Sometime around early October of 2009, GetAFreelancer.com acquired the better domain name Freelancer.com for an undisclosed amount, although it was reportedly a “six figure sum.” The company then moved to the easy to remember Freelancer.com domain name, and according to Compete results, traffic numbers are greatly improved, despite the fact that Freelancer.com didn’t seem to receive much traffic prior to the changeover.
According to Comptete, in the last year, GetAFreelancer.com maxed out at around 289,000 unique visits per month in July 0f 2009. As of May of 2010, Freelancer.com received 364,000+ unique visits according to the same Compete chart. While this comparison doesn’t take into consideration additional advertising that may or may not be in place, the acquisition does show the value in a generic domain name for a company like this.
So what was the purchase price for Freelancer.com? Although I couldn’t find a published sales price, I looked through my email archives to find an exchange I had with the former owner of the domain name. In May of 2006, when times were arguably better than what they were towards the end of 2009, the owner was asking “$100k usd.” I didn’t reply back to negotiate since it was out of my budget at that time.
You still can get freelancer dot co for $69
LMAO
Freelancer.com aka getafreelancer.com stole 250 from me.
The person I hired to do work could not do it so they refunded my money. After that freelancer.com locked my account for no reason and would not answer any emails to support.
It’s a huge problem if you search around complaint and ripoff sites because they have done it many times and locked countless people’s accounts some with thousands of dollars.
They now have freelancer.com and I see they are already redirecting their recent purchase of freemarket.com domain to the marketplace. I would never recommend this site to anyone. They will use this new company and domain acquisitions to run the same type of bad business practices.
JB, please contact the support desk or email me at legal@freelancer.com and I can assist you with your problem. We don’t lock accounts for no reason, only in cases where our terms of service have been broken.
I’ll help you resolve whatever issue you have.
Regards
Mike
A good example of what a good name can do. A better chart show how traffic @ Elance.com dropped during the same period Freelance.com was rising.
It appears they were able to capture market share from the category leader.
JB’s issue has been resolved.
Regards
Mike
I don’t have a freelancer account but I think they stole $250 from me too :-p My paypal is for the refund…
I deposited $300 in freelancer and received email for freelancer that my account is -$100 negative. I send them multiple emails asking them to show me the report to see where my money went to. They are not responding to it. I keep receiving the same message again. I tried to chat with them, but they only suggest to email them. Those are crooks. I fined out that they have done this to so many people. Don’t ever trust them with even a penny.