It's been a year since I started blogging - a year filled with both good things and not-so-good things. But the best thing? I'm still blogging, you're still reading, and we're all still learning.

I rarely (well, actually, never) write about my personal life. Why? Because I've always assumed that: a) it's pretty boring; b) you have better things to do; and c) why would you be reading the Job Board Doctor's blog, if not to learn about job boards?

That being said, I'm going a bit personal this time, so be forewarned ...

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Matt Alder published a fascinating piece last week about ‘job clouds' and why he thought Twitter could be the future of job boards. It was one of those "I wish I had written that!" moments for me, to be honest.

In brief, he posits the creation of a ‘job cloud' created by multiple employer Twitter feeds of their jobs. This cloud would be much larger than any individual existing job board offering, and would force a shift away from job boards and to providing tools for job seekers to locate jobs in the cloud.

It could happen. But I see ...

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Doostang just announced that they've landed $1.25 million in new funding. That's not a huge investment compared to the boom years, but it is a signal that our industry may have reached bottom and is beginning to rebound.

So you've survived the worst. Now what are you going to do?

Do you have a plan for growth? If not, now is a good time to start - because if you don't, your competitors will. The job board industry is like any other; you can grow, or you can fade away. There's not an in-between.

See ...

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By now you've probably heard of JobDeck, a modified version of the popular Twitter search application, TweetDeck. A collaboration between TwitJobSearch and TweetDeck, JobDeck has a permanent, specialized search that focuses on jobs. These are sourced from the Twittersphere, based on employment-related keywords, plus additional content from LinkedIn.

Well, it's gotten the New York Times excited.

But where does JobDeck (and other specialized job-centric social media apps) fit into the job board world? Well, JobDeck is basically a pre-packaged search tool. In essence, JobDeck is competing against Twitter's own search tool.

In a world of Twitter search ...

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It's true: anyone and his or her dog can have their own job board. Actually, the dog could probably run the board, thanks to Job*a*matic (well, maybe not my dog - she sleeps too much).

How many job boards is too many? Peter Weddle says we have 100,000 or so worldwide. I suspect only a small percentage of these makes money. If it seems like there's been an sharp increase in the last few years, well, there has been, thanks to more, better, and cheaper job board software; free web-based ‘board in a box' solutions from ...

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A few weeks ago I put out a request: what would you want to see from job boards in 2010? Quite a few of you responded - so here are your comments and ideas:

1. Better crafted job posts: This is in fact something that a job board can't produce, as it's the responsibility of the employer. Such a small thing - and yet most employers and recruiters still fail to post engaging, succinct, and informative job ads. Let's put it this way - if you don't write a great job ad, someone else will...and they'll get ...

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It was an ugly, painful year. I haven't talked to a single job board owner - not one - who saw revenue declines of less than 35 to 70 percent. Many had to lay off employees, cut benefits, or otherwise pull back. They weren't alone, of course - almost every aspect of our economy (Goldman Sachs excepted) has suffered.

So, we're agreed - 2009 sucked. But surely we learned a few things, right? Hmmm....

1. Bailouts are for banks, not job boards (unless you're Monster in Ohio, that is!).
2. Ignore social media at your peril.
3. Niche (and micro-niche ...

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It's easy to do: you work and obsess over building the perfect job board, making certain that posting a resume is easier than sneezing - but then you forget about the world outside your site. Or you spend hours on backlinks, blog postings, and email campaigns, only to discover that your site just isn't that easy to use.

Job boards have to function equally well both inside the site and outside the site. As a colleague once said, "You can build the best store in the world, but you'll fail if no one knows about it." Alternatively, you ...

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As anyone who has tried to lose weight or exercise regularly will attest, changing your behavior is hard. You're fighting years of mental and physical conditioning - and (unfortunately) many times the old habits win out.

That was the challenge that job boards faced in the mid-90s - how to change the ingrained behaviors of job seekers, to move them from searching want ads in the newspapers...to searching want ads online. It took many years, but eventually job seekers did change their habits. The majority now look first to online resources in their job hunt.

This was not an overnight ...

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In the spirit of the season, I thought it would be worthwhile to give some thanks (sometimes you forget about it in the midst of everything else). So, in no particular order, here are a few things that I'm particularly thankful for this year:

* You: Seriously. I appreciate the time you spend reading this blog. I hope you find it worthwhile.
* Monster: It's very useful for our industry to have a ‘big' company to kick around. Plus it keeps the target off everyone else.
* Employers: Be they large or small, they fuel our industry and keep the economy ...

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