Epik API support

[twiki]

These days I've finally decided to try out Epik, having domains about anywhere else.

Registered about 40 domains in 2 days, but now I am REALLY disapointed. Side note the context is drop catching and using their API for regging expired domains.

First off, as a note, I was not able to contact support at all. It's like trying to reach a black hole. All calls never reached a rep. I can see they also don't reply to emails. Tried calling many times - it's impossible. You just wait for 2 minutes then the call hangs up on you. No I won't leave a message, sorry; the whole experience makes me suspect nobody will ever call me back. The site is also made BTW so you don't actually find how to contact them, apart from calling the numbers nobody replies to.

Side note if I could call support, OR find any kind of documentation answering my problems listed here, this post would not have existed. But I'm left to my own devices with this. Hence this post.

First day, 2 domains didn't go through. Yeah, perhaps someone else was quicker, that's alright, I understand. But the funds were taken from the account. I mean, what? The inability to register the domains should automatically cancel the transactions, Paypal supports that. And they know instantly they couldn't reg the domain.

I can't really watch if each transaction is matched by a correct domain registration. Have better things to do. Any other registrar automatically sees such errors and reverts the transactions without me having to manually point each to them.

Mailed their support, received note somethone actually received it, and later that day the funds went into account credit. No email replies regarding problem solved, no warning that they actually did this. You have to discover on your own that actually something went into credit. Fortunately I took a look at it.

The worst thing by far is the API.

As a domain investor, I watch for expired domains and I use registrar API to quickly snatch what I need.

Unfortunately, that is not possible with Epik. Their API will not register any freshly dropped domain, although the manual bulk register interface allows for it. This is because, as I can see, the domains ARE NOT AVAILABLE IN REALTIME VIA THE API. While at the same time any other registrar I'm using shows them as available so you can register now. I could register 0 domains via their API. ( Edit: manual regs work though, but not freshly expired ones).

I have given up trying registration after a few minutes so then I'm doing manual regs via the bulk manual search. This meant for me, pointless work for hours at something that any other registrar API offers. Even GD is quicker than this and a more or less functional thing by comparison.

I suspect they only offer CACHED registrations via the API. Yeh, you can definitely register the same domain next day... if it's a crappy one therefore still left available. Sorry - but for a domain investor, 30-60 seconds later anything still worth picking (and not sniped by DropCatch/SnapNames) is looong gone.

Furthermore, you are limited to 10 domains max per API call. (edit: when searching for available domains, cause for registration it's obviously individual).

I mean, seriously? I often monitor up to 60 domains per day, this will likely go soon to hundreds (as I'm currently expanding), so what can any serious investor do with a 10 domains limit?? They know I'm that kind of user cause I've told them on signup. Okay, so be it - disabled search completely and broken the list in batches of 10 or less and tried even that as direct reg attempt. No luck. It won't reg anything. Even if it's just 1 domain call via the API. Minutes later, the domain is still not available. And yeah, it is available via any other registar's API already... sometimes for minutes already... (watched that unfold) but not on Epik.

I'm sorry but this is NOT how the swiss bank of domains should perform.

I'm not sure right now exactly who will actually use this API, who is this for? Us domain investors, certainly not - given the situation.

I hope that Epik takes this post as it should and as intended (as positive criticism from a domainer), and fix their service.

 

[Blitzpotz]

It would have been useful if there was at least some hint in the docs that the API is not intended /cannot be for dropcatch.

Why not ask before using the Api and before opening such a thread?

Backorder service - Thanks for the offer, probably the lowest in this line, but I rely on my own tools.

Epik offers free download of a pending delete list with several hundreds of thousands names daily.
And they run the website DropElf.com with a free quality selection of drops. Fine expiry cuisine a la carte.
They cannot compete with Dropcatch.com for the best drops - not yet as I experienced Epik. You could blame this and instead of trying with Epik for a dropcatch fee of $8.49 including renewal attend Dropcatch´s service which often ends up in auctions.

Support - Maybe I've simply been unlucky. Will retry.

The big paradox with Epik is that the CEO is available 247 in this forum and he will even answer less intelligent questions. What you call weak support is a gift to many regarding the realtime availability of competent response and is a problem for others feeling anyway affected by the large presence of Epik content in this forum. A paradox!

 

[Rob Monster]

It is something Rob might want to share, how is this possible to manage all this, 24/7/365 and politely? I'm really interested... Mission impossible, but he indeed answers all questions. As a domain seller, with all sorts of email inquiries in the inbox, I ended up with the following: pre-written templates answering the questions like "how is it possible that the domain with my registered company name is for sale, you #*$&". With pre-written templates all case-specific emotions are remaining on my end. But, forum communications are different...

That is a funny commentary and definitely off-topic. The hints can be found here, here and here.

Two main themes:

• Kick ass - Design for scale, Improve continuously, Learn from everyone: We try to use each fail or miss as an opportunity to improve and co-create something better. We do a lot of that here.
  
  
• Stay humble - Keep a servant's heart: King David's son, Solomon, was the richest man of all time. However as I read Ecclesiastes, I sometimes wonder if he was late in discovering humility.

So, by all means, tell us when we fall short. It is the best way I know of to improve. However, if possible, try to treat us as a partner, not as a supplier, and I am pretty sure you will see us do the same.

 

[Rob Monster]

If you want to have the best API you should definitely take off that throttling and let us fly baby! The best API should be intended for drop catching too.

I hear you about API limits.

The problem we have run into is with Verisign that caps each registrar at 200 concurrent registry connections. So for the folks that use the API to dropcatch, know that the registrars are also being heavily throttled.

We'll see what we can do there to make the API more accommodating and to more effectively direct our client's ingenuity and processing power.

 

[karmaco]

First of all if you really knew about Epik you can contact @Rob Monster and the other Epik employee’s over here @Gube etc at any time.

They do also respond to emails as I have written often. They have caught domains for me for (the lowest price in the industry to NP members.)I would say they have caught more than half of what I asked for in the last 3 months. If they don’t catch the $8.49 goes back into your account the same day.

If you and many others wanted the same name, which happens with any good name, don’t blame Epik and go fight for it over at DropCatch etc.for a hefty price tag. If I really want a name I ask for it at multiple places.

There are some names I like but don’t think are worth what other places charge to do a backorder. Epik fits nicely into those kind of names for me. I have no complaints for the price.

 

[Rob Monster]

Thanks the feedback.

We'll give it a review.

Most people like our API:

https://docs.userapi.epik.com/v2/

As for using the API to dropcatch, that is not how you are supposed to use it. The API is throttled to prevent over-utilization.

Besides if you are a cheapskate, you can just use our Backorder service which is really cheap at $8.49 and is still first come first serve. That is what most people do.

Support is generally good, notably via email and web chat. Phone support on Thanksgiving weekend might have had an occasional gap but we'll check with @Jess Robison.

The OP's thread title is no way to start a relationship, but we'll happily listen to his feedback and see what we can learn from it.

We do have very big plans in the reseller market. Our first WHMCS plugin is nearly ready.

@Gube @vitigo

 

[Rob Monster]

The API feedback is actually welcome.

As there are more and more folks doing "AI" to find opportunities, Epik will need the BEST API. So, I am going to take this opportunity to do what I like to do: make lemons into lemonade.

So, for starters, with the Backorder API, I am going to ask @Gube and @vitigo to fast-track a review of the Backorder API. We can be much smarter in two notable areas:

- Our system knows what name is dropping, has dropped, or is about to drop. We should use this intelligence.

- The API should also allow instant removal of backorders so that missed backorders can be instantly credited back to the customer's account without batch processing.

So, by all means, bring the API feedback. At some point, the OP might update the title of the thread.

 

[twiki]

There's still a lot to be said, so I'll be fixing / completing my original post now.

- First off, I admit the post is a bit inappropriate, especially the title. I was frustrated and about to leave Epik. I normally avoid posting when I am in such state, as anyone should. This time I said, so be it. There are negative and positive effects on this action but I'm glad to see it went the right way after all.

The reason for frustration was, I could not reach support and it seems to me very weird to contact someone on a public forum (even if it's the boss) instead of being able to do so through the platform. Anyway - I apologize to all fans of Epik, as I said already this was not intended to blame but to provide feedback on some real shortcomings. I'm not saying you are wrong, I'm new to the platform and just got a series of bad experiences. You probably know it better than myself. But try to put yourself in that series of events and see how you'd felt.

- It is to be noted though that the main intent of the post was to provide some constructive criticism. I am glad to see that Rob has really got it the right way. That's how it should be done, professional response indeed. Thumbs up for that!

- I've asked the mods to change the post title to something more appropriate, we'll see if they do.

- About the API limits, since number of connections is obviously limited and an important resource, I think this should be managed dynamically, and here's how I believe it should be done (or any variation on the method below).

Epik is a business, and it needs to make money. That's how it is. We're clients and we want access to a limited resource. This being said, I believe the resource should be spread by the financial efficiency it brings. I would set a part of the connection pool for regular clients, and another part for domainers who dropcatch. And on that dropcatch part, I would give more or less resources to a given client depending on how much they register. It is one thing for someone who starts the script and let it run all day to register 1 domain (maybe), and another for someone who uses it strictly in the dropping window (edit: for that TLD) and registers 20 or 50 domains per day or whatever like that. I would have the API return a throttle time number for that. Say you can try again in 2 minutes, or 30 seconds. And this adjustment should be done, again, dynamically based on purchase performance of that client.

Registrar business is thin margin, well, the volume matters a lot in this case. And a large domainer will also pay a lot when renewing, well, if they are a big fan of the platform that's money for years to come.

But of course, this is just a suggestion, anyway that's how I would do it if I were in that situation.

- AI is indeed coming. I'm using more or less sophisticated tools to dropcatch, otherwise I wouldn't be able to sift through hundreds of thousands of expiring domains. My tools have AI embedded, but so far I'm not yet sure how exactly to train it. However thats the future - instead of working a ton of hours for this purpose, I can train the AI to think like myself and copy the buying profile, and then the AI will do the work while us humans can focus on becoming more creative at it and/or perhaps, on better sales.

- I think giving feedback within the API is important. Like, you've been throttled 2 minutes for doing... that too much. A proper script will really follow that. Furthermore, there also should be some information about this in the docs. Limited connection pool is a known fact, there is no reason not to make such decisions public in the API docs.

- Finally, an improvement I will make on my side. I'm going to use my bulk whois tools in conjunction with the API, so when a particular domain has been caught elsewhere, they will remove it from the submit list (edit: it already removes and doesn't retry what has been registered internally). This will also make the list more clean when following, AND will keep the usage at minimum. Not everyone has a tool for this (external live bulk whois embedded in the script), but a pro domainer should invest in that. I have it so it makes sense to use it. Just haven't thought about it so far.

I appreciate the comments made so far in this thread, especially from Rob.

 

[Blitzpotz]

It is something Rob might want to share, how is this possible to manage all this, 24/7/365 and politely?

Now we are two. And he is always extremely fast and never makes mistakes, not even typos. Besides this forum action he runs a company and a family.
There must be several Rob clones! Or Rob is an AI powered bot. I do not recognize another reasonable answer. Do I have to add a smiling Emoji now?

Call me a fanboy.

 

[Grego85]

If you want to have the best API you should definitely take off that throttling and let us fly baby! The best API should be intended for drop catching too.

 

[Lox]

1. So, by all means, bring the API feedback.
2. At some point, the OP might update the title of the thread.

1. Professional response!
2. Leave the title as is; a battery has two ends. The title is likely to help/benefit the Epik.
2a. The words and phrases s.a. "problem + registrar" , "problem hosting" , "problem API" or "Epik + API + problem" that people type into a search engine in order to find the solution ... good for them... they've found the answer (thanks to OP).

Regards

 

[Rob Monster]

1. Professional response!
2. Leave the title as is; a battery has two ends. The title is likely to help/benefit the Epik.
2a. The words and phrases s.a. "problem + registrar" , "problem hosting" , "problem API" or "Epik + API + problem" that people type into a search engine in order to find the solution ... good for them... they've found the answer (thanks to OP).

Regards

Hilarious -- another incurable optimist at NamePros.

 

[Blitzpotz]

Your Epik account has to be upgraded with your Namepros membership @Ostrados

 

[Rob Monster]

backorders at epik have 1 huge disadvantage
over other registrars

as far as I know epik owns 1 registrar
and a lot of competitors own
A LOT more

It is true.

We have proprietary software that is very clever and has a few novelties in it that allows it to outperform relative to others.

@Gube and @Pat8 are pursuing a strategy to make expanded use of idle registry connections from partner registrars.

I expect that in 2020, we'll also acquire a few smaller registrars, especially those with available Verisign unit rebate since we keep maxing ours out.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I am a technical neophyte and don't use API so won't comment on that part, but it seems to me rather unfair to say that they are not support responsive in the title of this thread. Not only do they reply to email requests, and have a mainly good knowledge base, but also many of their staff are active on NamePros and will respond here. That is amazing support in my opinion.

And that access often results in improvements and fixes because they interact with the domaining community. Just one example - when I first started using their landers in the summer, it bothered me that when they localized to currency they did not distinguish between US$ and CDN$. That meant someone looking at my lander from Canada will think the price is in US$ when it really was converted to CDN$. I expressed that concern here on NamePros, and within 48 hr they had changed the display so that when it was CDN$ that showed by the price, not just by scrolling down to the bottom of the page. I suspect I was the only one who complained about it, and they responded quickly.

Another day I noticed that landers were loading slower from Canada than normal. They immediately responded, shared some technical information on speed, and it was loading fast as usual shortly thereafter. The whole interaction was in minutes.

So fairness in saying that their support is disappointing? Not in my books. Not sure if you can still edit title, @twiki but it seems to me unfair.

Bob

 

[Rob Monster]

I am a technical neophyte and don't use API so won't comment on that part, but it seems to me rather unfair to say that they are not support responsive in the title of this thread. Not only do they reply to email requests, and have a mainly good knowledge base, but also many of their staff are active on NamePros and will respond here. That is amazing support in my opinion.

And that access often results in improvements and fixes because they interact with the domaining community. Just one example - when I first started using their landers in the summer, it bothered me that when they localized to currency they did not distinguish between US$ and CDN$. That meant someone looking at my lander from Canada will think the price is in US$ when it really was converted to CDN$. I expressed that concern here on NamePros, and within 48 hr they had changed the display so that when it was CDN$ that showed by the price, not just by scrolling down to the bottom of the page. I suspect I was the only one who complained about it, and they responded quickly.

Another day I noticed that landers were loading slower from Canada than normal. They immediately responded, shared some technical information on speed, and it was loading fast as usual shortly thereafter. The whole interaction was in minutes.

So fairness in saying that their support is disappointing? Not in my books. Not sure if you can still edit title, @twiki but it seems to me unfair.

Bob

No worries, Bob. He is still learning the secret handshake...

In all seriousness, his input was great. In the last 24 hours I have learned a whole bunch about competing APIs and where we stack up notably in the backorder area.

We have an active project to release a WHMCS plug-in that will empower a large number of resellers to resell Epik if they are not content to be an affiliate. We know there is an opportunity there.

As for the API power-users who write their own software, we'll learn from themttoo and hopefully have the industry's favorite registrar API before long.

It is becoming clear that the industry expects Epik to be increasingly perfect in every area. Fine. That is a good benchmark. We'll see how close we can get.

 

[Ja Kai]

These days I've finally decided to try out Epik, having domains about anywhere else.

Registered about 40 domains in 2 days, but now I am REALLY disapointed. Side note the context is drop catching and using their API for regging expired domains.

First off, as a note, I was not able to contact support at all. It's like trying to reach a black hole. All calls never reached a rep. I can see they also don't reply to emails. Tried calling many times - it's impossible. You just wait for 2 minutes then the call hangs up on you. No I won't leave a message, sorry; the whole experience makes me suspect nobody will ever call me back. The site is also made BTW so you don't actually find how to contact them, apart from calling the numbers nobody replies to.

Side note if I could call support, OR find any kind of documentation answering my problems listed here, this post would not have existed. But I'm left to my own devices with this. Hence this post.

First day, 2 domains didn't go through. Yeah, perhaps someone else was quicker, that's alright, I understand. But the funds were taken from the account. I mean, what? The inability to register the domains should automatically cancel the transactions, Paypal supports that. And they know instantly they couldn't reg the domain.

I can't really watch if each transaction is matched by a correct domain registration. Have better things to do. Any other registrar automatically sees such errors and reverts the transactions without me having to manually point each to them.

Mailed their support, received note somethone actually received it, and later that day the funds went into account credit. No email replies regarding problem solved, no warning that they actually did this. You have to discover on your own that actually something went into credit. Fortunately I took a look at it.

The worst thing by far is the API.

As a domain investor, I watch for expired domains and I use registrar API to quickly snatch what I need.

Unfortunately, that is not possible with Epik. Their API will not register any freshly dropped domain, although the manual bulk register interface allows for it. This is because, as I can see, the domains ARE NOT AVAILABLE IN REALTIME VIA THE API. While at the same time any other registrar I'm using shows them as available so you can register now. I could register 0 domains via their API. ( Edit: manual regs work though, but not freshly expired ones).

I have given up trying registration after a few minutes so then I'm doing manual regs via the bulk manual search. This meant for me, pointless work for hours at something that any other registrar API offers. Even GD is quicker than this and a more or less functional thing by comparison.

I suspect they only offer CACHED registrations via the API. Yeh, you can definitely register the same domain next day... if it's a crappy one therefore still left available. Sorry - but for a domain investor, 30-60 seconds later anything still worth picking (and not sniped by DropCatch/SnapNames) is looong gone.

Furthermore, you are limited to 10 domains max per API call. (edit: when searching for available domains, cause for registration it's obviously individual).

I mean, seriously? I often monitor up to 60 domains per day, this will likely go soon to hundreds (as I'm currently expanding), so what can any serious investor do with a 10 domains limit?? They know I'm that kind of user cause I've told them on signup. Okay, so be it - disabled search completely and broken the list in batches of 10 or less and tried even that as direct reg attempt. No luck. It won't reg anything. Even if it's just 1 domain call via the API. Minutes later, the domain is still not available. And yeah, it is available via any other registar's API already... sometimes for minutes already... (watched that unfold) but not on Epik.

I'm sorry but this is NOT how the swiss bank of domains should perform.

I'm not sure right now exactly who will actually use this API, who is this for? Us domain investors, certainly not - given the situation.

I hope that Epik takes this post as it should and as intended (as positive criticism from a domainer), and fix their service.

The way you talk in your post conveys that you are a rookie - looking for a crutch to hold you up. There are no crutches in this game. If something doesn't work for you at a registrar - try elsewhere.

 

[Rob Monster]

... and make Epik vulnerable to end up in hands of some private equity firm or some other "shark". Who will stop developing and downgrade existing platform. Such things happened before. Not exclusively in domaining, also in IT in general (hosting)... *I do not mean to say that Epik should not grow now*

FWIW, Epik is closely held. We have no institutional PE owners. Despite that, we have been able to move swiftly, opportunistically engaging in acquisition and empowering more people.

I do think there is a place for institutional PE in capital structures but maverick CEOs make PEs a bit nervous so I don't see us going that route.

If you ask me, that is good news for the industry because the "winner take all" game is rigged to keep as many people as possible in debt, and/or working 3 jobs.

Threads like "Shoot the Moon" and "Teach a man to fish" are sharing strategies for overcoming scarcity with abundance. The big PEs I know would not typically embrace such strategies.

 

[Ostrados]

I dont know about Epik API either I am relatively new Epik user I only last month started registering/transfering domains at Epik.. but I know them for longer than that and to be fair their support is more than great! more than 6 months ago I needed help on an issue from Epik, I bought a domain from a NP user that disappeared after receiving the money without transfering the domain to me, the domain was registered at Epik, so I contacted Epik support using chat and Rob was on the chat that day and he was very helpful, he followed up with Eric at Namepros to solve the problem, and he even called the domain owner on the phone.. at the end I got full refund.. thanks for Rob. Imagine same scenario if it was Godaddy support!

My only criticism for Epik is that they over promote themselves at the forums, they are trying to use natural promotion by engaging people in discussions, nothing wrong without but it should not be overdone and they should be totally transparent and make sure they only using 100% factual info and avoid speculations that could be interpreted as misinfo under some circumstances.

 

[twiki]

No worries, Bob. He is still learning the secret handshake...

In all seriousness, his input was great. In the last 24 hours I have learned a whole bunch about competing APIs and where we stack up notably in the backorder area.

We have an active project to release a WHMCS plug-in that will empower a large number of resellers to resell Epik if they are not content to be an affiliate. We know there is an opportunity there.

As for the API power-users who write their own software, we'll learn from themttoo and hopefully have the industry's favorite registrar API before long.

It is becoming clear that the industry expects Epik to be increasingly perfect in every area. Fine. That is a good benchmark. We'll see how close we can get.

Thank you for appreciating the feedback. Glad to be of help - although I know I stepped on some toes by doing so. Hopefully not that hard.

Although my post has been indeed quite critical, they say there's no such thing as bad publicity. In fact there's yet one opportunity to shine, well, has been captured.

Side note, nobody is perfect so it's pointless to aim for perfection (that's not what needs to be done). But you have to always look at competitors and not remain behind on certain aspects. That's tough - the number of details to care for is always mind-blowing - but also the competition is always keeping a business on its toes and, in essence, pushing quality forward for the benefit of all users.

 

[Ategy]

Re: Epik Support ... I still remember calling very late into the night (East Coast) and the phone was picked up after a couple of rings .. I recognised the voice right away and said "Rob?" .. lol .. Sure enough I was right and it was @Rob Monster answering support.

That being said .. when it comes to support, no registrar is perfect. But for the most part Epik is well above average.

One issue you touched upon was documentation, and in that regard, I honestly don't know of ANY registrar to which I'd give even a 7/10. FAQs and documentation is one of the most overlooked and undervalued aspects of just about every registrar. Most are so disconnected from their FAQs that don't even realise that most of the information in their FAQs are 1-2 Platform-Generations out of date. Most registrars are so happy about making an upgrade that they forget to document it. Which ultimately ends up being the largest source of frustration to clients, as well as a huge long term cost and financial drain on the registrar due to support costs.

While Epik certainly are not the worst in this regard, the fact they are on supercharged growth both in terms of number of clients/domains and features/services, does mean that documentations/FAQs are prone to be an issue.

I'm a fan of Epik .. they have some extremely useful and helpful features (and great prices .. lol) .. but I'll be the first to say that sometimes things aren't always obvious (again though .. they are FAR from being the worst .. I'm looking at you GoDaddy .. lol). It can be frustrating to those who just like to figure things out for themselves knowing that usually the type of information we look for isn't available with Tier 1 support, but in fairness to Epik, I can't think of any issue/question that I didn't get a reply to within a day or so (and usually less).

All that said ...The type of API level support you're looking for, in all fairness is not a quick-fix-holiday-weekend-expect-a-reply-in-3-hours type situation. When you're doing something as complex as integrating your custom made API integration software into a new registrar, you kinda almost have to expect a couple of issues, that in all fairness normally need to be handled by an upper-tier support or dev-level "weekday 9-5" staffer.


All that said .. I've reported several glitches, bugs, clarity/UX issues to Rob, and for the most part Epik has been fairly responsive and quick to address the issues in question. That's actually why I like Epik .. because I don't expect any registrar to be perfect .. but it's how they deal with and improve upon the existing imperfections that matters.

Epik is growing very fast and constantly adding new features .. in the tech world there is ZERO chance of evolving quickly without facing a few bumps in the road. But overall the Epik overall experience is pretty hard to beat .. and it's only going to get better.

 

[Ategy]

@JB Lions .. my rep at GoDaddy is great. In fact I think if there's one thing I can say about GoDaddy, is that just about every person I've talked to has had fantastic customer service skills. Something that is not easy nor should be taken for granted with a company the size of GoDaddy. Their recruitment department is seriously operating at an all-star level!

However .. many times I've had issues that simply had no answer .. or the answer was "that's the way it is". I've reported extremely serious bugs only to have the standard "thanks, your feedback has been passed to the proper department .. bla bla bla" .. then no follow up. It's just as frustrating to my rep as it is to me. For a while a couple of years ago (before I just gave up on reporting things) I often started my emails to my rep with an apology knowing that I was simply constantly putting him in the middle of no win situations and that he was effectively facing a brick wall when it came to certain issues.

And don't get me started on GoDaddy's UX and documentation. I dare anyone here to justify how they could be given anything above even a very generous 4/10 on that front. It's just horrendous!

Again though .. Epik isn't perfect either .. but the difference is that you're not facing a brick wall. They do listen .. and they often even implement your suggestion (if it's a good one) within a matter of days.

I reported a CRITICAL level security issue to GoDaddy 4 years ago .. and it's still there. I've also reported other EXTREME level bugs that stayed for months/years+, and the only reason they are closed today was because they upgraded their entire platform.

In all fairness though .. I'm not a big user of other registrars. I'm a big user of GoDaddy because they have the best aftermarket (in terms of pricing/domains), so I've always stayed there and had a secondary registrar when I was too late to renew or when I saw special pricing. I'm thinking there are a lot of good registrars out there that I'm simply not aware of or simply haven't given a chance.

The one big difference with Epik in that regard is their special transfer in pricing ... it's a great way to introduce domainers to their service .. but after that they have to keep you there with good service/features .. and let's be honest .. while Epik isn't perfect (no registrar is) .. they do have a lot of great features .. their customer support is above average .. and more importantly they listen to their clients both in terms of usability and more importantly in terms of new features.

 

[Rob Monster]

That's your opinion. See my last post in the sales thread. I get and sell quite a bunch that way.

Edit: Got back in to add more info.

What I see is people flocking all the time on the same niches. Everyone is deep in crypto, weed and the sorts. Yet there are countless other niches that aren't touched for the sole reason that they are not aware there's money to be made.

There's always gold in the road, but it's covered in mud so not everybody looks at what's shining there.

Edit 2: The same kind of myth is running around handregs. It's difficult, but not dead. I also do handregs from time to time, when I get inspiration. Usually get offers on them before the month ends. Note, usually check about 1M names before registering like 5 or something. So there's work to be done, but it pays off.

No, it's by far not dead. It's just not for everyone to see.

I tend to agree here.

There is the point of building programmatic software that finds exploitable niches and then registers available names. It may be trending keywords on Twitter or whatever but if there is a way to programmatically identify patterns and register the associated names, it can work.

The API is already good, but in light of helpful feedback, expect some fast-track upgrades.

@vitigo
@Gube

 

[Rob Monster]

Here is an example of what is up for grabs (via API or even manual "dropcatch"):

Couple hours ago I snatched EnterpriseDMS.com (just dropped), among a set of other domains.

DMS stands for Document Management System and it is a highly sought combination. People are familiar with CRM and ERP, but fewer know what DMS is. So here was an opportunity for the taking.

This is a valuable domain, can be either sold to a software maker or built from the ground up either with own SaaS OR simply a reseller of an existing DMS, white label. I even know the companies I can hit with an email and sell it like cheese cake.

Estibot values it at $80. Makes me laugh.

This is even a nice score - most domains I sell for 4 figs are valued like ~$0. Everyone is using Estibot, DomainIndex or whatever nowadays, to see what are the most valuables domains, they put it in Dropcatch or other backorders. And this is the reason value isn't in such appraised lists anymore.

So yeah, "dropcatching via API is dead for years"... right.

Estibot is a dull knife, especially for brandable names.

The fact is we need more intelligence in these appraisal engines that looks at things like:

- Traffic growth trends of logical buyer (s)
- Enterprise value of logical buyer (s)
- Social media footprint and trend of logical buyer(s)

We are not there yet but @Gube is looking at this, e.g. making use of private subscription API data to evaluate domains. That info should eventually be made public.

Appraise.epik.com is currently Estibot re-heated but I am inclined to release a smarter appraisal that more accurately portrays fair value based on known structured data.

 

[Samer]

edited my post to reflect thanks, thanks OP

Epik had the best service in the game.
Samer