It's Nice to Be Niche

Don't adevrtisers just love a niche and with publishers gee'd on by the rise of last years shock outsider jobswithdogs topping the onrec charts, creating niche boards has become an unstoppable additcion. Can this really be the way OLR should be going?

Speaking from a publishers point of view there is nothing easier to sell than a dedicated jobseeker comminity all in one place and nothing harder to achieve in reality. You can only go so far with "perceived audiences" before you get found out and if your response doesn't match your promise then it's curtians for you.

If you are relying on SEO and SEM to create your niche then you'll have one hell of a shock 3 months in when your budget is being eaten up by the minute from your google ads and your beatifully indexed and optimised site is still not appearing page 1. Thats why imho the only niche boards with staying power are ones that have access to an industry community outside of the jobs channel. Funnily enough just like trade press.

Two great examples of this are icerecruit and pfjobs both have unique marketing lists built from memberships outside of recruitment.

BUT and there's always a but. These memebrships are not jobseeker lists and it is not enough to just say we have this list and therefore putting jobs on our website will create response, it won't, it's a head start but not a given that these marketing databases will convert to a jobseekeing audience. Just as much effort has to go into canvassing this audience to come online and choose you as the prime place to find their next job. I see lots of money and effort wasted by institutes competing in the SEM arena when that money could be better spent securing thier memerships loyalty and land grabbing their job market.

Saying that I've decided to create the ultimate niche board called www.richardpurvisjobs.co.uk it has a 100% access to the richardpurvis market so if you wish to post jobs targeting richardpurvis please use this blog to register your interest.