How long should I have my listing for?
While it may be true that a listing with a longer duration may receive more views or exposure, does this necessarily mean that it will receive more funding? The statistics may be surprising to you.
I have utilized the Prosper.com API to obtain the statistics that I hope can guide you in answering this question. I have queried all the listings dating from 11/5/06 to 10/27/07 (almost a year’s worth of data) except for the ones that are still currently active. The listings has been broken down according to the duration that they were listed for and whether they were 100% funded or not. Please note that this data includes listings that have been withdrawn or canceled.
| Duration of listing (in days) | % Listings with 100% funding | Count of Listings with 100% funding | % Listings with < 100% funding | Count of Listings with < 100% funding | Total # of Listings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 7.8% | 505 | 92.2% | 5990 | 6495 |
| 5 | 8.0% | 254 | 92.0% | 2937 | 3191 |
| 7 | 5.3% | 985 | 94.7% | 17567 | 18552 |
| 10 | 5.9% | 569 | 94.1% | 9132 | 9701 |
Statiscally speaking, listings with a duration of 5 days have a better chance of being fully funded. The total number of listings with a 5-day duration is about 6 times smaller than the 7-day listings but I still think that 3191 is a large enough pool for the result to be statiscally significant. From a lender’s perspective, I like to bid on listings that are about to complete rather than wait 10 days for a listing to complete. Otherwise, the money would basically be in Limbo for 10 days instead of in the hands of a borrower. One could argue that a 10-day listing could get more exposure (and I am sure that it does), but it does not get the funding and that is the bottom line.
If you have any requests regarding statistics that you would like to see, please let me know. If it’s feasible, I will try my best to make it happen.
You may also be interested in reading the following posts:
- Which day of the week should I end my listing?
- Which day of the week are lenders most active in bidding?
- What time of the day are lenders most active?
- Loan calculator with statistics for all listings from the last past year
- Does the amount of content in the Description of my Listing really matter?
- How do I create a successful listing on Prosper?
Glossary for status of listings:
- Active – The listing is current active in the marketplace
- Withdrawn – The listing was withdrawn by customer request
- Canceled – The listing was canceled by Prosper