Astounding Language

Standing out at a Career Fair can make a difference in your search. Career Faires are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a SF Bay Area Career Faire in January, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 career faires scheduled for 2010 across the US.

How do you compete at a Career Faire? The competition can be considerable, but you can help yourself stick out from the herd with early planning. At AA-Careers, we have a simple six-step process to prepare. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, investigate the organizations that are going and pick your objectives. Use the internet to check out the organizations that are there before you even decide to go. Go to their internet sites and see if they have their openings posted. Pick a sane number to target, and get ready to spend an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 8 in a day, and five or six is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring organization, you want to know: key product lines, recent news, and executive names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You will end up with with a page or two of research for each company/job.

Second, if there are job openings on the web, read them to see what the hiring department is looking for. Create a mapping of your achievements and skills to the demands of the job. Make the language match. If the hiring company calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring company.

Third, create a ‘brief sales pitch’ for each likely company/job combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally showing why you are a good prospect for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job kiosk.

Fourth, modify your resume for each opportunity. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re aiming for. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the accomplishments and skills that most clearly match the job requirements. Especially at a Career Fair, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be a no-brainer to see that you’re a match based on your resume.

Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be properly groomed. Don’t over do-it (this isn’t a date!) and don’t underdress (no jeans or t-shirts, no matter how much you paid for them). Avoid strong cologne or perfume.

Finally, rehearse your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each position - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a distinctly marked folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!

Affiliate marketing resembles an auction. Merchandise is featured on your website and in return, each purchase pulls in commission. There isn’t as much time and effort needed, few overheads, it works whilst you rest, and it’s simple to master. At the start, you have to decide precisely which area you want to specialize in. A way of doing this is, determine solutions to problems a unique market segment is expecting, and what solutions are available to assist them. A good method of doing this task is to search for unique sets of narrow keywords; there are fewer searches for these generally, but they will convert far more.

To obtain these lucrative words or phrases, use Micro Niche Finder. Data gathered from this program or analogous computer programs and software packages will give you associated keywords and phrases in an extensive list format providing worthwhile information to get top spot on internet searches. Micro Niche Finder information will also tell you how many searches each word or phrase gets, just how many other internet sites are utilizing those keywords, and inforamtion on your rivals as well. Finally, the info returned should help you find appropriate domains, aid you in putting together your internet site, and also draw attention to the best sales opportunities. Putting together a web site is next on the list; but you’ll obviously need to do more than that. Search engine optimization is absolutely fundamental. Programs such as SEO Elite can make this simple. Your competitors’ web sites are analyzed by the software package which then offers advice to increase search engine rankings.

In SEO Elite the information produced from the computer software suggests where you might find appropriate links, the most profitable keywords, and even a list of sites for submitting articles to use. In summary, the data created are the same kind of advice you would receive from a practised SEO professional. Once you determine your niche, have your product advertisements, and your website is completed, then all you need to do is forcefully upgrade your search results. You will collect a steady pay check and question why you ever doubted that affiliate marketing could be successful for you!

BNI (Business Networking International) coined the phrase
“giver’s gain”, which basically means that if you give
referrals, leads or resources the recipients will want to repay
you somehow. The problem is that as your network grows, it will
become increasingly difficult to give referrals to everyone in
your network.

This is somewhat counterintuitive because most people would
think that as they add contacts to their network it will be
easier to refer the new members of your network to each other.
However, if you know five accountants it is difficult to refer
to all five of them equally. One way to give back to your
network is to develop a number of strategic alliances.

There are a few basic steps you should follow to help ensure
that your new alliances are effective. First, be sure to think
about what you want the alliance to accomplish. Are you simply
trying to reach new potential customers? Or are you also trying
to reduce your marketing costs? In general, think about the
goals of the alliance. Here are some things you might want to
consider.

- You will get access to the networks of your partners. - You
will get to associate your business with another, potentially,
more established brand. - You can decrease your overall
marketing costs, while expanding your reach. - You can learn
from other businesses. What has been successful for them in the
past?

Next you should think about who you want to partner with. If you
are a Realtor, you might think of mortgage originators or real
estate attorney’s that you could partner with. Bear in mind that
your partner does not have to have the same goals are you, but
they should be complementary. Here are several ways you can
potentially form and alliance with another business.

- Create an alliance with a customer - Creating a mutually
beneficial relationship with a key customer can strengthen the
relationship and reduce your risk of losing this key customer.

- Create an alliance with a market leader - If you are a small
business, you may be able to reap hue rewards from partnering
with the market leader in your area. You may be able to offer a
level of local penetration that a big company may have trouble
creating on it’s own. The alliance may not offer a huge
financial incentive for the small business but you can leverage
the alliance in your own marketing program. If you are the
market leader, consider partnering with a young, easer business
that might be able to offer you this type of market penetration.

- Create an alliance with a non-profit organization - You might
be able to create an alliance with a trade organization or local
community organization, which offer not only direct rewards, but
also in-direct rewards from helping a good cause.

- Create an alliance with a former employer - Your company may
offer a service that complements the services offered by a
former employer.

- Create an alliance with a competitor - while you have to pay
very close attention to detail when partnering with a
competitor, you might be able to tap into their resources to
extend your reach. They might be a competitor, but may not have
the specific expertise that you do. For example, many people
would consider Yahoo! and Microsoft’s MSN internet portal to be
competitors, but MSN recognized Yahoo! Strengths in keyword
driven advertising and started featuring Yahoo! Ads with their
search results. Of course, MSN is now developing their own
contextual advertising system, which means the partnership is
coming to an end soon.

- Create an alliance with a parelell industry - simply stated,
find another business in your market but that is not a direct
competitor and then team up to market to the same customer base.
Each company can pitch in financially and see incremental
results from their marketing activities.

Planning out exactly how the alliance will work is the next
step. You and your partner should clearly outline what each
party is going to be responsible for and how results are going
to be monitored. Be sure to discuss the costs involved in the
alliance and make sure that each party has a clear understanding
of what all of the costs will be. Here are some ideas to
consider.

- Ask your partner to display your literature and/or products. A
Realtor may be able to display brochure from a mortgage broker
in their office or include it in the packet of information they
present new clients.

- Ask your partner to link to your website from theirs. An
accounting firm may be able to place a link to your financial
planning practice on their website.

- Include your brochure in a partners mailings. A delivery
company might be willing to include your brochure in the
invoices they send to their customers each month.

- Develop joint marketing materials that promote both businesses
and share the expenses of implementing the plan. For example, a
handyman and a landscaper may develop a direct mail piece that
promotes both companies and then each company can contribute to
the mailing expenses.

- Develop a “preferred partner” program that offers customers a
financial incentive to buy products in tandem from two companies
at once. For example, a car dealership might form a partnership
with a service station and offer maintenance bundled with the
purchase price of a car. A health club may offer a joint
membership to a local tennis or pool club. Develop a seminar
with another business - develop a educational seminar program
with a business in your industry and then market the events as a
team.

- Publish news about the businesses you have developed an
alliance with.

- Introduce your new partners to your key clients. Perhaps you
can invite your partner to events you are involved in.

- Serve as a sponsor for events your partners are involved in.

Once you have set up your alliance and implemented your plan, it
is critical that the lines of communication stay open and that
you pay attention to the relationship you have formed. Check in
with your partner to make sure they are happy with the way
things are going.

Set up a weekly meeting or conference call with your partner and
go through a progress report. You may also find it helpful to
create a “report card” for your project before it begins. Base
your report card on the goals you laid out early in the
relationship and then revisit it over time. By laying out the
goals in advance, each person involved with the project will
understand what is expected of them. In addition, it is harder
to ignore setbacks and bumps in the road if expectations are
fully developed and everyone is on the same page before the
project begins.

The most common mistakes involve failing to clearly communicate
through each stage of the alliances growth. Think about the
overall value proposition, where each parties goals are aligned
and mismatched, the level of commitment or excitement from each
party. Always think about how the alliance can become a win-win
for everyone involved. If you do not think you can really add
value, don’t participate because you do not want to damage your
credibility. Finally, if the alliance simply does not add
measurable value to your business, do not participate.

Creating these formal alliances will help you develop and
strengthen the relationships you already have. Power networkers
can create multiple alliances with multiple members of their
network. These alliances have the added benefit of allowing you
to add value to a number of businesses without having to
actually give specific referrals to a number of businesses
individually.