Writing a winning profile is about writing a profile that gets you results. And by results we mean gets parents contacting you for an interview. 

Your profile on Babysitterdirectory is your resume. Period. And we all know that resumes are essentially sales documents only that this time the “product” been sold is you.

With this in mind approach your profile like you would your resume.

Some tips to consider include:

• Use the free text section “Brief statement about yourself” to maximal effect.  Do not write one sentence saying "I love children" or "I want to care for your kids as my children have left home". This tells parents absolutely nothing about you and also comes across as lazy. It makes parents think you just  cannot be bothered ( you're not bothering to sell yourself) so therefore why should they bother contacting you to care for their children?
  
  Thinks of way you can convey some information about who you are, the kind of opportunity you are interested in and what your individual skills and passions are. Perhaps you love cooking or are a whiz at arts and crafts?  Tell parents this because it sets you apart from other babysitters and also increases the chance of a better match with a family. They will have read your profile and will obviously be interested in your specific talents or interests.
• Ensure your profile and in particular the free text section “Brief statement about yourself” contains no typos. It does not look good and can often imply you lack attention to detail and do not really care.
• Do not lie on your profile. By this we mean including qualifications or certifications (like first aid training for example) you do not have.  You will most likely be found out at the interview and if not at some stage down the track.
• Remember everything on your resume – qualifications etc – needs to be able to be substantiated if need be.
• Check your referees and make sure they know you are looking for work and that they maybe contacted for a reference in near future.
• If you get to the stage of being contacted by an employer to arrange a meeting / interview ensure the  message on your answer machine is appropriate for an employer to hear.
• Remember many people (employers included) will sometimes use social networking sites to research prospective applicants for a job and also prospective carers for their children. Ensure your Facebook / Myspace page is appropriate for an employer to view. This means no pics of you partying with your mates or telling friends about the wonderful long phonecalls you had with your boyfriend/girlfriend while babysitting / nannying last week.  Even if your charges were asleep no parent wants to hear this. Remember your profile can be viewed by everyone (unless you have privacy restrictions on it of course) so bear this in mind everytime you post, blog or load a pic.

Finally do not forget to login and update your profile at least once every 60 days. Otherwise your profile will default to “invisible” and you will not come up in parents search results.  If you no longer want your profile to be visible simply login and mark as “invisible”. Then when you are looking for work again you can simply log back in and mark it as a “visible”.