1. Put an offer on the back of your business cards to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
2. Tradeshows – Bring a clipboard or sign-up book with you to tradeshows and ask for permission to send email to those who sign up.
3. Include a newsletter sign-up link in your signature of all of your emails.
4. Send an opt-in email to your address book asking them to join your list.
5. Join your local chamber of commerce, email the member list (if it’s opt-in) about your services with a link to sign up to your newsletter.
6. Host your own event – Art galleries, software companies (one here has a party every quarter and invites the neighboring businesses), retail shops, consultants (lunch & learn) can all host an event and request attendees to sign up.
7. Offer a birthday club where you give something special to people who sign up.
8. Incentivize your employees – Give them $ for collecting VALID email addresses.
9. Giving something for free like a PDF? Make visitors sign up to your opt-in form before you let them download it.
10. Referrals – Ask you customers to refer you, and in exchange you’ll give them a discount.
11. Bouncebacks – Get them back! – Send a postcard or call them asking for their updated email address.
12. Trade newsletter space with a neighboring business, include a link for their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter.
13. SEO – Make sure you optimize your site for your keywords. You need to be at the top of the natural search when people are looking for your products or services.
14. Giveaways – Send people something physical and ask for their email address as well as their postal address.
15. Do you have a postal list without emails? Send them a direct mail offer they can only get if they sign up to your email list.
16. Include opt-in forms on every page on your site.
17. Popup windows – When someone attempts to leave your site, pop up a window and ask for the email address.
18. Include a forward-to-a-friend link in your emails just in case your recipient wants to forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting.
19. Include a forward-to-a-friend on every page of your site.
20. Offer a community – Use Ning as your easy-to-set-up community and have your visitors interact and sign up for your newsletter.
21. Offer “Email only” discounts and don’t use those offers anywhere but email.
22. Telemarketing – If you’ve got people on the phone, don’t hang up until you ask if you can add them to your newsletter.
23. Put a fishbowl on your counter and do a weekly prize giveaway of your product – then announce it to your newsletter. Add everyone who put their card in on to your newsletter list.
24. Include an opt-in form inside your emails for those people who get your email forwarded to them.
25. Tradeshows – Collect business cards and scan them into a spreadsheet. Make sure you ask permission to send email to them, then mark the card.
26. Use Facebook – Host your own group and invite people to it, then post new links often. From time to time, post a link to sign up for your newsletter.
27. Use Facebook – Post the hosted link from your newsletter into Linked Items to spread the word.
28. Use Facebook – Include an opt-in form on your Facebook Fan page.
29. Use Twitter – Twitter the hosted link of your email campaign every time you launch.

If you’ve got any additional ideas, let’s hear them!

source: http://blog.verticalresponse.com/

The logo is lit in the back.

The iPhone 5 might not be arriving any time soon, but that hasn’t stopped artists and design firms from creating their own mock-ups.

After analyzing the various iPhone 5 rumors, Italian designer Federico Ciccarese came up with these gorgeous renders.

Ciccarese’s vision of the iPhone 5 predicts a slightly curved back. The body of the phone, in fact, looks similar to Apple’s Magic Mouse. The display is flat and “retina” in nature and the phone tapers off at the top and bottom.

The headphone jack has moved to the side to accommodate the new design and the back looks to be blasted aluminum, similar to what is used on the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and iMac.

This isn’t the first time Ciccarese has mocked up his own version of future Apple products. In addition to previously trying to design the fifth-generation iPhone (what would become the iPhone 4S), Ciccarese has also taken on concepts such as the iScreen, his vision of the rumored integrated television from Apple.

We love the way the mockup details the glowing Apple on the back of the phone. It’s the sort of design touch that we think Jony Ive and company could even appreciate.

What do you think of these mockups? What would you like to see in the iPhone 5? Let us know.

Graphics and concept courtesy Federico Ciccarese/CiccareseDesign

more: http://mashable.com/2012/02/23/iphone-5-mockups-2/#view_as_one_page-gallery_box4437

When it comes to targeting search engines to reach international markets, we’re going to have to do things a little differently. As we expand our horizons we begin to form connections with those who not only speak different language but bring a whole set of different cultural expectations to their business dealings online.

There are two broad approaches to meeting the needs of our international customers. The first option is to focus on languages. Alternatively, we can consider ousr foreign markets on a country by country basis.

Optimizing by Language

While getting the words right is key to international communication, the SEO strategies at your disposal will not vary widely from one language to another. Bear in mind, though, that when you switch language you also gain the attention of those search engines designed with speakers of that language in mind. It’s worth taking some time to get to know which search engines you need to optimize for.

The advantage of optimizing by language is that it gives you a broad-brush way of reaching new customers. English already gives you the potential to reach markets around the world. Add Spanish and you can include much of South America as well as Spain. French can make many African countries accessible in addition to parts of Western Europe. Next consider how many people in and outside of China read Chinese and you can see how adding a few key languages to your SEO marketing can open up significant regions of the global market.

Approaching your SEO on a language basis can be an affordable and time-efficient option. You can focus on finding the best possible keywords, which may not be the direct equivalents of those that perform well for you in English.

On the other hand, you might not want to optimize by language if you have an interest in promoting your business to certain countries only. For instance, Brazil could be a key market for you while your business is not well-placed to serve Portugal.

You will want to consider too whether some languages benefit from being delivered on a regional rather than global basis. If you are selling fine leather purses, your customers in the US will expect to see a selection of bags but your British customers will be looking for somewhere to store coins. Similar miscommunication can happen with any of the major world languages and can be frustrating for customers.

Optimizing by Country

Opting for your content to be visible to a specific country is known as geo-targeting. Although SEO targeting of this kind can initially seem daunting, the fact that it is more specific can make it a more effective marketing strategy. Use geo-targeting to deliver your online content to the markets that matter to you, without having to worry about those that don’t.

It also gives you the flexibility to deliver locally relevant content to different countries who share a common language, without having to mirror your content on more than one top-level domain. With different pages geotargeted for different countries, linguistic and cultural differences can be allowed for and you can confidently quote local times, currencies and holidays.

Carefully geo-targeted content can help you by reducing the number of visitors who don’t find what they need and hit the back button. This will in turn bring down your bounce rate. Your overall visitor numbers may not increase but you are more likely to see visits that convert.

Geo-targeting your web content does require some initial thought as to who you want to reach and what differences there will be from one market to another, but it’s fairly straightforward to put into action. If you want to know more about geo-targeting and how to take advantage of it, Google’s Susan Moskwa has a handy geo-targeting video.

There will be times when geo-targeting is worthwhile but it is not going to meet the needs of every business or situation. Customers will only be delivered geo-targeted content if they opt to search for local results. Also remember that marking content as relevant to one specific country will mean that potential customers speaking that language in other countries are unlikely to see it.

Another consideration is that many countries have more than one official language, for instance if you want to target Switzerland you would be ignoring around a third of the population if you opted for German-only content.

Get to Know Your Markets

The key factor in your decision will be the needs of your potential international customers. Combining SEO with language that is both accurate and reads naturally to foreign visitors can be challenging, but get it right and you can make the leap from a national to a global customer base.
Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/

Advertisers see this pattern taking shape, but there is still a disconnect between the avid mobile consumer and potential advertising dollars. This is caused by several factors, including the sufficient difference between mobile and standard web. Similar to the relationship between offline and online, it simply takes time to adjust to a new market, and credibly, there have been gaps in the mobile ad ecosystem that one can expect in any earlier stage market.

Mobile Advertising in 2012

1. Demand and Liquidity Is Increasing

Although advertisers are concerned that total ad revenue (including digital) may decrease, mobile advertising is growing rapidly. Two factors are driving the change: First, more buyers are coming to the market and growing their purchase volumes, and second, there is a heavier focus on executing mobile-native campaigns that translate to better consumer engagement and improved ROI.

2. Location-Based Advertising Is Taking Flight

Mobile-driven, location-based services are becoming a staple in nearly all parts of our lives, including mobile advertising. Advertisers are using local and hyperlocal campaigns to promote events and drive in-store sales, and an ever-increasing number of consumers respond to deal-, coupon- and event-based advertising. Mobile Media’s SMART Report stated that “49% of all targeted audience campaigns used local market audience targeting, as advertisers are often turning to mobile as an effective way to reach local consumers.”

3. Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Creates Powerful Mutual Value for Buyers and Sellers

RTB provides real-time auctions that enable buyers to compete for and buy individual impressions that best serve their campaigns. The value is shared by buyers and sellers alike — buyers purchase only the impressions they want, and publishers and developers benefit from a higher price and increased demand for their ad spaces. The resulting powerful and mutual value pushes RTB onto center stage as the strategic foundation for mobile advertising.

4. Rich Media Is Dramatically Enhancing Ad Quality and Consumer Engagement

The ads themselves have held back mobile advertising. Banner ads were uninspiring, or in some cases, dull. Rich media ads — including video ad units and interstitials — are more artistic and animated, which fit better within today’s highly visual games, apps and mobile web content. In 2010 banner ads saw a 0.09% click-through rate, while rich media ads saw 1.1% CTR, a significant difference.

5. Mobile Private Exchange Is Catalyzing Premium Publishers and Developers

Premium publishers see the immense value in mobile advertising, but they also must avoid price erosion that has been attributed to automated markets. This friction has previously limited the financial value for the publisher; it has also limited the high-value audience available to advertisers.

Mobile private exchange changes that equation, enabling premium publishers to create exclusive markets in which they select only those buyers they want to sell to, and prescribe the terms of how they sell. This can be particularly important for premium publishers who need to consider how to combine the liquidity of automated markets with brand sponsorships and their direct sales forces. With private exchange and the associated pricing and brand controls, publishers are able to shift from avoiding channel conflict to managing integrated (and productive) channels.

Brands, ad agencies and publishers are allocating more time and money to mobile advertising; even with all of its imperfections, the sheer scale and energy of this market is unavoidably persuasive. And in 2012, building blocks are now in place to marry extraordinary opportunity with real capability, and to translate market confidence into revenue and ROI.

Images courtesy of Flickr, samgranleese, iStockphoto, DamirK

Source:http://mashable.com/

Source: http://mashable.com

This illustrated timeline, created by Infolinks, takes a walk down advertising’s memory lane.

The evolution from steel to digital took many turns along its way, such as print fliers hoping to get young men to fight in the Revolutionary War, billboards spurred by the rise of automobiles, electric banner ads following the invention of the light bulb (Times Square’s first went up in 1882) and direct marketing with the nascent postal service.

But we don’t want to give everything away. Take a look at the graphic below. Do you think any of these older forms of advertising would be successful today? Let us know in the comments.

They’re setting up Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. They’re getting on Google+ and even dipping their toe into LinkedIn. Some have started blogs and created Flickr or Vimeo accounts to share pictures and videos.

Whilst this is all worthwhile, many brands are still getting it completely wrong. They’re trying to integrate social media into their old ‘marketing mix’ rather than understanding the whole purpose of social media.

They’re missing the point by throwing out one-way marketing messages like before, screaming things like ‘Buy This’ and ‘Get your 20 per cent discount today! Ok maybe that last message pulls a lot of eyeballs but is that any way to build a premium brand?

This traditional, one-way marketing doesn’t work anymore. Consumers are already bombarded with thousands of marketing messages on a daily basis but the majority of them are ignored. Most banner ads don’t get a click-through – it’s about 1% on the good ones. Nearly half of all direct mail is never opened. And there are OVER than 200 million Americans on the ‘Do Not Call’ list.

So what else can you do to get your messages out there?

Today, we are all connected. Today, smart brands make business personal. And they do that by becoming a social business rather than applying the same old marketing techniques to the new medium of social media. They realize that ‘social’ isn’t a new way of marketing, It’s a new way of doing business.

A social business doesn’t just do social, it uses strategic and creative excellence, and extraordinarily well thought through content to create brand lust, engagement heat and ultimately passionate advocates for the business and it’s products and services. They think in terms of test, learn, scale as opposed to 18 month marketing plans…and they use an analytics culture to shape and adjust and augment strategy on the go.

A gulf of difference from the traditional ways of brand building.

Brands that get social media right by becoming social see phenomenal success. Just look at the facts. Nearly two thirds of businesses have acquired a customer through their blog. A quarter of B2B firms have gained a client through Facebook. Company websites that have a blog get 55 per cent more visitors than those who don’t. There’s even evidence to suggest that web visitors from social sites convert 59 per cent higher than those who aren’t communicating directly with their customers. On Thanksgiving day our clients at Jim Beam welcomed their 1 millionth fan on Facebook, after some savvy social by our Beam & StrawberryFrog team. Full disclosure, StrawberryFrog is the agency I founded back in 1999. 

You see – it’s not just about ‘going social’. It’s about becoming a social business. It’s realizing that marketing doesn’t work like it used to. Today, successful brands become social ones.

So how do you become a social business?

Because in this socially connected, real-time and mobile-enabled world, isn’t it better to be human and real than try to bombard irrelevant marketing messages like before? Isn’t it smarter to get personal and understand that people want to feel connected with humans not logos?

If you’re ready to take your company to the next level and become a social business, there are movement strategies for growth and how you can achieve that.
Source:http://www.forbes.com/

One of the metrics added to Facebook’s Page Insights is “People are talking about this.” This set of data counts stories that are eligible to appear in a user’s Newsfeed, such as any likes, wall posts, comments, shares, questions answered, RSVPs to events, Page mentions, photo tagging and location checkins. The metric allows the page administrator to know what posts have proven the most compelling and interactive.

Another metric added to the equation is the metric of virality, which allows for insight into how viral a particular post is. Virality is determined by dividing the number of “people talking about this” by the reach (the number of people who actually saw the content). Diana notes that because virality is a percentage, whether a business is large or small, the metric “can be used to compare across all Page posts.” The virality metric allows page admins to analyze the success of individual posts and will hopefully lead to an improved page strategy through a better understanding of the audience.

Along with these new metrics comes aesthetic changes as well. “Whether you want to get into the deep end or wade in slowly,” Diana says, Facebook wants to make their Page Insights “digestible for everyone, easy to sort and actionable.” She says most of the heavy numbers have been removed from Page Insights, but “for those needing something a little more hardcore, there is always the option to export to a spreadsheet.” Either way, Diana says, “this is just the first step in enhancing Page Insights for small businesses and brands; there is more to come” — so, look out for the Facebook Insight API. In the meantime, however, Facebook will continue to help business owners figure out how to provide their audiences with the most engaging content possible to guarantee the greater reach and increased sales.

source:http://mashable.com/

When businesses move online, they need to migrate their offline objectives and strategy, adapting them to the unique conditions of the Web. This can be challenging. We behave differently online. What we do can be tracked and measured with granularity. Standard offline marketing may not work.

And so, a lot of research and analysis goes into formulating a Digital Strategy. We ask ourselves questions:

• Where do our customers ‘live’ online?
• How can they be targeted efficiently?
• What is the most cost-effective approach?
• How best can every move be leveraged for maximum impact?
• How to ensure synergies between an online and offline marketing mix?
• Which “tools” will we use – and why?

The answers – along with an SEO/Web Analytics powered strategy – will be super-effective when harnessed to a website architecture that reflects optimized technology, presentation and content. The key, however, lies in the deep understanding of our visitors’ intent, which in turn helps us deliver solutions to their most pressing problems.

Therein lies the real power of SEOnomics, a complex interplay between human psychology, technical SEO excellence, and business strategy.

It’s the process used by every crack SEO specialist who gets inside the head of a typical customer, understands their deepest needs and desires, and then crafts a winning SEO strategy that delivers value.

It’s no surprise that such an approach will:

• increase sales and bottom-line profit
• lower marketing costs by making each component more effective
• make key personnel more efficient through focus on what works best
• increase insight and knowledge of the business’ clientele
• leverage synergies with other forms of marketing

Are Businesses Finally Waking Up To SEOnomics?

As the global financial crisis worsens, companies are trying to squeeze the most from their online marketing expenditure.

Many businesses seem content with a 1-2% conversion rate, tacitly admitting that 98% or more of their marketing spend is wasteful. Imagine taking such an approach to offline marketing. That’s insane!

Why not focus on the ‘non-converting’ 98% and convince them to buy? It’s low-hanging fruit, ripe for the picking.

It has finally dawned on beleaguered executives that SEO is a targeted, measurable and cost effective option. All it needs is a willingness to step back and, as Matt Bailey, founder and president at SiteLogic puts it, “hop off the hamster wheel“.

When SMART goals are inline with the main objectives of a business, tactics that “push the green buttons” (generate cash) which elevate SEO and Web analysts to their rightful place in strategizing a Web business, can make this happen very fast.

Why Do Businesses Make It So Hard (On Themselves)?

SEO has always been a very cost-effective way of growing a business. But while data suggests that more customers, thought leaders, journalists and others are using search engines to research and buy things, management is literally throwing cash out of the window by not having a clear SEO strategy.

A 13 month study by GroupM Search and Kantar Media Compete, From Intent to In-Store, indicated that 86% of in-store buyers click on organic search engine listings when researching online, and 8 out of 10 found this very helpful in coming to a decision.

With B2B purchases, 52% of users surveyed relied upon websites for research pertaining to a purchase, according to a TriComB2B research report.

Even when they know that traffic from Google brings them more buyers, these companies are not investing enough of their budget into SEO. Only a critical analysis of their expenses and ROI will shock them into reality.

Once management starts tracking and measuring different elements on their spending list, they will see how ineffective most of them are in delivering value. The first impulse is to cut down on spending. But a far better approach than blindly firing someone or dramatically slashing budgets is to redeploy marketing assets towards more effective channels like Web analytics and SEO marketing.

Shifting to strategies with a higher ROI that also have the potential to increase sales and extend reach to more potential customers is a smart approach.

Having made the decision to do what is best, why not start with the most effective of them all. Once set in place, SEO keeps on delivering prospects for months, even years, at little ongoing expense. But just getting a site to #1 on Google won’t cut it.

A great SEO strategy is rooted in knowing a buyer’s intent, the kind of problems they face, and then addressing them in an intimately personal way that allays anxiety, presents viable solutions and gently persuades them to become customers.

The Solution: Get Professional SEO Experts On Board

SEO and Web Analysts are precious assets to any business development venture.

Armed with Web analytics data, a pro can predict the future somewhat reliably – what will sell, what visitors want, what people do on your website, and more.

Analysis of this data gives priceless insight into a customer’s intentions, and guides you to deliver the best experience, solving their problems and convincing them to spend money.

Good SEO is not about search engines; it is about people. Not traffic, clicks and views, but about psychology, economy and strategy.

Effective SEO is about attracting potential customers, influencing their behavior, analyzing how well your website delivers value, and adapting to fulfill the needs of the 98% who are not currently doing business with you.

Why Is Your ‘Website’ Your Lowest Paid Employee?

Imagine if your salaried salespersons spent 98% of their time being unproductive – would you still keep them on payroll? Obviously not. Something will have to change – or go.

Now think about your business website. Since it doesn’t convert 98% of the visitors who arrive at it, should you simply fire your website?

Well, maybe not. Because, to be fair, no business gives its website a shot at doing better.

How about trying this exercise:

Think of your Website as a person whom you invite over to the next strategy meeting. You pull up your Web analytics data. Ask questions that involve conversion tracking and KPIs, so that you can find out what’s weak about your current process, and what’s not. And based on what you uncover from this analysis, your website can be tweaked and modified to become stronger than ever before.

That would be truly remarkable – and very productive, too.

This brings us to something very important – the need for action focused goals, conversion tracking and KPIs in the Web analytics tool you use.

What matters most with such an exercise is that you ask the right questions, and act upon the answers.  You must make sure you’re hitting pre-set targets at each step, and that your goals are SMART (i.e. specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely).

All of this can happen with some collaboration and interaction between teams. But, sadly…

People Are Not Talking Together!

There is little, if any, synchronization between teams. My clients wonder why, as an SEO consultant, I want to meet their PR folks. Well, when you consider that every press release, when optimized properly, can rank on critical keywords and phrases, attracting perfect prospects to the business, it’s amazing that more professional SEO consultants don’t insist upon it!

Hiding your SEO and Web Analytics person in a closet doesn’t help your business. They are more experienced than someone in marketing or management about how to make website conversions better. Yet the “SEO guy” is usually seen as someone to deliver more traffic, clicks and page views – never mind that 99% of it is useless.

SEO is not a traffic machine. It is a conversion crusher. So here’s a word to the wise:  Let them do their job, just move out of their way.

Web Analytics is more than a traffic counter. It’s a source of mission critical information that unmasks the secret needs, intentions and expectations of your prospective buyers, and shows you how they behave once they hit your website.

That’s why CEOs need to monitor these metrics. Knowing the business best, a CEO can add great value to defining KPIs or establishing goal tracking, which a Web analytics specialist can work with to generate massive success. The tools are all available.

The ‘missing link’ is skill and ability to ask the right questions.

SEOnomics In A Nutshell

SEOnomics is a term I invented to describe the intimate interactivity between SEO (especially Web Analytics), CEO (or other business administration experts), and Psychology (of the customer), the three forming corners of the Golden Triangle of online business success.

SEOnomics is about making the most money and generating the biggest business success from SEO. Or if you like equations, try this…

Masterful SEO + Business Strategy + Buyer Psychology = Good Economy

In the ultimate analysis, SEO is less about mechanics, and more about economics. It’s the art of getting more people to “push the green button”, converting them into action-takers, and guiding them towards desired end-points.

It’s also a way to convince them about a point of view, one that they will echo to their audiences, spreading your brand and amplifying your message in ripples to a vast broader marketplace.

SEOnomics, then, is the art of synchronizing economics, business strategy and SEO into a cohesive force-multiplier that can power any business to enormous success and wealth.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this concept of SEOnomics, and of any instances from your own SEO experience that mirrors or highlights the three elements I’ve discussed in this article.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
source:http://searchengineland.com/

Among employed recent college graduates, just 69% landed their job within six months of graduation, according to a May report by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University in New Jersey. For those without a college degree, the lead time can be even longer, experts say, as college graduates snap up the few opportunities that their non-college-educated counterparts might otherwise have had.

Two recent college graduates and one recent high-school grad describe their job hunts, and explain how they finally landed that first big job:

Taylor Hertsenberg, 23 years old, Austin, Texas. Regional marketing coordinator at technology company National Instruments.

Robert Pizzo

I transferred to [University of Texas] my sophomore year and declared myself a radio, TV and film major. I realized that it would be very difficult to get a job after college, so I did a lot of internships.

I started looking for jobs in March or April [of senior year]. I probably filled out 20 to 25 [applications] senior year. In total, [I submitted] at least 100. I stayed in Austin [after graduation]. I was an independent contractor at Ivy Worldwide Inc., a social-media marketing company, and was paid $10 an hour, about 15 hours a week.

I saw Facebook was doing a recruiting event on campus. I ended up getting a callback. I kept thinking I was getting closer and closer, so I put a hold on applying for other jobs. I was foolish. After I found out that I didn’t get that job, I went through a period when I was losing sleep.

I wasn’t making enough to support myself, so I was trying to find part-time positions with absolutely anything. I had a friend who had worked at a Starbucks on campus, and she helped me get a position [there]. That [on-campus location] just made it 10 times worse because I was seeing these familiar faces.

In October of 2010, I handed my résumé in [to National Instruments]. At the beginning of 2011, I got an email from a woman at National Instruments asking if I was looking for a full-time position. About a week or two later, we had a phone interview. [Then] I came in for an interview. I started at the end of February.

Elizabeth Kushel, 23, New York. Assistant for national publicity at entertainment public-relations company Strategy PR/Consulting.

I graduated in 2010 from the University of Pennsylvania, double-majoring in communications and cinema studies.

I waited [to look for a job] until the spring [of senior year]. I interviewed at entertainment companies, but maybe in a sales division, advertising—things like that. I was trying to be open to everything.

After graduation, I spent some time with my mom and dad at home in Great Neck, N.Y. I was looking for a job, but I also was kind of taking a break from doing work, from school.

Then, my friend forwarded me an email for an internship at [film public-relations company] Peggy Siegal Co. She thought it would be perfect for me, so I applied. It started out nonpaid, but they paid me starting in November. Then, I got another internship at the Tribeca Film Festival, working as an assistant for the VP of communications.

I had met someone doing an event at Peggy Siegal, and then again at the Tribeca Film Festival. We had exchanged contact info. She [said], “We have this job opening, I think you’d be a great fit.”

I started in May. I worked at 42West (another P.R. firm) for a few months, and then started a job at Strategy PR/Consulting in September. I’m definitely happy this is where I ended up.

Isiah Vinters, age 21, Hartford, Conn. Works in the produce department at Shop Rite supermarket.

I worked at Burlington Coat Factory in East Hartford last year when I started with OPP (Our Piece of the Pie, a Hartford organization that helps urban youth advance their career and education goals). I was there for about four months.

From College Major to Career

Here’s a look at how various college majors fare in the job market, based on 2010 Census data.

• More photos and interactive graphics

When I first got there I was doing receiving, putting tags on clothes, and after that, I was in the shoe department, doing sales. That was a seasonal job.

After that, I went to Shop Rite. I started off as a cashier, then a bagger, and then I got promoted to the produce department. It’ll be better pay. I’m making $8.25 an hour now, but I’m supposed to get a raise when I have my review, to around $9.35.

I have my high-school diploma, but I had to do an extra year. I wasn’t focused, not going to class. When I have a steady schedule at work, I’ll try to get my barber’s license. I was looking up how much a barber can earn. Everyone needs a haircut. Then, I want to study business management at community college and own my own barber shop.

My current job is all right. I work about 28 hours a week. I’ve been there for about eight months. I get along real well with my boss, my co-workers. I feel real comfortable there.