I decided to go way back to one of the first callers of Ask Jason (TWiST #5), I contacted Don Charlton, Founder of The Resumator.  Don called in to ask, how do I create buzz for a non-sexy product (recap)?  It looks like Don is doing a great job and starting to create that buzz around the not so sexy product of online recruiting.

Q&A with Don Charlton:

Has the blog helped you get traction in the industry?

DC – We’re actually trying to attack blogging from a few fronts.  First, we’re going to use our Resumator blog for just product-related features. Second, my advisor (who is in the recruiting space) and I have decided to launch hireku.com (like haiku – not yet live) as a podcast resource for entrepreneurs to understand the many issues surrounding recruiting, hiring and on-boarding. This blog will of course point back to our respective services. We made this decision because we wanted to offer information under a brand that was not so clearly about self-promotion. Finally, I blog at dontreprenuer.com about my experience as an entrepreneur.

Do you think blogging about the industry versus yourself worked?

DC – It’s probably too early to know if dontrepreneur.com or hireku.com will be more valuable to growing The Resumator. When we thought about blogging for the industry, we realized that we did not yet have a solid presence in the entrepreneurial and HR community. In other words, we had not clearly identified the social hangouts of these types of people, and then engaged them in conversation. Since TWiST, we have worked to identify where out customers hang out on the Web, and are working to engage them.

Did you try hosting a local event about hiring services?

DC – Not yet. We’re just too focused on growing sales and hiring at this point.

Did you try the survey idea, to create interest?

DC – Yes, but in a different way. We surveyed our existing customers to learn more about how they came to the conclusion to use The Resumator. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, but we did learn what we can do to make improvements. In the course of those
conversations, we were able to ask for new business, and some good leads were generated there.

So what is your purple cow?  How is Don unique?  Did you feel comfortable doing this?

DC – I feel perfectly comfortable talking about myself. Before I try to think of unique things, I guess something uncommon about me (in the tech space) is I’m black. There are few highly-visible black tech entrepreneurs that I have seen, it is something that people find interesting about me. I think my purple cow is when you meet me I am so anti-stereotype of tech entrepreneur. I want to be successful to show other black entrepreneurs this is not just for suburban or San Francisco geeks! I would also say I have a pretty good knack for writing, so I am blogging at www.dontrepreneur.com about my views on product development and entrepreneurialism. Still trying to determine what is most interesting about me, and not just uncommon.

Did you implement the referral bonus idea?

DC – Yes we have a Resumator Referral Rewards Program (R3) that will be running on our soon to be released second product: Appvite. You can sign up for the Appvite beta at www.appvite.com.

Still in Pittsburgh?

DC – Yes. While I can understand Jason’s perspective about Pittsburgh in some respects, I also feel that an emerging group of young entrepreneurs is forming here. Even from across the country, we’ve been able to secure Dropbox, Evernote, Bump, Posterous, Weebly and a
bunch of other hot startups as customers. I won’t say the social atmosphere in Pittsburgh is great (which I was alluding to when I agreed with Jason), but the support you receive from the Pittsburgh investment and tech community is wonderful.

Can you share any measurable analytics, progress since the call?

DC – Well, I will say everything is “up and to the right”. We are growing each month despite a restrained marketing budget, and we are soon to start pushing our more dollars to drive site traffic. Our retention rate is very, very high, which is good. With a few key partnerships we’re working on, and a little luck, we’ll be profitable in 2010.

It was mentioned Don that you attended an incubator program, if so what one? Can you give a brief summary of your experience?

DC – I was in the AlphaLab program (www.alphalab.org) here in Pittsburgh, which is run by Innovation Works. It does not receive the press coverage like the others, but it’s now in its fourth class and we all enjoyed the experience. I am trying to be a success story from them to put AlphaLab on the map. AlphaLab invests $25,000 in each AlphaLab company in return for 5% common stock in the company. In addition to the guidance of a great set of mentors like other
programs, you’re also connected to a very large seed stage investor in Innovation Works, which could potentially invest, and more importantly, continue to drive potential investors your way.

Is their anyway the TWiST community can help TheResumator?

DC – Spread the word about our service. If you have a startup and need to hire for just one job, it’s free to use! And if more and more people tweet about us, that will help us in the end. Heck, tell Jason we’ll put together a TWiST discount code if he can give it a brief mention or blog about it. Always selling!

An interesting point is even for sexy companies buzz is not always easy.  I am curious if anyone else has found a good technique that they’d be willing to share?  One common theme I have noticed that relates to Jason’s purple cow point, is to create a personal brand and when you have a product to launch you already have a springboard of folks to help you tweak and push the idea.