Advantages of Blogging -- Part I

For a resume writer or career coach, there are a number of advantages to having your own blog. Lots of people have blogs -- they're used for online marketing (promoting your resume writing and career industry services) by small business owners (just like you!). There are also a number of "hobbyist" blogs out there, focusing on specific niches -- giving you the opportunity to connect with other blog publishers (and drive traffic to your own blog!)

Despite what many people think, blogs aren't just "teenage diaries." While there are a number of blogs out there these days in the career industry field, the market certainly isn't saturated.  Competitiveness in a market just means there is traffic to be had and money to be made...if you want it.

Creating a blog in this day and age could not be easier.  There are literally hundreds of completely free blogging platforms available to people.  So why not give it a shot? 

If you are shaking your head right now thinking about how you said you would never blog, check out these three advantages. We'll look at advantage number one in today's blog post:

1. Feed traffic to your resume writing business website:  If you have a website for your career industry business (resume writer, career coach), adding a blog to that site or even on its own domain is a smart move. 

Blogs are based on dynamic content -- meaning the content is fresh and regularly added.  Google likes fresh dynamic content.  If you are blogging constantly about things related to your business you will naturally begin to start ranking in Google for some long tail keywords. This means you will be picking up web traffic that your static business site wouldn't have.

If your blog is part of your business site then that will mean more traffic directly to your site.  If you have your blog on another domain -- you can use links and banners to direct the traffic to your business or "money" site.

Tomorrow: Using a blog to showcase your expertise.

Resume Writers Digest Receives CMA Mentorship Award!

I found out on Thursday that I received a Career Management Alliance Mentorship Award!


Thanks to Kathy Hansen for nominating me for this award. I'm truly honored. Here is the criteria for the award:
The Career Management Alliance honors those individuals who have guided others in tradecraft, entrepreneurship, and community-building. Through teaching and example these mentors have inspired their colleagues and generously shared their wisdom.


Kathy's nomination (which she so kindly sent to me), was centered around my efforts to educate and inform resume writers through the work of Resume Writers' Digest -- including this blog. So thanks to all of my readers and subscribers too!

Using Social Networking to Promote Your Blog

Promote your blog? Why would you want to do that? Honestly, if you have to ask yourself that question you probably shouldn’t even have one. The whole purpose of a blog is to document your thoughts, views, and opinions on a particular topic, issue, or subject -- on our field, most likely job searching. What good will your blog do if no one reads it? In addition to sharing your thoughts with the rest of the world, did you know that you can make money from your blog? You can signup for affiliate programs or derive revenue from advertising programs like Google Adsense. And, of course, prospective clients who read your blog may decide to retain you to write their resume. If you are using your blog to make money, then you will defiantly want to promote it.

When it comes to promoting blogs, there are many blog owners who decide to let search engines do the work for them. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing use a special technique that reads the content on your website. That content is then used to rank your website with particular keywords. This means that you run a blog on job searches in the finance field, there is a good chance that your blog will appear in searches done on "finding a job in finance." Although many blogs are successfully ranked in search engines, not all are. That is why you are advised against relying solely on search engines, when it comes to promoting your blog.

If you love meeting with or talking to people online, there is a good chance that you belong to a social networking website or community. The individuals that you talk to and that are in your community are likely the individuals that you wish to target. Since most social networking websites work to connect Internet users who have the same goals and common interests, there is a good chance that your online friends will enjoy reading your blog. But, before they can read your blog, you have to let them know that it exists.

When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page. This will allow other community members to check out your blog. The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through private messages. Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page.

How to Use Social Networking To Draw Traffic to Your Website

Social networking websites can benefit all website owners, but especially resume writers who are looking to make a profit from visitors to their websites. This can be done one of two ways -- by selling something on the website (resume writing services, career coaching, job search packages, or affiliate products) or by relying on revenue from advertising (a handful of resume writers run websites that provide job search content supported by advertising revenue). 

If you have a website that selling products or services (as opposed to a content site that depends solely on advertising revenue), you may find it a little bit easier to use social networking sites to your advantage. This is because, if you wish, you could do product or service spotlights. Each day, week, or month, you could showcase one of the products or services that your website sells. This could either be done through status updates, Tweets, or blog posts. 

If you are using your online website to make money with advertising programs, such as affiliate programs or Google Adsense, you may need to approach social networking websites in a different matter. Since you will not necessarily have a particular product or service to focus on, you will need to approach these websites as if they were personal websites.

As with all other types of online websites, social networking websites should help to increase the number of page views your website receives. In most cases, more page views mean more clicks -- which means money for you.