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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.

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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!

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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!