Every few days I spend a few minutes quickly scanning several freelance writing job boards to see if there is anything interesting that looks worth my time to apply. Job boards are not the most time effective way to land a gig since most posted jobs get hundreds of replies, so I only use job boards as an additional source of marketing and only spend a little bit of time each week on the boards. But since I have landed a few contracts from job ads—usually ones that I was uniquely qualified for—I do make a point of doing a quick scan, in between making direct contact with professionals and businesses through networking and letters of introduction.

Last year, I began noticing that there were almost no jobs for content marketing writers. Then one day, I happened to skim an ad for a copywriter and realized that they were actually looking for content marketing, but the company didn’t even realize the difference between the two types of writing. The ad wanted a writer to provide educational material on their blog that was not sales oriented, but would be informational. The company was also looking for a writer to help share these posts on social media, ghostwrite articles for trade publications, and possibly work on a whitepaper in the future. This job ad was describing content marketing to a T.

So, my tip for today is: Be sure to carefully read all job descriptions for ‘copywriter’ and ‘freelance writer’ positions since many hiring managers confuse copywriting and content marketing writing.

Once I had this light bulb moment, I began carefully reading all copywriter job ads and was surprised at the number of copywriting positions that were actually content marketing positions. Many people, both writers and corporate types, refer all customer deliverables as copywriting instead of differentiating between content marketing and sales promotions. We will discuss the difference in the near future. But I wanted to pass this tip on to you right away so you don’t miss out on any potential jobs while I am writing the post.

What tips do you have for finding content marketing writing gigs on the job boards?