By T.J. Ripley, AIRS Staff Writer

Looking for candidates at the highly trafficked job sites can be frustrating. There are certainly lots of candidates on these sites, but by the time you contact them many are already entertaining other offers or have just accepted new positions.

Obviously, you can't afford to pass up all the opportunities at such sites, but to be more effective you need to expand your searches. You need to cover territory that your competitors aren't exploring. One such territory is the world of ISPs (Internet Service Providers).

ISPs are more than just companies that provide access to the Internet and an email address. They often provide space on their servers for their customers' personal homepages. It is here that you want to look for candidates.

There are lots of ISPs out there…over 7000. Though it may seem difficult to find ones hosting candidates homepages, tracking down ISPs is easy if you have the right tool. Check out the ISP Directory on the AIRS Search Tools site. Here you can look up ISPs based on state, area code, and metro region. With a nicely structured interface, this sites provides a way to find all the ISPs - from small local firms to major national providers - that serve any particular area of interest.

While the big national ISPs contain lots of resumes and personal homepages of passive candidates all over the country, the smaller local ISPs are great places to look too.

The big bonus with looking at local ISPs is that you know the candidates are in that area. If you're looking for candidates in Maine, you know that if you search through an ISP based in Maine, such as Great Works Internet, everyone on the service is actually from Maine. You don't need to limit your searches of the site by geographic region.