Stick to looking for professional qualifications, and be fair. Reading a freelancer's postings to newsgroups can give you a sense of how the person communicates, as well as give you an idea of the depth of their expertise, if you are hiring them because they are expert on a specific topic. There are thousands of e-mail discussion lists on the Internet, and odds are that the freelancer you're thinking of hiring participates in one or more. Many e-mail lists have associated searchable Web archives. If the person's postings contain less than perfect writing, don't judge them too harshly based on this informal communication.
Emotions also come out easily for many people when they participate in online forums.
But if the person appears to regularly be abusive toward others in such forums, you might want to rethink hiring them. This increasingly common work arrangement makes it imperative that you do a background check on those freelancers you are thinking of using. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce or redistribute any material from this document, in whole or in part, without written permission from Content Exchange .