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To Blog Or Not To Blog That Is The Question?

The importance of blogging is talked about all the time. But is it really THAT important?

If you’ve opened your inbox anytime lately you’ll know that everyone is either trying to sell you a blogging package or are preaching about the benefits of blogging.

But is it really any better than just sending your articles out to the article directories to get traffic?

I don’t believe so and here are 4 reasons why.

1. Blogs are time consuming.

Writing to a blog on a consistent basis can take up a lot of time or your time. You’ve got ideas to some up with and you need to deliver quality posts or you’ll never keep a big readership.

Compare that to writing article that takes up less time and you can write an article whenever you get the inclination to write one. Plus you can vary your topic’s everyday. Write an article on dog training one day, weight loss products the next. (Something you could do if you had a blog only based on one subject)

2. Is everyone actually blogging?

Yes, I know there are a few genuine blogger’s out there who provide genuine unique content. But if you visit the majority of blogs online (that claim they’re blogs) you’ll see that they’re only full of other people contents either in the form or a small excerpt leading to another blog or articles they’ve downloaded from the main article directories.

But if you’re writing articles you’re forced to write unique content that that’s not out there already. Plus you’ll get the full credit it for it and look like an expert. (Rather than a middle man who knows nothing about his topic and is only hoping for a couple of clicks on his adsense ads.)

3. Blogs can drop out of the search engines.

Yes, a blog is a great way of getting noticed by the search engines and picked up but if you’re not blogging on a consistent basis you find your blog and posts slowly falling down in page rank and search results until they disappear.

Compare this to having your article that’s in an article directory the majority of which actually climb up in page rank and increasing traffic. Plus if your website is only new why not just submit an article to an article directory and then just “Digg” your post or “Stumble It” on the social networking sites. Digg has a high page rank and you’ll find your site getting spidered very quickly plus you’ll also get a lot of free traffic on your very first day.

4. Do blogs really get read that much? Even if you have a blog with great posts does anybody really read them all? The majority of people who visit blogs usually only stay around for 2-3 posts at most before moving on to do something else online.

If you’re writing a blog you can get attached to it (“your online baby”) and because you’ve spent so much time writing to it, looking for subjects to write about etc, and when people spend more than a few minutes on it, it can knock your confidence and make you wonder if it really was worth while.

But with an article you spend hour or so putting it together and sent it on its merry way and it does well that’s great and if it doesn’t do well, back to the “drawing board” and try again (no harm done).

Conclusion

After reading this article you may be wondering am I totally against blog and blogging and the answer is “No.”

I do think there are some great bloggers out there that give great content but I think a lot of people are being mislead into thinking that blogging is a type of “set it and forget” way of making money online which its not.

Instead I think if you’ve got something to say put it done it in an article instead. This way you’re not making as big a commitment both in time and money and who knows you’ll probably end up on someone’s blog further down the line and increase your profile and traffic to your site. Something you were looking for in the first place.

Plus when you

Royalty Free Wav Sound Effects That You Can Download

Like the Batman theme and want to use it for your client’s project? You might have frowned in dismay as the Batman theme is of course, as everyone knows, a copyrighted track and hence there is no way you are able to use this in your project. Do so, and you will probably end up in trouble with the law. There IS a way out though, and that is by using royalty free wav sound effects that you can download. And not to worry - these tracks are meant to be downloaded and be used by you.

First things first, let’s get the idea of ‘royalty free wav music’ straight. Royalty free tracks are tracks that can be downloaded infinitely many times by everyone, and anyone can use it freely. So if you are looking for an awesome sound effect to use, try royalty free wav sound effects. Normal tracks that you might have downloaded from P2P networks are copyrighted tracks; most of them at least. Hence, this simply means that you are doing downloading these tracks illegally. This is the reason why using royalty free sound effects is highly encouraged.

Unlike these normal tracks that you have downloaded from Kazaa, royalty free sound effects are safe to download and as the purchaser and downloader, you are entitled to do anything you want with the track. Cut is short, edit it, loop it around or simply use it as it is. The sound effect is rightfully yours.

This is the reason why many people love to use royalty free music. There is no need for them to worry about the materials that they are using in their projects. There is also no need for them to think too hard on choosing the exact tracks that they wish to use. This is simply because there is an abundance of royalty free wav sound effects out there! Yes, you read it clear. If you are running out of ideas on which are the kind sound effects to use on your website, then hit “Royalty Free Wav Sound Effects” on Google and you will be rewarded with a full list of links to these royalty free tracks.

However, don’t expect to see Justin Timberlake’s or Eminem’s tracks. Royalty free sound effects and songs are 110 percent original. These tracks can sound pretty close to JT’s though. So if you are looking for a JT song for use, then grab one that is royalty free and sound as close to JT’s.

The problem with some people is that they keep on thinking that these royalty free wav sound effects sound crappy and the sound quality might not be as good. This is when they are wrong! You will be surprised to know that some of these royalty free sound effects and songs are actually composed by experienced and well-known music composers and directors. So, there is a high chance of these tracks sounding as good as (or even better than) the tracks that you have heard over the radio.

A definite plus point: these royalty free sound effects have sneak previews before you download and use them. This is definitely not the case for P2P networks.

Ray Barthell is an internet audio specialist providing royalty free music at http://downloadroyaltyfreemusic.net. Be sure to download free sound effects

Blogging For Money - Business Opportunity

‘A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.” Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.’

As an indication of where we are as a society, there are a number of blogging business opportunities available for people who know their way around the Internet. With all sorts of interesting things like Google AdSense and other ways for people to get paid, the blog business opportunity is bigger than ever. You should be careful if you are going to consider this because you need to know how the rules are played and you need to know what counts and what does not and you need to know how you will get paid. All of these are things to consider and things which should be known when you are considering the blog business opportunity. While this can be a great way to add extra income and enhance your financial situation you need to make sure you know what to expect.

Blog is short for “web log”, which is basically just someone’s account of what happened somewhere. If five friends go to restaurant and one of them writes for a restaurant blog, that’s considered valid. If there is one overzealous content producer who in his spare time writes a blog about theater, that’s completely legitimate. If there is a disgruntled hotel worker who maintains a blog while she is at work on the graveyard shift about how much she hates her job, that is considered valid. The fun thing about all these different types of businesses is that they all can make you money.

Blogging for money is the same as anything else and it’s all about driving traffic to your blog. The more people who read your blog then the more money you are likely to make. There is the added bonus that you can put advertisements on your blog that are related to your topic of your blog or the subjects of your various posts and these can make you money as well. It would seem, with money being made at weblogs, that the old archetype of the “website” may be becoming obsolete. While that statement may be a little bit ahead of its time, there will likely be a day when webpages as we know them today are no longer. The blog is a comfortable format that we are all very familiar with as we’ve all had to keep journals in grade school and many of us probably kept diaries outside of school. So we all are familiar with the daily entry format of the single thought process that goes along and takes you from one thing to the next to the next.

Wendy Pearson Director http://www.imperial7.com http://www.imperial7.com/successuniversity/ http://www.earnmegabucks.ws/

Where To Get Sound Effects Free Download

Sound effects are great add-ons to websites and projects. Some might find these sound effects quite a hassle to add, while others think that sound effect are just mere irritants. However, many have overlooked that fact that great sound effects will help to differentiate between the normal, mundane looking websites with the outstanding and spectacular ones. Why let your website become an ‘average Joe’ in the World Wide Web, when you can make it look and feel amazingly different just by using good sound effects?

But of course, not everyone is blessed with a good budget and we all know that websites and projects already require quite a large sum of money to undertake. So, when you are tight for cash, should you still consider adding great sound effects to further enhance your work? The answer is definitely yes, with a big capital Y.

Here is the trick: Most people get their ideas from songs or movies etc and when they are choosing the kind of sound effects that they want, they will usually look for the kind of sound effects that are copyrighted from these songs. But these are copyrighted material after all, so there is no way you can use these songs, unless you are willing to pay for the license. This is definitely not the practical way out.

So, the next step will be to search for any form of FREE downloads. There are plenty of them on the Internet, but the problem as you will soon find out is that these downloads simply sound terrible. Just because they are free, they tend to sound cheap and adding them into your projects will definitely not be a good idea at all.

What you can do however, is to search for royalty free sound effects download. The reason why people love to use royalty free tracks is because these tracks are one in a million. Like a music track? Then download it and it will be yours for use. If you are looking for music sound effects that are somewhat similar to the Batman theme, then you can also find one that is royalty free!

Using royalty free sound effects in your projects would spare you from the fear of being in trouble with the cops. The reason is simply because these tracks can be used over and over and over again over, indefinitely many times! You can even tweak it and make it shorter or loop it to make it sound like a full 3-minute song. As these tracks are royalty free, you as the purchaser will have the right to use it as you wish without any restrictions.

There are also other places for you to download free sound effects such as Limewire or any other P2P (peer-to-peer) networks where music files are shared. But the problem with this is that you will not be able to view the tracks before downloading and you will realize that you will end up with a dozen or more lousy sound effects.

Why waste your time and effort when you can actually have the close-to-real thing easily using royalty free music. And not to mention, you will not need to worry about the quality of these tracks or sound effects, as you will be surprised that some of them are actually composed by experienced music directors and composers.

Royalty free music is cheap and easy to get too. You will be assured of a full 100 percent satisfactory listening pleasure if you use royalty free music.

Ray Barthell is an internet audio specialist providing royalty free music at http://downloadroyaltyfreemusic.net. Be sure to download free sound effects

How To Squidoo For Website Traffic

Squidoo’s Internet audience is spreading rapidly and gaining quality eyeballs every day. While it’s very user-friendly you will want to know some of the secrets to make it work for you. The good news is the learning curve is short. The challenge is finding a way to fast track your progress.

You, like most Internet marketers, or aspiring IMers, probably want more traffic and more money from your links and affiliate offerings. Squidoo is often thought of as a sleeper. It’s time to wake it up for your own purposes…and success. First you’ll need to know a few things about the make-up of the community that makes regular visits to Squidoo’s lenses.

This membership’s crowd is shrewd and you”ll be well advised to use your “A” game when crafting your presentations on this project. They like to learn about new things and new ideas. They don’t want to waste their time on ads, although if it is something of value you’ll find impulse buyers galore at this location.

Next, and most important, is the overal look of your lens. Image really does matter here as does creativity. Your out-of-the-box attitude and perspective will score you big points at Squidoo. Don’t fly too far but don’t appear to be too uptight or you’ll miss your window of opportunity.

The trick is to have fun and make friends. Being a little kookie helps, especially if you can teach your visitiors something new.

This fast five to-do list will make a difference in how your traffic builds. Take a close look and make your notes. Then re-read the list three more times. You’ll find the time invested is indeed well spent.

1. Decide on what you want to feature in your Squidoo site. You can have fun building the more cockamamy lenses that are quick to produce and become less of a task to build. Plus the subjects appear to be more popular with the multitude of Squidoo fans.

2. Squidoo lovers like heavy colors and active subjects that demand them to think about what they are discovering. This helps make your lens “stickier” which is a very good thing.

3. Creating your subject is critically crucial. Even if you’re not an author it’s not a reason to be worried. If you have ever read a book you have enough skill to build a successful Squidoo lens. Put your thoughts into well written sentences and string them together. After 30 minutes or so you’ll be on the right path.

5. Succeeding means work and with work comes the advertising part of the process. Post your link on manual traffic exchanges, FaceBook and anywhere you can find. Membership sites are perfect if you like to schmooze with Internet friends. Build a relationship and work hard to be sure your fellow IM buffs recognize what you do for a living. Be open and honest for the reliable results.

Travel to a savvy SEO blog for more traffic building schemes. The focus is to search engine optimization of your web image to drive more daily traffic.

Looking sharp online means merging colors and action graphics to attact your audience and provide the information they’re searching for VIA search engines. Designing your own customized Squidoo Lens is the first step.

How To Increase Website Traffic

Working on the Internet to try to build part-time income is often a repetitive example of follow-the-crazy leader. Here’s how it runs most of the time. You undergo a never ending email bomb comprised thousands of emails every 5 to 10 days, each of which arrives with an unusual deal for you to get rich by following the never before revealed ebook.

Once an offer is made, your ability to turn off your impulse controls fades and you answer with a super-fast debit card transaction and get an reliable and prompt download of your Overnight-Success-101 Dream Busting Kit.

Only at the point where doubt enters your head do you take in the fact the other 1200 emails you encountered this week contained the same offer. Unluckily, at this point you realize you already bought 5 similar money making secrets…. all of which are clogging your hard drive.

As you continue to let this realization move deeper into your business judgement center you recognize you hate this program because it sucks. You also remember you’ve been emailing 1000s of promos for this same deal. In fact you earned your first $10 check from this deal last month. Interestingly, the royalty payment won’t nearly cover what you dropped when you bought the deal from a top selling author.

Does this sound like your story? This true story happened to your’s truly. It’s happening right now to thousands of your fellow Internet marketing competitors.

Mark this next sentence down on your note pad: “No one in any business gets rich from marketing other peoples products, especially at the pace at which you are currently marketing. Few Internet millionaires made their fortune until they learned to make their own products and promote them in the marketplace.”

According to US government stats, less than 6% of all online businesses earn as much as five hundred dollars a month. We are writing this article to prove that you can do better than that within the next 90 days…without spending a dime.

If you’re expecting a sales pitch from you’ll be happily disappointed. When you’re ready to start earning what you should be making for the amount of time you’re investing in your Internet business, you’ll be pleased you found this article.

Easy to apply steps to initiating your own business.The quickest way to find wealth from your business building efforts is through well written business or marketing articles. You don’t have to be a writer, in fact, it’s better if you don’t have any experience.

We’ll start by using a free and simple step-by-step website template that allows you unlimited access to an “online university” to tutor you in the process (the process is robust enough to let you taste a little income before school starts). This website’s start-up process will help you sample the traffic building potential faster.

The name of this robust and supportive website building community is Squidoo. Their activity centered forum and intuitive support and tutorials make this a very easy to handle project.

When you’re ready to start you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to find what you need from start to finish. You can post your own links and banners and promote affiliate products of your choice.

Starting off: Begin by deciding on the niche or subject of your Squidoo Lens. We haven’t really determined why they’re called lenses but it seems to work. You might as well jump in now so put on your thinking cap and come up with a subject for your webpage.

Simple and easy to understand works best. For example, like to sew? Start with something related to sewing. Do you prefer to knit sweaters or blankets? These too are areas that will attract loads of visitors.

Moving right along: Google your topic and spend a few of the 30 minutes you budgeted for research to learn what others have to say about your subject. Make your notes and let your mind wander over the possibilities. If you take more than 15 minutes for this you’re working too hard.

Third: “A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words.” For this stage of your project you’ll definitely want to just let yourself go creatively as you begin choosing graphics.

“Google” pictures that complement the topic you chose. Flickr is also a great source for shared pictures so you won’t have to worry about paying for the right to use the pictures. Check the FAQs to make sure you abide by the TOS.

Your best choices will be those with lots of color and action. Pick out at least twice as many as you plan to use to complement the few sentences you’ll post.

You’ll be glad you invested 20 or so minutes in this part of the process, especially when you see the traffic that starts to hit your webpage.

Finally, you will be missing out big-time if you don’t add affiliate links. If you have not done so already go to Clickbank to open an affiliate account. There is no charge and you’ll find lots of choices for products or services that match your topic. Clickbank provides an easy to follow user’s guide and there are forums and a great list of FAQs to answer your questions.

Clickbank is just one income source that provides you with money making links to add to your webpage. Another is PayDot and you can also join Consumer’s Junction.

Handle your search of affiliate programs as one of the items on your to-do list during the time you set aside for research.

When all is said and done you’ll be very happy with your Squidoo Lens. If not there’s always the option of having the lens designed and built by a custom lens design service. Their work is good and they know all the tricks of the trade, plus their prices are lower than mainstream website designers.

When you’re ready for more details about Squidoo lens building check check out these search engine optimization tips.

Learning the secrets of building websites is easy when you know where to look. Visit this fact filled new blog for easy to copy ideas:http://www.squidoo.com/lenscraftingguru

How To Optimize Your Google Adwords Campaign For Maximum Profits And Sales

The great thing about AdWords is that it gets your website listing where you want it to be right away. However it can cost you substantial money while you are bidding on the most popular keywords. The key with Google Adwords is to identify the right keywords for your business. Using keywords that convert into sales is the most important factor while shooting for a successful pay per click advertising campaign.

Trying to make the most out of your AdWords campaigns can be a big deal for the newbie. After all, you are spending a lot of money on AdWords. So it would be nice to get a good payback out of that process. To start, the main thing that you need to do with your AdWords campaign is to properly optimize it.

So, why should you care about trying to optimize your AdWords campaign? After all, you put an ad out there, isn’t that enough? The truth of the matter is, it’s not enough. You have to get out there and make things happen. It is said that almost 90% of everyone that shops online, uses search engines like Google.

That means that if you have your ads on AdWords (which is run by Google) you have a great chance at getting hits. However hits are no sales! So how to identify search terms that convert into sales? With proper Analytics. Understanding your Web site traffic will help you to identify search terms who are leading to sales. Your traffic data will also tell you what kind of ads are pulling the best results.

The fact of the matter is, only a few percentage of your keywords will lead to a sale. That is why its so important for you to identify these order pulling keywords. That way you can flush useless keywords that are costing you a pool of money each month.

Choosing good keywords is not enough. You have to know how to optimize your campaign listings.

You have to have keywords in your ads; it’s as simple as that. Also, you have to be able to grab peoples’ attention whenever they first read your ads. The best way to do that is to have keywords in your ad heading.

Optimizing your google AdWords campaign is the only way that you are ever going to be able to run a successful pay per click advertising campaign. You have to get people to come to your website, and you need them to be quality hits. Just getting anyone on your website is not going to help you. You have to attract people who are interested in what you are selling.

So how do you get these high quality leads? By performing a keywords research. Try to find keywords closely related to your niche. Personally, I prefer to search for long tail keywords because it help me to identify deeper niche with less competition. That way you increase your chances of making a profit out of your PPC Campaign.

To Your Success!

Do you want to learn more about Internet Marketing? I have just completed my brand new guide to Search Engine Marketing Success: ”How To Consistently Drive Thousands Of Targeted Visitors Every Day With Search Engine Optimization”. Download it free here: Search Engine Optimization Success. Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services.com Serge Daudelin is a Search Engine Optimization specialist and consultant who has written over 300 articles in print and 5 published ebooks.

Websites - A Beginner’s Guide

Have you have never taken the opportunity to create a web page for yourself or business ? If you haven’t taken the leap yet there are a several things that you should consider before looking for a web-based place to call home. The most effective way and easiest too, is to use a WYSIWYG HTML editor.

In case you haven’t heard of them, WYSIWYG stands for “What you see is what you get.” What it means is you get what you see. This type of website builder is easy to use, very similar to using a word processor.

Using this type of a website builder makes creating a website quick and easy. Generally you will first start with a template. After that it’s just a matter of adding all the pages you want on your website. You will include text, links, pictures, forms, and anything else you want.

In general you have two options when using a WYSIWYG editor. The first option is to purchase a standalone program to build your website with. The second option is to use and online editor.

If you don’t like monthly reoccurring monthly charges then a standalone program will be your best bet. With this option you would purchase software that is specially designed for building websites and you install it on your computer. Once on your computer you start building your website. Since you own the software there are no monthly fees and you can make as many websites as you want without having to pay more.

With the online editor you will have monthly reoccurring charges and you will have to log into a website to use the program to build your website. If you are on a dialup modem this may not be your best option. Online editors also come with templates to choose from.

What about free programs to build a website? There are many free options to build your website with. However, keep in mind you get what you pay for. Many webhosting providers include a website builder for free when you host your website with them. These types of free builders will handle the very basics and may be a little confusing to work with. But they are a good place to start if your budget is very low.

As far as templates are concerned you will generally have many to choose from no matter which type of editor you decide to go with. Most of the editors come with free templates to use, even the free website builders. Templates are usually easy to use and change. There are also many website that sell templates so if you don’t see one you like you can always purchase on from a separate company.

There are many options to consider when choosing a website builder from free to paid. To make the best decision for you first determine your budget. After that, you will want to make a list of all the things you want to do with your website and try to find a website builder that is within your budget that will accomplish those goals.

For additional website building tips and to see what XSitePro WYSIWYG Editor can do for you, please visit my website.

Job Searches – How Do You Ensure You Find Every Job On The Market?

When most people start looking for a new job, they tend to consider the activity as one complete process. Successful job applicants, however, will see it as three distinct phases:

Job searches

Resume (curriculum vitae) preparation

Interviews

The aspect that the casual applicant will spend the least time and effort on is job searches – yet logic dictates that this should be the area that gets most attention. For every job offer there are typically a higher number of interviews. And not every application receives an offer of an interview.

So it is amazing how many people treat finding jobs so casually. Typically they will have two or three places that they focus 90% of their effort on and the remainder of their time is spent browsing a few more sources once every few weeks.

It is no surprise that these people tend to have the least success in finding a new role. Good job hunting requires effort and nowhere is this more important than finding the vacancies in the first place.

Most job hunters tend to only focus on advertised vacancies – and then they only look for a small percentage of these. Typically they have a favourite paper or magazine and a few internet jobs boards. They will also register with a few agencies and wait to be called if any openings arise.

And their effort usually ends there.

First of all this restricts the volume of advertised vacancies that can be found and it also ensures that they never get to find out about the jobs that never find their way into the papers or onto the internet.

Here are ten very quick tips for increasing the volume of openings that you can apply for:

1. Read every local newspaper in the area you’d like to work. Most of them have an on-line presence too.

2. Find out which trade journals are published in your chosen field.

3. Find out which agencies specialise in your chosen field.

4. Draw up a list of companies you’d like to work for. Find out where they typically advertise.

5. Build up a network of people that work in recruitment.

6. Build up a network period. People know people who hire.

7. Spend some time finding out which companies are growing – and therefore likely to be hiring.

8. Find out which companies are moving to your area – and therefore likely to be hiring.

9. If you register with a recruitment agency, try to meet them face to face. You’re more likely to be remembered by them.

10. If you are serious about getting a new role, factor it into your schedule. Allocate, say, an hour a day and stick to it.

There are two factors that kill recruitment effort. The first is apathy. If someone can’t be bothered to find out which agencies specialize in their chosen field then they are doomed to failure.

The second is distractions. People start out with the best intentions to research some recruitment information on the internet. Oh yes, the internet. And so, just before they check out that new jobs board, they check their email. Then they find out about the score from last night’s game. Then they check a friend’s blog.

Before you know it, they’ve been on the web for forty minutes of their scheduled hour and that only leaves them a small amount of their allotted schedule to do any work.

Worst of all – they kid themselves they’ve spent an hour researching.

Job searching may not be fun – but it’s productive time. Unless being productive is more important than having fun, the aspiring job hunter will still be stuck in the same old job.

Remember the fact that it’s a numbers game. If you only find a fraction of the jobs that are out there, you’ll limit your chances of getting a new job. And if you only look in the obvious places, you’ll be up against all the other lazy job hunters who only looked there too. Meanwhile the hard worker finds the off-the-beaten-track jobs and ends up with the post you were better qualified for. If only you’d known about it!

Mark Walton is the author of 20 20 Easy Ways to Find That Dream Job, a self-help guide for people looking for a new job. If you want to improve your chances of getting a job offer then go to: http://www.jobhuntingresults.com/Job_Searches.htm to see how you can ensure you find that elusive dream job.

Writing A Resume – Don’t Forget Its Role In The Process Of Finding A New Job

Too many would be job applicants get overly worried about the quality of their resume (curriculum vitae). Although I’m not advocating a sloppy document, in my experience, too many people spend a disproportionate time on it.

Most would-be candidates I speak to will spend 10% of their time looking for jobs, 10% preparing for the interview and 80% making their resume look perfect.

Worst still, once they’ve perfected the resume, they keep it static, regardless of the role they’ve applied for (but that’s another story).

At the risk of sounding like I’m talking to a dog, I’ll spell this out as simply as I can.

A resume won’t get you a job.

Don’t confuse yourself. Nobody got a job just by applying. Ok, I’ll admit maybe one or two have, but for 99.999% of roles, it simply moved them one step along the process.

Recruitment is a numbers game.

Simply put, the more applications you make, the more interviews you will get. The more interviews you get, the more job offers you will receive.

You could strike it lucky and submit one application, get interviewed and offered the job. This is rare and not to be relied upon. The more applications you put out there, the better your chances of being interviewed.

It sounds so obvious, doesn’t it? Yet most job seekers would rather rely on the immaculate resume that does all the work for them. One application, a killer resume and the job is theirs before they even turn up for the interview. Meeting the employer is just a formality.

Despite the numbers aspect, I would like to add that if you have a choice between 100 standard applications for jobs or 50 tailored applications, I would say your chances of getting an interview would be greater with the 50.

Me? I’d go for 100 tailored applications. Cover the numbers and the quality. Unfortunately, we live in an age where we want something for nothing. We all want to be millionaires and work only a few hours per week. In reality, fortune favours the hard worker.

So how would I recommend the division of labour? Well as the recruitment process is a funnel i.e. wider at the top than the bottom, you need to spend most time looking for jobs. You’ll need to find more jobs to apply for than potential interviews. And in turn you’ll need plenty of potential interviews to generate the job offers.

I wouldn’t like to be prescriptive about percentages, but if you spent 50% of your time job-searching and then 30% of your time tailoring your resume, that would leave you 20% to spend preparing for interviews.

This is some way away from my prediction of a typical job seeker at the beginning. Yet the numbers make sense. Armed with this knowledge, the question is, what will you do with it?

My father used to laugh at my shyness with girls. He once told me that if I asked 100 girls out, at least a few were bound to say yes. A simple numbers game.

I agreed with his logic but, do you know what, I never followed his advice. The question is, will you be as stubborn as I was?

Mark Walton is the author of 21 Ways to Build the Perfect Resume, a self-help guide for people looking for a new job. If you want to improve your chances of getting a job offer then go to: http://www.jobhuntingresults.com/Resumes.htm to see how you can ensure you

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