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.

 

[jberryhill]

You and Andrew Allemann from DNW were literally the first to publish it online and make it public, post a GoDaddy executive sharing it with you.

Stop lying.

Alleman posted it to Twitter at 3:58PM US Eastern Time:

I posted it here more than a half hour later, at 4:35 PM:

Your statement, about "a GoDaddy executive sharing it with you" is a LIE. I have no idea where Alleman got the link, but it was obviously posted on Twitter more than a half hour before I posted it here. There is no reason a GoDaddy executive would share anything with me. I don't work for GoDaddy and, in fact, lost a client because of GoDaddy's purchase of Uniregistry.com earlier this year.

The notion that you perform private file transfers in a subdirectory called "/blog" is facially ridiculous. The document is called "An Open Letter". I speak English, and know what an "open letter" is. How stupid do you think people are?

Finally, the notion that these spreadsheets were intended to be kept at a "private" URL in your "blog" subdirectory is belied by the fact that upon the link being published, you still have made no effort to remove the spreadsheets in question. Sending regulatory agencies lists of phone numbers and emails of employees at GoDaddy and Paypal serves no rational purpose whatsoever. That you expect anyone to believe that lame ass justification shows how hopelessly ignorant you are in dealing with regulatory agencies in the first place. Any inquiry from a regulatory agency to either of those organizations is going to be directed to the office of their respective general counsels, and nobody from the DOJ or the FTC is going to be ringing up or emailing random employees in those organizations. That would be entirely improper.

I realize you are playing to the presumed ignorance of your intended audience, but you are like a child hiding behind your own hands and thinking no one can see you. These rationalizations of yours are juvenile, and contradict the plain facts.

Now, tell me about my "interactions with GoDaddy" to which you alluded to suggest some sort of relationship.

 

[jberryhill]

I asked what were the tax advantages? How about you answer instead of pointing to some distraction?

We completely re-did the site in early 2020. There is zero discussion about tax.

So what, Rob. You “re-did the site”. What was the tax thing doing on the site in the first place?

Just because you got caught and changed the site doesn’t explain why it was there in the first place.

Does this kind of thing happen a lot at Epik? Stuff gets posted on publicly-accessible web pages, and nobody knows what it meant or how it got there?

And, the problem with PayPal isn’t about your propensity for bogus statements about tax evasion schemes. The problem seems to be related to the overall Masterbucks scheme in the first place.

Stop pretending this is about your Nazi pals. You are engaged in eyebrow-raising financial services (and let’s not even get started about your DNProtect unlicensed insurance/warranty scheme), and going on unhinged rants about vandalism at police stations, freedom of speech, and how everyone is out to get you, does not address a relevant substantive question such as “Why were you advertising ‘tax advantages’ in the first place?”

Don’t tell us about how quickly you can pull your hand out of the cookie jar, tell us what it was doing in there to begin with.

 

[JB Lions]

merchant services are blacklisting Republicans, that they are coordinating mass DDOS attacks against critical infrastructure providers, that Discover card just blacklisted a ton of people they felt were right leaning

So Epik is Republican? It seems you can't get your marketing on the same page. We're for everybody, we're neutral, we're Republican..........

So it's an attack on Republicans? Why? Republicans spend money just like everybody else. I'm sure there are all kinds of Republicans, right leaning sites using PayPal just fine. So because you're Republican, makes no sense for somebody to drop you. Then DDOS attacks on top of that? Who specifically is carrying out these attacks?

 

[Silentptnr]

I'm confused. @Intelliname are you an official Epik spokesperson? Who is Robert Davis?

We have a diverse crowd of domainers here and while some love to engage in a lively discussion, we are not helping to resolve this situation with our inputs at this time. Lets have some patience and faith in a speedy agreeable resolution.

Unwarranted, or poorly communicated actions of cancelling essential business services affects all of us directly and indirectly. Healthy competition leads to competitive pricing and innovation for all. It will benefit us, domainers, the most when the facts come out and amicable resolutions are found.

It is true, political landscape has been becoming very polarized, social media and the public square of free speech is changing and many sociocultural ideas are being redefined. I side with having more options and more alternatives rather than less and it is not in my nature to want to limit others in that sense.

Hoping Paypal acts in good faith and with responsibility of being a dominant provider of digital payments and provides equal access to its services. Jberryhill continues to teach nightly TM Law courses on NP. And Epik staff are left to improve the domaining business.

The PR problems Epik has had are due, imo, to their own publicly expressed positions and their own decisions. There is nothing for Epik to gain by expressing conservative (or liberal) positions as a centerpoint of their business philosophy. Consumers will always have differing opinions and this is why I have always suggested leaving political positions at the door. A clear, well-enforced TOS normally eliminates many of the image problems Epik is facing.

The business problems Epik is having is due, in part, imo, to miscalculating their growth strategy, and creating enemies instead of allies in a still developing, relatively small industry.

To me, it's not that complicated. It's weak management.

 

[jberryhill]

And, if I could make one other constructive suggestion, Rob. Make sure that you have a license to modify when you use commercial stock images:

 

[Sutruk]

I have done another epik escrow transaction this week. Again, super fast, smooth and hassle free! From beginning to end.
They use Transferwise and is just amazing, the funds are transferred to your bank instantly.
By the way, Epik support is always there 24 hours a day. Congrats to Epik for the level of excellence on their services!

 

[TheBuyerz]

Hi !

I wanna talk about my last experience ... the last week I taken a long conversation with a reseller to purchase a domain name, after we concluded it with a BUY PRICE ... I suggested to the seller so we do the exchange using EPIK ESCROW (Why? Because ultra fast and already used that service, low cost), then he accepted and when he were about to transfer the domain name, he got a problem and he said that he can't pay for the transfer fees (About 7.49$ on EPIK) - I tought that he can't pay because of PayPal problem or something ... so, I contacted EPIK support quickly in order to send him 8.49$ from my INSTORE CREDIT to her/his account so he pay the transaction fees (transfer).

But the support need to fellow the case first to the manager responsible about this task since it's not allowed to transfer credits to another account other than yours ! (Notice that I recieved an instant/live support).

So, I decided to contact @Rob Monster, I was worried to pass behind this opportunity ... again he answered few seconds after my message ... what he did? He top upped directly the sellers account without removing credit from my own balance.

I contacted the seller and notified him to fellow up with the transaction ... after many other exchanges it appeared as a scammer (It was confirmed by contacting the real owner to the email that @Rob Monster provided to me again !).

This is a review about the CEO of @epik ... I really recommand you to use Epik Escrow/Services (It's not because only of this, but I am comfortable with it and offer all options that domainer needs in one place.).

Thanks again for your help () !

 

[JLJ]

A pleasure to officially "debut" on the forum as an Epik representative.

It's an even greater pleasure to not only be valued by Rob and the awesome team at Epik as an employee and human being, but to thrive every day to elevate our support and help our customers and fellow domain investors create, launch and run their businesses. It's truly fulfilling to be able to serve this community.

If you're ever in need of assistance, feel free to tag me or send me a mail at [email protected].

 

[topdom]

Hi,
I'd like to know the expiration time for accepted offer.
I have got an offer and accepted it buyer doesn't paid. What if he is "reserved" the domain and trying to resell it to someone else.
If the buyer do not paid in 7 days offer should be canceled.

I asked the same question many many many times everywhere. No response.
Maybe because they are reserving that right for themselves, sometimes.

To avoid this situation: Don't accept any offer, if you want to accept an offer,
just make a counteroffer very close to the offer you are ready to accept.
If someone accepts your offer, I think he has to pay. If it won't be paid right away,
why allow accepting an offer. I think this is the rule at Epik at the moment (not sure).
It never happened that a buyer accepts my offer/price t Epik and doesn't pay immediately
(because , I hope, theoretically it is not possible).
Since we are losing the domain as soon as payment is received, it doesn't
make sense to keep a sale in pending state in such cases.
This is like fast transfer of Afternic.

But if you are accepting their offer, then they can't pay as soon as you accept their
offer (they need to check their email first, who knows when).

If you made a counteroffer, but want to change /cancel your offer;
will making another offer cancel previous offer: Not sure about it.
I also asked this to Epik everywhere , no response. They either ignore
or intentionally misunderstand it and say something completely unrelated.
BUT, (they say), you can remove the negotiation (click delete icon),
and then all offers would be cancelled.

I asked all such questions, when I was planning to make Epik my main
marketplace/parking service; and mentioned their mistakes hoping they would
fix all bugs, explain everything etc. Instead they turned into evil,
decided to hide contact infos of buyers, and created other bugs which can be
considered as scam attempts: not registering or renewing domains, not issuing refunds unless
explicitly warned, and blocking money in mastebucks.
...
EDIT (not related to epik): Dan makes accepting and cancelling offers very easy.
They have accept and cancel icons, but their meaning is not clear, and buyers are almost
forced to choose green or red icon, instead of clicking negotiation window to
make a counteroffer, or send a message. Clearly it was built for bulk buyers,
this way a domain investor or a midman agent could lowball thousands of domains everyday,
and quickly manage negotiations. Also, domains don't resolve fast enough,
may take 30 seconds or more.
And Sedo donates our real info, to fake buyers for free, without any consequences
except hurting sellers, and wasting their time.
And AN is for selling to GD agents rather than to actual buyers.
So no marketplace is good enough, because they optimize things for themselves.

 

[Samer]

I’m in process of moving all my domains to Epik.

I’ve never seen CEO so friendly, active, engaging.

Ever since the first day, I joined Epik, April 7 2017 (https://www.namepros.com/threads/wh...tter-alternatives-to-godaddy-company.1011180/)

Rob’s been a man of his word, ever since that day. Not much changed, free privacy, $8 .com renewal for ALL namepro members, added things still improving!

I think that’s what makes them scared, folks.

Rob has been godsend, and I’ve never felt more appreciated — simply for being a NP member!

That was my Epik experience.

 

[Rob Monster]

Response management CRM from Epik is coming soon. Preview.

The next step is Smart CRM features for automating responses. For people who get a lot of offers, this will be pretty cool -- our first step towards integrating some serious AI tools into Epik. Looking forward to that!

 

[golan]

Just got my first sale on Epik. Took less than 2hrs, from order to money in my masterbucks, and it's for external domain.

Amazing experience.

 

[golan]

It has many languages:

Anything you get translated into Russian, feel free to send to me for proofreading. I'm a pro editor, was my last occupation before full time SEO and domaining.

Added: Also my brother owns a translation and localization agency for tech documentation into Russian

 

[Rob Monster]

Quick update:

- Selling non-Epik domains is now enabled on all Epik accounts -- this used to require approval but now we have a tight workflow for tracking sales sold on external registrars so we lifted that requirement.

- Some big updates are coming to NameLiquidate.com including scheduled proxy bidding. Also, one click submission of domains to NameLiquidate right from Epik domain manager comes TOMORROW:

- NameInvestors.com, the widget dashboard developed by @Gube is an under-discovered gem. Ask @JudgeMind how much he loves it.

- Some Epik staff are buying domains at auction lately, which I support and encourage. We only host Dutch auctions so there is no shill bidding possible. They will often pay in Masterbucks which are redeemable.

 

[Embrand]

I just bought two domains at the Epik marketplace. The names were listed by a private seller at $9 each and were registered at another registrar.

For these very small sales @Sarah Frank of Epik had to contact me and seller several times regarding transfer codes and other aspects of the transaction.

If I understand it correctly, Epik made a commission of less than one dollar for each of these two transactions. But the service provided was as good as if we were dealing with a large transaction.

So while I still disagree with some of Epik's moves, this was yet another outstanding support experience.

 

[Kassey Lee]

This would also allow verified domain owners to verify once and list everywhere

That's an excellent solution and will completely remove the ownership verification process. You are a visionary, Rob.

 

[Rob Monster]

@Gube hacked something that might be clever.

Check this out:

https://nouv.com/

Visit the site and then try to leave. It will prompt you with an encouragement to engage.

The site copy needs to be tuned, but curious to hear what folks think of the method.

 

[Sufyan Alani]

I had the worst experience at EPIK when I had really high expectations of them.

I recently bought 40+ domains on EPIK in a last month or two, all was going fine until yesterday when I got an email saying my domain 00.fm is sold on marketplace for $27 for the domain I bought for $390.

I contacted support and they told me it was listed on their namesliquidate website, which I have never done it and why would I list a premium domain on that Bargain platform.

I am certain I never did put any domain on that platform. so they won't believe I have never and said they have to honor the buyer.

- I got an email from them after the domain got sold that 00.fm is sold on marketplace : didn't say its sold on nameliquidate
- I never listed it on that platform
- why on earth I will list on that bargain platform for $27?

so they have to honor there buyer, I dont know where their policy was when I bought 3 domains and seller couldnt transfer the domains and they cancelled my orders.

are they just after commissions and dont try to protect account holders? now I feel risking all my domains in their platform, I am just waiting for my 60 days and gtfo of that registrar and never come back tbh.

Hi there,

As we've indicated in your support ticket discussing this issue, this domain name was listed and sold on NameLiquidate.com and not the standard marketplace.

NameLiquidate.com is a fast paced marketplace for liquidity by placing your domains in a reverse auction for 168 hours. Your domain may sell to someone willing to pay between $998 and $9 per domain. You can read more about it here: https://nameliquidate.com/faq

The outcome is clear. Our records show that you've submitted the domain on April 6 2020 (Precisely on 2020-04-06, 12:50:56) and did not set a reserve price. The domain was sold for perhaps lower than you liked but the system performed exactly as it should, even if the outcome was below your hope.

Regards,

 

[Kassey Lee]

This morning I registered a domain at Epik and immediately listed it at Afternic with BIN price. Within an hour the domain showed up in Godaddy's registration path. No email approval from registrar happened. Not sure if there is because I set NS to ns3.afternic.com and ns4.afternic.com. This is great because I can consolidate my domains and focus my energy on just one registrar -- the best one for now.

 

[Millionaire]

Epik is great..first of all I want to thank @Rob Monster for creating a wonderful platform like Nameliquidate...I liquidated 3 domains till now.

Secondly, I got an offer on one of my domain via epik marketplace. Though it was low ball offer of $15 but it was first ever offer I received. I countered with $140 but 3 days gone, no reply. Hoping for best in future with Epik. Added all my domains to marketplace.

 

[Business Brands]

I have to say Epik so far has exceeded my expectations.

 

[Kassey Lee]

There are domains that I watch. Everyday I go to Epik to do bulk search to check them. If a domain becomes available, then I sign in to Epik and register it. The whole process is very smooth. The domain is registered according with the default profile I have set up. I even like the 2-step authentication using mobile phone. The security code is 4 characters and tends to be easy to remember. Here are two features I would like to have.

1. Bulk search for 5,000 domains without having to sign in. Currently, I have to use Namebright.com for number over 500, the limit imposed by Epik. Namebright does not require me to sign in, so should Epik be able to provide the same.

2. Be able to include a user-defined tag in my default profile, so that new domains are automatically grouped under that tag.

 

[Rob Monster]

Thank you! Sounds promising. I think I noticed FI about a year ago but it looked like a dead project. Good to see you didn't abandon it and were working on it behind the scenes! Good luck on the rollout. Lots of good upgrades/changes lately. Thanks.

There is a long story there.

I have been working on Single Sign On Identity projects since 2007. The technology is not the hard part, though that is price of entry. The hard part is creating a sufficiently large cohort of compelling use cases with which to create critical mass.

If you look at the example of Auth0.com, they have now raised $330 million selling SSO solutions. And yet almost nobody has heard of them. That shows you how wide open this opportunity remains. So, we'll start with domains and then, Lord-willing, feather out.

You will see some very slick partner integration solutions, e.g. I would like to see parking companies pay customers daily via Masterbucks, and allow customers to tether their verified PPC stats to domains in a way that is easily verifiable.

So, WHOQ.com provides verified ownership, verified stats, and the ability to both message and transact with the owner of that domain regardless of which registrar they are using, all driven by the registrant,

In short, the concept of an industry operating system is unfolding and we could not be more excited.

 

[BradWilson]

I've been using the Epik Dropcatch/Backordering service for awhile now with mixed results.

The reasons for using them are: It's cheap, easy to use, directly connected to my main Epik account & I really wanted to test it out.

After almost 400 backorders (I have some domains currently In Progress) I'd say it's still a work-in-progress and needs a lot of rethinking and additional resources to be ready for prime time. And before anyone thinks my criticism means I'm not a fan of Epik that would be wrong. Overall I really like Epik and I sincerely hope they take note of my criticism and fix these glaring problems.

I tried to backorder several different extensions but .com & .net where the ONLY 2 that they ever caught successfully. In fact every other extension just gets stuck in In Progress mode and never finishes so I was forced to cancel these backorders every time.

For me that's very irritating because these backorders disappear from the list which messes up the success ratio. To get the missing backorders I'm forced to use the transaction report to find them so I can figure out the success ratio.

So I'd say totally forget any other extension at least until they make some much needed improvements.

Also, and this is probably by far the most important short coming...

Epik's Drop catch system simply can't compete with the other systems and they can't be counted on to catch the very best domains.

I've yet to catch any domain I really wanted. If you really want to catch a really valuable domain it just won't happen with Epik so don't use them for any critical grabs.

I wish Epik was better at this but it's pretty clear they won't be competing with the big boys anytime soon. That's because the big boys have invested heavily in resources that allow them to always win and they usually do.

Here's a screenshot of my Epik Backorder csv report that I just generated from my new system.

 

[Intelliname]

When can we expect less outages? What are you guys doing to improve? I have seen at least 3 or 4 in the last 3 months and they last HOURS...either it's the login or the main site or the landers. Or in the case today everything. You guys have the best interface for domaining that I've seen. Please improve...get better! Thanks!

Thanks for the great input NameFu! Over this past three months, Epik has implemented several major upgrades and changes to enhance operability, interface applications, connectivity, resiliency, and the tools and resources that our customers can take advantage of. Most are done in tiers to avoid any downtime, but occasionally they may require full resets or complex data migrations for final activation. There has also been a number of worldwide outages with major network providers such as CenturyLink (Level 3) and others, that are unfortunately outside of Epik control. A number of major service providers, including Cloudflare, Hulu, Netflix, and PlayStation were impacted, typically for periods of 40-50 minutes at max.

The Epik upgrades are pretty amazing though. They include new resiliency protection from common external attacks, but most are resource orientated to provide added benefits for marketing boosts. New ways to create and sort data for the custom landing page editor to enhance SEO/natural organic positioning to drive more leads. An incredible new tool being debugged now for bulk template edits to control Domain Casing, descriptive text, and even meta data for improved search engine positioning for lead stimulation. Faster SSL assignments. I believe Epik is still the only registrar in the world that lets you shift all your domains into standalone websites with free SSL certificates for maximum browser compatibility and associated keyword ranking value with a few clicks. Even if they are with an outside registrar. They have enhanced keyword embedding from 5 phrases to 10 phrases for better marketplace orientation and search control. Plus a host of upgrades that will be featured soon in a new video, least not being dynamic price adjustments on the fly within a single interface panel under the Marketplace section.

Considering all of this is possible even if the domain isn't registered with them is pretty amazing. Still uncovering new secrets with the Epik interface every day, and it is like having my own rocket ship control panel at the fingertips.

Sorry to hear on the sale you believe has been lost, and hope it can be recovered! If there is anything Epik's premium sales team can do, I am sure they wouldn't mind helping out. You can always reach out to them at [email protected], or go through support chat with details of the transaction. They have some of the best sales staff in the world in my experience, and if the deal can be revived, they would be the ones to do it!

Have a blessed and amazing start to your week. It is going to be a fantastic October, and domaining is still the best profession and past time for anyone with creativity and optimism to participate in. Very thankful for the industry, the people, the names, the opportunities, and the excitement of the close.

Happy Monday!