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the bomber
the bomber

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How I stopped missing the best freelance gigs with simple filters

#freelance #automation #leadgeneration

Ever feel like the best freelance jobs slip through the cracks?

I’m a contractor here in Palm Beach County, and I rely on a small home‑run lead scanner to pull job posts from a dozen boards. The problem? I was getting flooded with old or irrelevant listings and the real opportunities got lost in the noise.

1⃣ Set a recency window per board

Different boards update on different schedules. A 24‑hour window works for fast‑moving sites like Upwork, but a 72‑hour window is more realistic for niche boards that only refresh a few times a week.

# Example: apply board‑specific recency limits
RECENCY = {
    "upwork": 24,   # hours
    "guru": 48,
    "localboard": 72,
}

def is_recent(post):
    max_age = RECENCY.get(post.board, 48)
    return (now - post.timestamp).total_seconds() / 3600 <= max_age
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2⃣ Add simple rule checks to weed out noise

A few quick regex rules catch most junk:

  • Exclude posts that contain "internship" or "unpaid".
  • Require at least one keyword from your service list (e.g., "electrician", "HVAC", "roof repair").
  • Drop listings that have a salary range below your minimum rate. 
EXCLUDE_PATTERNS = [r"internship", r"unpaid"]
KEYWORDS = ["electrician", "hvac", "roof repair"]
MIN_RATE = 30  # $/hour

def passes_rules(post):
    text = f"{post.title} {post.description}".lower()
    if any(re.search(p, text) for p in EXCLUDE_PATTERNS):
        return False
    if not any(k in text for k in KEYWORDS):
        return False
    if post.rate and post.rate < MIN_RATE:
        return False
    return True
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3⃣ Combine the filters and keep the list tidy

Run the two checks together before you push the leads to your inbox or Slack channel. The result is a short, high‑quality list you can actually act on.

filtered = [p for p in incoming_posts if is_recent(p) and passes_rules(p)]
send_to_slack(filtered)
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Since tightening the windows and adding those rule checks, my inbox is no longer a dump of stale ads. I spend less time scrolling and more time bidding on jobs that actually match my trade. If you’re juggling multiple boards, give these tweaks a try—you’ll see the difference within a day.

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