Which came first ..... Post (Employers) or Resumes (candidates)?
I am currently tweaking my marketing plan for my site, which is scheduled to go live in a few months. I'd like to hear some of your opinions/ideas on starting out.
I am considering allowing employers to post free for the first 90 days in an effort to get jobs posted and start a relationship with employers while our resume database builds up
and/or
having an "enter for a chance to win an ipod" promotion to get candidates to post their resumes
and/or
utilizing a service like indeed or jobtarget to feed jobs to the site until we have enough resumes in our database to attract employers (I am a little concerned that a feed will devalue our paid post since we are a local site and many of the employers that we are targeting will probably end up on the site in the feed.... so employers will think why pay if my jobs are showing up on your site anyway)
My site is a local site and I will be branding the site mostly offline to saturate our local market and generate traffic on the site (ie. print ads, sponsorships, signage, etc) as well as SEO, link exchanges & banner advertising on local sites.
From your experiences what do you think is the best way to get your job board started..... do you recommend getting job feeds and concentrate on building the resume database before beginning to sell post, or immediately begin selling post without many resumes and let them grow simultaneously?
Thanks for your feedback!
I am considering allowing employers to post free for the first 90 days in an effort to get jobs posted and start a relationship with employers while our resume database builds up
and/or
having an "enter for a chance to win an ipod" promotion to get candidates to post their resumes
and/or
utilizing a service like indeed or jobtarget to feed jobs to the site until we have enough resumes in our database to attract employers (I am a little concerned that a feed will devalue our paid post since we are a local site and many of the employers that we are targeting will probably end up on the site in the feed.... so employers will think why pay if my jobs are showing up on your site anyway)
My site is a local site and I will be branding the site mostly offline to saturate our local market and generate traffic on the site (ie. print ads, sponsorships, signage, etc) as well as SEO, link exchanges & banner advertising on local sites.
From your experiences what do you think is the best way to get your job board started..... do you recommend getting job feeds and concentrate on building the resume database before beginning to sell post, or immediately begin selling post without many resumes and let them grow simultaneously?
Thanks for your feedback!
Views: 15
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chris Russell on -
Tough call. If you offer free postings you will attract employers but when you start to charge they will drop off. You need to ensure you have enough job seeker traffic before you start charging them. I would keep your prices as low as possible in the beginning.
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Permalink Reply by Dionna on
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I was thinking the same thing, that after being able to post for free it will be a challenge to turn these same employers into paying customers.
Thanks for your feedback!
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Gorelik on -
I think you should make posting to your web site free for at least half a year.
I personally go further that that. I think that basic job posting must be free forever.
I think it's ok to charge recruiters something like $20/mo for some additional perks and convenience, but basic job posting should be free.
(It's free at my web site www.postjobfree.com).
I think job board industry would switch to advertisement supported model within ~3-5 years.
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Hi E.D. I'd even upload my own resume to my site for a chance to win an iphone :-)
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Permalink Reply by Bryan Lewis on
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I just started a new job board (NorthBayJobFinder.com), and I went with using Indeed to seed the job database while I attact job seekers. The employers section isn't even open yet. I plan on offering free standard postings for a little while and charge for premium listings and subscriptions (unlimited posting).
Dennis' point about free standard postings forever is well taken, but I think there are enough successful job boards out there to merit charging for standard posts. I am going a regional niche, and here everyone charges for standard posts. My biggest problem will be overcoming the Craigslist factor, which is huge in NorCal.
Bryan
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Thanks for your input Bryan. As you already know, I really like your site! Too bad your designer/developer is booked :-) Great Work!
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Gorelik on
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Bryan,
Past experience doesn't guarantee future results.
Even though job boards are able to charge for standard job postings now -- that doesn't mean that they will be able to do so in the future.
In the past 5+ years ago the technology was quite expensive and context ads (AdSense) were not developed. That's why job boards could succeed only by charging for job postings.
The situation is different now. Computers and hosting is less expensive and more convenient now. AdSense and competing technologies work quite efficiently, that's why PostJobFree.com and other free job boards can be successful.
Do you see any reasons why "pay for standard post" approach would succeed?
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Dennis,
I definitely see you point, but it seems like the market will still bear paying for normal listings. In my area (North of San Francisco), Craigslist is the 800 pound gorilla, and they had over 100 postings in their North Bay section YESTERDAY alone. At $75 a pop, that's a fair amount.
How has the ad-driven model worked for you? I have browsed the site and see "Advertise Here" in the sidebar, but don't really see many actual ads. I hope that doesn't come off as sounding harsh, it's not meant. I honestly just want to learn if you have a better business model that I should consider.
Bryan
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Gorelik on
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Advertisement income is quite small at this point (nothing to compare with Craigslist), but it's not fair to compare less than 1-year old PostJobFree with ~10 years old CraigsList.
Now PostJobFree.com has ~100 job postings (including renewals) per day. It can be ~100 times more than that without essential change to maintenance cost.
Technical ability to keep extremely low maintenance cost per posting is the key to being able to build advertisement supported business.
BTW, advertisement doesn't have to be the only income stream. In the future I'm thinking to implement some additional services which would require some payments. Still basic job posting would stay free.
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