Jobs websites as a business?

Digital_Guy

Anybody here got any past experience / insights to share re running a jobs website? I get that there are several big players who dominate in the Irish market and globally, and who own the first page of Google search, etc.

I still see jobs websites as showing good potential though. People will always search for jobs online and if you can target a good niche maybe you can do well. For example, there is one particular Dublin-focused jobs site that targets a particular sector and offers basic job listings at €29.99. I see quite a few listings on there, meaning they must be making several hundred euro per month at least - not bad if it's a part-time gig with a simple, easy to manage website in place.

I had my own jobs site up until a couple of years back - again it targeted a niche that was probably too small in some ways. There were a number of reasons why I didn't continue with it - one being that the agency that built it did a pretty poor job. However, the job view stats were pretty good - each one always got quite a few visits when I promoted them on social media, etc.

I also have some ideas (or maybe one or two) for different takes on the usual jobs board. It's one area that really hasn't changed much over the years and I think fresh angles on the usual offering can do well and draw attention.

ironclaw

No experience but you are right, a niche could be carved out. That said, what niches are there left. Most professionals are recruited / headhunted via LinkedIn these days. So then at the opposite end of the spectrum say part time, but no one looks online for that and its generally a case of popping into a shop with a CV in hand. Seasonal work, same story. You could look at summer / teacher positions but there are some major players there.

The biggest hurdles I see for you are:

- Marketing. You'll need a bucket load of it to get up the pages and for people to find you. Recruiters won't be long jumping ship when after a month or two they get zero inquiries from your platform.

- Freebies. I think I know the sites you are talking about and it wouldn't surprise me if they were offering a significant discount to get content on the site. I doubt they are making the payroll you are calculating.

- Brand. Reality is you are going to be up against LinkedIn, Monster and even DoneDeal Jobs. You need to convince a user to use your site and if its a niche, you need to target them specifically. Could be very difficult and you are cutting your market down to size considerable.

I think you could make a tidy earner but you need a specific niche that has a high enough rotation of staff that you can generate content for consistently that also has the economic means, and mind set, to pay for a job vacancy notice.

Digital_Guy

ironclaw wrote: »

No experience but you are right, a niche could be carved out. That said, what niches are there left. Most professionals are recruited / headhunted via LinkedIn these days. So then at the opposite end of the spectrum say part time, but no one looks online for that and its generally a case of popping into a shop with a CV in hand. Seasonal work, same story. You could look at summer / teacher positions but there are some major players there.

The biggest hurdles I see for you are:

- Marketing. You'll need a bucket load of it to get up the pages and for people to find you. Recruiters won't be long jumping ship when after a month or two they get zero inquiries from your platform.

- Freebies. I think I know the sites you are talking about and it wouldn't surprise me if they were offering a significant discount to get content on the site. I doubt they are making the payroll you are calculating.

- Brand. Reality is you are going to be up against LinkedIn, Monster and even DoneDeal Jobs. You need to convince a user to use your site and if its a niche, you need to target them specifically. Could be very difficult and you are cutting your market down to size considerable.

I think you could make a tidy earner but you need a specific niche that has a high enough rotation of staff that you can generate content for consistently that also has the economic means, and mind set, to pay for a job vacancy notice.

Cheers ironclaw, some good points there! Agree with nearly all of it and could well be that the big players aren't making as much as you'd think (maybe).

Not sure that most professionals are hired via LinkedIn. You might be right but I'd say 'lots' rather than 'most' - I think a lot of people are hired through there but a lot still go through the jobs sites. Doesn't make much difference anyway, especially as the same jobs will be on all of the various sites / networks.

I think if you are going to set up a niche site, the problem is that a lot of the employers will already have their own channels that they go through, whether it's an existing niche site or a panel of recruitment agencies / recruiters, and so on. And like you say there are probably plenty of sites out there already for the more significant niches at least. That said, there could be opportunities if you were to build lots of Search traffic for a niche site, but it wouldn't be easy.

Maybe the best opportunity lies in coming up with a fresh take on the usual jobs board - one where you still have all the jobs that are out there (or all the jobs in a niche), but where the content is presented in a new way. One that makes sense for the user but provides a fresh approach that grabs attention (and traffic).

davindub

Ill just point out a lot of smaller job sites pull content from other sites to make it appear they have listings, what you think is earning money may actually be earning nothing at all.

Digital_Guy

davindub wrote: »

Ill just point out a lot of smaller job sites pull content from other sites to make it appear they have listings, what you think is earning money may actually be earning nothing at all.

True, I'm sure there is some of that going on.

I've seen another site that offers internships listings, their model looks to be to let people post for free, and then they have affiliate listings below the main listings. Not sure if they are pulling from other sites too.

Digital_Guy

I mentioned having a 'fresh take' on the usual jobs board - I discovered these guys last week: https://whoishiring.io/

They literally map out jobs across the world, and are apparently getting around 80k visits/month to the site.