DaJobSucks

Blog for those who have lost their jobs, want more from their current jobs, desire better work opportunities or just want to earn extra income.

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Can I make a living being a cheerleader

Written by HmD on 10/28/2008 05:09:00 PM

A friend sent me an email recently asking me if they could make a living being a cheerleader, which forced me to do some research. What I found was that if you want to become a cheerleader for say, a NFL team, it is not wise to give up your day job. Bad news for those interested, sorry, however it is impossible to maintain a decent life being a cheerleader.

During my research I discovered that most cheerleaders earn about $50 per hour, per game. That works out to between $400 to $500 per game, as cheerleaders are usually asked to work between 8 to 10 hours per game. You may have between 1 and 2 home games per month, so you would earn between $400 - $1000 per month for a couple months. This is obviously far from what anyone would consider to be a steady well paying job, in fact, some professional teams require cheer leading applicants to have a full time job before the team would even consider the job application.

The good thing about being a cheerleader is that it can be a spring board for dancing gigs, modeling and other forms of entertainment. For those who are lucky or good enough to get other gigs, cheer leading can be a short term career which can fetch you between $2000 and $4000 per month. However, cheer leading is a very unforgiving profession, as how well you do in most cases has more to do with how good you look and not how well you dance.

It is not easy to get in the profession, as there has been an increase in the amount of cheer leading job applications to professional teams over the years. The competition for these jobs is getting more intense and as such, the cheerleaders have treated their profession like a science and try to pull out all the stops to be prepared for their tryouts and interviews.

What do I need to do to be a professional cheerleader?

All teams with cheerleaders have scheduled yearly auditions. These auditions are usually scheduled weeks in advance, so you should keep in contact with the cheer leading squad you are interested in joining. Make sure that you submit your application before the stated deadlines and that you complete all your preparation before the audition.

Most professional cheer leading squads have a particular routine that is modified on a weekly basis. You should watch their dance routines and practice this daily. If the team has clinics, then get involved, as this will help you to learn their routines even better and gain a relationship with the people who are already on the squad.

You must have excellent dancing skills. Most cheer leading squads require that their dancers can make up things on the fly, do splits and high kicks, be able to dance to various kinds of music and be able to smile and be pleasant while doing their routines. Get to know the type of music the squad dances to, and practice their dance routines daily. You should also make up your own routines, so that you can add your personal touch.

Get an idea of the sort of look the cheer leading squad requires. Some squads requires that cheerleaders be at a certain height or weight. You should keep your weight down and look and be physically fit for obvious reasons. There should be no noticeable blemishes on your skin and you should ensure that your hair is done similar to the members on the squad you are interested in. Most squads go for longer hair, but their are exceptions to that rule, so keep an eye out for the squads particular style. The clothes you wear is important. Again, try to get an idea of how the cheerleaders on the squad dress and follow them. Makeup is also very important for a cheerleader. Makeup should keep the audience focused on the cheerleaders eyes. Make sure you that you use foundations that match your skin, use liquid eyeliners, making sure it matches the colors of the team you want to represent, use eye shadow ( using different hues and glitters) and use strong colors on your lips ensuring that their is a gloss over it. Do not use too much glitters.

Just like any other job, you will have to do a formal interview. Do not take the interview for granted. These squads requires professionalism, so look professional and answer the questions asked by the interviewer professionally. Prepare for the interview in the same manner you would prepare for any other. Be prepared to answer questions about why you want to be in the profession and a part of their squad. Be prepared to tell them why choosing you would be their best option and how your experience will help them. Be early for your interview and ensure that the interviewer understands how serious you are about getting the job.

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Dajobsucks bloggers - Work from home carnival

Written by HmD on 10/27/2008 10:05:00 AM

On Sunday, November 9th, 2008, we officially start our weekly blog carnival. This blog carnival is for entrepreneurs, workers from home and job hunters. With all the talk about our economy crumbling, we think it is about time to focus on new revenue earning opportunities (whether work or business) and business creativity.

How this carnival works

We will publish the topics for each carnival.

You submit your articles to h.m.dewalt@gmail.com or through BlogCarnival.com.

The articles are reviewed by us before publication.

If your article is approved, we will publish them two days after the deadline for submission.

You then add the links to our blog and the other articles in the carnival from the other participants to your article. If the articles are not added to your blog within two days of the carnival, then your submission will be deleted.

Topic - " All article submissions are eligible "

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Getting Links to Your Blog

Written by HmD on 10/22/2008 11:17:00 AM

The blogging world can be seen as one big tree. The branches of the tree are the niche leading blogs and the buds are those who have either just started blogging or have been around awhile, but have not been able to turn into a branch themselves. The survival of the bud is partially dependent on the branch. In a similar manner, the survival of blogs is partially dependent on whether they can get enough quality links from well-established blogs. Getting the links to help you increase the amount of traffic that comes to your blogs is not easy, but there are a number of things that you can do to make the road to getting more links an easier traverse.

Quality content equals to quality links

Bloggers are always attracted to quality content. You have to ensure that your content is relevant and has fresh ideas that will interest readers. Not only should it interest your readers but also the readers of the blog you want a link from. So your content has to be usable for users over the "bloggersphere". Another important thing to know though is that you should only ask for links for your best articles.

Relationships, Relationships and again Relationships

You need to develop relationships with the blog owners you want links from. Just like a small business that seeks to develop into something bigger and better by building relationships with suppliers and other people within their industry, we need to develop good relationships with your fellow bloggers before you can even attempt to ask for links. Another critical point to note is that we should not spam them after they have given you a link and you should always offer to add their links to your blogs. You can develop relationships by commenting regularly on the blog you want to link with. Comments should be relevant and deals with a topic covered by you in your blog. I have developed relationships with bloggers through forums and Social Bookmarking Sites like Digg and Socialmedian.

Do not waist time with Blogs that do not exchange links

Many blogs are set up for personal use, focuses on creating there own content and does not want to take the risk of linking to a blog which may eventually share opposite views from them and their readers. The foregoing blogs rarely exchanges links. There are however some blogs that do not have the same apprehensions and uses links to improve their own content or to share other blogs with their users that they think will be useful to them. Spend time analyzing the blog you want to link with, if they usually offer links, then you can give them a try, but do not waist time on those sites that do not provide link outs. Additionally, offer links to particular articles rather than to the front page of your blog as most bloggers, including myself, offer link outs to articles and after I find that the bloggers content is good, I provide a link to the front page.

Mid range traffic blogs are also good for link outs

Blogs that get average levels of traffic and hits can be emerging big time blogs. Try to offer links to these blogs along with high traffic blogs so that you can jump on the bandwagon early in the game. The reason why this is so important is that in some cases, mid-range blogs carries users who are not necessarily attracted to the large blogs as they like the one on one touch of smaller blogs. Relationships are usually easier to develop in mid-range blogs as the blog owners have a smaller number of users than very popular blogs. Seeking to link with them is therefore a bit easier as they have less link exchange requests.

Share your ideas

If you want links to your blog, then ensure that you offer bloggers article ideas that coincides with the article you want them to link to. Bloggers are more receptive to idea sharing, as this may help to drive traffic to their blog. When asking for a link, ensure that you give a brief description of your article and give the blogger article ideas.

Provide original links

Ensure that your articles are original and have not been covered by the blogger you want to link to your post to.

Do not be a nuisance

I covered this briefly earlier, but it is worth mentioning again, “DO NOT SPAM OTHER BLOGGERS”. Nothing annoys me more than bloggers who wants me to link to a post, I offer the link and then they see this as permission to send dozens of emails to me right afterward to add links to other articles. I almost always delete the first link I offer and most bloggers does the same.

Good customer service is key

You should approach bloggers you want to link to as your customers. We treat customers politely and very personally. Avoid generic emails to bloggers for link exchange. Give your request emails a personal touch.

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Creativity: Is it luck or can I be creative purposely

Written by HmD on 10/02/2008 07:44:00 AM

I have always admired creative people and wondered how they came up with the all the cool stuff they create. The truth is that most people who have been called creative or have invented some of the most popular and used products did so accidentally. The Slinky and Play doh are examples of accidental creations that the creators have made billions from as almost 1 billion units of these items have been sold since their creation in 1940 and 1955 respectively. Penicillin, the Microwave, fireworks, the Pacemaker and Post it Notes are other examples of accidental inventions. All the inventions that I just mentioned have impacted our daily lives and quite frankly, some of us would be hard pressed to admit that we are not glad that someone stumbled upon them.

The question is though, can I intentionally come up with something creative that can have a worldwide impact, or are we relegated to inventing based on pure luck. The simple answer is yes. Most large companies invest millions in Research and Development (R & D) Departments set aside for the purpose of creating items that they hope will make such an impression with customers, that there already fat pockets will get fatter. I asked a couple of R & D Managers who wanted to remain nameless, who they depend on for creativity and they unanimously said that they depend on young people, specifically those under the age of 35 years old. Ageism I asked, but they said no, the reason why they use younger people is that their research have led them to believe that creativity in mankind generally reduces after the age of 35. There are undoubtedly exceptions to the rule shown with great innovators like Albert Einstein, however they said that they generally get more creative products from their younger members of staff. They use the experience of older members of their staff as the voice of reason, to bring the ideas back to reality as they put it, as the younger members of staff tend to take too many risks. The interesting thing is that I was speaking with managers who were well over the age of 50. Apart from age however, there are a number of other characteristics of a creative mind.

The most important characteristic of a creative person is that they do not allow reason to hinder his or her creative ability. If you are honest with yourself, you will admit that most of the ideas you have come up with are not within reason and in some cases do not seem plausible. Most will scoff at your idea because it seems ridiculous, however, creativity comes out of a mind that is not bound by reason. You should take all your ideas to the extremes, ignoring reason initially. You have to ignore doubt and naysayers and push the limits of possibility and think outside the box society has set for you.

After you have milked out all of the possibilities for your idea, then you should insert reason. This is done after the idea has been fully developed in your mind because reason will cut your creation process prematurely. Most inventions will not look like the initial concept that was developed, so do not allow reason to cloud your creativity initially. Reason at the end of your concept creation task, so that you can bring the idea back to the real world, but even then, be careful not to let reason tell you that something is impossible.

Many will say that you have to infuse reason into creativity at all points of the concept creation stage, as it is time consuming to develop a concept and then when reason is applied you need to start from scratch. The foregoing may be true, however, I would prefer to not limit my creativity with reason and spend more time creating unique things. Which leads to the other character of a creative person. You need to have lots of patient. Creative concepts that can work are rarely developed overnight. You need to have patients and never give up on your ideas unless there is absolutely no way for your idea to work in real life.

You also need to read a lot and know the technologies that are already available. Some technologies may actually assist you in your creative process, as you will not have to reinvent the wheel. So, where research has been done in the area you are interested in, you may need to keep abreast of the results of the research already done.

Good inventors are very thick skinned, that is, they never allow what others say to discourage their creativity or to deter them from carrying a concept to its full development. If you are going to be creative you will come upon naysayers who themselves are not as courageous as yourself to try something new. Never let them get you down.

Never leave an idea undone. Great inventors carry through concepts to the end of the creation process. Get everything from the idea, as this will protect you from others coming up with ideas based on concepts you failed to consider.

An inventor knows how to keep a secret. Never tell anyone about your creation. Keep it to yourself until you can patent it. There are too many sad stories about big companies stealing ideas and making millions from the creators had work. Never let pride get the best of you. It may be very tempting to bang your chest like a Guerrilla to display your might, power and especially your superiority in innovation, but be careful, because as you beat your chest in victory, someone is seeking to piggy back off your idea.

You must be willing to take a risk. Inventions will take funding which is difficult to come by especially in our present financial crisis. However, you will need to spend more than you can afford to lose. You may or may not be successful in your task, however you will have to take a risk if you want to invent something that has never been tried.

Finally, inventors have always sacrificed their time to achieve their goals as innovators. The development of new concepts and ideas will require long hours of hard work. There is a need for good time management. You will need to sacrifice the time you spend on less important things like watching TV and other forms of entertainment. Time is critical, as I can't count the number of times I have come up with an idea and then a couple months down the line I see my idea advertised on TV. Use your time wisely.

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Here I'll share my knowledge, discovery and experience related to my hobby and work. Most articles on this site are related to job fulfillment and tips on how to make money from home.

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