Forums

[Muzzy]

Hello All,

Before I start I would just like to point out that the forum I wish to get up and running won't be making any profit and will not be run as a business.

I am only posting the question here because it seems that there is a wealth of knoweldge on how to make these things a success.

I had the idea from a friend of mine who has been looking for work for a few months now. He has been to numerous agencies (not all them good), had interviews, done numerical and reasoning tests, and is still waiting for a job offer. He has said on numerous occasions that he has no real ideas on what to expect from things such as assesment days etc because there is no information out there for people in his position.

I am a member of a car forum and I am in no doubt that I would have spent a lot of money on my car had it not been for the advice of other members on how to sort out any problems I have had.

I believe the same can be done for Job seekers. To have a community where people in similar positions can share their experiences, give tips and point each other to agencies, websites etc. that are useful rather than a total waste of time and effort (as it appears a lot of the, seem to be.)

Thanks for any help,

Muzzy

www.wantajob.org

[Jayne]

Hi Muzzy,

Welcome to the forum :D

Jayne

[Magsite]

Hi Muzzy

Welcome to the forum

Lisa

[uksbc]

welcome,

i like the concept behind your forum, good luck with it

[Russ]

Muzzy

This is a topic very close to my heart as my business is based around the recruitment industry.

You will find that there are already a few forums set up for contractors http://forums.contractoruk.com/ and a good site set up to assist people changing careers at www.i-resign.co.uk with a useful chat forum at http://www.i-resign.com/uk/discussion/ we have a useful link section at appoint direct at http://appointdirect.com/moreusefullinks.htm where other things such as CV services and the likes of the Riley guide can be found.

We are in the process of setting up an FAQ page as we feel that this would be more beneficial to jobseekers than a chat area, mainly because people are only looking for a job for a short period of time and would not use a chat area as a permanent resource but would use an FAQ as a quick reference.

If you do set up a forum and it gets a lot of visits I will be happy to link up with you but would like to suggest that if you check the chat area's on some of the job sites they tend to be pretty poorly attended and moderated.

Be lucky.

Russ

[Muzzy]

Thanks for all replys everyone.

Russ - I think one of the main problems with such services being poorly attended is that they are hard to find. I had a long look for similar forums, chat rooms etc and only really found doctorjobs.com, which was not at all easy to use. I would certainly be happy to make links with other career services. But at the momment I am simply trying to get members. I know there are 1000's out there. I just need them to find me! :roll:

My theory is that most job seekers now use the internet to search for work. But with so much choice it is very difficult to sort the dross from the useful sites. Certainly when I was looking for work I would spend hours at a time trawling through sites looking for jobs and was lucky if I received any feedback at all. A lot of sites post 'ghost' jobs to lure you to signing up to them and then you receive 2 - 3 e-mails a day.

My idea is to have a recognised brand that job seekers could use to cut out a lot of time and hassle. Like I said, from my past experiences and especially the experiences of my friend who is going through the process now, there is a need for a central resource which is not trying to sell them something, but offers helpful, impartial advice on where to look for work.

Muzzy

[Russ]

My theory is that most job seekers now use the internet to search for work. But with so much choice it is very difficult to sort the dross from the useful sites. Certainly when I was looking for work I would spend hours at a time trawling through sites looking for jobs and was lucky if I received any feedback at all. A lot of sites post 'ghost' jobs to lure you to signing up to them and then you receive 2 - 3 e-mails a day.


I agree, thats exactly why Appoint direct has been set up! we do not allow employment agencies to advertise on the site which means all applications will go directly to the employer.


My idea is to have a recognised brand that job seekers could use to cut out a lot of time and hassle. Like I said, from my past experiences and especially the experiences of my friend who is going through the process now, there is a need for a central resource which is not trying to sell them something, but offers helpful, impartial advice on where to look for work.
Muzzy

I agree again. All services offered through our site are free to job seekers. Admitidly some of the links to CV services that we provide the companies concerned do make a charge for the preparation of top flight CV's but hey, people have to earn a living...

You state in your thread that you do not wish to make any profit from this forum... Why is that? I pressume you still have a revenue streem to cover overheads from things like adsense?

Russ

[Muzzy]

This is where I show my (serious) knowledge gaps.

Can you explain what adsense is? At the moment I have ads. This is because the forum is free. I could pay to take them off but at the moment there is very little point.

If the site really does grow then I will have to look for some kind of sponsorship, although I would rather stay away from industry sponsors to try an keep the sites impartiality.

Any thoughts?

Muzzy

[Russ]

Adsense are the google adverts that apear at the top of your site in the box that says "adds from google" We have them on our site and when people click through on them we get a % of the revenue. To promote your own website "sponsered keyword" you might pay for ad words on google so when people type in "advice about jobs" as a search your site appears at the top of the sponsered site.

I gather from your response though that the people that have provided the forum for you are taking the revenue from these adverts. What you have to understand is that the field we are in is so competitive that unless you invest serious cash you stand very little chance of ever featuring in the natural listings, or anywhere else come to that...

Correct me if i'm wrong, although your idea is valiant, you do not wish to put 100's of thousands of pounds in to establishing it?

[Russ]

If the site really does grow then I will have to look for some kind of sponsorship, although I would rather stay away from industry sponsors to try an keep the sites impartiality.

Muzzy

Not sure about how much credibility your site will have without affiliations from within the industry... I do understand that you wish to strive for impartiality but would have thought that the only place to get good solid advice about what to do and how to do it is from experts within the industry itself??? Why do you feel the need for impartiality?

[mattk]

Russ: Just been browsing your site. You need to check the salary amount of the homepage, as mine have gone a bit mental.

Also, when i search it returns nothing. No jobs, no message saying "No jobs found".

And why only 3 jobs per page when I view all jobs? I think 10 would be good, with the option to display more.

[Russ]

Russ: Just been browsing your site. You need to check the salary amount of the homepage, as mine have gone a bit mental.

Also, when i search it returns nothing. No jobs, no message saying "No jobs found".

And why only 3 jobs per page when I view all jobs? I think 10 would be good, with the option to display more.

Thanks Matt

I will have my techies look in to it.

Russ

[Muzzy]

I suppose I am not really interested in accreditations from the industry.

It will simply be an on-line community for job seekers. Somewhere where they can go and ask questions, swap ideas and experiences etc.

The impartiality aspect I suppose has come from past experiences. What I wouldn't want is for the site to be sponsored by a company from the industry who has been slated within the forum.

I would like members to be able to say, for example, that the jobsite was utter crap. Having a sponsor from the industry would make it difficult, I feel, for members to speak their minds.

Bear in mind that this is all a long way in the future. The site is only really for helping job seekers, not make money. I just am not sure how I can reach the target group.

You have made me think a lot about issues I hadn't even thought would be a problem.

Thanks for that Russ :D ,

Muzzy

[caroline]

Hi Muzzy and welcome, the forum sounds like a good idea to me.

[Russ]

Muzzy

I'm glad to be of assistance, if I can help at anytime please let me know. I have 15 years invested in the industry and am happy to help if I can.

Russ

[Muzzy]

Muzzy

I'm glad to be of assistance, if I can help at anytime please let me know. I have 15 years invested in the industry and am happy to help if I can.

Russ

Thanks a lot Russ :D

Back onto topic, does anyone know how I could build up my member base??

www.wantajob.org

[Russ]

I know but i'll let you get back on topic... sigh :?

[sazzledazzle]

What a great idea. I have just left working in the recruitment industry, because i was unable to offer the service that I wanted to provide to clients and candidates due to amount of time I was allowed on tasks.
I often got candidates coming in who were not clued up on interviews, questions and answers etc. I would normally like to do around a 30 - 60 minute interview prep with candidates I had going forward for roles. I would run through this information with them, which allowed them to be more confident at interviews, and really show the client what skill sets they have.
If I can be of any assistance please give me a shout.

[caroline]

I've often wondered about forums, how do you get started with them? I mean its a bit like the chicken and the egg isn't it..if you don't have any members then new people won't want to join as there is no-one to talk to. I've been thinking about starting up a completely different forum in Ireland for quite some time now, but getting members from scratch worries me.
I'm busy with my new business now (contracts are nearly signed to give us licencing agreement to distribute new product in Europe), but I'm still interested in hearing about how you get started in forums for the future.

[TWD-Tony]

The only way I know is to either have a few people "the core" start the forum and post lots of content and reply to each other.... Then you need the core to create "false" accounts so that it looks like the forum has x3 or x4 members than it has - and these "false" accounts then need to join in the chat!

I know this sounds stupid (or even childish) but it usually works :wink:

You can always create 20 or 30 dummy accounts by yourself and start talking to yourself! :D

Back to the original topic...

i think the concept is a good one - although I suggest you get some "credible" members on board as soon as you can, if you can get experts in their field to hold weekly / monthly questions & answers sessions then you may find that this helps boost the credability of the forum.

[caroline]

Very interesting Tony, thank you for answering my question (Muzzy hope you didn't mind me butting in!) bty Tony I love your avatar, it made me do a double take!

[Muzzy]

Hello All,

Thanks for all the positives! :D

I am still unsure how to get my forum noticed though.

I am new to the website game so am clueless about SEO. I have added some meta tags but am not sure if they are any good or not.

Anyone have any tips or how to get new members? I will create a few myself and get friends et al to do the same but I would like for people who would really use it and benefit from it to see it and sign up.

Thanks

Muzzy