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	<pubDate>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:24:35 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>Why You need YouTube</title>
		<link>http://pajamariches.com/?p=265</link>
		<comments>http://pajamariches.com/?p=265#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:22:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lee</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[telecommuting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pajamariches.com/?p=265</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Unless you have been lost in time for the past 5 years, you are aware of Youtube.com. Were you also aware that people like you make a lot of money with their videos, similar to click links? Yes, it is true and many have even quit their day job. How would you like to do [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Unless you have been lost in time for the past 5 years, you are aware of Youtube.com. Were you also aware that people like you make a lot of money with their videos, similar to click links? Yes, it is true and many have even quit their day job. How would you like to do that? You can, read on:</p>
<p>1. <strong>Video units</strong><br />
This is an easy way of making money online for both Adsense publishers  and independent video producers (or partners). How does it work?  Publishers customize Youtube players with specific video content owned  by partners. Once the players are embedded on sites/blogs, little ads,  which can be texts as well as graphic banners, are displayed both above  and below the video. The video units’ player has an interface that  enables a viewer to scroll and browse through numerous videos as well as  ads. At the end, both Adsense publishers and Youtube partners will  receive a share of the ad revenue. So you can be either a publisher or a  partner. This brings me to introduce the second method.</p>
<p>2. <strong>Become a Youtube partner</strong> (provide good video  content)<br />
If you create original videos suitable for online streaming, you upload  videos that are watched by thousands of Youtubers on a regular basis,  and you own the copyrights of all video and audio content you upload, or  at least have permission to use and monetize somebody else’s materials,  maybe you should start thinking about joining the Youtube partnership  program. The size of your audience (subscribers) is also an important  element when your channel is being reviewed for acceptance. As a Youtube  partner, you will be able to share revenue generated from relevant  InVideo ads on your videos and banner ads displayed next to your videos.  Please understand that getting accepted is not easy. How much do  partners get paid? As I’m not a partner, I can’t really tell with  certainty the exact amount. However, I’ve read on the net that it’s  between 2 and 5 US dollars per 1k views, which may seem like not much  for some, especially if you get 2,000 views everyday. But it all changes  when it’s “millions of views” that we are talking about. Some partners  have even quit their jobs to work full time on their channels. This  gives you a little idea on how much they make.</p>
<p>3. <strong>Run affiliate ads on videos</strong><br />
You can either watermark your videos with your site promoting an  affiliate offer or redirect your viewers to your affiliate page by  including the link in the description areas of your videos. For example,  if you have music videos, you can sign up to an affiliate program that  sells ringtones. I’m sure you’ve already seen those videos that have  little annotations that show you a link where you can download the  ringtone for the video.</p>
<p>4. <strong>Start a video blog</strong><br />
You can start a site or blog that features Youtube videos, and write  review articles commenting on videos you embed on your pages. This is  probably a good way of creating content without really spending much  time and effort. You can then monetize the blog by running Google ads  (Adsense) or promoting the affiliate program of your choice.</p>
<p>5. <strong>Advertise or promote your own products</strong><br />
How does the idea of promoting your own products or items on Youtube  sound? You can reach potential buyers on Youtube. So all you need to do  is to upload advertising videos and link them to your site.</p>
<p>6. <strong>Drive viewers to your blog/website</strong><br />
<a href="http://pajamariches.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/youtube.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-266" title="youtube" src="http://pajamariches.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/youtube-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>The idea is to drive some of your viewers to  your blog or site by watermarking your videos and including your link in  the descriptions. Your source of income would be Google Adsense or  other affiliate programs.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Make money with Amazon Affiliates</title>
		<link>http://pajamariches.com/?p=252</link>
		<comments>http://pajamariches.com/?p=252#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:55:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lee</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[For yourself]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Amazon Affiliates]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[online]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[wordpress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pajamariches.com/?p=252</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
You&#8217;ve probably heard before a lot of hype about how  much money you can make with affiliate programs. Maybe you&#8217;ve even set  up a site yourself, only to find that after buying the domain, a few  bucks a month in hosting, software or a web designer to design your  site, etc., [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://pajamariches.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/money-stacks.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-254" title="money-stacks" src="http://pajamariches.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/money-stacks-300x273.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="273" /></a></p>
<div id="intro">You&#8217;ve probably heard before a lot of hype about how  much money you can make with affiliate programs. Maybe you&#8217;ve even set  up a site yourself, only to find that after buying the domain, a few  bucks a month in hosting, software or a web designer to design your  site, etc., that the piddly affiliate fees hardly even covered your  cost. Well, here&#8217;s the hype-free way to really make money with an  Amazon.com affiliate site. And it&#8217;ll only take a day to make the site.  The secret? Low cost, low effort.</div>
<div class="n3">Here&#8217;s How:</div>
<ol>
<li><strong>If  you don&#8217;t already know it, learn some basic HTML.</strong> You <em>have</em> to do this to keep your costs down and still get what you want. Even if  the site is basically laid out for you, you&#8217;re going to need to know how  to insert images, create hyperlinks, and do some basic text formatting.  Our HTML Guide offers a <a href="http://webdesign.about.com/library/beginning/bl_htmlclass.htm">free  10-week HTML class</a> and a great collection of <a href="http://webdesign.about.com/od/beginningtutorials/">beginning HTML  tutorials</a>. Get over any anxiety you have about this. Just do it.  You&#8217;ll thank me for it later.</li>
<li><strong>Decide on your topic.</strong> You&#8217;re going to be doing product reviews and recommendations, so pick a  topic that you enjoy and know something about. If you can&#8217;t stay  passionate about the topic, that will show, and it also won&#8217;t hold your  interest. Choose a narrow enough niche to be distinctive, e.g., bands  from your city, left-handed guitarists, music for a certain kind of  dancing, authors of a certain religion, books about arts &amp; crafts,  etc.</li>
<li><strong>Choose your domain name.</strong> Make it keyword-rich, not  clever. Think how people will find your site in the search engines. Here  are some ideas (all available when I first wrote this, though a cfew  have been snatched up):<br />
Music: BandsFromTexas.com,  BandOutOfBoston.com, SouthpawGuitarists.com, ClassicPsychedelia.com,  Non-Stop-Hip-Hop.com, Merengue-Music.com<br />
Books: Mormon-Authors.com,  Arts-and-Crafts-Books.com, Books-by-Stephen-King.com,  ClassicBusinessBooks.com<br />
Others: Best-Baby-Toys.com, MomsMags.com,  FelliniMovies.com</li>
<li><strong>Register your domain name.</strong> If you&#8217;re  not technically inclined at all, register your domain wherever you set  up your hosting in step 5. Otherwise, you can save a few bucks by  choosing a lower-cost provider. Not a big deal for one or two sites, but  it can be for ten or twenty. I use <a href="http://www.godaddy.com/" target="_blank">GoDaddy</a>, who have great domain  management tools and are less than $10 a year. The least expensive I&#8217;ve  found from a reputable source is <a href="http://www.1and1.com/" target="_blank">1&amp;1</a>, whose price is around $7 a year  last I checked.</li>
<li><strong>Set up your web hosting.</strong> This is where  most people get burned. For this kind of site, you <em>do not need $10 a  month web hosting!</em></li>
<li><strong>Install blog software.</strong> &#8220;Blog, you say?&#8221;  Yes. It will give your site all the structure you need, plus make it  easy to quickly post new content. My pick is <a href="http://www.wordpress.org/" target="_blank">WordPress</a>,  which is open source (i.e., free), easy to install and use, and yet  very powerful. Many hosts have a one-step installation process for it,  or you can <a href="http://wordpress.org/download/" target="_blank">download it</a> and follow their installation  instructions.</li>
<li><strong>Make it pretty.</strong> One of the great things  about WordPress is the huge variety of templates available for it &#8212;  they can completely change the look-and-feel. Our Weblogs Guide has a  list of <a href="http://weblogs.about.com/od/blogdesign/tp/5FreeWordpressThemeSites.htm">5  Sites for Free Wordpress Themes</a>, where you can find hundreds of  free WordPress themes.</li>
<li><strong>Set up categories.</strong> Most blog  software allows you to create sub-categories to help organize your  entries. This will help visitors narrow in even more specifically on  their interests. For example, BandsFromTexas.com might have one group of  categories for genre — rock, country, blues, etc. — and another for  city of origin — Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, etc.</li>
<li><strong>Sign  up as an Amazon Associate.</strong> It&#8217;s simple and free. Just visit Amazon  and click on the Join Associates link at the bottom of the page (here&#8217;s a  <a href="https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/" target="_blank">direct link</a> for your convenience). Your site should  already have at least the basic setup done, even if you don&#8217;t have any  content there yet, as they&#8217;ll review the site manually before approval.</li>
<li><strong>Create  your blog posting bookmarks/links.</strong> There are two links that are  going to be essential for you to make this easy. First is the blog  posting link. In your blog software, on the posting page (see their  instructions), at the bottom of the page there should be a  &#8220;bookmarklet&#8221;. Click on the link (and hold the mouse) and drag it up to  your Links toolbar in your browser (assuming Internet Explorer), or your  Favorites menu. This will allow you to blog a product with one mouse  click.</li>
<li><strong>Create your Amazon Build-A-Link bookmark/link.</strong> This will make it easy to build the link with your affiliate ID built  in. Log in to Associates Central, look in the left navigation sidebar,  go to Build-A-Link, and under Static Links, find Individual Items. Click  and drag this onto your Links toolbar or Favorites menu.</li>
<li><strong>Build  your first link.</strong> Go to Amazon and log in with your Associates  account. Find the product you want to review and use the Site Stripe  (gray stripe at the top of the screen that you&#8217;ll see when logged in as  an Associate) to get your personalized link to the item. They also offer  a variety of other options for <a href="https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/promo/buildlinks.html" target="_blank">creating links and banners</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Blog  your review.</strong> Now click on your blog posting link (Press It! by  default in WordPress). If you&#8217;re using WordPress, you should now see two  pieces of link code in your posting form, the first one ending with  &#8220;Associates Build-A-Link &gt;&lt; /a &gt;&#8221;. Delete through that point.  The second part is a link to the product with your Amazon Associate ID  built in. Now just write your product review, choose the appropriate  categories for it, and hit Publish.</li>
<li><strong>Build out your site.</strong> Before you promote your site, you want to have some substantial content  there. Write several product reviews. Have at least 2-3 in each category  you&#8217;ve created. You may also want to make a categories for articles,  news, and commentary about your topic. The more content your site has,  the better. And the great thing is that while you&#8217;re writing all this,  the search engines are getting notified automatically, assuming you  turned on the notifications mentioned in step 6.</li>
<li><strong>Promote your  site.</strong> The best free way to do this is to communicate with other  bloggers writing about similar topics, and to participate in online  communities where your topic is discussed. See the <a href="http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/onlinenetworking/">Online  Business Networking</a> category for ideas, as well as the <a href="http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/internetmarketing/">Internet  Marketing</a> category.</li>
</ol>
<div class="n3">Tips:</div>
<ol>
<li>You <strong>have</strong> to learn some basic HTML and basic concepts about running a web site.  It&#8217;s just not that hard. If you have to rely on purchased software, you  won&#8217;t be able to get exactly what you want, you won&#8217;t know what to do  when things go wrong, and you&#8217;ll end up spending money you don&#8217;t need  to. Spend the time to learn it. It will be well worth the investment.</li>
<li>I  slightly recommend music over books and other products, mainly because  you can listen to the clips of an entire album in about 10 minutes and  get a good enough feel for it (without buying it) to do a short review.  If you have another topic that you&#8217;re passionate about, great, but make  sure you have a unique angle on the topic. People can get reviews about a  lot of those consumer products anywhere. You need to give them a reason  to come to your site.</li>
<li>To pick up some extra pennies, sign up  for <a href="https://www.google.com/adsense" target="_blank">Google  AdSense</a>. It probably won&#8217;t generate a lot of revenue, but it&#8217;s free  to sign up and completely effortless to maintain.</li>
<li>Set  reasonable expectations for earnings. You&#8217;ve only invested $20. You&#8217;re  going to make 5% on most products. That means that you need to sell $400  worth of stuff to make back your investment. To make $20 an hour, what  you write must generate $400 worth of purchases. You get credit for  other purchases customers you send make while at Amazon besides just the  product you linked to, so it&#8217;s not as hard as it may sound. It won&#8217;t  make you rich, but it&#8217;s not hard to be profitable, and it builds over  time.</li>
</ol>
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		<title>Google Adsense $$$$</title>
		<link>http://pajamariches.com/?p=260</link>
		<comments>http://pajamariches.com/?p=260#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:13:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lee</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[For yourself]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[telecommuting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pajamariches.com/?p=260</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Google AdSense is the Google program where you can host  pay-per-click ads on your Website. When someone clicks an ad, you earn  money. Simple as that.
Is it really as easy to make money with Google AdSense as many would  lead you to believe? Now that I&#8217;ve become heavily involved with managing  [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://pajamariches.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/google1.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-263" title="google1" src="http://pajamariches.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/google1-300x211.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="211" /></a><strong>Google AdSense</strong> is the Google program where you can host  pay-per-click ads on your Website. When someone clicks an ad, you earn  money. Simple as that.</p>
<p>Is it really as easy to make money with Google AdSense as many would  lead you to believe? Now that I&#8217;ve become heavily involved with managing  Google AdSense programs for my clients, I can see it&#8217;s not all play and  no work.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, a lot of people bought into the idea that there was a  lot of easy money to be made and they are now finding out they aren&#8217;t  making nearly as much as they thought they would. Additionally, Google  has a lot of prohibited practices when it comes to AdSense, and too many  Webmasters are finding out they violated Google&#8217;s policies after the  fact - often because they never bothered to read the <a href="https://www.google.com/adsense/policies" target="_blank">AdSense policies</a> in the first place.</p>
<p>Webmasters must not only comply with AdSense policies, but their  Websites must also comply with <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769" target="_blank">Google&#8217;s webmaster policies</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Prerequisites for Making Money with AdSense</strong></p>
<p>To make money  with Google AdSense you need plenty of traffic coming in to your site or  there won&#8217;t be anyone to click the ads. <a href="http://homebusiness.about.com/od/yourbusinesswebsite/Website_Promotion.htm">Website  promotion techniques</a>, especially <a href="http://homebusiness.about.com/od/seo/Search_Engine_Optimization_SEO.htm">search  engine optimization</a> and <a href="http://homebusiness.about.com/od/articlemarketing/Article_Marketing_for_Home_Business.htm">article  marketing</a> will bring more traffic to your site. You also need to  have content that will attract the ads with the highest <a href="http://homebusiness.about.com/od/internetmarketing/a/pay_per_click.htm">Pay  Per Click</a> (PPC) rate that are relevant to that content. Then, you  need to lay out your web pages so the ads blend in with your site.  Studies have revealed that people who visit sites that contain ads that  use colors that are not in harmony with the actual Web site tend to  develop &#8220;ad blindness&#8221;. Meaning no matter how much traffic comes into  your site, chances are no one will click the ads because they&#8217;ll be  ignoring them. If no one clicks, you make nothing.</p>
<p><strong>Dealing with Competitors&#8217; Advertisements</strong></p>
<p>If you offer products or services on your Website, the first thing  you&#8217;ll notice when you begin hosting <a href="http://homebusiness.about.com/od/homebusinessglossar1/g/ppclick.htm">PPC  ads</a> is that many of the ads are coming from your competitors.  Therefore, you&#8217;ll want to put ads on pages that aren&#8217;t earning you any  money, or do like I did and not put ads on your site until you&#8217;re so  busy anyway you&#8217;d rather make a few dollars off of your competitors than  to continue turning business away with nothing to show for it.</p>
<p>Google AdSense allows you to specify up to 200 URLs for sites you  want to bar from placing ads on your pages. The problem is that most  times you won&#8217;t know the competitors are out there until their ads  appear.</p>
<p><strong>Google Money Making Ad Options</strong></p>
<p>Google offers three ways to  make money from them:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Google AdSense for Content</strong> - A variety of size and shape  ads for placing in your content are available. These can be text or  image ads or both - you specify what you&#8217;ll allow. <strong>Ad units</strong> are  full ads. <strong>Link units</strong> are simply a strip of text links that your  visitors might want to click. Google allows you to put up to 3 Ad Units  and 1 Link unit on each page of your Web site, provided you follow its  policies - both for AdSense and for Webmasters.</li>
<li><strong>Google AdSense for Search</strong> - This places a search box on  your Web site. When a user enters a term and conducts a search, a search  results page opens, that hosts more pay-per-click ads. You can  customize the color scheme of the search results page to harmonize with  your web site.</li>
<li><strong>Google Referrals</strong> - Here you make money by referring  visitors to use a Google product, like AdSense, AdWords, the Google  Toolbar and other Google software. Just like Google AdSense for Content  and AdSense for Search, Google generates the code that you paste into  the desired location on your web page. You can choose from a wide  variety of buttons and text links of different colors. As an example of  how Google Referrals works, if someone goes to your site and clicks the  link and signs up for an AdSense account, when that person earns a $100  from Google AdSense and receives a payout from Google, you&#8217;ll also  receive $100 for referring them. This is a great idea to me, because you  can be the world&#8217;s worst Google AdSense advertiser, but if an ad dynamo  happens to visit your site and uses your referral link, you can make  money anyway!</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Google AdSense Payments</strong></p>
<p>Google will not issue an AdSense payment until your earnings exceed  $100. Unfortunately, there are loads of <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/adsense-help" target="_blank">Google AdSense Forum</a> entries about website operators  who accumulated $90 or more in click through earnings only to get  banned from Google and not get paid anything at all before they ever  reached $100. This may be because Google doesn&#8217;t take a close look to  see if you&#8217;re complying with their guidelines until it comes time to pay  you. So yes, there&#8217;s a lot more to the story than meets the eye.</p>
<p><strong>Other Programs Besides AdSense</strong></p>
<p>Yahoo and MSN have similar programs, although those programs aren&#8217;t  as well-developed as Google AdSense and there aren&#8217;t as many available  advertisers to display ads on your site. The fundamentals for making  money are the same: You still need plenty of traffic, you still need  high-paying ads, and you still need to design your site to harmonize  with the ads to get people to click.</p>
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		<title>Resume Hits &#038; Tips</title>
		<link>http://pajamariches.com/?p=256</link>
		<comments>http://pajamariches.com/?p=256#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:05:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lee</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Work for Others]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[telecommuting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pajamariches.com/?p=256</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[1. Know the purpose of your resume
Some people write a resume as if the purpose of the document was to  land a job. As a result they end up with a really long and boring piece  that makes them look like desperate job hunters. The objective of your  resume is to land [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>1. Know the purpose of your resume</strong></p>
<p>Some people write a resume as if the purpose of the document was to  land a job. As a result they end up with a really long and boring piece  that makes them look like desperate job hunters. The objective of your  resume is to land an interview, and the interview will land you the job  (hopefully!).</p>
<p><strong>2. Back up your qualities and strengths</strong></p>
<p>Instead of creating a long (and boring) list with all your qualities  (e.g., disciplined, creative, problem solver) try to connect them with  real life and work experiences. In other words, you need to back these  qualities and strengths up, else it will appear that you are just trying  to inflate things.</p>
<p><strong>3. Make sure to use the right keywords</strong></p>
<p>Most companies (even smaller ones) are already using digital  databases to search for candidates. This means that the HR department  will run search queries based on specific keywords. Guess what, if your  resume doesn’t have the keywords related to the job you are applying  for, you will be out even before the game starts.</p>
<p>These keywords will usually be nouns. Check the job description and  related job ads for a clue on what the employer might be looking for.  You can read more about resume keywords on the article <a href="http://www.quintcareers.com/resume_keywords.html">Tapping the  Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume’s Effectiveness</a>.</p>
<p><strong>4. Use effective titles</strong></p>
<p>Like it or not, employers will usually make a judgment about your  resume in 5 seconds. Under this time frame the most important aspect  will be the titles that you listed on the resume, so make sure they grab  the attention. Try to be as descriptive as possible, giving the  employer a good idea about the nature of your past work experiences. For  example:</p>
<p><strong>Bad title</strong>: Accounting<br />
<strong>Good title</strong>: Management of A/R and A/P and Recordkeeping</p>
<p><strong>5. Proofread it twice</strong></p>
<p>It would be difficult to emphasize the importance of proofreading  your resume. One small typo and your chances of getting hired could  slip. Proofreading it once is not enough, so do it twice, three times or  as many as necessary. If you don’t know how to proofread effectively,  here are <a href="http://www.dailywritingtips.com/8-proofreading-tips-and-techniques/">8  tips that you can use</a>.</p>
<p><strong>6. Use bullet points</strong></p>
<p>No employer will have the time (or patience) to read long paragraphs  of text. Make sure, therefore, to use bullet points and short sentences  to describe your experiences, educational background and professional  objectives.</p>
<p><strong>7. Where are you going?</strong></p>
<p>Including professional goals can help you by giving employers an idea  of where you are going, and how you want to arrive there. You don’t  need to have a special section devoted to your professional objectives,  but overall the resume must communicate it. The question of whether or  not to highlight your career objectives on the resume is a polemic one  among HR managers, so go with your feeling. If you decide to list them,  make sure they are not generic.</p>
<p><strong>8. Put the most important information first</strong></p>
<p>This point is valid both to the overall order of your resume, as well  as to the individual sections. Most of the times your previous work  experience will be the most important part of the resume, so put it at  the top. When describing your experiences or skills, list the most  important ones first.</p>
<p><strong>9. Attention to the typography</strong></p>
<p>First of all make sure that your fonts are big enough. The smaller  you should go is 11 points, but 12 is probably safer. Do not use capital  letters all over the place, remember that your goal is to communicate a  message as fast and as clearly as possible. Arial and Times are good  choices.</p>
<p><strong>10. Do not include “no kidding” information</strong></p>
<p>There are many people that like to include statements like “Available  for interview” or “References available upon request.” If you are  sending a resume to a company, it should be a given that you are  available for an interview and that you will provide references if  requested. Just avoid items that will make the employer think “no  kidding!”</p>
<p><strong>11. Explain the benefits of your skills</strong></p>
<p>Merely stating that you can do something will not catch the attention  of the employer. If you manage to explain how it will benefit his  company, and to connect it to tangible results, then you will greatly  improve your chances.</p>
<p><strong>12. Avoid negativity</strong></p>
<p>Do not include information that might sound negative in the eyes of  the employer. This is valid both to your resume and to interviews. You  don’t need to include, for instance, things that you hated about your  last company.</p>
<p><strong>13. Achievements instead of responsibilities</strong></p>
<p>Resumes that include a long list of “responsibilities included…” are  plain boring, and not efficient in selling yourself. Instead of listing  responsibilities, therefore, describe your professional achievements.</p>
<p><strong>14. No pictures</strong></p>
<p>Sure, we know that you are good looking, but unless you are applying  for a job where the physical traits are very important (e.g., modeling,  acting and so on), and unless the employer specifically requested it,   you should avoid attaching your picture to the resume.</p>
<p><strong>15. Use numbers</strong></p>
<p>This tip is a complement to the 13th one. If you are going to  describe your past professional achievements, it would be a good idea to  make them as solid as possible. Numbers are your friends here. Don’t  merely mention that you increased the annual revenues of your division,  say that you increased them by $100,000, by 78%, and so on.</p>
<p><strong>16. One resume for each employer</strong></p>
<p>One of the most common mistakes that people make is to create a  standard resume and send it to all the job openings that they can find.  Sure it will save you time, but it will also greatly decrease the  chances of landing an interview (so in reality it could even represent a  waste of time). Tailor your resume for each employer. The same point  applies to your cover letters.</p>
<p><strong>17. Identify the problems of the employer</strong></p>
<p>A good starting point to tailor your resume for a specific employer  is to identify what possible problems he might have at hand. Try to  understand the market of the company you are applying for a job, and  identify what kind of difficulties they might be going through. After  that illustrate on your resume how you and your skills would help to  solve those problems.</p>
<p><strong>18. Avoid age discrimination</strong></p>
<p>It is illegal to discriminate people because of their age, but some  employers do these considerations nonetheless. Why risk the trouble?  Unless specifically requested, do not include your age on your resume.</p>
<p><strong>19. You don’t need to list all your work experiences</strong></p>
<p>If you have job experiences that you are not proud of, or that are  not relevant to the current opportunity, you should just omit them.  Mentioning that you used to sell hamburgers when you were 17 is probably  not going to help you land that executive position.</p>
<p><strong>20. Go with what you got</strong></p>
<p>If you never had any real working experience, just include your  summer jobs or volunteer work. If you don’t have a degree yet, mention  the title and the estimated date for completion. As long as those points  are relevant to the job in question, it does not matter if they are <em>official </em>or not.</p>
<p><strong>21. Sell your fish</strong></p>
<p>Remember that you are trying to sell yourself. As long as you don’t  go over the edge, all the marketing efforts that you can put in your  resume (in its content, design, delivery method and so on) will give you  an advantage over the other candidates.</p>
<p><strong>22. Don’t include irrelevant information</strong></p>
<p>Irrelevant information such as political affiliation, religion and  sexual preference will not help you. In fact it might even hurt your  chances of landing an interview. Just skip it.</p>
<p><strong>23. Use Mr. and Ms. if appropriate</strong></p>
<p>If you have a gender neutral name like Alex or Ryan make sure to  include the Mr. or Ms. prefix, so that employers will not get confused  about your gender.</p>
<p><strong>24. No lies, please</strong></p>
<p>Seems like a no brainer, but you would be amused to discover the  amount of people that lie in their resumes. Even small lies should be  avoided. Apart from being wrong, most HR departments do background  checks these days, and if you are buster it might ruin your credibility  for good.</p>
<p><strong>25. Keep the salary in mind</strong></p>
<p>The image you will create with your resume must match the salary and  responsibility level that you are aiming for.</p>
<p><strong>26. Analyze job ads</strong></p>
<p>You will find plenty of useful information on job ads. Analyze no  only the ad that you will be applying for, but also those from companies  on the same segment or offering related positions. You should be able  to identify what profile they are looking for and how the information  should be presented.</p>
<p><strong>27. Get someone else to review your resume</strong></p>
<p>Even if you think you resume is looking kinky, it would be a good  idea to get a second and third opinion about it. We usually become blind  to our own mistakes or way of reasoning, so another people will be in a  good position to evaluate the overall quality of your resume and make  appropriate suggestions.</p>
<p><strong>28. One or two pages</strong></p>
<p>The ideal length for a resume is a polemic subject. Most employers  and recruiting specialists, however, say that it should contain one or  two pages at maximum. Just keep in mind that, provided all the necessary  information is there, the shorter your resume, the better.</p>
<p><strong>29. Use action verbs</strong></p>
<p>A very common advice to job seekers is to use action verbs. But what  are they? Action verbs are basically verbs that will get noticed more  easily, and that will clearly communicate what your experience or  achievement were. Examples include managed, coached, enforced and  planned. Here you can find a complete list of <a href="http://www.quintcareers.com/action_skills.html">action verbs  divided by skill category</a>.</p>
<p><strong>30. Use a good printer</strong></p>
<p>If you are going to use a paper version of your resume, make sure to  use a decent printer. Laser printers usually get the job done. Plain  white paper is the preferred one as well.</p>
<p><strong>31. No hobbies</strong></p>
<p>Unless you are 100% sure that some of your hobbies will support you  candidacy, avoid mentioning them. I know you are proud of your swimming  team, but share it with your friends and not with potential employers.</p>
<p><strong>32. Update your resume regularly</strong></p>
<p>It is a good idea to update your resume on a regular basis. Add all  the new information that you think is relevant, as well as courses,  training programs and other academic qualifications that you might  receive along the way. This is the best way to keep track of everything  and to make sure that you will not end up sending an obsolete document  to the employer.</p>
<p><strong>33. Mention who you worked with</strong></p>
<p>If you have reported or worked with someone that is well known in  your industry, it could be a good idea to mention it on the resume. The  same thing applies to presidents and CEOs. If you reported to or worked  directly with highly ranked executives, add it to the resume.</p>
<p><strong>34. No scattered information</strong></p>
<p>Your resume must have a clear focus. If would cause a negative  impression if you mentioned that one year you were studying drama, and  the next you were working as an accountant. Make sure that all the  information you will include will work towards a unified image.  Employers like decided people.</p>
<p><strong>35. Make the design flow with white space</strong></p>
<p>Do not jam your resume with text. Sure we said that you should make  your resume as short and concise as possible, but that refers to the  overall amount of information and not to how much text you can pack in a  single sheet of paper. White space between the words, lines and  paragraphs can improve the legibility of your resume.</p>
<p><strong>36. Lists all your positions</strong></p>
<p>If you have worked a long time for the same company (over 10 years)  it could be a good idea to list all the different positions and roles  that you had during this time separately. You probably had different  responsibilities and developed different skills on each role, so the  employer will like to know it.</p>
<p><strong>37. No jargon or slang</strong></p>
<p>It should be common sense, but believe me, it is not. Slang should  never be present in a resume. As for technical jargon, do not assume  that the employer will know what you are talking about. Even if you are  sending your resume to a company in the same segment, the person who  will read it for the first time might not have any technical expertise.</p>
<p><strong>38. Careful with sample resume templates</strong></p>
<p>There are many websites that offer free resume templates. While they  can help you to get an idea of what you are looking for, do not just  copy and paste one of the most used ones. You certainly don’t want to  look just like any other candidate, do you?</p>
<p><strong>39. Create an email proof formatting</strong></p>
<p>It is very likely that you will end up sending your resume via email  to most companies. Apart from having a Word document ready to go as an  attachment, you should also have a text version of your resume that does  not look disfigured in the body of the email or in online forms.  Attachments might get blocked by spam filters, and many people just  prefer having the resume on the body of the email itself.</p>
<p><strong>40. Remove your older work experiences</strong></p>
<p>If you have been working for 20 years or more, there is no need to  have 2 pages of your resume listing all your work experiences, starting  with the job at the local coffee shop at the age of 17! Most experts  agree that the last 15 years of your career are enough.</p>
<p><strong>41. No fancy design details</strong></p>
<p>Do not use a colored background, fancy fonts or images on your  resume. Sure, you might think that the little flowers will cheer up the  document, but other people might just throw it away at the sight.</p>
<p><strong>42. No pronouns </strong></p>
<p>You resume should not contain the pronouns “I” or “me.” That is how  we normally structure sentences, but since your resume is a document  about your person, using these pronouns is actually redundant.</p>
<p><strong>43. Don’t forget the basics</strong></p>
<p>The first thing on your resume should be your name. It should be bold  and with a larger font than the rest of the text. Make sure that your  contact details are clearly listed. Secondly, both the name and contact  details should be included on all the pages of the resume (if you have  more than one).</p>
<p><strong>44. Consider getting professional help</strong></p>
<p>If you are having a hard time to create your resume, or if you are  receiving no response whatsoever from companies, you could consider  hiring a professional resume writing service. There are both local and  online options are available, and usually the investment will be worth  the money.<a href="http://pajamariches.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/resume_965849.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-257 alignleft" title="resume_965849" src="http://pajamariches.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/resume_965849.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a></p>
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		<title>Swine Flu impacts vaccine makers</title>
		<link>http://pajamariches.com/?p=243</link>
		<comments>http://pajamariches.com/?p=243#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:37:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lee</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[For yourself]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[market trends]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[stocks]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[swine flu]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pajamariches.com/?p=243</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Everyone&#8217;s  talking about the swine flu, whom it might affect, where it is spreading and how to contain it. Swine flu, derived in part from a strain of influenza endemic to pigs, has thus far been detected in humans in Mexico, the U.S., Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Israel and Scotland. According to Mexican health [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Everyone&#8217;s  talking about the swine flu, whom it might affect, where it is spreading and how to contain it. Swine flu, derived in part from a strain of influenza endemic to pigs, has thus far been detected in humans in Mexico, the U.S., Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Israel and Scotland. According to Mexican health officials, more than 150 people have died in that country as a result of the virus. It is estimated that more than 1,900 people in Mexico have been hospitalized, prompting the government to shut down schools, sports clubs, swimming pools and other public places. Of the 50 or so cases reported in the U.S., most have been mild and none have been fatal.</p>
<p>As swine flu dominates news reports and water-cooler chats, publicly traded biotechnology firms that operate in the viral and flu space are seeing renewed interested in their shares.</p>
<p>recent news out this morning is suggesting that the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. government might produce swine flu vaccines to prevent a further outbreak. If true, any and all companies related to the space will move materially higher.</p>
<p>Stockpickr has compiled  a  Swine Flu Stocks portfolio of stocks that might benefit from the recent outbreak and the buzz surrounding it. A few being promoted from penny stock status rising over 300%. So  a $500 investment would now be trading at $1500.00.</p>
<p><em>Novavax (NVAX): NVAX can produce a vaccine from an emergent strain of flu virus in 12 weeks according to the CEO. </em></p>
<p><em>BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX): BCRX is currently in Phase I testing (thus highly unlikely to get authorization power from the FDA) for drugs that block enzymes involved in cancer, viral infections, cardiovascular diseases, and autoimmune diseases.</em></p>
<p><em>AVI Biopharma (AVII): AVII is in the process with a joint venture with the Department of Defense’s Transformational Medical Technologies Initiative, with the goal of developing drugs for cardiovascular diseases.</em></p>
<p><em>Dynavax Technologies (DVAX): DVAX is currently in Phase II testing of its universal flu vaccine, the company also has several other drugs in its pipeline, and joint ventures with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Astra Zeneca, and Novartis. DVAX has $1.7 in cash per share, and no debt.</em></p>
<p><em>Sinovac Biotech (SVA): SVA is a Chinese based biotech company that engages in the sale of vaccines that protect against human infectious in mainland China. The company’s principal drug ‘Anflu’ provides a split virus influenza vaccine.</em></p>
<p><em>Advanced Life Sciences Holdings (ADLS): ADLS’s leading drug called ‘Cethromycin’ is a once-a-day treatment for pneumonia. Currently under review by the FDA, ADLS has tested Cethromycin in Phase III testing.</em></p>
<p><em>Quidel Corp (QDEL): QDEL makes the QuickVue test which is used during flu season. Recently the company reported a wider then expected loss because of a mild flue season, which led to weak demand for their flu test kit.</em></p>
<div id="attachment_244" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 274px"><a href="http://pajamariches.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/pajamarichesswine2.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-246" title="Despite the name, no known link can be made for current cases" src="http://pajamariches.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/pajamarichesswine2.jpg" alt="" width="264" height="260" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Stock photo of pig.</p></div>
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