Ok, it’s been a bit more than a month since the last news round up – I blame it on the holiday season. But now I’m working off those Christmas cookies, so here’s all the news that’s fit to print, more or less:

• Chris Russell sells out: Well, at least he hopes so. Chris has put his 20-site job board network on the market. The offering includes AllCountyJobs, FairfieldCountyJobs, and others. Sounds like a great deal for the right buyer!
• Unrabble adds job distribution: Unrabble has expanded its hiring software platform to include cross-posting to Indeed and SimplyHired. Just in case you weren’t already doing that, you see.
• SuccessFactors acquires Jobs2Web: Spending $110 million just a few days after being acquired by SAP, SuccessFactors picks up job posting distributor Jobs2Web. I suspect this is not the last we’ll hear from SuccessFactors in the online recruiting space.
• Job boards refuse to die: Bersin & Associates releases a study that shows 19% of new hires come from job boards. Spending overall for recruiting rose as well to $124 billion in 2011. In related news, Chris Russell raises the sales price on his job boards.
• It’s like eHarmony for geeks: Actually, no. CodeEval is a coding ‘challenge’ site where programmers compete for prizes and jobs. Now they’ve opened up their candidate database to employers for only $500/mo. They won’t be the last.
• Dice Holdings has a 92.9% gross margin: Yep, it really does, at least according to these folks. (Note to Chris: call Dice.)
• LinkedIn insiders sell: Although the NASDAQ is up 18%, LinkedIn stock has dropped from $83 to $69 – yet LinkedIn CEO Jeffrey Weiner netted $25.7M in early selling. Perhaps the stock is overvalued? Say it ain’t so!

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The last 3 years have been full of advice for companies were struggling to survive. But what about companies that are growing? It’s been a while since I’ve written about the challenges of growth – so it’s about time.

Despite the flat overall employment market, some areas are experiencing growth and even shortages (think healthcare, technology, skilled trades, etc.).  Is your job site experiencing an uptick in business? Then here are some things to think about:

• Hiring: It’s like talking about oil to Exxon, but in fact, hiring is one of the hardest things you will do. Finding that right salesperson or tech genius or versatile customer rep is extremely hard. As we all know, it’s usually not so hard getting applicants – it’s hard getting the right ones. I’m a big fan of screening questions on the job application, and an initial phone screen. It also helps to know yourself and your company. What kind of person is going to thrive in your environment?
• Money: Isn’t it interesting how making more money always involves finding more money to spend? It’s not uncommon to have imbalances in cash flow and ongoing needs (like that new hire, for example). My advice: stay close to your bank. Don’t show up once a year. Make sure you know at least a couple of the key officers. Banking locally is also useful – a local bank is often more customer-focused, and more flexible. And, of course, don’t forget about non-bank funding sources, such as friends and family (although these sometimes come with strings you don’t want).
• Focus: It’s great when things are working – until they don’t. I am a pessimist – and that’s held me in good stead. Assuming the worst keeps your eyes on the core business. Don’t confuse ‘focus’ with ‘obsession’, however. Make sure that your core business is working – and then build some new business.
• Time:  Time is the biggest enemy of any business. Why? Because lack of it (whether actual or perceived) prevents you from paying attention, thinking ahead, problem-solving, and growing. If you’re running from one fire to another, you’re not a hero – you’re a goner. Make time for yourself and your coworkers to think about and execute on long-term projects. Make time to actually get to the root problems.
• Goals: Hey, just because business is booming doesn’t mean that goals should fly out the window. In fact, when money is pouring in, you really need goals to keep you moving forward. Why? Because lots of money also means lots of ideas that you wouldn’t have given a 2nd glance to a few months earlier now suddenly seem worthwhile. ‘After all’, you say to yourself, ‘we can handle a flop. We’ve got money in the bank.’ Wrong. Bad ideas always suck. Really.

I hope and trust that this year will be a prosperous, growing year for your site.

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Well, folks, it’s official – Indeed is letting anyone and everyone search their resume database. It’s free – for now.

Sound familiar? It does to me – after all, Indeed used the same playbook during their initial launch: they allowed job boards to list their postings at no charge. Then they began charging for preferred listings. Most recently they’ve pivoted to focus on employers, while at the same time tightening the screws on job board listings.

Who does Indeed’s latest move affect?

• Job Boards: If you weren’t sure before, you should be certain now – Indeed wants your customers. They’ll offer free access for a while (maybe a few months, maybe a few years) – then they’ll charge. And they’ll do their best to make your job board’s resumes irrelevant.
• LinkedIn: This move directly targets LinkedIn, serving notice that Indeed is not content to be a search aggregator but instead plans to dip directly into one of LI’s core revenue sources.
• Monster and CareerBuilder: Indeed has already lapped these boards in terms of traffic, and over the past 2 years has increased sales staff and focus to lure the generalist job boards’ customers away. Adding resume access is another move in that direction. (However, as long as Indeed’s resumes remain free and publicly available, expect many of Monster customers to use 6Sense for search and access).

Even at 1 million, Indeed’s database is much smaller than its generalist competitors – and many niche boards will continue to have deeper and more active databases, at least for the near future. But the move will further destabilize the online recruiting industry – a sector that is already reacting to social media and cloud startups, contracting recruiting budgets, and a lingering recession.

Competitively, I think it’s a great move on Indeed’s part – one that had been long anticipated. ‘Free’ is an irresistible lure for recruiters (as it was 5 years ago for job boards), and many will migrate to Indeed simply because of that. Then, one day, they’ll wake up (as job boards did) and realize that they are now paying for what once was free.

How does that old saying by Santayana go? – “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Yep. What he said.

The best time to think about what to do when sales go down…is when sales are up.

Huh?

Consider this: when sales are up, you have better cash flow. You aren’t frantically trying to do something – anything – to generate sales. You don’t have creditors breathing down your neck (probably). And – most importantly - you’re thinking about the future, not worrying about whether or not you can make it through another week.

Most of you are seeing increasing sales right now. That’s good. Most of you went through some challenging times over the past two years. The fact that you survived is a big plus for you and your organization. But as you and I know, the world goes on, whether you’re paying attention or not. So now is the time to analyze your sales efforts and prepare for the day when your sales go down.

So let’s take a look at some steps you can take to prepare yourself for the (inevitable) day when sales don’t do what you expected them to:

• Know where your sales come from: Do you track back all sales to their source? Most of us say we do, but we don’t. Even if you can’t manage this on an ongoing basis, take a certain time segment – say, 1-month samples at 3 different times in the year – and track every sale back to the source. You may be surprised by what you find.
• Find out what your customers really think: Don’t send them a survey filled with slanted questions. Instead, give them plenty of chances to tell you what they think about your services. Is a salesperson annoying? You want to know. How about the effectiveness of your ATS integrations? The sexiness of your site? Believe me, it’s worth digging until you get the answers.
• Who is really making the buying decision – and how does it happen?: Is your sales operation really just an ‘order-taking’ operation? Do you actually know who pulled the trigger on that last ‘buy’ decision? Do you know how they found out about you? What made them decide on you instead of ‘Brand X’? If you don’t know why your customer uses your job board, you’re screwed. And you have to know how the decision is made, or you’ll always be blindsided when they decide NOT to use you.
• Always be expanding: If you’re not adding new sales prospects every day, you’re in trouble. Really. Okay, maybe you miss a day here and there – but on average, you should be adding a certain number of new leads to your pipeline all the time. How many? Depends on your site, your goals, and your resources.
• Always be curious: No matter how good – or bad – it is, take some time out every week to poke around. Read TechCrunch or ERE or any of a hundred other sites that cover developments in the tech, recruiting, HR, and general world. You’re going to learn something – and if you pick up even 1 good idea a month, that increases your chances of creating a new revenue stream.

So, I hope your sales are up – and you’re getting ready for the next downturn!

The amazing success (and possible bubble) of LinkedIn’s IPO last week got me to thinking about job boards and money. Almost a year ago I wrote a post about how one makes money with job sites – interestingly enough, it has been one of the more popular posts on the site.

It occurred to me that I missed one really big way that job boards can make money: by going public. Certainly when Dice went public (back in the dark ages), it generated quite a bit of cash. Monster has managed to create a bit of wealth over the years. So why not any job board?

Well, sorry to say, but job boards just aren’t sexy anymore. Much of LinkedIn’s IPO value is (in my opinion) bundled up in the idea that it is a social media site. Social media is sexy. LinkedIn also has big numbers – as in 100 million profiles (although I’m betting only 15-20% of those are active – sounds a bit like a (gasp!) resume database). So, add it up: big numbers + sexy social media = IPO dollars.

Now don’t get me wrong – I absolutely see the value of LinkedIn. I use it regularly (although I don’t give them any hard-earned cash), I know plenty of recruiters and HR pros who have been successful at sourcing certain types of employees from it, and I know they generate real money from recruiter memberships and job postings. And who knows? Maybe LinkedIn will become the Google of the online recruitment world, investing lots of money in technology and research, spinning off dozens of services and sites, and continually changing the way they work. I haven’t seen any sign of it yet, but it could happen.

But let’s get back to my revenue model oversight. Is it reasonable for a job board to go public, in this day and age?

Maybe. Remember the formula above? Big numbers and social media sexiness (or at least some kind of sexiness – you could be mobile-sexy, I suppose). But there’s one more factor – you need to able to convince many, many investors that you’re on the way up, fast, and they should hitch a ride. In other words, momentum.

So let’s say that your job board is growing – fast. Let’s say that your site looks really Web 2.0, maybe even Web 3.0, and you’ve folded in mobile and social media. Let’s say you have a cool name. Let’s also say you’re making decent money in a segment that has a lot of room to grow. Could you make some money with an IPO?

Sure. But I’m betting that there are relatively few sites out there that can jump over all these hurdles.

Besides, when you go public, you lose control, you gain a bunch of strings, and your horizon shortens considerably. Is all that money worth it?

Well?

A lot of the chatter about social media in our industry has been about how it may displace job boards as a core recruiting tool. Less has been said about how job sites can actually use social media to promote their services. It’s time to rectify this oversight!

Job boards must connect with two core audiences: job seekers and employers. Both audiences are using social media for a variety of reasons, such as personal or professional networking, research, and entertainment. Rather than rushing willy-nilly into social media, a job site should first understand the two audiences. Where do they live? What do they do? What do they watch, listen to, read, etc.? In other words, what does the target audience look like? Until you can answer this question, you simply can’t make a decision about which social media tools or channels you should use.

Example: your job site caters to mid-career professionals in accounting. LinkedIn may be a better choice than Facebook (if an accountant is on Facebook, most likely he/she is using it for entertainment and family). But an even better choice may be an accounting-specific networking site like HubStreet. Remember: the audience determines the channel!

Once you’ve analyzed your audience and identified the best channels (and I would probably include Twitter and LinkedIn for all job sites – they have the right general career demographics and size), you need to set up a map of the messages you’ll use and their frequency. No, I’m not talking about just setting your job listings to auto-Tweet (although that is useful and should be done). Instead, think about your audience (again): what do they want? what are they interested in?…and what can you offer them?

Example: Going back to our fictional accounting folks, they no doubt would love to know which metro areas pay the most for accountants. So gather up some data and get it out there! For example, you could Tweet about different cities and pay – and link back to the relevant part of your site. Then go to LinkedIn and start a Question about the same thing. Then run over to HubStreet and start a discussion. Notice what’s happening here? You are thinking like your audience, giving them information they want – and engaging them.

Last – but absolutely not least - measure what you are doing. There are numerous free and paid tools out there, such as SocialMention, Radian6, and SproutSocial. You can even use Google Analytics – just create a profile exclusively for social media. The bottom line, however, is that you must measure or you won’t know which social media channels are working – and which aren’t.

The bottom line? You’ll see more job seekers AND employers on your site – and that’s a good thing!

Predictions are a dime a dozen – and if you’re lucky, no one goes back at the end of the year to see how accurate your soothsaying actually was. Nevertheless, I like predictions just as much as the next person; if nothing else, making them forces you to take a broader look at the preceding year’s events. So let me slide my virtual crystal ball in front of me and tell you what I see:

• More and better job board software: As I’ve said before, competition has been good for the job board software world. More vendors means better prices, more robust software, and – ultimately – better job sites.
• More spending: As recent investments have demonstrated, the drought is finally ending for investments in the online recruiting industry. Most of these won’t pan out, of course – but a few will, and I’m betting we’ll see some new starts up this year that shake up the existing paradigm.
• Freelance nation: One effect of the recession: more of the workforce now works for itself. This represents opportunity for the job board industry, and several sites such as eLance have begun filling these new and different needs. I expect to see more.
• Social media is a tool, a threat, and much more: The year 2010 will go down as the year social media entered the mainstream. As such, it also garnered top-level headlines in the major HR sites, blogs, and magazines. Some job boards reacted by providing new services; others stuck their heads in the sand. Wonder which will survive?
• Everything’s gone mobile: Yes, I’ve said it before – but I’ll say it again: job hunting is going mobile, and this has big implications for the way that employers and job boards structure and promote their listings.  Whether job seekers are using traditional feature phones (and texting) or smart phones (and accessing the mobile web), they want to look (and apply) for jobs via their mobile devices. ‘Nuff said.
• Matching, maybe?: Could I possibly be wrong? Could 2011 be the year of job matching? Well…there’s some venture dollars out there betting on matching, so we’ll just have to see.
• Job site sector grows – again: Despite the inconvenient fact of ‘job boards dying’ (or at least the never-ending repetition of this in various blogs), the job site sector is growing. Dice, Monster, and CareerBuilder all reported strong Q3 growth, investment dollars are flowing to various startups, and mid-tier sites are expanding. I expect to see a few ‘intermarriages’ between social recruiting and job board sites as well.

Well, darn it – the crystal ball has clouded up! So tell me – what do you think will happen in 2011?

Job Board Doctor topped 100 posts this year – and some were more popular than others. I decided to look at this year’s blog posts using 3 criteria: the number of comments, the number of page views, and the number of times the post was ‘retweeted‘. Here’s what I found:

Most popular – Page views:

1. Cool Job Sites
2. Results of the Job Board Future Survey are here!
3. Cool Job Sites – Part 2
4. People, Balance, & Technology: The future of job boards
5. Results from the 2010 Job Board Industry survey
6. “Fake” postings and your job board
7. 5 ways to screw up your job board
8. The dangers (and benefits) of backfilling job listings
9. The future of job boards is…
10. 5 ways to make your job board better

Most popular – Retweets:

1. Results of the Job Board Future Survey are here!
2. The year in job boards: 2010- what we learned
3. Job boards vs. LinkedIn is like Kindle vs. iPad
4. Job boards must evolve or die
5. Is social recruiting a symptom – or a solution?
6. People, Balance, & Technology: The future of job boards
7. Results from the 2010 Job Board Industry survey
8. How do job boards help people?
9. Words matter – for job boards, career sites, and recruiting in general
10. Reading tea leaves in the job site world

Most popular – Number of comments:

1. Cool Job Sites
2. “Fake” postings and your job board
3. How to make money – revenue models for job boards
4. What no job board wants to talk about…
5. The problem of duplicate job postings
6. Cool Job Sites – Part 2
7. Everyone writes about job boards – well, a lot of people do
8. Job boards vs. LinkedIn is like Kindle vs. iPad
9. Will job matching ever take off?
10. The future of job boards is…

The comments numbers are a bit misleading, as much of the discussion happens on other sites, such as ERE.net, JobBoarders, and RecruitingBlogs. But you know – I’m just happy that folks are talking! Here’s to a great 2011.

In 2009, the job board industry (and the rest of the world) was deep in the recession’s trough. It was ugly.

With 2010 essentially in the rear view mirror, I think I can safely say that we’re out of the trough. We’re not at the top. We may not even be that far from the bottom – but a lot of things are looking better:

1. The largest job sites are doing better: Monster, CareerBuilder, and Dice all posted solid financial results. And I know from private conversations that many niche boards had good sales this year.
2. More jobs are being posted: The number of jobs on Indeed are up 40% year over year – and given that the site’s postings are drawn from niche job boards and employers, that is a very good sign.
3. Sales and mergers have resumed: Sure, the big news was Monster swallowing HotJobs – but there was plenty of action further down the food chain. That means that job sites are putting their cash to work.
4. Job boards are evolving – again: One sure sign of recovery? Job sites introducing new services and technologies. We saw lots of action with social media, mobile, and micro-niche. We’ll see lots more.
5. Competition is heating up: Let’s face it - competition is good. Solid competitors force you to look hard at your services and figure out how to improve them. LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, and others are doing exactly that for the job board industry.
6. Mobile is here: No ifs, ands, or buts. Mobile is pervasive (91% of the US population has it) and powerful. A significant portion of the job seekers out there prefer it to desktop computers. Job boards ignore it at their peril.
7. Job hunting is getting cloudy: Per the above, job seekers are moving away from desktop computers and their resident applications – and moving into the cloud. I expect to see some interesting innovation in the job board world with regard to cloud computing.

Stay tuned for my 2011 predictions – after I polish off some more holiday cookies, that is!

PS: Guess what? This is post number 101. I am amazed. I hope you are, too.

I’ve been cataloging job boards for the past two years (for obvious reasons), and frankly, I’ve been surprised at how many sites rely on candidates for their primary revenue stream. Making money, of course, is always a primary focus for job board operators; after all, job boards are businesses, and if businesses don’t turn a profit, they disappear.

So inevitably, anyone entering the industry will ask: “How can you make money with a job board?” The answer is, well, both simple and complicated. But the bottom line is to solve your customer’s problems – right?:

Simple: Job boards have two core audiences: employers and job seekers. So most job sites will focus on one of those two groups – and most will choose the employer. Why? The employer has the ability to pay and the need to fill. Yes, as noted above, some sites focus on job seekers – but for every 1 site that is a ‘candidate-pay’ site, there are 10 that are ‘employer-pay’.

Complicated: Ok, enough of the easy stuff. The devil is in the details! Let us chronicle the many ways that job boards charge employers and job seekers for their services.

Employers:

• Job postings: far and away the most common revenue source
• Resume access: the most typical ‘#2′, although the advent of LinkedIn and other social media have made this less popular
• Highlighted job listings: Enhanced with fonts, images, search results location, and so on
• Site advertising: Banners, buttons, tile ads, and everything in between – the traditional web-based visual ad
• Company profiles: Enhanced, with logos, video, you name it – a spotlight on the employer
• Targeted candidate emails: A custom email that is sent to a subsection of the registered job seeker lists
• Newsletter advertising: Text or image (if, of course, the job board has a newsletter!)
• Social media extensions: This can be as grand as the new Dice Talent Network or as simple as ‘Tweeting’ the employer’s jobs
• Cross posting: Often included in the base price, but sometimes an add-on; job board posts the employer’s jobs to additional locations
• Packages: Combining any of the above elements

Job seekers:

• Membership fee: some sort of monthly or annual fee to access job listings and (possibly) related services
• Visibility: promotes the job seeker’s resume in some way to increase the likelihood an employer will respond
• Reports, etc.: Usually e-books on job hunting, interviews, resumes, salary surveys, etc.
• 3rd party services: the classic example is the resume writing service; the job board will take a revenue split of what the 3rd party makes

Then there are what I would term as ‘miscellaneous’ revenue streams: AdSense, affiliates, and other types of revenue usually associated with how much activity the site generates.

What did I miss? What other ways are there to make money with your job board? Tell me!