Start an Inspiration Book

I was stuck tonight writing a cover letter ... so I pulled out my trusty inspiration book. I started the inspiration book while I was subcontracting a few years ago. When you're writing 7-10 resumes a week, sometimes you just get "stuck." You look at the blank page and nothing comes to you.

I address the syndrome of the blank page in my "Write Great Resumes Faster" book. One of my best blank-page busters is an inspiration book. Divided into sections, it addresses the common challenges with a resume -- the qualifications profile, achievement bullets, core competencies (for keywords), cover letter openings, cover letter bullets, and cover letter closings.

Obviously, you don't want to just cut-and-paste into your resume and cover letter documents. But sometimes just reading through some of your previous work will help create the inspiration you need to break through the blank page.

How to create your own inspiration book? Cull through your past resumes and find turns of phrases that speak to you ... or, absent that, just copy and paste a variety of phrases and pieces. I find a three-ring binder works well to organize your information, although you may find that keeping a Word document or using an app like Evernote helps you access the information you want.

Multiple Streams of Income for Your Resume Writing Business

I talk often about resume writers who trade "hours for dollars" -- if you're only writing resumes, you're missing out on the opportunity to create passive income and recurring revenue that can put a couple of extra dollars in your pocket each month -- or completely ease the peaks and valleys of resume writing by providing steady, ongoing income...even while you sleep.

Sounds great, huh? When some people think of multiple income streams they think of "get rich quick" schemes that do nothing but take your hard-earned money. However, there are some easy, effective ways to create multiple streams of income in the careers industry.

Ideas for More Income

• Work with multiple clients simultaneously. It's hard to maximize your income when you're working with one client at a time. After all, there is only one of you, right? But have you considered offering groups or workshops? For example, Tina Kasklak Nicolai of Resume Writers' Ink is offering a "Do-It-Yourself Resume Writing Workshop" next month. For $50, she can work with a whole roomful of folks for a couple of hours (and some of them are likely to hire her to write their resumes, once they figure out how hard it is to "Do It Yourself"). Income potential: $150-$1000.
• Set up a blog. Blogs are not only a good place to communicate with your market, but also a place to earn a bit of extra income. Find ways to monetize it. (Affiliate links, Google Adsense, links to Clickbank programs, and selling ebooks are just a few ideas.) Income potential: $5-$200/month.
• Take a part-time job. If you're just building your resume writing business, or if you're struggling to make ends meet, consider taking a part-time job -- especially one in the career services field. Your local university may have a need in their career services office for someone to work part-time. Other possibilities include: employment offices and recruiting firms, government career services, or local nonprofits that serve jobseekers (like Goodwill). It will take a balancing act to get everything done each day, but you will have that security of knowing your bills will be paid and your family taken care of until you can leave that job for good. Income potential: $500-$2000/month.
• Create a product of your own. Maybe an ebook or workbook on a topic related to the job search. (Instead of doing a "general" book, however, I recommend something more specific -- for example, resume and cover letters for the specific niche you serve, or a job search guide for your geographic area, listing major employers, job search groups, employment resources, temp agencies and recruiters, etc.). You can sell your information product on your website, blog or on another site for greater exposure. Read "Making Money Writing Ebooks" -- it's January's "Special Report" for bronze members of BeAResumeWriter.com. Income potential: $25-$500/month.
• Start a Career Membership Site. Create passive income and/or recurring revenue by providing membership programs on careers-related topics. I have an 8-day LinkedIn training program that sells for $15. Once you set it up, it runs itself! Income potential: $15-$1000/month.
• Affiliate marketing. The best thing about affiliate marketing is that the person with the product gives you all of the tools that you need to promote their product in your affiliate toolbox. This makes it easy for you to begin taking advantage of this stream of income.  And, your revenue can grow as your business grows. Possible affiliates include ResumeSpider, Allison & Taylor, and multiple products in the Clickbank Marketplace. Check out this blog post for more details about affiliate marketing. Income potential: $10-$300/month.

Are you looking to have more than one source of income? Put one or more of these ideas to work for you today!

No Wonder Job Seekers Are Confused: Part 5

Here's the last blog post in a series I'm doing to refute the ideas in what I believe is a misguided article: "Five Out-Of-Date Job Search Tactics" from Bloomberg Business. (You can feel free to weigh in using the Comments section below.)

They say:  (Avoid) "Gratuitous Research."

This one cracks me up. Apparently, the author feels you can be "too prepared" for a job interview -- and that, rather than coming across as an informed, intelligent, interested job seeker, she thinks that looks like "brown-nosing."

Really? And yet, in that same section, she advocates looking at LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, and Glassdoor to prepare for the interview. 

So which is it? I think it's a fine line. A job seeker can't point out that they prepped for the interview by "spending the weekend researching the company"? That's "groveling"? I think that's showing that the job seeker takes the interview seriously. 

I think you can "advance a business conversation" by referencing where you heard about the "Acme Explosives-Toontown Motors merger" -- you might find the hiring manager has some insight into the author of the article you read -- particularly a bias from the article's author that may not have been apparent to the casual reader but that impacts the inference in the article.

All in all, this article underscores the problem with a lot of the mainstream media articles aimed at jobseekers today. There is a need for careers-related content (as I point out in my "Feed the Media" teleseminar -- available in the "Free Level" of BeAResumeWriter.com), and unfortunately, that leads to a lot of mis-information being spread as "gospel."

But it's up to us as careers industry professionals to speak up and refute mis-information when we see it.

No Wonder Job Seekers Are Confused: Part 4

This is the fourth in a series of posts refuting an article in Bloomberg Business on: "Five Out-Of-Date Job Search Tactics". (You can feel free to weigh in using the Comments section below.)

They say: (Lose the) "Endless Bullets."

I actually agree with the advice about not overusing bullets on your resume. (Recruiters giving advice on resume writing are usually the ones who strongly advocate for bulleted lists.)

A focus on accomplishments is also critical, and the author gets that, too.

But be careful of using too "breezy" of a tone in the resume. It's still a business document, after all.

In the next blog post: "Gratuitous Research."