Setting Goals for Your New Job Board

If you have plans to start a full fledged niche job board, here’s the kind of goals you should shoot for;

After one year, your goal should be to have at least 5,000-10,000 users coming to your site every month. That is the minimum number of users you need to ensure that employers who post jobs will actually get some applicants. If you can drive enough qualified applicants to each job posting, employers will consider that site a success and will most likely post again.

And when it comes to the question of how long should you work at your job board before deciding to give it up. The answer is at least 1 year. Online recruiting sites require a long time horizon. There are no get rich quick ideas in this mature industry.

It takes time to grow and nurture your client base and sales. The first year is more about getting users than it is getting sales. You need to build a foundation before building the house.

So I tell all my new clients to be prepared to lose money in the first year. Your main costs will be marketing and software hosting which can range from a few dollars per month to a few hundred dollars per month depending on how you implement it. That means you might spend upwards of $3-5k if you use an online job board software company. Or considerably less if you go the WordPress route. In any case, it may be a while before you can recoup that money.

Marketing costs will vary depending on your budget but with no audience you will NEED to advertise your business. Use pay per click advertising via Facebook, Google and aggregators like Jobs2Careers to get your traffic. For every click expect to spend .25 – .50 cents.

This post is an excerpt from my ebook: The Essential Guide to Launching Your Job Board.