Craiglist Charging for Employment Ads

For the past month, Craigslist began charging $25 for help-wanted ads in 11 markets, including Sacramento. The effort is not one to raise revenues, rather, to improve the quality of the employment ads posted.

According to an article in the Sacramento Bee, The fees don't represent a change in philosophy for Craigslist, which is a for-profit corporation but styles itself as a quirky nonprofit "community." Rather, the San Francisco-based site said the fees will weed out the "duplicate and illegitimate ads" and make the remaining listings more effective.

According to the article, "Craigslist's free ads have helped fuel a massive migration of classified advertising to the Internet, a trend with enormous implications for the newspaper industry. Publishers such as The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, which owns The Bee, have reported significant drops in classified ad revenue in the past year or so."

We'll have to watch and see if the charges reduce demand on Craigslist and if this has any impact on online job-related advertising.

November/December 2007 Issue Ready

Well, another issue is on its way to subscribers! This one is 16 pages, and features a cover story on resume writing certifications. It's a comprehensive, 7-page article comparing all of the major certifications. If you're not yet certified -- or are thinking about pursuing certification, read this article!!

The Resume Writer's University article is a review of the book "Competency-Based Resumes," and Robert Middleton talks about "Marketing Without Marketing" in his Action Plan column.

There's also an interview with Norine Dagliano on how public speaking can build your resume business and help you generate new revenue.

If you have not yet subscribed to Resume Writers' Digest, remember it's FREE. It's supported by advertising, the sale of our special reports and books, and donations. Use the form in the upper right-hand corner of the RWD Blog to sign up!

Potential Employers for Ex-Military Clients

Have clients who have left the military but still want to use their military skills?

From GovExec.com, the top 100 defense contractors for the military and the top 200 government contractors (list updated in August annually).

Goal Setting

In my letter from the editor in the November/December issue of the Resume Writers' Digest newsletter, I wrote about goal setting ... and how a photo can be a powerful motivator in your quest to achieve a goal.

This is the photo of my house (formerly owned by my brother and sister-in-law) that was the inspiration for my desire to own my own home after I got married. As I mentioned in the column, that goal literally DID become a reality, as the house I envisioned as I worked to achieve my goals was the one I actually ended up buying! (Although I didn't necessarily have THIS house in mind when I set the goal in the early 2000s.)

So when you set a goal, attach a picture to it (either mentally -- or, better yet, physically).