If you conduct online search heavily, you should consider automating your process. An automated job search can greatly reduce the time you spend browsing and searching for a relevant job, thus leaving you more time to focus on your core activities . Here are some ways by which you can automate your job search.
4 Ways on How to Automate Your Job Search
1. Subscribe via Email Alert from Job Boards
2. Subscribe via Google Alert
3. Subscribe via RSS & Create Your Personal Dashboard
4. Use Yahoo Pipes (Advanced)
Subscribe via Email Alert from Job Boards
Most major job boards offer the ability for you to subscribe to job alerts via email. You simply conduct a job search, apply your filters, then save it for your alert. Depending on the job board, the frequency by which you receive the email alert may not be timely.
Sample instructions for eLance & oDesk below. For others (you may refer here VA Job Boards) you may simply search the Help/FAQ section on email alerts.
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Job Alert Emails| oDesk (kindly scroll down towards bottom of the page)
Subscribe via Google Alert
You may set up an alert instructing Google to send you an email every time your key word (ie. Need + Virtual Assistant Secretary) is mentioned in the web. You may opt to receive the alerts as soon as they appear, daily or weekly. Setting up an alert is very easy. But hitting the right keywords/ key phrases may require a bit of trial and error.
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You may set-up your alert here| Google Alert
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Reading thru Google Alert FAQ may help if you’re totally clueless
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If you are not familiar with Google syntax/ you are getting irrelevant results, this will help Google Advanced Search
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Below is an excellent video tutorial on how to automate job your job search via Google Alert.
Subscribe via RSS & Create Your Dashboard
Subscribing to RSS feeds is better than email alerts. You get the updates real-time, and all your alerts are conveniently organized in your RSS bookmark/dashboard. If you have been operating online for sometime now, you are probably already familiar with RSS. If not, you may refer to below instructions.
Create Your Dashboard!
You may simply save your RSS using your favorite bookmark (ie. Firefox RSS Bookmark, Google Reader, etc) . However, to fully leverage on the power of RSS, you may want to create a dashboard. A dashboard will allow you to view all your job alerts, on one magazine-like page. This will tremendously cut down your job search time.
iGOOGLE| Here is an excellent tutorial
How to Build the Ultimate Job Board with iGoogle
NETVIBES| If you want more dashboard power, I recommend NetVibes (Free).
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If you are undecided on which personal dashboard to use, Mashable’s comparative review may help you 14 Personalized Homepages Compared, Feature by Feature| Mashable
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For first time RSS readers, reading can be overwhelming. Get an idea on how others are processing their RSS feeds in this article. The readers’ comments are especially helpful: How Do You Read RSS Feeds? These time saving tips are also good for newbies 5 Time Saving RSS Reader Hacks
Use Yahoo Pipes (Advanced)
Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web. – Yahoo Pipes.
Yahoo pipes allow you to create and filter your RSS. For instance, instead of getting an RSS/alert for all jobs for Virtual Assistant Web Designer, you may create a pipe that will filter all Admin Virtual Assistant jobs Web Designer specializing in wordpress, within your location. Imagine how much easier your life would be if you can get only those alerts which pertain to your field/niche! Once you have created your Pipe, you can then use the resulting RSS in your dashboard.
At a first glance yahoo pipes appear complicated. But once you try it out, you’ll be amazed how easy it is! This quick tutorial will guide you.
Learn How to Build a Pipe in Just a Few Minutes
The easiest way to learn is to clone an existing pipe and simply change the parameters/code to suit your needs. Here are some pipes which may be relevant for you as a Virtual Assistant:
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Job Search Pipes Customize and merge all your job search according to your needs.
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All in One SEO Pipes All the best SEO blogs filtered by Tags
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RSS Merge If you want to group/merge your rss. Merge your comment + blog rss into one feed. etc
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Social Media If you need to monitor your/your Client’s brand all over www
Remember| Activity Does Not Equate Productivity
Browsing around the web; spending countless hours wading thru tons of irrelevant jobs – these are activities. They are non-value added administrative tasks which you should automate. Try a couple above recommendations and have a feel on which method suits you best. It may take you a bit of tweaking. Consider this a small upfront investment of your time. Once your process is in place, you’ll have a lot more time to dedicate to your core/ revenue generating activities for upcoming weeks, months or years!
Your greatest asset is your earning ability. Your greatest resource is your time. – Brian Tracy
Author: Sheila Zaldivar. Blogger. Virtual Assistant for Internet Marketers & On-line Entrepreneurs. Web Designer. Process & Productivity Addict. Loves GTD, MindMap, Brian Tracey. Simple. Approachable. - Virtual Assistance Excellence! 
