It’s getting harder and harder to find a niche that offers potential to a new job board but I believe I have found one.
Manufacturing.
In the past couple of years a number of “blue collar” sites and marketplaces have begun to get traction. For example;
- Jobcase got $100 million in funding for its blue collar social job network
- RigUp landed hundreds of millions for its Oil & Gas job community. They just announced a rebrand to Workrise and are broadening their scope to all skilled trades.
- Tradehounds got funding for its job app that attracts construction workers.
All these sites are succeeding because they are bring a new look to an old industry.
So that got me thinking about the manufacturing job market. The sector today, is served by only two sites that have been around for many years (and haven’t changed much at all).
JobsinManufacturing.com is just a shell for JobsinLogistics.com and ManufacturingJobs.com is run by an association which does little to no marketing. Neither is creating much content about the industry and their platforms have been unchanged for years.
The manufacturing sector needs some fresh blood. If I were starting a board today this might just be the best opportunity out there. Especially when you consider the domain below which is up for sale.
http://www.mfgjobs.com is available for the right price. I estimate its worth at somewhere between 20k to 50k. It’s a six word domain that matches the niche. These domains are worth pursuing.
The way I would approach launching it would be as follows.
Make the site a content machine for all things manufacturing.
Using content to differentiate your site over the two other sites can get you noticed quickly. Think about building a site like VentureFizz.com did for the tech community in Boston/NYC. They built content around jobs and company profiles. I would do the same for manufacturing firms.
I would backfill the site with 100k manufacturing jobs and use that content to drive cpc revenue while I spend the first year of operation cranking out content and building the ever important job seeker audience. Advertising and resume services would also be part of the initial revenue stream.
In short, I would build a community for manufacturing job seekers with the tools and resources these workers need to find work. A small team of 3-4 people could take MFGjobs.com and make it into a 500k business within 5 years in my opinion.
Your biggest investment will be the domain but it brings instant credibility to anyone who is willing to take on the challenge.
