Though statistics are often misleading, nearly a quarter-billion people can’t be wrong. Backpage.com, a 5 year-old classifieds website originally created by the folks at the Phoenix New Times, has developed into the national online community’s preeminent resource for everything bought, sold, serviced, rented, and offered for work, as evidenced by roughly 216 million visitors last year.
Though the recent economic crisis has contributed to the site’s 90% increase in page views from ’07 to ’08, from its inception Backpage.com has been recognized as a refined, highly user-friendly website devoted to helping ordinary people find the places, products, services, and other people they desire. Backpage.com’
What started as an online initiative in 11 North American cities has expanded to over 170 metropolitan areas, making Backpage.com the primary competitor to its well-known counterpart, Craigslist.org. But what it offers that Craigslist does not is an adherence to the idea of a ‘Free Site’, an especially important aspect of promotion and advertising during these trying times. For instance, Backpage.com never charges for job postings, whereas Craigslist imposes a $25 fee per posting. Improvements over Craigslist.org also include fewer overall posting restrictions, the availability of national and sponsored ads, and a large group of employees constantly searching for and destroying spam postings, among others.
Featuring entirely original content (as opposed to simple links to other sites), Backpage.com hosts 1.5 million posts each month- a number that is steadily increasing- and grew 17% in page views in the last 60 days. Numbers don’t tell the whole story, however. Whether curiosity or practicality is the reason for visiting, one needs simply to browse Backpage.com to fully understand its exponentially-
Come see what all the buzz is about: http://www.backpage.com
