• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

However you choose to get your site up and running, here are the major sections you need to include:

• Home page

• Contact page

• Resume or experience page with all your resumes on it: Guerrilla, Extreme, ASCII, and so on

• Interests or links page

• Any optional pages you deem appropriate

The content of those pages must do the following:

• It should engage the reader.

• It must present a clean professional image.

• Be consistent. It should present the same brand you are trying to achieve with your resumes and cover letter.

• It should have a call to action—you need to tell readers what to do next or, at the very least, make it easy for them to contact you.

• If you write a blog, there should be a link to it.

If you want to be seen in the best possible light as a potential employee, then your web site should not:

• Appear folksy or cute

• Link to any questionable web sites of a religious, political, or sexual nature

• Have pictures of you and your family—especially young children—because you don’t know who is looking at the site and for what reason

• Have your home address

• Make mention or hint of your marital status

• Your home phone number (get a second line or make them use e-mail)

• Any personal information of any kind that could lead to identity theft such as your Social Security number or driver’s license number

Recruiters (whether they be the employer’s or a headhunter) search the Internet for keywords. If you have a “Projects” section, you need to have hyperlinks that connect as described in the e-resume section, with links to:

• Your current and past employers

• Associations you belong to

• Articles in which you or your project are mentioned

• University and colleges you have attended

• Special certifications you have received

• Anything else that would prompt a call or inquiry from a curious recruiter

Most of the content for your web site will come straight from your resume. Keep your writing short and tight. The site’s purpose is to prompt the reader to call you, not to answer all questions.

Darryl Praill’s site is a great example (see Figure 6.1). It’s engaging, informative, and bold like the man himself. See what he’s done that you might incorporate in yours.

➤ Your Blog

A blog is a powerful addition to your web site.

A blog is an electronic journal that has been made available on the web for others to read. The activity of updating a blog is blogging, and someone who keeps a blog is a blogger. Blogs are typically updated using software designed for people with little or no technical background.

Figure 6.1 Darryl Praill.

Your strategic use of a blog can make you a prime target for employers and headhunters. Why? Because you’re making it easier for people to find you on the Web. Just think of it: no more waiting for your blue-haired Web designer to update your site. You can post to your blog yourself. Having your own blog gives you credibility and a forum to demonstrate your expertise. If you’re not an expert, you can become the oracle by linking to other bloggers, articles, news sources, and web sites. You build your credibility by highlighting what others are doing. For example, if your goal is to be hired as a teacher, you can talk about the latest developments in K-12 or ADHD.

Best of all, blogging can be done for free. Check out these sites to start your guerrilla job-hunting blog:

• www.typepad.com

• www.wordpress.com

• www.blogger.com

If you are not certain what to write about, then go to www.blogsearch.google.com and look at what other bloggers are doing. BlogSearchGoogle.com will allow you to keyword search any subject. (There’s that term again—You should get used to hearing it because finding things on the Web—and being found on the Web—relies on understanding how to exploit keywords.) Fire up your Web browser, surf over to www.blogsearch.google.com, and enter the keywords that