Discuss your Epik Experience!

[dande]

I think Epik is building the best ever Domain Lander in the history of domaining, and it really needs to be talked about extensively. That's why I am creating this discussion thread. A lot of thought process really goes into the project. And I can see (for the first time) a landing page that is built from the stand point of domainers rather than for just the marketplace itself.

Everything you have ever dreamt of getting or seeing in a professional landing page can be found in the new Epik marketplace landing page design.

Some of my Favorites Features:

1. The ability to optimize your "domain for sale" landing page to actually rank on Google, displaying your sales pitch/domain description. I just did that with few of my generic domain names such as ASAP.TV, targeting certain keywords, and they are showing pretty well on Google. That's a huge plus in my marketing effort.

2. Being able to change background image is another huge one for me. If you are good with pictures and images, you will surely find this very useful. I did that with Nagasaki.org and the result was truly amazing, showing the city of Nagasaki right at the background.

There are too many positive features and I don't want to mention all of them, all alone

So I am leaving you guys to share and discuss what you loves most or dislike about the new Epik marketplace and the landing pages.

The only negative for me is the checkout process. There are too many terms and conditions buttons to tick before checking out. It will be nice if they can streamline those into one beautiful big button

They also need to place the checkout button directly under the payment options. Right now it is awkwardly place somewhere below at the sidebar, which I don't find cool at all.

Sales experience is also welcomed in this discussion. I haven't had any sells so far at Epik because I started using the marketplace just recently, but the future is looking so bright.

 

[domaintrader]

Just wanted to discuss my latest Epik experience

Yesterday I had reason to contact Epik's customer services/support help line
For reasons attributable entirely to my own stupidity I could not access my account there
I wanted to resolve my problem quickly so I called in as opposed to submitting a written support ticket
I was placed on hold for a few moments after which a gentleman came on the phone saying "Hi welcome to Epik how can I help you today? I explained my situation and dilemma which for the sake of brevity I won't go into all the details of here other than to say that my partcular situation was a tad complicated!
At any rate I found the customer services representative that took my call to be exceptionally polite, completely understanding of my situation, and super accommodating in addressing my situation and needs. The CS rep went above and beyond in addressing my situation and I was actually relieved at how smoothly things had gone. If I had encountered this very same problem at any number of other registrars it would have been an absolute nightmare. This guy saved me a ton of grief, he really did. In fact he was so good that I said to him afterwards

You did a really great job for me and I really appreciate it. I would like to repay your efforts by providing your superiors with some positive feedback regarding the exemplary effort you put forth for me here today! Would you mind giving your name.

The voice at the other end said: My name is Rob Monster

Which other registrar do you know where the CEO mans the help lines Thursday afternoons? I have to say, I am blown away by this guys commitment and dedication. When a train starts running like that it is hard to stop.

I have been in this space a long time and have never been afraid to criticize what I believed to be shoddy work. By that same token I feel compelled to recognize service that goes above and beyond when I get it which doesn't happen nearly often enough but it did happen yesterday and the person behind that service was Rob Monster @ Epik.com

Thank you again Rob, really appreciated your assistance it was indeed EPIK

 

[Rob Monster]

Thank you @Rob Monster for the commitment and promise to work on the Checkout

Glad to hear about the recent $69,995 sale. I have a strong believe the lander is going to attract numerous sales in the near future. I want to ask. Based on what you know, can you suggest we stick more to "Make offer" or to set "Buy now" prices? Which one do you think that works best?

I am a big fan of Make Offer pricing. Part of the reason why is because you get more inquiries, but also because you can tailor your pricing in real-time. We monitor the inquiries 24/7 through email and chat. If we see a large offer or an offer from a legit prospect, we'll help you close the sale.

The other reason why I like Make offer is that if the prospect is big-time, you can ask a ridiculous price, e.g. we have seen sales of nothingburger multi-word domains go for $200K+ simply because the seller asked for a high opening price. Some crypto buyers in particular can pay above normal.

One overwhelming advantage of Epik over pretty much all other marketplaces is that we give you the contact details -- phone, email, name, IP address and comment --- of the person contacting you. So, you can tailor your price based on context. That "intelligence" can be of overwhelming value in tailoring your offer.

The inquiries are delivered instantly. We don't filter the comments either, which means if the person inquiring wants to give you a long story about why they need this domain, you can review that and decide whether to offer a lease, a sale or seller-financing. In some cases, Epik will even provide the financing.

Last but not least, we offer integrated LEASING of domains which means that the lessee can manage their domain completely self-service. This is because we are a REGISTRAR first and foremost. This is also cuts way down on domain fraud. This case of fraud prevention was recently discussed here.

 

[Ala Dadan]

Thank you all of the feedback and comments, such feedback will is constructive for us at Epik, as it provides with a guideline for what is working and what is not. And help us plan for future updates.

My Name is Ala Dadan, and as @Rob Monster has mentioned, I'm part of the great team behind Epik.

Currently, we are working on the following updates for the Parking landers:
- Provide the domainer with the ability to customize the domain lander even more. Giving the user full control of the front-end design and layout. For example, domainers will be able to Enable/disable various elements on the lander.

- SEO improvements, which includes an update on the HTML structure, meta tags and page load speed.

- General Design updates: introducing new background images and other content elements which will improve the page aesthetically.

- Seamless editing and publishing experience.

- Mobile view fixes and customization and performance review.

Finally, our goal is to introduce 4 to 5 new templates before this year-end. And another 10 by June next year.

I will watch this thread and review your comments and feedback on the platform.

thank you
Ala

 

[domainchampion]

I noticed recently that Epik has masked the buyer's IP and email from the landing page which is quite disappointing. I purposely moved a large of my domains to Epik landers due to this benefit but I guess I'll have to find other alternatives.

Any reason for the change @Rob Monster @ncabete

There's a time when Rob has been very fond of the landing page on how Epik shows complete transparency to seller and buyer. Sadly this has come to an end.

 

[Rob Monster]

Earlier this week, I bought a NP member's hyphen domains -- because we buy those. I asked him if he got his money, and he shared a reply, that is too cool not to share.

I won't identify the seller, but you have to smile -- the domain economy apparently helped out a white pigeon in India. True story.

 

[Rob Monster]

Are you guys ready for some big news of the week?

The Epik engineering team has been CRANKING and is delivering the year-end deliverables. Here are 3 to share with you today.


#1 The promised NameLiquidate.com is online:

https://nameliquidate.com/

It is super easy to add domains, including non-Epik domains. The 3-day auction ends at just $9. The commission rate is a rock bottom 9%.

This has been led by @vitigo following the inspiration of @DanSanchez here. It is now fully operational with some rapid improvements to follow.


#2 A very cool free domainer tool suite is online:

https://nameinvestors.com/

This is being led by @Gube. Drag and drop dashboards with awesome tools for finding the perfect domains.


#3 We have been incubating another killer service under the brand name NameBrokers.com.

We are assembling an international team of high-impact, no-nonsense, strategic-thinking brokers. ICYMI, @DanSanchez and I are handpicking these brokers all around the world with brokers in place for:

- English
- French
- Indonesian
- Portuguese
- Spanish
-Turkish
- Vietnamese

Much more on the way.

With Epik you have a one stop shop for:

- Registration
- WHOIS Privacy / Compliance
- SEO friendly landing pages
- Development
- Cloud Hosting
- Inbound inquiry management
- Outbound brokerage
- Name Liquidation
- Escrow and Transaction Clearing

As for transactions, this is all private, with super-fast payout, all with the lowest fees in the industry.

You heard it here first. The PR and social media coverage will follow but giving the friends at NP the early look so you know what's up.

 

[SuperBrander]

My first escrow transaction at Epik is done. You can love @Rob Monster or hate him, but with one thing it's hard to argue- you won't find a CEO that's more hands on, efficient and dedicated in this industry. Weekend or weekday you can get stuff done at Epik. Responses are quick, feedback is heard and often implemented and you feel like your business is appreciated. Other registrars should take notice and up their game. Thanks.

 

[domainchampion]

Let's see:

1. Registrant owns hundreds of domains, none of which are registered at Epik.

2. Registrant has domains powered by Epik landers for free and receives offers.

3. Registrant has never cleared a domain sale via Epik marketplace.

I do realize that some folks think we are running a charity at Epik, and in many ways we are charitable. At the same time, the modest commissions on marketplace and escrow from domain sales is what funds operations.

The freeloaders in the industry are what break the system for everyone else. The folks that were and are self-governing are able to see the full CRM as before.

It is truly a pity because I very much agree that showing full contact details equips sellers with a better ability to manage pricing strategy as well as follow up via email, phone and SMS.

Your No.1 info is absolutely WRONG! I do have a few domains registered at Epik.

Secondly, this is extremely shocking!

How can you disclose info about your own customer on an external site without their own consent?!
You private msg me asking for my Epik Username which I resist and ask you back what's it for but you then replied you have found it yourself. You proceed without my consent and I did warn you to keep it private but yet you choose to rant it here?!!! Where is your professionalism then.

As much as I value your fast action as CEO but your are doing it in a wrong way.
This thread is suppose to discuss about Epik experience and you should just reply to the question. Fullstop.

 

[Rob Monster]

I think Epik is building the best ever Domain Lander in the history of domaining, and it really needs to be talked about extensively. That's why I am creating this discussion thread. A lot of thought process really goes into the project. And I can see (for the first time) a landing page that is built from the stand point of domainers rather than for just the marketplace itself.

Everything you have ever dreamt of getting or seeing in a professional landing page can be found in the new Epik marketplace landing page design.

Some of my Favorites Features:

1. The ability to optimize your "domain for sale" landing page to actually rank on Google, displaying your sales pitch/domain description. I just did that with few of my generic domain names such as ASAP.TV, targeting certain keywords, and they are showing pretty well on Google. That's a huge plus in my marketing effort.

2. Being able to change background image is another huge one for me. If you are good with pictures and images, you will surely find this very useful. I did that with Nagasaki.org and the result was truly amazing, showing the city of Nagasaki right at the background.

There are too many positive features and I don't want to mention all of them, all alone

So I am leaving you guys to share and discuss what you loves most or dislike about the new Epik marketplace and the landing pages.

The only negative for me is the checkout process. There are too many terms and conditions buttons to tick before checking out. It will be nice if they can streamline those into one beautiful big button

They also need to place the checkout button directly under the payment options. Right now it is awkwardly place somewhere below at the sidebar, which I don't find cool at all.

Sales experience is also welcomed in this discussion. I haven't had any sells so far but the future is looking so bright.

Thanks for the invitation here.

I am also going to invite @Ala Dadan to join us on this thread -- he is the genius designer behind this marketplace and I am sure will great appreciate the feedback.

I like what you did there with SSL lander: https://nagasaki.org/

As you know, the SSL is a unique 4096-bit SSL which helps with SEO but also with conversion. The trust seal in the upper right is a known boost for conversion with more improvements on the way.

Let me suggest what else can be done there:

- You can add content with the WYSIWYG editor. This is actually important for original content value for ranking in organic search.

- You can add your own Google Analytics code. This is useful for serving re-targeting ads where people who land on your domain lander can be re-targeted elsewhere.

- You can add more cosmetic enhancements like a custom Favicon.

There are more enhancements possible but those are the top 3.

We are working on an upgrade that will give every domain the option of a unique DNS, rather than sharing the Epik DNS. We run our own Anycast DNS and Global CDN so this is easy. Yes, SEO is KEY.

As for streamlining the checkout, that is great input. We'll get that done soon.

As for sales on these landers, earlier this morning, a sale for $69,995 was completed -- entirely through the parking lander. We don't usually announce sales, but there are many happy sellers.

These parking landers WORK. They work even better if domain owners tune them up but that is optional.

Keep that feedback coming. In the meantime, thanks for the opportunity to tap the collective intellect of the amazingly knowledgeable and discerning NamePros community.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I spent some time last night playing with the configurable landers for the Epik Marketplace. Wow, absolutely wow!!! Congrats to @Ala Dadan . @Rob Monster and the Epik team on providing a dream for sale lander. And to @dande for starting this thread!

What do I particularly like about it?

• They have great images you can trivially choose from or upload your own.
• You can have long text descriptions if you want (not sure that is good selling wise, but as you all know it suits me ).
• Your text can be formatted with all of the obvious things including lists, bold/italic etc., rulers, even images there and tables. You can even add code.
• The lander starts with the elegantly designed simple message with buy it now, make offer, start payment plan and contact the owner all easily seen.
• At the bottom information on Epik to build trust on transaction and what payment options are offered.
• But my favourite? You can have links in your description! Like for a .co you can link to the .co registry showcase examples, or you can link to other similar domains you have for sale, or your own portfolio if you want.
• You can even add your own .ico file if you want to add that last professional touch.
• Not part of the lander per se, but all of the various payment plan options that are so easily set with Epik are an important part.

Admittedly, it takes some time to do this. I am not sure I plan to bother with it for all of my domains, but definitely will for some of them. The example I worked on last night is at this link if anyone wants to see some of what I describe (it is still a work in progress, and too wordy) - has custom image, formatted description, my ico, links, bullet text, etc..

If you purchased a lot of .co in the recent promotions, one nice thing the links allow you to do is to link to the examples of sites using.co. The showcase by the .co registry is at this link. If you go to the map you can find .co examples from your own region. Really nice! Hats off to the .co registry for doing right what each registry should (but most don't).

Am I excited about the Epik landers? Yes!!! The only downside is now I want to spend so much time making all of my domains at Epik Marketplace look nice and descriptive.

Bob

 

[Rob Monster]

Happy New Year to everyone on this thread.

I woke up this morning before dawn, highly enthused about the year ahead. Come to find out that the Epik Customer Success team (35 people) were largely online and making things happen.

While most people are sleeping off their hangovers, the Epik team was paving the way for an important move during January ahead of NamesCon.

I summarized it here:

Most days lately I just smile that I have the privilege to lead such a talented group of diverse people to help make the pie bigger for a whole lot of people who don't even know we exist.

Lord-willing, we'll make things happen. My one big ask from this forum is to keep me humble. I believe it is my blind side. If you see me lose humility, you can call me out.

As such, I think this is going to be my verse for 2020:

A lot of people misquote this verse -- it has 2 parts: a warning shot and a smackdown. I will prefer to avoid both. So, thanks in advance for keeping me in check.

 

[Molly White]

[Editing to add: I'm the Wikipedia editor who goes by the username "GorillaWarfare" and who created and helps to maintain the article about Epik. Realized that's a bit of an important detail to include up-front!]

Didn't expect to find myself back here, but I saw the Mashable article about Epik too. It came up in my news recommendations and when I saw the intro sentence that "PayPal, Hunter Biden, Bloomberg News, and several Avengers were targeted in a series of unhinged open letters from Epik after PayPal terminated its account" I went to read them since that sounded amusing, if nothing else. I was surprised to see that Epik decided to use these letters to attack me personally, as well, with a whole slew of false claims. Given Epik had stopped their threats against me here and in other venues, and given I hadn't made any substantive changes to the Wikipedia article since the insanity from April, I was pretty floored to see it. From the letter to Bloomberg:

Two years later, Wikipedia still maintains 24 hour surveillance by a user named GorillaWarfare, who has already proclaimed that the content will never come down, regardless of the truth coming out. To date, roughly 170 attempts at changes – by dozens of industry professionals – have been reverted. Their weaponized user base has openly mocked anyone who has tried, and one of Wikipedia’s top editors (also responsible for the Satanic Bible), has literally posted Swastikas on our own social media feeds and statements against racism. The editor still posts taunts in trade forums and personal social media pages, with the reaffirmation that no one has the power to stop them.
​

It's a pretty bizarre statement given I think I've been nothing but clear in my comments that the article can always be updated to reflect new information that is published in independent, reliable sources. The comment about how I am "responsible for the Satanic Bible" is, I assume, meant to convey that I have contributed to the Wikipedia article about The Satanic Bible, and presumably not that I am somehow personally responsible for the existence of a book that was first published twenty years before I was born. Oddly enough they never mention that I also created an article on a Roman Catholic basilica... As for the accusation that I have "literally posted Swastikas on our own social media feeds and statements against racism" is presumably a reference to a tweet of mine in which I included a screenshot of an Ars Technica article about Epik that included as its lead image a screenshot of the swastika-laden front page of Nazi publication The Daily Stormer, because AT was writing about how the site had just come back up thanks to Epik.

Anyway, I just wanted to post here to say that I certainly hope my attempts to explain how Wikipedia works and defend myself from attacks from Epik staff, which I did at the express invitation of members of this forum (see my first post here), did not come off to the rest of you as "posting taunts in trade forums" or as an intrusion.

I hope you're all well,
Molly White

 

[Michael]

It all becomes clear, and makes sense if you don't understand the domain industry at all, which most people don't: https://namebio.com/blog/update-to-the-paypal-ban-paypal-explains-everything/

 

[Rob Monster]

@Lox might kill me for this one but I think we'll pivot a bit on this back cover design in light of the target audience being overwhelmingly domainers.

The barista image did not really evoke the digital focus of our efforts, nor does it really evoke the domainer lifestyle of being able to work from anywhere, anytime and in your way.

Lastly, during 2020, you will see Epik expand beyond being domain names to empowering a trading economy around digital presence. That was the focus of this brand search.

And yes @wwwweb, we made the Toki logo a little bigger.

Was that an upgrade?

Here is what it looks like in hand as a back cover of the program guide -- mock up:

 

[Rob Monster]

My hopes would be there only if I listed the domain on that platform, you guys just don't wanna believe I didn't list it there lol
out of all domains I have I could've sold any lower expectations domain and liquidate it rather than the one had high appraisal value

I reviewed the history of this one with Operations.

The event log makes it clear that you as authorized account owner submitted the listing without reserve price and it sold for $27. It could have sold for more but did not. It is a good idea to promote your listing from the moment you submit it, especially for a niche domain such as a .FM domain which most don't buy.

The challenge with unwinding transactions due to seller's remorse is that it undermines the integrity of the marketplace. If there was a systematic pattern of unwinding transactions, it would cause significant challenges.

ICYMI, one great advantage of NameLiquidate is that the sellers are getting clear title, unlike on Godaddy, Snapnames or NameJet expiry auctions where a former owner might pay a restore fee to reclaim a domain that was auctioned and still subject to 60-day transfer lock.

In the case of Epik, the buyer, assuming they have a verified account can immediately re-sell that domain that they bought or transfer out to another registrar. That is actually pretty cool.

So, now you have to decide whether to keep stomping your feet, or whether to move on, congratulate the buyer and play the game a little smarter next time. And if you stay classy, you will find a lot of folks here at NP will be happy to help you. Pro tip: downvoting someone's thoughtful response is a loser move.

 

[golan]

For most users, this is an extremely important indicator.

Who told you so?

It is NOT.

Estibot evaluations are laughable and idiotic.

If you really are in need to show some evaluations for some reasons that no one else can understand, use Godaddy appraisal instead, these are tons times more accurate.

Oh wait...

 

[theodore_zhou]

@Rob Monster
just got a inquiry from epik,and found it shows my domain info like this in the offer for both sides(and always there for counters):
Value: $15.00

Alexa: 0

Page Rank: 0

Earnings: $0.00

Park Visits: 0

WHOIS: -

Market Visits: 5

Previous Offers: 1

i think all potential buyer can see such info,at least when he tries to make a offer,he will see such info.
Showing such info to buyer does not help at all,and will seriously affect buyer desion.
in fact i do not believe what the estibot value at all.
they are useless.
can you remove such info from domains,at least not showing for buyers?
thanks.

 

[karmaco]

So Masterbucks is the issue or part of the issue. I never understood the need for an internal currency anyways. All other registrars use regular money and no internal “currency”.

Anyone saying PayPal is no loss is misguided. I would bet large majority of domainers use PP and the ones not using it have suspended accounts so not by choice. With the introduction of crypto into PP them being an option is even more popular.

 

[tonyk2000]

What is Epik marketing team thinking? ;-() How about more unique slogan?

VS

 

[Rob Monster]

We have some countermeasures for bot attacks. They are activated quickly in the event of an attack. IP blocks can also occur due to repeated failed logins.

For folks who are concerned about account security, depending on the level of security you want to achieve, you can use any of these at Epik:

- Strong password
- 2FA using SMS or Authenticator app
- Free WHOIS privacy to prevent social engineering
- IP allow list
- VPN, e.g. see free VPN at Anonymize.com
- MaxLock - optional service for total account lockdown useful for mission critical domains

 

[4pm]

we're looking for additional information from the buyer before processing your withdrawal

8 days after the name was delivered to the buyer
can someone from Epik comment on this please

22.11
..still "Pending"
zero communication from Epik
"legendary support" is silent, busy and deaf
no one cares except me, understandably

@Rob Monster would hopefully like to comment too

 

[Rob Monster]

Thank you all of the feedback and comments, such feedback will is constructive for us at Epik, as it provides with a guideline for what is working and what is not. And help us plan for future updates.

My Name is Ala Dadan, and as @Rob Monster has mentioned, I'm part of the great team behind Epik.

Currently, we are working on the following updates for the Parking landers:
- Provide the domainer with the ability to customize the domain lander even more. Giving the user full control of the front-end design and layout. For example, domainers will be able to Enable/disable various elements on the lander.

- SEO improvements, which includes an update on the HTML structure, meta tags and page load speed.

- General Design updates: introducing new background images and other content elements which will improve the page aesthetically.

- Seamless editing and publishing experience.

- Mobile view fixes and customization and performance review.

Finally, our goal is to introduce 4 to 5 new templates before this year-end. And another 10 by June next year.

I will watch this thread and review your comments and feedback on the platform.

thank you
Ala

For those of you who don't know Ala, he and I have been working together since 2007. He has been with Epik since our founding. As for design skill, he is the closest thing to a "Jony Ive" that the domain industry probably has. I come up with vague ideas and he translates the vision into design reality, and helps to project manage the equally talented engineers. It seems a logical time to introduce him to NamePros because we view domain investors as our partners and making Domaining viable for everyone.

 

[VaibhavA]

Just received a 10$ bonus for reporting a bug.

I didnt know about the bonus part. I started a chat as I wanted an instore credit for .orgs that I backordered yesterday and didnt get an instore credit immediately as they were caught by dropcatch.

Rob joined the chat and checked himself what I said and himself credited my account with the bonus.

Thats a great cusomer support.

First time in my life I received some appreciation + got paid for something like this as otherwise most of the time people are not even ready to acknowledge that there's an issue with their system.

 

[Rob Monster]

Here is a quick preview of a software update is in staging and is going through QA.

A number of folks requested tools for making fast updates to domain prices within the control panel without having to go page by page but simply as a browse-editor.

That should go live tomorrow:

It should allow in-page editing so that the updates are made instantly without having to load the page. That should help for folks who need to set domain-specific pricing.

Keep those ideas coming. We are listening.