Its JobMobs 7th Birthday!

It's JobMob's 7th Birthday! 78 7 years and counting from the official press release back on March 21st, 2007. It's been a strange year. A few people have even asked whether I've lost interest in blogging, or they've just come out and said that I seem to be putting in less effort than usual. The latter is actually true. I did put in less effort this past year than usual. And you can tell:eval JobMob readership continues to grow, albeit more slowly than in recent times, while traffic has dropped significantly both from search engines and social media. People are still sharing JobMob articles at a high rate but we're all suffering more than ever from info-overwhelm, leading fewer people to click through and visit even if they do go on to reshare the link that was first shared with them. But this isn't because I've lost interest, mind you, not even close. Rather, it was because I've been focused on creating an Internet startup company. (Surprised? Tell me in the comments) You'll hear more about that soon enough, but in the meantime, change is coming and you can expect me to remove all doubts anyone's having about my ongoing commitment to you and JobMob.eval Next year, I'm going to look back on the best year yet and hopefully you will too. Count on it. And it's already begun… News JobMob is now secure Have you noticed that all JobMob urls are now https? Are you seeing the lock icon in your browser's address bar? As seen in our credits, JobMob now has a top-notch A+ security rating and is guaranteed by Comodo: (What does this mean? Why secure a blog? There are a few reasons. If you're curious, ask me in the comments. I might even blog about the whole process as a rare off-topic article just like when I talked about how I registered JobMob as a US trademark) One small downside to this upgrade is that Facebook no longer counts the more than 2700 people who already Liked JobMob over the past few years, with that number now reduced to single digits. So Like JobMob again here above, if you please. JobMob is now faster than ever As part of the project to secure JobMob, the site has now been optimized for extreme performance in over a dozen different ways with dramatic results. Pages are loading more than twice as fast as previously, especially if you're using a recent browser. Highlights from the past year The 7th Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest This was the biggest edition of the contest yet with over $10,000 in prizes. Unfortunately, for the first time in 3 years, the massive prize chest wasn't enough to fill all 25 guest slots but that just means there will be changes for the better when the 8th edition rolls around this summer, only a few months from now. The JobMob Census We held the the first-ever JobMob Census and well over 100 people responded, giving me terrific feedback and insights about who you are and e.g. which job search obstacles I can help you with in the short-term and long-term moving forward. There were some refreshing surprises too. JobMob Consults Although I'd been meaning to do a census for some time, I was really inspired while doing a round of free JobMob job search consults, something I announced in last year's birthday post. Over Skype, I consulted almost 20 job seekers from Israel, America, England, Slovakia and China, many of whom were so delighted with the results that they left recommendations on my LinkedIn profile. JobMob hacked by #Anonymous? Did you hear that JobMob was supposed to be attacked by global terrorist hackers who were targeting Israeli sites? This wasn't one of the main reasons that I decided to secure the site, but the new protection will certainly help if this might ever happen again. Thank you for the past year You guys rock. Thank you to all commenters Kevin meed, Nigel, aj, Vicky, Career Sherpa, Ilan Katz, Steve Mann, Lasse Stolz, Daniel, Israel, Jason Alba, Marcus, Bob Marino, Todd Porter, Sarah Nelson, Jeff Williams, Avigail Frij, Yonatan Silver, Sujatha Rao, S. Weitzman, Tova Rubenstein, josh, Jasan, Francine, Dorlee, Ján Sáreník, Shalom Bresticker, Peter Martin, Shay Hampton-Gregory, Stephen Smith, Valeria, Juliana, hitender singh, Steven Duncan, Natasha, Josh, hayim abramson, Margie Cohen-Jackel, Marina Shemesh, Alina, Bless Vaidian, Ofra, Dan Epstein, Tamar, Yosi, dunya, Sandra, Debra Franke, Renee Lee Rosenberg, Jim Niemela, Stephan, Donna Sweidan, Stephan Wiedner, Trudy Van Buskirk, Maria Elena Duron, naeem, Jason, Nir, Zev, Aaron, kidane, Yehoshua Paul, Ted Coombs, Kate Baggott, billy cripe, Paul Pleus, Marna Becker, Theresa Avila, Gideon Vos, Richard Howell, Tim Marker, Mark, Ezra, Joseph Lijo, Reese Jones, Vicki, Anthony kwaku oduro, Amie Paxton, alt0182, Sabri Jemili, Ronnie Ann, Tal Aronstam, Karen Jeavons, Moshe E gel-Tal, Elizabeth A. Bert, Gideon, Chuck Klein, Jon Maril, Noele, Andy Waggoner and Jacco Valkenburg. Thank you to all sponsors MyBlogGuest.com, WebHostingBuzz, JibberJobber, MaxCDN, Dan Schawbel, Wallaroo Media, Grammarly, Kiesha Easley and WeBlogBetter.com, DesignCrowd, Captain Up, H.T. PROF Executive Search, Alexandra Levit, Christine Harvey and Joshua Waldman. Thank you to all guest authors Graeme Gilovitz, Reese Jones, Maria Elena Duron, Ibro Palic, Michel Neray, Donna Sweidan, Todd Porter, Stephan Wiedner, Soma Ghosh, Ofra Kleinberger Riedrich, Mark Anthony Dyson, Bless Vaidian, Alina Jingan, Rebecca Rachmany, The Recruiting Animal, Aadi Reddy, Margie Cohen-Jackel, Kate Baggott, Joey Trebif, Lavie Margolin and Thomas Taylor. A round of applause also goes to: YOU! And everyone who reads and : subscribe here Facebook: via the JobMob Facebook page Twitter: follow @jacobshare Pinterest: JobMob Articles pinboard Stay in touch where it's easiest for you.