Some entrepreneurial types are using the downturn to build new online communities, which they hope will evolve into profitable businesses. When Jason Rivera lost his public-relations job in San Francisco, he sent out numerous résumés but received no response. "While researching the latest news on the economy, I found a growing list of articles regarding pink-slip parties. I thought the idea…was genius," wrote Rivera via e-mail. He launched , a site where "recovering robots," or laid-off workers, can commiserate and share job-seeking tips.

When it comes to self-promotion, you can't get more direct than , a joint effort by Robin and Michael Stearns, a married couple in San Francisco. After Mike graduated from Georgetown last year with an MBA, the couple moved to California to be closer to his family. But with no real-world experience in the midst of a recession, he has found securing work difficult.

"There are an enormous number of people competing for every job. In that kind of situation, obviously, experience is going to trump anything," says Mike, who credits his wife with the idea for the site. (A photo on the home page shows Robin holding a "Hire my husband" sign.)

A few days after launching the site, the Stearnses received a call from a CNN reporter, who wrote an online story about the project. Traffic skyrocketed overnight and media inquiries came flooding in, including calls from the Oprah and Dr. Phil shows. Although Mike still hasn't found work, he thinks the site itself may have a future. "We're going to keep it up for as long as we continue to get a lot of traffic," he says. "It's been so successful that we're hopefully [going] to turn it into some sort of job-search board, or something along those lines."

The bottom line: Market thyself. "Networking is like flossing. Many people don't want to do it,” says LinkedIn's Luo. But in today's economy, a little self-promotion can go a long way.