Discuss your Epik Experience!

[Dandelion]

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.

 

[JudgeMind]

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:

Show attachment 141506

- 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.

Yes, I agree. There is some great data and have grabbed some decent names lately. thank you Rob and the Epik team

Also, epic escrow is seamless and easy. Had a buyer wanting to pay in BTC for a $5000 purchase lately, Epik made it happen. Buyer was happy I was happy!

 

[BharatR]

Please include option to export auth codes with export csv file like namesilo which now even godaddy provides it.

 

[NicTraders]

Quick update:

- 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:

Show attachment 141506

Love it. Works like a charm. Domains show on NameLiquidate immediately. Now for the Proxy Bidding...

 

[Blitzpotz]

Please include option to export auth codes with export csv file like namesilo which now even godaddy provides it.

While this really would be a nice option I never have a good feeling when storing these lists with authcodes in my PC environment. Data could be stolen, and sometimes it happens to use an outdated code. Personally I am quite unsure if to prefer the Godaddy and Namesilo method (lists as an option) or the way of Dynadot and Epik (Code by domain).

The online process to transfer out a domain from Epik is easy and fast, and they even remind to unlock your domain.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

What purpose of 3rd-party MX record (mail.b-io.co) when using your landers?
+ there is also additional TXT record with its ID/signature.

Hidden email monetization?
I don't need it.

These are in the process of being removed
You already can bulk remove them if you wish

This "process" is too long...
Already ~1.5 months elapsed since my post - no any changes...
Those abnormal records are still applied by default... And I waste my time for each domain in my portfolio...
Also I can't remove them in a bulk... Because in this mode all types of records are affected...

 

[BharatR]

While this really would be a nice option I never have a good feeling when storing these lists with authcodes in my PC environment. Data could be stolen, and sometimes it happens to use an outdated code. Personally I am quite unsure if to prefer the Godaddy and Namesilo method (lists as an option) or the way of Dynadot and Epik (Code by domain).

The online process to transfer out a domain from Epik is easy and fast, and they even remind to unlock your domain.

To each their own, i think it is very useful option and can save lot of time.

 

[Gube]

This "process" is too long...
Already ~1.5 months elapsed since my post - no any changes...
Those abnormal records are still applied by default... And I waste my time for each domain in my portfolio...
Also I can't remove them in a bulk... Because in this mode all types of records are affected...

Sure,
A way to edit that quicky is to set email forwarding (can be set in bulk)
It will replace that mail bio to the redirection server

Gube

 

[DnFolk]

To each their own, i think it is very useful option and can save lot of time.

Agree with my large portfolio at epik, sometimes when i sell bulk domains in reseller, its time consuming getting authenticate codes of each domain. So auth codes with file is must have option for me.

 

[Rob Monster]

This "process" is too long...
Already ~1.5 months elapsed since my post - no any changes...
Those abnormal records are still applied by default... And I waste my time for each domain in my portfolio...
Also I can't remove them in a bulk... Because in this mode all types of records are affected...

Those MX records are Bounce.IO monetization of the MX stream.

I actually recommend instead using the email forwarding service with catch-all instead.

Bounce.io does not bring much so I think we'll drop it for now. I had not seen this request earlier but just confirmed with engineering that will go ahead and drop it.

That said, I strongly recommend using those email forwarders for intelligence gathering. I have sold many names by using misrouted emails as soft-sell to the CEO.

@vitigo - As discussed with Aleksey, approved to disable Bounce.io effective immediately.

 

[Ntmt]

I actually recommend instead using the email forwarding service with catch-all instead.

Is there some way to setup catch-all for emails AND use some external lander page like Sedo?

 

[Rob Monster]

Is there some way to setup catch-all for emails AND use some external lander page like Sedo?

Sure, set A-record or CNAME and then use catch-all email forwarding. You can do that as a combo.

On the other hand, why use the Sedo landers? At the very least split-test against the Epik landers and see which gets more qualified inquiries. With Epik at least you get all of the contact info.

Also, before NamesCon, the new Epik CRM will be live. If you have legacy inquiry data, we'll provide migration tools for Sedo and Uni DNS plus others upon request.

 

[Rob Monster]

Those MX records are Bounce.IO monetization of the MX stream.

I actually recommend instead using the email forwarding service with catch-all instead.

Bounce.io does not bring much so I think we'll drop it for now. I had not seen this request earlier but just confirmed with engineering that will go ahead and drop it.

That said, I strongly recommend using those email forwarders for intelligence gathering. I have sold many names by using misrouted emails as soft-sell to the CEO.

@vitigo - As discussed with Aleksey, approved to disable Bounce.io effective immediately.

@Jurgen Wolf - Quite update for you. The legacy of Bounce.IO host records will be dropped on Friday morning CET. It is about 2 million host records.

Small world story, it was Sean Stafford of @DomainGraduate who first pitched me on using Bounce.IO before they became ThreatWave and were acquired by Return Path. DomainGraudate is now part of Epik.

The end of an era because of @Jurgen Wolf.

In the meantime, try out email forwarding with catch-all.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

This email monetization is very dangerous... at least if it is enabled for Afilias TLDs...
Few years ago - one of my .ME domains was suspended exactly due to Email monetization at ParkingCrew...
And overall, MX revenue is very minor but risks are very high - so no any sense to use it.

 

[Rob Monster]

This email monetization is very dangerous... at least if it is enabled for Afilias TLDs...
Few years ago - one of my .ME domains was suspended exactly due to Email monetization at ParkingCrew...
And overall, MX revenue is very minor but risks are very high - so no any sense to use it.

We never had an issue with it, but the ROI was small. We originally added it to see if improved SEO, i.e. activating an MX record.

I believe the real ROI is by mining the catch-all for emails that can be used to engage the logical buyers.

One word of warning to not try to hack someone's PayPal or online banking due to abandoned email address. It is extremely easy but definitely not in the gray area.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

My suspended doMEn definitely had some working email address prior my registration...
Was popular blog on it... later dropped and I caught it...
It was blocked by Afilias after ~2-3 months of parking (with enabled Email monetization).

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Also keep in mind, that Afilias blocks are usually silent (without any notifications to registrants).
So most domainers even don't know that their domains are not alive until manually detected.

 

[tonyk2000]

As a side note, I recently tried to use epik dns for some temporary routine (txt records verification for a set of domains where I decided to change the parking company) - so I just added some external domains, configured A and TXT records in bulk, verified and deleted these domains. It worked. With an exception that I've seen some strange A records, it looked like Epik either grabbed and saved IPs which were live years ago or tried to include current IP addresses together with the new IPs I just submitted as A records. And, no existing records were shown initially, unknown records appeared after I finished everything. Why is this? One would expect clean DNS before managing it. And, is there a way to check a real zone content after I finished the config - with such a strange behavior it is possible that there are some other unknown and unnecessary records I forgot to remove, or was unable to (maybe some exotic record type which is not in GUI for example)?

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Bulk DNS is very specific there... it affects all types of records when you submit any changes...
In other words, if you submit just bulk TXT modification - all other records like A, MX etc. will be updated as well...
That's why outcome is unpredictable...

 

[tonyk2000]

Sure, set A-record or CNAME

In Sedo case, IPs are frequently changed. So, just CNAME to sedoparking.com should be better. Not to forget about making a decision as to naked domain config ( @ ), as there should be different possible ways to setup it.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

ALIAS record type for @ - Epik has it from my observation...
CNAME for subdomains like www or * (catch-all).