It’s tough stuff. I’m human. I like to stick with my people.

Through the pain of contemplating job cuts, I realized there is a lesson to be learned here. As I analyze each employee, I’ve basically been asking myself whether he or she is indispensable to my company. Are they replaceable at a cheaper cost, or do they have intangibles that justify their salary? Do they bring an insane work ethic? Are they passionate about their position? Do they have a skill that’s very hard to train?

Personally, I think the economy is going to double dip into recession. And if that is the case, jobs are going to be scarcer and scarcer.

The best job security is to become indispensable… irreplaceable.

This poses a challenge to us legitimate money making bloggers when tacking it on to your resume. As I have recently been trying to leverage my blogging success on my resume to get a high paying part time job, I’ve searched out several pretty good tips that can help legitimize the blogging (or online, ad driven content based website business as I refer to it as)  portion on your resume.

First, it’s important to use strong keywords and verbs to make concise matter of fact statements. Begin your description with action verbs: Increased, administered, advanced, built, executed,implemented, developed, devised, etc.

After you got the flashy action verbs chosen, ideas for the actual subject of key phrases are social media promotion, advertising sales, search engine marketing/optimization, custom html/css designs, bookeeping, managing contract writers, and content development. Don’t include all of these, because being concise is key. Choose maybe 3 phrases to emphasize on your resume in about 4 lines of space.

While brainstorming and figuring out powerful, catchy phrases you’re probably feeling peachy.  But there’s one last tip and it’s probably the most important: Quantify your accomplishments and phrases! Don’t just say “increased advertising sales every year” – Quantify it it.  “Increased advertising sales 23% quarter over quarter” OR “Grew site traffic 143% annually.”  Numbers, especially when they pertain to money, speak volumes, and are undeniable when you’re trying to sell yourself and your experiences.

There are bunches of other resume tips that can make a slight difference when applying for positions or internships elsewhere.  Just remember, you have value and your blogging/online business experience contributes to your value, so butter it up and sell yourself.

Why? Time is money.  The opportunity cost of being worthless is huge for most students during the summer. So instead, why not try exploiting your freedom to actually pay some of your tuition? Or if you don’t have to pay your tuition, why not fund your ’09 spring break?

So, here are my views on not being worthless during the summer:

1. Work

Notice I didn’t say get a job. While getting a job is the most practical solution for most people, if you can make money or build a future, consistent revenue stream through your own business do that.  My recommendations for working during the summer are as follows:

• Make money from your own business, which will offer future passive revenue streams from today’s work
• Get an internship in your field or desired career path.
• Get a normal job and work as much as possible.

2. Work (again… I know..) for Yourself

If you elect to get an internship or “normal” college summer job, still, work for yourself.  Even when I’ll be working 50-60 hours/week landscaping, I will be putting in another 25+ hours/week working on my own websites, online business opportunities, and investing. Partially because I enjoy everything about entrepreneurship, and also because I know the dividends from my work will really pay off during the school year. For example, I think it’s safe to assume that a blog or content based website built well and smart can make a consistent low $XXX in 6-9 months with a little luck.  Now sounds a bit tempting huh?

3. Set Goals, Make a Plan

Making a timetable of goals that I want to achieve is definitely key to not slipping into the world of worthlessness.  Make a plan, know your plan, and achieve it.

For my plans I use Microsoft OneNote and online email reminders (like those from BackpackIt). Just use whatever method necessary to make a plan and stay on task.

4. Develop Some Skills

Improve your HTML/CSS, learn how to invest, practice photography, brush up on business software, or start playing golf.  Summer gives college aged people a good time to develop some practical skills that may be of use sometime in their professional lives.  Personally, this summer I will learn how to invest with options and I will try to become more comfortable with Microsoft Access and other types of databases.

5. Do something fun

I hate to be cliche and end like this, but summer for college students shouldn’t be all work/no play.  I recommend playing hard on the weekend nights, and possibly venturing out for the memorable road trip at least once.  Just be sure to hedge your gas costs by investing in some energy beforehand (USO anyone?)

Most of them are obvious and I really can’t believe that anyone would do half these things, but some of the points were just freakin’ hilarous:

24. Bring your cute little dog on the interview: Pets don’t belong at interviews. They’re distracting and present the potential for disaster.

Do people seriously do that. I mean, if someone came to me for a job interview and brought their dog, I’d try to hold back the laughter, but as soon as they left the building, I’d be ROTFL.

27. Hit on the receptionist or pass your phone number to a cute guy: If you give the impression you’re more interested in dating than working you won’t get the gig.

I guess this holds true unless you go to job interviews with the express interest of hooking up with the secretary;-)

And then there was one that I sort of disagreed with:

6. Tell jokes: A job interview isn’t the time or place to be a comedian. You need to show you’re serious about the job.

So while not everyone who succeeds needs a college education, you can certainly hedge your bets by attending a top notch business school. Sure, along the way you’ve got to bow down to the system, jump through hoops, etc. But there is no better way to guarantee yourself a high paying salary than to go to college and get a marketable degree. It doesn’t hurt to pay attention and do well in school either!

Speaking of hedging your bets. I came across this list of the starting salaries for people with business degrees. Wowzers. Those of you who are actively pursuing a business degree have huge upside potential in the job marketplace and the salaries reflect that.

The only gripe I have with Jon’s article is where he says that it’s just “stupid” to start out doing what you love.  In fact his advice is the opposite:  Forget about doing what you love for a while.

Kudos to Jon for hitting 6 figures, but in my honest opinion, the resources and infrastructure are now in place so that anyone, anywhere, with enough passion, can do exactly what they want and still hit 6 figures within a few years.   So I guess it’s a decision that you ultimately have to make:  do I want to kill myself now for the sake of the sacred green cow, or do I want to drink from the fountain of life while still enabling myself to prosper?

Everyone’s going to have a different answer to that.  My answer, several years ago, was to stop worshiping the sacred green cow and instead carve my own largely untraveled path to success.

All of these opportunities have the real potential of turning into full time jobs after college … working out of your home … as your own boss. Or, if you prefer working as part of a team, you can develop these skills in college, make some extra money, while simultaneously making yourself attractive to the millions of online companies out there.

Some of these Net Professional (aka web worker) careers are higher-paying then others, but there are pros and cons for all of them. Here’s a quick overview for those of you considering online careers. The benefits are that these can all be freelance or consulting type gigs, so you control how much work you want to take on – which is ideal if you’re still in college. Don’t be deterred by being in college – you can still win clients. This may or may not mean offering services for barter instead of cash.

1. Blogger for hire.
If you’ve got reasonable writing skills (most college students do!), regardless of what you’re studying, blogging for hire is a nice way to earn a bit of extra cash.

• Pros: Writing for someone else for pay means that you probably don’t have to worry about a lot of the non-writing tasks. Start small, build a name for yourself and you just might earn a nice income.
• Cons: Your earnings are limited by how many articles you can write per day. Quality creative output can’t be turned on like a machine. (You could, however, start earning a bit of money by selling links from your college blog – just be sure you’re allowed.)
• Links: For a few great places to learn from and hone your skills, start at Daily Blog Tips, Chris Garrett, Xfep and Bloggers for Hire. For gigs, check out Freelance Writing Jobs, Performancing Job Board, Problogger Jobs, Blogger Jobs.

2. Designer.
If you’re studying print design or something related, or otherwise have the necessary skills, what better way to start than online.

• Pros: If you’re a capable designer than can offer not only logo design and general graphic design but also website templates, there is potential for a healthy online career. There’s also the standard print-based work such as business cards, flyers, posters, etc., much of which can be sourced online if you can prove your skills with an online portfolio.
• Cons: Much of the template market relates to the WordPress blogging platform. This not only means you’d have to learn to code templates in WP but also compete with all the literally thousands of free templates.
• Links: Daily Blog Tips lists their choice of top 25 web design blogs, though a shortlist is A List Apart, Smashing Magazine, Pearsonified, Dev Lounge, CSS Zen Garden, Randa Clay, Brian Gardner, Daivd Airey.

3. Blog overlord.
If you don’t want to blog for hire, you could always try launching and monetizing your own blogs, one at a time, then hire writers to carry on the work while you later promote. (Either that or partner up with SEOs or SMMs)

• Pros: You can launch multiple sites and hire writers for each – either on a flat-fee or revenue share basis. Try different payment models and see what works – replace unmotivated writers.
• Cons: Blogging for hire is still a relatively new profession and while bloggers abound, many are still learning the necessary skills. There’s a shortage of skilled bloggers for hire, so you might be writing your own content for a while.
• Links: Start with Problogger, Performancing, and Dosh Dosh to get a sense of what it takes to build more than one blog.

4. Copywriter.
Good copywriters earn more than most other types of professional writers, and the blogosphere is an ideal place for promoting these services.

• Pros: You don’t have to be a literary genius to be a successful copywriter, but you do need to learn the proper techniques. Also, one good gig per year that pays royalties could be enough to build enough supplementary income to pull of a 4-hour work week.
• Cons: Dry, unsexy niches might get boring after a while (but if you’re good, you can pick and choose).
• Links: Start building your repertoire of techniques by reading Copywriting, Copyblogger, Copywriter Underground, American Copywriter, Copywriting Maven, Writing White Papers.

5. Domainer.
Domaining efforts can be a good starting pointing into moving towards being a blog overlord (above).

• Pros: Of all of the above online professions, this one has the highest potential. Complete portfolios of thousands of domain names have sold for as much as US$300M. The top domainers are said to work an hour or two each day, and some literally sit on the beach sipping drinks.
• Cons: You need to keep up with trend studies and pop culture, to have a sense of what domain names might be worth purchasing and when to let them go. Also, the best domains are all gone and can be costly to buy. Cracking into the market at the bottom is not going to make you millions. You have to buy and flip lesser names and bootstrap your way to buying the expensive domains. Or partner up. Furthermore, domainers are often despised especially because they squat on domains.
• Links: There are a lot of domain blogs all of a sudden, but several seem inactive. Start at Domain News and Domain Name Wire, and read Aviva Directory’s How to Get Started as a Domainer.

6. SEO/ SEM
The Search Engine Optimization/ Search Engine Marketing niche is huge and is really perfect for college students because it can be done in short bursts of time between classes, etc.

• Pros: There is a large market for SEO/ SEM services, and some the top firms are commanding $100K/mth in billable work. There’s enough spillover work for those newer to to the niche.
• Cons: To get to the top levels, you really need to network and either know what you’re talking about or hire the appropriate parties. Outsourcing is one option, though marking up their services limits your margin, unless you can provide some value-added service not available elsewhere. The biggest drawback is being reviled by others who think SEO/SEMs are spam marketers.
• Links: Get part of your education reading SEOmoz, Search Engine Journal, Graywolf, SEObook, Tropical SEO, Scoreboard Media, Single Grain, Stuntdubl, Pronet Advertising, Cornwall SEO, Search Engine Land and loads of other great sites.

7. SMM.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is becoming a crucial aspect of online promotions.

• Pros: People with “power accounts” are always in high demand with SEO firms, and these services can be offered as a supplement to other work as listed above.
• Cons: Because social sites are, well, social, paid SMM work is always frowned on. You have to not only build your credibility but maintain it without being overly commercial. You really need to leverage your networking skills. If you’re shy by nature, forget about this niche.
• Links: Build your profile on facebook, myspace, digg, sphinn, delicious, stumbleupon, shoutwire and any other social media sites you can manage.

Choosing one of these paths is not something to do lightly, if you’re just starting out. But if you already have skills in a certain area and feel you can promote yourself online or otherwise find the clients you’ll need, then all of these Net Professional careers have potential for providing you a nice income. There are other services you can offer such as writing business plans, resumes, copyediting, etc. However, I think that the ones listed above have the highest potential for college and beyond.   And even if you’re clueless about how to get started in any of these fields, there are plenty of people (me included) who are willing to train you for free.

So, if you’re a college student with an entrepreneurial spirit, let’s get in touch. ryan at college-startup.com

You could hate your job because…

1. You have a boss.
2. You can earn a limited amount of money.
3. Your income stream is only one – the salary.
4. You don’t have control on your life.
5. You have to follow fixed working time schedule.
6. Your colleagues are fools.
7. You have to travel for hours to and from your working place.
8. You don’t care about your boss’ problems, but you have to.
9. You cannot choose what to do. You should do the tasks, given by your boss.
10. You have to pay so much taxes that doesn’t make sense.

Via One Job Two Salaries

If you want the internship, and the potential full time job down the road, email me and make me a believer.

ryan@college-startup.com