I own Temps.com - do I sell it or develop it? I could use your input/guidance.

Hi,

Firstly, full disclosure, I'm an interactive designer - not a recruiter.

I've owned the domain names Temps.com and Temps.net for a long time and have done nothing with them. That being said, I could have most of the functionality of the big job boards implemented in a very short time -sans relevant content (jobs, résumés). I don't have any sort of budget to throw at the project (bad partner/bad investments). I was wondering if I could tap you recruiting pros for your thoughts on what to do? Here's a list of relevant(?) thoughts as bullets that bounce around my brain (my gran told me when I was five that my head was full of wee cars and they are all bumping into each other).

If I build it, will they come?
What would make recruiters use it?
The domain name market is gaining value again (slots.com just sold for $5.5 million, I wouldn't expect close to that though, the most relevant domain sale I've seen is resumes.com, which sold for 400k last year).
If I were to sell it, who would buy it? Established job board to protect/develop their brand, staffing firm, industry software developer, French company (Temps means time in French), any other thoughts/suggestions...
Temps was searched in Google 7,480,000 last month (globally).
I've invented something totally unrelated and wonder if I could use my time and talents better if I focused on that (although both Temps.com and my invention could both help people, my invention could better serve people in disaster areas - but still working without a budget).
I'm between jobs at the moment

I seem to have a pension for making bad decisions, so I'm asking you guys for your help. Please take the time to let me know your thoughts - they'll be much appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Martin Gracie on June 15, 2010 at 7:38am

Hi Miles,

Thanks for taking time to give me your input and advice, very appreciated.

I agree with you on all the points you raised especially the part about being a one man operation and probably couldn't scale it to it's potential. What sucks about that though, is that if I end up selling it, I have designed some cutting edge methods which would save recruiters a bunch of time while searching through potential candidates and I'd really like to see it implemented, maybe I'll upload the designs on here and you guys can ask you vendors to implement the features in their software or RIA's (rich internet applications).

I tried to Google the terms of the sale of Freelancer.com and all I could get was that it went for a six figure sum, so that's encouraging. If I do end up selling the domain names, a bidding war would be nice, but I doubt that I would be so lucky.

Thanks again for your input Miles.

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Permalink Reply by Martin Gracie on June 21, 2010 at 1:01pm

I have decided to take your advice and place the domain names up for auction.

I listed the starting price for Temps.com as $100k and Temps.net at $10k, both auctions are accessible via Temps.com

Thanks again!
-Martin

PS -- If you know anybody interested in the domains, could you pass the info on. Again, much appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Allenda Simpson on June 23, 2010 at 2:21pm

Just found this, but I would have opt for you to develop them a bit more, and then sell them. I think you would get a hight price that way. I compare this to the price of vacant land, to that of land AND improvements.

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Summerland on June 27, 2010 at 3:08pm

Hi Martin,

In a recently published Staffing Industry Report U.S temp rose by 52,000 in January and the US unemployment rate had dropped to 9.7% from 10% from December. The gains have continued a trend of increased temporary jobs since reaching a low point in September 2009. I believe you will see hiring levels of traffic being driven to the website as we are putting this recession behind us and companies are hiring more Temporary staff. Something to consider when pricing the site as the value should continue to grow with the increase in Temp hiring.

Good luck in the sale of the website.

Chuck

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Permalink Reply by Martin Gracie on June 29, 2010 at 7:56am

Hey Allenda,

Thanks for your input.

It wouldn't take me long to build it out at all, the only problem is I think whoever bought it would want to make it their own. I think the value is in the domain names not the site that I could build on them. I fear that it would soon become an "empty lot". What would really make it more valuable is I had the human capitol (resumes) and an abundance of job postings. That's what will take work.

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Permalink Reply by Martin Gracie on June 29, 2010 at 8:00am

Thanks for the stats Chuck. The US temporary employment market has, historically, been a leading indicator of economic recovery. You guys will know more than I do about the reqs coming in, but from what I see around the web, job posts are on the rise.

Chuck Summerland said:

Hi Martin,

In a recently published Staffing Industry Report U.S temp rose by 52,000 in January and the US unemployment rate had dropped to 9.7% from 10% from December. The gains have continued a trend of increased temporary jobs since reaching a low point in September 2009. I believe you will see hiring levels of traffic being driven to the website as we are putting this recession behind us and companies are hiring more Temporary staff. Something to consider when pricing the site as the value should continue to grow with the increase in Temp hiring.

Good luck in the sale of the website.

Chuck