You spend your whole life online. Social networks. Smartphones. On-demand TV. Seeing as you're already plugged in you may as well try to do something useful...

Finding a job is, as you may have noticed, not easy. But as the first generation that grew up using the web you've got no excuse not to use the internet to maximise your employability.

It’s time for a little master class in online promotion, if you get this right you could have some potential employers sitting up and taking notice. Ready? Let’s go.

Your online home

Once a job application arrives in an employer's inbox (the days of hard copies are long gone, grandad) there's a good chance that before doing anything else they'll Google you.

Make sure that they find what you want them to find. A professional-looking space that tells them exactly who you are and why they should give you a job.

Getting started: Wordpress, Tumblr and Blogger are the most popular sites to use - largely because they're free and very easy to use. You don't need much to begin with, but an ‘About Me’ page, basic CV and contact section are great places to start. Add a hint of your personal flavour, a picture and links to (appropriate) social media and you’re good to go!

What's in a name: Got some money spare? Step it up a notch a purchase your own domain name – you might have a bit of trouble if you’ve got a really common name but you could still get lucky and manage to nab your own .com. Goddaddy, 1 2 3-Reg and Avazio all have pretty good prices. If you set up a Wordpress site you can buy your URL through them for around $17 per year.

One stop shop: For the less technically minded amongst you who think setting up their own website may be a step too far then about.me could just be the site for you. In short, it’s a page that points people to everything you do, all around the web. Think of it as an electronic business card - put a link at the bottom of all your emails to ensure that people know what you're about.

Create great content

The internet is a pretty big place and with all the information that’s flying around you’re going to have a tough job getting a look in, but great content never goes a miss on the World Wide Web.

Make it relevant: Don’t just update for the sake of updating, it’s less likely to be amazing and that’s easy to spot. Make sure there's a point to anything and everything on your site - whether it be writing, video or pictures, you want the site to give employers an impression of who you are.

Keep it consistent: Yes, it's important to maintain a high standard, but you don't want content to be posted so infrequently that it looks like you haven't touched the site in years. Find a working balance, once a week or once a month might make sense for you – creating content in advance is always a good idea so you have a bank of stuff to pop up when you need to.

Be creative

Doing something a little different - particularly something that's never been done before - can really put you on the map these days. It's easier said than done, granted, but with sites like Buzzfeed and Reddit the right CV or video can go viral in no time. Here are a few of our favourites...

The Google Job Experiment

This makes us love and hate this man in equal measures. Watch it, and then get angry that you didn't think of it first...

The Reverse Job Application

The reverse job application involved a man creating a site that allowed potential employers to apply for the opportunity of hiring him. So rather than 'I would be a good employee because...' it was more 'What would make you a good employer?'. Ballsy, yes. Genius, absolutely.

The Trending Job Application

Twitter has revolutionised the way in which people can look for employment. In this case, a blog post written by a wannabe PR type resulted in people he didn't know starting the #givejonnyroseajob hashtag. A few days and a lot of momentum later he'd received a number of enquiries and offers for interviews.

Maximise your social network

We’re pretty sure you use social media, why not let it help you connect with all the right people who could help you out when you graduate...

Schmooze: Like the Facebook pages of companies you want to work for. Follow people whose careers you'd like to emulate on Twitter. Add influential people in your desired industry on LinkedIn. You never know when a work experience opportunity might crop up, and you've got to be in it to win it.

Share: It’s not all about you, you know? Find a brilliant article? An awesome graduate job or some great advice? Sharing great content that’s relevant is always a good idea, and when the time comes they might share your stuff too. It's basically karma, man...

As with all things it’ll take a bit of time and you might have a fair amount of tweaking to do before you get it right, but the rewards are almost certainly worth it.

Tags: Earn money online , Employability