Job Search Help on Your Mobile Phone? There's an App For That!

Browsing through my Facebook news feed this morning, a post from Career Solvers caught my attention. Hmm...what is Barbara Safani up to now?

It seems she's created an app for job searchers -- available for Android, iPhone, and iPad users.

Here's the app description:
Career Solvers for iPhone. Our Career Solvers app is designed for those who are serious about growing their professional careers. Our app will be a guide book providing proven strategies that every professional should know. Career Solvers specializes in managing job search campaigns for six-figure professionals and executives who know where they want to go, but need assistance uncovering the most efficient path. Our career management programs help clients gain clarity around their professional identity and personal brand. We create targeted, compelling resumes, cover letters, and bios and supplement these marketing collateral with coaching programs that accelerate your job search, get your resume in front of the right people, improve your interviewing and salary negotiation skills, and promote your professional image online and offline. It is our mission to empower you with solutions that enable you to successfully navigate your career course.

I'm working on preparing for my "Write Great Resumes Faster" teleseminar today, so I haven't had a chance to check out the app yet. But I'll be interested in downloading it and giving it a try. Maybe I can get Barbara to answer a few questions about her new app for a future blog post.

Have you thought about creating an app for your resume business?

Firm Asks "Where Are All The 'Good' Subcontract Resume Writers?"

Well, actually, Matt Craven, of UK-based firm "The CV and Interview Advisors" asked on LinkedIn "Where are all the great CV / resume writers."

He wrote:
My problem is finding great CV / resume writers. Nearly everyone I speak to seems to think they are great but then proceed to produce sub-standard work with spelling errors, grammatical inconsistencies, a lack of knowledge of hot skills (therefore a CV which is ill-aligned with industry-needs), weak or clunky language and dodgy formatting. Does anyone have any advice for finding truly world-class CV / Resume Writers interested in earning industry-leading rates of pay?

Because I have some insight into the topic from my work on the "Making Money as a Resume Subcontractor" special report -- as well as "Developing Strategic Alliances and Partnerships with Recruiters" (which talks about the pay-sharing component of contracting relationships), I gave this response yesterday:


As the editor of an ebook on resume writing subcontracting ("Making Money as a Resume Subcontractor") I may be able to offer some insight to you. In talking with other writers/firms looking for contracting writers, there are a couple common issues:

• Low rates for contracted writing. Because most contracting firms pay their writers between $100-$160 per project (which can be 15-35% of the fee charged), it's hard to find highly credentialed/talented writers who are willing to subcontract write. If you charge your clients 250 British pounds sterling = 400 US dollars, and you pay your writers 30% (a pretty standard subcontracting fee), that's $120. That might seem like a lot, but the Resume Writer's Digest Annual Industry Survey (2010) found that the  “average” resume sale was $509.36 for surveyed writers.

• Many folks who subcontract write fall into a couple of categories: They are looking to build their portfolio of work/get experience, they want to supplement their income while they grow their own resume writing business, they don't like the marketing/pricing side of the business (they just want to focus on the writing), or they want true flexibility in their schedules (with the freedom to accept/decline assignments as they wish).

• As a contracting firm, you want someone who can accept a reasonable volume of assignments, who turns in consistently good and timely work, who will put your clients first (and not flake out if this is a "moonlighting job" and they get busy with their "real job" -- or if they have their own clients) and who will work for a pay rate that still allows you to make money on the "client management" and marketing aspects of the sale. That can be a tough combination to find if you don't know where to look.

• Speaking of that, you might look at how you're getting the word out about your subcontracting opportunities -- some channels are more effective than others. As much as I love LinkedIn, putting a request for writers on here is akin to putting an ad in a newspaper ... and we all know how that goes! You need to "go where the people are" -- reaching out to folks who are already successful as subcontract writers for other firms ... and/or writers who have achieved a minimum proficiency (i.e., certification).

• Speaking of certification -- Lack of standardization of certification and training programs means it's hard to judge a contracting writer's work without wading through lots of samples from "unqualified" writers. While I don't think that all good writers are certified, most certified writers (especially certain types of certifications) are good. The most rigorous certification is the Academy Certified Resume Writer (offered by Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark's Resume Writing Academy) -- but it costs over $2000 .... so you're not going to find an ACRW who will write resumes for $100. Or even $200.

• In your case in particular, there are no "local" resume writing organizations -- so to "farm" for writers, you're looking at US-based associations. Most US-based writers aren't familiar with country-specific requirements for resumes and CVs, so there has to be a training component with most writers anyway. You're more likely to find competent writers from the U.S. (just because there are so many of us -- the US resume writing industry has been going strong for more than 15 years!)... but you'll have to teach them the cultural (and spelling) nuances.

What would you think about me creating a database of "vetted" subcontract writers? I've already got a pretty robust database of writers who are interested in the topic (by virtue of them having purchased the "Making Money as a Resume Subcontractor" special report.

Helping Clients With How to Write LinkedIn Recommendations

LinkedIn is increasingly important in our clients' job searches -- and the role of Recommendations is growing too. September's Pass-Along Materials content on BeAResumeWriter.com focuses on how to give -- and get -- LinkedIn Recommendations.

You must either be connected to the individual you wish to Recommend or know his or her email address. Also, the individual must have a valid LinkedIn account. You may find it easiest to use the "select from your connections list" in the "Make a Recommendation" section.

You can also make a Recommendation from the individual's profile page directly:

(Note: In the Pass-Along Materials, the screen shots are of a fictionalized profile. You can also replace the screen shots with your own profile, like I did above with my own LinkedIn profile)

Some things to consider before writing a Recommendation are:

• What are they good at?
• What did they do better than anyone else?
• What impact did they have on me? (How did they make my life better/easier?)
• What surprised you about the individual?

Within the Recommendation, you want to include four things (this is an excerpt of the full "Formula for a LinkedIn Profile"):

• How you know the person
• Why you recommend them
• A story that backs up your Recommendation (providing "social proof")
• A call to action

Your finished Recommendation might look like this (this is an example of the type of notification email you'll receive when someone Recommends you):

Resume writers -- learn more about the "How to Give -- and Get -- LinkedIn Recommendations" Pass-Along Materials package. It's brandable content you can use in your own resume writing business.

Here's what you can do with this content (you can edit the report or use it "as is"):

• Use it as a free giveaway to build your prospect mailing list or sell it.
• Tweet excerpts or post updates to Facebook and/or LinkedIn using the tips in the content.
• Break it into sections and use it as a series of blog posts or articles on your website. 
• Turn it into a video and use it to drive traffic to your website.
• Use it as a a script or an outline for a webinar.
• Make it a handout for a LinkedIn training class.
• Add it as a bonus for a LinkedIn membership program or training.

Because it's provided in Microsoft Word format, you can change out the screen shots to feature your own profile, and you can add to -- or edit -- any of the content.

If you are a Bronze member of BeAResumeWriter.com (just $10/month), you can access this content in the Paid Member Resources section from now until Oct. 9, 2012. Or, you can purchase the package at this link: How to Give -- and Get -- LinkedIn Recommendations.

How to Use Blogger to Build Your Mailing List and Drive Traffic to Your Website

I love my blog. I hope you do too. I love sharing ideas and resources with resume writers (and the occasional jobseeker who wanders across this blog as the result of a search engine).

When you blog, you can connect with your target market and promote your resume writing services in a way that is difficult to do through other marketing tactics. Blogs allow you to share in-depth information with jobseekers -- you can post about frequently-asked questions and then simply direct clients and prospects to the blog when they need answers.

While Wordpress gets a lot of the attention nowadays for bloggers (and there are some cool tools -- like LinkedIn's integration with Wordpress -- that are exclusive to that platform), I like using Blogger.

Blogger is a free, easy-to-use blogging service offered by Google. Using this Blogger to host your blog can be a great way to market your business. You can write a blog post and, at the end of the post, you can add a line, "For more information, [link to your website.]" This can drive traffic to your website.

Once you start creating information products to support your career services business, you can promote the special reports, membership sites, and ebooks with your blog posts. People are more likely to read a blog post (which comes across like an article) than a sales letter.

Blogs serve as a great communication tool.  You can keep your readers up to date with any changes you have made to your site, provide information on new services you are going to be introducing (i.e., LinkedIn profile development), and receive feedback on the types of services your customers wish you would develop.

Another way to communicate with your target market and position yourself as an expert is to establish a "Question of the Week" feature to your blog.  Simply have your readers send in their questions, and then, one day each week, choose one of the questions to answer. Your readers will look forward to this interactivity and will take note to visit each week to see if their question was chosen. The archive of questions you build up on the blog also serves as a powerful reminder of your expertise as a professional resume writer.

You can also use Blogger to increase the size of your mailing list by adding a sign up form to your newsletter or other autoresponder list. (You'll note I have a signup form on the right-hand side of this blog page!) Once people are subscribed to your newsletter, you can continue to market to them.

As I mentioned earlier, you can also create links back to your website on your blog that will also help your website gain search engine traffic. The search engines crawl the Internet, and when a site has a lot of links coming into it, the search engines take notice.  This can help your website rise in the results pages when someone performs a search using one of the keywords on your page.

These are just a few of the reasons why it is important to have a blog and how you can use a service like Blogger for marketing purposes.  As you get more familiar with blogging, you can add an RSS feed to your blog, which will notify your readers that you have created a new post.  This will keep your readers coming back regularly, and further help your marketing efforts.