There’s an interesting read over at FT.com on the blogs with jobs phenomenon entitled Top bloggers turn to listing jobs for cash. Most of the article can be classified as the same ol’ story, but a few things piqued my interest.
- JobThread is quietly building quite a network of prominent blogs. What started out as a corporate career center in-a-box solution for employers is turning into ground zero for posting jobs to a network of blogs. Simply Hired’s Job-a-matic, with over 2,000 publishers, isn’t anything to be ashamed, however, where JobThread differentiates is in its cross-posting abilities and spreading the revenues. Job-a-matic touts “Our backfill jobs generate revenue without any posts,” but I’m not clear on exactly how that happens as a publisher myself.
- Big money continues to elude most publishers. From the FT.com article, Paul Kedrosky, a venture capitalist and author of Infectious Greed, a popular business blog says, “There are maybe five jobs listings that are direct through me on the board for which I get paid. The rest are part of the overall network and I get pennies.”
I agree it’s too early in the game to declare victory or defeat for blogs as viable job advertising options. Results are mixed, with those having dedicated manpower to making things work being the shining examples of what could be. Most blogs won’t dedicate such resources to a job board, so it’s really up to the solution providers to make things work on any grand scale.
I recently covered the reality of selling job postings, but for my own case study have begun seeing job postings on my own blog in the past few weeks where none were seen for months. Hardly a windfall but some growth is better than none.
Additionally, I’m disappointed my own pet project, Blogs with Jobs, has fallen by the wayside, proving too much for one person’s bandwidth. I suck. If anyone would like to volunteer their time to the site (happy to spread some link love in return), please give me a shout. I still think such a site has value, as the number of blogs adding jobs grows exponentially and thus more confusing for consumers. But left to me alone, it will probably fade away.
August 19th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Blog audiences would be classified as “passive candidates” for the most part. Most visitors come to a blog because of the content written by the blogger(s), not because of the job postings on a blog. Passive candidates act differently than active candidates,they have different motivations, different behavior patterns and different thresholds than those actively looking for and needing a new job.
I think the main problem with job postings on blogs, is that companies using the same “bait” to attract passive candidates as we do to attract active candidates. We ask the passive candidate to jump through the same hoops as the active candidate to apply for a job. We ask them to go through the same process, the same resume submittal steps, the same online screening Q&A’s as the active candidate. Passive candidates need to be handled differently than active candidates, they need to be handled cautiously, if we ask too much of them, they’ll simply go away. Hey, they don’t need our job, they already have one. I’ve yet to see a good online process for handling passive candidates. If anyone know’s of one, please let me know by posting it here.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Addressing the “I’ve yet to see a good online process for handling passive candidates.”
My simple definition of a “passive candidate” is “someone an employer knows of, but does not have a relationship with.” To me, when it comes to passive candidates, you first must relate before you recruit.
So this not only “handles passive candidates,” it generates actions…which is the goal of every marketing campaign.
PROBLEM: How do we get to know them, or vice versa, how do they get to know us?
ANSWER: Class #8 in Recruiting 201 (That was for Neal Bruce ~ inside joke). Want to get to know a bunch of people? Throw a party.
By far, the link below is an example of how to gain the best results I have ever seen when approaching a “cold” set of passive talent. Its targeted, defined, fun, informative and has automated CRM based rules/work flows for the responses it gets (thus the handling part).
Also, note the check box for “Send me invites like this in the future.” Can you say Seth Godin and permission based marketing? Looking at the results that came back where people said “can’t make this one but keep in the loop”… I can say it.
Link…
http://www.talentecology.com/ea/events/siggraph.asp
August 21st, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Joel,
I think part of the problem is that recruiters expect results when they post jobs to a site. Most niche sites, blogs included, don’t deliver the same sort of results that traditional job boards do. Part of the problem is that sites (like yours) cater to the recruiters and not to job seekers. Recruiters know this.
Bob
email@jobmatchbox.com