LinkedIn looks to premium services for profit

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The site also has a specific job-searching function through a partnership with an online job board run by the DirectEmployers Association. When conducting a job search at LinkedIn, seekers get a list of DirectEmployers job openings and information about LinkedIn members who could help them land the job.

This year, the company launched a toolbar for Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Outlook that allows users to connect to the LinkedIn network. "The key is not to crash Outlook," LinkedIn's Hoffman said. In the five months since the toolbar has been out, the company says it hasn't had problems.

The money question
For now, LinkedIn is a free service. The venture capital-backed site began taking in money in September through sponsored-link ads of the sort seen on Google. But LinkedIn intends to make more than 50 percent of its revenue from upcoming paid services and expects to become profitable in the second half of next year.

Most LinkedIn users are not very active on the site. They may use the site to keep their contact information current and browse the network occasionally. Still, these passive users are valuable to the site because they expand the reach of the network, Hoffman said.

Roughly 10 percent of LinkedIn members are what the company calls "power users." They come nearly every business day and include financial analysts searching for exclusive information about companies and professional recruiters seeking job candidates. LinkedIn plans to pitch premium services to these frequent visitors.

One of those services might concern reference searches, co-founder Guericke said. Recently, LinkedIn began a beta test for reference searches that enable users to find people on the network who have worked with a job candidate or potential business partner. The idea is to get a so-called "back door" reference on a possible hire or learn more about a partner under consideration. For example, a manager might want to know whether a counterpart is likely to live up to a contract, Guericke said.

A free version of the reference search function will likely continue, while a paid version would have enhancements, he said. Guericke wouldn't comment on price.

Tim Farrelly, president of executive search firm Coit Staffing, said LinkedIn has already enabled him to complete a search in a quarter of the time he may have needed without the site. Farrelly is ready to pay for advanced searches and said he'd like the ability to specify a skill set during a search. If the resulting individuals are not close connections, Farrelly would also like to see a method or path for connecting to them. "Those sorts of search features would be fantastic," he said.

Despite Farrelly's enthusiasm for the site, professional recruiters may be wary of the way LinkedIn could make them obsolete, Delphi's Keldsen said. After all, the site gives internal hiring managers tools for doing searches on their own. "Headhunters will tend to see LinkedIn as a threat," Keldsen said.

In a couple of ways, though, LinkedIn is trying to become friendlier to users. For one thing, it plans to increase the range of possible relationships among members. This would allow people to avoid giving a rude-sounding rejection to some of their callers. Currently, Hoffman said, "you need to be careful about the invitations you accept. The only solution today is, don't accept" invitations from people whom you aren't willing to introduce to your contacts.

LinkedIn also aims to look better. The first changes to its interface will be completed in the near future, and a bigger fix will come in nine months.

"Our search interface is not the most user-friendly," Hoffman said.

[brothe]

It's already been done!

This has already been done... there is a company called Hotgigs.com that has skill search and networking capability built into their network of employers, staffing firms and users. If you go to the site, you can see gigs, search for other people to network, and find a job if you are an independent! Look at their employer list too! Dell, Microsoft, IBM...

[Ubber geek]

find a job

http://www.analogstereo.com/mitsubishi_eclipse_owners_manual.htm

[arnneisp]

LinkedIn networking and LICM tool

You can't talk about LinkedIn without mentioning the LinkedIn Contacts Management tool.

This tool is a freeware to all MyLinkedInPowerForum members and LinkedIn users.

The tools give you the edge in using LinkedIn for business purposes. It downloads all your LinkedIn contacts details/requests/outstanding invitations to a personal database on your PC.

Then, with an easy to use GUI you can make smart selections and manipulations of the data and Email the selected group of contacts. You can do multi accept/reject of requests; you can resend multiple outstanding invitations or withdraw them and much more.

To download the LICM application:

Go to: www.megaas.co.nz
Select the Demos/Downloads page
Scroll down to the LinkedIn icon
Download the installation ZIP file.

Read the Readme file and register at the support forum:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MngLinkedIn/

Remember - there is a "payment" involved - you have to let at least 10 of your LinkedIn contacts know about the system....