I practise what I preach, which is why my business is on sites like Qype. I can't expect people to stumble upon my website by accident (although some people do).

My blog, like my business entry on Qype, is about putting myself and my business out there for people, like you, to see.

The reason I particularly like Qype is it gives me the opportunity to offer my FREE four-week trial subscription to coax people to look at my site.

I know the service I offer gets people jobs. I also know the best way to show people that, is for them to try the service for themselves. So I want as many people as possible to discover my FREE four-week trial subscription.

In my eyes, the voucher offer gives Qype the edge over other business listing sites. It's a good example of a business offering a unique selling point.

Having a unique selling point is part of selling yourself to recruiters and employers. I'll tell you more about it later.

If you're a temp worker, then you have every right to be annoyed that the EU agency workers directive will not come into force in the UK until the latest possible date of October 2011.

Don't be.

Although these changes would see temp workers gain access to the same pay and holiday conditions as permanent staff after 12 weeks’ work, this type of scheme could spell disaster in the current economic climate.

It has been predicted that the directive would cost UK businesses £3.5 billion a year – an additional cost that many can't afford during the downturn. If the changes were brought in earlier, it could actually have a negative affect on the number of temp jobs available at a time where every job, whether permanent or temporary, is seen as a godsend to the unemployed.

CIPD Employee Relations Adviser Mike Emmott said: “Implementing the directive in the early stages of a recovery could have been particularly damaging, as firms will be willing to take on temporary workers at an earlier stage than they are willing to commit to permanent appointments.”

Companies thinking of recruiting are watching the jobs market like hawks, looking for any sign that recovery is on its way. It's a fine balance of not recruiting too soon and recruiting early enough to get the best people.

So figures released this week by the Office for National Statistics suggesting that the downturn may be calming is good news for these companies and, in turn, for job seekers.

To put this hint of recovery into perspective, Director of the Institute for Employment Studies Nigel Meager said: “Vacancies, which now stand at 430,000, have remained stable for the past three months after over a year of steep decline. The pattern is completed by the figures for redundancy, which also appear to have peaked.”

It's important that you, as a job seeker, monitor the jobs market as closely as these companies do, so you're ready – and your CV is ready – for when recruitment begins to pick up. As employment opportunities increase, there will be an optimum point where the number of companies recruiting has increased but most people currently in jobs won't have started looking. This is the key time for anybody, whether currently employed or not, to land a new job.

Read more on the Institute for Employment Studies website

Jobs boards, such as Rapido and Workhound are making searching for jobs easier. They search other sites for job adverts and collate them in one place for you to view.

So it would be an easy mistake to make to think that all jobs end up on these sites. They don't.

Small agencies and large corporations alike often advertise for jobs only on their own websites. For some it's a matter of recruitment costs, while others want to employ people who've shown a specific interest in their business.

Spend some time researching businesses and organisations who would recruit people with your skills and career prospects and contact them speculatively as well as applying for jobs advertised on their websites.

You could end up securing a job that never made it to advert stage.