Category: Job Board Strategy

Association Job Boards for Non-Dues Revenue Streams

by Maddyin Job Board Strategy

Membership-based organizations tend to rely heavily on the dues or fees that members pay to join and access the benefits offered by such associations.

Membership fees can vary greatly, depending on their niche or industry, and on whether the association is a for-profit or non-profit organization. Non-Dues sources of revenue for associations also traditionally include events or conferences, sponsorship, selling or reselling education/training courses, fundraising or donations, and grants.

Online career centres or job boards also prove to be effective at generating revenue while adding value for both members and industry partners, and help associations stay true to their mission.

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Are You Competing with Indeed?

by Maddyin Job Board Strategy

I’ve said before that I think you can compete with Indeed. Yes, you.

I don’t say it because I have blind faith in you (although I’m sure you’re great), I say it because I know that a job board or recruiting platform with a value proposition that resonates with and delivers for its target market can, indeed, compete with Indeed.

A focused target market and unique content can define what makes a job board valuable and preferable for job seekers and employers/recruiters to use over using a site like Indeed. Unique content (candidate profiles, blog content, job posts, landing pages, etc.) can arguably come in two forms – original content that is found nowhere else, or content that is curated in such a way that your organization and delivery of it is unique and valuable. In many cases, unique content is a combination of both original content found and unique curation of content that was first published elsewhere.

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6 More Reasons Not to Start a Job Board

by Maddyin Job Board Strategy2 Comments on 6 More Reasons Not to Start a Job Board

Maybe it’s the magic of reverse-psychology, but our most popular blog post has consistently been 5 Reasons Not to Start a Job Board since it was published.

It’s not that I don’t think people should start job boards. In fact, it’s kind of important to our business that people do run and start job boards. But, there are things that can cause problems for a new job board, and I’m interested in helping you avoid and overcome those problems.

So, back by popular demand, here are 6 more reasons not to start a job board!

1. You Don’t Know What You’re Selling

Why should anyone use your job board? Why should job seekers use your board, rather than using Indeed, LinkedIn, other large aggregators and job boards? Why should employers use your job board either, for that matter?

If you can’t answer those questions, you have a problem. This is usually the first thing to trip up a new job board. If you can’t think of what your board offers that other competitors (big or small) don’t, you’re going to have a hard time selling it to employers and candidates.

One of the reasons why job boards with a focus on a particular niche or regional market are successful is because it makes it easier to identify the problems of finding great talent and great jobs, and then work to solve them.

Make sure you know what you’re selling so you can communicate it to the people to whom you’re selling.

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Job Board Revenue Models for Publishers – Part 2 of 2

by Maddyin Job Board Strategy

This week we’re continuing our discussion of job board revenue models for publishers.

Online publishers – magazines, newspapers, blogs, news and media websites, and online communities centred around content – have dedicated readerships and established relationships with advertisers and benefit from generating revenue through job boards.

Last week we discussed the Job Page/Hands-Off model and the Print Sales Companion model. This week we’ll have a look at Revenue-Sharing, and the all-in-one Embedded Revenue Stream model.

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Job Boards for Publishers: Advantages and Challenges

by Maddyin Job Board Strategy2 Comments on Job Boards for Publishers: Advantages and Challenges

In many ways, job boards owe their existence to publishers. The classifieds section in the newspaper used to be the first place you looked when starting a job hunt. Online job boards have come a long way since they first emerged in the 1990s and have played a significant role in transforming job search and recruiting, and in expanding the recruiting industry.

In this edition of the Careerleaf blog and two posts following it, we’ll continue our tradition of unpacking key elements of running and marketing a job board business, this time for online publishers specifically. Our hope is that by explicitly sharing and discussing the various advantages, challenges, and revenue models for publisher job boards, you’ll be prompted to see what you are doing in a comparative light.

Publisher Job Board Businesses:

Before diving in, it is worth it to define the broad spectrum of online publishers. Publishers come in all shapes and forms. Many established newspapers and magazines have traditionally sold recruitment advertisements in their print editions, and have in time developed parallel web presences that include job boards. In some cases, the digital has overtaken or replaced print publications entirely.

However, many online publishers today have emerged because of the Internet – successful blogs that expand into large news and media websites. Online communities centred around content – recipe sites, video gaming forums, etc., may also add a job board to deliver relevant career opportunities to their users.

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Your Pre-Launch Job Board Plan

by Maddyin Job Board Strategy

You want to start a job board, but you’ve asked yourself some tough questions and realize you may need to do some legwork before you’re ready to go all in. Don’t lose heart – Careerleaf’s pre-launch plan for job boards should help you reach your goal.

If you decided you’re not ready to launch yet – look at the reasons why and turn them into milestones along the path to starting a profitable job board business. The criteria you’re using to judge whether or not you are ready likely involves four key areas: market research, candidates, employers, and branding.

Build a Candidate Following

To get employers to be your customers, you need to prove you can deliver the kind of candidates they want to hire. To do that, you need to establish a connection with the candidates you and your would-be customers want to attract. There are a lot of great, cheap ways you can start community-building before you launch your job board, including:

  • Social media: share content, resources, and advice with the candidates you want to target. Take advantage of the hashtags, groups, lists, and search functions that social media platforms provide to discover and engage with the online community in your target industry. Interact with people and start providing value now.
  • Blogging: plant your flag and start creating your own valuable content and resources. You can also contribute content to other industry blogs to expose your brand to wider audiences in your market.
  • Start a Group or Mailing List: you might already be in the habit of finding and sharing amazing jobs within your space – why not start a social media group or mailing list to share them with subscribers? This is especially valuable, because people who have opted in to this service are more likely to want to use the amazing job board you’re going to launch.

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Questions Job Board Entrepreneurs Should Ask

by Jonathanin Job Board Strategy

This week’s blog post comes from Jonathan Page, Careerleaf’s Director of Sales and Marketing.

Every week I have conversations with entrepreneurs researching technology solutions for a new job board or career portal, and often provide advice on their value propositions, target markets and initial launch plans. Some of this advice is specific to a particular business idea, but much of the advice crosses industry or territorial differences.

The best advice I can give job board entrepreneurs begins with asking a series of 5 core questions:

  1. Where and how are you getting your job seekers? Why are they interested in you?

There is a reason that aggregators and virtually every job board in existence pays or has paid for candidate traffic. Your candidate traffic is why employers will pay you. So if you don’t have an impressive* number of contact emails for your niche, you aren’t ready to set up your job board or invest in a technology solution.

Priority number one is having something of value to say to your target candidates and start winning them to your tribe.
*The term impressive is purposefully relative – the more differentiated and desirable the candidates the smaller the number needs to be to qualify as impressive. Also, understand that geography is implicit in any Niche and should not be ignored.

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The Simply Hired Shutdown: News and Next Steps

by Maddyin Job Board Strategy

You’ve likely already heard the news that job aggregator Simply Hired is shutting down on June 26th. A letter was sent to their customers and publishing partners, informing them of the shutdown.

The Simply Hired shutdown will impact those whose job sites are hosted by Simply Hired, and anyone using Simply Hired’s job widgets, API, and data feeds. Simply Hired staff also “face an uncertain future”, and many assume they will be laid off. It has since been reported through “a trusted source” that Recruit (Indeed’s parent company) has acquired Simply Hired.

Simply Hired Shutdown Timeline and News Round-Up

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Feed Me, Need Me (Part 2): A Primer on Jobs Distribution

by Maddyin Job Board Strategy

We’re back with Part 2 of our 2-part primer on jobs feeds. This week we’re talking about distribution. Need to catch up and read Part 1? Check out Feed Me, Need Me (Part 1): A Primer on Curating a Jobs Backfill

When you’re starting out or in the midst of running a job board, there comes a point when you think about how you’re distributing jobs posted to your board. Like curating a jobs backfill, you’ll have to make some choices and educate yourself on your options. Distributing jobs is essentially becoming the publisher of backfill that someone else uses, and in most cases, you’re paying others to send you candidates for the postings you distribute.

 

Part 2: Jobs Distribution

  1. What is jobs distribution?
  2. Why would I want to distribute jobs elsewhere?
  3. Is jobs distribution a money-maker or just a cost of operating a job board?
  4. What options or variations of jobs distribution will I come across?
  5. Pros and Cons of Distributing Jobs
  6. Distribute Responsibly

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Feed Me, Need Me (Part 1): A Primer on Curating a Jobs Backfill

by Maddyin Job Board Strategy

A lot of you who are starting or in the midst of running a job board want to learn more about or make better use of jobs backfills. But, it can get complicated when you get down to the nitty-gritty choices and variations available to you, so we’ve created a 2-part Backfill Primer blog series to help you become an expert!

 

Part 1: Curating a Jobs Backfill

  1. What is a jobs backfill?
  2. Why would I want a backfill?
  3. Can I use backfills to make money?
  4. What options and variations of jobs backfills will I come across?
  5. What are the Pros and Cons of Using Backfills?
    • Pros
    • Cons
  6. Backfill Responsibly

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