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.

 

[Rob Monster]

Just sent 50$ to my tech guy via masterbucks. Why does it have to show his email address?
I mentioned this before
Nobody"s business what email address he uses at epik. Security risk
Also no lock at masterbucks, showing not secure

This site uses an outdated security configuration which may expose your information when sent to this site.
Security risk.

We modified that -- the email is hidden now. Good feedback. Pros and cons.

The SSL was upgraded..

Masterbucks 2.0 is on staging -- massive upgrade and a game-changer for industry payments.

 

[Grilled]

Looks like epik nameservers took a hit today, according to the April 4 DomainTools table of nameserver activity:

 

[OnlineBusiness.com]

Posting here because I couldn't get an answer from live chat:

2 questions:

1) I want to structure a deal for a domain I'm selling and I want to do a payment plan using Epik's escrow service. Is this easy to setup and what is the commission rate for this?

2) For the domain I'm selling, I could not add because I got an error that says the domain is already in the system. It's not in the system. At least not under my account. It is however part of Afternic's premium network. Could that be the issue?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rob Monster]

Posting here because I couldn't get an answer from live chat:

2 questions:

1) I want to structure a deal for a domain I'm selling and I want to do a payment plan using Epik's escrow service. Is this easy to setup and what is the commission rate for this?

2) For the domain I'm selling, I could not add because I got an error that says the domain is already in the system. It's not in the system. At least not under my account. It is however part of Afternic's premium network. Could that be the issue?

Thanks in advance.

Here is the overview:

https://www.epik.com/support/knowledgebase/selling-and-leasing-domains-on-epik/

This is best done as payment plan where the users can pay via credit card or PayPal using a payment method that they keep on file for auto-pay.

As for adding the conflicting external domain in your account, I will assist you via PM. We are working on a general solution.

 

[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.

 

[Rob Monster]

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.

Thanks for the feedback.

We have a cultural norm of treating everyone with respect, regardless of the transaction size. Sometimes that surprises people but the feedback we get is awesome.

We also recognize that sometimes even a small transaction can be material for some people, especially when dealing with emerging markets.

Looking ahead, we are hopeful to automate a lot of steps for verified persons which free up staff to focus on empowerment and relationship, even as we scale.

Thanks again!

 

[Kassey Lee]

I regularly move domains to Epik as they expire at GD. However, the biggest obstacle is in the process of relisting the domains at Afternic.

It's hit and miss, like what I did 5 days ago. I had 7 domains expiring at GD so I moved them to Epik, then uploaded a file to Afternic to relist them. I'm still waiting for an email from Epik to approve the listing.

I think Afternic and partners need to rethink the process of relisting domains. Changing registrar should not result having my listed domains removed. Instead, a simple approval from within the new registrar should suffice. Also, the use of email for approval is like we are still living in the stone age. There must be a simple and easy way.

 

[Rob Monster]

I regularly move domains to Epik as they expire at GD. However, the biggest obstacle is in the process of relisting the domains at Afternic.

It's hit and miss, like what I did 5 days ago. I had 7 domains expiring at GD so I moved them to Epik, then uploaded a file to Afternic to relist them. I'm still waiting for an email from Epik to approve the listing.

I think Afternic and partners need to rethink the process of relisting domains. Changing registrar should not result having my listed domains removed. Instead, a simple approval from within the new registrar should suffice. Also, the use of email for approval is like we are still living in the stone age. There must be a simple and easy way.

Agreed there.

The direction I would like to see this go is a registrant-centric framework for WHOIS which is GDPR-compliant and makes it easy for domain owners to prove domain ownership.

You can see what we are building in this area at WHOQ.com. It is intended to work for any domain name, including crypto domains and alt domains.

This would also allow verified domain owners to verify once and list everywhere without having to publish their WHOIS data in the clear -- privacy without losing accessibility. That would be a breakthrough.

Stay tuned.

 

[NickB]

I have had an inquiry come through to my hotmail address, the lead has come via
domain name.com @ anonymize.com

I am assuming this is through the Whois info held by Epik?

Is there anyway to reply back using the same format or will it go from my hotmail account?

 

[Rob Monster]

I have had an inquiry come through to my hotmail address, the lead has come via
domain name.com @ anonymize.com

I am assuming this is through the Whois info held by Epik?

Is there anyway to reply back using the same format or will it go from my hotmail account?

Yes anonymize.com is an email forwarding proxy.

If it is an offer, then the lead will appear in your CRM:

https://registrar.epik.com/offers#/list/seller

Example upon drill-down:

If the prospect just looked up your email on WHOIS, there is no way to reply anonymously. It does raise the question though of being able to send a lead out via the CRM. We'll check that one.

@vitigo
@Ala Dadan

 

[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.

 

[NickB]

@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.

That's nice - he needs to get rid of the word "of" after discuss.....

 

[jideofor]

@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.

Wow, this is lovely. I have seen this before on several internet marketers' websites.

Do you think making that a pop up could do a better conversion when you try to leave and is it available for all domains listed on Epik?

Rob, I love the way you are fast adding different so many features to epik. More power to the team at Epik.

 

[Samer]

@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.

Sorry, too busy falling love with background.

 

[Rob Monster]

Wow, this is lovely. I have seen this before on several internet marketers' websites.

Do you think making that a pop up could do a better conversion when you try to leave and is it available for all domains listed on Epik?

Rob, I love the way you are fast adding different so many features to epik. More power to the team at Epik.

Lord-willing, it will be discussed on the Monday morning engineering call to figure out how to deploy it with the best looking version of the UX. This still needs some optimized copy and aesthetic. I was just wanting to make sure that folks will appreciate it before we apply the modest effort required to deploy it.

The other big thing that I see coming is the ability to allow domain owners the option to engage prospects directly on their SSL landers. @Gube has been incubating our own Zendesk alternative which is already running on our our Kubernetes cloud called CloudChase.com. You can see it here:

https://customersupport.co/

I wonder how many domain owners would be interested in engaging chats directly with prospects who come to their domain landers versus relying on Epik's staff to manage that close process as we have it currently. Once we are self-hosting chat, it becomes economic to make it available to all.

@Ala Dadan

 

[jideofor]

Sorry, too busy falling love with background.

lol... Now, that is Epik!

 

[Rob Monster]

lol... Now, that is Epik!

Some revised copy from @Intelliname.

 

[Rhinnnn]

@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.

Realy nice. But it doesn't work when one uses Ctrl + W. Then again, most end users probably don't know about keyboard shortcuts.

 

[Cal2]

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

Interesting add-on feature. I'm thinking it could have merit, especially when site copy is tuned.

I'm wondering if adding 'purchase' behind 'payment plan' could help clarify things better for those looking at a domain.

'Get in touch with the owner to discuss a direct purchase or payment plan purchase.'