During these grim times of layoffs and increasing unemployment, what are you doing to keep yourself a step ahead of people who are in your own profile - other than increasing the number of qualifying certificates that you have?

Why not blog?

Tara Weiss at Forbes.com says that having a blog about your profession will help improve your visibility in the field. Starting up a blog and putting that in your resume is not a sure-shot way of getting into a job. But as she says, “even the smallest edge can make the difference in landing you that interview or even a job.”

Having a blog in your own field has it’s own advantages other than spicing up your profile. For one, it can keep you updated about the happenings and the latest trends in your field of choice. This will definitely get you a lot more ahead of others in your same profile. Second, blogging gets you a name on the internet. A recruiter who would want to know more about you would have different ways to do that - they might even google you. Think of the leverage that you would get when they find your name online linked to your profile, compared to maybe a hundred others who don’t show up anywhere.

All said, starting up a blog is not that difficult as well. Get a free account in places like blogger.com or wordpress.com, or maybe shell out some money and get a domain name and web host (why? Because your own domain name on the net is like your own home on this planet. People notice you because that’s an address for you). Also, when you pick a name for your blog, be professional and use your name exactly as you use it - or add your initials or middle name if it’s already taken or you have a common name. Keep your blog updated with the latest available in the industry, even the smallest of news items which you think is going to be informative to people. If you are passionate about your field of work, this would be easy for you.

There are a lot of ways to get information about setting up a blog. You can create a Google News alert on latest news related to your blog topic or keywords related to your area of interest. Or you can get an RSS reader from a place like Download.com, and subscribe to RSS feeds from various related websites available on the Internet. As far as a blog is concerned, “no news is bad news”.

There is a lot to blogging, which won’t be covered here. But one last tip - make sure that you do a “spelling and grammar” check before you hit the “Publish” button on your blog and make it visible to the outside world. Most blog tools (such as Wordpress and Blogger) have this integrated within themselves.

Popularity: 28% [?]