How many years ago was it that you went to business school? Old school … ignore blogs. New school … leverage blogs.

Best wishes,
Bob Wilson
President, R.M. Wilson Consulting, Inc.

And another thing to think about regarding the exclusivity with Facebook: Christian says, “Only recently did Jobster and Facebook mutually determine that we were best to transition from that exclusive relationship to the new apps platform.”

However, both the Oodle deal (May 2007, http://blog.oodle.com/2007/05/07/classifieds-for-facebook-users/) and Facebook Marketplace occurred *before* the applications launch. Jobster’s deal with Facebook is something we’ll never fully have disclosed to us, but it’s all kinds of fishy. P-U!

As part of the process the participating boards run a survey on their site for a one month period and have their web traffic audited by an independent third party (ABC Electronic – http://www.abce.org.uk). The audit is based on web server log files, to ensure it’s actually focusing on ‘real traffic’ as opposed to ‘potential traffic’. Once all of the surveys and audits have been completed the Noras team have an online system that can be used to calculate the job board’s reach to a specific industry, demographic, etc.

It’s not without it’s faults, not least that Noras has a fairly low participation rate, but it’s generally accepted as the best tool for making comparisons between UK job boards. Even those job boards that do not take part in Noras typically have their web traffic audited, and if they get a new partnership that drives more traffic to the site they simply get re-audited.

The process makes any unaudited claims about reach or traffic second rate and they are therefore ‘taken with a pinch of salt’ by advertisers.

Is there something like this in the states?

Joel, so we are crystal clear on this, Jobster did indeed have an exclusive relationship with Facebook.

Only recently did Jobster and Facebook mutually determine that we were best to transition from that exclusive relationship to the new apps platform.

On your questions on our affiliate network, actually the 45 million number is going up. We signed 4 more partners since our public launch yesterday. Reach is one way to measure an affiliate network – in fact, reach is the industry standard. That said, the goal is not to have a high reach. The goal is to provide our customers with access to valuable audiences. Our affiliates help us do that. Our application on Facebook helps us do that. Jobster.com helps us do that.

We are excited to bring our targeted and distributed approach as an alternative to traditional monolithic job sites.

Stay tuned. We’ll have more announcements on this front in the near future.

Best regards,
Christian Anderson
Jobster

When we put a google ad out there, the ad get over 1.5 million display on google sites and its affiliates web sites every single day. That easily translates to 45 million “actual” display per month. I guess that “display” even better than “reach”. And we pay only $40 per day.

you do not need to apologize or respond to their comments. the gave more misinformation in their response. we are all supposed to be educated people here and as educated people we can come to our own conclusions. i don’t think you are required to apologize for talking about an issue and giving your opinion on it. after jobster replied we are able to read what their position is and compare that with yours. Here is the greatest part…..we get to render our own opinion after that.

i appreciate you wanting to please your viewers but there is no need to apologize.

If you want me to apologize for alleging the numbers were connected to Facebook when they apparently weren’t, fine. I’m sorry Mr. Jobster.

But I think you’re missing the point. And here it is: The 45 million or whatever number they’re promoting today is BULLSHIT. They know it. I know it. And if you dig a bit, you’ll know it too.

Take Techcrunch, for example, which is part of their 45 million network. How many people going to TC actually go to or plug into the career center? Ten percent? Five percent? One percent? Certainly not all of it, right? But do you think Jobster is touting ALL of TC’s traffic in that 45 million? You bet they are. And the same goes for all their “partners.”

As a result, consumers are buying into being in front of that big number and spending money with such expectations when the number is MUCH lower. And I believe that’s deceptive marketing.

No doubt Jobster may refute this claim with clever spin, trying the discredit me and cloud the issue. They’re experts at such tactics. Most readers won’t know what to make of it, be slightly entertained or turned-off, and move on with their lives.

At the end of the day, you as a consumer of information need to think. Figure it out on your own. Draw your own conclusions. This isn’t fantasy. Companies have agendas. Bloggers have loyalties. Money talks. People are people.

You, for better or worse, get to figure it all out.