Recruit.com domain goes to auction october 27th

Oct 08, 2006

The recruit.com domain goes to auction on October 27th at a domain conference I'm attending in Miami (TRAFFIC). And this could be the CHANCE OF A LIFETIME for someone. There are only a couple of domains in the employment market with similar power. Let's say jobs.com, recruiting.com, hire.com, staffing.com, and hr.com all belong in this family of blockbuster employment domains.
So what's the market value of Recruit.com? My own guestimate is that an end-user should be willing to spend $250,000 to $350,000 for this name based mostly on its brandability. At TRAFFIC there will be very few end-users - mostly domain portfolio owners and domain investors. These professionals will have a much lower figure in mind because there's not much type-in traffic on 'recruit.com' and the bid prices on the keyword 'recruit' max out at just $0.50. I'll guess the domain might fetch $150,000 from the domain professional crowd.
Then again, there's always auction fever according to DomainNewsWire.com auction phenomenon:

Take a look at some sales on SnapNames this year. SnapNames, a leading expired domain marketplace, auctions off domains to the highest bidder:
Jasmin.com $310,250
MovieRentals.com $100,249
FreePicks.com $91,250
Looks.com $86,650
Favorite.com $75,805
Scrooge.com $75,250
CityCenter.com $72,250
Now take a look at these domains that sold during a live auction at the TRAFFIC conferences this year:
Sex.net $454,500
CD.com $277,750
POS.com $252,500
Huge.com $106,050
WaterfrontProperty.com $80,850
Promote.com $70,700

So how much would YOU pay for it? Before you answer, you'll want to do some research by checking (the):
1. name's heartbeat -- the number of times someone types 'recruit.com' in the yahoo search bar. In August it was 137. "Recruiting.com" got 147. Our job board "LatPro.com" got 465.
2. popularity of the keyword 'recruit' on yahoo (7,766 in August), using the same link from above -- Compare with other relevant terms like 'recruiting' (202,390 in August). So this doesn't look like an exact match domain. Recruiting.com is much closer... I'll guess Recruiting.com could have an end-user value between $500k and $1m (undeveloped).
3. comparable domain sale prices at dnsaleprice.com -- In this case, there are no useful comps. We just that SalesRecruiting.com sold for $2,600 and MedRecruit.com for $2,500. Most of the reported sales are usually wholesale prices (domain investors purchases) and not end-user values.
4. year to date sales charts for some reference points -- The camp.com sale for $150,000, bike.com at $500,000 and farm.com at $200,000 are all one word generic names like recruit that can either be nouns or verbs.
5. alternative domains for sale using using the 'recruit' and 'hire' keywords.
6. BuyDomains.com inventory using 'recruit' and 'hire' - they usually have the best selection anywhere and reasonable prices. I spotted many nice names, but still nothing like recruit.com: VirtualRecruiting.com $1,800, CorporateRecruiting.com (unpriced), RecruitingCentral.com (unpriced), and ExecutiveHire.com for $2,188.
7. history of the domain ownership to make sure the domain wasn't stolen or used for purposes that would damage your reputation -- Check the whois with DomainTools.com and look at the history records. A stable ownership is a safe domain. Check the wayback machine. Recruit.com has been owned by an executive recruiter for many years so it's a safe bet.
8. link popularity at marketleap.com for recruit.com -- It has 0 Google, 16 MSN, and 7 Yahoo - this virtually nothing.
9. related unregistered names using a bulk-tool -- Maybe you only need to spend $8 - just kidding. But check anyway. I found a few I liked and registered them to develop on a rainy day:
EmployersJobboardGuide.com, EmployersRecruitingGuide.com, and USJobboards.com.
10. trademark implications -- This is a generic word and will not violate any existing trademarks if developed in the recruiting realm. But, the disadvantage is you'll have no rights over recruit.net, .org, .us, etc... You may also decide someday as the owner of recruit.com that you want to own the .us, .ca, .co.uk, etc and that will cost you.
11. neighborhood -- Are you likely to 'leak' traffic to recruiting.com or will recruiting.com leak traffic to you? My guess is that leakage would be minimal with this name and recruit.com will definitely pick up traffic from recruit.net and recruits.com if they grow dramatically. Think about names like erecruit.com, irecruit.com, and recruiter.com as well.
12. your instincts -- say the name aloud. Does it have a special ring to it or is it hard to pronounce? Does it communicate your company's mission effortlessly or will you need to do a lot of explaining? Imagine your sales team calling on a prospect and saying "Hi, This is John calling from Recruit.com to..." Will John have to repeat the name, spell it and explain carefully what your company does? I had the prividge of hearing Bob Deiner tell the Hotels.com story and he attributes their explosive success substantially to the decision to purchase the domain Hotels.com. Why? Because it he was able to spend 1/10th of the money on marketing that most companies must spend. The domain says it all!
Inspite of the weakness on points 1 and 2, this name looks a gem to me. If you agree, you might wonder how a domain this valuable can be parked? The answer is that for decades to come, many of the best high-power generics will continue to be undeveloped. Some of the reasons include:

few people understand the true value of domains. today the domain IS the brand. but corporate america has been slow to realize it.

premium keyword domain owners know their names have an ultra high value to a handful of companies in the world that are uniquely capable of squeezing the most juice from the name.

these owners know it's just a matter of time before the right company comes calling.

many domain portfolio owners generate advertising income of $500,000+ in a year and with a handful of 2 word domain sales thrown in, bring home more than $1,000,000 a year. Some earn as much as $40m a year. And remember, their expenses are negligible.

domain prices are rising rapidly

cost per click revenue from parked domains is rising rapidly

in this environment, owners have little incentive to sell the crown jewels for average prices
If the domain prices we're seeing seem outlandish to you, consider what most businesses invest in rent for their physical office. We pay about $90,000 a year for 3,800 s.f. and every year more of our team work from their homes and the physical office is less and less important. A domain that's easy to pronounce, easy to spell and communicates our mission easily has to be worth as much if not more than the space we sit in. By that logic my company should be willing to spend $900,000 on the right domain (we're not ...yet).
As it turns out, nearly 50% of the dollars spent at the last TRAFFIC auction were financed purchases, so we might really start treating our domains more like real estate and begin thinking in terms of our ability to make the payments.
Usually the owners of premium names are much more familiar with all these pricing dyamics than the buyers are, so one last thing to remember -- the reserve prices at the auction are generally high, set with an end-user in mind. So it's also possible the reserve will not be met and the name will go unsold.
It's true that VC money is flooding the domain investment business but generally these buyers are using formulas that require a quick payback period based on cpc revenue. So, they are unlikely to target recruit.com or to win against an end-user bidder for that reason.
If you really want to own this name, you'll need to go into the bidding PLANNING to OVERPAY. And most likely a couple years later, everyone will be talking about the steal you made.
So, how much would you pay? What do you think? What have I left out of the equation?
If you're going to attend the traffic show to bid on Recruit.com, register now because there are only a few seats left and they always sell out!