Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers: Part 3

This is the third in a series of five posts on "Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers." 

The first post in the series addressed the What and Why of SEO. Yesterday's blog post was about Keyword Research. The final two posts will address Setting Up Google Places and Google Places Best Practices. These posts are excerpted from the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook."

Today's post is about SEO Basics.

While breaking down SEO completely would be a book on its own (I actually purchased a 330-page eBook on this subject once!), I will go over some basics. if you have built your website using WordPress, you could do some of the on-page steps yourself. If you went with an HTML design, you might have to get your web designer to make a couple of changes. The changes will be quick though, so it shouldn’t take too much time.

Search Engine Optimization can be broken into two main categories: On-page and Off-page.

On-Page: On-Page means exactly what it says. These are the steps you take on your actual site or blog to make it more friendly to the search engines. While there are many things to consider, some great first steps include:

•  Title Tags: You might have to get your web designer to fix these for you if you use a traditional HTML website. These are simply the titles of each page and are the first thing Google sees when it finds a new page. The “title” in this case is what is displayed ABOVE the address bar in your Internet browser. It is at the very top of the browser. On Google.com, “Google” is the page title.

If you are familiar with HTML code, this is usually accomplished with the tags near the top of the code. If you are savvy enough, you can change them yourself — just remove what is in between them and paste in one of your keywords. In WordPress, you can handle this even easier through uses of plugins like All-in-One SEO.

Each page of your site should have a different title tag. Make it one of the keywords that you created in the previous step. In some smaller towns, this is all you will need to do to get to the first page of Google for localized terms. If you use WordPress, you can access Permalinks through the Settings and create a custom structure like: /%postname%/. 

This will make the title tag of every post you create to be the same as the Post Title. So just name your blog posts with keywords and you will automatically have keyword rich title tags. Another point for WordPress.

•  Content — You want to mention your keywords in your content, but not too much. You don’t want your content to seem low quality and unnaturally stuffed with keywords. Remember, your web content should be written for your visitors, not the search engines. Good quality content that naturally mentions your keywords will engage people, make them more likely to share your site. It will also seem more natural to Google.

•  Navigation — You should have proper navigation on your site. You want it to be both logical and working. Broken links on your site are a big “no-no.” A broken link in your navigation is especially glaring. You want Google to be to easily find your whole site with no broken links. This includes linking to other parts of your own site.

•  Sitemap — This step is more important for WordPress based websites, because a sitemap is needed more for a dynamic site. A sitemap is basically a list of your website pages. Search engines like Google will use it to discover your entire site. It is more important for websites that are updated with new pages often (i.e. WordPress blog). In WordPress you can easily add a sitemap to your site with a plugin like “Google XML Sitemaps.”

•  Privacy Policy — This is a tip that came from the Canadian headquarters of Google itself. The complex algorithm that Google uses to rank websites does give a bonus to sites that have a privacy policy. Just get your web designer to add a link in your footer — titled Privacy Policy — that links to a basic privacy policy for your website. If you use WordPress, just use a plugin like “Easy Privacy Policy.”

SEO is a major area of study online, and there are a lot of other steps you can take, but the above ones are a great on-page start to any campaign. Since ranking for localized keywords is easier in general, these steps should suffice for most resume writing businesses.

Off-Page — In many people’s eyes, off-page optimization is where you should spend most of your time. I personally disagree, though. I think consistent high quality on-page content (aka blog posts) is the most important step. That said, off-page optimization is still very important and probably more important than every on-page step besides content creation.

When it comes down to a basic level, off-page optimization is really about one thing — getting backlinks. Backlinks are simply links on other sites that point towards your site. Google values these highly, and it is one of the major ranking factors.

When you are starting a backlinking campaign, there are a couple of terms you need to know:

Anchor Text: The anchor text is the actual text that makes up the link. When you see a link that says “Click Here,” then click here is the anchor text. Links that have your keywords as the anchor text are more valuable. An anchor text that reads, “Click here to contact an Omaha resume writer” is more valuable.

Page Rank: Google gives pages a rank from 0-10. This rank isn’t quite as important as some people make it out to be, but it is still a good guide. The higher the page rank of a website, the more valuable the link on it is. (You will sometimes see this referred to as the “PR” value — or page rank value.)

NoFollow/Dofollow: Two different kind of links. If a link is nofollow, it means that Google doesn’t pass on the power of the link to your site. There is some argument on this though. I don’t think someone should ignore a potential backlink because it is nofollow. It contributes to a natural backlinking profile, and can still drive traffic. (You can do a search for “nofollow/dofollow” on Google to find out more about this.)

These are some of the basic terms you will come across when you are looking for backlinks or learning more about them. There are a lot of blog posts out there about backlinking, as well as free guides, etc.

Tomorrow's blog post is about Setting Up Google Places.

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This blog post is just one small part of the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook." Purchase the 42-page special report for just $14 and receive two bonus special reports for free: "How to Add a Facebook 'Like' Box on Any Page" and "How to Use Facebook Ads In Your Resume Writing Business."

Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers: Part 2

This is the second in a series of five posts on "Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers." Yesterday's post addressed the What and Why of SEO. Future posts will address SEO Basics, Setting Up Google Places, and Google Places Best Practices. These posts are excerpted from the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook."

Today's post is about Keyword Research.

Keywords are the words or terms that people use to search in Google. If you do a search for “Cheap Flights” on Google, then the keyword is: cheap flight.

Keyword brainstorming and research is an important first step in any Local SEO plan. These general steps will get you off to a good start.

• Brainstorm — Sit down and make a list of every keyword term that someone would search for to find your resume writing business. Don’t worry about local terms right now — just think of what people would search in any part of the world to find a service like yours.

Write down as many terms as possible. Think of a wide variety of terms, all the way from one-word terms (short-tail) to 3+-word terms (long-tail). I would also ask friends and family for their input. This will give you an outside perspective from an everyday person.

If you get stuck thinking about terms, you can get some help from Google itself. Just take one of the keyword terms you thought of and enter it into the Google Keyword Tool. This will give you a list of related terms and their estimated search numbers. Keep in mind we will localize these terms, so the amount of searches will not be directly applicable — but it still gives you an idea of what keywords are searched more often.

Spend a good chunk of time on this, and try to get a list of 30-50 keyword terms.

• Consolidate — Go through this list and take out your five most-desired keywords. You can use personal preference, a hunch, the search results from Google Keyword Tool, and common sense. Until you actually test your terms, you won’t know much about them. So take these five terms and write them down on their own. Keep your other keywords handy though! These will be the five you will start with, but eventually through the power of blogging, you will be ranking for all of the terms.

• Localize — Now that you have your list of five terms, simply localize them. Add your location (town or city, maybe the state/province if you are in a city with common name). If your resume writing services are in demand in a number of towns, then add the other towns in front of the keyword as well. For example...

City One + Keyword One

City One + Keyword Two

City Two + Keyword One

City Two + Keyword Two

Etc...

So each new town you use will be another five local keyword terms. Once you have localized your keywords, you will now have a list of local keyword terms that you can begin ranking for. While this is a basic form of keyword research, it is leagues ahead of most of the online marketing that local businesses do.

Tomorrow's blog post is about SEO Basics.

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This blog post is just one small part of the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook." Purchase the 42-page special report for just $14 and receive two bonus special reports for free: "How to Add a Facebook 'Like' Box on Any Page" and "How to Use Facebook Ads In Your Resume Writing Business."

Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers: Part I

This is the first in a series of five posts on "Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers."

This post addresses the What and Why of SEO. Future posts will address Keyword Research, SEO Basics, Setting Up Google Places, and Google Places Best Practices. These posts are excerpted from the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook."

SEO means Search Engine Optimization. In basic terms, SEO is the process of making your website more relevant to the major search engines. Increasing your relevancy will mean that your site shows up higher in their search rankings. Due to its overwhelming market share, Google is usually the search engine you will optimize for.

Local SEO is optimizing your website to rank highly for local based search terms (keywords). Instead of just ranking for a general keyword like “Resumes” (don't use the accent marks when using "resumes" online), you would try to rank for “Omaha Resumes” or “Omaha Resume Writer” (remember: no accent marks).

SEO optimization is becoming an increasingly popular technique, especially by businesses in mid-sized and small cities. There are certain advantages when optimizing for localized search terms:

•  Easier To Rank — It is generally easier to rank for a local search term because it is less competitive. You can rank near or at the top of Google for these terms with much less work. For a real-life example, I worked with a business in a town of ~30,000 and was able to get them to the top of Google for a number of localized search terms in a matter of days.

•  More Targeted — When people are searching locally, they are more often to be ready to buy. It also makes sure that the people finding your site are local and can actually use your services. If you rank for “resumes,” people all over the world will find your site, but if you localize that search term you will be targeting people who are searching from your area. I have found that resume clients often start their search locally first. If they find someone competent that they feel comfortable with, they often stop searching.

With the explosions of mobile Internet, finding businesses through search engines will only get more popular. At one time, every business wanted to be in the Yellow Pages. Well, the day of the search engine is here and you want to rank for these local terms. With less competition you can rank quicker and with less effort. You will be tapping into a perpetual funnel of local-based web searches.

When you have a website, you want it to rank near the top of the search rankings for localized searches.

Tomorrow's blog post is about Keyword Searches.

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This blog post is just one small part of the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook." Purchase the 42-page special report for just $14 and receive two bonus special reports for free: "How to Add a Facebook 'Like' Box on Any Page" and "How to Use Facebook Ads In Your Resume Writing Business."

Career Professionals of Canada 2011 Awards of Excellence Nominees

Via Melanie Schlotter, Career Professionals of Canada's Marketing & Communications specialist, here are the nominees for the 2011 Awards of Excellence.

Career Professionals of Canada is committed to setting the standard for excellence in the Canadian employment and career industry. Recognizing outstanding individuals in the profession is one of the organization's most important activities. The CPC Awards of Excellence benefit the general membership, individual members, career organizations, clients, and the industry as a whole.

In an effort to bring attention to exceptional achievements of Career Professionals, the organization has established nine awards. It is a great privilege to be nominated and an even greater honor to be distinguished as the recipient of the CPC Award of Excellence. Nominations are accepted throughout the year. Nominees and award recipients are notified personally, and formally recognized on the Career Club Forum and Career Connections Newsletter. Award plaques are delivered directly to recipients.

Here are the nominees:

Outstanding Canadian Career Leader Nominee

Maureen McCann

Outstanding Volunteer Contributor to the Organization Nominees

Cathy Milton
Lita Pitruzzello
Michael Thompson

Outstanding Canadian Online Profile Developer Nominees

Stephanie Clark
Maureen McCann

Outstanding Canadian Resume Contributor Nominees:
Best New Graduate Resume Category

Carol Brochu
Lisa Cartaginese
Safinaz El-halawani
Lynn Hill
Michelle O’Donohoe
Rita Pittman
Pat Roberts
Adrienne Tom

Best Career Change Resume Category

Carol Brochu
Stephanie Clark
Brenda Collard-Mills
Safinaz El-halawani
Lynn Hill
Maureen McCann
Rita Pittman
Pat Roberts
Angelika Trinkwon

Best Technical Resume Category

Lisa Cartaginese
Brenda Collard-Mills

Best Executive Resume Category

Carol Brochu
Lisa Cartaginese
Safinaz El-halawani
Lita Pitruzzello
Rita Pittman
Pat Roberts
Adrienne Tom

Best Creative Resume Category

Carol Brochu
Safinaz El-halawani
Pat Roberts

Health Insurance for Resume Writers

Alright, I'll tackle a business management issue today: Health insurance. Most resume writers are self-employed -- and unless you have a spouse with health insurance, you're probably going to need your own health insurance plan.


Health insurance can be confusing, especially if it is your first time shopping around with different providers. Terms such as deductible, co-payments, and pre-existing conditions can be confusing if you do not know what they really mean. There are many ways to find out more about health insurance so that you are as knowledgeable as possible. You could talk to a health insurance company, find an insurance broker, or you can do your research on the Internet.

Logically, you would assume that the experts at the insurance company would be able to answer any questions that you have about terminology and any other queries that you have. The best way to get in touch with them is to simply call your provider and ask any questions that you have, no matter how general or specific. They are there to help you, and this should be your primary concern. Think about it: if an agent isn't helpful with your preliminary questions, just how helpful will he or she be if you need to settle a claim?

For answers to general questions such as terminology confusion, an Internet search engine can point you straight to your answer. This is a great options available to anyone who does not want to call their health insurance company just for a couple of simple questions. There may be information that you had overlooked in the past when you quickly skimmed through your policy. Your specific provider may have a web site where you can get facts about anything, including anything that you may not have been clear on regarding any additional benefits they offer. You can read all of the literature available at your own pace and on your own time.

Health insurance can be complicated at first, but the more you know the better off you will be.

Regaining Your Creative Spark

In a recent weekly email newsletter, author Harvey Mackey addressed the topic of creativity. 

I addressed the same topic in my book, "Write Great Resumes Faster." 
Sometimes you just get stuck when you're writing a resume. You can't figure out how to start -- or you start, and you can't finish. While the book gives you some specific strategies for helping you write resumes, Mackay gives you some more general creativity builders.

His suggestions:

• Be aware of what's going on around you. Stay on top of trends. Learn from other people's ideas and mistakes.
• Rely on your instincts. As you assimilate the information around you and assess the possibilities, factor in your instincts to come up with creative solutions.
• Assess your options. Sort your ideas into categories, and rank them. Try combining ideas, and eliminate any that don't fit what you're looking for.
• Stick with it. You need to be persistent if you want to achieve anything significant. Keep a detailed picture of the intended result in your mind to hep you stay focused and move forward.
• Be patient. You can't hurry creativity, so take time to ponder your ideas. Sit back and take time to think things over. That's usually how the best ideas bloom.
• Evaluate the results. At the end of the process, ask yourself: Has my vision been realized? Learn from what works and what fails, so you can move on to your next project.
• Creativity isn't just a process. It's a value. If you value success, get creative!

Creativity can be your best asset when you're feeling it -- and it can be your biggest enemy when you're struggling. Use Mackay's tips -- and the strategies in Write Great Resumes Faster (including Quick Reference Guides to action verbs, personality traits, profile descriptions, section headers, keywords and more)k0 -- to stay on track!

Do You Need Disability Insurance?

As a self-employed resume writer, disability insurance can be an important component in your financial security. There have been numerous resume writers who could have suffered health challenges that have kept them from writing resumes. There have been resume writers who have had strokes, fought cancer, and had heart attacks. Without disability insurance, your income may suffer.

In the event that you are injured or become ill and cannot work, disability insurance will give you peace of mind -- you will still able to provide for your family. (This is particularly important if you are your family's sole provider.) While we would like to think that we will always been in good health, accidents do happen and you need to be sure that you have every angle covered. If you become ill or injured -- and, as a result you are unable to return to work -- there are a couple of options that will replace lost income. These types of disability insurance are not going to fully replace your income because they want you to have an incentive for returning back to work once you get well.

Social Security benefits are paid to you when your disability is expected to last for at least 12 months. Most of the time this is when no gainful employment can occur and you must remain out of work for the entire duration of your leave. You can also purchase private disability insurance.

When you are looking at disability insurance policies, it is important to understand what they mean. While the two available policies are both for disability, they both cover a different amount of time you will be covered, and when you will start receiving your compensation.

A short-term disability policy means that you will be covered for no longer than two years. With this policy, you may have to wait up to 14 days before you start receiving compensation. A long-term disability policy is a little different. The disability compensation will not kick in for several weeks, sometimes a couple of months. However, long-term disability will cover you for a longer period of time -- sometimes for the rest of your life.

Along with having the two different types of insurance policies, there are also two different protection features. Protection is offered to you to ensure that you are not going to be treated unfairly due to your inability to work. Non-cancelable means that unless you don't pay your premiums, your policy can't be canceled. With this type of policy you will lock in your premium and will not risk a decrease in the benefits. On the other hand, a guaranteed renewable policy means that the same benefits will be available every year. The only way that your premium will be increased is if every policyholder within the same rating class as yourself increases also.

While there are many options when choosing disability insurance as well, these are the most popular selections. It is important to discuss all available options when choosing a disability insurance policy to ensure that you know what you will receive in the event of an accident or illness. Research your options to find the best choice for you and your family.

New Twist for Job-Seeking Clients: Social Media Background Check

Every once in a while, I'd have a client who was having success getting interviews (even second interviews), but wasn't getting the job. After investigating to see if the problem was how he or she interviewed, sometimes it was clear that something was sabotaging the process between the interview and the offer ... and sometimes that was a bad reference.

Usually, the way we found out about this was to use a reference-checking service. The client would engage the firm, and the firm would call the client's references and pretend to be a prospective employer verifying information. 

The results were sometimes shocking -- the former boss who promised a great recommendation started out by praising my client, but made several backhanded comments that would put doubts in the mind of any prospective employer. Almost as bad were references who had promised to vouch for the candidate, but when asked, wouldn't give information beyond "name, rank, and serial number" (understandable if the company policy prohibited providing more than that information ... but telling the former employee one thing and then doing another isn't helpful...).

Now, our clients have to be concerned about social media background checks. Now, any resume writer worth his or her salt tells their clients "What happens on the Internet DOES NOT stay on the Internet" -- but every day on Facebook, I still see things that make me cringe. 

Even if you have your privacy settings locked down, the background checks will still find stuff... you're probably not as protected as you think you are.

For an introduction to the social media background check, read this article on Gizmodo. It's eye-opening stuff ... but with some good hints to pass along to our clients.

First of all, the author notes that these checks screen for just a handful of things: aggressive or violent acts or assertions, unlawful activity, discriminatory activity (for example, making racist statements), and sexually explicit activity.

But more importantly, he notes how candidates can minimize the digital dirt that is unearthed about them:

It only uses the data an employer gives it to run a search. This tends to be standard issue information from your resume. Your name, your university, your email address and physical location. Which means that, ultimately, you are the one supplying all the data for a background check. Because you are the one who supplies that data to your employer. And that means you should be smart about what kinds of contact information you put on your resume.

Great advice -- including the suggestion that most of us give to clients already -- to start a fresh e-mail address that they use for their job search only. Just another thing to think about when giving clients advice about online reputation management.

Creative Resumes: Do They (Get) Work?

Every once in a while, I come across an article like this one: "13 Insanely Cool Resumes That Landed Interviews at Google and Other Top Jobs."

The premise is out-of-the box resume designs -- printed on unique paper, designed to look like a movie poster (or Facebook page, or Google search results page), featuring a QR code instead of text, etc. -- that is unconventional and landed the job. We get it -- you need to set yourself apart.

It's cute. But the article glosses over the reminder that these types of resumes work best when the "normal" job search principles apply:

• Content is still king. Put it in a pretty package, but if you don't have anything to say, you'll get an interview, because they're curious about the person behind the package, but ...
• You must have the qualifications to get the job. All of the resumes purportedly got an interview -- it doesn't say if any of them actually landed the job. (In fact, the "Google guy" got the interview, but not the job.)
• Creative resumes work for creative fields. Out-of-the-box formats don't work for all industries. None of the samples listed were for an accounting firm or manufacturing company, for example. Which brings me to...
• Size matters. That is, the size of the company you're targeting. Creative resumes are more likely to win interviews in smaller, especially entrepreneurial companies ... where risk is rewarded. They're also more likely to get to the desk of the decision-maker in a small company. As the job seeker behind sample number #5 pointed out, "HR people don't always respond well to this."
• Don't make the employer do more work than necessary. A QR code is trendy, but if the hiring manager or company owner doesn't have the software (mobile phone app, usually) to access the code, the resume will be passed over. (As resume writers, we tell our clients the same thing with regard to boring things like .docx formats, so it's not just cool stuff that can derail your path to an interview ... it can also be boring Microsoft Word software versions...)
• The federal government still is involved. With more and more recruiters and hiring managers Googling prospective hires, and candidates providing video segments and links to online profiles which feature photos, the lines are getting fuzzier about not using traits such as personal appearance to influence the resume screening process, since factors such as race, color, religion, sex, age, ethnic/national origin, disability, or veteran status cannot influence employment decisions.
• It's about form and function. Rick Mundon, the man behind Orange Resume, "a website that designs creative resumes, business, and websites for job hunters" (it's the graphic of his sample resumes that's featured above) does make the point that "employers need to pick (the resume) up and know how to find your past work experience." Not all creative resumes "get" this.
• Graphic design candidates can get away with a lot. See earlier comment about "creative resumes for creative fields." 'Nuff said.

As resume writers, we've probably all developed some creative resumes for our clients at one time or another (I can specifically recall one for a photographer and a couple for elementary school teachers that were out-of-the-norm and landed interviews), but the basic principles of a resume still apply. You must target the reader and demonstrate why this candidate deserves the interview ... and the job. The rest is .... well, window dressing.

Early Registration Deadline Approaching for CDI Summit

Don't forget the early registration deadline is approaching for the Career Directors International Global Career Empowerment Summit 2011 in Savannah, Georgia this October.

The deadline is Friday, July 1. Registration costs as little as $529 (three-pay options are also available).

I really enjoyed Savannah when I was out there for the NRWA conference a few years ago. We (I brought my husband and his parents with me!) flew into Jacksonville, Florida to save money (it was only about an hour or hour-and-a-half drive up) and we spent an afternoon at Hilton Head Island on the beach too.

Beautiful!

Don't know if I'll be able to make it yet, but I definitely recommend going if you can!

Selling Ebooks and Workbooks on Clickbank

I've delivered a couple of teleseminars and written some articles on affiliate marketing in the past, but I haven't specifically addressed selling your information products (workbooks, ebooks, job search guides) on Clickbank before.

Clickbank.com has paid out nearly $2 Billion to those selling information products online in the last 10 years – and that number is growing fast. Yet, for a lot of marketers, Clickbank has a bad rap. I’d like to spend the next two minutes showing you why you absolutely should sell your ebook on Clickbank.

Who does this blog post apply to?
* If you’re currently selling your product with a simple paypal button, consider switching to Clickbank.
* If you have a shopping cart (like 1ShoppingCart.com) that you’re using to sell your products, consider also setting up a separate page or URL where you sell your product on Clickbank.

* If you're using another online sales system (like Payloadz), consider switching to Clickbank, or selling your products on Clickbank in addition to your other online sales system.

Here’s why…

Diversification of Your PaymentsYou may not be aware of this, but PayPal.com has been known to “freeze” accounts while looking into them after they’ve been flagged by one of their employees. While Paypal.com is a trusted company, they do have to watch out for their own interests. So, if this happens to you, your account will not be accessible during that time. That means you can’t withdraw money, you can’t pay affiliates, and you can’t process refunds. You’re stuck. I don’t know about you, but I have bills to pay – which is why I recommend that you also sell products via a secondary payment method like Clickbank. They pay via direct deposit into your checking account every two weeks, like clockwork. If, heaven forbid, your account gets flagged by Paypal, you’ll be able to pay your mortgage while getting it cleared.

Less Book-KeepingWith Clickbank, you get paid weekly or when you reach a certain dollar amount that you’ve set. That means that you can pay less in accounting fees – because you’ll have a maximum of FOUR transactions per month, assuming you’re getting paid weekly. Compare that to using a PayPal button or shopping cart – where every single transaction has to be entered by your bookkeeper – and you can see the advantage.

100,000 + Sales ForceYes, Clickbank has the eye of over 100,000 registered affiliate niche marketers in 145 countries. Many of these affiliate search the Clickbank marketplace first when looking for products to promote. If you’re not listed there, they can’t find you. Having affiliates who will promote your product for you is a great way to increase your sales. And there are tons of folks who are looking for job search-related products to promote on their blogs and websites.

Clickbank’s HopAds ProgramYou may be familiar with Google Adsense, but, did you know that Clickbank also has an advertising program? As a vendor, you can create Ads that automatically show on affiliate websites – based upon keywords. So, if your ebook is about “Finding a Job Faster” and someone with a job board website site puts the HopAd on their site with keywords “job search” or “job interview” – your ad may display in rotation with the other ads – as long as that ad is live on their site.

Hands-Off Affiliate ManagementIf you’re using your own shopping cart like 1ShoppingCart.com, then you have to manage your affiliates or hire someone to do so. While this is definitely a profitable thing to do, some tasks can be a nuisance, like collecting W-9 forms (if you’re in the United States) for taxes. If you sell through Clickbank, that’s not an issue. They handle it for you.

Affiliate Payment Safety CushionIf you’re selling your products through your own shopping cart, then every month, you have to make sure to keep a “cushion” in your PayPal account so that you have enough money to pay them. That’s not an issue with Clickbank. You ONLY receive your profits after affiliates have been paid. And, Clickbank handles paying them for you. You’re totally out of the loop.

There you have it. Six reasons why you should consider putting your ebook on Clickbank for sale.

If you're interested in learning more about selling your job search-related product on Clickbook, I recommend “15 Quick & Easy Steps to Getting your Ebook on Clickbank” by Nicole Dean.

It’s a special report where Nicole Dean, Internet marketer, affiliate manager and work-at-home Mom, gives you the 15 steps you need to follow to get your product up on Clickbank, ready to take orders!

“How to Get Your First Infoproduct on Clickbank” is more than a special report.

You’ll also get:

• Video demonstrations, so you can watch actual demonstrations of how to do the techie stuff 
• Templates for sales pages and thank you/download pages, where you just type in the details of your product, add your links, and then upload the pages to your site 
• Advice on tools you may want to use to make Clickbank work even better for you 

The sooner you get and implement this report, the sooner your product will be out there, making sales for you! Learn more here.

Engaging With Facebook Fans: What Is Your EdgeRank Score?

Last weekend, I took some time to learn more about Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm. EdgeRank is a measure of engagement with FB fans. The more a particular person engages with you (either your personal profile or your Facebook Business Page), the more likely you are to show up in their News Feed.

What, you may be saying, I'm not seeing everything from everyone in my News Feed? Nope. Facebook knows you are busy, and is showing you the things that it feels are most relevant to you. This article gives a pretty good explanation of what the EdgeRank algorithm is.

There are ways you can improve your Edgerank ranking -- for example, creating more opportunities for interaction and engagement with your fans. You can also partner with other Page owners (this is also a great way to increase the number of "Likes" on all pages) to increase engagement.


Ready to check out what your EdgeRank score is today? Use EdgeRank Checker (a free service). But be sure to come back and check out your score periodically. Are the things you're doing to increase engagement working?

EdgeRank Checker suggests the following tips to improve your score:

• Post content that inherently attracts interaction (ask questions, offer polls, ask for feedback)
• Encourage users to "like" your content (actually saying, "Click 'like' to ___" works!)
• Use photos and videos as often as possible.

I also recommend linking to your blog posts (if you have a blog) on your Facebook Business Page -- this can elicit comments, which are one of the highest engagement devices measured.

Shameless plug: Are you on Facebook? LIKE Resume Writers' Digest on Facebook!

When Traffic is a Good Thing

Normally, when I think of "traffic," I think "bad!" Like, stuck in a traffic jam or having to navigate through the cars parked on both sides of the street for the neighborhood church's festival to get out of my neighborhood last weekend. Yes, in those cases -- traffic is bad.

But there is "good" traffic too -- as in traffic = visitors to your website.

Website traffic is -- for many business models -- the key to profits. The more traffic you have, the bigger your bottom line. This is particularly true for resume writing businesses that work with a national clientele. Whether you're launching a new product (perhaps a workbook touting "10 Top Interview Secrets") or just want a quick influx of cash (booked appointments!), sometimes you need tons of traffic quickly.

Here are five fast solutions to drive traffic to your resume writing business website.

1. Social media. Social media works quickly -- and if you have a large following on any of the social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), you can generate a ton of traffic to your website quickly. The key is to create attention-grabbing posts that arouse curiosity, make people laugh, or stir up a controversy. You want to generate click-throughs to your website.

Make the most of your social networking tactics and use technology to get the job done. For example, one StumbleUpon post can be integrated with both Facebook and Twitter profiles so you're making waves on all three social sites at once.

2. Blogging. Post on your own blog or be a guest blogger on a blog with a large number of subscribers. Like social networking, if you offer an informative, controversial, or entertaining post, you'll have people clicking through to your website like mad. Of course, if you also promote this wonderful blog post via social media, you can double your traffic results. (See tip #1.)

3. Article marketing. Article marketing works well when you concentrate your efforts on quality article marketing sites with large audiences. One well-written, informative article -- rewritten a few times, and submitted to a handful of directories -- can generate the traffic you're looking for. Be sure to include a bio box that includes a call to action and a link to your website to motivate click-throughs.

4. Video content. Video is one of the top traffic-driving sources online nowadays. It's amazing how quickly a video can go viral. Like print content, videos that entertain, stir up a bit of controversy, or offer tremendous value cause a buzz. They're forwarded to friends and downloaded on laptops and mobile devices around the globe. A good video can generate all the traffic you need. Again, integrate a bit of social media to promote your video, blog about it too, and you can multiply your traffic results. (The ability to do video is built into lots of tools nowadays. My favorite is the FlipCam -- which is no longer being made -- but I just discovered that my $150 Nikon Coolpix camera has built-in video ... it's not professional quality, but it would work for an online video -- especially one that you post on your blog.)

5. Partnerships. This strategy takes a little bit more work than the first four tips, but can yield significant traffic to your site. Partnering with a relevant or compatible business (career coaches, mental health counselors, real estate agents) can work quite well to generate traffic fast. The key is to come up with a mutually beneficial agreement. Find people in your industry that are willing to work with you and help each other drive traffic. A partnership may include guest blogging on each other's sites, swapping advertisements, or even promoting one another in your ezine. (If you are a generalist resume writer, partner with a resume specialist -- for example, someone who works with federal resumes or finance candidates, or IT specialists -- and swap content and traffic.)

For example, earlier this month, I partnered with Wendy Terwelp, who was promoting a "Rock Your Network®!" teleseminar training program for careers industry professionals. I contacted Wendy to see if she'd be interested in putting together a free preview call for resume writers. We launched the call about 10 days after I initially contacted her, and the 45-minute call was chock-full of great information about how to use social media in your careers industry business (both for yourself as well as for your clients). Wendy was able to reach 50+ careers industry professionals who listened to the call live (or the recording), and I was able to promote Resume Writers' Digest through her social media channels (her Facebook group and Twitter profile). It was a great partnership.

It is possible to drive a ton of traffic to your website fast. The trick is to have a plan in place, know your audience and your goals, and take action.

A Resume Writing Business Without A Website?

Believe it or not, there are some resume writing businesses without a website.

Your website is a 24 hours, seven day a week salesperson. I don't know about you, but I'm not available to answer the phone 24/7. But many folks are working on their job search during the evenings (even at 2 a.m.!) and on the weekends.

A website can "sell" for you, even when you're not awake. But not just any website will do.

It has to look good. You wouldn't send out a salesperson in stained tank top and ripped jeans, would you? By that same token, you shouldn't have a horrible looking website. Like a salesperson, your website will be judged instantly by its appearance. Making sure your site looks good and professional will instantly put people at ease. (And there are a lot of uneasy job seekers out there -- many of them haven't looked for a job in years, and they're scared. A good website can be reassuring -- that there is someone out there who knows what they're doing.)

The site has to be informative. Would you send out a salesperson that couldn't explain what your business was? Would you send out someone one who couldn't answer basic questions about your business? Of course you wouldn't, so why do so many people do that with their website? Your website needs to explain your business properly -- and the more content and information you have the better. Keep the information fresh too. (A blog is a great way to do this.)  If you want your salesperson to be knowledgeable and caught up on the latest news, then you want the same for your website.

If you get into the mindset that your website is a 24 hour, 7 days a week salesperson, you will naturally take better care of it and demand perfection. The best part about the website though? It doesn't ask for a vacation, it doesn't require overtime, and it works for virtually no money. Try finding a salesperson that does that.

Here are some resume writing business websites that I think do a great job:

• Blue Sky Resumes
• Best Impression
• Career Trend
• The Resume Place
• New Leaf Resumes

What makes a great resume writing business website? I'm interested in what you think. Leave me a comment below.

Social Media Time Management Strategy: Search and Save Searches

New vs. Old Twitter - How to Search and Save Searches

This is the second post in a series of Social Media Time Management Strategies for Twitter.

Sometimes you might have a need to do a search and find all tweets related to a certain term. Perhaps you heard about a new product related to your niche (area of expertise) and you want to see what’s being said on twitter. No problem!

 

Old Twitter:

In the old version of Twitter, the search box is on the right side of the screen. Enter your search terms and click on the magnifying glass.

 

On the search results page, Click on “Save This Search” to keep a record of your search.

 

Your saved searches will appear in the right menu whenever you want to view them as shown below:

 

New Twitter:

 

In the new version, the search box is at the top of the screen to the right of the Twitter logo. Enter your search terms then click on the magnifying glass to search and click your mouse.

 

 

On the search results page, you can click “Save this Search” Just like in the old version, you can click on “Save this Search” to save your search for future use. However, as you can see, the button to “Save this search” is larger than in the old version.

 

Then your saved searches will appear in your top menu anytime you want to access them. For example:

Twitter is known for being a great source for news so if you hear of something going on in the world, do a search and you will most likely find some tweets about it.

 

Twitter is also a great tool for doing research. Thinking of writing an ebook on “weight loss for women”? Search Twitter periodically to find out what people are saying about your topic and what questions they are asking. You can do searches for "resume writing," "job interview," "find a job," "job search" and similar terms and see what's being searched!

Guest Post: Clarifying Social Media Strategy with the POST Method

By Christine Gallagher

It sounds simple, but before you implement a new marketing strategy in your business, you need to first know what your objectives are. That is, what is it that you are trying to accomplish? Social media is no different. It's not enough to want to add it to your marketing mix because "everyone else is doing it."

Luckily, Forrester Research came up with a handy little acronym, which my colleague Amy Miyamoto and I also included in our Social Media Made Simple webinar series. It's called the POST Method, and it's a really easy way to frame your social media strategy. Here's how it breaks down:

P: Who are the PEOPLE you would most like to attract via your social media presence on sites such as Twitter and Facebook? For example--mentors, colleagues, strategic alliance partners, raving fans, potential clients, local connections? Or a combination of these?

O: What are your primary OBJECTIVES for your Social Media presence? For example, is it to get found by those who are looking for your services or products, finding and interacting with current and potential clients and customers, building a community around your business, creating awareness of your content and offerings, building relationships with potential strategic alliance and referral partners, learning from mentors?

S: What Social Media STRATEGIES do you plan to implement? Will you have a Twitter profile, a Facebook Fan Page, a LinkedIn profile, join a Facebook Group, start a blog? Which ones have priority over others?

T: What TECHNOLOGIES will you use? For example--Hootsuite, Twellow, Ping.fm, Twitpic, YouTube, Bit.ly for link shortening? (The ones you determine to be of highest priority to you will influence the kinds of actions you take on the social media sites you have a presence on.)

Finally, for bonus points, you could also include "M" as in "how will you MEASURE your results?" Understandably, businesspeople still want to know the ROI of their activities--and although this is not as cut and dry to measure in social media, there are still certain numbers that you can look to: your number of newsletter or blog subscribers, number of followers and fans, your website traffic, the amount of comments on your blog, how many purchases made, etc.

The POST method is a good basic structure for starting to define your social media plan, objectives, and priorities. By identifying all the relevant parts of the structure you are creating a clearer vision and purpose--as well as implementing goals, strategies, and tools that will best enable you to effectively reach the ideal people you are looking to connect with through social media.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christine Gallagher is founder of ShesGotClients.com, a company dedicated to teaching women entrepreneurs all over the world how to use authentic relationship marketing and online strategies to attract raving fans, enroll more clients, and enjoy more income and freedom in their business, all while sharing their gifts and their message in a much bigger way.

Christine created The 6 Simple Steps to Kick Start Your Social Media Success System(TM), a real-world, step-by-step "roadmap" that teaches entrepreneurs how to consistently bring in new clients and customers using the Internet.

Through her coaching and training business, Christine helps entrepreneurs maximize their profits using an integrated social media and online marketing strategy, and teaches them how to stop trading dollars for hours by using online information marketing techniques.

Christine was recently featured as a social media marketing expert in the book Get Scrappy: A Small Business Owner's Guide to Marketing On Less, as well as profiled as one of "16 Brilliant Business Minds on Twitter" by The Huffington Post. Her blog was also recently chosen as one of the top 50 small business blogs by Konector.com, and her newsletters, products, and online reach now educate and inspire over 18,000 people every month.

Learn more about Christine, her products, programs and courses at ShesGotClients.com

Sign up for Christine's "Get Out There" Ezine. Click here.

Social Media Time Management Strategy: Make a Twitter List

In the newest issue of Resume Writers' Digest, the cover story is on "Social Media Time Management Strategies for Resume Writers." In the spirit of that article is this blog post, which addresses a time-saving tip for Twitter.

One helpful Twitter feature is the ability to make a List. You can add those you follow to a list so that you can see all related tweets at once. Think of it as a customized timeline.

 

Ideas for lists to create would be Recruiters, Colleagues, Family, Celebrities, etc.

 

Old Twitter:

To create a list in the old version of Twitter, you would click on “New List“ in the Lists section on the right side. Once you have created one or more lists, they will appear above where you create a new one so you can easily access them.

 

 

New Twitter:

 

In the new version, click on the dropdown arrow beside “Lists” and then click on “Create a list.”

 

 

 

The process of actually creating your list is essentially the same in Old and New Twitter. Assign your list a Name and Description then choose whether you want it to be “Public” or “Private”. When finished completing this screen, click on Save List.

 

Once you’ve created your list, you can add people by searching for them:

 

 

Or just go to your follower list and find the people you want to add. Just click the icon on the far right and you can select to add the person to any of your lists.

 

 

Once your list is complete, you can click on it to see the tweets of those on your list only.

Want more social media time management tips? Subscribe to Resume Writers' Digest -- it's free! When you've confirmed your e-mail address, you'll also get a link to download the Spring 2011 issue which features Social Media Time Management Strategies for Resume Writers.

 

CPC Awards of Excellence Deadline is July 1

The Career Professionals of Canada Awards of Excellence Program nomination deadline is July 1, 2011.

Nomination categories include:

• Outstanding Canadian Career Leader
• Outstanding Volunteer Contributor to the Organization
• Outstanding New Canadian Career Professional
• Outstanding Canadian Online Profile Developer 
• Outstanding Canadian Resume - New Graduate
• Outstanding Canadian Resume - Career Change
• Outstanding Canadian Resume - Technical
• Outstanding Canadian Resume - Executive
• Outstanding Canadian Resume - Creative 

Both non-members and members may nominate PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS, and PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS may also nominate themselves for awards. Award recipients will be formally recognized on the CPC Recipients page, CPC News and Views, and in the Career Connections Newsletter, which is received by more than 2800 subscribers. Award plaques will be delivered directly to recipients.

For more information, visit the Awards of Excellence page. And get those nominations in by July 1!

Best of luck to all nominees!

Converting Voice Mails to Voice Files

Okay, so this blog post isn't 100% directly related to resume writing ... but it is something that you might need someday, so I'm sharing it anyway.

I've had my current (nonsmartphone) for about 4 years now, and it's time to upgrade. (Actually, it's long past upgrade time...), but I have about a half-dozen voice mails on the existing phone that I don't want to lose when I transition it over. I've heard enough "horror stories" from friends and colleagues who have lost voicemails, photos, and videos when switching over their phones that I want to be proactive about it.

So I've been investigating services that will preserve the voice mails by turning them into digital files -- either MP3s or CDs. I use Google Voice with my cell phone (which automatically creates recordings of my voice mail messages), but the calls I want to save were ones that came into my regular cell phone line, not my Google Voice number (which also rings my cell phone), so I don't have them as a digital recording ... only as a regular voice mail message.

I'm looking at two services in particular -- each with different costs and different features.

The first is voicemailsaved.com, which charges $34.99 for preserving voice mails (up to 30 minutes of voicemails included). They'll send an audio CD for $12.50 ($5 each for extra CDs), or send a link to download the recordings at no additional charge.

The second -- a much less expensive option, but one that requires more "me work" -- is savethatcall.com. For just $.50 plus $.05 per minute, you can use third party conferencing to record your voice mails (or any calls, for that matter -- which may actually be useful to resume writers conducting phone-based interviews of clients to collect information on their resume development).

You can also try CBW Productions, which charges approximately $5/message. You can receive files via MP3 download or CD or cassette. They also provide notary services, should you have a message that requires legal verification. [This is the service I used; I paid approximately $30 to have six messages saved, including shipping. I am a previous Alltel Communications subscriber, so I used promo code ALLTEL and saved 10% (thru 12/11). I'll let you know how it went when I receive the CD in the mail.]

Anybody have any experience with either of these services -- or another service they can recommend?

BestResumeWriters.net: Legitimate Promotion or Fraud?

I received the following e-mail from a resume writing colleague:

As you have probably already heard, BestResumeWriters.Net is a new online directory that has professional resume writers listed for free.

Our editorial team thought your free profile on BestResumeWriters.net will be a win-win solution to you and your potential customers.

Our data entry team had gathered some information about you, publically available on the Web.

Your profile is ready and live on the website now.

With this mail we invite you to visit www.bestresumewriters.net and type your name / last name into the search field, find your profile and verify you are fine with this listing on BestResumeWriters.NET.

Please see your profile with us, and let us know if you are fine with being listed as the Best Resume Writer on our website, and if your profile composed by us meets your expectations.

If we do not get your permission by May 30th, we will delete your profile until you request to have it recovered.

If you fail locating your profile on our website but you wish to be listed on BestResumeWriters.net please notify us with the email sent to support@bestresumewriters.net

From our side we commit for the online directory transparency and marketing:

* the messages/inquiries sent to you will be routed to your email in a timely manner,

* the information acquired from the messages we receive will not be used for any other purpose but relaying to the resume writer needed,

* the online directory will be marketed in terms of Search Engine Optimization and so called cost-per-click traffic to bring the best resume writers listed on our website more and more clients,

* we will be working next on the website functionality improvement, aiming to provide convenient and effective search tool to the job seekers in need for the resume writing help.

Thank you for being the Best Resume Writer!

--

Thanks,

Regards,

BestResumeWriters.net Team

She was asking for feedback about this "opportunity" -- in particular, she was concerned because there is no "name" associated with the website. When I clicked on the contact page, I tried the links for both Twitter and LinkedIn, and neither worked.

Resume writing colleague Roleta Fowler Vasquez, CPRW/CEIP, Owner of Wordbusters Resume and Writing Services wrote about BestResumeWriters.net on a "fraud alert" page on her website.

Roleta reported that there is some confusion as to whether the "contact this writer" inquiries are forwarded to the resume writer or not. I will investigate this further.

Do you have any information on this site? I will update this post with new information as I receive it.