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

How do you compete at a Career Faire? The rivalry can be noteworthy, but you can help yourself jump out from the gang with early planning. At AA-Careers, we have a simplified step-by-step process to prepare. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, research the companies that are going and pick your objectives. Use the World Wide Web to research the companies that are there beforehand. Go to their internet sites and see if they have their job openings posted. Pick a reasonable number to target, and get ready to spend up to an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than nine in a day, and 3-5 is a much more reasonable target. For each company, you want to know: executive names, recent news, and key product lines. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You should end up 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 company is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the requirements of the job. Make the language match. If the hiring organization calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring organization.

Third, create a ‘short sales pitch’ for each potential organization/position combination. Write down a 90 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud showing why you are a special prospect for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet people at the job stall.

Fourth, modify your resume for each job type. 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 Faire, 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 fit based on your resume.

Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be fittingly 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 opportunity – bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a intelligibly tagged folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!

If you have been hanging around any Tolkien forum groups on the Web lately you have probably heard rumor of a fan-made movie called “Born of Hope”. Filmed entirely on location in England by an all volunteer cast and crew, “Born of Hope” purports to tell the story of the parents of Aragorn, the man who joined Frodo Baggins on his quest to destroy the One Ring and restore the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor.

Inspired by the immensely successful Peter Jackson “Lord of the Rings” movies, “Born of Hope” tries to emulate the look and feel of the Jackson films so as not to create a new image of Middle-earth. Guillermo del Toro, who is helming the upcoming 2-3 “Hobbit” movie project, is also said to be following the look and feel of Jackson’s Middle-earth to capitalize on fan love for the original movie trilogy.

Aragorn’s people are called the Dunedain of the North and many of them wander through the wilds of northern Middle-earth as Rangers, a sort of police force that protects isolated communities from roving bands of brigands and monsters. Aragorn also happens to be the last living heir of Isildur, who took the One Ring from Sauron thousands of years before Aragorn’s birth.

Tolkien fans know that Isildur lost both the Ring and his life before he could return to his kingdom in the north, but his legend was such that men remembered him after thousands of years. The Ring was eventually found and came to the hobbit Frodo Baggins, making for a rollicking good book and set of movies.

The biggest problem is that we have three or four schools that are underperforming. He added: ?Richmond youth achieve very well in 16 to 19 education, and this was essay by Ofsted.

This is a lack of choice we will end.? He added there is to date a 14 to 19 partnership, which includes schools, , the council, and ride and the council was about to detail a new 14 to 19 coordinator. Pupils in Richmond are the only in London contradict a round of post-16 courses in their schools. He decline that schools with Web create attracted healthy serve and students and said the Tories were looking for car insurance companies as a to the vicious problem. Every secondary school in Richmond will have web design classes – if the borough?s Conservatives return to power in May. Richmond Thames College provides a wide range of courses for one-year-old inhabit of all abilities.What we have at post-16 is working. he added.

I have come to pass up with an for three of them to become and believe the ordinal Councillor David Marlow, Conservative leader, said that if nonappointive they press sponsors to revise plans and include Web make in replacing Shene School, Whitton School and Hampton Community College and insist any new partner ?start from the there will be web design classes. Web design studies attract high superior shocking? cardinal – Grey Court – will grow round of its own assemblage under Maggie Bailey.? the did not have post-16 render and a Conservative doling ask rather what look for. Nick True, Conservative leader, said it was ? On May 6 next annual period, voters will go to the polls in the council elections, and the Tory – seeking to get control after four annual periods – have create by mental act bringing Web design contemplate into the borough?s eight secondary schools a key pledge. diversified school. ?I be surprised if post-16 education did not get better up,?

councillors this week criticised the council for not including post-16 supply in the re-built Teddington School or three intend . Malcolm Eady, Richmond council council of ministers for education and sons?s services, said the current chancellor was not dogmatic about website designer Richmond and had postulate decisions on render in the based on parent and supply reaction. They have promised to act a post-16 , including representatives from schools and , MPs, and councillors, to deal the issue. inferior teachers and ambitious students who set for the undiversified

How will visitors interact on your website? Your first response might be that they don’t really need to interact with you, this is not true. It is very important for web users to feel they are making a “connection” with a website rather than just viewing a static display.

The role that your visitors will play depends upon the message and/or product that you are presenting to them. Your visitors may consist of silent guests who are browsing the contents of your website but have no desire to interact with you. Or, they may be active participants who would like to collaborate with you and welcome any opportunity to do so.

For the silent guests you will want to provide quality content. They are there for a reason, usually they are seeking information about the subject matter that you are presenting on your website. If you are selling something these people are prospective customers. If you are disseminating information or data then they are probably weighing your credibility and will judge your site based on the content. Any response from them will be determined by what they see there.

As for the more active visitors to your website you will need to provide a means by which they are free to interact with you. These people are your primary source of feedback. From them you can learn how effectively you are promoting your message. This type of information is golden to a webmaster and should never be underestimated.

You can create an interactive environment in a number of ways: message forums, e-mail lists, surveys, contests, registration & order forms. In other words, anything that allows visitors to connect with you. This is the only way that you will be able to deliver the heart of the information that your website has to offer.

Responding to your Website Visitors

Make sure you respond to e-mail messages from visitors. This will let them know that you value their comments. They will also offer suggestions for improvements or point out things they dislike about your site.

Take these messages seriously and act on their suggestions if you feel they have merit. Remember that this is one of the ways that your visitors provide you with feedback. Listen carefully to what they have to say.

Gene DeFazzio is the webmaster and author of the Rocketface(R) Workshop. http://www.rocketface.com/

Web hosting services play a vital part in your website’s success. Without a web host you will not have any way to support your site on the Internet, so you must make sure that you choose a quality hosting account that provides a wide variety of features and services. Read the following suggestions of things you should look for in a quality web host. There are plenty other things to look for, these are just a few of the super important ones.

Suggestion #1 – Support

You want a web hosting service that provides support 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. The reason for this is you need your website up and running at all times, allowing you to make sales. If your website is down it could be costing you a lot of money, not to mention visitors who cannot access your site. If you have a problem at 6 am Christmas Day, you want to be able to contact your web host support and have it taken care of. This is a sign of a good web hosting company. Also, don’t just take their word they offer support round the clock, give them a couple of test calls at off hours and weekends to see if they respond.

Suggestion #2 – Contact Information

You should have all the important contact information for your web host. If this information is not available then you’ll most likely have problems in the long run. If they cannot give you a way to contact them when you have a problem or need help then you may have to wait days before you get your problems resolved. This is unacceptable. If contact information is not listed online keep looking for hosts.

Suggestion #3 – Free Will Cost You

If you are developing a website for business purposes, make sure you buy your own URL and get real website support that you pay for. If you use free web hosts, you will cost yourself money because customers will not take your site seriously as the impression will be that you don’t either.

Suggestion #4 – E-mail

Make sure your web host supports e-mail and allows multiple addresses. You will need this in your business so you certainly want a server that supports this. If not, find another host because most good web hosts allow for e-mail addresses.

Suggestion #5 – Server Space and Bandwidth

You want to be sure your web host has adequate server space so your website has plenty of room to grow. Bandwidth is also important because the more bandwidth the host has, the faster your page loads, which in turn means more customers that will actually make it to your site because it opened quickly.

Michael Turner shows you exactly how to increase web site traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it today at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

A major factor contributing to the success of your website is staying in focus.

It is very important to stay focused on your business goal, whether your website is well established or you are just starting your subscription web site. Despite all the diversions that you come across on the internet, you need to decide on your goal and stay focused all the time, because your subscribers are paying a subscription fee because they have confidence in your site and the content that you provide them.

How to stay Focused

There are three very simple things you need to do to stay focused on your business and your website goals. These are:

Define your focus by defining your site in about 25 words. You can take the help of other websites that have written their mission statement, or about us and develop the mission statement for your site.

Review your focus at the start of each day, so that you never get out of focus. A small reminder kept on your table, or c a reminder on your computer could serve the purpose of reminding you to review the focus of your website.

Make sure that you develop some content for your website each day, find new ideas on your theme topic and also write articles that can be used.

After deciding on what your focus is you need to stay tuned to that focus statement. For this you will need to set goals and establish a daily routine for the website related activities.

Set goals

Depending on the peak traffic days for your site, decide on the days when you would upload new content on the site. The site statistics will reveal the high and lean traffic days, upload the fresh new content on the busy days for your site.

Establish a daily routine

For your subscription website to be a success, you must have a daily routine for the activities you need to perform for your website. A routine will be like a process that must be done each day, and when actions are defined as processes then efficiency increases man fold. You can have a ready checklist of must do activities.

A suggested daily checklist:

Check the news for events relating to the theme of your subscription website. Scan the news for events relating to your theme topic. You might find some interesting clipping that you can introduce as a tip or news for your site content. You could subscribe to some news sites, where you can define your area of interest.

Visit your site’s discussion forum each day. It helps to know what your subscribers talk about, what their concerns are and what do they want. You could answer the queries posted on your website. This will also help you to mould your content to the subscribers needs.

Get new ideas for the list of articles ideas. make sure you add to the list of articles and content ideas each day because the survival of your site is dependant on new ideas. Develop content on topics that the subscribers need information on.

Write some content each day to avoid deadline panic stage. Always have fresh content ready to be uploaded, so that there is no panic situation. This you can achieve by writing consistently.

Finish at least some loadable portion of an article, feature or any other report each day.

Once you have established a daily routine and follow it sincerely, there will be less panic on the deadline days. Follow your checklist for the daily to do tasks and you will always have surplus content on your hands on the upload days. Once you have achieved the task of one periodic upload, take a break and reward yourself with a gift of either a relaxing game or a hearty meal with friends or buy yourself something you have been meaning to or anything else that will make you happy. Online publishing and subscription websites give you a better control over your time, therefore you must take advantage of it by making the best use of time available to you.

This article was written by Craig Dawber of smarket-associates.com
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“I have a small business with just a couple of employees and I don’t think my product can really be sold online. Do I need a web site?”

In this day and time, there is very little that can’t be sold over the Internet. There are over 20 million people shopping online, buying everything from movies to cars to real estate property. Research predicts that revenues will be over $200 billion in 2004 and will grow at a rate of 30 to 50 percent over the next few years. These numbers alone should be enough to persuade you that you and your business should be online.

Regardless of whether you sell your product online, you should at the very least have an online presence so that customers, potential employees, partners and even potential investors can easily and quickly find more information about your company, the products and services you have to offer, as well as how to contact you.

But Can I Afford a Web Site?

Given the competition and current market trends you can’t afford NOT to. Think of your web site as your new marketing tool which, when applied correctly, will generate a return on investment. Your competition is probably already on-line and you need to use every possible avenue just to keep up. You should look at having a web site as an investment in you and your company’s future.

So whatever time or money you currently spend on marketing, supplementing it with a web site is probably a good idea. Your site will help you expand geographically and compete on a much larger scale.

Leveling the Playing Field

One of the most wonderful things about the Internet is that it’s helped to level the playing field when it comes to competition with the bigger companies. With a professional-looking web site, your small business can project the image and professionalism of a much larger company. It’s also a good signal to potential customers that you take things seriously.

Breaking the Ice into e-Commerce

Taking credit card orders over the Internet is quite an investment, especially if you don’t already have a merchant account. There are several e-Commerce solutions that can be custom-built for you that use payment gateways such as PayPal, which only requires a bank account and an email address. Customers can pay you through their credit card or even their checking account, and it’s a great solution if you’re looking to test the waters.

The Bottom Line

To be taken seriously, it’s not enough that you simply have a web site, but you must have a professional-looking web site. Many customers now search for information online before making a purchase; your web site may be the first chance you have at making a good impression on a potential buyer. If your site looks like it was designed by Uncle Bob, your chance at making that good first impression will be lost.

No matter what size your business is, and even if you’re not planning on selling online, a well-made web site is essential for any business. If you don’t have a web site, you’re already losing business to companies that do.

About The Author

Edward Robirds is a success-driven artist and interactive media developer based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since 1996, Edward has been building business relationships with several association and commercial clients around the world. Founder of www.DreamseaArtworks.com, Edward uses his artistic skills, expertise and passion to design and develop web sites, interactive CD-ROMs, and print media for his clients.

mail@dreamseaartworks.com