A proactive effort

Instead of just posting your resume in a job portal and sitting back in a relaxed mind why don’t you become little proactive and design a website or online portfolio blog of yours, where recruiters can come and take a look of your work, get an idea of your skills, goals and personal contact information.

Narrow your options of search

Make sure you upload resume and look for a job only in a website which has good narrowing options by criteria like – by region, by industry and experience, by job titles. You may super narrow your search by criteria like – salary expected, job designation, company names etc. Filtering and refining job search will help you to find better job offers.

Visit company websites directly

Instead of just applying to a given job opening and sending resume, get little proactive. Shortlist some best companies where you would love to work. Now visit that company’s website, target that company and check their career/job opening page. Check out the current vacancies. In case the company is hiring send your resume to the given address. Else, you may write to the human resource manager. Company pages may ask you to fill up a form, detailing your profile for their future reference. If the company is not hiring at present, keep coming back to it again and again to keep a watch.

Industry related websites

You may refine your job search by registering and following the desired industry related websites. You may find national or regional jobs posted in industry related websites, which you may not come to know otherwise. Individuals may post such jobs, hoping for getting response from a bigger pool of qualified applicants.

Job portals can be helpful

Online job portals can solve your problem by doing an extensive search. Recruiters will help you by matching your skills and experience with related jobs and bringing the same to you. You may refer to job portals like recruiterlink.com, onlinerecruitersdirectory.com, searchfirm.com and i-recruit.com.

Subscribe to job alerts

Most of the job portals have this feature of subscribing to their job alerts. You need to sign up in the site to receive email alerts about latest job openings. Or you may subscribe to RSS feeds. This way, even if you forget to visit the job portal regularly and look for relevant jobs, you will be reminded by frequent job alerts.

What are you waiting for? Get started, today!

Lack of right niche

Often people commit the mistake of not picking up the right niche. If you end up in a wrong niche you may end up wasting your time, effort, money and lose hope. Do your research, before you jump into the vast pool of Internet business. Read more and more about niches, know which you can handle and there’s no dearth of opportunities and growth. Then finalize. But at the same time after a point you need to stop reading and start doing. Unless you start practicing and commit some mistakes you won’t learn the worth of success. Don’t be afraid of failure. Make sure your niche keeps you interested and passionate about the same, so that you can continue with it for years and never get drained out. It should be your choice, not a liability.

Short-term goal

Online business lures many of us because it appears to be easy money making way, ideal for lazy couch potatoes and introverts. Do not take up an online business just to pay your bills and deciding to leave it the day you secure something bigger and better. Such decisions are miserable and will make you end up in hopeless situation. All advertisements circulating on the web claiming ‘Make money online’ promise instant money. It is a big lie. No one can be successful overnight. Always think in terms of a long-term goal. Only when you have a long-term approach you will invest your 100% effort into it single-mindedly and secure assured success. Be persistent, patient and innovative. Do not expect the flower to blossom overnight. Instead of looking for monetary gain right from the beginning, start focusing on the work and it will lead you to success.

Not tracking the traffic

It’s surprising that many small business entrepreneurs simply overlook the traffic or are found to be complete ignorant about web traffic, its source, traffic behavior and the like. Your web business can be successful only when you have large web traffic. A person comes to your site, looks around, reads, develop an impression and then leave, and if really likes your site; talks about it with friends and family. They may come back again and again, only when they remember you. In this clutter there are chances of forgetting you and you lose them forever. Can you afford to lose them? Ask your visitors to register at your site with their name, contact detail and email address. Ask them to sign up for newsletters for good deals. Keep a track of everything: source of traffic, which link was clicked how many times etc.

Be careful and don’t repeat these common mistakes.

Good hold on vocabulary

If you are an aspirant copywriter, your command over the language has to be excellent. You just can’t afford to mess with your language skill. Learn new words, expand your vocabulary. You may read lot. Don’t get too choosy. Read everything – journals, novels, blogs, dailies, articles. The more you read, better will be your vocabulary. Keep a dictionary handy. Refer to it whenever you find a new word.  You should know as many words as possible, then only you can use them effectively. Learn multiple languages if you can.

Sense of humor

A good copywriter needs to possess great sense of humor. If one is not born with it, he or she can cultivate it with time. If one has a good grasp of humor it is easily reflected in his advertisements, as advertising needs to be entertaining and catchy. It calls for wit, humor. Sense of humor helps in twisting and turning words, creating pun and arresting concept. See humorous films, shows.

Understanding of art

Well, a copywriter doesn’t write only. He conceptualizes and writes. And many times a concept has no copy, is just art driven. So copywriter needs a good understanding of art. Even an advertisement with copy needs to relate to the image. If copywriter doesn’t understand art, an advertisement can be complete clueless and mismatch.

Understanding of the viewer

Copywriter needs to understand the market, customers, audiences’ psyche and competition. Without understanding the trend, societal outlook, audiences’ psyche a copywriter can’t create a good advertisement or connect to the audience. A copywriter can be fatal for the brand, if tries to remain firm with his own style and doesn’t consider the brand or its target people.

You should not overlook any of the above-given tips when writing copy for an ad campaign.

Reading stimulates thought process

Reading mainly stimulates an individual’s thought process, making one think harder while sharpening comprehension and memorizing skill. While reading we try to guess about the content of next pages and understand the situation better, at the same time recalling characters and storyline. Reading also strengthens an individual’s concentration level.

Builds vocabulary skill

Voracious reading exposes a reader to numerous new words, phrases. Such exposure definitely sharpens vocabulary skill and develops command over the language.

Expertise on a subject

If you want to master a subject, don’t forget to read it first. Reading will build your knowledge and who knows tomorrow you may have your own book. Suppose you want to gain optimum knowledge in Anthropology, start reading books of the same subject. Soon, in 5 years time you will be an international Anthropology expert. If you are a research aspirant, it will help you too.

Reading helps writing

You can pen down great things only when you are filled with great knowledge from within. We are like a pitcher, always thirsty for knowledge. Fill yourself with knowledge, read voraciously; then only you can write great things tomorrow.

Travel world through books

If it’s not possible for you to travel the whole world on your feet, book is the best choice. If past enchants you, different cultures and places haunt you; why not grab a book and see the world through pages? Even while seeing the world on foot, you may miss many things and won’t come to know historical detail, but reading won’t disappoint you. Quench your thirst through books.

An elementary cooking book

If you are thinking of specializing in an area of culinary like – Chinese, Mexican, Japanese recipes; start from the beginning. Buy a cooking book of the same. Don’t buy too advanced book, it will confuse you and you will not be able to follow many instructions. Buy an elementary book, meant for the beginners. It will be detailed and will also help you to learn cooking easily. Do research about cooking books before buying them, you may also ask a chef. Slowly once you master an area, choose another area of specialization.

Get inspired from someone in person

Quite often it’s seen that cooking aspirants are inspired and motivated by renowned chefs. But such chefs are mostly out of your reach, try to find someone in your surrounding whom you are close to and have access to his or her personal life. You will learn more this way. Find someone whose culinary skill you just die for. Make sure you turn friends and visit him or her often and take some culinary tips and secret recipes. Seeing with own eyes will make you learn faster.

Follow cookery shows on television

Always reading may not help you, seeing live demo will help you to learn faster. Why not learn from the masters of cooking? Watch cookery shows coming on television. Follow them regularly, you will learn really fast. Follow their methodology blindly in the beginning; slowly you may customize the recipes.

Trial and error method

Self-help is the best help. Don’t worry about the outcome, cook whatever you wish to. Mix and match ingredients, put spices and ingredients which you think will go well together. It may excel or turn out to be a disaster. But this is how you will learn and also come up with own recipes. Make in small quantities whenever you are experimenting.

What are you waiting for? Step into kitchen and get going.