I have owned DogWalker.com for quite some time. I previously operated a website on DogWalker.com to help dog owners find local dog walkers. Dog walkers paid an annual fee for a listing, and visitors to the website could search for a dog walker in their city, neighborhood or zip code. I later expanded and operated similar websites on DogPark.com, DogGroomers.com, and CatSitter.com. I focused less on those websites, and they didn’t do as well as the original.
For quite some time, I tried to buy DogSitter.com. I thought it paired up better with DogWalker.com than the other domain names and websites. Many dog walkers are also dog sitters, but not many are dog groomers or cat sitters. Having DogSitter.com would make a more logical cross-sell for me.
DogSitter.com had been long owned by Frank Schilling. While his mid five figure asking price wasn’t crazy for a dog sitting service to pay, it was too high for me. With my directory model, it would take a few years to earn that much back if things went as well as DogWalker.com. Over the years, i communicated with Frank and Uni brokers about the domain but never really got close enough to make a strong offer.
I wound down DogWalker.com in early 2021, so DogSitter.com was less appealing to me – particularly at mid five figures. In 2021, I sold DogGroomers.com. At the beginning of 2022, I sold CatSitter.com to someone else.
As you know, GoDaddy acquired Frank Schilling’s domain name portfolio. A couple of weeks ago, GoDaddy listed some inventory from its NameFind portfolio via GoDaddy Auctions. A few domain names caught my attention. One of those domain names was DogSitter.com. The auction concluded yesterday, and I prevailed. Ironically, I most likely would have paid this amount several years ago, but I did not get that chance. For now, it will go into my portfolio and be listed for sale.
Great! Persistence and a long view are very important in this business. I had a similar experience with knuckleheads.com, which was also held by Frank . It took about 10 years, but I finally obtained it.
Good job and congratulations!
I have the best dogcafes.com
cafes for dogs
Yeah. And I have wormsalons.com.
Hair salons for worms. I’ll get at least 5-6 figures for that.
Congratulations; I noted that as a standout domain in that year end premium auction and am glad that you got it!
I was the 2nd bidder and had a feeling that you were the top bidder. How much higher would have you gone? I didn’t want to get into an endless bidding war but was wondering how much higher I would have had to go to win it.
I don’t know how much higher I would have gone. On those kinds of auctions, I generally set aside time to bid as they close and make a decision on the fly. It’s a name I’ve wanted for a while though.
Why did you stop bidding?
I had a feeling you were the top bidder remembering your development of DogWalker.com years ago – I wanted to save us money so I stopped bidding! Whenever I want to buy a domain in auction I figure I have to add at least 50% to the winning price because once an extra person gets in to the bidding it adds a surprising amount to the final price. If you want to own the domain 50%/50% – I would be down for that!