Categories
Blogs Jobs

WordPress has a built in RSS – What about Irish jobs sites?

The WordPress blogging engine that is blog is written on has a built in RSS feed. The RSS feed is under the URL:


http://www.jobsblog.ie/Jobs/rss/

Subscribe to JobsBlog.ie RSS Feed


Which is exactly where you would expect it to be!

Anyway, a RSS feed is what you can send your job hunters to subscribe to on your job site. Most of the good job boards do it, but Irish Recruitment Agencies and the Direct Employers especially fail here graciously.

Just imagine where your recruitment web site feed (RSS) that delivers a new job to the RSS readers as each time you post a new job.

So exactly what Google XML Sitemap does to the Google search engine results page (SERP), where you can ‘push’ your new page in the SERP instantly, the RSS ‘pushes’ the new job to the RSS reader like Microsoft Outlook 2007.

Categories
Blogs Jobs

Job Specs vs. Blog Posts

Blog posts and job descriptions are similar sized chunks of text. Both are written to attract the reader. Job description has a definitive and clear call to action, the Apply button underneath. Blog post does not have a natural path where you want to send the visitor. One of the best tactics is to finish with the sentence that lists relevant articles, for further reading. You cannot really do this with the first blog post, since there is nothing to link to (jet). You will find out that your will further develop some ideas you already blogged about, and will continue writing on the same topics. When you do, you can go back to the original posts, and edit them to include the links to the never articles for the further reading.

The other way of achieving the similar result are ‘Tags’. By adding tags to your articles you are grouping them, so anyone can list all your blog posts based on the tags printed below the article.

The best solution is to post both. The finishing sentence or two where you are recommending a further reading, and a list of tags that are links to all the articles marked with any of those tags. Luckily the WordPress places tags for you under each post (in the default Themes).

Categories
Blogs Google Search Engine SERP XML Sitemap

Sitemap

a>Why is the Google XML Sitemap important?

This is blog an example:
Day 1. – Domain registered and blog set up
Day 2. – Sitemap installed
Day 3. – Blog in the SERP

JobsBlog.ie in Google SERP

The domain is 3 days old, and it has no links to it. Do you know of ANY other way of getting your domain in the search engine results that quickly?

A few minutes later – after this post was published you can see it in Google SERP allready:

JobsBlog.ie - Blog post in Google SERP instantly after publishing

Categories
Blogs Jobs

Recruiter blogging…. why?!

If you are a recruiter in Ireland today, your largest problem is to get relevant and ‘high quality’ applicants. In 95% of the cases you are better off with a candidate that is local, and also having the working permit is in most cases requirement as well.

Getting the job applications The Traditional Way:

    Job boards
    + their CV databases
    Newspapers
    Radio
    Your web site (+ Google AdWords)
    Mailshots (to the same job hunters you got the ways above)

All the above are getting more expensive each year. The quantity is decreasing steadily, and the quality of the applicants is decreasing rapidly.

Is a blog a way to recruit in the tomorrows market?

It certainly is! Why? Simply because the return on the investment is going to be far greater than from any other traditional jobs advertising media. Imagine having thousands of local and regular visitors to your blog, interested in the topics that are relevant to the industry you are hiring in?

What to write about?

Local
If you want local visitors write about local topics. Did you got stuck in traffic again today? IS a road closed – warn your readers. Any good tip about something local is good. A new sandwich bar? Starbucks opened around the corner? Is the coffee good? Keep a local note in every post.

Fresh
Your blog posts have to be about something that have just happened. Have you had an interesting chat with someone (who is well known). Did you participate in the symposium or an open table? Is there something new invented or implemented in your industry?

Positive & Professional (with a friendly touch…)
People far likely read a positive story. Leave Jackass to someone else. You are writing a professional blog, and it has its purpose. You want peoples CV’s. No one would send a CV to someone you do not trust.

Photo
Get your camera on the way to work out and take snapshots about the things you will write. Photographs and films make the story alive.

Topic
Do you have an opinion on the industry in general that you discuss with colleges? Do you have experience you can share so your readers benefit from it? Whatever is interesting to talk about with your colleges is worth blogging about! New technology? New process? Anything that is new, you have had some exposure to it, and would like to share it with your friends. That is what you should write about.

Categories
Blogs

The next 22 hours…

OK, I have a blog now, but….

WordPress is perfect! WordPress is rubbish!

Both is true. Unfortunately. Write down the first post, in the default HTML editor, save the post and all your formatting is gone in your published post. No paragraphs, no lists, no styles, no bolding, nothing. Just one ‘cube’ of characters. Rubbish! – Googleing for the solution will point you to the option in your WordPress Profile to turn off the HTML editor, and the formatting is preserved from now on.

You will find a million little things that simply do not work like you would want them with any ‘out of the box’ blog engine package. I have not published a single post in my ‘Next 22 hours of blogging’, simply because I was choosing a ‘Skin’ or ‘Theme’ as it is called in WordPress. Then, after giving up on Themes, you start installing plugging, and who knows what else. So the next 22 hours are messing with you blog. Familiarising? Is that the better word for it? You can decide for yourself!

Hey, I have my second post!

Categories
Blogs

22 hours

22 hours ago I decided I will start a blog. This is my first post.

I just want to document what is needed to start blogging:

Name: JobsBlog.ie
I spent some time thinking about a name, and since this is a blog about jobs, I decided to call it simply JobsBlog.ie.

Domain name: JobsBlog.ie
DomainRegistry.ie are the people to talk to about getting the domain name registered in Ireland. There are a lot of options to choose from, and people there are friendly and will explain to you what are your options, and how to go about them.

Blog Engine: WordPress.org
Why did I choose WordPress.org? Simply because it seems to be the most used. Free to use, and a lot of customisations available.

Hosting: Blacknight.ie
I visited web sites of the three most known (to me) web hosting companies to compare packages and prices. Hosting365 seamed expensive, Digiweb.ie would not install WordPress.org for you, and the pricing was a bit complex. Blacknight.ie had a Blog Hosting package offer on their front page. Transparent pricing, ordered via the web site yesterday late in the evening.

So in 22 hours what had happened exactly?
I made an order on Blacknight.ie in the late evening, called them today at 10AM to ask what is the next step, they asked for the credit card details, and I pad over the phone. They processed the order and requested the documentation regarding the Irish domain registration. I faxed it to them, they have sent it to the IEDR.ie, some 2 hours later an email from IEDR came to inform me that my request for the domain name JobsBlog.ie has been approved. In the next refresh of the DNS (noon and 5 PM Monday to Friday) my web site www.JobsBlog.ie is alive and well on the Internet!

It took me some time to install WordPress.org myself – via the interface provided by the Admin panel from Blacknight.ie. I did have to uninstall it, delete the database, install again, and repeat it for a few times to get it done right. It took 15 minutes only really. It’s all clicking on the buttons called Install and Uninstall really.

Anyway, 22 hours after I got an idea about the blog – here it is! And my first post on it!

22 hours is all it takes to set up a blog and start blogging. You only really need to do the steps above, and it’s all it takes!