Any luck finding gigs on job boards? These tips should help you out…

Last week, we got to know Halona Black and learned about how she successfully landed a client using Craigslist. Her story is truly inspiring and it proves that you can find legit gigs on the site.

Nonetheless, I know that Craigslist (or any other job board, really) is far from being all bunnies and rainbows. Stingy, and sometimes downright shady individuals still lurk in these sites and they take advantage of writers like us who are trying to make a living.

Fortunately, it’s not that difficult to spot fishy ads on job boards. The following tips will help you sort through the job board clutter and allow you to quickly zero in on the listings that count:

Pay attention to the wording of the ad – Only go for ads that sound professional. Serious companies that are looking for writers and are willing to pay competitive rates will exert more effort in their job ads.  If it’s littered with spelling and grammatical errors, or if it simply doesn’t read well, chances are, that ad’s a dud.

Stay away from clients who ask you to write for free as a “test” – Are they requesting you to submit a 500-word article as part of the application process? If so, then click away from the ad.

Clients who really want to get a feel of your writing voice and style will ask for samples that you already have (i.e. links to articles, Word or PDF docs, etc.) Often, job ads that ask you to write articles are just scams designed to get you to write for free.

Less is NOT more – The more information that the job poster provides, the better. The best job ads provide company information, site links, as well as detailed job descriptions, qualifications, and requirements. These are the types of ads that demonstrate professionalism. One-liners and vague job posts on the other hand? Not so much.

I’m not saying that all vague or short job ads are scams, of course. But just be wary of them and try to get a better feel of the company behind it. (Again, pay attention to the wording and watch out for red flags such as requesting free articles.)

Paid job boards > Free job boards – Generally speaking, job boards that charge companies to list ads provide higher quality listings compared to sites that allow just about anyone to post. The same goes for sites that charge applicants. These sites usually filter job results for you and only serve up legit postings.

ProBlogger is one of the best examples of job boards that charge companies to post. On other hand, sites that charge applicants include FlexJobs , Freelance Switch, and the Junk-Free Job Board at The Freelance Writers Den

Cool tool alert: Ad Hunt’r – Newsletter subscriber Mark Andrews was kind enough to suggest this tool after last week’s email. Ad Hunt’r lets you scour Craigslist and other sites for relevant ads quickly and easily. Just type in your keywords in the box, specify where you want to look, and hit search.

Thanks Mark for the suggestion – you rock! To learn more about Mark, you can check out his site at:http://imcopywriting.com/

That’s all for now. Happy hunting and let me know how it goes!

Image: Tax Credits on Flickr