I’ve posted before about the resume’s downward spiral. Deb Dib tells it like it is so well today at the CareerHub blog. Check it out!

To ego surf means to search the internet for your own name to see what information comes up. Begin the search at Pipl.com then follow up with a search at Google.com. Next, add one of the meta-search engines. Meta-search engines gather search results from many search engines at one time pulling the results together for review. Try Mamma.com, Dogpile.com, or Metasearch.com.

On a side note, a variation of meta-search that you may find useful is Chimby.com which is specifically for searching career advice-related articles. Additionally, meta-searching job openings can be achieved through SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com.

Back to ego surfing…there are a couple of possibilities you might learn about your online presence. One is that nothing comes up about you and the other is that negative info comes up.

If nothing comes up then it is time to embark upon a web presence campaign! A simple way to begin is with Twitter.com which is a mini-blogging platform. It is called a mini-blog because users are limited to posting messages of only 140 characters in length at a time. People simply sign up for a user name, then they begin posting messages–or “tweeting.” For career advancement purposes, remember to post tweets that reveal your specialized knowledge and skills, AND that showcase your personality.

Keep in mind, Twitter is a double edged sword. The downside is that it is very easy to send off scathing or sarcastic one-liners that do not demonstrate the best a you have to offer. The upside is that with very little, but consistent, effort you can build a web presence and begin fruitful dialog with others.

Another easy way to get started is to create a LinkedIn.com and/or Plaxo.com profile. LinkedIn is a key professional networking website. Recruiters and human resources professionals are getting quite accustomed to checking LinkedIn to find talent and to vet individual applicants before beginning an in-person dialog. LinkedIn also offers a question and answer area that is a great place to network.

Plaxo is also very good, but for different reasons. Most useful is that Plaxo enables people to automatically see what you are posting on the net via your “pulse stream.” So if you post an update to your blog or submit a new bookmark to your favorite bookmarking site, it will show up on your pulse stream which members of your Plaxo network will see. Plaxo also features the ability to make a business side of your profile and a personal side of your profile so that you may divide up who gets to see what. Plaxo started out as a web-based contact manager to keep address and information up-to-date, so it does that very well, too.

Creating LinkedIn and Plaxo profiles will be somewhat familiar because they resemble a resume format. One big difference is the ability to post a picture with a profile. You may want to have professional photos taken or otherwise use a suitable digital photo for upload. Adequate photo editing for online resizing of digital photos can be done for free at ShrinkPictures.com. I suggest the “create avatar” tool for use with Twitter, LinkedIn, and Plaxo profiles. This tool will shrink the photo down to a perfect size for posting online with just one click so you do not have to worry about defining dimensions or file size. By the way, avatar is an image, symbol, or graphic that represents a person online. You can get very creative with your avatars, but remember for career advancement purposes you will need to maintain a professional image.

For info on what to do when negative info comes up when ego surfing, check back here Friday or better yet click the blue RSS button at the upper left of the page. Thanks!

Aggregators (a.k.a. feed aggregator or RSS aggregator)

• You can use aggregator software to create what is essentially your own customized digital newspaper!

• What topics do you like to or need to read about? Locate your favorite websites on the topics then click on the RSS feed button that can be found on many websites to add each website to your list to watch for regular updates. This saves time because the feed will automatically post updates to your aggregator so that you can see what’s new on you favorite sites very conveniently.

• Examples of free aggregators are Google Reader and Bloglines.com.

Here are some tools that will come in handy for careerillionaires and infopreneurs!

Meta Search Engines (a.k.a metacrawlers)

• This type of internet search sends search requests to multiple search engines at once and puts the gathered responses in one long list. It’s a good idea to use a metacrawler in addition to your favorite search engine just to make sure you aren’t missing anything major. Using a meta search engine saves time since you won’t have to go to multiple websites to perform the same search.

• Top examples include www.mamma.com, www.dogpile.com, and www.clusty.com.

• I like www.clusty.com because it also divides the search results by category which makes quickly reviewing more precise results much easier.

• A variation is this tool specifically for searching career advice related articles – www.chimby.com.

• Meta searching job openings posted on the web can also be done. Try www.simplyhired.com and www.indeed.com.

There is not an OSFA (one size fits all) for career assessments. Generally, though, there are some important data sets that a person can consider when taking stock of career options – personality type, interests, skills, and values.

• For personality type, I recommend the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). You can find a list of providers of the assessment here. There are some great books and free resources on the net too. Here is one option (scroll down).

• For interests, I recommend the Strong Interest Inventory. See the list of providers above many who also give this assessment. Here is a quick version you can check out free online (click on the column headings in white).

• For skills assessment, I like to reference the O*Net Skills Search checklist which is free online. Here is another good free one online.

• For values, here is a very good free resource.

I’m surprised how much forethought blogging actually takes. You have to decide a topic and a voice, which platform to use, what design and plugins to use, whether to have comments or not, and how often to post, to name a few. Plus there is a big learning curve to face. Then you have to find a balance between creating posts and checking stats and such…all potentially very time consuming (and addictive).

Blogging is certainly not for everyone. It is getting pretty popular though. Truthfully, I’m not sure if I am glad to be doing it yet or not. I’m sticking with it because I think it will pay off soon as I get faster at developing content and better at juggling it with my other projects. For me, the only downside has been the time commitment and the pressure to post. I’m not going too crazy about deadlines but I am striving to be consistent. The pluses for me have been that I enjoy learning about the technology and I now have a relevant reason to get my thoughts and ideas down on paper on a regular basis which really helps with my infopreneurial endeavors.

Yesterday, I saw a very good article about the benefits of building a content focused website rather than blogging. It was very convincing. From an infopreneurial standpoint it definitely makes more sense to think in terms of a content driven site rather than a blog mainly due to potentially improved page ranking to more easily connect to the intended target audience. Another reason is the higher level of control the infopreneur can have over their writing/production schedule with a content driven website. The big downside the infopreneurial blogger has to overcome is that the relationship building aspect of blogging is quite strained right from the start when you are so obviously trying to sell something. I mean it has to be done carefully because how many people would subscribe to a constant commercial? Here are a couple of infopreneurial website examples for you. The first is a content driven site, Love-of-Roses.com. This site is less than a year old from what I understand and has an awesome traffic ranking already. Next, here is one in the form of a blog, Seth Godin’s Blog. Seth has figured out the fine line that an infopreneurial blogger must manage to build traffic and sell his products and expertise.

Now, career blogging is a whole different story. I believe it to be a cutting edge career advancement technique. Your blog can become a showcase for your unique knowledge and skills. With small regular posts you can quickly build an impressive portfolio demonstrating more about your personality and quality of work while building your reputation at the same time. Plus, a blog can be an outstanding networking tool. This is just the kind of thing the blogosphere was meant for…sharing information, having a discussion, building relationships. Here is a fine example of a career blog to check out if you like the idea of blogging to advance your career – Publishing Careers by Lori Cates Hand. I love the way she has built the blog around the central theme of an informational interview for those interested in the industry. This instantly sets her up as an expert. It also leads to numerous ideas for topics to write about as she discusses her own career journey and daily activities. She also interviews others in the industry which greatly furthers her professional networking activities and exposure. Brilliant!

Millionaire Blueprints is one of my favorite reads. There are great stories in here to inspire entrepreneurs and people in traditional careers since the featured bios demonstrate a lot of creative thinking and persistence. You can also feel the passion of people in all kinds of businesses and careers which is very inspirational.

I think reading good stuff like this makes an abundance mindset more likely by helping to keep us more aware of opportunities all around us as well as our own potential based on our unique combination of personal strengths.