The Internet has provided us with the ability to search and save on items we are looking for. There is a slew of websites which provide advantage shopping strategies to find the new items you are looking for. This is great for finding those new items and comparing prices, afterall we all want a good deal.
However I, on many occasions, find myself searching through Craigslist for many of my needed items to save a buck or two. For the most part, used items work just the same as new items, especially if you are looking for tools or parts, as I once was. But as many Craigslist users find out, if you are not on top of you’re searching, it is possible that you will pass up the opportunity to locate that item if you are not continuously searching.
For example, I live in South Florida and being in the Sunshine state we have the joy of enjoying the sun and beaches most of the year. Because of this, one of my hobbies is to go waverunning. We have two waverunners that we take out often to have some fun. But as anything else that needs maintenance, one of my ski’s blew a motor and I had to get it fixed. A new motor was out of the question as it was too expensive. A used motor from a ski shop was also expensive but it was an option I wanted to take only as a last resort. However, purchasing a used motor from an owner was definitely an option I wanted to investigate since it would have been much cheaper than any of the options previously mentioned. The problem was finding a motor. So my searching began.
I started searching every day on Craigslist.com. Sometimes I was searching almost twice a day on Craigslist, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. This went on for about a week and a half but nothing really came up. I did get some hits on parts I could have used but it would not have solved my problem. So after about a week and a half, I took a break. Three days later, I started searching again and I came across what eventually led me to create the website we will discuss. The post was very straight forward, “Selling all items in the shop, going out of business”. Yes, there was a guy who was selling a motor for my ski and not just any motor but a high performance motor at a very reasonable price. So I gave the guy a call and he informed me that he had sold everything. I was devastated because I took a break and missed out on the possibility of getting a rebuilt, high performance motor for my ski at a very reasonable price.
At this point, I decided this was not going to happen again. So I started thinking how I could go about designing a site that would automate the searching for me so that I didn’t have to search all the time. Well the result was Yominder.com. I spent about three months with the help of my partner and friend developing a site that would take the manual searching of Craigslist. Now there are websites out there that assist in searching Craigslist but not one that will continuously search for you and remind you when a new item was found.
How does the site work? It’s easy, you create a membership, which has the basic information about you such as your name, email address, and password. Once you have confirmed the account via email, you will have to login into the system with your login credentials. Once logged in, you will have to click on the “Add Searches” page. This page will allow you to add a search to a service, Craigslist being one of those services. Now, there are other services but those are outside of the scope of this post but some of the other services includes Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Amazon.com and Priceline.com. A discussion for another post.
Once you choose the service you want to search, in this case Craigslist, the system will take you to the next step, which is adding a search. The search will be based on what you would like to search on Craigslist. The final step is submitting the search to the system. Once the search has been added the system will run a background task that will search Craigslist for your item. The initial search will take a few minutes depending on when the search is created but for the most part it only takes about five minutes.
After the initial search is run by the system, the results can be viewed in the “View Results” page. This page displays all the results available for the item you are searching for. However, the real leverage of this system is the ability to sit back and wait for new results. Now that a new search has been added the system will search Craigslist three times a day continously. When new resutls are found, it will email you letting you know how many new results are available. You may also add a SMS number and the system will send out text messages when new results are available. It’s that simple.
This site was designed to save time and money while searching so that you don’t miss any great deals… If you are interested in checking out the site, go to http://www.yominder.com and create a membership.
I hope this site saves you time and money like it has done for me. Let me know what you think.
Rick R.
