Recruiting.com

When I sold the domain name Recruiting.com to Jobster two years ago or so, I never really thought I would see the day where the opportunity may present itself to maybe somehow buy it back.

Now I have no indication at all from Jobster that they are looking to sell the domain name but they know that I am interested in getting that name back and into the hands of RecruitingBlogs.com.

Jobster has really changed since they acquired the domain name 2 years ago or so. It’s quite amazing to see the transformation. As a shareholder I’m disappointed and as the former owner of what was Recruiting.com, I am blown away.

It’s obvious that the way Jobster utilizes Recruiting.com brings them absolutely no value whatsoever. One may even consider it a parked page where the “revenue” goes to those pumping it with self-promotion and not to Jobster. Yes I do it sometimes but I am not nearly as guilty as others. Again, Jobster gets nothing from this at all. The domain name goes up in value so yes Jobster benefits that way but I don’t think this is the business they want to be in. The way Recruiting.com was set up brought no industry marketplace awareness to them.

Jobster seems to be trying to regain focus and bring some understanding in the marketplace to what it is they actually do. That’s a good thing. They have a new CEO who is not from the online recruiting industry but has a good track record. I had a conversation with him about a month ago and I got a good feeling from him.

Back to the domain name and what I am thinking now.

1. Jobster can rebrand themselves Recruiting.com and it would make no difference. They would be wasting the value of the domain on that.

2. They want to be sold and think that by having the domain name Recruiting.com listed as an asset would help in a sale. Yes but then the new buyer needs to figure out what to do with it and how to integrate it.

3. Jobster could develop the name but that would take away form their focus and if the truth be told, I don’t believe this is in their best interest.

4. They could come to me and say Jason, help us here. We’ve got this great domain name and we don’t really know what to do with it. You're a shareholder, we’ll give you the domain name back and in return, well, lets talk about it.

5. Jobster could sell it back to me, they know what my offer price is and we can start the discussion and see if we can both walk with smiles on our faces

6. Put it up for auction in which case I am pretty sure I would come up the low bidder and that would be it. I’d close the file.

I like option #4 the best and #5 a close second

Lets negotiate.

Comment by Harry Joiner on April 9, 2008 at 4:33pm: Jason, at this point you are wasting your time thinking about this. Would LinkedIn be better off it it rebranded itself "SocialNetworking.com?" Not at this point. Should YouTube rebrand itself OnlineVideos.com? Of course not.

You have 5366 members, all of whom have registered and made themselves right at home here. You are already a top-of-mind destination, and the benefit of owning Recruiting.com would be marginal.

Re: your organic rankings - Is that what this is about? Fine. If you got all 5366 members to backlink to you with the anchor text "recruiting," this would cease to be an issue. Call it a "link drive."

A great domain name is always an excellent starting point for building an online business. But you are established beyond a point where this merits such preoccupation.

Harry
MarketingHeadhunter.com

Comment by harpoo on April 9, 2008 at 7:02pm: Well Jason - as you sold and they bought, I guess it is theirs do do with as they please.

I own Recruiting.TV and have a number of ideas on the table - recruiter training videos; a recruiting industry tv channel; video resume service; hell, even Recruiting Vlogs :)

While these ideas and their respective business cases are still being explored , there the domain sits bringing no industry marketplace awareness to our business. No doubt many visit the site and feel that there are a number of better ways of getting value from this domain and unaware of any work behind the scenes. In the meantime whilst it is 'parked', it is certainly not losing us any money.

Steve

Comment by Eric Shannon on April 10, 2008 at 10:01am: you might be able to pick up recruit.com if recruiting.com doesn't work out. i hope you get it back!

Comment by Slouch on April 10, 2008 at 10:13am: it's got to go up for sale first and then I can bid. who really knows what will be. the great thing about blogs is that you can stream your thoughts and hopefully you don't get beat up to bad for it.