Job Boards and the Quest for Open Standards
We're going to see job boards pop up all over the place since it's a much easier way to monetize a site than traditional banner ads. Compare pulling in $200-$250 a job post guaranteed versus the crapshoot that is AdSense et al (click-thru rate, cost per impression, # of clicks and # of impressions are all variable). If you've got the traffic already (as 37signals, Om Malik and TechCrunch do), then it's a no-brainer, especially once you take into account the fact that geekier audiences are more likely to ignore ads.
Mike Arrington writes about how both Jason Fried of 37signals and Om Malik turned down offers to join forces. Mike envisioned a job posting API and all sorts of interoperability. The problem is that these job boards are simple revenue-generating machines. By keeping the boards closed from one another, each company looking to hire will have to pay Mike, Om, and 37signals a separate listing fee. If we open the system up, then employers only have to pay one fee and all but one job board site lose.
While the idea of a job board API for interoperability sounds great, I don't think it can come from a job board site (at least not one bolted on to a blog), it will have to come from the employers themselves. And since the employers are each competing with each other for the best talent, I don't see any of them really taking a lead on the project (see 37signals' response above). Dave Winer has volunteered to develop the API, and he possesses the objectivity necessary to do so (at least for the time being), but for the same reason Jason Fried and Om Malik didn't join forces with CrunchBoard, I don't see them adopting any API either.
Technorati Tags: TechCrunch, Michael Arrington, CrunchBoard, jobs, Monster.com, job search, job board, Jason Fried, 37signals, Om Malik, GigaOM, Dave Winer, Scripting News, API, open network, walled garden
Jay wrote:
LOL! "Dave Winer has volunteered to develop the API, and he possesses the objectivity necessary to do so" - is this the same Dave Winer that forked the Blogger API with one of his own, is still promoting his own broken approach to APIs and is antagonistic to the first truly open, community based API (the Atom Publishing Protocol)..? That's objective like inviting a Creationist in to teach evolution…
Posted on 26-Aug-06 at 3:07 am | Permalink
Ian Holsman wrote:
there already is a 'open api' look @ edgeio.com and indeed.com.
they aggregate the smaller job boards to provide a common front.
so .. I don't envision the 200-250 price tags are going to last as the boards get fragmented.
you might even get to the case where a job-board pays the lister to list.. so it can get the ad-revenue.
Posted on 26-Aug-06 at 5:21 pm | Permalink
Martin wrote:
The board paying the lister to list, now that's an interesting idea, but you do have to worry about spam. It could happen for the big guys, but I don't think it would happen for "bolted-on" job boards (i.e., boards on sites not specializing in offering that service), where it's clearly meant to serve as as revenue stream.
And I do agree with you, I don't see the $200-$250 price tag lasting long. Once some other A-list blog with similar traffic patterns begins to offer job posts for less, we'll begin to see some consolidation (or collusion) in order to keep prices relatively high (higher than AdSense or Federated Media, at least).
Posted on 26-Aug-06 at 5:32 pm | Permalink