As many of you know, I own and operate Jobacle, a career blog and podcast that is dedicated to making work better. With all of the media hype - and now evidence - surrounding an economic downfall, it appears we are entering a new job-search chapter: too many workers, not enough jobs.

It’s times like this that a resume becomes even less valuable. After all, a resumes’ primary purpose is to act as an exclusionary tool to ELIMINATE you from the race.

It sounds boring and cliché, but that means networking is more important than ever.

Many bloggers - this one included - simply throw links to social networks on their sites and wait for the people to flock. This is a pretty passive approach.

With so much uncertainty out there, my blogging friends, let this post serve as a reminder - or better yet a catalyst - to reach out and make a new contact or rekindle an old one.

Set a goal and hold yourself accountable. Maybe it’ll be to make five new contacts this week. Perhaps 50. It’s hard work, but perhaps the most important work you can do right now.

There’s a good chance your next job will come through networking, irrespective of what you do for a living. Start now before it’s too late.

One of my favorite things about blogging is meeting new and interesting people across the world. You can find me on LinkedIn and all of the rest, but why not send me an e-mail and make me your contact for the day!

Even if I’m not your guy, go network! You’ll thank me later.

In an interview with WIRED, Six Apart’s CEO Chris Alden is optimistic about the health of blogging during the current financial climate. In fact, he’s convinced that blogging may even emerge in stronger shape once we come out the other side.

“When you don’t know where else to invest, you invest in yourself,” he says.

His reasoning for blogging surging during down times is because it’s a way for companies and individuals to reassert control. It’s important to note that he’s not saying that blogging is an instant way to replace income from a full-time job, but that the practice itself could become more popular.

(Via WIRED)

Felix Salmon at Portfolio.com has sour news for econobloggers. According to Salmon, blogs may have gained more respect over the past year among mainstream media publishers of economic news and opinion, but they are still not recognized by some as deserving of outbound links.

The latest evidence for this, as Salmon sees it, is the refusal by VoxEU, an economics news portal that has been called a blog before, to be included in Aaron Schiff’s popular directory of top economics blogs.

While I’m not so sure VoxEU is clearly a blog - it seems more like a blog-like aggregator to me - I think Salmon is absolutely right in asserting that mainstream media news sources are still generally reluctant to treat blogs as equally valuable (and linkworthy) disseminators of useful information.

What do you think?

Discussing the current economy condition within the United States and the world, my husband and I talked about how blogging and social media can help so many impacted by today’s financial crunch. Imagine my delight while reading the September 16, 2008, issue of Women’s Day Magazine in a waiting room about the number four tip for their “Solutions Your Money” column: Start a blog:

There are millions of them on the Internet and they come in all shapes an sizes. You can write about nearly anything - from what it’s like to be a mom to politics. It’s free to set one up, and once you do, you can place ads, using an easy program like Google Adsense. Each time a visitor to your blog clicks on an ad, you earn money. And once you’ve earned #100 you’ll get a check in the mail for the money you’ve earned.

…You probably won’t replace your paycheck by blogging, at least not at first, but it’s a good way to make extra money.

The example they give is of a second-grade teacher who blogs about coupon savings tips and plans and makes $80 to $100 a month. While few do even that well, it is an additional way to bring in a few bucks to your life when the financial crunch is on, if you play nice and right.

So the number one way blogs can help you survive the current economy is to help bring in a little extra spending cash.

That’s not all a blog can do for you during this economic downtime. Have you thought about all the benefits a blog can bring while the economy dances in the wind? read more

In Flipping Blog Scams MMO Niche is Full of Jerks, Garry Conn takes on the scams associated with Make Money Online Niches (MMON) and reselling domain names and sites:

It takes a lot to get me upset; however, when I witness people within the MMO niche that act like a bunch of middle school kids making fun of the ugly girl who dropped her books in the hall it pisses me off and without a doubt shows me the true colors of many of the individuals out here. Not only do these people scam, take money and trick their readers but now they make fun of them when they get the courage to step foot into the MMO arena.

While Garry is talking about the quick fllipping of MMON blogs, where people buy good named domains, launch it with a nice blog, manipulate the stats, then resell it leading the buyer on. read more

Gawker Media trims several jobs. Ebay lowers the guillotine. And Yahoo might be on the brink.

Short of ending the war in Iraq next week (not going to happen), we are probably looking at lousy financial times in the foreseeable future.

The question is: What does a poor economy mean for bloggers?

My initial thought was that companies will likely trim “entertainment” content sources like blogs. But then I started to wonder if it will be high-paid writers who take the hit - and bloggers lining up to take their gigs (perhaps wishful thinking).

With the cost of an Internet connection so inexpensive, and the ability to use even the oldest computer to exercise the craft, bloggers have minimal overhead. That’s something we should all be grateful for.

Perhaps during this ‘difficult time,’ more people will head online to forget about the $2,100 they have tucked away in a savings account.

What do you think an economic downturn means for the majority of paid bloggers?

All I know is that right now I need my blogging gigs more than ever before. I guess this would be a bad time to ask for a few more bucks a post, eh?

The U.S. and Canada are going through hard economic times. You knew that, right?

And you probably knew that blog networks, like all businesses, thrive or perish according to their ability to respond to changes in the economies in which they operate.

But what you maybe didn’t know is the extent to which the current economic struggles of Canada and the U.S. are affecting the blog networks you visit on a daily basis - Gawker, b5media, Federated Media, Splashpress (which owns this blog) and Weblogs, Inc., to name a few. read more