By W. Lau, who is interested in obtaining a forensic science education and has written about the ins and outs of attending a sonogram technician school.

Social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, are growing in popularity as a job hunter's resource. LinkedIn has more than 85 million professional users signed up to its site. A greater number of recruiters are also relying on social networking sites to find job candidates.

We know that one of the most effective methods to find a job candidate is through direct referrals from employees. Another method is through networking, which is what social networking sites, like LinkedIn, allow you to do.

So, is signing up with LinkedIn's basic account good enough for job hunting or is there value in paying LinkedIn for premium service?

The major differences between a LinkedIn Basic and a LinkedIn Premium account

• InMails: With InMails, a LinkedIn user is provided an allocated number of opportunities to send private messages to contacts that are not part of their network. This feature is advantageous when you want to contact a recruiter or HR contact that you have no other means to contact. Premium accounts include 3 to 50 InMails per month depending on the premium account you select.
  
  
• Profile Search Results: Premium accounts afford more search results. The premium account offer 300 to 700 results per search, compared to 100 results per search with the basic account.
  
  
• Profile Organizer: This feature provides you an allocated number of folders so that you can organize notes on particular contacts. Premium accounts include 5 to 25 folders depending on the premium account you select.

Whether you choose to maintain a basic account or spend and obtain a premium account with LinkedIn, if it helps you secure a job, the money you spend to upgrade your account will pay for itself. However, even if you don't upgrade to a premium account, LinkedIn offers many features that add value to your job hunt to help you get hired.

LinkedIn feature benefits for job hunters

• Recruiters Can Find You: A complete profile ensures you are part of recruiters' search results. Completely fill out your profile to enhance your profile visibility in search results. Adding key search terms within your profile that recruiters may use to find candidates will also improve your visibility.
  
  
• Networking Opportunities: Your network of contacts can help connect you to the right people for job opportunities, job advice and more. A premium account will also open opportunities for you to make direct contact with HR contacts and recruiters at companies of interest to you.
  
  
• Recommendations: Your contacts may write you recommendations, which HR contacts and recruiters can view from your profile to help better qualify you as a job candidate.

While LinkedIn offers an opportunity to be social and network, keep in mind that this particular networking site is meant for professional networking. All information, photos and links you post to your profile should continue to project a professional persona. You never know whether an HR contact or recruiter is viewing your profile. Even if you are job hunting through some other means, more and more employers are conducting audits of potential candidate through social networking sites to see if there is any information or impression they find that can help disqualify you for a position.

Part-time blogger A. Matthews has an online accounting degree and is enrolled in other courses online to improve his education and strengthen his resume.

Like an artist critiquing their work, any good blogger must be able to step back and objectively take a look at their blog. A good blogger can look at their work, both individually and as a whole, and think hard on what is working and what is not, and more importantly, what is attracting readers and what is driving them away. Remember, a blog is not for the writer; it's for the people currently reading, the people you want to be reading, and hopefully, the advertisers who are going to pay you to write. Looking at your own work objectively is not always easy, so here is an Objectivity Checklist to get you started.

• Do you entries have catchy "hooks?" Web surfers are notoriously fickle. If they are not grabbed immediately, they will turn their attentions elsewhere in a matter of seconds. Therefore, it is essentially that blog posts begin with catchy "hook" lines to "hook" the reader into reading the rest. Make opening sentences dynamic, exciting, surprising, controversial -- basically any action verb that will entice others to read on.
• Are your post titles just as catchy? This may be even more important to grabbing the reader's attention than "hook" sentences. Titles appear in bigger letters and should sum up the post's subsequent content, but do so in a manner that makes the viewer want to read in the first place. Also, if titles can have searchable terms even better. More often than not, the terms used in a post's title will be what shows up in search engine searches and drive traffic towards that specific post, and the site in general.
• Are paragraphs short and scannable? Notice how in newspapers and magazines paragraphs always consist of just a few short, concise sentences? That's because most readers are going to turn the page if they see at first glance what looks like a college-level essay. Same goes for your blog: visitors are going to click away if the task of reading a post looks too daunting. Break up posts into bite-size chunks that allow readers to quickly scan the article for the pieces of information they want.
• Is your blog readable? Is the content of the posts presented front and center, and is it done so in a way that makes for easy reading? Or is it chock full of Flash video, ads, and GIFs? If the latter, you need to redesign your blog. Appearance is everything and a blog needs to be attention-grabbing, but even more so it needs to clean, concise, and readable. Clean it up and have some close friends take a look for more feedback.
• Would you want to read your blog? Ah, there's a doozie, but it's the most important question you can ask yourself. Think hard on whether the writing is engaging and informative, and whether the subject matter will appeal to more than an audience of one. Decide whether the blog needs a redesign to look more professional. Think on whether your blog can move up to the big leagues and start earning an income.