Resume Writers' Digest

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Aesop's Wisdom

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Getting Ebook Ideas from Magazines (Third Part in a Three-Part Series)

This is the third post in a three-part guest series of articles by Jimmy D. Brown. This post focuses on getting e-book ideas from magazines... using Magazines.com.

After visiting the world's largest search engine and the world's largest bookstore, it's time to take a quick stop at the world's largest periodical store, Magazines.com.

You'll find every imaginable magazine listed at this site. The interesting part (and useful to you as a research tool) is this: you'll also find the COVER of usually a recent copy of each magazine.

There aren't a ton of magazines (any??) geared towards the job search, but browsing through the categories of magazines on the site, you can find some magazines that will spur some ebook ideas. For example, looking through the "Women's" category, I came across "Working Mother" with this cover tease: "Get That Job: Surprising Interview Tips." Your ebook could be on "Surprise Your Job Interviewer With Your Preparation" and it could cover how to research the interviewer and the company using free Internet resources.

Each of the "cover stories" you find represent an idea for your next ebook.

The best part about it is this: the publishers of these magazines have done the research for you! They've measured the level of interest for these ideas and found it high enough to warrant not only writing content about them, but referencing that content on the cover of the magazine!

That's your hint: People want this information.

So, there you have it in this blog series -- three "idea hangouts" where you can find ready-made, in-demand, red-hot topics for your next ebook for your job seeking clients.

Happy hunting!

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Jimmy D. Brown is the author of, "5 Keys To A Big-Profit,

S.M.A.L.L. Reports Business." To download your free copy,

visit http://www.SmallReportsFortune.com.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Using Amazon Affiliates to Generate Additional Income

A few weeks ago, I put together a five-part series on affiliate marketing for resume writers. Another source of affiliate income is with Amazon Affiliates.

I suggest you set up an account with Amazon Affiliates and build a “Recommended Resources” page on your website, featuring links to books that you’re featured in, that you’ve written, and/or that you’d recommend to clients. While this isn’t a large income source, you are doing clients a favor by offering your recommendations, and any sales you make are gravy.

You can also use your Amazon Affiliates link to include book links and graphics in your blog posts, especially if you use Blogger. I’ve found my top two book recommendations that have led to sales are Jason Alba’s book, “I’m on LinkedIn, Now What?” and “Career Distinction,” Kirsten Dixson and William Arruda’s book on personal and career branding.

I also used to sell a couple of copies of “The Insider’s Guide to the World of Pharmaceutical Sales,” but that hasn’t been published in a few years.

If you have a blog geared to job seekers, I’d recommend doing regular book reviews — review books you’ve read and then include links to your Amazon Affiliate site.

You can also excerpt your reviews on the book’s page on Amazon directly, which will help increase your “Digital Distinction” rating — and if you don’t know that that is, you should read Career Distinction.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Getting E-Book Ideas from Amazon (Second in Three-Part Series)

This is the second in a three-part series of blog posts designed to help you get ideas for e-books to supplement your income as a resume writer. The first post in the series focused on Google.

Next up: Amazon.com

From the world's largest search engine we move to the world's largest bookstore. At Amazon.com you'll really get your creative juices fired up.

Again, you'll want to search the listings by entering a keyword or keyphrase into the search box on the main page at Amazon.com.

You'll get a returned listing of numerous books, courses and other periodicals. Search these listed items for ideas for your own ebook.

--- Example ---

If you were to search for "Job Interview," you'd find a variety of ideas just waiting in the listing of books

available, including: an ebook with common interview questions & answers, how to research an employer before a job interview, preparing for an interview using LinkedIn, creating a portfolio to use in a job interview, preparing for a virtual job interview (Skype, by phone, etc.), and avoiding the most common job interview mistakes.

Any of these ideas (and the dozens of others listed) would be great ideas for the topic of your next ebook.

Pay particular attention to the first page of the listing. Amazon ranks their listings based on popularity of actual sales volume. In other words, #1 is a better seller than #50. This is a ready-made indicator of demand!