More Things to Send To Clients

Yesterday, I shared 25 things you can send to clients in your email marketing. Here are 25 MORE ideas for you!

26. Answer the most frequently asked questions you get. This is a great email to add to an autoresponder sequence.

27. Announce a beta test. For example, say you’re promoting a new membership program. You can launch a “beta” version at a discount for a few weeks before launching the full priced version.

28. Tell your client's success stories. For example, “How This Woman Got Two Job Offers From Her LinkedIn Profile"

29. Critique a method you disagree with — or take a contrarian view. For example, “Why you shouldn't use informational interviewing as a job search strategy."

30. Ask your readers a question. Start a two-way dialogue to really build your connection with your community.

31. Offer a series of tips on a topic. For example, "10 Ways to Tweet Your Way To Your Next Job"

32. Give them a free MP3 download. This works a lot better than reading information for a lot of people.

33. Put the time constraint in the headline. For example “A Seat for You – Only Until Tomorrow.”

34. Go against something you said a while ago. For example, if you’ve been against using Facebook in the job search and came across new research that changed your mind, write a detailed post to your list.

35. Have a question panel. Post the same question to a panel of experts and email out their answers.

36. Poll your audience for their tips. Share the best ones with your list.

37. Teach them something that depends on them having your product. For example, teach people advanced strategies for LinkedIn (after they've purchased your introductory LinkedIn training program).

38. Do a motivational email. Instead of how-to content, have an email just dedicated to getting people fired up and motivated.

39. Let people pre-order an upcoming product at a discount. (For example, your new information product — like an ebook.)

40. Send an affiliate promotion for a product you genuinely believe in. Make sure you tell your personal story about why you like the product before promoting it.

41. Make something seem easy. For example, “How to Find a New Job in 15 Minutes a Day.”

42. Do something outside the ordinary. For example, write about a tangential industry. As a resume writer, you might write about working with a therapist when you get stuck in your career.

43. Give a personal share. Tell a story that’s mostly designed to let your readers get to know you more.

44. Apologize. If you think you’ve been making a mistake in your company, come clean and apologize. For example, if you’ve been over-promoting LinkedIn as a job search strategy, admit your mistake and tell people how you plan to change going forward.

45. Make a comparison. For example, how your method for job search is like how Michael Jackson trains for basketball.

46. Appeal to someone’s sense of security. Explain how an updated resume can help them live a more secure life.

47. Write an email designed to generate social proof. Talk about your clients’ past results — include testimonials and stories from current/past resume clients.

48. Pick up a copy of Joe Sugarman’s “Triggers” and find an emotional trigger you can use. Write an email designed specifically to hit that trigger. 

49.  Every once in a while, send a simple sales message. Just a few benefit statements and a link to buy a product. This is a perfect strategy for your membership site or information product (ebook, special report, teleseminar recording/transcript).

50. Every once in a while, do a massive sale or re-launch of an old product. This can help you milk a lot more money out of things you’ve done in the past. (Again, a great strategy if you sell information products as part of your resume writing business.)

50 Things to Send Clients

As you know, I'm a HUGE proponent of having a mailing list. However, a lot of resume writers wonder, "What should I send my clients?"

If you’ve ever struggled with coming up with ideas on what to send your email list, struggle no longer. Here are some ideas you can use just about any time…any place. Keep this list handy to plan your email marketing or grab it whenever you need a quick idea.

1. X tips to do something. For example, “15 Tips for A Better LinkedIn Profile.”

2. Warnings. For example, “Warning: The Most Common Job Search Mistakes to Avoid.”

3. Put a discount in the subject line. For example, “$20 Off Between Now and 7 p.m!”

4. Share a new theory. Ask people to give feedback and share their experiences.

5. Tell a story. Did one of your jobseeking clients fail or succeed? What did they learn? Try to make the story emotional, which is far more engaging.

6. Breaking news. If you know news is coming, try to be there for it. For example, if you see that new unemployment data is coming out, write about it immediately.

7. Something simple they can do right away. For example, an easy 10 minute update to their LinkedIn profile they can perform immediately.

8. A video. Give people high quality video content. Use a video metrics tool like Wistia to measure your dropoff rates and see what kinds of video content people like.

9. Share a victory. For example, “How Jane Jobseeker Got a New Job That Pays $9,839 More a Year.”

10. Do a time-limited sale. Give a reason for it. For example, do a 48-hour Christmas sale. (The week between Christmas and New Year's is often a slow one for resume writers!)

11. Challenge your audience. “I Challenge You to Make 25 New LinkedIn Connections by This Time Next Month.”

12. Give them something they can copy. For example, “My exact formula for getting an interview from every resume you send."

13. Address a common question or objection. For example, “How to Prepare for a Job Interview"

14. Give away a coupon. People love getting discounts.

15. Hint at future products. If you're thinking about adding information products to your resume writing business — ebooks, membership site, webinars — tease it! Building anticipation makes great content, as well as boosts your sales for when you do your launch.

16. Explain a problem. For example, “The 5 Reasons 90% of Jobseekers Fail to Find a Job in 30 Days.”

17. Rant. Just say what’s on your mind. This often turns out better than you think.

18. Promote your Facebook page or Twitter. Use email to build your social media audience.

19. Give a step-by-step guide. Walk people through how to do something complicated — like prepare their resume for use with an Applicant Tracking System.

20. Give proof for something. For example, film yourself doing something your target client wants to learn how to do — for example, changing your LinkedIn profile headline. This builds your credibility.

21. Interview an expert. Send it out to your list for free.

22. Ask other people to guest write for you. Make sure it’s super high quality before sending it out to your list.

23. Talk about someone you respect. For example, you could write a review of a new job search book. (Be sure to include an Amazon affiliate link!)

24. An opportunity to work with you. Give people the opportunity to get coaching or direct contact with you somehow.

25. Do a Q&A mailbag. Answer questions you get in the mail via your newsletter. Use your questions as content.

More Things to Send To Clients

Five Tips for Creating a Client-Attracting Website

Because so many resume writers get clients from their website, building traffic to your website — and being able to keep visitors on the site (and have them come back often) — can be vital to the success of your resume business.

What's clear is this: The longer someone spends on your website, the higher your chance of converting them from a visitor to a client.

Here are five easy ways to make your website more "sticky" — remember, sticky sites are client-attracting sites!

1. Stand Out
As a resume writer, sometimes it's hard to stand out from the crowd — but with hundreds of resume business websites to choose from, you have to be different. Nobody will visit a boring "me too" site — it's that simple.

To stand out, you need to know your unique selling proposition (USP). What sets you apart from all the other websites talking about resumes and the job search?

You also need to have interesting content that gets your visitors talking. Give them a reason to talk about your site. Offer them ways to interact with you. (Include articles, videos, and podcasts on your site. Offer an invitation to a monthly webinar.) The more interested they are, the more likely they will become a client.

2. Emphasize the Benefits 
It's important to focus on what you can do for your visitors. People don't buy resumes — they buy a tool that will help them get an interview. They are buying your expertise.

Before you can emphasize the benefits, you first need to know who your ideal customer is. Who needs your information, product or service? What is their age, gender, average income, interests, location, etc.? Knowing this will help you write specifically to them and will help you know which benefits to emphasize on your resume website.

© Fotolia

3. Stay Focused
The quickest way to lose visitor interest is to confuse and overwhelm them.

Your website should have a clear focus and stay centered on that focus. In addition, if you want visitors to do something, tell them what to do! Giving them too many options and no direct instruction can quickly cause confusion. You need a call to action (CTA) on every page — that can be your phone number, an email address (or email form), or a signup form to receive a gift (like a free resume analysis, or special report on a job search-related topic).

4. Work Your Email List 
If you don't have an email list, start one! With all of the low-cost options available these days, there is no reason you should be without a way to contact those who are interested in what you have to offer. (The idea of the signup form to receive a resume critique or special report or ebook is the best way to build your list.)

Studies show that it takes contacting the average customer five to seven times before they will buy from you. This time is spent getting to know you and building their trust in what you offer.

If you don't have them on a mailing list and they forget to return to your website, you lose out on a huge amount of business. They'll just pick another resume writer!

5. Update Regularly
Part of what keeps visitors coming back is updating your site regularly. This is especially important if you have a blog. A stagnant site will cause visitors to quickly lose interest and never return. In addition, search engines love fresh content. Making the search engines happy means more traffic for you.

Making your site sticky can boost sales exponentially and it isn't hard to do. With a little thought and time, you will have your visitors begging for more... and you'll land more resume clients as a result too!

Blog Comments: Which Ones to Trash; Which Ones to Treasure

If you have a blog, you know that one of the tough decisions you have to make on a daily basis is which blog comments to keep (treasure!) and which ones to delete (trash!). Some comments are obviously spam and can be deleted without hesitation. But many blog comments I receive on this blog especially fall into a grey area. So how should you handle your blog comments?

The First Layer of Defense
First off, you should definitely have some sort of anti-spam mechanism installed on your blog. Askimet is a good anti-spam plug-in for WordPress blogs. You can also require folks to "log in" to comment on your blog posts. (This is the system I use.) This will help you get rid of 90% of the spam that you'll encounter.

Handwritten Spam
On the other hand, you'll get a fair amount of self-promotional messages that are actually handwritten. These won't get caught by your spam filter. The easiest way to recognize these is that it will be a general comment, followed by a link.

For example, here is a recent comment I received on a recent post, "Buying a Domain Name for Your Career Services Business."

If you see a message with a link in the body text that really doesn't add any value to your site, delete it.

Subtle Self-Promotions
You'll often get messages with the backlink embedded in the person's name and website. Whether or not you keep these comments depends mostly on the content of their comments.

If they're reading your posts and adding value to your site, then of course you should keep their comments. But if they're just commenting on your site generically to get a backlink to their site, then use your discretion.

A lot of comments fall into this grey area. They might not add a lot of value, but they are clearly not automated spammers. Some bloggers err on the side of deleting, while others err on the side of approving. It's up to you; there's no clear answer in this grey zone.

Here's an example of one of these comments:

The main reason why you'll get a lot of spam comments is to increase traffic to the commenter's website. This is a perfect example of one of these comments. It's important to remember that a lot of your commenters are going to be posting comments because they want a backlink to their site. That's not a bad thing.

It's only when they're detracting value from your site that you need to worry about it. Don't blame people for wanting to promote their websites.

Don't Delete Disagreeing Comments
Deleting dissenting comments is a big mistake. People who take the time to read everything you wrote and then share a dissenting opinion should be rewarded rather than silenced.

Someone might disagree with something you post this time, but could be a big fan of something you write next week. If you delete their comment, you'll lose them forever. Furthermore, the people who take the time to write a dissenting opinion are probably people who really care about your topic — Which means they are buyers and networkers.

In short, approve comments that add value, insights, or opinions to your blog. Delete comments that detract value, are self-promotional or are from people who clearly didn't read your post.

I would love to hear from YOU on this topic. Comment below!

Scheduling Social Media Into Your Resume Writing Business

One question I get from resume writers quite frequently is: "How do I use social media to promote my resume writing services, without having it become a time suck?"

Social media is an activity that can require a large time investment. As a busy resume writer and career services business owner, you may not have an abundance of free time available for social networking. But being effective on social media doesn't have to take hours out of your day.One of the best strategies to maximize social media involves scheduling your interactions.

© Fotolia

Step #1 Establish Social Media Goals
What do you want to accomplish with your social media interactions and efforts? What's your goal? The goal needs to be measurable and timely. For example, instead of saying, "I want to increase my followers or fans on my Facebook business page" you might say, "I want to increase my page 'Likes" by 300 fans in three months" or, "I want to increase my Twitter followers by 10% by the end of the first quarter 2013." Knowing the specific goal you want to accomplish will help you direct the time -- and resources -- you spend on social media so you maximize your efforts.

Step #2 Create a Plan to Achieve Your Specific Goals
The next step involves some planning. You want to outline a step-by-step procedure to reach your goal. For example, if your goal is to reach 300 new fans in three months, you can approach it several different ways. One way might be to launch a "Like My Facebook Fan Page" promotion where you hold a sweepstakes and award the winner a free resume or LinkedIn profile update. This promotion will undoubtedly require some work on your part. Outline the steps you need to take to make it happen.

On Twitter, you can spend 10 minutes each day following new people — one of the best ways to get followers yourself is to follow more people, and engage with them so they follow you back!

You can also "spend your way" to new fans. You can set up a Facebook ad campaign and invest a couple of dollars each day towards growing your fan base.

Step #3 Pull Out the Calendar
Assuming you know how much free time you have in the day, the next step is to grab a calendar and start scheduling your social networking activities. If you don't know how much free time you have in a day, consider tracking your time for a week or two. If you are unable to complete your task list each day, you may need to prioritize and restructure some of your plans.

Taking a look at your calendar, break your social networking tasks down into small, manageable steps. Ideally, nothing will take longer than 30 minutes. It can be anything from accepting friendships on Facebook and sending each person a personal message (and inviting them to "Like" your business page) to scheduling your tweets for the week (I recommend Hootsuite for this!). Identify the task, put it on your calendar, and attack your plan in bite-sized pieces.

Step #4 Follow Through and Assess
Try to stick to your plan for a few weeks. Then step back and assess. What's working? What isn't? Are you still trying to do too much? Are you procrastinating on your social media goals? Are you getting distracted from your goal once you log on? (Block off 30 minutes on your calendar. Tell yourself you will spend the first 10 minutes doing "work" and the other 20 minutes doing "fun" social media activities.) If necessary, rework your plan so that it fits your needs and goals better.

Step #5 Celebrate Success
Evaluate your progress -- did you achieve your goal? (Put the goal deadline on your calendar to remind yourself!) Once you've reached your goals, take some time to celebrate your accomplishment. Then set a new goal and repeat the process. Scheduling your social media efforts gives them a purpose. It helps you grow your business without wasting your valuable time.

Do's and Don'ts of Content Curation

The final post in this weeklong series on content curation is the "do's and don'ts."

• No matter where you publish, always remember to add something of your own to the curated content. Just sharing a link on Twitter isn't content curation; neither is copying and pasting sections of someone else's article to your blog, even if you give them attribution. 
• Try using your curated content as the basis for explaining your opinions, giving insights on a new topic, or exploring the opinions of others.

Did you miss any of this week's blog posts on content curation? Check them out here:
Curating Content to Attract New Clients
Best Practices in Content Curation
Where to Find Careers Content to Curate
Five Great Tools for Content Curation

Working With Challenging, Controlling, or Just Plain Pain-in-the-A$$ Clients

There has been a great discussion going on about "controlling" clients on the NRWA E-List as of late. My favorite tip list was shared by colleague Kelly Donovan, CPRW.

Here, with her permission, is Kelly's list of "PITA Warning Signs":

• Asking for a discount or questioning whether the investment is worth it.
• Saying their project will be "simple" (the "simple" ones are always PITAs!)
• Saying anything that reveals doubt/skepticism about your qualifications
• Mentioning they had a problem with another resume writer (ask for details!) 
• Asking for a watered-down version of your services with a lower price tag (is it really something you can scale down?)
• Calling/emailing with unusually high frequency (sign of being high-maintenance or disorganized)
• Calling before 8:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m.-ish (unless for a scheduled call)
• Complaining about any aspect of their experience with you (your voice mail, how long you took to get back to them, etc.) 

I wrote a previous blog post on the subject of challenging and pain-in-the-a$$ (PITA) clients in 2008 that also contains some warning signs to be wary of: "We Do Not Negotiate With Terrorists."

Kelly says when you encounter one of these warning signs, "trust your instincts and just say no. If they end up being a PITA, it won't be a profitable project regardless of whether you get paid (and keep it) or not."

Do you have other warning signs to share? Please add a comment!

Five Great Tools for Content Curation

As we've talked about in the previous posts in this week's blog series on content curation, as a content curator, your first and primary job is searching out valuable content that is relevant to your readers. The time you save creating original careers industry content will be spent hunting for it. While seeking the best content can be time-consuming, here are five tools that can help make the search easier.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts

Enter specific keywords and Google will send latest published content from everything it searches. Receive information via email or your Google Reader.

Google Alerts is a free service that lets you choose keywords and then tells you whenever new content has been posted using those keywords. You can find articles, blogs, stories, videos, and other content to share as soon as it has been indexed by Google. All you need to do is enter keywords and Google Alerts will either send you results via email or send them to your Google Reader account.

If you refine your Google Alerts keywords, you'll get more relevant results. One way to do this is to use quotation marks. When you search for 'interview preparation' rather than the terms interview and preparation separately, it will only bring up results where the exact phrase 'interview preparation' is used (and not every mention of the words 'interview' or 'preparation'). You can also use Boolean search terms such as AND, NOT, and so on to refine searches. (You'll find it takes some time to refine your Google Alerts to get the types of results you're looking for.)

Google Reader

Google Reader – http://www.google.com/reader

Organize your feed subscriptions so you can keep track of the latest content from your favorite sources.

Google Reader is a tool that lets you subscribe to certain blogs and websites. If you use Google Alerts, you'll start to see the same sites popping up again and again with content you can use. You can use Reader to follow these sites directly. Just like Google Alerts, Google Reader offers advanced search features that help you refine your search and cut down on sifting time.

There are a number of free and paid mobile apps that help you use Google Reader on your smart phone, such as Feedr and Reeder. These are great if you're searching for content on-the-go using your mobile device. You can quickly review your feeds and even share directly from within the app.

Facebook Lists
Facebook originally launched its Lists feature to protect users' privacy, but its Subscribe tool has made it a great way to search for content through this social media site. It works in much the same way as Google Reader, but everything is done through Facebook.

Journalists, bloggers, celebrities, organizations and others whose content your readers like may have a Subscribe button on their profiles. When you subscribe to their page it adds their news to your feed. You can then customize those settings to make sure you're getting the content you want.

Twitter
Twitter makes it easy to find content by searching for keywords using its hashtags. Hashtags are simply keywords with a hash (#) in front of them. A few examples would be #interviewquestions, #resumetips, #careerchange and #jobsearch. When you enter one of these terms, you get the latest posts that include them.

Twitter Lists are similar to Google Reader. They filter tweets and help you organize them. Anyone can make a list and you can follow them. What you then see is all of the sources where they're pulling their content from. So, if you find a Twitter user such as a famous marketer or a careers industry expert who shares great content, you can subscribe to them and to any of their lists. This gives you their top picks, which you can then share with your followers.

SmartBrief on Your Career
If you're just getting started with content curation, one good (FREE) email newsletter to sign up for is SmartBrief on Your Career. It's a content curation site itself, but it can lead you to resources that you can then curate for use with your own clients. The editors of SmartBrief on Your Career choose articles from "thousands of news sites, blogs, and other sources." You can start your content curation with SmartBrief, but be sure to provide your own insight and analysis to the articles you share.

Remember: Curation, Not Collection
These are all easy ways to get content to share with jobseekers, but remember that curation isn't the same as collection. Be selective about what you share, making sure it is relevant to your readers. Give them only what you think will be helpful or interesting to them, and then add your own comments or insights. With content curation, less is more. Don't share 25 links — instead, share 2, or 5.

Other ideas:

Social Mention - http://www.socialmention.com/
Search social networks for content based on keywords and receive results via email. Also has a widget for tracking realtime news.

Monitter - http://monitter.com/
For Twitter search – Get real time and trending search results based on keywords

Social bookmarking sites
Most social bookmarking sites make it easy to keep track of content you find interesting so that you can go back to it later – Delicious, Diigo, Stumbleupon, Reddit, etc.

Instapaper – http://www.instapaper.com/
Tool for saving content to read later. Great for when you come across something interesting but just don’t have even a few minutes to look at it.

Alltop - http://my.alltop.com/
Organize your favorite content sources so you can access them easily. You can also share your collections.

Flipboard - http://flipboard.com/
App for iPhone, iPad and Android that organizes your content sources into a magazine format in which you can “flip” the pages with your finger. You can also share from within the app.

Next Up (Last Post in the Series): Do's and Don'ts of Content Curation

Where To Find Careers Content to Curate

This is the third post in a weeklong series on content curation. I've talked about what content curation is, and shared some best practices for content curation. But I'll bet you're wondering, "Where do I find the stuff to share?"

Where To Find Content to Curate 
The idea of content curation sounds simple enough. You find content your readers would like and share it with them, either summarizing it or just adding your opinions somewhere in the post. But where do you start? There's obviously a LOT of great content out there (and lots of NOT-SO-GREAT content too!). Once you start curating content, you'll realize that it takes a bit of focus and creativity to find really good content — content that is worth sharing.

Scheduling Your Content Search
The best way to find content is to work it into your regular routine. It's much better than spending a whole day tracking down content all at once. It's better because when you spend a little time each day, you find fresh content that's up to date. You also keep yourself from burning out searching the Internet for things to share. While you're curating content, you're also learning new things yourself — so the time you spend on content curation each day can be like a little mini "learning break" for you.

Choose a time to set aside each day. Try to find a time when you're most likely to enjoy the search. For example, first thing in the morning before you start your day, it might be fun to scan the Web looking for news. Or, you might prefer to do it at night while you're catching up on some TV.

Searching for content is also a great activity to do when you're killing time waiting for something. You might have 10 spare minutes before the kids come home, 20 minutes while waiting for a ballet lesson to finish, or a half hour while waiting on hold with tech support. These little nooks and crannies of time aren't great for serious, focused work, but you can use them to find content. You might not take the time to do the commenting at this point, but simply locating the content is going to give you a leg up when it comes time to actually curating. I recommend using Evernote to store your un-curated clips. You can start an Evernote Note for specific subjects and then copy-and-paste links into the Note for later use. (Have I mentioned how much I love Evernote?)

Resisting Shiny Object Syndrome
The Internet is full of shiny objects that can distract you and lead you astray. When you're looking for content, it's easier than ever to get distracted. You'll find something of interest to you and start reading, even though you have no intention of sharing it.

First of all, set aside your content search time and designate it for only searching. During that time, say to yourself, "I'm only looking for content to share." Every time you stop on a site and begin reading, ask yourself if it's something you might share. If it's not, save the link so that you can read it later in your spare time. (Again, this is a great use for an Evernote note called "To Read." Simply copy the link and paste it into the note, and move on!)

Search with an Open Mind
You need to stick to the task at hand, but don't get stuck in a rut. When you ask yourself whether the content in question is sharable, be open-minded. Try to see if there's a way you can tie it into your niche. Look for creative ideas from other industries. If you can do this successfully, you'll come up with unique content other resume writers wouldn't find.

For example, if you have a blog on executive career search, you may share an article on the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. You might reference how 007 works with a team to achieve outrageous objectives. If you work with students, you might share content about zombies. Why? Because this will attract their attention AND it's important to teach them about not "following the pack" when it comes to job search.

Think outside the box and don't forget that you can also share content you disagree with. This often gets the best reaction from readers.

Watch your audience's response to your content and judge whether or not it was a good find based on that response. Don't make the mistake of choosing content you like; always choose content that your readers will engage with.

Next up: Five Great Tools for Content Curation

Best Practices in Content Curation

Building on yesterday's post on content curation, today I want to share with you some "best practices" for curating content in your career services business.

As I talked about yesterday, content curation is all about providing jobseekers with the information they're looking for — and adding value to that content at the same time. It isn't difficult to do successfully, as long as you use these guidelines.

Know What Jobseekers Want
Successful content curation requires that you choose content that your readers (jobseekers) will find useful or intriguing. Start by understanding your readers and what they're looking for online, information-wise. The better you know their interests and needs, the better you'll be able to deliver the most relevant content. Some jobseekers are interested in the resume (they may have one that's not working, or they may be looking to create one for the first time); others want to know how social media can help in their job search (LinkedIn strategies especially); while others may be in the interviewing stage and be looking for ideas on questions to ask or salary negotiation techniques. Understanding what topics you can curate is the first step.

Follow Other Curators
The best way to learn any skill is to imitate those that came before. Follow other content curators and see not only what kind of information they share — but how they go about doing it. You can learn a great deal about sharing content and engaging readers by simply paying attention to the methods of the experts. Wendy Enelow does an excellent job of this for career services professionals in the Career Thought Leaders E-Bridge newsletter.

Here's a snippet from the Nov. 1 E-Bridge (Issue #20):

Choose the Right Tool
There are many good tools to help you deliver content to your readers. In fact, there are too many. Resist the temptation to bounce around among different tools. Instead, choose one that you like and that does what you need it to do, and stick with that one. You can deliver your content via email newsletter (I recommend AWeber), blog posts, via Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn (simply sharing links to content you come across), or using specific content curation tools. Pinterest can also be a great tool for curating content — especially those with strong visuals. (One great tip I heard last week was to curate videos in a YouTube channel using Pinterest. I did this a few weeks ago with "Call Me Maybe" videos on YouTube on a Pinterest board.)

Add Value
Don't just present the content "as is." Always add some extra value to it by commenting on it, giving it your own spin or opinion, or even contradicting it and creating some controversy. A blog post that starts off with, "I found this article online and I totally disagree with it," can get others commenting and giving their two cents. This is especially important when curating content and sharing it via Twitter and Facebook. Even a sentence or two can increase engagement and discussion.

Quote Articles
One important note about content curation: when you refer to an article in a blog post, don't just put a link to it. This makes your readers follow the link, which is extra work for them and also leads them off your site. Instead, include a snippet or quote so that your reader doesn't have to go anywhere to get the gist of what the article says. Then they can make an informed decision as to whether they want to read further. (Note: When using Twitter to share content, you obviously can't do this -- but it does work when using Facebook, LinkedIn, blog posts, and content curation tools.)

Mix It Up
Don't present the same type of content in your content curation efforts. Mix it up. Rather than just curating articles and blog posts, share videos, infographics, resource sites, and podcasts as well. By curating content from as many different sources as possible, you'll make the learning and reading experience more interesting both for your audience and for yourself.

Always double-check your content curation from the reader's point of view to see if it's truly providing value. Is it better to read your posts or just go straight to the source? Put yourself in their shoes and you'll understand what you need to do to add value to the content you're curating.

Next up: Where To Find Careers Content To Curate

Curating Content to Attract New Clients

I'm a content junkie, I guess. If you've been following me for any length of time, you've probably figured out that I'm a huge fan of using content to build your career services business. Whether that's using content to attract media attention ("Feed the Media" special report and teleseminar), or blogging ("Resume Writer's Guide to Blogging for Profit and Promotion" special report), or using content in many other ways ("Using Content to Capture New Career Clients" teleseminar, "Resume Writer's Guide to Article Marketing" special report, "Resume Writer's Guide to Profiting From Speaking: How to Use Teleseminars, Webinars, Workshops and Seminars To Attract New Clients and Generate Revenue" special report, and "Capture Clients With Content: Use Information to Attract Resume Clients" special report), one of the most powerful tools we have as resume writers is the knowledge we possess about the job search process and how to help jobseekers be more successful in their job search efforts.

But what if you don't want to generate original content? What if you want to instead focus on sharing best practices and targeted information? Then content curation might be exactly what you should focus on.

Content curation means pulling together content from various sources and presenting it to the reader in your own unique way. It may be easier to understand content curation by defining what it is not. Content curation doesn't mean presenting a list of stories or a weekly roundup of links. It's definitely not a simple cut-and-paste job where you just point to content that's out there.

Instead, the idea is to take the information available and make sense of it for your readers. It starts with carefully sifting through all that's out there and selecting the best items that would interest your readers. You then put this content together into an easy-to-digest format that tells a story, making it relevant, valuable and memorable.

Why Curate Content?
The content is already out there for your readers to enjoy, so why put it together for them? This is the key to good content curation — it's not just a pile of information. We're inundated by a deluge of information every minute of every day. The Internet is wonderful because of this, but it also can be overwhelming. Everyone has to sift through all that's out there to find what they're truly interested in reading. A good content curator does this for you, and builds a following of loyal readers as a result.

How Content Curation Helps You
Like the content you write yourself, the content you curate can help you establish authority and create a connection with your readers.

Think of it from the reader's point of view. Your blog or website is a source of the exact information they want on a regular basis. It saves them from having to do their own sifting online. Over time, they come to see you as a go-to source for their information. They see you as a knowledgeable expert in the career services field.

If your content is relevant and helpful to your readers, they'll keep coming back for more. It doesn't matter to them whether you're the actual content creator or not.

Curating content should be taken just as seriously as creating your own content from scratch, but one of the advantages of this approach is that it is easier and more cost effective than writing your own content or hiring a writer. It's just a matter of understanding your readers well and choosing the right content.

Check out: Best Practices for Content Curation

Create an Email Marketing Course to Promote Your Resume Writing Business

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Even with the popularity of social media, email marketing remains one of the best ways to connect with prospective resume clients. The key is getting them to provide you with their email address. One way to capture email addresses of prospects is to enroll them in an email course! How do you get them to sign up for the email course? Help them solve a job search-related problem!

An email course combines email marketing with information marketing. Use an autoresponder like AWeber to set up the enrollment process (AWeber will automatically generate the code to copy-and-paste onto your website or blog to capture email addresses and it will also handle the fulfillment of the delivery of the emails to those who sign up.)

Probably the most intimidating part of this process is coming up with the content for the email course. But actually, that's not as difficult as it seems either! You can either re-purpose information you already share with your clients -- or use Pass-Along Materials.

(You can take almost any of the Pass-Along Materials and divide it into lessons. Each message can be anywhere from 150 to 1,000 words. Make sure each email message builds upon the last one while also offering a benefit. Be sure to include a call to action. For example, you may direct readers to visit your blog for more information on the topic, or you might send them to a sales page on your website where they can learn more about your services related to that topic.)

Your email course needs to scream BENEFIT to your readers. It's not as difficult as it might sound. One way to easily demonstrate the benefit is to position it in the title of the course. For example,"Five Ways to Make More Money in This Job -- Or Your Next Job" can walk them through the principles of salary negotiation.

Think about how you can provide the most value to prospective resume clients and then craft a course that solves a problem for them. Make sure the title of the course makes the benefit apparent. (One recommendation: Don't teach subscribers how to write more effective resumes or cover letters -- these types of courses are not as effective in converting prospects into clients as email courses focusing on topics that are related to other areas of the job search -- LinkedIn, salary negotiation, online reputation management, etc.)

When formatting your email course, each lesson should follow an easy-to-use format. This system ensures your readers know what to expect. It also makes it easier for you to create valuable content with less effort. Here's a template you can use or re-work to fit your needs:

• Address your reader by name and start the lesson with a short sentence that identifies the topic of the lesson. 
• Write the content of your lesson. Use bullet points, steps, or numbers to help make it easy to read.
• End the lesson with a look ahead to the next lesson. This helps motivate your reader to look forward to your emails. 
• Include a signature and a P.S. that includes a call to action. 
• Start the next lesson by briefly reviewing what they learned in the previous lesson and introducing the current lesson. 

If you currently have an email marketing system in place, consider updating it with a course. You can use it to drive traffic, build a larger list, sell more products or services, and strengthen your relationships with prospective — and even current — clients.