Free Resume Examples

A few months ago, I blogged about "Free Resume Samples On Your Website-Yes or No." My feelings on the subject are "generally, yes."

To take this idea a bit further, a while back, many of us in the careers industry received a solicitation from a website looking for resume samples -- FreeResumeExamples.net. The pitch was that we'd be able to expose our work to prospective clients, at no charge to us. Their business model was simple -- attract visitors to their site by offering them free resume samples, and make money off the traffic by cashing in on Google ads.

Wanting to know if this was a solid lead generation idea for professional resume writers, I e-mailed a couple of colleagues whose work is featured on the site.

"I'll market myself anywhere if it's free," says Greg Faherty, CPRW, of A Perfect Resume. "Every bit of exposure helps. Unfortunately, I don't have exact numbers for how many people actually ordered resumes from me after seeing the resume samples posted there -- maybe five or six?"

It was Greg's Military Conversion resume sample that caught my attention -- according to FreeResumeExamples.net, that resume has registered more than 1,000 views since being added in August 2007. Considering Greg pays nothing for the exposure, generating 5-6 sales (at an average fee of $200) is an extra $1,000. Not bad.

Another satisfied participant is Courtney Pike, with JobBound.

"We have received a significant amount of traffic on jobbound.com due to FreeResumeExamples.net. We track our clients and sales, and many customers have found JobBound through Internet searches," Pike noted. "We think JobBound's work speaks for itself, so we saw this site as a great venue to showcase our expertise."

Pike said they would "do it again" as the partnership has improved their web site statistics.

Another resume writer, Margaret Burkholder, of Advantage Writing in Tucson, hasn't had much luck with the site.

"I have not gotten any business from the site. All of my business has been generated locally from personal efforts, the Yellow Pages, and 'word of mouth,'" she notes. "I received an email soliciting resume samples and I responded, thinking I'd have nothing to lose and only something to gain."