Epik API support

Appraisal tools need to move forward indeed. But I still have little hope they will indeed hit the nail in the head anytime soon. It's much more complicated I'm afraid. You really have to know the niche well, the companies, the people and the inclination of any potential buyers, make a full persona beforehand etc.

Give you an example.

There is a highly lucrative industrial niche I deal in. I know the companies as I've traveled all across Europe in the last 10 years (dealing in several industrial verticals and this is one of them; each is different).

The trick is, nobody in this industry will buy a related domain. They won't touch it with a long pole. They don't buy domains at all. They even won't buy a website that brings leads daily, when an individual lead can bring an 100K or 1M sale. They say to you, use the website and bring us the orders, not leads.

It's common in that industry. So whoever buys this kind of domain by growth, enterprise value etc. is at a loss.

 

which industry is that?

 

HUH?

 

Not only mine.
But also of other catchers with over decade experience in this field.

 

And not only .com
Against valuable .ORG you also have no any chances via API regardless of registrar.

 

This has been discussed already:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/domain-myths-and-lies.1162896/

Side note, I am aware about this being considered the norm. But it's simply a myth at least to me.

When I started I shared the same opinion. But as things progressed, I have discovered that it is, indeed, a myth and my own paradigm has changed. It depends though, on your style, methods etc. I focus on domains between 1k-10k value. For higher numbers, your only chance is to pay up at an auction or similar.

It is to be said that not everybody will ever agree on a single thing. And that's alright. I'm just sharing a view, perhaps a different one, as I know some people will embrace it. Not everybody, of course.

Edit: What I need to add though, is that it is not simple. You need the right tools for it. I always perfect my software tools and today I'm taking some to the next level. You probably scan 10K domains for each one that is left valuable. You scan 100k for every handreg really worth taking. So it's a combination of efficient software and hard work. But end of the day, it is worth it if your process has been perfected.

 

API has no sense if you can backorder for almost the same budget fee at Epik, Hexonet etc.
So-called Tier2 backorders, slightly higher than regfee.

 

But if you don't value your time, efforts and health - you may continue to use API...

 

With this I more or less can agree, with the note that since I did not use backorders nor Epik I was unaware of the offer.

But since there is a money difference, by regging yourself, at each x domains you get one for "free". And you already know that numbers matter in domaining. Not to mention that you can take advantage of current offers at a certain registrar.

 

Efforts? What efforts? It's an activity I enjoy. I said hard work cause many domainers are rather passive about it. And it's alright - everyone has their own style.

Time - my time spent at this is well paid for. And it has nothing to do with health. I don't overwork and my health has never been better in the last 20 years. (excercise, good food and sleep combination). I spend about 1- 2 hours per day at it. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes not at all. Just that hour or so is rather intense work, but again fully enjoyable.

Side note, I get your point. And we can definitely agree to disagree with no hard feelings. It's just that different persons have different methods. I'm the kind that goes against the stream and finds untapped opportunities this way. It's the way I ever succeeded at whatever I succeeded at - by doing things others said they don't work, and often to be impossible.

 

API limit is not a bottleneck... and this is 100% myth that limit can solve your problems.
The more important how much time is required for registrar to process any order... even 1 wasted second on the internal registrar's processing - and you fail.

 

I can agree with this.

I can only tell you that out of the domains I register, the ones I cannot get are secured by Dropcatch in 95%+ of cases. I rarely find myself competing with other backorders and users, but they usually get snatched later, however not in a second or 10 seconds. But in a minute or two, yes many get snatched.

But I'm okay with my methods. I get like 60-70% of what I aim for.

I think we're not actually disagreeing with each other. If I had a different style, might have been using yours. It's just about personal choices. My choices are different, suiting my own style and there's nothing inherently good or bad by having different choices.

So this being said, I think we can settle the matter. And if you disagree, I won't challenge your opinion further. I don't have a need to be right here and to prove something... just shared a different view and not expecting everyone (or most) to agree with it. But that's fine.

 

1-2 minutes - it is not a dropcatching at all.
Just automated registrations.

So for such activity - modify your script to 1 API call per 5-10 seconds.
The simplest way to be within limits.

 

I want to thank @twiki for this very informative discussion. I understand very much the importance of being able to see things from a different angle. Thank you for your contribution. It has added to my knowledge.

 

Well that's how I use it, good point as this whole thread is a bit off on timing. Good point - I do automated registrations, thanks for the term. (Edit - The term dropcatch is also commonly used for automated regs as well, hence this confusion; that's also why I used it; thanks for making the term clear, appreciated.)

Like a 10 seconds API call, sometimes 1 minute. Rob has used the term; he also supposed it's about throttling, and I believe it's not. There was a double assumption within this thread. He already knows it's not a throttle issue, as I've sent a longer private with some suggestions the team liked. But I haven't posted that here as the thread went in all sorts of directions.

But the API problem was again not related to throttling, but the fact that domains that have already dropped were unavailable for registation, not even 5 minutes later (tested some for that).

I was unable to automatically register any via the API. Switched to bulk manual registration (via their website interface) and that worked.

Otherwise, real dropcatching via API is 100% pointless - doesn't work. For that I would use a registrar service (low desirability domains) or Dropcatch (high value sought domains). My best reg window is generally 1 minute. Some are available for 5 minutes or so.

 

Some registrars catch dropped domains for themselves that's why they don't like you to compete with them in real-time and you can't blame them for wanting to take full advantage of their limited resources and allowances for themselves.

IMO

 

I don't know this Epik API v2 performance...
I used it in the past when it was v1, were no problems. It was also unlimited in the past.

 

Did you set your IP address in Epik API settings?
Calls only from this IP are allowed.

And recheck your API signature/key...

If both are correct - then very strangely that it doesn't work for you...

 

This is why I was really downed initially about the performance. It was baffling (still is) why it didn't reg anything.

After a while, I went 100% light and only sent calls when external Whois told me domain is available. Epik continued to say it's not available, like forever. So I either registered it elsewhere, or (later) chosen to do it manually via the bulk registration window.

I'm currently modifying tools to do external whois and only send the reg call when needed. This is going to be as light as possible, just as a manual reg for example, and still be good for my needs.

 

Yes I did set API IP's correctly. There is no error, just that they are unavailable (said "this domain is in dropped window") but never allowed you to reg it.

And yes it is indeed very strange. Please note that the API works, actually; but not for freshly dropped. I did some manual regs and a couple late yesterday dropped nobody took (leftovers). Those worked.

So again, only those just dropped were unavailable. Anything else not recently updated can be reg via the API. This is why I supposed it must be either a caching issue or similar.

 

Use NameSilo API...
It is available in 2 modes: for dropcatching and for regular usage.

 

I agree with you on this one. Except I'm not real time, but like 1-minute window.

 

I guess you have to ask Rob how big the real-time window is.

IMO

 

Rob will likely reply once things have cleared on their end, it appears they are working on this and there were also some decisions to be made.