Operating a job board today is much different than the old method of providing classified ads in a newspaper. The digital landscape offers opportunities for job boards and candidates like never before, and one of the most significant possibilities available online for job board owners now is job aggregation. Essentially, job aggregation is the process of pulling together job postings from multiple sources and then including them in your listings, minimizing the amount of work a job board owner needs to do while maximizing value for candidates in a given area.
How to Go About Job Aggregation
Using the aggregation method can certainly be a benefit, but how you go about doing so can determine how large the benefit ultimately ends up being. Some startup job boards today find that they have a hard time relying on their own clients to provide openings to site visitors, and as a result, they scrape the listings provided on other job boards or they take job listings posted on corporate sites in order to provide users with available openings and get positions filled.
How to Structure Fees for Fees for Job Aggregation
In terms of charging for job ad posting on your board, there are a couple of different methods used that have proven to bring in the most success. One is to charge a flat fee from sites where you aggregate from. For example, if your site aggregates through Monster.com, the site would agree to pay a flat fee to allow you to use and highlight its various listings per a certain period. Another method, however, is often used through corporate scraping via a pay-per-ad system. Using this method, a company that is seeking to offer an open position on your job board would pay a fee per posting that it displays within a given timeframe.
Job Matching as a Premium
Another consideration in job aggregation boards is the concept of job matching. Utilizing this type of service on a job board can be costly to design and develop, but once it’s in place, it can be very beneficial. Basically, job matching through a job aggregation board allows viable candidates to be provided with jobs that, based on their qualifications and experience, are most relevant to them. This then builds value for both candidates and employers in that it offers candidates a reason to check back in, sign up for newsletters, and purchase premium services, while it offers job board owners more potential revenue.
Which One is Right for Your Job Board?
When it comes down to it, you need to determine which of the above-mentioned factors apply directly to your strategy, but also which ones will benefit your company the most. While scraping jobs might add efficiently, it might also be illegal, so be careful when you aggregate data. If another site has posted it, you need permission, plain and simple.
While adding a premium fee schedule for candidates or employers could increase interest in your site, it might also decrease business, especially in a tough economy where the corporate landscape is stalling and starting across virtually every industry. Also, consider how much work and time are involved in designing job matching algorithms and designing or postings ads. By taking all of these factors into account, you’re more likely to succeed, bring in more potential candidates, and attract more paying employers.