I have said many times that today’s job boards need to think of themselves as a community not just a place to post jobs.
Why? A community is more valuable in the long run. It enables you to drive more page views, attract more users and create more engagement on the site itself. Unfortunately most job board software is still stuck in the latter view since most don’t have the tools you need to create community. So you need to build it yourself or get creative.
I like to combine tools such as Ning and Jobamatic. For $20/mo Ning allows you foster community and Jobamatic provides a free job board solution. You don’t even need a webhost!
Update try a platform like Mighty Networks
Back in 2009 I launched JobsinSolarPower.com on Jobamatic. Today it is #2 on google for the term ‘solar jobs‘. About a year into it, I added the Ning piece to begin collecting user data. Ning has a lot of features such as groups, forums, blogs etc. But I only let people create a profile. I also added a video section and stocked it with related vids from Youtube. Pretty basic stuff since I didnt want to spend a lot of time writing blogs and policing the site for spam.
For the first 2 years I used my own homepage featuring the jobs and banners that Jobamatic provided. The ning portion was more hidden. I was trying to add enough member profiles before I showcased it more.
But last week I made the switch and began using the Ning site as the home/main site. Jobamatic now sits in the background with the same header so it looks relatively like the same site even though the url changes. The header on the Jobamatic site links back to jobsinsolarpower.com.
Ning allows you to add links to the main menu so I added one called View Solar Jobs which links to http://jobsinsolarpower.jobamatic.com/a/jobs/find-jobs and Post Solar Jobs which links to the post page. On the home page I added the RSS job feed along the left via an RSS box that Ning provides. I also made my own ‘Employers-Post Job‘ image which I placed in the upper left. Thats the first thig I want people to see. The price and how to post. Highlighting that info is key since job postings are what drives revenue.
As for members they fill out a profile with questions I came up with. Questions like;
* What is your ideal solar job?
* How long have you working in solar power?
* List your 5 best solar skills
* Linkedin Profile URL
* Are you currently employed?
* Why are you passionate about solar power?
So what I am doing is creating a mini-resume database for employers to eventually sift through. Its not huge right now (only 58) but by putting Ning on the forefront I should increase that number rapidly. It also shows employers that there are people using the site which goes a long way towards getting them to post something.
The other good thing that Ning allows is to send broadcast emails to all members. Its their own version of an email newsletter service (i.e. iContact, Mailchimp). Now whenever I get a new job posted I immediately blast out an email to the group with a link to the job.
The site gets 5-8 postings per month and generates at least $100 per month in backfill on traffic of about 6,000 uniques per month. The site is indexed by Indeed as well and I spend $50/mo doing that. My monthly cost is just $70/mo between Indeed & Ning.
The last piece of the revenue puzzle is the Adsense blocks which bring in another $150 each month.
So this is how I build community and a job board at the same time. I hope you enjoyed my little tour. Ping me if you have any questions.
-Chris
* Recently Ning added more features which now allow more customization to their sites including 2-3 col layouts, new ways to ad adsense blocks and better looking themes.
