Time’s online article entitled, “Job-Search Scams on the Rise in the Recession” by Barbara Kiviat tells the story of how online job seekers are being scammed; their identities stolen, credit cards opened in their names racking up thousands of dollars of charges, after having responded to ”fake” job postings at work-search websites.

It quotes Susan,

“The scammers have gotten so much more active since the recession,” says Susan Joyce, who runs the work-search site Job-Hunt.org. “There are more of them and they’re more sneaky.”

The article goes on to highlight a very significant difference between job postings at Job-Hunt.org and larger websites like Monster and CareerBuilder. The difference is that Job-Hunt.org is proactive in its attempts to preclude fake jobs from ever appearing on its website. Job-Hunt.org monitors the postings, researches the companies, and attempts to validate the positions before posting them to the public. The author of the Time article went on to report,

“That simple process leads her [Susan Joyce] to toss about a third of the postings she receives. On larger sites like Monster and CareerBuilder, there’s no one doing that legwork for you. And the scammers are definitely out.” [bold added by me]

If you know Susan Joyce, be sure to congratulate her on this high-profile exposure.

Help your family, friends, and colleagues who are seeking new positions. Let them know that Job-Hunt.org actively works to create a safe environment for job seekers. 

Content
There should be plenty of content at your website that talks about all aspects of your products and services. “How to…” and “Top 5 Tips for…” articles/posts recieve particular attention, so, include plenty of those in your website. Content should be added frequently, so, sit down and write up a list of topics that you can write about. Then add an article/post about one of those topics as often as you can. Adding content is a way of telling the search engines that the website is current (unlike those that you have seen that were created 4 years ago and nothing has changed, including the copyright date).

Backlinks
Backlinks are the links TO your website. To find out who is linking to your website, go to Google and Yahoo and type link:www.yourwebsite.com -site:yourwebsite.com into the search box. A list of websites that link to your website will display - excluding the links within your own website (-site:yourwebsite.com). You need to use both Google and Yahoo because they use different parameters, so, will yield similar, but different results.

Now, do the same search using the website address of a website that is listed above yours in the SERPs (link:www.competitor.com -site:competitor.com). Research the websites that link to that website to determine whether you want to be linked to by those websites. Are they quality websites?=high value. Link farms?=low value. For the websites that you would like to link to yours, do what it takes to get those websites to link to you as well.

Tips

1. To test which websites link to a particular page in your website, type link:www.yourwebsite.com/specificpage.html -site:yourwebsite.com in the search box.
2. A link to your website from a .edu trumps a link from a .com

WebmasterWorld’s PubCon is an educational conference and industry trade show programmed specifically for web professionals and website site owners.

WebmasterWorld Conference and PubCon events are for thought leaders in search engine and Internet marketing professionals to gather to share best practices in the, design, development, promotion and marketing of their businesses and brands.

This year’s conference will have heavy emphasis on Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and Social Media.  

I attended this conference in 2007 with several business colleagues in the same field. We learned so much that we scheduled formal meetings for several months after the conference to compare notes, share research, and report on our progress of implementing some the suggestions. 

It is through attending conferences like this that I keep up with the latest trends and network with experienced and knowledgeable like-minded professionals. I take the best of the best and share that with my customers so that they can be successful in their endeavors on the Internet.

I can’t wait to share what I learn.

Here’s a list of the Top 20 Blog Components recommended by Adventures Online:

1. Search (the blog)
2. Categories
3. Pages
4. Archives (ability to view the blog posts by time period; ie: July 2009)
5. Blogroll (List of blogs that you like/recommend to your visitors)
6. Recent Posts
7. Recent Comments
8. Polls
9. Polls Archive (ability to view previous Polls)
10. Subscribe via RSS (Feedburner recommended)
11. Subscribe via Email (Feedburner recommended)
12. Link to your Twitter Page
13. Link to your LinkedIn Page
14. Link to your Facebook page
15. My Latest Tweets
16. TweetMeme (ability for visitors to ReTweet your posts or pages)
17. Email This Post (or Page to a friend/colleague)
18. SEO Pack (Search Engine Optimization plugin that allows you more control)
19. Subscribe To Comments
20. Google Analytics

www.new.facebook.com/people/Karen_Callahan/1035661502

 URL, you can now create your own username and have a short link like:

http://www.facebook.com/YourVanityUsername

I chose ‘WebExpert’, so, my new Facebook URL is: http://www.facebook.com/WebExpert

From a marketing perspective, I probably should have chosen my name or company name - and that would be my recommendation to my clients I was too excited to be able to choose anything I wanted, and let my emotions make the decision.

Update your Facebook account today - and - choose your name or company name.