A reader asks…
1. How would you recommend me in terms of launching the new job board? I am thinking of offering the hiring company 1 free slot per month, for 2 month during this period of soft launch. Potentially stretching the soft launch period up to 3 months. The intention is to build up the job post to draw job seekers, while understanding the demand of the prospective customers and building relationships with them. Do you have any other approach to recommend?
2. I am thinking of offering a monthly physical network event as a form of brand awareness exercise for my new job board, in that specific niche. Have you heard of anyone trying that before? What are your thoughts about it?
3. Aside from SEO and Paid Ads, do you have other recommended ways of attracting job seekers?
4. As a new job board, is it better to focus on selling job slots as a package or via Saas?
5. In your opinion, what would be a good 6 month, 12 month and 18 month goal for a new job board?
6. Is it better to find an SEO person to help at the start, or I just figure the SEO aspect of things out along the way?
My answers…
- Giving away free jobs is harder than you think. You can get job more easily through backfill today. “Free” is also a signal to employers that your site may be new and not worth their time. I’d just backfill and create an inexpensive job posting product to start.
- Physical events are a great way to build your brand offline. They help to establish your brand and create real world community vibes. Consider virtual events as well.
- Content content content. Depending on the niche you are in you may be able to buy emails lists of your target audience.
- A job board should sell individual slots and have some form of recurring product like unlimited/monthly for employers who are always hiring.
- Your goal in the first 12 months is simple to build a job seeker audience. Without a good bas pf job seeker traffic you wont survive.
- You need SEO expertise to create keyword rich content so either hire someone or learn from the web how to do it.
-Chris Russell
