Thinking of starting a job board? Even if you’re not planning to compete with CareerBuilder or LinkedIn, there is still ample room in the market. Niche job boards are seeing tremendous growth, whether they focus on opportunities in specific cities, industries, or types of employment.
Starting a job board has never been easier, thanks to new plugins that publishers can use to expand the functionalities of their existing websites. For publishers who use a piece of software called WordPress, starting a job board doesn’t require extensive technical experience. It doesn’t require a huge budget, either, which makes starting a job board even more lucrative.
In this article, we will talk about everything that’s involved in starting a job board and which plugins are best suited for this type of project. We’ll even walk you through all the steps involved in starting a job board from scratch. Let’s get going.
Why you should start a job board
Job boards can be incredibly lucrative for digital publishers. While a handful of mega-job websites, like CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, and Monster.com, are vying to become the market leader in online job recruitment, smaller publishers are making significant headway in niche markets.
Niche publishers that cover specific cities or industries have a number of things going for them. First, most niche publishers already have loyal audiences that trust the content they’re putting out. They also tend to have existing relationships with advertisers, which can help when it comes time to get access to exclusive job postings.
Here are a few reasons why publishers are choosing to start job boards right now:
- Lucrative financial incentives
- Job boards support existing readers and businesses in the community
- Increases traffic to existing websites
- Job boards are easy to maintain
- Helps grow email subscriber lists
How to start a job board in 4 steps
Step #1: Pick a niche
Could you launch the next CareerBuilder or Monster.com? Possibly, but the vast majority of publishers starting a job board will have the greatest success thinking smaller. A new online job board is much more likely to be successful when it has a narrow focus.
Digital publishers who already have existing websites will have the easiest time picking a niche. A city magazine publisher, for example, will want a job board that focuses on career opportunities in whichever city the publication covers. An industry publication, meanwhile, should promote jobs in the industry it covers.
To get a better idea of what this might look like in the real world, check out Bethesda Magazine’s job board. Bethesda Magazine’s job board features postings for opportunities in the local area, which makes the site highly relevant to anyone looking for a new position in Bethesda, Maryland.
Step #2: Choose your software
Once you know what type of job board you’re launching, it’s time to start researching the best job board software. Not all job board software is made equal, so it is important that you choose a product that features great performance and features that make it as easy as possible for job seekers to find relevant listings. You’ll also want to pay attention to what’s going on in the back end, such as integrated payment opportunities and self-service listing management.
Bethesda Magazine’s job board is powered by the Job Directory PRO plugin by Web Publisher PRO. The Job Directory PRO plugin makes it easy for publishers to integrate a job board into their existing website, and it integrates critical features like branding, curation, and support.
Step #3: Collect job listings
Do you have relationships with businesses in your community or industry? Now is the time to call on those relationships and start collecting exclusive job listings. Sure, you could scrape other job boards for their postings, but that strategy won’t get you very far in the long run.
If you’re interested in starting a job board that people will want to visit over and over again, then you’ll need to get ahold of exclusive job postings that aren’t widely available elsewhere on the web. Having an empty job board, even at the time of your website’s launch, can be detrimental to your future success.
Step #4: Promote your job board
You’ve got the listings, now you need the job seekers. Use whatever channels you have available to let people know that your job board is live. Send email marketing materials to your subscriber list and run in-house display advertising on your related web properties. A promotional campaign for a job board launch should include a press release that’s distributed to all local media, along with blog posts and social media posts.
Do you want to learn even more about starting a job board? Reach out to our team here at Web Publisher PRO and we’ll show you how easy to can be to launch a niche job board website.
