How to Embed a Google Calendar in Your Website Using Iframe Code

If you're a careers industry professional who hosts a lot of events or wants to create a resource for jobseekers, a Google calendar can be a good way to organize the information.

But how do you display the information onto your website so other people can access it?

The answer is to embed the Google calendar on your website -- using iframe code.

First, log into your Google account and create your calendar.

Then, go to "Settings" under the gear on the top righthand side of the page.

Click the blue "Calendars" tab.

Click the calendar you want to work on (listed on the left) -- you may have one calendar, or multiple calendars associated with that Google account.

Next to "Calendar Address," click the blue "HTML" button.

Click the blue "Configuration Tool" button in the popup.

On the next screen, under "Calendars to Display" (on the left), check the boxes for all the calendars you want to display. (As I mentioned, you can display a single calendar or multiple calendars all on one page).

Next, on the top of that page, click "Update HTML."

Copy-and-paste that code to embed the calendar.

NOTE: You must make sure the privacy settings on EACH individual calendar are set to PUBLIC if you want it to show up. (If your calendar page is blank, this might be the issue.)

Don't Make These Four Mistakes With Your Careers Content

Writing good content does not have to be hard, but it does require a little bit of thinking it through before you post. Some resume writers make mistakes with their careers content when they're first getting started with content marketing to grow their resume writing business.

Here are some of the most common mistakes you can make with your careers industry content:

Mistake #1
Posting low quality content in order to just post something. Consistency is important, but not more important than quality. Yes, more content might mean more traffic and new visitors -- but if your content is crap, will the visitors stick around? Will they find you credible? Will they visit again? Will they buy from you?

Mistake #2
Making it hard to read the material on your website. Consider your font type, font size, contrast between the words and the background (black words on white background is easiest on the eyes), use of white space and graphics, and keep your paragraphs short. This is a fairly easy fix.

Mistake #3
The content is not relevant to your career clients. It seems obvious that an article about food is not what your visitors want to see when they come to your resume writing blog, but this type of thing happens often. Define your site and stick to the topic or a complimentary subject. The only time the readers should see something about food on your resume writing blog is if you're working it into an analogy post or as an example of something jobseekers can learn from.

Mistake #4
Writing for the search engines and stuffing keywords. While "chief technology executive salary negotiation" might be an excellent keyword phrase according to searches, there is a reason why there are not very many exact matches. When this phrase is in your title and seven more times in the article, it makes for a pretty awful reading experience for your viewers. You are writing for search engines and stuffing keywords -- which can get you in trouble with Google.

Again, writing good content does not have to be hard. Put yourself in your prospective resume client's shoes and write what you would want to read yourself. Ultimately, your site needs to serve your readers first in order to ultimately serve you.

Is Your Website Too Ugly to Get You Clients?

Ten years ago, I'd estimate that about half of resume writers didn't have a website. They were expensive to set up (most resume writers couldn't set them up themselves), and -- at the time, folks weren't as comfortable buying services online as they are now.

Today, if you don't have a website, you're a rarity among resume writers. But having a website isn't enough -- you must have a GREAT website. Your website is usually the place where prospective clients first learn about you and what you have to offer. The first impression you make is critical.

You probably realize this yourself from thinking about the websites you look at most often. The best websites are attractively designed but more important -- they are well organized. A prospective client can clearly identify what you do, who you serve, and how you can help. And, it succinctly communicates how they can begin working with you.

With today's technology, it's easier than ever to have a website ... but it's also easy to have an ineffective, and sometimes even UGLY website.

Yes, you can set up a website in 5 or 10 minutes, using a platform that gives you everything you need.

But that's not the end of the story. Think about a cupcake. You know what the finished product is supposed to look like — yummy and good smelling. But, just because someone sets out the ingredients doesn't guarantee that you will put them together in the right away to come up with a scrumptious cupcake. It could turn out to be a mess.

It's the same with your website. Just because you throw some parts and pieces together doesn't mean that the end result will be "yummy" for prospective visitors. It takes some thought — and planning — to create a website that will attract clients.

What are some characteristics of ugly websites?

• Not user-friendly. You've done the hard work of getting a prospective client to your website. Now, help them become a client by making your site easy to navigate, structured logically to address three main issues: who you are, how you can help, and how they can start working with you.
• Links that don't work. Test all of your buttons before you go live. But once the site is up, make sure the links keep working. There's nothing worse than broken links for driving a site visitor away.
• Poor color scheme. It is important that your content and images are easy to see and read. White text on a black background is hard to read. The same goes for lettering in yellow on a white background. Choose black on white for your content.
• Pop-ups. While one pop-up can be effective to offer a free special report to build your mailing list, but one should be your limit. If someone has to keep clicking to exit boxes all the time, the reader will be distracted and annoyed.

Take a look at your website. Are you guilty of any of these? Don't worry. It can be fixed.

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.

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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!

Pros and Cons of Using a Template-Based Website

When you set up a website for your business, or decide that it's time to do a complete overhaul of your existing site, you'll be faced with a number of design decisions. Much of the focus will be on how your new site should look and how people will interact with it, and rightly so. As the internet "face" of your resume writing business, these are very significant issues.

But you also need to decide how your website is going to function behind the scenes, and choose the structure and framework on which your website will be built. If you are using a popular framework such as WordPress, Joomla, or perhaps using one of the pre-built websites that your hosting provider offers, you'll be using what is known as a "template." Using website templates provides a number of pros and cons that you should carefully consider before going forward.

Most resume writers equate the word "template" with "bad" -- i.e., a Microsoft Word resume template. Templates are really much more than that, however. They're simply structure. If you customize the template, it can simply be a good foundation upon which to build. In my book, "Write Great Resumes Faster," I talk about using a template that simply has placeholders for the information you want to include in the resume (often, advanced formatting tricks -- like section dividers.) In the same way, a website template can offer advanced customization features as well.

By the way, "Write Great Resumes Faster" is the October special report offered in the BeAResumeWriter.com website. Join the Bronze level for just $10 a month, and you'll get access to the $14 "Write Great Resumes Faster" book as just one of your membership benefits for the month.

"Pros" of Using a Web Template
One advantage of using a web template is that you can get your website up and running much more quickly than if you were starting from scratch. A web template is usually ready to go right out of the box, or very close to it -- you still need to customize the template for your business name, contact information, and the like, but you're starting from framework.

Because they save you time, templates are also likely to save you money. There's a good chance you can find a free or open source template to fit your needs, or that is already included in the cost of your web hosting package. But even if you decide to purchase a template, it is likely to be significantly less expensive than either hiring a website programmer to build your site from scratch, or trying to learn to do so yourself.

Templates that are in wide usage by other websites are also likely to be stable and less likely to break down. Any bugs or defects in the code are likely to be discovered and possibly remedied by other users. Some popular templates even have discussion board communities on which you can find tips on maximizing the effectiveness of the template.

I've managed (but not built from scratch) Joomla and Wordpress-based sites, and although there is a learning curve, I found it fairly easy to edit existing content (especially changing out existing text) and even adding new pages.

Cons of Using a Website Template
On the other hand, popular templates suffer from a significant disadvantage because when a template is popular, it means that there are likely a number of other websites that look quite similar to how yours would look. Many businesses know that their success is going to depend, at least in part, on their ability to stand out from their competitors. Sometimes trying to start with a template and then undertake significant modifications winds up breaking a template, so you're back to square one.

In addition, although there are many reputable and trustworthy sources for website templates, there are also some sources that could wind up significantly damaging your business. Hackers and computer criminals have been known to take templates and add short snippets of malicious computer code, then offer the template for free. The code is often very hard to see, and wouldn't be found by anyone unless they were digging deep trying to find it, and could compromise your website or let the hacker potentially take full control of it. WordPress and its templates (known as "themes") are common targets, due to the popularity of the WordPress framework. Avoid downloading any WordPress themes or other templates that you see offered for free but which are offered for a fee from the official source.

I had a resume writer contact me just yesterday and mention his site had been targeted by a hacker. (Just like Windows folks are more susceptible to viruses than Mac users, just by virtue of the large user base, the same is true for Wordpress sites. I'd especially recommend changing the default passwords, as this is the easiest way to prevent being hacked!)

Consider all the factors outlined above before deciding whether to use a template for your website.