The Wordpile

I think many of us have become all too familiar with this one of late. I’ve certainly learned to know it well in my attempts to get around the unemployment rate, and will probably learn to know it even more intimately before something finally takes off  (ideally, this blog). In the meantime, here is all the various finance related resources I’ve encountered that merit recommendation. As always, feel free to use the comments to inform me of missed or misplaced info.

Sites and Services

The Jobkeg:
An excellent, free time saver in any job hunt, this site’s claim to fame is that instead of hosting its own job posts, it searches through the posts on over twenty other job hosting sites, and compiles them for you . I’ve stopped searching elsewhere – there’s no point. You still have to make an account with each one as you find it, if an account is required to apply, but that doesn’t change what a blessing this place is to a full time job hunter.

Guru.com
Freelancing is a biggie, but quite a few sites aren’t very reputable. This is one of the most professional.

Twitter:
Yes, you heard me. Most people miss how to really use this place: for quite a while, so did I. They sign up, put up occasional tweets saying how they are an x looking for work, realize that this is roughly equivalent to standing in a crowd of millions and shouting the same message, and quit. Approached that way, you’re right, you won’t get anywhere. What you are missing is the search box. This search allows you to do the opposite: you can find exactly who is looking for you, and send a message directly to him. Since they may also be making searches, you should put up occasional ‘x looking for work’ posts. But most of your time should be spend searching various keywords. In my case, I’m a graphic designer, so I search for things like ‘poster’, ‘ad’, ‘brochure’, etc. Hone and perfect your search terms for what you do best, and as in all job hunting techniques, keep on going. Make sure to make your reply tweet sound friendly, not like a sales pitch. Make sure to do it daily: Twitter is a busy place. And keep an eye on the date of the tweets you peruse, as answering to an older tweet may be either inadvisable or require a different message.

My Data Team:
Tutorials for all constant web based money making. Affiliate marketing, article writing, blog making (helped me!), classic data entry, etc. I am a member and can attest to the value of the site’s resources. Fee: fifty dollars. One time payment.

Learn How to Blog on WordPress:
A set of video tutorials. Blogging can become a decent source of income, and even barring that makes a good way to display your worth online (yes, as I’ve done here). So I thought I’d include this. The videos themselves are free, but I found it on clickbank so a sale is definitely hidden in there somewhere. Let me know when and where you find it, and I’ll update the description accordingly.

SaleHoo Wholesale Suppliers:
An online compendium of verified, genuine wholesale suppliers. Use it to get stuff cheap, either for yourself or for selling (site also offers free training on how to use it’s offered resources for business, plus you can ask advice of other members). This is another one I plan to get into myself one day. Note: If you intend to sell online, be aware that Ebay is no longer advisable. It has changed greatly and is now very unfriendly to small or starting sellers. You are strongly advised to use Amazon instead.

Three Way Links:
A clever, innovative system by which you and many other web site owners help each other. It’s explained in more detail on the site (with refreshing directness and lack of tiresome improbable hype), but the idea is that while Google is on to reciprocal links, if you have a three way link – A to B to C and then around again to A – Google sees each one as a one way link. So, you join, properly get your site into the network, and the system will do the rest, using your site along with the sites of other members to create many such three way links.

Software

The Membership Plug-in:
One of the most powerful, complete WordPress plug-in’s out there, this one actually commands a price, perhaps even a high one…but if I had the financial wherewithal, I’d be eying it anyway. If you are taking the blogging option, this may be a valuable aid.

Long Tail Magic:
High quality, detailed, easy to use website traffic tracker. Uses? Tells you exactly how and why people are coming to your site, which in turn tells you how to make more. Yes, you do have to think for yourself a bit, this will only provide you with the data you need, not apply it. Welcome to the real world (I might use this one too).

DLGuard – Sales and Download Security:
Another necessary resource that first timers don’t always know where to find.

Instant Article Wizard:
A strong, keyword based information collector, making the process of article writing much faster and easier. Useful for all kinds of research, of any sort. There are many people out there who want large volumes of short articles and are willing to pay for it: this software should make such a business (from the writers end) feasible. I prefer to avoid the whole mess myself (though circumstance may eventually force me off my high horse), but if you do intend to try to weather it, I strongly advise this tool. Or just get it for general web research that doesn’t suck up incredible amounts of time.

Flash Audio Wizard:
A tool for adding sound to websites, which is a good way to enhance your own site, if you have one. Many small time websites lack certain features that actually don’t require big time resources to get. This is one of them, so don’t be one of them.

Directory Submitter:
Web directories are one of the best ways to spread links to your site. It’s also insanely time consuming. Simple, but tedious and horrifically repetitive, spells classic bot niche, and that is what this program is – the best directory submitter software I could find.

Candy Wrapper Software:
Whether it’s for a homemade candy business or for fun with kids, this one is unique and interesting. In this case, it’s for the home made candy business, recommended to be bought with the candy business e-book listed below.

E-books

Energy2Green:
The most reliable guide to homemade windmills and solar panels. Apparently buyers of the book have made money selling windmills and solar panels to others. With both green awareness and economizing practices going up, this is worth remembering.

The Thriving Artist:
How to make your art a sustainable, bread winning enterprise. This item beat its competitors for credibility largely because you are allowed to view the table of contents, so that you can see just what he is going to teach you to accomplish this. Very few sites give you this much info.

Sweet Smell:
Instructions for home made perfume. Sell them, or just enjoy them, but a quick browse through stores will show that making a good profit margin while offering a comparative bargain won’t be too difficult. Being able to offer good, comparatively cheap alternatives to luxury items is a great way to take advantage of the economic conditions.

Make Candy:
For fun, profit, or special parties. If you decide to take this angle, be sure to check out the candy wrapper making software also listed here.

Photography Lessons:
A dime a dozen, and this one technically wouldn’t have merited mention either – if not for the detailed description of what subjects would be covered, that was just as long as the hype that came before. That kind of freely offered detail is rare enough that I usually take it as a sign that there is nothing to hide. As always, I am ready to delete this entry depending on what I’m told on the forum.

Market Your Homemade Jewelry:
If you’re good at it, why shouldn’t you be able to live by it? Just a matter of knowing how.

Run a Home Craft Business:
It could be this should substitute for some of the other home/art business guides listed here. Please let me know.

Making Personalized Wire Jewelry:
This one mostly wins the ‘real deal’ assessment by virtue of a multi page website, including, most tellingly, a contact page. Clearly whoever these guys are, they are prepared to take their customers seriously. Which in turn suggests they aren’t going to scam you. And it’s an intriguing subject.