Negotiating that perfect salary for your new job might be the most difficult part of the job search.

Luckily, there's several sites on the Web that will help you decide how much you should be paid, based on experience, job title, industry, region and other factors, including GlassDoor, PayScale and SalaryScout.

Lifehacker rounds them all up and reviews them here.

Branding isn't just for marketing products and services, as we've noted before. It's also about selling yourself to coworkers and, more importantly, potential employers.

The Shifting Careers blog has more ideas on how to develop yourself as a brand. Be an expert, promote a special heritage, invent a new process, even own an attribute that says who your are:

Let’s say your old boss is gone and the new head honcho is not aware of all your glorious achievements. Or you have an important job interview coming up. Look for an attribute that is credible for you and that someone else doesn’t own. Maybe your strength is accountability or your relentless drive in closing a sale. Use that attribute as your organizing idea in your elevator speech and résumé. Make it your mantra. Use examples and stories to connect the attribute to you.

Much more here.

Summer's drawing to a close, vacations are almost over, and now it's time to roll up the sleeves and plunge into the last part of the year.

But first, you gotta get organized. Lifehacker has some tips, starting with that first baby step to better productivity:

1. Start with a single step.

Go through each item in your inbox one at a time. If you don't have an inbox, collect all the piles from your work area into one mission control center. Use a sticky note to group like-actions together. For example, make notes labeled: read, email, file, review and sign. The new piles will be the beginning stages of order and won't need to be sorted again. Once you’ve named everything, you’ll get rid of that fear that something unknown is going to blow up unexpectedly.

More steps here.

R.J. Martino is a local Web entrepreneur with a lot on his plate. He's president of Web solutions firm iProv LLC, owns a commercial property management company and is on various boards. Oh, and he's also going to law school.

Martino knows a thing or two about time management. He recently shared some of his personal tips for effective time management on his personal blog:

1. Do not work with outlook open. Set time aside to respond to emails.
2. You do not have to answer every phone call. Set time aside to respond to phone calls.
3. Prioritize your task list. Not every task is equally important. Hone in on tasks that are important.
4. Log Your time. To measure your time management, you must know where you are spending your time.
5. One task at a time. I'm the worst at trying to do three things at once. But time and time again, I'm reminded that making a list is a better solution.

You can read more from Martino here.

We had just enough time to scratch the surface of three job fields -- health care, technology and energy -- that will be in high demand of quality employees in the near future.

Click the video below to watch the segment.

And here's some more stories on Arkansas' job needs:

Pulaski Tech to Expand Aviation Center with $1 Million Grant
Arkansas Economy In Good Shape, But Worker Shortage Remains a Concern, Panelists Say
Aerospace Industry Takes Flight
Video: Arkansas Expects Aerospace Industry to Grow by 5,000 Jobs in 10 Years

And

Petroleum Engineers Group Eyes Subchapter in Conway
Natural Gas Pipeline to Bring 1,350 Jobs to Arkansas
Chesapeake CEO: Shale Play Investment Could Top $75 Billion Over Next Decade
Study: Fayetteville Shale Play Could Result in $17.9 Billion for Arkansas

Arkansas politics and business lost a young, vibrant leader this week with the shooting death of state Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney.

Our complete coverage is rounded up here and will updated continually. Meanwhile, feel free to respectfully share your memories about Gwatney or condolences in comments.

If you're like me, you always need help getting stuff done. When faced with a barrage of disparate projects, it helps to have a tool -- even as simple as a pen and paper -- to organize those tasks.

Pen and paper are included on this list, but there's other more high-tech ways to manage your to-do list. Click here for to-do apps for Windows, the Web and more.

Sick of the Summer Olympics yet? If not, and you feel the need to fight your Olympic fever at the office, don't worry. There's lots of places on the Web were you can get constant updates and even watch live and recorded video of all the events.

Here's just a few sources:

NBC Olympics home page - An obvious choice, but the killer app here -- in addition to the bios, stats, photos and standard news stories, is the video. You can watch live and recorded events, profiles on all the sports and more. You might have to install a lightweight Silverlight application, but it's worth it. Best we can tell so far, the video quality is solid for broadband users.

Google Search - Heavy Google users will love this simple inline search to find Olympic schedules for your favorite sport. Just go to the Google search window, type the event name and then the word "Olympics," and you'll get broadcast times for that sport.

Google Maps - During the last Winter Games, Google offered a cool layer for its Google Earth program that pinpointed all the sites for each event. Here you can see a Google Map of medals, get YouTube video highlights, get Google News headlines, add an iGoogle gadget that tracks medal counts to your Google homepage and more.

Twitter - Are you a Twitter geek? (I kinda am.) If so, there's several Twitterers providing 'round the clock commentary and coverage. Slate offers a feed here, NBC's official feed is here. Search "Olympics" to find several more.

Blogger's Blog lists tons more blogs, athlete blogs and Twitter coverage feeds here.

Related: Arkansas' Wallace Spearmon on perparing for Beijing.

Advertising pro Donny Deutsch, link here on the Business Opportunities blog, shares a set of simple tips on how to select a business partner. It's one of the most important decisions an entrepreneur can make:

The right choice in a partner can take you to a whole new level and amazing growth but the wrong choice can cause you to crash and burn.

1. Take a good look in the mirror and evaluate your strengths and weaknesses.

2. Find a believer.

3. Be selective and take your time in choosing a partner.

4. Establish specific roles and responsibilities.

More.

In these tough times, some of us might feel the need to cash out on our 401(k)s, particularly when changing jobs or, heaven forbid, having been laid off.

Personal finance blogger Nina Smith writes on the Shifting Careers blog today why cashing out isn't such a good idea, and what to do if you really need some money. There's other options out there.

You’ll pay ordinary income tax on the withdrawal and a 10 percent I.R.S. penalty. Do you really want to give up decades of tax-free compounding. Instead, you should only consider these choices:

1. Leave it with your former employer
2. Roll it into the plan at your new employer (if the plan allows it)
3. Roll it into an I.R.A.

More here.

• Getting a New Job? Know What Salary to Ask For
• More Ideas on Developing Yourself as A Brand
• Tips on Getting Organized - Again
• More Tips On Effective Time Management
• Video: In-demand Degree Programs
• Remembering Bill Gwatney
• Getting Things Done: The Best To-do Managers
• Distractions: Track the Olympics on the Web
• Donny Deutsch on Finding a Business Partner
• Tempted to Cash Out on the 401(k)?

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