Hey everyone,

We at Media Match are excited to start up a new promotion. If you are an unpaid registered member of Media Match and own a blog or website, you can get one month of paid membership for FREE. Don’t have an account yet? Sign up, and get your profile running for free, here!

How does it work?

If you are a registered Media Match member and you have a personal blog, this will be quite easy for you. Simply write in your blog about Media Match and include a link to our site. A couple of possible blog post ideas include a short or detailed description of the site, how Media Match has helped you in your job hunt, an informative wiki-like profile of our site, or you can write a review about Media Match.

If you don’t have a blog yet, there are plenty of free blog providers that you can join, including Blogger, Wordpress, TypePad, LiveJournal, and many more.

Have a website, but no blog? No problem! Just write about us on one of your pages, refer people back to us, and link back to our site.

You can link to the Media Match Homepage, but it may be more useful for your readers if you linked to the jobs board page at http://www.media-match.com/jobsboard.php. But, if you feel we have a page on our site more relevant to your readers, feel free to link back to that page instead (ie, the “About Us page“). (Remember, the link has to be clickable. To do this on most blogging platforms, highlight the text you want to make a link, click the icon that looks like a globe with a chain link in front of it, then press OK or DONE).

Once you have your blog post up, send us the following to blog_promo@media-match.com:

1. Your Media Match username (click here to sign up for free)
2. Your website or blog’s URL with the posting about Media Match

Also, if you know anyone in the TV & Film industry that is not with Media Match currently, why not tell them about this promotion? It’s a great opportunity for non members to try out Media Match at no cost. Just have them sign up for a free account at the freelancer registration page to get started!

If you are an unpaid registered member and a part of the mailing list, you got a head start on this promotion. For everyone else, this promotion will last from today, July 2, 2009 until the end of the month, July 31, 2009. Members who qualify for the free one month’s subscription will be contacted by email.

Thanks, everyone!
Media Match

Conditions and terms: URLs and links to Media Match must be clickable. Links with the “no-follow” tag in the HTML are not considered eligible for the promotion. Please allow up to three days for approval. Link and info must be posted outside of Media Match. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other sites that use “no-folow” and framed browsing do not qualify. Only one free month subscription per member. Free month contingent on Media Match link’s presence for a minimum of 1 month on members’ blog/website.

We’re often asked how users of Media Match can maximise the value of their membership to the site – leading ultimately to that sought-after job.

Here are our top 10 tips for getting the most out of Media Match:

Job Types

Media Match allows you to select up to 4 distinct job type categories on your profile. The selections you make here determine which job alerts we email to you, and how employers find you when they search the Media Match freelancer database*. To maximise your exposure, make sure you have chosen 4 appropriate job types.

‘Work In‘

Just like the ‘jobtype’ tick boxes – selecting the state(s) you’re available to work in determines the email alerts you get, and the employer searches* you appear in. Be realistic about what you select. Are you really prepared to move to California from New York? Update your ‘work in’ here.

About Me

The ‘About Me‘ section on your Media Match profile is your chance to sell yourself. The first 100 words of the ‘About Me’ appears next to your name in the search results* presented to employers who directly search our database. Make sure you have something attention-grabbing in there to entice employers to look at your full profile.

If you have elected to allow your profile to be found by major internet search engines* (like Google, MSN and Yahoo – see below), then the ‘About Me’ section is what appears under the link to your resume in their search results.

Upload a Picture

A picture of yourself, your work, a logo or a still can help make your profile memorable. In addition to making your profile different from the rest of the bunch, it also allows you to express your personality and give you an online identity which is useful not only in sticking in people’s mind, but when engaging with the Media Match community though the forum, or contacting other freelancers. It only takes a few quick clicks!

Upload your professional resume

Have you got a Word or pdf version of your full professional resume? Upload it to your Media Match profile (’Upload Word’ on the Profile submenu). Many employers like to see a standard resume attached to Media Match multimedia profiles

Instant Update

Many employers search our freelancer database directly to find the people who have the skills they need, without advertising on the jobs board. The search results* are displayed in order of most recently updates resumes first. To make sure you are at the top of the pile, all you have to do is click ‘Instant Update’ from the menu bar when you are logged in. Doing this every few days will make sure you’re always visible: everyone’s doing it!

Let Google Find You

Whilst we cannot ‘insert’ your Media Match resume in to major internet search engines’ results, we can do out best to make sure they find you. Ensure that you select ‘Allow Search Engines to find me’* in your contact options (the last section under ‘Update Profile’). Many of our freelancers are reporting that they have found tv and film jobs directly as a result of their Media Match profile appearing in a Google search!

Upload Reels and Samples

Jazz up your profile by adding multimedia content to it. If you have any audio of video samples of your work, attach them to your Media Match profile. What better way to exhibit exactly what you’re made of? You can have as many uploaded files as you like – provided each is under 30Mb in size, and is in a format supported by the Media Match system. Simply click ‘Add Media’ on the ‘Profile’ submenu.

Credits and Employment History

It’s essential that you list your recent relevant credits and your latest employment history, with emphasis on tv and film jobs. Flag up the achievements you are proud of, and be bold in selling yourself to your next potential employer. As you are aware the TV and film jobs industry is very tough, so you need to maximise your chances by selling yourself through your profile.

Cover letters

When applying* for a job directly through Media Match, you are given the opportunity to write a cover letter to the job employer. A link to your online profile is included underneath that letter. The cover letter is the first contact, and first impression you make with your prospective new employer – it’s vital to make a good impression and to make them excited about you. Two lines saying ‘look at my resume’ is not impressive. Give a brief description of your recent achievements, and outline why you think you are perfect for this job. Imagine the person reading your cover letter has already looked at 50, and there are another 50 to follow. What is it about you that’s going to make them take that next step and look at your online Media Match profile (complete with pictures, videos and a full, downloadable Word or PDF resume)?

*visibility in Media Match database search results, visibility to external search engines and applying for jobs are only available to premium (subscribing) members of Media Match.