The Best $50 I Ever Spent on My Blog: Part 2
This is a multi-part series on the lessons I learned while seeking a freelance blogger to contribute to my Web site.
Since Jobacle contains career advice with an edge, I did my best to produce a job posting that mirrored the site’s casual vibe. Here’s how the post read…
Jobacle.com, a popular career advice blog and podcast, seeks fresh bloggers who can work autonomously. We’re all for collaboration, but we need a self-starter who can be assigned a project or just as easily come up with their own and then write!
We don’t care about your experience. As long as you can produce killer content that is equal parts thought provoking and unique, with just the right amount of snark, you will be considered.
Visit Jobacle.com to get an idea of content/style/tone. This ain’t your SimplyHotMonsterBuilder career advice!
You won’t be able to quit your day job, but you will be able to cover that cell phone or cable bill.
We’re nice people. This is good exposure. So stop reading this job ad and get in touch with Jobacle today!
Fill out this form: http://www.jobacle.com/blogger-application/
If you are form-phobic, you can contact us at [email protected]
Even the form (which I set up a unique URL for tracking purposes) captured a light-hearted tone. As you already know, many people do not follow instructions. In this case, I’ve surmised that 620 out of 713 simply didn’t get it. And by this I mean that their skills were not a match, they asked a question that was already answered or they were completely off base as far as the gig or compensation. So while it might seem that competition is steep, when you boil it down, many of the applicants were immediately disregarded.
WHAT WORKED: The unique URL for the form made tracking easy; A confirmation message after people filled out the form gave me an additional page view per visitor; A confirmation email could help raise brand awareness – it also gives people another reminder about Jobacle down the road.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK: Not being specific about the compensation forced me to manually filter the candidates, resulting in a loss of time; I would recommend a shorter application period if your only goal is to hire help (if you’re looking for a traffic jolt, than ride the wave); I have a toll-free number that I use for Jobacle. I am billed for each call I receive. Several ambitious folks left me messages, and this costs me money. Next time I’ll be sure to indicate “No Phone Calls Please!”
RECOMMENDATIONS: I encouraged bloggers to “earn brownie points” by commenting on existing blog posts when/if I responded to their application. This helped generate a few more comments than usual. In the future I would give a more specific assignment and include it oin the job posting. The reality is that people looking for work are usually willing to jump through hoops to increase their odds. Next time I will designate a Twitter hashtag and encourage click-throughs via Twitter.
