Discuss your Epik Experience!

Rob Monster said:

Epik gets paid and then we pay out. We do the same with PPC parking -- we are a proxy for Voodoo. It has worked well for years. With PPC parking we do daily payout.

The main benefit would be:

1. Convenience -- easy management of inventory and management of after-market listings.

2. Payment processing - We can pay out flexibly, e.g. not just wire but also BTC, Western Union, etc.

3. Liquidity - If a sale is pending, we can do advances or loans for a known pending liquidity event.

I could see a bunch of reasons why folks would do it.

Click to expand...

Thanks sounds good. You mentioned Afternic gets their 20% so what does Epik get from offering this service?

Abdullah Abdullah said:

Thanks sounds good. You mentioned Afternic gets their 20% so what does Epik get from offering this service?

Click to expand...

We actually treat it like escrow:

- The domain owner is the seller
- Afternic is the buyer
- Epik is the broker and escrow agent.

The fee is 1.5% plus whatever fees we incur relaying funds outbound at time of disbursement.

We are simply serving as the seller's proxy for domains that are either at Epik and for which we are confident that the asset being sold is safe to sell.

Rob Monster said:

We actually treat it like escrow:

- The domain owner is the seller
- Afternic is the buyer
- Epik is the broker and escrow agent.

The fee is 1.5% plus whatever fees we incur relaying funds outbound at time of disbursement.

We are simply serving as the seller's proxy for domains that are either at Epik and for which we are confident that the asset being sold is safe to sell.

Click to expand...

So the seller has to pay Epik's commission in addition to Afternic's?

Abdullah Abdullah said:

So the seller has to pay Epik's commission in addition to Afternic's?

Click to expand...

epik has to earn money
you all love epik/Rob

so that shouldn't be a problem

Abdullah Abdullah said:

So the seller has to pay Epik's commission in addition to Afternic's?

Click to expand...

Our fee is 1.5%. Chump change.

We would do it as a courtesy to Epik customers who already work with Epik.

It is a value-added professional service similar to:

- Free fairness opinions
- Commission-free escrow
- Free SSL landing pages.
- Etc.

In other words, when it comes to value-added, if it can be free, it will be free.

However, when it comes to Afternic, there are always non-automatable human touchpoints and there is a low-level fraud risk that has to be managed.

The good news is that we are only tolling exits. When it comes to domainers, we lose money or break even on the costs that lead up to the exit. We toll the exit but usually add value.

And for folks who need help closing deals, I am pretty sure that we more than offset our fee by helping sellers achieve larger exits than they would have perhaps achieved on their own.

Big update coming to the Epik Dashboard from @Ala Dadan .

Check it out:

https://invis.io/RPW33ME5HVC



I also want that dashboard to load FAST.

Feedback welcome.

Rob Monster said:

Big update coming to the Epik Dashboard from @Ala Dadan .

Check it out:

https://invis.io/RPW33ME5HVC

Show attachment 145310

I also want that dashboard to load FAST.

Feedback welcome.

Click to expand...

Very nice! Are all of those data points in blue clickable to further detail pages?

AGAME said:

Very nice! Are all of those data points in blue clickable to further detail pages?

Click to expand...

Yes, absolutely -- hotlinked to the transactional details where available.

Rob Monster said:

I also want that dashboard to load FAST.

Click to expand...

Small, but still: logos in the bottom (Icann and Domaining) serve no purpose. We are inside the domain management area. A customer is already aware that he is dealing with icann-accredited registrar, And the fact that the registrar also paid domaining .com for a listing is irrelevant for domain management needs.

tonyk2000 said:

Small, but still: logos in the bottom (Icann and Domaining) serve no purpose. We are inside the domain management area. A customer is already aware that he is dealing with icann-accredited registrar, And the fact that the registrar also paid domaining .com for a listing is irrelevant for domain management needs.

Click to expand...

Feedback appreciated. Another iteration is coming. Just rounding up feedback for @Ala Dadan and @vitigo

Rob Monster said:

Feedback appreciated. Another iteration is coming. Just rounding up feedback for @Ala Dadan and @vitigo

Click to expand...

Will it be customisable? E.g. drag n drop or re-size each box, etc? I know others might care, but I couldn't care less about seeing expired domains. I know what I've allowed to expire. Offers and Escrow is most important. I'd like to be able to re-size that box and see perhaps the last few offers directly in that box. The other 3 boxes are cool stats, and handy to see occasionally in order to make myself feel good, but the truth is that I'm not going to actually make use of them much.

NicTraders said:

Will it be customisable? E.g. drag n drop or re-size each box, etc? I know others might care, but I couldn't care less about seeing expired domains. I know what I've allowed to expire. Offers and Escrow is most important. I'd like to be able to re-size that box and see perhaps the last few offers directly in that box. The other 3 boxes are cool stats, and handy to see occasionally in order to make myself feel good, but the truth is that I'm not going to actually make use of them much.

Click to expand...

That's a really GREAT point. You know in NameInvestors.com, it is a drag and drop widget framework. You might be on to something there. Will review on that one. If others like @NicTraders idea, please like his post.

@vitigo
@Ala Dadan
@Gube

Rob Monster said:

Actually, not missed. Waiting for engineering to report back. It is a reasonable question. There are a few moving parts because we are also releasing WHOQ.com -- for WHOIS ownership verification and related services for overcoming GDPR-related challenges with getting to the verifiable owner of a name.

Click to expand...

Any update on this, Rob?

I have a suggestion unrelated to the discussions above.

Domain loans - this is a great Epik feature. But I think it would be useful for the site to mention that a user can not have more than one loan open at a time.

This page explains the procedure well, but it seems to give the impression that you could ask for multiple loans (or at least I had that impression): https://www.epik.com/domain/loans

Rhinnnn said:

I have a suggestion unrelated to the discussions above.

Domain loans - this is a great Epik feature. But I think it would be useful for the site to mention that a user can not have more than one loan open at a time.

This page explains the procedure well, but it seems to give the impression that you could ask for multiple loans (or at least I had that impression): https://www.epik.com/domain/loans

Click to expand...

That's true but you can have multiple accounts.

We are thinking about Domain Lending more holistically for a project called DomainEquity.com, currently in the planning stage, which will enable secured and guaranteed peer to peer lending for domains.

More info soon.

@Ala Dadan

Has anyone else noticed this? I noticed something in transferring my domains from GoDaddy to Epik ...

GoDaddy is seems to be holding back the domains that they're valuation tool considers valued "high". From what I can tell, any of my domains with values over 2500 are held back the maximum wait time of 5 days while domains that they've placed a "low" value on are immediately transferred to Epik...

Why purposely slow down domain transfers on names that they're valuation tool says are "high"? Is this to slow down the transfer, the sale, whatever, keep it at GD a little longer? Punish the domain owner with a good domain who wants to leave? This NEVER occurred prior to their valuation tool being given more credence on their site.

Here is an example:

Today I initiated two domains from GD to Epik. Domain1 is "valued" at $1876 and Domain2 is valued at $3633.

Shortly afterward I received a "sorry to see you go" email from GD that asks me to log in and to approve my transfers. I checked off both domains and approved both transfers at the same time. I receive the message "Your request has been submitted. Changes may take 15 minutes to take effect." on my screen but that is a false message in the case where valuation is deemed high.

Immediately Domain1 left GD and is in my account at Epik.

Domain2 is still sitting there and it will sit there 5 days more than likely.

I know what GD will say, "we are holding back domain2 to make sure there is no fraud yada yada yada." to which my reply might be "why not domain1 and why not treat ALL domains with equal concern?"

AGAME said:

Has anyone else noticed this?

Click to expand...

It has never happened to me with high value names...I just go in and 'force' the transfer once it shows in the pending tab...otherwise it could take several days.

Mister Funsky said:

It has never happened to me with high value names...I just go in and 'force' the transfer once it shows in the pending tab...otherwise it could take several days.

Click to expand...

I've done that too, high value names remain behind. Sucks.

AGAME said:

I've done that too, high value names remain behind. Sucks.

Click to expand...

Sorry to see that happen...didn't mean to sound 'basic' with my response above, but I had been moving names for quite a while before I learned I could expedite the process. I agree, they will tell you it is for your own protection...makes me warm and fuzzy knowing they are looking out for us domainers!!!

Epik Question?
How do I update whois on .ca domains in My Domains? Their not updating when I transfer them to another registrar. Showing expired
The .coms update as I transfer them all to epik

AGAME said:

GoDaddy is seems to be holding back the domains that they're valuation tool considers valued "high".

Click to expand...

Confirmed. I also noticed this. The names with higher value as per their valuation tool are more likely to wait for 5 days regardless of manual transfer approval. I can live with 5 days scenario though (have not been in the situation of an urgent transfer-away so far). What is interesting is that GD really seems to be of opinion that their tool reflects a domain value...

Godaddy has actually been doing for a while. claim do this for “security” — only to high value transfer away— smart, excuse, i see it as way messing with you, one last time.

Blitzpotz said:

Another topic: Did anybody else determine delays with transfers from Godaddy to Epik? Usually you start transfer with Epik, accept it in your Godaddy account und then within minutes the domains have been moved. Sometimes Godaddy holds back one or two domains for a few days just to send another E-Mail wanting the transfer to be confirmed once more. Security.

For the first time I am sitting on dozens of domains ordered with Epik days ago and accepted for transfer several times in my Godaddy account. And nothing happens.

I strongly assume this to be another Godaddy bug or a change in their customer care or IT security policy. However, I want to ensure that this is no general ICANN or Epik related issue.

Anybody else experiencing the same?

Click to expand...

Samer said:

Yup.

they said they do this for “high value” domains, so they made BS process, even more BS.

they only did this, with 1 domain 4 me however

I beg them to please fix the push process too..

Godaddy is the worst

Samer

Click to expand...

tonyk2000 said:

Confirmed. I also noticed this. The names with higher value as per their valuation tool are more likely to wait for 5 days regardless of manual transfer approval. I can live with 5 days scenario though (have not been in the situation of an urgent transfer-away so far). What is interesting is that GD really seems to be of opinion that their tool reflects a domain value...

Click to expand...

Yes, looks like the trigger point is $2K+, when you have funds sitting in escrow awaiting a transfer, you don't want to be sitting there 5 days, then into a weekend? I get why they are doing it, but let us input a pin code to override it like a trading password or something. There is a transfer verification department that overrides it, but looks like they can't keep up, and take 4 of the 5 days to respond, verify, and release.

wwwweb said:

There is a transfer verification department that overrides it

Click to expand...

Last time, this department did not bother to email me asking to confirm. Nor did I - was a routine Sedo sale, the buyer initiated the transfer - and, even though I hate to delay domain deliveries, Sedo instantly notified both parties that the transfer may not be immediate, he should have also received similar warning from the gaining registrar, so... all good, but slow.

wwwweb said:

then into a weekend?

Click to expand...

Since we are in Epik thread, I can confirm that Epik paid me once in non-business hours (online payment).

tonyk2000 said:

Last time, this department did not bother to email me asking to confirm. Nor did I - was a routine Sedo sale, the buyer initiated the transfer - and, even though I hate to delay domain deliveries, Sedo instantly notified both parties that the transfer may not be immediate, he should have also received similar warning from the gaining registrar, so... all good, but slow.

Since we are in Epik thread, I can confirm that Epik paid me once in non-business hours (online payment).

Click to expand...

Epik funds your masterbucks as soon as the sale is complete, doesn’t matter the day, or time. At which point you can spend, send, or even escrow
another transaction at that time.

Now if this was Namesilo it would take a week
to get access to your funds.