Starting your own job board is getting to be a lot like raising those little sea monkeys advertised in the back of magazines. You get the idea, plunk some change down, and presto - you get your kit in the mail. With a few simple instructions and a lot of love, you can watch your job board grow.
SmartJobBoard.com is giving you the chance to add to the millions of job boards already in existence by supplying all the software one needs to customize, maintain, and market your very own job site.
Some cool features include being able to create your own job ads and user groups while keeping your site freshly-ranked with SEO-friendly URLs and meta tags, all for the price of $539.
“As we all know, niche job boards are the future of online recruitment business. Keeping this in mind, we’ve built a flexible platform that could be easily customized for any niche. Users can add job and fields they need and modify search forms and results for their specific online service,” said Rodion Telpizov, SmartJobBoard CEO. “We’ve also added community features, such as user comments and ratings of job and resume postings, since these are essential parts of modern recruitment web sites.”
The software that SmartJobBoard supplies is nothing new to this industry. Both JobThread and JobTarget have being doing this for years. JobTarget, however, might entice more entreprenuers with their recruitment advertising network called OneClick, a job posting distribution system that accesses a variety of job sites on the Internet.
Popularity: 34% [?]
August 16th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Are you aware of a job board that also has a community portal piece to it?
I am looking for a job board plus things like:
-community event calendar
-RSS feeds for local niche news
-RSS feeds for local niche blogs
P.
August 16th, 2008 at 11:45 am
It’s like the late 80’s, early 90’s when there were dozens of people making millions selling Get rich on Real Estate kits. “For 3 easy payments of $79.99, I’ll teach you to become a millionaire with no money down”. I think people started to realize that if he was making so much money on Real estate, why is he spending all his time selling Get rich quick kits? In my opinion, any industry has a significant barrier to entry if you understand what barrier to entry means.
August 17th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I don’t see the get-rich-quick connection Rafael. It doesn’t hurt that job board acquisitions are in the news from time to time. But, the true allure of running a job board is the promise of running any Internet business. It’s the freedom to live wherever you want, for your business to grow while you are sleeping or on vacation. It’s a lifestyle question.
Ironically, it tends to be the big corporate and venture capital backed outfits who operate more on this get rich quick thinking… not independent entrepreneurs starting small businesses with job board software kits .
Rodion, I have added you to my list of job board software providers: http://www.internetinc.com/Job-board-software
August 17th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Eric – In a poll taken 5 weeks ago by over 3400 employers and recruiters which was promoted by several well known recruiting blogs like the recruiters lounge, over 68% of respondents do not believe the pay-to-post pricing model satisfies their online recruiting needs. Over 66% believe the Pay-to-post pricing model delivers less then satisfactory results. Over 75% believe performing keyword searches on resume databases is a waste of time and does not deliver results. (That’s why monster bought trovix BTW). Over 65% believe that most job boards have no where near enough traffic to provide value. Over 68% said flat out that they are not satisfied with the old primitive technologies and pricing models and want something new. I have asked a few people if they know of any employer that would prefer paying-to-post a job upfront before they know whether the job board has a qualified candidate verses a model where they only pay when they have carnal knowledge that a qualified candidate exists. I can’t seem to find any employer or recruiter who would prefer the pay-post-model given the alternative. My point is that creating more and more closed “job boards” using keyword search technology and pay-to-post pricing models serves no one. It only fragments and expands the divide between job seekers and employers and it’s really frustrating a lot of people. When Realmatch plugs its technology into a site, it becomes another distribution and collection point for jobs and profiles. One site might get a nurse looking for a job, another site gets a hospital looking for a nurse and the matching technology and open network unite the two, providing value and revenue which is shared by both sites. Unfortunately most job board technology is incapable of this very simply task of matching employers and job seekers across sites. So those poll results are a direct result of the growing number of fairly primitive job sites fragmenting the market, pushing antiquated keyword search technology, offering risky pay-to-post pricing and not providing any real value to job seekers or employers. This is why I say selling a job board with out of the box technology is like selling get rich quick schemes. During the gold rush, the folks selling picks and pans to miners told all who would listen how rich could get mining gold. But none of those selling the pans and picks ever saw the inside of a mine.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Rafael–where can I get hat study???
August 18th, 2008 at 5:53 am
Eric,
Thanks for adding us to your list of job board software providers. Your site is great source of info for job board industry and I read it periodically!
August 18th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Rafael, that makes some sense but you also bundle several issues that don’t belong together in order to show that all roads lead to realmatch.
It isn’t the pricing model that causes fragmentation. Nothing is going to stop fragmentation. If employers suddenly embraced pay-for-performance wholeheartedly, you would find 10,000 job boards converting to pay per click or pay per resume overnight.
It isn’t closed systems causing employer’s frustration either and you aren’t the only one running a network.
You could just as well run a survey showing that 99% of employers prefer free job boards and conclude that everyone except for Craig’s list and a few others should just shut down for the benefit of all employers.
In your vision of the job board world, what should all of these useless niche job boards do? Become affiliates of realmatch?
August 18th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
There are so many job boards out there it will make your head spin. And everyone claims that theirs has this special thing. It is seriously ridicules!
When it comes down to it they all are all pretty much the same to jobseekers! The only difference is from a jobseekers standpoint I can reach out to as many employers on Monster or CB as it would take me to do on 20 of these other “so called” job boards everyone is starting.
As much as I dislike Monster from both an inside and outside perspective I find that Monster and CB have much more content then all these other job boards who don’t realize they MISSED THE TRAIN.
Question:
Why would I search for jobs on 10 different small job boards if I can have better results using just 1 or 2???
Like every good business idea that has taken off and made a ton of money it is becoming oversaturated.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Eric – Survey data is nebulous at best but I think we all know that pay-to-post has seen its day in the sun…and that day is coming to a close. I don’t think any job board should shut down…and even if I did, who would care? But I will say, if you don’t have traffic or technology…what do you have? What are you offering to employers and job seekers? And when each of these new job boards launches, they spend their growth years providing no value because there isn’t a critical enough mass of traffic to provide value to either side. If 20 job boards launch and fail a day or a week and spend their time trying to attain a critical mass, they leave a wake of frustration for a lot of people (employers and job seekers). Through the Internet we have learned that creating an audience is as valuable as having technology but you really need at least one of the two elements to provide any type of value to anyone. If you have great traffic, you can partner with those that have great technology and a critical mass of employers and profiles. Does Realmatch want more partners? Of course we do but I am not naive enough to think that we are going to power 50,000 job boards or that we will take over the world. We all know, this is a huge market and I think providing choices for job seekers, employers and job board owners is healthy. For those that are interested, we really did try to keep that survey fair and balanced…there was no mention of Realmatch or any brand on the survey or appearing on any link pointing to the survey. Survey Results published on Jim Stroud’s blog here: http://www.therecruiterslounge.com/2008/07/06/online-recruitment-survey-results/
August 19th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
@Ex Monster employee:
Here is some math.
# of people in the US: 300 million
# of workers in the US: 180 million
# of those unemployed: 5.7%
Average annual turnover in a US company: 10%
Ergo, in a given year at MINIMUM 10-15% of Americans are looking for a job ACTIVELY.
ACTIVE Job Seekers = 15% X 180 million = 27 million Americans
July 2008 Media Metrix
Unique Visitors
Careerbuilder: 22 million
Monster: 11 million
It is safe to say that those ACTIVE job seekers are using Monster and Careerbuilder – almost ALL of them are (22m/27m used CB last month).
But what about the other 135m American workers? The passive, secure, successful workers? How to reach them? They are are not on Monster or Careerbuilder. They are going about their business, using the internet, looking at an average of 1.2 niche sites per day.
Imagine if one of those sites had it’s own little job board? Or if it just linked to one that was relevant? Finance niche sites that connect to eFinancialCareers.com for instance? Do you think there is value there? I think there is.
QED.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I think there is tons of value in those niche sites but they have no technology and dont have a critcal mass of traffic to provide value…so what we do is power their job board with our open network so all the sites are connected.
Access Medicine – Owned by Mcgraw Hill – http://accessmedicine.realmatch.com
Scientific Blogging – http://scientificblogging.realmatch.com
Find KY Jobs – Owned by 4 newspapers and 3 TV studios – http://www.findkyjobs.com
Overall there are 1100 of these sites and growing by a few dozen a week…as a matter of fact we just signed the largest legal site on the web. But if these sites were to integrate their own closed off proprietary board, they would have a lot of trouble providing value…this was my only point.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Good point LA Lady :)
Even for niche industries I find that Monster and CB in most cases still have more jobs to choose from.
For example:
If you are in the skilled trades industry you might search a niche job board like http://www.mepjobs.com (mechanical, electrical, plumbing). However if you do the same search on Monster or CB I found that they still had More jobs to choose from.
The point I am making is… In my opinion, from a jobseekers stand point, it is a hassle to create many profiles to search many job boards when I could have the same results on one or two job boards.
As far as reaching the passive jobseekers… I think CB targets them with partners like MSN, AOL, USA Today etc.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
And my point is that you are right…mepjobs.com is just one site…with simple classified/pay-to-post technology. I will add them to my list of prospect sites to call upon. If we could add them to the realmatch network, their jobs and their profiles would be added to the network of 1100 sites that Realmatch powers and now when a user builds a profile on mepjobs.com, they will see job matches from their site and 1100 other sites. When thier employers posts a job, they will see candidate matches from their site and 1100 others. Each site simply becomes another collection and distribution point for jobs and profiles. When you start adding dozens of sites in each industry vertical then you can begin to compete with monster and CB for reach and quality…add the better technology, advanced features and risk free posting model….and the tables start to turn…next post shall be our business plan…just kidding.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Realmatch was featured on Virgina, Maryland and DC news on Monday:
http://www.wusa9.com/video/default.aspx?aid=64279&storyid=75123
August 21st, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I don’t believe that monster or CB can target passive job seekers. For that matter not many job boards, niche or general, can really target these individuals. Most passive job seekers, don’t have an active resume on any board and aren’t really looking for a job so they have no need to keep a resume active. I believe that the only way you can target the passive candidate is to have someone (recruiter) contact them personally about an opportunity that they may or may not be interested in, which is something that your average job board doesn’t do regardless of the technology.
Just my 3 cents.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
These days who is really a “passive jobseeker”?
Recruitment has changed tremendously over the last few generations but so have jobseekers and the way people view work. My father worked for the same company for over 20 years right out of college and that was not so uncommon for his generation.
Now employees expect more from there employers. They know they have options and any sense of loyalty from both employees and employers has gone out the window.
Employees will jump ship for a better opportunity with more pay and employers will fire loyal employees if it is in some way a benefit to the company at the time.
I think the best way to reach these so called “passive jobseekers” is by being the 1st name they think of if they are unhappy with their current job, or if they would just like to explore what opportunities are out there.
I think Monster and CB have branded themselves very well.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:48 am
The large portals are great but:
1. Job seekers and employers arent loyal to anyone.
2. People are curious about new things.
3. No service can be all things to all people…people like variety
4. The only constant is change.
5. What goes up must come down
6. People are people
7. Its all about the ride
8. Life is like a box of chocolates
9. At the end of day…
10. Its on the wheel
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I like variety in the food that I eat on a daily basis. However, when it comes to searching for jobs I like simplicity.
Someone please,
Show me one of these “niche job boards” that has more positions listed then either Monster OR CB based on industry/position and location???
I bet no one can.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
http://www.indeed.com and http://www.simplyhired.com.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:47 pm
SEM – Exactly!
More listings are not the issue at all unless you are a neophyte and think that this is what quality means. We can go to indeed or simplyhired and see all the listings in the world and if we have 45 years to weed through them all, we just might find the perfect fit.
The next big player will be able to present only the best, reduce the noise and show opportunties that the searcher isnt searching for but are still a nice fit. Keyword search just wont do that.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Ok but the majority of the jobs listed on Indeed and SimplyHired are scraped from Monster and CB!
So either way if I wanted to send my resume to those companies I would have to login and do it through MONSTER or CB!
I think you guys are missing my point.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I think everyones missing the point dude…what are you saying?
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
So, why not search them both at once? Also, the vast majority of postings aren’t CB and Monster. HotJobs.com, Job.com, Dice.com, Snagajob.com, 1,000s of Direct Employer from their own site, and on and on.
And I guess you haven’t had a chance to see the filters. You cast a wide net that includes everyone job online, and then use the filters to find the right subset. Can you ask CB to return a job from a company that’s Green? I didn’t think so.
August 25th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
OK guys, you are off track from what the post is talking about. Why Indeed and SimplyHired is even in this conversation I don’t know, THEY ARE NOT JOB BOARDS. They just scrape data from other job boards.
The Post is talking about everyone and their mother starting their own “niche” job board.
For the record I like sites like Indeed and SimplyHired and yes you can search multiple job boards at once, but that is not what the post is talking about.
AGAIN! I will ask… Someone please, show me one of these “niche” job boards that has more positions listed then either Monster OR CB based on industry/position and location???
AGAIN! I bet no one can.
FYI Indeed and SimplyHired are NOT JOB BOARDS.
My point is DUDE!!! As a job seeker I don’t want to create a resume on 20 of these so called “niche” job boards when I can have more success searching 1-2.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:20 am
here is a pointer –
have a look at devbistro.com, which is a niche page for Software professionals, rapidly growing in terms of volume of Resumes.
Now the employers would certainly like to use the portal for the fact that it costs peanuts and doesnt force you to buy the access untill you have actually found someone you would like to contact.
And, job seekers wouldnt mind submitting their resumes coz for them, its anywhichways free.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Limiting my searching to 1-2 board doesnt give me “More success”. Thats a retards way to think. Limiting my searching to just 1-2 boards limits the possibilities. Only somone that is associated with Monster or CB would suggest that. Since employers dont limit their postings to just monster, CB, HJ, Dice, Jobs.com, regionalhelpwanted, gojobs, indeed, simplyhired, jobfox, realmatch, jobster, beyond etc etc etc…why would a job searcher limit their search? Simply hired and indeed are job boards…they are sites where job seekers go to search jobs. Both of those job boards have more listings then monster and career builder period.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Monster-Builder…
I checked out devbistro.com… I even did a search for “Software Developer” in my city and came up with 23 jobs and all of them were posted by staffing agencies. I did the same search on CB and came up with 228 jobs posted within a month.
Thank you for helping me prove my point.
Sorry but I don’t see a bright future for devbistro.com. Actually, I doubt I will ever hear of that website again. However if I were an employer or staffing agency I would not turn down free postings.
You said it is free for jobseekers… I would sure hope so LOL.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Kieth…
There’s no need to name call! We may have a difference of opinion but considering this is a professional blog lets not act like we’re 6 years old you big meanie head lol.
No, Indeed and SimplyHired are not job boards. They just scrape data from other job boards.
Out of all the job boards you listed none have nearly as much content as Monster or CB. My whole point is I don’t have the time nor do I want to create user accounts to search 20 different job boards that have little content. In most cases the little content they do have is on Monster or CB as well. If you have the time then more power to you.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Considering Monster.com user data is not safe and has been hijacked by hackers not onces but TWICE, maybe its better that job seekers surf the smaller boards, sure it takes longer but at least my personal info is protected. Hehe
August 27th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I agree, I have spoken on here about monster’s lack security policy. The sad thing is it’s not even hackers you have to worry about, monster sales their resume data base to scammers.
But then again, I don’t plan on putting my bank account numbers and SS number in my resume.
August 28th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Dear Ex-Monster, I have also worked with Monster for 3 long years, and i agree that no one can rule out the assurance of quality content which you get from Monster or CB, but please note that devbistro isnt as old as monster is. Let them take time, and though you had never heard of devbistro and might not hear again, 28 staffing companies have already shown their trust in it and counting.
Niche job boards, i strongly believe, do have the reasons to be there and with time, as differenet markets would be aligned differently, in approach, functionality and structure, nich boards would play an important role.
If the testimonials scripted on devbistro are believed to be real, i guess thats just the beginning of how niche boards would overpower commmonplace boards.
August 28th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
The problem does not lie within the job boards. Job Boards are simply a tool to connect Candidate A with Company B. The problem is that most companies do a very poor job of managing, handling, communicating and interacting with candidates. Unfortunately, many job seekers blame the job boards for their “black hole” experience when blame should be placed on the employer and the lousy experience they provided once they received the resume.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:15 am
If there are hundreds of thousands of niche sites, how does a job seeker know which are real job boards run by trustworthy and reputable companies, and which are fake job boards setup by nefarious hackers looking to steal credit cards and identities? Small niche sites are actually more likely to be hacked and have their data stolen, since they can not afford the security staff, software, and hardware necessary to prevent such attacks.
December 4th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Niche job boards can be very successful if they focus on a small enough niche and get a community built around them. We saw this with http://djangogigs.com/ – a niche job board aimed at web developers using a specific framework.
Candidates are of higher quality that the likes of monster.com because they have to actively seek out the job board. Only those who are truly interested in the niche will do that.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:08 am
Coming soon http://www.joobsbox.com The complete open source job board.
Expect for a double surprise.
September 20th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
vlitzo.com is launching september 30th of 2009. This will be a platform offering a verticle and narrow job search along with video interviews and traditional resume posting in the job seekers profile.