To reduce project costs, how would one find kids in high school who
have excellent web designer and creative graphic skills???

(Excluding website directories like ELANCE.COM,
CREATIVEMOONLIGHTERS.COM, etc.)

How would I conduct such a targeted search on Google?  

Please be specific and detailed.

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 03 Jul 2003 13:30 PDT

Anywhere in the world?
Anywhere in the US?
Anywhere in your state? (which is ?)
Anywhere in your city? (which is ?)

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Clarification of Question by abrandt-ga on 03 Jul 2003 14:26 PDT

Hello Cynthia-ga,

QUESTION:  How would I conduct such a targeted search on Google to
find high school web designer and creative graphic FREELANCERS???

Please elaborate on details of search string, etc.


#1 PRIORITY: Anywhere in Pacific Daylight Time 
   (PDT/PST - western states, e.g. CA, OR, WA, etc.)

#2 PRIORITY: Anywhere in the U.S.A.

I hope this clarification is helpful.

Hi abrandt,

Excellent question!  Not many folks ask us *how* to locate
information...

Some of the words/phrases below can be interchanged with others, for
instance, you can use the same search string several times by changing
one of the variables:

Example:

student +"web designer" +california +"summer job"

Can also be tried in these ways:

student +"web designer" +"Los Angeles" +"summer job"
student +"web designer" +"Los Angeles" +"looking for work"

After you look at the results, I would add: -craiglist , you'll see
why (I got sick of looking at it)...

Think of words or phrases that interchange with the ones I chose to
use. I chose the ones that I felt would yeild the most results. The
plus sign ( + ) forces them to appear, and a minus sign ( - ) excludes
results. Google's default search automatically forces all words and
phrases to appear but using the " + " is still a good habit. You can
also use the AND - OR options.

When I used -DC, I was excluding Washington DC. Phrases must be in
quotes, which forces them to appear exactly as typed.

[  phrases must be in quotes  ] yeilds different results than: [ 
"phrases must be in quotes"  ]

The phrase "west coast" probably won't work, neither will "pacific
time" or PDS or PST, and for the same reason, "washington state" won't
work. It's also best to make the changes to a search string one at a
time.

This page will also help:

The Basics of Google Search 
://www.google.com/help/basics.html

There are other advanced search techniques that you can peruse here:

Google Search Tricks
http://outer-court.com/tech/google-search-tricks.html
Blog maintained by our very own j_philipp-ga...


These will get you started:

WEB DESIGNERS:

student +"web designer" +california +"summer job"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=student+%2B%22web+designer%22+%2Bcalifornia+%2B%22summer+job%22

student +"web designer" +nevada +"summer job"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=student+%2B%22web+designer%22+%2Bnevada+%2B%22summer+job%22

student +"web designer" +oregon +"summer job"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=student+%2B%22web+designer%22+%2Boregon+%2B%22summer+job%22

student +"web designer" +washington +"summer job" -DC
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=student+%2B%22web+designer%22+%2Bwashington+%2B%22summer+job%22+%2DDC

GRAPHIC ARTISTS:

student +"graphic artist" +california +"summer job"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=student+%2B%22graphic+artist%22+%2Bcalifornia+%2B%22summer+job%22
student +"graphic artist" +nevada +"summer job"

student +"graphic artist" +oregon +"summer job"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=student+%2B%22graphic+artist%22+%2Boregon+%2B%22summer+job%22

student +"graphic artist" +washington +"summer job" -DC
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=student+%2B%22graphic+artist%22+%2Bwashington+%2B%22summer+job%22+%2DDC


You also might consider one of the large job sites like:
http://www.monster.com

Here's their rate page for those wanting to find/search resumes:
http://recruiter.monster.com/login.asp?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Frecruiter%2Emonster%2Ecom%2Findex%2Easp

If I can be of further assistance, please don't hesitate to ask for a
clarification of my answer before rating me, ok?

Thanks, and best regards...

~~Cynthia

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Clarification of Answer by cynthia-ga on 03 Jul 2003 16:23 PDT

Whoops! I missed this one somehow:

student +"graphic artist" +nevada +"summer job" 
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=student+%2B%22graphic+artist%22+%2Bnevada+%2B%22summer+job%22

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Request for Answer Clarification by abrandt-ga on 05 Jul 2003 22:45 PDT

Hi cynthia-ga,

Thank you for carefully accomodating my guidelines. I wanted to get
back to you before Sunday... and then I'll take care of your high
rating on Monday.

QUESTION:  Based on damiam-ga's suggestion (thank you)... how would
you suggest I target keyword searches for high school art contests,
slick school website designers?

I will also leave a TIP.

Have a good weekend.

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Clarification of Answer by cynthia-ga on 07 Jul 2003 12:18 PDT

Hi again abrandt!

To locate the winners of high school art contests, I would break down
the key phrases like this:

"high school" "art contest*"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22high+school%22+%22art+contest%2A%22

..and then add the area you wish to search:

"high school" +"art contest*" +Los Angeles
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22high+school%22+%2B%22art+contest*%22+%2BLos+Angeles&btnG=Google+Search
Brings up 1,010 results, you might try adding one more keyword to
refine the results further:

"high school" +"art contest*" +Los Angeles +winner*
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22high+school%22+%2B%22art+contest%2A%22+%2BLos+Angeles+%2Bwinner
Refined to 334 results.


To find art teachers in your area:

This is how I begin:
"art teacher" +"Los Angeles" (6,530 results)
"art teacher" +"Los Angeles" +"web design" (refined to 347 mixed
results)

Then, I keep checking results, and refining until: 

BEST:
"art teacher" +"Los Angeles" +"web design" -job* -resume 
(105 results --removed resume postings, notice the wildcard " * " that
catches plural: job/jobs)
You can use the same techniques for keywords, but as I mentioned keep
a list of what you have tried on a sheet of paper so you don't get
lost:

1) winner* (page might say "winners" instead of "winner")
2) "art teacher*" (more likely page will say "art teacher" but just in
case!)
contest*
3) different area names, try your school district name, county name,
city name, and state first!

For the designers of slick looking school web sites, you need to find
a list of school web sites:

AMerican School Directory
http://www.asd.com/
$3.00 subscription, lists all schools and web sites, as well as a lot
of other information. You can compile it yourself too, or ask Google
Answers to do it for you... To complie youyrself, enter your school
district by name in quotes. For instance, I live in in this school
district:

"Shoreline School District"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Shoreline+School+District%22
The official page for the Shoreline School Dist. is the first result.
I wasn't able to find a ready-made list of schools, so I refined my
results to search the Internet for one:

"Shoreline School District" +"School List"

And found this listed first:
http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_district/236/wa

Here's the home page so you can do a search for yours:

Great Schools
http://www.greatschools.net/

After you get each schools web site, you'll need to go to each one and
scroll down to the bottom of each 'front page' and look for a link to
"email the webmaster"

There's really no easier way to contact the makers of a web site...

I really don't mind educating you in search techniques, do you have
any other questions before you rate me?  :-)

~~Cynthia

Excellent accomodation of specific and detailed Google keyword search
methodology request. Thank you for a job well done (tip provided).
Appreciate comment from damiam-ga as well.

You could try talking to parents of high school kids that you know, or
art teachers at local high schools. They have a good knowledge of what
local kids might be talented and looking for work. That won't work for
the whole country, but there's usually a decent amount of talent in
any one place. Alternately, you could look at the winners of the
various high school art contests, or at the designers of slick school
web sites.

Thanks abrandt,

...for the 5 star rating, and the generous tip!

~~Cynthia

Hi damiam-ga:

Thank you for your added comments.