WordPress is a powerful tool for creating any type of website.
Today, we’re going to build a job board site, one of the many websites that are becoming popular, especially now that we’re on the pandemic.
Job boards allow people to find and apply for jobs easily and companies to post their own job listings.
For that reason, it’s important to understand what job boards are, what you need to get started, and how to set them up on your website.
As a freelance WordPress developer, building a job board can be an additional source of income, hence I can accept payments from job listings.
In this post, I will show you how to quickly create a job board in WordPress using a free WordPress plugin and make money from it.
This is an essential tool to have in your WordPress toolbox. So if you aren’t familiar with job boards, keep reading to learn everything that you need to know.
What You Need to Create a Job Board Website
Before getting started, there are some things you’re going to need in order to create your job portal website. Let’s take a look at what those are.
- A domain name (This will be your job board website’s address. Example, wpmsjobhunt.com)
- A web hosting account (This is where the website files are stored)
- An existing WordPress website or starting a new one
- A job board extension for WordPress
As you can see, there are not many requirements to build your job board. You just need to have a domain name and web hosting, and then start a WordPress website from there.
Usually, a domain name can cost as little as $15 per year, and web hosting from $8 per month.
See also: How To Save Money When Buying a Web Hosting Plan
The good thing about it is that most domain name registrars and web hosting providers give out promotions for new customers. Some providers get you up to 70% off on web hosting plus a free domain name for your first year. While others have another set of discounts to offer. So this is a good start to saving. And if you haven’t gotten one for yourself, I highly recommend Bluehost as your web hosting provider. They are one of the best in the industry.
Bluehost offers free domain name, free SSL certificates, and discounts on hosting for only $3.95 per month. A really nice offer to have.
Click the image below to get started with Bluehost.
You also might be wondering what particular features your job board should have.
Here’s a great article that shows different features to make sure you can attract more job applicants and also companies who will pay you to get their job posts on your website. Click here to learn more.
Setting up Your WordPress Website
By this time, I assume you already have purchased your domain name and web hosting. And if you already have an existing WordPress website, you can skip this step and proceed to the next. If not, continue reading below.
To be able to continue, first, you need to set up WordPress on your hosting account.
For more information, you can check our other tutorial on how to make a WordPress website with Bluehost. Once that is done, go back here and continue with the next step.
How to Create a Job Board Website with WordPress
Now that we covered the basic requirements, it’s time to get to the fun stuff. Let’s take a look at how you can create a job board using WordPress step by step:
- Download and Install the WP Job Manager Plugin
- Configure the Job Settings
- Create a New Job Listing
- Adding a new Job Listing on the Front-end
- Add Paid Job Listings Features
Step 1: Download and Install the WP Job Manager Plugin
Now, you need to download and install the WP Job Manager plugin to your WordPress site. If you need help installing the plugin, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once it’s done installing, you’ll get a message notifying you that it was successful. Select the Run Setup Wizard button to continue. It will bring you to a welcome screen. Click on the Start setup to follow the prompts.
On the Page Setup page, Job Manager will have an option for you to select the most common pages for your job board. By default, Post a Job, Job Dashboard, and Jobs pages are already selected. All you just need is to click on the Create selected pages button and you are ready to go.
These pages will be created by the wizard and will be taken care of.
Once you’re done, the last tab is the Done page. On this screen, you’ll see a number of options:
You can either add a job using the admin Dashboard, tweak some settings, jump into creating a job via the front-end, or view the job Dashboard. I recommend installing a sample job listing so you can get a preview of how your WordPress job board would look on the front.
Note: The appearance will be based on your current WordPress theme.
Step 2: Configure the Job Listing Settings
Once you’re done with the setup wizard, navigate to the Job Listings > Settings section to configure job board settings. Here, you’ll find six tabs.
The General Tab
In this section, you can choose how you want the published date for jobs to be displayed on the front end. You can also set a Google Maps API Key, this is required so that Google can retrieve location information for job listings. There is also an option to Delete Data On Uninstall, as well as, enable usage tracking.
The Job Listings Tab
In this section, you can choose how many job listings to display per page on the front-end, and other available job listing features. Just review the other options and adjust them based on your own preference.
The Job Submission Tab
This is where you can control the job listings submissions. From here, you can control new account settings, submission moderation, edit controls, listing duration, and more.
The reCAPTCHA Tab
Website is very much prone to malicious attacks and automated spam. And for that reason, you need to secure your website by enabling Google ReCaptcha. All you have to do is enable this feature by adding the API keys. You will find a link to generate the required API keys next to each option.
The Pages Tab
From here, you can simply select the auto-generated pages from the previous setup wizard.These are the pages that have the following shortcodes: [submit_job_form], [job_dashboard] and [jobs]
The Email Notifications Tab
On this tab is where you can set up and control email notifications to both administrators and users. Just review the options and adjust them based on your own preference.
Step 3: Create a New Job Listing
Once you’re done with setting up your portal, it’s time to add a sample job listing. As an administrator, you can directly add jobs from the WordPress admin area. On the Dashboard, navigate to Job Listings > Add New. Add your job listing a title, description, company logo, and job types.
After entering the title, and description, and choosing a job type, you need to scroll down to the Job Listing Data section. Here, you can provide more information about the job such as location, application email or URL, company information, job listing expiration date, and more.
After that, you can preview the job by clicking on the preview button. If you are satisfied with the look of your listing and all the details are correct, simply click on the Publish button to post the listing.
Step 4: Adding new Job Listing on the Front-end
Depending on your settings, logged-in users can submit jobs directly from Submit Jobs page you created earlier.
Similarly, you need to provide a title, description, job type, and company details.
After that, you can preview the job by clicking on the Preview button. If you are satisfied with the look of your listing and all the details are correct, simply click on the Save Draft button to save the listing.
And again, based on your settings, an administrator has to approve this until it becomes visible for users and starts applying for the job post.
Step 5: Add Paid Job Listings Features
The beauty of having or building a job board site is allowing you to make money from it.
As I have mentioned earlier, as a freelance WordPress developer myself, it can be an additional source of money online.
To enable this feature, you will first need to install and activate the Simple Paid Listings plugin.
If you need help installing the plugin, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin. It is a paid add-on for WP Job Manager and allows you to accept payments for job listings using PayPal or Stripe.
Once activated, you need to visit the Job Listings > Settings page and switch to the ‘Paid Listings’ tab. On this tab, you can choose your preferred payment gateway and provide API information.
More Add-ons to Power Up the Functionality of Your Job Board Website
Let’s take a look at these powerful and awesome add-ons created on top of the core WP Job Manager plugin as well as by third-party developers in order to give you extra functionality to make your WordPress job board a success.
Job Alerts
This add-on allows registered users to save their job searches and create alerts which send new jobs via email daily, weekly or fortnightly. Click here for more information.
Resume Manager
Resume Manager is a plugin built on top of WP Job Manager which adds a resume submission form to your site and resumes listings, all manageable from WordPress admin. Click here for more information.
Embeddable Job Widget
This plugin allows you to show a form on your site that users can use to generate an embeddable job widget showing job listings from your site. Click here for more information.
Search and Filtering for WP Job Manager
A plugin developed by a third-party developer that will allow you to add, edit, or customize Search and Filtering, using drag and drop WYSIWYG frontend UI. Click here for more information.
Wrapping Up
At this point, we’ve already created our very own simple job board website showing you the necessary requirements and step-by-step guide, and showing you powerful and awesome add-ons to add additional functionality to your job portal website.
You also want to check my guide on how to create an online course in WordPress.
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