I didn’t know HP had a business blog, but I found out about it last week.  Don Goodman, a resume writer based out of North Carolina (he has clients around the world), was interviewed by them about the job search.  The post is titled: 7 Deadly Sins of Job Searching: Why You Still Don’t Have a Job, and How to Get Back on Track

I would write about the points, but the article is pretty long, so I invite you to go check it out.  And thanks to Don for mentioning my LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD

Check out this 2+ minute video on “self-promotion.” Jen Knoedl interviews Liz Strauss.  Both of these ladies have done a lot in their areas (Liz in blogging and communications, as well as a host of other things, and Jen in a number of things, especially video).

From Vimeo:

It’s short but there are some real gems in there! This is from 2008…

If you have a problem with “self promotion,” pick up the book Brag by Peggy Klaus.  This is a must read for anyone who is in marketing, whether it is self-marketing or as a business owner or in a company…

I’m continually asked if I’m going to jump on the ebook bandwagon.  It’s easy to distribute, the author gets more money if you sell through Amazon, and because the Kindle is so prominent (even the Kindle app on the i-devices), it’s so easy to tap into a huge audience of people who can purchase very, very easily (one click?).

I have been on the fence about ebook publishing, for books I want to sell (not give away), for years.

Here’s why: document sharing websites, like scribd, make it super easy for people with questionable ethics, to share your document at no cost.  Here’s an example: you can get my entire book, free, illegally, from scribd (URL here, but I’m not linking to it: scribd.com/doc/90301388/On-Linkedin).

Scribd is not a bad-guy site.  It’s not some offshore, shady torrent site where you can get anything, pirated, for free.

It’s more of a legitimate, trustworthy site, with real stuff.  Like docstoc and many other document sharing sites.

But it was so easy for someone with poor judgement, or no ethics, or who perhaps feels that everything should be free, to post my book in its entirety, to scribd. And I don’t see an easy way for me (or anyone) to say HEY, THIS IS PIRATED!  TAKE IT DOWN! No flag button or link.

A couple of years ago, a FENG (The Financial Executives Network Group) member took my ebook and illegally emailed it to the entire FENG email list.

Nice. Thousands of financial executives just got my book for free.  Did sales increase?  Nope.  You’d think financial execs would have more ethics than to let that happen.  When I asked the FENG leadership I got an apology, but the damage was done.

I only knew about that because one of my JibberJobber users was on that list, and they forwarded it to me.

As an author, and someone who is trying to earn money, I find the lack of integrity when it comes to stuff like this unsettling.

And that’s why I’m not enthusiastically planning on making 101 Alternatives to a Real Job an ebook.

But then, am I missing out on gobs of sales?

The decision hasn’t been made, but it’s hard to get excited about making a move that could completely wipe out any legitimate sales.

I’d love to know what you think.

Check out this awesome blog post, article, or almost e-book by Eric Shannon:

I’ve known Eric for years, through our blogs and writing.  He is the real deal.  This article/post is long – almost 5,000 words.  That is about 25% of my first book… !  And about the length of 10 blog posts!

But don’t let the size get in your way.  This resource is awesome.  Print it out, highlight it, make notes, and work from it.

Many job seekers lack direction and strategy – if that describes you, this is what you need!

Eric Shannon, who has been giving the unemployed community for years, hit is out of the park with this one – thank you Eric! And of course, thanks for recommending JibberJobber in the post!

Here’s more about him:

Chip Hartman has done it again.  This book is an excellent resource.  And it’s a free download.  You don’t even have to give your name and email address to get it.

Build Your Brand is a 54 page ebook that is kind of a Part II to The Basics of Personal Branding (also a free ebook - download it here).

I have gone through the book and enthusiastically give my stamp of approval.  Much of what I talk about in my keynote presentations is included in this book.  Chip breaks it down in a great way, and the methods he presents should really help you put your brand together well, and understand what to do with it once you have it put together.

I think both of these are going to be resources that even personal branding experts use and rely on to help their clients.  These are excellent personal branding resources.

Chip is a friend I’ve only met once in person, many years ago at a dinner in New Jersey.  He’s… well… awesome.

He does writing, editing, layout and that kind of stuff as a freelancer.  If you have any writing/layout projects, give him a holler (his email and phone number are on the first page of the book).  If you want to know how good he is, just download his free ebook and you can judge for yourself.

Oh and Chip, thanks for including me in the acknowledgement section of the book… it’s an honor

Last year the first post of the year was titled The Job Search Rabbit Hole.  I think I should make a (kids) book out of it.

I’ve used that idea as the 2011 theme, and focused a lot on job seekers chasing something that doesn’t exist (read the post for the story/analogy).

This year I want to talk about something I’ve realized as I’ve spoken to thousands of professionals and executives  across the U.S.  I have started to say that “the job search is 99% communication.” Written, verbal, body language, etc.  It’s all about how we communicate.  And we can communicate A LOT better.

I just finished a life-changing book written by friend and mentor Mark LeBlanc titled Never Be The Same.  It is a fast read, and completely intriguing.  It was written after Mark finished a 500 mile walk across Spain… the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage.  Get the book here – I loved Mark’s unique style … it was just delightful to absorb.

Mark gave me permission to share this excerpt from his book… I LOVED this story as it illustrates the communication problem that I want to help YOU think about this year.  Mark talks about going to a networking event and sharing his elevator pitch. It had all the bad, junky, jargon cliche yuck that most elevator pitches have.  One day, though, he wasn’t in the mood to share it, so he shook things up (almost accidentally).  He writes:

It was my turn-my minute-to stand up and introduce myself, again.  Only this time I didn’t blather on about my broad range of services and menu of presentation topics.  None of which, you might recall, had I provided to a single client or audience since Small Business (No-So-Much) Success was born.  My calendar was empty from Day One. Instead, I simply got up and shared my dream. In a monotone, mind you, with nary an inflection of enthusiasm whatsoever.

“My name is Mark LeBlanc, and I run a company called Small Business Success. I work with people who want to start a business and with small business owners who want to grow their business.”  Period, end.  I shut up and sat down.

There were about twenty five business people at this meeting, and when it was over, seven of them came up to me.  Now, this was a total surprise, because for ten months, no one-and I mean no one-had any interest in what I did or had to offer. Instead of repelling people, as was my habit, I seemed to be attracting prospects. There was a line, for heavens sake!

“I want to start my own business,” said one woman.

“My wife has been wanting to start her own business; give me your card,” said a business man.

“I’ve been in business ten years, but seem kind of stuck. I’d like to know more about growing my business, cranking it up a notch. Can you help me with that?” came from another.

My favorite response was a friend’s: “I’ve been listening to your introductions for ten months, and I had no clue this is what you do. I think I can refer a few people to you.”

Within thirty days, seven prospects wrote me a check and engaged me in the process of helping them start of grow their business. It was as if the floodgates opened and soon prospects came in faster than I could handle. Okay, maybe not that fast, but when you did not earn a nickel for nearly a year, this new-found success felt like I was sipping from the fire hose.”

WOW.

I had a similar experience, which I blogged about here: Substantiate Yourself.

I am convinced that the canned 30 second pitches job seekers are coached to work on lead to really, really bad results.  The pitch sucks. No one responds.  Mark changed his, focusing on the outcomes of his work, and he got results.

Small, minor, easy changes can change the results.  He didn’t throw in bigger words, fancier phrases, or more stuff.  He whitled it down to the core message, and he got results.

This is a theme that will be on my mind all year.

Will you join me this year, on our journey to better career management?

I saw a question on a LinkedIn Group about working with recruiters.

Job seekers continue to wonder how this relationship works, how to get value out of it, etc.

Here’s a post from Harriet Constable titled The Importance of Recruiters for Job-Seekers. I never had the benefits listed by Harriet, as the 30 or so recruiters I tried to network with were all busy trying to find inbox zero, or working with better candidates.  I was nothing more than another resume to them.

As job seekers we’re told we shouldn’t blast our resume out, so that employers could find it and take all the incentive away from a recruiter to promote us.  There is a conflict of interest there… they will promote us if they can get a commission from a placement, BUT if another recruiter submitted our resume, or if the hiring manager got our resume because of our networking efforts, the recruiter might feel slighted, and will not be able to get a commission if we are hired.  If they know our resume is all over the place, they lose incentive to ever work with, or promote, us.

If you ask me for advice on working with a recruiter, here it is: Pay $40 and get Nick Corcodilos‘ book: How to Work with Headhunters.

Nick is well-known in the industry for shooting straight from the hip and telling it like it is.

If you have ANY questions about how to work with recruiters, or you want to go to the next level, you MUST get his book.  It will be well-worth the $40…. OR, spend hours and hours asking unqualified people what they think… I’d say drop the $40 and get it from the expert.

(nope, I don’t get a penny out of Nick’s sales)

Happy Halloween.

Now that that is out of the way…

I’ve been working on a new project.  It was inspired by parts of many conversations I’ve had over the last couple of years.  This will be my next book, hopefully in print by the end of this year (or early in 2012).  I’m really hustling on it.

In part, it was inspired by Dick Bolles, author of the mega-best-seller What Color Is Your Parachute. Dick impressed the idea on me that as we (as speakers, authors, etc.) show people their alternatives, we give them hope.  I thought back to my job search when I felt all my alternatives had dried up, and how hopeless and out of control I felt.

When I got the idea for JibberJobber, which was an alternative, I know the hope I had, and exuded, was like night and day.

In part, this book was inspired by people I’ve talked to, after my presentations, about what they are doing, or what they could do, to earn some money “on the side.”

In part, this book was inspired by Robert Allen, and his book Multiple Streams of Income.

In part, this book was inspired by Timothy Ferris (4 Hour Work Week), who shares examples of people who are doing it (he calls their businesses their “muses“), and GaryVee (Gary Vaynerchuk), who included 4 killer ideas at the back of his book, Crush It.

In part, this book is inspired by the stories I hear about, and read about, of people who are ready to take the plunge and JUST DO IT. One in particular came from DOBA founder, about the dude who wanted to clean his garbage cans, and ended up making more per day than some make per week.

101 Alternatives to a Real Job is a book about hope.  It’s about alternatives. It’s about ideas.  The message is “these people are doing it, and maybe you can, too.”

Whether that means you start a business with the potential to make thousands each month, or just a hobby that makes a few hundred bucks a month.

I want to take the inspiration I’ve gotten from my audiences over the years and share it with millions of people… people who’s hope has been gone for a long time.  People who have been told there’s only one way to a good career.

This book shows 101 alternatives to that old definition of a “good career.”

Alternatives and options = Hope.

If you want to preorder, email me and let me know how you want to pay.  I’ll reply back with the options (check, Paypal, credit card)

To keep updated, watch this blog, or get on my LinkedIn Group.

A couple of weeks ago I was on a webinar where I once again promoted Michael Webb’s job search program as the most solid program I’ve seen.

It’s simple.

But it’s really hard to implement (until you just DO IT).

After the webinar, I was thinking about his system, and why people won’t do it.

They spend tons of time and effort and money and thinking on other systems that seem more simple, and promise at least the same results.

I started to think about health, and comparing it to this issue.  Michael Webb’s system is like eating right and exercising, which is a pretty solid plan to get healthy (lose weight, etc.).

But we (collectively) don’t want to do that.  It’s too hard.  We want the ab machine from the commercial.  Or we want the pill, or the spoonful of whatever.  We want the shortcut.

How does that shortcut work out?

That’s right.

So go for the solid program, not the fad diet.

I’m not saying Michael’s is the only solid program – I have partners and colleagues that have solid programs.  They are out there.

But I’m telling you, if you are looking for the short cut, you might see quick results that tend to fade quickly.

I got a link to a terrific post from Manny Otiko, a PR professional in Southern California.  Manny is like an industry watchdog, sharing good stuff for all PR professionals.

The post is titled 20 things every PR pro should know how to do.

Almost every single point here could be applicable to job seekers…. that’s why I retitled it: 20 things every JOB SEEKER should know how to do

Why?  Because the job search is about communication.

Learn how to do many of the things in that post, and you’ll be a much better job seeker.

Go read the post, on PR Daily.  Excellent stuff.