Specialized job boards enable employers to reach a narrowly focussed base of potential hires. Catering to a particular niche, these sites can easily outperform more general boards if they have the necessary traffic.

In April 1999, Jeff Gaulin, a 28-year old London, Ont. native and journalism graduate, created Jeff Gaulin's Journalism Job Board as a way of helping his classmates find work.

His idea of providing media editors with an easy and free way of reaching new hires has been a clear sucess. The site has received more than 100,000 hits since its inception, and Gaulin says he posts an average of four jobs a day.

"As for employers, while some of them can afford to advertise their job openings, most of them are skeptical about using the Web and certainly wouldn't pay to put information on the Internet," Gaulin says. "(My site) is more cost-effective than any other business out there. Employers take all the benefits of attracting qualified applicants without any risks, such as the cost of advertising."

His roster of employers, who have hired applicants from the site, includes the Ottawa Sun, Wallaceburg Courier Press, CBC Newsworld "Culture Shock", Dow Jones Canada Chapters.ca and AOL Canada. A prestigious list, indeed.

"I had an editor, who's been hiring journalists for 25 years, say to me that my website's been the best thing he's seen in that entire time to help him," Gaulin says. "I really appreciate that kind of feedback."

Gaulin plans to add a resume database, a discussion board for journalists and online career counselling services, such as resume and cover-letter editing, to his site in the near future.

"My website has a very specific audience, so when employers post jobs on my site, they aren't marketing wildly as they are with newspaper ads."

Like Jeff Gaulin's Journalism Job Board, many specialized websites allow employers to post job advertisements. While many specialized job boards like Gaulins' are free of charge, this is not always the case. Be sure to identify the costs - if any - before going ahead to place an ad.

MultiMediator.Com has a free job board that reaches the multimedia industry. As a part of a larger website, multimedia firms can also list their company in MultiMediator's database of Canadian multimedia firms. Many job seekers use MultiMediator not only to browse the current job postings, but also to locate firms that could be potential employers.

How then, can you find the specialized job boards that fit the needs of your firm?

If you know of an industry-specific 'hub' - a website that is at the centre of its industry, often offering articles, resources and information - that is a great place to start your search. If you do not know of such a website, or your initial searches don't produce useful results, the search engines will be your second-best starting point.

In the search engines, simply type an occupation or industry specific keyword, along with the word 'job' to bring up a number of matches.

The one problem with this approach is that it will bring up a mix of job boards and individual job postings. Techniques you can use to refine your search include:

• Restrict the scope of your search by using the search engine's advanced features. For example, with AltaVista's advanced search, you can use the operator 'near' to ensure the keywords are located within 15 words of each other on the pages that are returned in the search.

• Use the phrase "job board" or the word 'portal' in your keyword search.

• Use a directory such as Yahoo.com to find websites catering to a specific topic, and then use those websites to search for relevant job boards.

• Use word of mouth references. Ask people who are members of the associated community where the best job sites are.

• Don't overlook lists of popular sites on homepages such as "Melanie's List of Best Job Sites". Despite the homey appearance, these hand-picked lists can often be a wonderful reference for specific topics.

It may take time to find the best job board for a specific niche, but the initial time investment can result in long-term gains if it enables your company to reach the best potential hires - possibly for free. For employers looking for specialized skills, using a specialized job board should top your list of places to advertise online.