depending on how many flag it.