Well it all depends on what you are looking for.

• PVPers will want a pvp corp with dedicated voice coms, their own killboard, a pool of Fleet Commanders and fellow pvp pilots to fly with.

• Miners/Indy types will probably look for experienced pilots of the same type, a corp with it's own POS's, mineral buying programs, access to blueprints, access to a nullsec base of operations.

• PVE'ers will want a low-tax environment, a high-sec base close to good agents, possibly help in grinding standings, and people to mission with.

EVERYONE can benefit from well run forums, active members, active leadership, a corp with future goals/plans or clear purpose and regular ops/events. As for a website - well it is nice to have but not essential to a good corp - a forum usualy is though.

9 times out of 10 how happy you are in a corp will come down to how well you fit in with the people in the corp, and this is often something you can only determine once you have spent some time with them.

To someone searching on the Eve-O forums I would say try and match up as many of your own requirements as possible with what is listed in the adverts and then have a chat with the recruiter to try and get a better feel of what they are about. If they throw a lot of "we're hoping to do X soon" or "we dont have X yet" and it is essential to what you are looking for (especially if it is a new corp) then be wary that it might not appear at all.

If you post your own advert and people reply then be wary of the "cut and paste"ers - who also paste the same wall of text into everyone elses "looking for corp" advert. Talk to people in game (when I say "talk" it doesnt have to be in voice, can have a chat in a chatbox) and try to get a better feel from them that way.

A final word to the carebear types - always check to see if the corp you are joining has any active war-decs active against them and ask if the corp has a "war-dec" back-up plan in place. A VERY good pve corp of any kind will have thought about how they are going to deal with this.