Using Google Alerts to Find Jobs, Rare Products, etc.

I’ve helped two people with this so far, and they seem to appreciate it.  So here it is for you, too.

Since Google Alerts added the ability to send alerts to feeds, the world got a lot easier…at least in my book. (I had started writing an email parser for Google Alerts…now I don’t have to.)

What I love about Google Alerts is that it lets me do research without doing any work.  The research comes to me.

That kind of research is useful if you’re looking for a new job, looking for freelance/consulting work, or looking for rare items.  Instead of setting alerts with multiple websites and services, you can use Google Alerts to send them all to one place, with one management interface, from the most comprehensive search service in the world.

The key here is to use the “site:” search command.  What “site:” allows you to do is search within a single website.  An example is “SEO consultant site:craigslist.org“  This query will search all pages on craigslist that mention “seo” and “consultant.”  If you wanted to look only in Boston, you would search “SEO consultant site:boston.craigslist.org”

For finding rare products, setup an alert, but monitor Ebay.  The query would be “site:ebay.com”  If you’re looking for the rare 1909-S VDB penny, you would query “1909 S vdb site:ebay.com”

The key here is to refine your queries to find only the things you are looking for.  You can add negative search operators, a “-” before a word to remove listings that are irrelevant, or use quotes around groups of words to find an exact phrase.  Expect to spend a few minutes refining each query.  Your SEO consulting work might be refined to something like “SEO consultant -”graphic design” site:craigslist.org”

Here are the instructions:

1. Go to Google Alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts
2. Search term: seo consultant site:craigslist.org
3. Search that query in regular search to get an idea of what kind of consulting gigs are out there.
4. Choose “Deliver to Feed” from the dropdown.
5. Submit.
6. Add the feed URL to your reader.
7. Any time a new page is found on craigslist that has “seo” and “consultant” in the page text, it will update the feed.
8. You check the feed once or twice a day, and send your info to any relevant projects.

You can also use change “craigslist.org” above to “kijiji.com” or “monster.com” or “elance.com” to find other opportunities.

To feed it to a home page, use iGoogle: http://www.google.com/ig

Add a Google Reader widget, and use Google Reader to combine all of the feeds into one, then it’s part of a Google home page, if that is useful to you.