So I’m now writing for AOL… I’ve written a few posts/articles, and today one of them was good enough to hit the “welcome screen,” which means quiet a few people might see it.  Quite a few = lots.

Here’s an image of my article on the AOL welcome screen:

This article was edited and changed a few times, which is something I’m not used to (can’t you tell, from my writing, that I’m not used to being edited? :p)

Pretty cool stuff.

If you are coming over from AOL, welcome!

I wanted to let you know that I’m only backing away from the premium subscription for a little while.  I start a new job tomorrow, one that I was able to land in no small part because of your JibberJobber career management software.  I was able to track several submissions I’d made to this particular employer, giving me a valuable history of my interactions with them.  That history allowed me to connect a few dots and that gave me an advantage I needed during the interview process.

This is the response he gave me when he downgraded from Premium to Regular.  I love it – last week I’ve had three JibberJobber users change their status from unemployed to I FOUND MY DREAM JOB!

That really thrills me.

JC ended his message to me with this:

[JibberJobber is] a great tool that I’d be proud to help plug for.

Thanks for sharing JC, and best wishes at your new gig!

Not on JibberJobber yet?  Sign up here.  Get on our next user webinar tomorrow morning (register here).

We recently got feedback from our survey of user requests, and then met as a team to discuss, prioritize and assign work orders.  We were all jazzed to plan out the first part of 2010 and make JibberJobber more intuitive and more powerful.  There is a lot of great stuff coming down the pipeline, and no suggestions where ignored.

Here are some updates we released last week (did you notice any of them?):

• icalendar: you can now export your entire list of log entries and action items to a iCalendar format, which you’d then import to Google Calendar, Outlook, your Mac, or whatever you are using. You can also export things one at a time.
• Merge option for companies: we had this for contacts for a while, and somehow overlooked doing it for companies — oops!
• Title change on List Panel pages: I talk about “List Panels” but nowhere on the site could you see “list panel” in a page. So we made this very simple name change, and now when you are on a List Panel page you’ll know it. A little design consistency to help make the training more intuitive.
• “Referred by” column now on Contact List Panel: Referred By is one of the most powerful things in JibberJobber… and now you can see the column on your Network Contacts List Panel.
• Events 2.0: still needs some work (I sent 1.5 pages of changes to the developer), but this is awesome – allows you to add your own local network opportunities so all JibberJobber users can see them. I’ll talk about this more after more development is done, but you can go add your own events now (or look at what other users have added).
• New fields on contact form: preffix, suffix: I debated taking this out but after we released it I got an email from a user who works in an industry where this is critical… the email was a huge YIPPEE – so we leave it in
• Ability to print the Log Entries and Action Items Report: this is a busy report, and now it’s printer friendly.
• Ability to delete a Networking Relationship Goal: This is a cool feature, even though I hardly talk about it. Anyway, if you use it, you can now DELETE these goals

There were also some minor bug fixes, as well as some nomenclature (wording) changes around the site.

Today is the last day to tell Obama and his people about JibberJobber.com.

Please Recommend JibberJobber to the Department of Labor. Read why here, or Recommend here.

I have been working on JibberJobber for almost four years.

There are tens of thousands of people who have signed up (not all are users – my thoughts on that here).

We continue to invest in the development, and have been told by outplacement firms and other companies that we’ve developed something that they have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and years trying to develop.

I want people to know about this fantastic tool.  I want the government to know about it.

For that, I need your vote – let’s put this on the Department of Labor’s radar - recommend it here!

THANK YOU!

On the way home I was a blender of emotions.  Elated to be free of the crap.  Sad to feel betrayed.  Useless since I was a tool.  Many, many emotions.

But heck, look at me know.  I’m still ALIVE.

And I’m doing better than ever.

I’m happier.

I’m more powerful (because I’m EMPOWERED).

I’m positioned to really tackle MY goals, not some other guy’s goals.

I’m OKAY.

And if your last day is today (or yesterday, or yesteryear, or next month), I’ll tell you, YOU WILL BE OKAY.

YOU WILL BE OKAY.

It might take four months.  It make take two years.  But YOU WILL BE OKAY!

In this post I’m asking you to take a few minutes to recommend JibberJobber to the U.S. Department of Labor.

This is like “voting” for JibberJobber, but it’s not for a web award, or to be listed on a blog… I’m guessing the implecations of this recommendation will be that JibberJobber will be recognized by the government and broadcast as a job seeker resource to many workforce service departments.

In short, I think this can be the think that legitimizes JibberJobber to the US Government, which will be a big win not only for us but for the people who need something like JibberJobber.

I’ve had many talks with government people, but the problem always comes back to one thing: since there is an OPTION to upgrade, they say they can’t recommend it.  I think this is either a super-lame policy, or a misunderstanding of policy.  Nonetheless, many government people I talk to say something like (I really heard this):

I LOVE this!  I’m going to tell my daughter, who is just graduating from college, to get on and use JibberJobber.  But I can’t mention it at my office because there is a fee (NO, there is an OPTIONAL fee).  And we can’t endorse anything that is for-profit.

Oh. My. Gosh.  Choke me now.

Guess what… LinkedIn has an optional upgrade.  Monster has optional upgrades (or levels).

A major disappointment when I first started JibberJobber was seeing a great divide between the government trying to create their own stuff, and not promoting anything else, and private industry creating really strong, powerful tools.

Guess who lost? Anyone who went to a workforce services office who wasn’t told about what they really should have been using as a resource.

Okay, didn’t mean for this to be a rant… let me get back on track.

I think, I hope, that if JibberJobber gets enough recommendations then we’ll finally get that quasi-endorsement from the government that will help hundreds thousands millions know about this very useful tool.

Here’s a quote from a comment from yesterday’s post – I found this to be really powerful:

I just “stumbled” across JJ today. After 9 months in the job search, talking with “career coaches” and recruiters as well as other job seekers and this is the first I’ve heard of it. This should be the first place a job seeker is led to.

Thank you, Gary Donnelly, for sharing that (see his entire comment here). It is a damned shame (says Steve Gallison) that he had not been pointed to it earlier.

We have tens of thousands of signups, but with last year’s economy we should have had millions.

Please recommend JibberJobber to the DOL and hopefully we’ll get the respect we deserve, and job seekers won’t have to waffle around for almost a year before they “stumble upon” this very helpful resource.

To recommend JibberJobber simply:

1. Click on this link (or any link on this page, they all go to the same place)
2. Click on the Recommend Tool Image on the DOL page
3. Click Signup on the top of the popup window
4. Apparently you have to click the Recommend image again (thanks @ecaron for the heads up on this fourth step)

Follow the process from there. I’m guessing it will take you all of three minutes.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I neglected getting this scheduled until just this morning… sorry to all the new users who had a few days of “um, the webinar doesn’t really exist .”

Anyway, here’s the deal – we get on at 9:00 am Mountain Time (you can should sign in early).  NOTE THE TIME ZONE.  I always have a few people who get on an hour early, or an hour late.  If you miss the webinar, or if can’t wait for the next one, you can always see a recording here.  We spend about an hour going over stuff – usually it’s beginner stuff, but sometimes there are questions that take us into more advanced features. I go with the audience.

When you sign up for a webinar you won’t get email reminders of any future webinars.  If you want to sign up for others you have to do that one at at time.  The schedule is as follows:

Next Webinars
Jan 13 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Jan 27 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Feb 10 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Feb 24 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Mar 10 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Mar 24 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Apr 7 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Apr 21 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
May 5 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
May 19 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Jun 2 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Jun 16 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Jun 30 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Jul 14 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Jul 28 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Aug 11 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Aug 25 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Sep 8 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Sep 22 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Oct 6 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Oct 20 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Nov 3 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Nov 17 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Dec 1 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Dec 15 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)
Dec 29 – JibberJobber User Webinar – 9am MT (11 am ET)

You should sign up for at least one of these webinars!

I was honored to make the top 11 (not the top 10) in the Top HR Digital Influencers 2009 list.

The list of bloggers here is really fantastic, and it’s flattering to be on here.  This list is based on certain levels of traffic and links and stuff like that (quantifiable stuff), not necessarily quality of content or even whether they are active bloggers anymore (Joel Cheesman is ranked at #3 but discontinued his usually-number-one blog back in September).

It’s really cool to see relatively-newcomer Mark Stelzner on this list, and it’s even more cool to see he’s at #1.  Mark has done a fantastic job as the founder (cofounder?) of Job Angels.

Launce Haun has always been awesome  and well-respected, as have Jessica Lee (met her in person!) and Kris Dunn.

I’m surprised to have gotten a better ranking than Laurie Ruettimann (what a punk she is!) and Jason Davis, as both of them have been a big part of RecruitingBlogs.com, which is one of the best-run Ning sites I’ve ever seen.

It’s an honor to rank higher than Bill Vick, recruiting genius, and Peter Clayton, the mastermind behind Total Picture Radio, even though I think they are way better than I am.

There are a few names I don’t recognize, but I’ll get familiar with them in a bit.

If you are interested in jobs, job creation, employment, recruiting, the job search and hiring issues, there’s a great list of blogs to follow.

I do wonder (so does Laurie R.) why some other terrific advisors are not on this list - I mentioned the writers at Career Hub recently, and I never see Nick Crocodilos (brilliant information) on any of these lists, although he should be.  And it will be interesting to see my competition and other job seeker software vendors get on these lists next year (hopefully), as many of the resume writers and career coaches who have started blogging in the last year or two.  Oi vey, where are the outplacement firm blogs?

Thanks HR Examiner, for the recognition and work!

Today is the last day of the special.  If you want to take advantage, login to JibberJobber and upgrade for one year.

Even if you are a premium user you can do this – we’ll just add one more premium year to your account AND you get the four premium videos.  Here are five reasons to do this special:

1. Premium JibberJobber for one year: This is the highest level – you have all the sweet features and no limits on the number of contacts, companies, etc.  Not in a job search? No problem – this is your career management tool – the one that becomes a personal relationship manager for the rest of your career/life.
2. Social Marketing Strategies for Job Seekers: This is a 50 minute video that helps you wrap your brain around how to use social tools in a job search.  It is the conceptual glue to understanding WHY you would use these online tools and get value out of them.
3. Tips from a Recruiter: This 72 minute video is from Craig Goldberg, who has years of experience in recruiting.  He’s seen it all and knows what job seekers are doing right and wrong, and what they can do to impress a decision maker (or, recruiter).
4. Blogging for Job Seekers: This 79 minute video breaks down the blogosphere for a job seeker.  I show you how to find bloggers who should be in your network, how to get on their radar, and how to use your own blog (if you have one) to grow your network and nurture relationships.  You don’t have to have a blog in order to take advantage of these strategies.
5. Twitter for Job Seekers. Yesterday we had a great discussion on using Twitter in a job search.  My position is that it is powerful, but you better know what you are doing or you’ll waste time and feel like you are wasting time.  Ready to tap into the power of Twitter?  This 84 minute video is just what you need.

It’s super easy to get all of these things right now – just login to your JibberJobber account and upgrade for one year.  (after today, each item is priced individually – the upgrade is $99 and each video is $50)

Oh yeah, this isn’t a secret – please let everyone you know about it.

I’m extending the JibberJobber unbirthday special through this Friday.  In summary, here’s what you get for $99:

1. One year Premium access to JibberJobber: JibberJobber is job search software.  It’s also a personal relationship manager.  Use JibberJobber to really own your career. Value: $99
2. Social Marketing Strategies for Job Seekers streaming video: personal branding and networking online… it is real, it is essential for professionals.  This is a broad introduction and overview, and a preparation for the rest of the videos. Value: $50
3. Job Search Tips from a Recruiter streaming video: Want to know what a recruiter thinks about you and your resume?  Want to know what a recruiter would advice you to do in your job search?  This video would have helped me avoid costly mistakes in my job search. Value: $50
4. Blogging for Job Seekers streaming video: blogs are excellent tools to share your brand and find relevant network contacts.  This 1 hour 20 minute video helps you, as a non-blogging professional, understand how blogs fit in.  It is NOT a “how-to-blog” video – rather, it’s a “how do I use blogs in my job search” training.  Value: $50
5. Twitter for Job Seekers streaming video: No way I’m going to tell you to get a Twitter account – but I will encourage you to tap into the network that is already there.  This training helps you wrap your brain around Twitter and how it fits into your toolset, even if you never get a Twitter account.  Value: $50

So, you upgrade for one year at $99 and you get $300 worth of product – that is a 66% savings… what are you waiting for?  Login to your JibberJobber account and upgrade for one year!