Month: August 2015

Work History Gaps Must be Dealt with Smartly


Fill in all resume gaps

Listing your professional experiences on a resume can be a difficult task, especially when considering the many elements a resume preparer must incorporate into the document, if it is to adequately serve the purpose it is meant to serve. Items like job titles, time frames, key responsibilities, transferable skills, and other such descriptions and attributes must be included and properly listed where and when appropriate. The process becomes even more difficult when these elements are in an individual’s work history.

Potential employers will not have a way of knowing why there is a three and a half year gap in an applicant’s professional experience just by reviewing his/her resume. Moreover, the employer might wonder if you – in the case where you are the applicant – skipped over one of your past jobs because it does not meet the career objective you listed.

It is also not unreasonable for a prospective employer to assume that you did not work at all during the omitted time frame; so it is not in your best interest to intentionally skip any information in your jobs history. Simply (honestly) explain any gaps. There are a few general rules about resume gaps that could help to guide you through:

Rules of the ‘resume gaps’ road

  1. Any unaccounted-for time that is shorter than three months does not need to be explained. Having a 60-90 day period between jobs is not very unusual, and often goes unnoticed within the structure of a resume anyway. However, any gaps extending beyond three months should be addressed in your cover letter or an e-mail. Whether you had personal or professional reasons for not working, the gaps in your employment history need to be explained as you don’t want to leave the employer to make their own assumptions.
  2. Be honest! We can’t stress this recommendation enough. If you are honest with your potential employers, you might not have to worry about them checking your references, doing a background check, or surprising you with questions in an interview.
  3. Don’t exclude months of your employment from the job listing. You are better off explaining the gaps in your resume than trying to cover them up, and you’ll likely discover that honesty is really the best policy when it comes to your resume.
  4. If you have held jobs that are not applicable to your career objective, list them on your resume anyway. Rather than create gaps in your resume, explain why you held jobs outside of your chosen field in your cover letter, or in an email to your potential employer. Again, whether the reasons are personal or professional, explain yourself honestly and don’t leave room for assumptions on the part of your potential employer.
  5. Regardless of the reasons for the gaps in your professional history, it is important that the tone of your cover letter and your resume remain positive. Do not sound apologetic!– Life happens and you don’t need to be sorry for taking time off from work for good and/or justifiable reason(s). Be positive! And show your potential employer that you never lost focus on your career.

Diligence, honesty and education pays off

While we all agree that life often takes unexpected turns and understand that there will be circumstances which result in resume, we can always consider the following actions in order to stay competitive in our field:

  • Apply our time and experience to volunteer positions, community projects, consulting and/or freelance work.
  • Take a class at a community college or at the community center that improves your work-related skills and allows you to interact with people of similar professional backgrounds.
  • Read about new developments in your field, get a subscription to a professional publication/magazine, or get the newly published books that discuss changes or improvements in your profession.

Most of all, be honest and stay positive, because you can’t change your work history, so do your best to show your employer that you are a perfect/best candidate for the job by focusing on your experience and your education, as well as highlighting your achievements and your qualifications.

To Make Money in Affiliate Marketing

The nature of affiliate marketing programs

Affiliate marketing programs by their very nature, dictates that participants have the ability to work well with others; in the sense that these programs – also known in some circles as referral programs – are structured primarily on commission-based sales, and as such, those who are most likely to succeed in this type of business will possess outgoing, optimistic and colorful personalities.

A quick example of the referral programs comparison is based on you being an affiliate marketer, in which case it is probable that you would own a website from which to direct your site visitors to a merchant’s product page in hopes that they make a purchase. The redirection is what has been described as referrals for which you will be paid a fee or commission – depending on your arrangement with the merchant – if and when they make any purchases.

That having been said, affiliate marketing is much more than a mere referral service, since many affiliate marketers have created significant numbers of marketing and advertising campaigns for which they appropriate rather sizable advertising budgets. In other words, affiliate marketing is a business to those who run it as such, and a referral service for those who prefer to do the bare minimum; but keep in mind that it is also the kind of business in which you get out what you put in.

An affiliate program that fits you

If you already have a website set up, you can run an affiliate program from it, or you can simply build a site to promote a particular product/service (‘product’) on behalf of the merchants who own that product; and as long as the website brings in more cash than it takes to build or maintain, you really should be okay…and quite possibly just okay, if you only want to do the minimum.

Like any other marketing system, you will need to be careful in your selection of an affiliate program; because although one of the benefits offered by an affiliate program is providing you with another way to make money from your visitors, you might be more comfortable – depending on your level of skills and expertise – sending them to a partner taking a cut of your profits, instead of creating the resources necessary to sell them a product (sales letter complete with calls to action, sales funnel, ability to accept credit cards, etc.) which could get rather expensive.

Even though it may seem tempting to opt for programs with the highest commissions, those programs won’t pay you anything if your visitors don’t buy the products they are promoting and selling. So with that thought in mind, take a look at the following tips that could be helpful in your selection of an affiliate program that is right for you:

Program selection tips that could prove helpful

  1. Do not accept any less than 25% commission, since you can find many programs with great payment structures and high percentages of pay in just about any field.
  2. Look for statistical pages that list the number of click-throughs, sales and commissions earned (and paid) so you’ll be able to see how you are doing.
  3. Always look for programs that offer a wide variety of tools to put on your web site, including banners, text links, and of graphics.
  4. Find out how often you’ll be paid and be sure that the payment schedule meets with your own expectations. Some programs will pay monthly, while others will pay quarterly.
  5. Be sure that top level support is included. If they can’t answer your questions in a quick and timely manner, you don’t want to work with them.

In conclusion

Once you learn what you are doing in your interactions with the various affiliate programs, you can really make a lot of money, but that is not to say it will be easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is, especially generating great wealth. If you are just starting out, you should always use common sense and not rush into anything; and as you become more familiar with how things work, you should be well on your way to making a lot of money – and even more importantly – enjoying what you’re doing to make it. If you have to work hard, you’ll be glad you did.