Good morning FWJ Friends! It’s the end of the week (already) and I’ve got leads for resume writers, copy writers, and technical writers this morning. Also on today’s lists are jobs for bloggers, proofreaders, and content writers.
CL had this announcement on the site this morning:
“Effective October 15, 2008 it will cost $25 to post job ads in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami (South Florida), Philadelphia, and Phoenix.”
This might mean that better-quality ads will be posted on these city pages, but what may happen instead is that the dodgy ad-posters may just move on to other cities. I’m curious about what our readers think. Will charging a fee (albeit a nominal one compared to what the “big” job boards charge) mean better quality job ads on CL?
Leads…
- Resume Writer - Mississauga
- Senior PR Writers - Belfast and Glasgow (GBP 300-400 per day)
- Freelance Copy Writer @ Active Sports, Inc. - Telecommute ($0.15 per word)
- Freelance B2B Writer @ McLean Group ($25-$50 per hour)
- Editorial Intern - Tysons Corner, VA ($12 per hour)
- Web Writer/Editor - Contract - Prince Georges County
- Editorial Intern @ Kaboodle - Sunnyvale, CA ($10-$12 per hour)
- Freelance Blog Writer - Kitchenware Products ($50 for 600-800 words)
- Copy Writer - 3 Month Contract - Seattle ($3-$28 per hour)
- Product Marketing Copywriter - Gig Harbor ($12 per hour)
- Senior Tech Writer with Mac Experience - Full Time - Contract - On Site - San Diego
- Freelance Magazine Writers - San Diego ($0.40-$1.00 per word)
- Freelance Copywriter for Cosmetics Product - Contract ($400)
- Web Content Writer for eCommerce Sites - Telecommute
- Freelance Writer for Retail Training Project - Telecommute
- Proofreader @ Fidelity Investments - Contract - Boston, MA
- Freelance Writers for Large Web Projects - Telecommute ($10-$30 per hour)
- Web Content Writer/Web Technical Writer - Contract - Edmonton
- Freelance Bilingual (English/French) Proofreader - Two Month Contract - Toronto
- Technical Writer @ Sierra Systems - Contract - Calgary, AB
- Technical Writer - One Year Contract - Montreal
- Technical Writer/Analyst @ IBM - Five Month Contract - Toronto
- Intermediate Technical Writer - Contract - Vancouver, BC
- Source Water Protection Program Technical Writer @ Stantec Consulting Ltd. - London, Ontario
Good Luck!
September 26th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Thanks for the leads. Have a good weekend!
September 26th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Thanks Jodee.
Have a great weekend everyone!
September 26th, 2008 at 9:40 am
I have stumbled upon so many ads that turned out be scams, or at the very least questionable. In fact most days when I check your board here, by the time I go to read the ads there are always one or two that have already been flagged and removed (not by the author). I think that by imposing the charge, craigslist will eliminate some of that. Though it can only do so much good, when they are only imposing the charge on a handful of cities. By keeping it at $25 they manage to still keep craigslist as the most reasonable and simple places for small businesses to place ads. I say, go craigslist!
September 26th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I agree with freelancerM, I think it’s a good thing when job posters are charged. It eliminates a majority of the scams, and certainly the posters looking for work done for free.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
September 26th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Hi guys - Just some food for thought. We don’t charge for ads here but we do have guidelines and those guidelines are enforced. I know it would be a momumental undertaking but if Craislist eliminated their flagging system and instead had people on staff to approve ads before they appear, there would be more quality and less scams to wade through.
Incidentally, I love Craigslist. I found my BlogTalkRadio job and most of my highest paying clients through Craigslist.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:49 am
I think it is a good idea. The scammers may just move on to the “gigs” portion of the site, unless they are covering that as well in the fee structure.
Most online job boards including Workopolis and Monster charge to add listings, so Craigs List shouldn’t really be any different. I applaud the move.
On the flip side, I agree with Deb that flaggers should be replaced with staff scrutinizing the ads. I’ve seen more than one legitimate job flagged and that hurts all of us.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Their argument (they discussed this on NPR a while back) for not having staff and using the flagging system is that they’d still have to charge because then they’d have to pay the staff to wade through the ads. Apparently they’re considering some monumental changes because the site’s grown so big in the past year, and they’re struggling to keep up.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Thanks for today’s writing job leads list. I agree that darn whole flagging issue desperately needs to be resolved. It’s too easy to just click on and flag. Charging for listing jobs will help eliminate the shady people/posters. And why not the rest of the cities/states/provinces, etc.? Isn’t that a little too selective?
Have an awesome weekend everyone!
September 26th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Craig’s list was already charging in Boston. I know because I considered placing an ad there a week or two ago. Do the ads seem of better quality in Massachusetts? =}
September 26th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I agree with Deb. I love Craigslist. In fact, I’d be screwed without it. I think I’ve only gotten maybe one or two gigs from other places.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I am hoping the fee discourages most scammers, but I have applied for jobs through Monster and Career Builder and had them turn out to be scams. So if a scammer is willing to pay more than $400 to post a scam ad, they will certainly be willing to pay $25.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
@Christy: Yes, the CL ads for Boston are generally pretty good.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
In cities like LA they have been charging for a long time for jobs as opposed to gigs. The quality of jobs in that category has improved but the sketchy jobs have just moved to the gigs category. Yes, it would be nice if each of their ads were checked before being listed but given the size of their operation v. the size of their staff, I would think that would be impossible. Do any big job sites and/or print newspapers thoroughly vet their job ads? Push comes to shove we are all responsible for protecting ourselves and realizing cliche though it may be “if it sounds too good to be true…”
September 26th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I’ve been a reader of this website for a few months now, and I appreciate the job leads — Jodee and Deborah, you do a wonderful service for freelance writers.
As far as the $25 Craigslist job ad fee, I think it will help weed out the scams, but I don’t quite see the fairness in implementing it in only eight cities.
September 27th, 2008 at 3:10 am
I’ve read on here also though that some legitimate CL ads are just flagged for the hell of it, to reduce the competition so that fewer writers will get to apply for it. That’s bugged me to no end - I doubt anyone who actually does that would speak up about it here lol, but it’s depressing when a rather good-looking job prospect gets snatched by some flag-hungry plonker.
September 27th, 2008 at 5:58 am
@Leigh
I loathe Monster.com. I applied to an ad in there once and within 12 hours of sending them my resume, my inbox’s spam folder had 800 spam emails. Because I’d heard from others who had this problem, I’d specifically set up a new email account to use strictly for this Monster ad, and sure enough the spam started pouring in. To date, my mom’s spam filter still gets about 200 penis enlargement mails and she only used that email account when she was searching for a new job on Monster after getting laid off.
September 27th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Craigslist is kind of like panning for gold. You have to sift through a lot of dross to find the nuggets. But the nuggets are there. Last year I got half my writing income from one hit on Craigslist. It was writing articles for an online encyclopedia. Earned enough to pay my son’s college tuition for two semesters.
OTOH there are a lot of scams on Craigslist. Basic rules I use are
1. If it sounds too good to be true ($3000 per month — 10 hours a week), it is a scam.
2. If they expect you to work for next to nothing it is scam.
3. If it sounds clueless, you don’t want the job — the employer is a flake.
I live near Houston, and Austin, Houston and Dallas are my three daily Craigslist stops. The new fee should improve them.
September 28th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Other cities have been charging for some time. My problem with charging to place an ad is the fact that it can be flagged and removed so easily for no good reason. As someone that has posted legitimate ads on Craigslist looking for writers, I stay away from the cities where I have to pay for the ads because it is far too easy for someone to flag it for removal because they don’t like the rates, they don’t like me, they want the job for themselves, etc…
September 28th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Scam Alert: I have a friend over on Facebook that was stiffed out of his e-mail contacts by Tagged.com. I like social networking for writing leads but not if they do that sort of nonsense.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:28 am
Feeling stupid here. I check your site often in hopes for work. I live in Michigan, unemployment rate is 8.9% and I have been without a job for 6 months. So… on a prayer that it would work… I just gave up $249 to the PCTI program you have posted. Only to find that Lesson 7 stops. Tried to call and was told you must discuss issues through email first. While waiting impatiently, I looked around on the net and found a disturbing blog that this is in fact a ripoff. Great! Just what I need about now.