Jade Craven

Kirsty Stewart is a resume writer who tweets under KirstyWrites. It was an honour to interview her and I learned a lot from her answers.

How did you get involved in resume writing?

In the mid-90’s I got a job as an Admin Assistant for a major recruiting company.  It was my job to read through dozens of resumes and choose the best ones to be give to the senior recruiters.  I also had to prepare resumes for Graduates who had gone through their traineeship program.  While I certainly wasn’t a resume expert when I first started there, I do remember being absolutely shocked at the poor quality of the majority of resumes that people sent in.

I’d say about 15% fell into the resume ‘horror’ stories category (search ‘bad resumes’ and you’ll see what I mean) and 75% fell into the ‘boring/irrelevant information/ nothing whatsoever that sells you to me’ category.  So the top 10% would really stand out.

Since deciding to start my own resume writing business, I did lots of research on business management etc and was surprised to find that there were actually quite a few books on starting your own resume business, as well as on how to write a resume.  Up until then I thought I had a completely unique idea!

These books were absolutely no help to me though.  It became clear that many of the ‘boring and irrelevant’ resumes that I had seen had either been copied from these books or had been done by a resume writer who had read these books, saw the dollar signs and thought they’d go into business.  Any serious resume writer will tell you that writing resumes is not always easy, and certainly not the ‘easy, money making, work from home opportunity’ that these books imply.  It’s a lot of hard work but the rewards are amazing.  There is no better feeling than hearing a client scream down the phone at me “I got the job!!!”

Why is it important that people have their resume edited?

I recently had a resume client who already had a great looking resume, that she had written herself, but complained it wasn’t working for her.  At first glance, it actually looked really good and I wasn’t sure why she wasn’t getting interviews.  The more I dug around, it actually read as well as it presented.  So what was the problem?

She had an extra digit in her phone number.

If you consider how many copies of her resume she had sent out over the last few months, I shudder to think how many opportunities she lost because the employer could not contact her.

If you have written your own resume and can’t afford to pay for someone to edit your resume, my best advice would be to read your resume out loud to yourself.  This is one of the best ways to pick up any mistakes.  Our eyes can get tired and it’s easy to let a mistake slip by.  Reading out loud makes us sit up and pay attention to what we are doing.

You have listed your phone number on your twitter background. Do you get many inquiries this way?

‘Tweeps’ who contact me to help me with their resumes generally will check out my website first and either e-mail or call my mobile number once they have landed on my web page, rather than my twitter background.

Still, I think it’s important though to list your phone number if you are an internet-based, service business.  While most clients are happy with email contact only, I have quite a few who still like to hear a voice on the phone.  Personally, I’m of the belief that any legit business should list a phone number on their website.

You regularly offer promotions on twitter. Is this an effective way of getting extra business?

Yes and no.  It really depends on what the promotion is, and how I promote it.  However, I have found two things to be true when advertising your product or service, and if I consider Twitter a strong part of that, then the same applies when doing Twitter promotions.

Building strong relationships on Twitter is essential.  I’d say that the majority of my Twitter clients have come through someone re-tweeting a message.  An example of this is that people did like my ‘Half and Half Resume Package’ promotion and I got more re-tweets on this than anything else I’ve ever done.

I also found with Twitter that cross-promotions work well too.  I recently did a promotion with @CustomTees, whereby if you purchased my service, you got a free Twitter t-shirt from him.  While we didn’t get many sales from this particular promotion, it got me a lot of re-tweets and introduced me to new people who have gone on to refer my service, even after the promotion ended, and hopefully did the same for him.

Your half and half resume package is a brilliant idea. Have many people taken you up on this?

Thanks!  Funnily enough, the first week I introduced the ‘Half and Half’ package, I made quite a few sales when offering the ‘Early Bird Discount’.  However, since the package has been fully launched, I’ve actually had no further requests and instead have had an increase of sales of my Full Priced Writing Service!

I think that it did get a lot of re-tweets though because it is a genuine offer to save some money and still get the same results.  It did take me a while to set it all up but I’m really pleased with it and the first round of response has been fantastic and an option I will happily continue to provide.

Why do you believe Aussies should say NO to centrelink? (feel free not to answer this one )

Oooh, this is going to be a hard one to try and keep my answer short!  (For U.S. readers, ‘Centrelink’ is the government agency that provides Australia’s unemployment benefits).  While the image on my page is a little bit cheeky, it is still something I’m very passionate about.

Let me say straight up though, that I am aware that a lot of people do rely on Centrelink and I think that as an emergency back up it can be essential.  In this case I’m also not referring to single parents, the elderly or those on a disability pension.  I am referring to those who are able to work, regardless of whether they are currently working or not.

If you are working and are unsure of your job security in this time, or have recently been laid off, I would encourage you to do everything that you can, no matter what it takes, to stay as far away from Centrelink as possible.  It is a soul sucking experience that you can definitely do without.  Statistics show that men, who are on unemployment benefits for a long period of time, often end up on disability pension.  Yes, it can shatter your confidence that much and confidence is KEY to being employable.

Many people are finding they need to consider a change career, as certain industries are really starting to suffer.  I certainly don’t take this lightly and can understand the emotional distress that it can cause.  I also think that the advice “don’t be a job snob and just take anything” is the right attitude towards someone in this situation either.  Taking some time out to consider options, in other industries that you might enjoy, as much as you did your previous one, isn’t an impossible task.

If you are in a situation where you are currently working, but know that your particular industry is extremely competitive, in this financial environment, and you are unsure of your job security, now might be a good time to start looking into this, while you have a little bit of money to invest.

What role has your blog had in attracting clients?

Having a blog means you can regularly have fresh information added to your website and keep a reader returning.  I think it’s important to do this because not every client is going to purchase on the first read.  New content will keep them returning.

I do spend quite a bit of money on Adwords and this is where I get the majority of my work from.  While I don’t know that my blog keeps those particular clients returning (it probably would if I was more organised with my email marketing) but it does keep visitors on my site for longer, which definitely has its benefits.  My old website was a traditional web page and visitors used to leave pretty quickly, even though I had a blog.  I changed my ‘landing page’ to my blog as an experiment and found it worked better because visitors would stay longer.  This is why my blog is currently my website in its entirety.

Do you have any special tips on attracting clients through twitter?

Be yourself, have fun but make sure that your online personality does match the type of work you do.  It does amaze me that I have just over 1000 followers (although many would consider that number tiny) because up until recently, I rarely started following people, unless they followed me first, but I’m getting better at doing that now.

At first, I was shy and thought people would think it was strange I was following them.  Now I realise Twitter really is about building relationships and I have a better understanding of how it can help a small business attract customers, I’m not worried about jumping in and joining the conversation.

I do need to give a special thanks though to @RebeccaLange as someone who helped change my attitude towards this.  I noticed often writes something like “Thanks @KirstyWrites for introducing me to @Whoever I’m now following on your introduction” or similar.  I love this style because it gives me a reason to know why someone is following me.  It is cross promotion at its best and takes the ‘follow’ to a much friendlier place.

Was it expensive setting up your website?

Not at all!  Firstly because I’m using a free template from WordPress and I’m lucky enough to have a brother who codes for beer

I would encourage anyone who really wants to start a website to go for it, no matter how small their funds are.  I read an article recently by @SavvyAuntie saying one of the earlier mistakes she made was taking too long to get her website up because she wanted it to be ‘perfect’ and I can relate to this.  Owning a web based business is like any other business.  It is hard work and you are always learning and evolving.  My advice is jump on in, learn what can, be willing to be flexible, listen to the advice of those you admire and go for it!

There are so many options available today for free programs like WordPress and even Blogger that anyone can have a website.  Worst case scenario, remember my brother is happy to code for beer!

1. You have two blogs - Insanely interested, and Jarkko Laine.com . Why did you decide to have two seperate blogs?

To understand this decision, you need to know that I'm the kind of guy who often acts first and thinks only afterwards. I think it was Skellie who was the first to call this approach the fire-aim approach. Sometimes, this leads to great successes, and sometimes to big mistakes. But at least it leads to action.

The case with my two blogs is a little bit of both. When I made the decision, I was at a point where I felt pulled to two directions: I wanted to write longer, magazine-like articles as well as shorter, more personal thoughts in the style of Seth Godin. The way I had organized my blog at jarkkolaine.com was somewhere in the middle ground. I thought about the problem for an hour or so, and then decided it would be a good idea to split the blog. I already had the domain name "insanelyinterested.com" reserved, so I created a quick WordPress theme and started my second blog.

And here's the successful part: Both of the two blogs have their own fans. I've had people tell me that they love Insanely Interested, and at the same time I've seen the Jarkko Laine blog readership grow even without putting much effort into it. I'm sure I could make a difference with both blogs if I put in the effort needed.

Which is what I think went wrong in the split: Two blogs require more work than one. Especially when one of the two is branded to running long, insightful articles! So, for a long time I ended up not posting to either of the two blogs.

Now, as I've been starting to put in more effort to blogging again, I'm starting with one, and focusing on getting the bigger of the two (Jarkko Laine) to a steady, focused growth path, and worry about Insanely Interested only after I feel I'm doing a great job at the first blog.

And to be honest, I have more than these two blogs in the planning. As a spontaneous, idea-driven guy, I can't help but come up with ideas for new blogs I'd love to run. But luckily, I've been able to keep both of my new blog ideas in the planning stage -- for now. I do have the domains reserved already, though.

2. You have a store on Insanely Interested where you review other peoples products. How has this worked for you?

The Insanely Interested Store was my first experiment with affiliate marketing. And again, just like the decision to have two blogs instead of one, this one was made in a very short time.

I think in the early days, I didn't quite get affiliate marketing. I didn't realize that the point in affiliate marketing is to pre-sell the product to the reader and let the product's official sales page do what it is designed to do: close the sale. So, instead of featuring products on my blog, I thought of affiliate marketing as a kind of storefront, and so I created the store. Instead of throwing the user to the product's sales page, tried to point him straight to the shopping cart, without even seeing the original sales message.

This, as it turns out, is not the way most successful marketers close sales. Instead, they focus on reviewing and promoting their favorite products and then letting the seller make the sale. While I did make some money with the store, and it's still generating traffic even though I haven't updated it in the past months, I wouldn't recommend doing the same. Good reviews and recommendations work much better.

You recently released the donation Can plugin. Do you have any thoughts about businesses or individuals having a donation button on their sites?

Making money from your blog is a tricky task and almost everything (as long as it's nothing immoral) is worth trying out.

I created Donation Can with non-profits in mind. More specifically, it was created to support the Train for Humanity project for which I've been working as the web site developer, and other projects with a similar idea. For those, donations like this are a pretty natural way of making money. For blogs, this is one of many options.

I know some people say that having a donation button on your blog makes you look bad. I don't think that's the case, obviously.

That said, how the donation widget is displayed in the blog makes a huge difference. You can use the donation button in a way that makes people feel like you are begging for money, and that can definitely eat your credibility, or you can position the donation button as optional payment for the quality content you are offering.

I haven't experimented with this approach too much yet, and only put the donation widget on my own blog to test my own donation plugin in action. But I have a plan to remove the generic donation widget from my blog sidebar and instead have a donation button at the end of each post. This would be the blogging world version of what Radiohead did with their record "In Rainbows": you get the content for free, and can then decide the price you feel it was worth.

I don't believe donations or optional payments will ever be the number one stream for income from blogging, but what I love about them is that there, you are actually getting money based on the value you create, not from selling someone else's work.

4, What do you have planned for the text is art theme?

You have some tough questions, Jade. The kind of questions I'm struggling with almost daily as I think about what I want to do on my Career Renegade path.

Text is Art was again a project that I started by hunch. Every other day, I feel it can be a great idea, but every second day I doubt it will ever make a single download. That said, I do have a plan for completing the product and actually making it into some kind of a small business: although the project is running on back burner, the plan is that on some time frame, I will first release a free version of the Text is Art WordPress theme, and then one by one, put out customized, more targeted, niche versions of the theme. Something like "Text is Art PROblogger" targeted to people who want to make money from blogging or "Text is Art VIDEOblogger" for the video geeks out there.

But let turn the table and ask you for help: what do you think I should do with the theme?

5. You seem to be friends with so many people in the blogosphere. What tips do you have for networking online?

This one is easy: be real.

To be more verbose, I never think about what I can gain from the people I call my friends. Instead, I try to pay attention to them, and help and listen to them as best as I can. From time to time, I make mistakes and fail to do what I think is right, but I have noticed that as I'm open and not playing a role, people tend to forgive my shortcomings.

Also, I have noticed that people on the blogosphere usually like people. More often than not, if you approach people you feel share your values and would like to connect with, they respond to you. There is nothing to lose, so I think it's safe to just reach out to people and say hi.

6. You have done a number of paid posts. Can you share your experiences with this?

I have done it on two sites, mainly: the now defunct http://northxeast.com where I wrote about blogging, and http://net.tutsplus.com where I have published two tutorials on web development so far. I plan to write more tutorials to Nettuts as soon as I find some time, but apart from that I'm not actively freelancing for blogs at the moment. Next, I'm hoping to focus a bit more on my blog and doing guest posting to market it instead of "just" blogging for money. But let's see how things go

Actually, there are probably many ways to get started. I started by writing things for free. I guest posted in a few places, including NorthxEast, so then, when I offered to write for a pay, the guys at nxe already knew me from before. That was probably the important part there. Also, it's important to just get out there and offer your services to bloggers.

But actually, I like the TutsPlus (including NetTuts) approach even better. First of all, they pay really well ($150 for a published tutorial). Second, they give everyone a chance: if you know your topic, you just pitch the topic to the editor, then write the post and submit it. If the editor likes your article, it will be published and you get paid. This way good writers who know their stuff get published and earn money and fame. Out of all the tutorials I've submitted (2), all (both) have been published and paid for.

I am so excited to be able to share this interview with you. Its by Angie Haggstrom who runs Angie's Copywriting. She is extremely helpful and well worth getting to know on twitter.

How did you get into freelancing?

I started freelancing completely by accident, to be honest. I was bored and looking for something that would let me get back into the researching and writing I had enjoyed before. That's when I found a website that let me 'write for money'. I had nothing to lose, so I went for it.

After I discovered that someone would actually pay me for my work, I took it one step further and actively started to write on my downtime. When I became too busy, I cut my day job back to part time and eventually went to freelancing full time.

Do you have any tips for new freelancers?

Research everything, be inquisitive, and take risks. Don't be afraid to take chances.

The way I see it, the worst thing that can happen is that someone tells you 'no'. I've found that you gain much more by taking risks and aiming for the top (whatever that may be for you) than you will by fighting your way to the top. Someone recently explained it like this: 'it's much easier to go back down the hill once you're at the top than it is to work your way up the hill in the first place.' I think that's pretty accurate.

You recently redesigned your website. What was the motivation behind this, and what was the process like?

I've learned a lot about websites, usability, and other related fields since the first site launched. I decided that it was time for my website to demonstrate that growth, knowledge, and experience. I think this one does a fine job of doing that.

The process? It's been one crazy ride that I don't intend to repeat any time soon. There's just so much work, planning, and unexpected things that go wrong. Most of the issues come from trying to match my vision to the reality while still tying in the original website.

Has your redesign led to any extra work?

It's generated a ton of extra work both with the website and in terms of clients. The website itself has expanded a lot (most of which isn't live yet due to technical issues.) But, it has attracted several new clients, which is always a good thing. I also have some big marketing plans for the official launch of the site, so I'm waiting (im)patiently to see how everything plays out.

The direction of the business has changed significantly as well. Instead of simply writing, my services are now more of a comprehensive hybrid that gives businesses the benefit of all the knowledge and experiences I've had.

Instead of simply having me to write content, clients now get a complete copywriting solution that meets their needs, their business' needs, and the needs of their target audience. They can eliminate the disconnect between their site copy, offline advertising, and online marketing content and target their clients more effectively. The ability to get everything they need in one spot will save my clients a huge amount of time and produce better results.

You seem to be up at all hours. Has your writing life impacted on your lifestyle?

It's impacted my life a lot, but in comparison to an actual job, I don't think there's anything really negative about it. Just like a real job, there are days where everything goes wrong or breaks, and there's days that are insanely busy. Overall, I love that I can choose my own hours and I love that I work with different people all the time. There's never a dull moment.

Running my own business has added a full load of responsibility onto my shoulders, but it has also given me the freedom to take time for my personal life when I need to. I can take time off whenever I need to (within reason, of course). I work just as hard now as I did working for someone else and am dedicated to my clients. However, the reward for my work is instant.

You offer coaching and consulting. What tips do you have for people looking to become a coach?

Know your stuff and don't be afraid to share it. If you're going to be a coach or consultant, you can't start with the attitude that you 'don't want to give away all of your secrets'. That's the entire point of the job.

If you want to help others, you have to genuinely want to help others and be passionate about doing so. As far as I'm concerned, this is the only way others will be able to truly benefit from your services.

You have bought and recommend a lot of products. Do any products stand out?

Michael Martine has put out a few items that are worth checking into. His 'WordPress SEO Secrets' is so unbelievably easy to follow that anyone can do it, and the results are amazing. I was shocked at the difference the techniques made with my site and I think beginner website owners would have the same experience with very little effort.

'How to Sell the **** Out of Your eBook' was also fantastic. Not just for selling ebooks, but for getting an in-depth look at marketing and launching products in general. If you want to sell anything online, this is a definite must-read for you.

Naomi Dunford's 'Online Business School' is the third on my list of must-haves for online business. Again, it's the techniques and tidbits of insider knowledge in this comprehensive program that's worth gold.

I stand behind these three experts 100% and fully support anything they put their name on.

You are very active on twitter. How has this contributed to your success?

Twitter has been amazing and don't think my business would be the same without it. I'm sure you've noticed that I don't actively promote my business through it, but I do make personal and professional connections. This has allowed me to generate a large number of clients, make unbelievably wonderful friends/connections that have helped and supported me, and I have gotten opportunities that I wouldn't have gotten access to otherwise.

I simply can't stress the importance of networking enough, particularly for new or solo-run businesses. It has changed the way I do business and propelled me on the road to success. If I ever have a question, need anything, or just need to know that I'm not alone with an issue or problem, there's someone there. These connections are nothing short of priceless.