Get More Traffic to Your Resume Website with Links

After publishing an article about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies in the Fall 2011 issue of Resume Writers' Digest, I've been getting more questions from resume writers about how to get traffic to their resume website.

First, a caveat. You're not Amazon.com. You don't need 10,000 visitors to your website each week. If you need 3-5 new clients a week, you probably only need 100-200 qualified visitors to your site weekly. If you can get 10-20% of them contacting you (10-20 calls or emails a week), you can convert a quarter of those into clients.

So keep in mind that those "traffic fuel" or "traffic explosion" courses aren't necessarily a good investment of your time or money. They're geared at driving tens of thousands of visitors ... and can be costly, or contain potentially questionable tactics.

However, a link-building strategy can be a good way to generate visitors to your site ... and, depending on the links, they can be highly qualified prospects. (Even better!)

Getting other websites to link to yours is perhaps the best way to increase the amount of traffic you receive over time. Not only will you gain more traffic when people click on those links and come to your site, but as more websites link to yours the ranking of your website will improve on Google and other search engines (which will lead to additional traffic).

First off, see what sites are already linking to yours. You can check this with Bing Webmaster Tools.

You can also do a quick search on Google for link:www.yourdomain.com.

Keep in mind that Google syndicates its search results, so you'll also see links for sites that use Google results (i.e., AOL, Alexa, etc.)

It's important to recognize that proper link building takes time -- but this shouldn't scare you away from the process. In fact, it should probably be viewed as a positive. Rather than disrupt your other business tasks by requiring you to focus exclusively on building links for a day or week or more, proper link building will require you to dedicate a small amount of time to the process on a regular basis. Ten minutes a week is sufficient.

The first step is to identify where you want to build your links to. Do you want to build traffic to the home page of a your resume business website, to different articles (or a blog) within your website, or to some other online presence -- might be your Facebook page, your Google+ profile, or even your LinkedIn profile.

One of the best ways to build links is organically. To do this you need to become active on other websites that relate to your business. Identify the blogs and community websites that have active discussions and to which you can substantively contribute. When you're commenting or making other contributions, avoid the temptation to promote your resume business or resume writing services directly -- a "soft sell" approach is usually more effective in the long run. Just being available to answer job seeker questions is a good idea.

Whatever your strategy, make sure your links go to a page that exists (and will exist into the future) on your website. This is important because if you change the way that you structure your website, the URLs or web addresses for your existing pages might change. The last thing you want to happen is for someone to click on a link to an article on your site, and instead get a "File Not Found" error. Chances are they won't make the effort to try to find that article by searching your site -- they'll simply leave your website.

If you do restructure any of your websites, or switch to a new blogging platform, then make sure that you have redirects in place so that old links will be forwarded to the new location automatically.

Also make it easy for your readers to share links to your website by ensuring that each page of your website has appropriate "Share," "+1" "Like" and/or "Retweet" buttons for Facebook, Google+, and Twitter (and any other sharing buttons for other social networks).

Finally, you can also generate links by writing articles for sites like ezinearticles.com and including a link to your website or blog in the "resource box" at the end of the article.

Note: Do NOT even consider services that offer to sell you dozens, or even hundreds or thousands, of new links to your website. Many times these links will come from spam websites or spam blogs that will generate very little (if any) quality traffic. Plus, it won't take long for Google and the other search engines to recognize the "spammy" nature of these link farms, so there is a distinct possibility that your web site ranking will actually be punished if you are listed on too many sites. Buying links is a no-no.

But by taking just a few minutes each week to post on websites, commenting on blogs, and writing and posting unique article content, you'll be able to grow a nice stable of links to point to your website.

Resume Writers: Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing

Not enough resume writers, in my opinion, understand how to integrate affiliate marketing into their businesses.

Affiliate marketing has two major advantages for resume writers. First, it allows you to generate passive income -- you simply recommend products that you think may benefit your resume clients, and if they purchase them, you earn a small commission.

Second, all of us get inquiries from prospective clients who never end up buying from us. Yet, many of them would still be receptive to hearing from us occasionally about information that might help their job search. Integrated with these messages can be affiliate marketing offers, for things like reference checking services, resume distribution, interview coaching training systems (if you don't provide it), salary information services, etc.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is like the online version of a direct sales model. An online business needs advertising and promotion to bring people to their site to make purchases. An affiliate marketing program uses other people (like you!) as sales associates to promote their products. Usually, the affiliate owner provides the tools that an affiliate needs to promote them well. (These can include articles, email copy, ads, links, etc.)

Affiliate marketing presents a win-win situation for the business owner. They can provide their knowledge of marketing to others (you!) who will then do the majority of the legwork for them. The affiliates don't lose out here either. You receive a commission on each click, visitor sign-up, or sale made through their affiliate link. (Each affiliate program has its own way of compensating affiliates -- through traffic or actual sales.)

How to Become an Active, Effective Affiliate

Here are some tips to help you get going with affiliate marketing.

• Search out reputable affiliate programs. There are tons of affiliate programs out there. All do not offer the same commissions or tools to help you promote their products. At some point in the future, I'm going to be developing a guide to products/services you can represent. (In the meantime, feel free to list your recommendations in the comments below.)
• Read about affiliate marketing. A good affiliate program will offer help for their affiliates, including education on tools and marketing strategies for their success. Be sure to read the training emails provided by the business too, as they'll often have ideas and tools to help you roll out your affiliate marketing program.
• Choose a product that you believe in. Don't base your choice of programs on money. Yes, there will be many lucrative programs out there, but that is not the only way to go. When you promote a product that you can get behind, then your customers will learn to trust you and be more likely to buy or click on your site.
• Promote a variety of products. You don't have to just join one program at a time. As an affiliate, you can earn money promoting several products at once. (But I generally recommend only promoting only one of each type of service -- like one resume distribution company.)
• Be honest with your customers. Let them know that you are an affiliate. (Disclosure is required by law!) You can do it with something as simple as a statement that says, "I am an affiliate for [name of company.) This won't turn them off if they see that you use the products yourself and believe in them.

You can be an active, effective affiliate for career-related services. You can even start today. Use these tips to help you choose the right place to begin.

Guest Post: Are You A Smartie?

By Barb Wade

Many of you may have heard of S.M.A.R.T goals, but as we approach the beginning of a new year, I thought it would be good to have a little refresher on the concept.

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for:

S - specific
M - measurable
A - achievable
R - realistic
T - timely

SPECIFIC — You goal must be specific. Not only because it has a greater chance of actually being accomplished, but it's much easier to know when you've reached your goal if you know exactly what it is!

So make sure you can answer the 6 "W" questions about your goal:

• Who: Who is involved?
• What: What do I want to accomplish? (Be specific!)
• Where: Where will it take place? (If applicable)
• When: When will it be finished?
• Which: What are the key requirements in order to succeed? And what are the significant obstacles?
• Why: The "why" is the tangible benefits of accomplishing this goal. (Make this personal — we work much harder on things that having meaning to us)

MEASURABLE — Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort toward reaching your goal.

ATTAINABLE — It's fine to "shoot for the moon" as a way of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone (see the Quick Tip below). But you want to make sure that your goal can actually be accomplished. It's fine to make it a bit of a "stretch" though. Even if a goal seems out of reach, as you take each necessary step to attain it, you begin to develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach your goal. And those goals will become more and more attainable as you grow to meet their challenge.

REALISTIC — Some people get stuck here because when they are setting a goal that is beyond their reach, they start to feel that it isn't realistic. But most of the time, that is just a limiting belief. A realistic goal is one that you are completely motivated to work and strive for and that you truly believe can be accomplished. In addition, it is a goal that others have actually achieved and therefore you can even model the steps they took to get there. A goal can be both high and realistic at the same time. Not only that, high goals are frequently easier to reach than low ones because you are motivated by something that is truly meaningful to you and gives you significant forward movement.

TIMELY — Any goal you hope to achieve needs to be within a timeframe. "Someday" never comes, and ASAP is too nebulous and impossible to measure. The minute you set a concrete timeframe — "by July 15th" or "by the first day of school" - your unconscious mind is already beginning to work toward that end goal and you have created a sense of urgency that will help you work at the top of your game.

So as you set your goals for the next year — whether personal or business — give them the "SMART" test and make sure they all have high IQs! ;-)

Barb Wade, M.A. specializes in teaching Coaches to create thriving, 6-figure practices in under 20 hours a week! For a FREE "How To Get Clients" BUSINESS BREAKTHROUGH KIT just for Coaches, visit http://www.BarbWade.com

New Edition of "Expert Resumes for Managers and Executives" Released

Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark have just published the third edition of "Expert Resumes for Managers & Executives." 

Here's a brief summary:
A powerful, performance-based resume is key to landing a great management position. This book features a collection of 100+ professionally written resumes and letters for all levels of management, from front-line supervisors to top-level executives, and everyone in between.

The third edition has been enhanced with updated resume samples, a resume questionnaire/worksheet for documenting experience and accomplishments, an appendix of resume power verbs, details on online resume preparation, and so much more.

I highly recommend the "Expert" series of resume books for resume writers to add to their personal reference/inspiration library.

(I'm pretty sure it was the second edition of the "Expert Resumes for Managers & Executives" book that appeared in "The Company Men" movie in 2010, starring Kevin Costner and Ben Affleck.)

Details: 304 pages, published by JIST. List price: $17.95 (available on Amazon.com for $11.96 plus shipping).