In the sixth issue of my regular series of Inside Interviews, I speak to Rob Rawson, the owner of Staff.com - a platform for remote job opportunities. In this interview, Rob discusses many topics such as how he acquired Staff.com, his views on new gTLDs, and he reveals exactly how much he paid for the Staff.com domain name.
For more information about Staff.com's services, follow them on Twitter @Staff or visit Staff.com.
1. Can you give us a background of your company?
I run Staff.com and TimeDoctor.com. Staff.com is a free job posting site for remote jobs. We're building it up to be the LinkedIn for remote global jobs. So if you want to find a virtual assistant in the Philippines for example at very reasonable rates, we have over 100,000 people in the Philippines alone who are looking for online jobs. TimeDoctor is a related business, which is time tracking and verification of work done. So it provides screenshots of the person's desktop when working and a record of websites and applications visited.
2. You began using MyStaff.com. Why did you choose to buy MyStaff.com over Staff.com at the time?
I did not think that Staff.com was available; they were looking for 7 figures for the domain at the time, so I looked instead for a good quality but more affordable domain.
3. How did you find out that Staff.com was available to purchase? Did you actively seek out the name, or was it a domain name that was offered to you?
I heard about the sale from a domain broker. I subscribe to several domain name newsletters and generally am interested in quality domains.
4. Can you tell us the exact price that you paid for Staff.com?
$430k
5. Did you use any tools (e.g., automated appraisals), services (e.g., manual appraisals, domain brokers) or data (e.g., sales data, search volumes, search results) to determine your best offer and/or the value of the domain?
I reviewed previous domain name sales and made a list of sales of one word .com domains over $100k and compared the value of the domain in my view in comparison to Staff.com. So I guess that's the flaw in my process in that trying to compare the value of two domains is fairly arbitrary and basically is a judgement call.
I also did a test that I now do for all domain names which is that I made a video of 15 different domain names and repeated them two times in different orders in the video. Then I got 50 people to watch the video and wait 1 minute and then report which domains they can remember and write them down. This is very interesting as it gives you information on how memorable the domain is in comparison with similar value domains (you can get the comparison domains from recent domain name sale history). Also you can see how often people will misspell the domain name.
6. How much do you think it was worth before you purchased it and why?
I thought it was worth around the price I paid for it. If I was buying it to try and sell in a few months at a profit I would not have bought it because I don't think it's possible to sell at a profit in the short term.
7. Would you have considered paying more than you did for Staff.com?
Not much more, it was close to my limit.
8. Can you give us details of the negotiations which lead to you agreeing upon a price? (Their asking price, your opening offer, counter offers, etc.)
I was negotiating over several months. There were several back and forth negotiations about price. I can't remember exactly but I think my first offer was $200k, and they were at "7 figures" and we went back and forth from there.
9. What advice would you give to others looking to buy a premium domain name for their business?
In my view the most important quality of a domain name is how easy it is to remember. I believe this is MORE important than the length of the domain name. It's a very good approximation of the brand-able nature of the domain.
10. You may have heard recently that Google launched "Alphabet" using the domain name abc.xyz. Would you ever consider running a business using a new domain extension such as .xyz or .club?
Yes I would, but I would first test how memorable the domain was in comparison to a .com domain. I think that at this point .com domains are still pre-eminent and that some people will take you more seriously if you have a high quality .com domain. However it's not the be all for a business. For example, for mobile app businesses, they are hardly using a website at all so the domain name is not very important.
--
Thanks to Rob for providing a very interesting interview.
Inside Interviews is a blog series profiling the buyers of high-value domain names. Find out their motives, negotiation tactics, and their opinions on popular domaining topics only on the NamePros Blog.
For more information about Staff.com's services, follow them on Twitter @Staff or visit Staff.com.
1. Can you give us a background of your company?
I run Staff.com and TimeDoctor.com. Staff.com is a free job posting site for remote jobs. We're building it up to be the LinkedIn for remote global jobs. So if you want to find a virtual assistant in the Philippines for example at very reasonable rates, we have over 100,000 people in the Philippines alone who are looking for online jobs. TimeDoctor is a related business, which is time tracking and verification of work done. So it provides screenshots of the person's desktop when working and a record of websites and applications visited.
2. You began using MyStaff.com. Why did you choose to buy MyStaff.com over Staff.com at the time?
I did not think that Staff.com was available; they were looking for 7 figures for the domain at the time, so I looked instead for a good quality but more affordable domain.
3. How did you find out that Staff.com was available to purchase? Did you actively seek out the name, or was it a domain name that was offered to you?
I heard about the sale from a domain broker. I subscribe to several domain name newsletters and generally am interested in quality domains.
4. Can you tell us the exact price that you paid for Staff.com?
$430k
5. Did you use any tools (e.g., automated appraisals), services (e.g., manual appraisals, domain brokers) or data (e.g., sales data, search volumes, search results) to determine your best offer and/or the value of the domain?
I reviewed previous domain name sales and made a list of sales of one word .com domains over $100k and compared the value of the domain in my view in comparison to Staff.com. So I guess that's the flaw in my process in that trying to compare the value of two domains is fairly arbitrary and basically is a judgement call.
I also did a test that I now do for all domain names which is that I made a video of 15 different domain names and repeated them two times in different orders in the video. Then I got 50 people to watch the video and wait 1 minute and then report which domains they can remember and write them down. This is very interesting as it gives you information on how memorable the domain is in comparison with similar value domains (you can get the comparison domains from recent domain name sale history). Also you can see how often people will misspell the domain name.
6. How much do you think it was worth before you purchased it and why?
I thought it was worth around the price I paid for it. If I was buying it to try and sell in a few months at a profit I would not have bought it because I don't think it's possible to sell at a profit in the short term.
7. Would you have considered paying more than you did for Staff.com?
Not much more, it was close to my limit.
8. Can you give us details of the negotiations which lead to you agreeing upon a price? (Their asking price, your opening offer, counter offers, etc.)
I was negotiating over several months. There were several back and forth negotiations about price. I can't remember exactly but I think my first offer was $200k, and they were at "7 figures" and we went back and forth from there.
9. What advice would you give to others looking to buy a premium domain name for their business?
In my view the most important quality of a domain name is how easy it is to remember. I believe this is MORE important than the length of the domain name. It's a very good approximation of the brand-able nature of the domain.
10. You may have heard recently that Google launched "Alphabet" using the domain name abc.xyz. Would you ever consider running a business using a new domain extension such as .xyz or .club?
Yes I would, but I would first test how memorable the domain was in comparison to a .com domain. I think that at this point .com domains are still pre-eminent and that some people will take you more seriously if you have a high quality .com domain. However it's not the be all for a business. For example, for mobile app businesses, they are hardly using a website at all so the domain name is not very important.
--
Thanks to Rob for providing a very interesting interview.
Inside Interviews is a blog series profiling the buyers of high-value domain names. Find out their motives, negotiation tactics, and their opinions on popular domaining topics only on the NamePros Blog.
