JobX throw themselves into niche and white label sites

by Brett Iredale May 31, 2008

In what appears to be a very big move away from their original generalist job board strategy JobX are going all out with a new white label job board network. This appears to be a move to broaden their job distribution network and apparently not so much about generating revenue as they are only charging a few hundred dollars a month for the service.

Under the heading "What’s in it for JOBX?" in the slide show they say "We believe our technology is the best in its breed. Sharing our leading technology with our White Label partners increases JOBX’s profile and ability to promote our jobs to a wider audience."

This is an interesting strategy and time will tell if it will pay dividends. White label job boards are an extremely support intensive and complex business (if done properly) and I wonder what the potential impact of this could be on a startup business.

JobX are up to some interesting stuff lately. This white label strategy appears to go hand in hand with their recent partnership with Adlogic to create a network of niche job boards that all cross post to each and share revenue. If the concept gets off the ground job advertisers will be able to post job ads on multiple job boards from within any of the participating niche sites. Eg from within JobX you would be able to post a job to JobX as well as to a handful of other niche sites. This seems remarkably similar to Jobserve's JobG8 product which is also launching in June. It will be fascinating to see how that all plays out.

Entry filed under: Industry News, Job Board Updates

5 Comments Add your own

1. JB | May 31, 2008 at 11:21am

This is an interesting strategy by JOBX. I can see the advantages for them in creating the network but I can see little benefit for the niche players. A few dollars here and there from casual advertisers isn’t going to be the magic fix! Who are the niche job boards joining this network? As for Adlogic, shouldn’t they remain independent?

2. Martin D | May 31, 2008 at 5:20pm

JobX seems to be jumping around from idea to idea like a cat on a hot tin roof. What happened to "more eyeballs than SEEK", and video resumes, video conferencing, online training, wikis, blogs and all the other things JobX were doing?
I am confused.

3. Davy | May 31, 2008 at 8:08pm

Job Portals guys also seem to have done something very similar - allowing advertisers to post to different niche job boards under their own umbrella. JOBx looks to be moving the idea forward though by creating a network of separate partners rather than wholly owned sites. I guess the advertiser doesn't care where the response comes from and they get to trawl a much larger audience with a broader net. If advertisers don't get too confused it could be a clever move by JOBx? Time will tell.

4. Brett Iredale | June 1, 2008 at 8:05am

Davy - you are right about Portals, and this model has been done before in the US and UK. I am not sure we have the volume of small sites in Aus yet to support such a network. This kind of network only works where there is a lot of synergy and cross over between boards. The JObX network only has a small number of sites and the range is very diverse. It will be interesting to see if users find value in this.

If I was one of the job board owners I don't think I would be giving up the control over my job posting page and process in order to achieve this.
There is another interesting point in all this. When you agree to let someone cross post from your site to theirs you need to also send them advertiser details - not just the job. If Microsoft comes onto my site and lists a job and also asks to have the job put on 3 other sites in my network then I need to send those 3 sites all the info I have about Microsoft so they can also create the employer record in their system. So over time you are giving away the details of your own advertisers every time a job is posted on your site. There is a dangerous precedent there and not one I would take lightly.
What happens when one of the big guys buys one of the active small boards and ends up with the advertiser and contact details of the whole JobX network?

Maybe they have these issues covered?.....

5. Garth | October 2, 2008 at 8:50pm

Looks like Jobs.com.au has just recently abandoned the Jobx white label solution, in favour of shell site peppered with Adsense ads.

Both job.com.au (owned by Jobx) and jobx.com.au state:

"JOBX is currently undergoing maintenance,
We should be back online shortly.

The JOBX Team"

No doubt, they are removing any mention of jobs.com.au from their sites (case studies etc).

BTW, great blog.