A few weeks back I posed the question“What is a job board?”. In the process of trying to answer that question, I mentioned LinkedIn as a prime example of something thatlooks like a job board, acts like a job board, butclaims not to be a job…

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I don’t know if it’s inevitable that age and experience brings cynicism, but theongoing discussion about social recruiting certainly brings out the skeptic in me. Social recruitment is about the…

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There have been a lot of blog posts here over the years – 120, to be exact. Some faded quickly, and some didn’t. So I thought it might be useful to have a roundup of what I consider to be the most interesting and useful (if not always successful) posts. Hope you like them!

• People, Balance & Technology: The…

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Back in the dark ages, when the Job Board Doctor was first learning the mysteries of sales and marketing, he was told that he should “sell benefits, not features.”

Fast forward, umm…many years. I’m still telling clients (and myself) to focus on the benefits, not the features. You think I would’ve learned by now!

It’s a tough lesson to learn. For one thing, it’s a lot easier to list the new, snazzy, ‘gee whiz’ features that your job board has:…

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There has been a spate of articles recently about TheLadders – specifically, how the site is a bad deal for job seekers. To wit:

when I see the new commercials for The Ladders, I want to puke on my shoes…the jobs on The Ladders can be found on sites like LinkUp, Monster,…

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Every day we are deluged with images, sounds, sights, smells….and…

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The future is alluring – nothing bad has happened yet, you haven’t made any dumb mistakes yet, and anything could happen. In fact, the future is so much fun to write about that I am going to write about it (with my job board industry goggles on, that is).



So, let us finish the following phrase in as many interesting and contentious ways as we can, shall we?



The future of job boards is…



1.… Continue

When was the last time you asked your job board customers what they want? Not just a one-off question to a few clients – but an systematic, organized survey of everyone who uses your site? Employers and job seekers?



A recurrent theme in the ‘job boards are dying’ blog posts that I see is a feeling by recruiters, employers, and job seekers that the ‘big boards’ are out of touch. In other words, they don’t know what their customers want. Now, I’m guessing that they would argue with… Continue

Branding often gets a bad rap – as if there is something inherently bad in trying to create a unique, persuasive persona for your job board. Nothing could be further from the truth.



Think about it: most of the truly successful job boards out there have built successful brands. Monster. CareerBuilder. Dice. The Ladders. RegionalHelpWanted. Of course, a brand won’t replace solid technology, good marketing, and SEO. But in combination with these, branding will help push your job board… Continue

Is job seeker registration good or bad? And if you require registration, how much is too much? And…how much value should you attach to these registered users?



Personally, I think a little friction is a good thing (as does Seth Godin, apparently). If a job seeker wants to land a job, why shouldn’t he (or she) give up something? After all, your site is delivering something of value, correct?



“But you lose job seekers every time you require registration,” I know some of you… Continue

In the beginning was the job post – a classified ad on the internet.



Then came the resume database – a collection of job seeker wit and wisdom, long and short, awful and awesome.



Employers and recruiters saw the resume database and liked it. They flourished.



Jump to now. I’m guessing that at least one-third of the job boards launched during the past year lack a resume database. What gives?…



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You can’t cough these days without bumping into a ‘free’ job board, i.e., a job board where employers can post their jobs at no charge. Free job site, free Tweets, free everything. Now, there have always been a few of these boards around, but in the past year or so, it seems like they’ve been reproducing like the proverbial rabbits.



What gives? Some would argue that Free, by Chris Anderson, put a voice to a burgeoning movement: “In a marketplace with low marginal costs and many… Continue

One of the most common questions I’m asked (apart from “Are you British? Because those hyphenated names are always British“) is “How can I compete in (insert your favorite market category)? There are so many competitors!”



(And no, I’m not British).



Well…almost all market categories are crowded. Trust me, this is a good thing. This means that there is business to be had. Yet it’s true that a crowded market means that you can’t simply waltz in with a half-finished job site… Continue

Naming a career site is something everyone thinks they can do – but few do well. Sorry, folks, it’s true. A good name is hard to find (and a good URL is even harder).

Well, you may ask, why? Let me suggest that these names come in 3 basic flavors, each presenting its own particular set of benefits and problems.

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