Running an online job board can be very rewarding, but only if you have a steady flow of traffic to your site.

Unfortunately, data aggregators and social media are expanding the job recruiting market, which is a growing threat for many online job boards.

If you're job board is feeling the pinch, here's what you can do to offer the best online recruiting vehicle possible:

Competition is Everywhere

As the owner of an online job board, it's important to remember that competition is everywhere. Not all competition is a threat, especially if you do all you can to offer the best recruiting website possible.

Major jobs’ boards like CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, and Indeed deal with competition everyday - competition from each other as well as smaller, more specialized recruiting sites.

However, when the competition becomes a threat to your market share, you need to take a proactive approach to keeping your site alive and well.

Market Share Threats

As the following article looks at, the online job board and recruiting market is a massive one and, if you're wondering how to handle market share threats to your job board, it boils down to quality.

If you can provide a quality job board site that's unlike any site recruiters and jobseekers have ever seen, then those data aggregators and social marketing threats will disappear.

With a growing number of recruiters turning to social media to get the word out about their job openings, you need to offer something even more valuable. You need to make your job posting site a go-to resource where recruiters know their open positions will be seen.

Likewise, you need to make your site more attractive to jobseekers who are looking for exclusivity that no other job site offers.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways you can overcome market share threats.

Online Job Board Tips

When growing market shares begin to threaten your online job board, you need to have a strategy in place to make your site more marketable than the competition.

This begins by monitoring the competition, restructuring your prices, and eliminating your site's weaknesses:

• Monitor the Competition - Although you probably aren't competing with the major job posting websites, you still need to monitor other market share threats. By learning more about the competition's websites, pricing, and what they have to offer, you can make effective adjustments to your job board. 

• Restructure Pricing - Restructuring doesn't mean lowering your prices to keep up with other market shares. However, what it does mean is you may have to offer more bang for the buck. Adding incentives and exclusive deals to your recruiting packages will give your site the competitive edge it needs.

• Eliminate Weaknesses - It's important to take a long, hard look at the service you offer. Are there any weaknesses you can remedy? For example, if you don't offer stats or a visitor counter for recruiters, this is something you can easily remedy. By eliminating weaknesses like this, you'll make your site that much stronger. 

If market shares are hindering your online job board's success rate, then try following some of the pointers above.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including recruiting and website design.