I wrote this a few years back in order to quickly summarize many of my ideas about running a job board. Here’s the list with a few updated bullet points.
1. Get an 800# for your business. This will make you look more professional in the eyes of employers. Try Onebox, Grasshopper or eVoice.
2. Put your Contact info: phone/email info on every page your site in prominent spots on the page (header/footer). Make it easy for employers to contact you. Doing this will help to reassure them you are an actual business with ahuman behind it!
3. Burn your RSS feed through feedburner. Add your site logo to it as well. Place the feed burner link on your homepage via their Chicklet Chooser under the Publicize tab.
– enable email subscriptions
– add your logo to the feed page
4. Use Twitterfeed to automatically publish your jobs (via RSS) to twitter. Create a twitter account and link to it from your site. Tell twitterfeed to put a hashtag with every post with your niche. For example if you list marketing jobs, every tweet should have #marketingjobs attached.
5. If you own multiple job boards link to them all in your footer. Create a network of niche job boards and that will lead to “crossover” traffic.
6. Start a blog or podcast. Write or talk about your local job market, industry or give career advice.
7. Use Google AdSense as an additional way to earn revenue. The more prominent placement you give the ads, the more you will earn. Integrate the adsense code tightly by using the same color and fonts as your site.
8. Create a Facebook fan page and/or a Linkedin group for your job board. Link your jobs rss feed to these services. (you cant put RSS on Linkedin groups anymore so try twitter)
9. If you use the job search engines (Indeed, SimplyHired) let your customers know! It’s like getting 2 sites for 1 price! Leverage these sites…they add “value” to your clients.
10. Always target a niche. General, national job sites that compete with monster/careerbuilder will not succeed in today’s job market. Be different.
11. Stay in touch with clients through some kind of email service like MailChimp or ConstantContact. Send them a monthly newsletter.
12. Don’t skimp on design. Get a well designed logo through services like 99designs.com. Good design will add to your bottom line. Consider using the new Bootstrap themes which come with responsive design built in for mobile.
13. Keep your navigation simple. Always think of the user.
14. When it comes to employer expectations, always under-promise and over-deliver.
15. Never launch a job board without jobs in it. Even if you have to backfill from Indeed, do it because no jobs = lost users.
16. Build a community around your jobs with services like Ning.
17. When naming your board, use keyword rich domain names. Try not to use more than 3 words in the domain name.
18. Best days of the week for job board sales tend to be tuesdays. Slowest month of the year…December. Busiest month is usually January. Don’t try and sell HR people on mondays, they are too busy. (still true!)
19. Dont make it hard for employers to find your pricing. Put it in plain sight.
20. Your job board will not succeed without consistent marketing/advertising. Dedicate a small amount like $5 or $10 a day and advertise on google/twitter or facebook.
21. Get sales leads by checking your competitor sites.(use Email Grabber)
22. Always put your most recent jobs on your homepage.
23. Create clear “call to actions” …Employers; Post Your Jobs Here.
24. Use lots of text on your homepage with the keyword(s) phrases you are targeting in your niche.
25. Make sure your logo always links back to your homepage.
26. Newbies: Manage your expectations. It can take several weeks to months to get your first paid posting. Don’t expect to make any real money until year 2. Think long term.
27. Don’t make job seekers have to register in order to view jobs. Get rid of ‘barriers’ to your content.
28. Generally speaking, it is very difficult to get job seekers to pay for anything. But cerate a pdf guide for “working in (your) industry” and sell it for $10 bucks. People will buy even if its only 2-3 people a month.
29. Get as many backlinks to your site as possible. Links equal traffic (and ranking with google)
30. Good SEO will contribute at least 10% to your overall sales.
31. Make it easy for employers to pay. Add paypal and invoicing to the payment options.
32. Create loyal clients. Give them things for free. Add value. Loyalty equals repeat business.
33. Study a market before you get in it. Come in with the lowest prices to gain market share.
34. Remember Job boards serve 2 customers: Job seekers and Employers. Don’t neglect either.
35. Ask for testimonials from employers. Publish them on your site.
