I rarely post on NamePros, but I did want to comment here in order to clarify some points that folks have made in this thread.
Epik started out in 2009 as a mass developer of domains, believing in the merits of domain names as an asset class but being further convinced of the need to add value to the domains. We initially did this only for our own portfolio and got good at building out high quality template-based sites, notably using exact match domains.
In early 2010, Epik made this platform available to other domain investors. The Product Portals were particularly popular and sold like hotcakes. The September 2010 Epik Developer Conference was a high profile event that brought hundreds of domain developers to Seattle and further raised the profile of domain development.
In late 2010, Google released the Panda update of their search engine. The impact on exact match domains was immediate. The results were devastating for anyone involved in mass domain development, including Epik. Individual template sites that earned hundreds of dollars per day were now earning $1 per day, or less.
As a courtesy to our customers who built sites on Epik, we did provide refunds, paying out the difference between their amount invested and their amount earned. These customers were allowed to continue to make use of their Epik sites. Many still do to this day, and are making money from them. This was by any standard an honorable approach.
Rather than wait out Google, Epik made a strategic pivot. Epik acquired Intrust Domains’ registrar operations in July 2011. It was actually a great buy, which provided a top engineering team with which we were able to jump-start what has become a full-service registrar platform with a solid reputation and many happy and loyal clients.
The one downside of acquiring Intrust’s registrar is the confusion of the brand Intrust. In fact, Epik neither bought the Intrust brand, nor the dropcatching business for which they were known. That legacy business went on to become Goname, which has since ceased operations as a dropcatcher and is winding down as far as I understand it.
As for domain appraisals, it is still a free service. We recently put it behind a login screen because some idiot using Russian IP addresses was crawling the service at the rate of 100,000+ queries per hour. Since this data is not free for us, we had no choice but to introduce a daily quota of 100. If someone needs more, they can ask. It is still free.
As for dropcatching, although we do offer a first-come-first-serve dropcatching service Epik is not a large player in this market. It has become a hyper-competitive market, particularly for the best domains. To add reach, we did historically make use of registrar connections that were not exclusively ours but improved catch rate of second tier names.
As for escrow services, we provide this as a courtesy for customers. Over the years, we have completed many large transactions with little or no fee. Escrow is not a core business. As registrar, we have the advantage of being able to secure the domain for the protection of both buyer and seller. I consider this a huge advantage over escrow.com.
As for
Masterbucks, this is actually a useful thing. Proceeds from domain sales are deposited commission-free and tax-free into a Masterbucks account. Proceeds can be spent on Epik. Alternatively, proceeds can be redeemed to PayPal, eCheck, paper check or wire transfer, net of payment processing fees which are never more than 5%.
As for our Leasing Platform, it is frankly awesome. If you are not plugged into this capability, I advise you to check it out. I am pretty sure we power more leasing transactions than anyone in the industry. We also provide domain marketplaces for anyone who wants to feature only their own inventory on their own private label marketplace powered by Epik. This is good stuff.
At the end of the day, Epik is building what I call the
Swiss Bank of Domains. Epik is relatively boutique-sized but growing rapidly (+88% for first 9 months of 2015). We provide world-class service on a state of the art domain management platform. We are staffed with some of the friendliest support personnel, none of him whom are on commission.
As for
@RogueWriter, I thank you for your kind words, as some people in the domain industry know, I am a Bible-believing Christian, actively involved in ministry. Regardless of anyone’s personal theological beliefs, or lack thereof, be assured that all of the people who work at Epik apply the “Do unto others” acid test to everything we do.
Finally, Epik will be
exhibiting at the NamesCon conference this coming January. We are looking forward to a great show. It will be my pleasure and honor to sit down with anyone who wants to know more about Epik, or to discuss domains, entrepreneurship, theology, life, etc. If someone needs to reach me sooner, my personal email is
[email protected], my cellphone is 425-765-0077 and my Skype is robertmonster.
I give you all my best wishes for a good start to the Holiday Season!