Epik.com Promo Deals and Happy Hour Mega-Thread

[Sufyan Alani]

Hello everyone,

I'm creating this post to keep you all informed of Epik.com Happy Hours!
Every day, we'll try to discount an extension and give you the chance to register & invest in this extension.

Today, we're featuring .US extension, and we're discounting it to $1.50 for new registrations starting now, and will be ON for the next 5 hours.

The following is a list of all domain names that have been registered previously before under .US, and are available one more time for registration: https://armored.net/index.php/s/t9rf2GLm4JktQWn

Remember, all domains registered at Epik include:
- Free WHOIS privacy
- Free SSL parking landers
- Free forwarding
- Free basic Wordpress site
- Free listing in Epik marketplace for selling/leasing

Here is also a link to ALL promos that we're currently running, in case you wanted to look into something different: https://www.epik.com/promos/

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Also, let me know what extensions you'd be interested to see featuring in our future Happy Hours! We'll do our best to accommodate all requests.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

The .COM Transfer promo was extended another 12 hours at $5.99.

Did it just end?

I had transferred 100+ domains at 11:15 AM west coast time, and by 1:30 PM west coast time when I attempted to transfer another batch, I noticed the transfer price had jumped back up...

assuming it ended?

 

[Compassion]

It's still 11/1 and I don't see $5.99 transfers . . .?

<edit>
nevermind, 12 hours is more than 12 hours ago...

I suppose the sharks will have to wait for the next whale for this promo to go live again.

 

[Gube]

It's still 11/1 and I don't see $5.99 transfers . . .?

<edit>
nevermind, 12 hours is more than 12 hours ago...

I suppose the sharks will have to wait for the next whale for this promo to go live again.

Yes the promo ended a few hours ago
How many names would you like to transfer ?

Thanks,
Gube

 

[Compassion]

Yes the promo ended a few hours ago
How many names would you like to transfer ?

Thanks,
Gube

Only a couple dozen right now, I'm ok trickling them in and paying reg price at times (which is still the best anyway). Will be sure to message you if that # becomes <100 I know Rob has a lot on his plate...are you the NPer go to for transfer details after Rob? Thanks in advance, Chad

 

[Blitzpotz]

hi, if we unchecked "60 day transfer lock opt-out (new ICANN policy)". Is it apply to the whole portfolio that we already transferred or just the new transferred after applied the rule?

@Gube just in case you missed the discussion around the transfer lock opt-out: interesting question that I cannot answer.

 

[Gube]

Only a couple dozen right now, I'm ok trickling them in and paying reg price at times (which is still the best anyway). Will be sure to message you if that # becomes <100 I know Rob has a lot on his plate...are you the NPer go to for transfer details after Rob? Thanks in advance, Chad

I'm not the only one, There is also @Jess Robison, She is Director of client service, she can help you to retrieve auth codes at different registrars, but for anything account related, she is the right person.
Every Epik staff present on NP can help for general questions

@Gube just in case you missed the discussion around the transfer lock opt-out: interesting question that I cannot answer.

I will check for the Transfer lock opt-out now

Gube

 

[Gube]

I checked with the team for Transfers lock opt-out

Depending on the TLD, you might be able to opt-out of the lock, or not.
For example, If you transfer a .com domain to Epik from an other registrar, You won't be able to transfer it directly to an other registrar, But you will be able to push the name to an Epik account.
After a push, it's typically not possible to push the name directly to an other account for security reasons.
We are talking with the tech team to change the push process and make transfers & pushes safer.

In the meantime, Please enable 2FA to your Epik account, This will limit the risk of your names being stolen. Nowadays, We have to be vigilent when browsing the internet, 2FA can help fight the risks of third parties accessing your domains.

If needed, We are here to help and will be happy to help you push any name

Thanks,
Gube

 

[Touhidul Islam]

any promo for registering .com/.net/.org?

 

[NamesMax]

any promo for registering .com/.net/.org?

Currently .com and .org are only $7.49 to register for NamePros members. Your Epik account must be noted as being a NP member.

 

[Samer]

Thanks, showed how to deselect 60-day lock.

Huge win.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

@vravis9 @CJ6 @DomMichael @anantj @blank @sapfir @Mister Funsky @Blitzpotz @getjimmy @DomainNerdz @varyemez

You were all me to get the group organised, so just tagging you all to make sure you didn't miss this. @Rob Monster posted it 10 hours ago ... and there's now a little under 8 hours left! Get to it! lol

PS .. Thanks Rob

Sooo what's gotta happen to bring back the $5.99 promo back sooner?

Maybe a pledge of registration amongst members... 1,000 new regs?

To show we're serious and to assist with payment processing fee's, we could pre-load our accounts, and when 1,000 x $5.99 = $5,990 is deposited into epik, a 24 hour timer starts?


<ramble> P.S. @Rob Monster and Epik, if the marketing team needs justification, call it a customer education write off that will pay for itself over time. The education is incentivizing customers to learn how to, or at least perform the task of, pre-funding their epik account via epiks preferred way. This way, over time, the micro payment fee's per transaction will be reduced by volume, if customers were to either get used to, or the very least periodically be incentived to fund their accounts based off opportune timing such as RIGHT NOW!

CAPSLOCK RIGHT NOW to demonstrate urgency. While epik could happily coast as being just about the cheapest .COM registration for 2+ domains, due to no other better offers by legit registrars since the dynadot $5.99 October new reg promo ended. But if what I hear about epik is true, coasting is not their style? It appears they put the petal to the metal to push the boundaries and pioneer new innovation. Surely, in volume, reducing the amount of payment processing fees per transaction can help support innovations that need it most. So what do you say, help us help you throw some gasoline on the amount of new registrations epik gains this November by leveraging these short windows of opportunity to undercut the competition at a fair price. I say this, adding that despite epiks nP presence, and gaining popularity due in part to added features, epik still fell short to domains added on November 1st to Dynadot by a wide margin. Granted the below stats may not be true representations as it's for 11/1 and not 10/31, but I'm getting at both DynaDot and Epik were offering $5.99 domains.

From: http://dailychanges.domaintools.com/new-domains/

This isn't accounting for a month over month daily mean baseline and I think it's solely based on nameservers, so there's likely a more accurate metric / source?, nonetheless, I believe, at least from my perspective, somebody looking to hand register at the best price with minimal headache, that their monthly $5.99 promotion in addition to their nP banner helped in no small part with customer acquisition. They will likely ride this wave from people like me, until another wave, perhaps created by a whale, decides to make a splash, and disrupt their newly created traction. e.g. The sooner the splash, the greater the impact, particularly pertaining to now being the vulnerable timing of domainers coming off just getting used to a $5.99 reg standard for an entire month.

Also in the above stats (and I don't know if that's the greatest measure for this, perhaps you can suggest a better site?), you will notice Dynadot getting far more transfers out, and epik transfers in which I think could be reflective to the whale transfer deals? Because I think both epik, dynadot, and namesilo are heavily supported by namePros members, and at least true in my case, I assume you are seeing a disproportionate amount of domains registered at registrars such as namesilo and dynadot being transfered to epik (because in part to epiks recent gaining of np community marketshare support and buzz) and when I say disproportionate, the theory is that in proportional respect to the amount of domains registered at those registrars compared to the amount registered at larger registrars such as godaddy. By scale, I assume you are acquiring more % of dynadot and namesilo than GD and the likes, which if so, would support and emphasize the dependence smaller registrars have on the domain community, especially when in growth mode.

We know $5.99 can't last forever, even when it had came to be expected. Nonetheless, since we got cut off cold turkey, I think you will find a large enough demand right now to justify the supply. It's similar to the feeling of being at a great concert, then it ends, and the crowd starts yelling encore, encore! The band has to go home, but another band seizes the opportunity and sets up shop in the parking lot. So even though the music stopped, the music never stops. And while most came to see one band, they ended up leaving with a new band. If new band decided to set up shop in the parking lot, the following day, even though it may be the most affordable concert around, there's another concert being played at a bigger arena, and the parking lot band wouldn't have gotten near the attention they deserved should they had set up shop the night before, after the headline concert.</ramble>

 

[karmaco]

I am pretty sure Epik had $5.99 registrations in September and Dynadot did not— they had $6.99. Epik also have kept the transfer price between $5.99 to $7.49 for at least 6 weeks. Their transfer price is better than almost all currently. This is holiday month so we are likely to see some deals going on everywhere by Thanksgiving week. I just moved a bunch of names with the $5.99 deal and I sure won’t complain if we get more deals this month.

 

[NamesMax]

@Grilled based on the numbers in your chart, at $5.99 Epik lost almost $9200 yesterday. Even at the lose leader price of $7.49 they lost over $5,500.

That is just one day. He has been doing these deals throughout the month. I can't imagine what this has cost @Rob Monster. For me, I will wait until another deal comes along. Or register at the still great price of $7.49. Btw that chart also says that as a % of change, Epik was almost 3 times stronger than Dynadot.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

I am pretty sure Epik had $5.99 registrations in September and Dynadot did not— they had $6.99.

Epik had $5.99 registrations all September long? I wasn't aware of epiks prices as I wasn't following this thread, nor was there a drought in discount reg opportunities as there is in this likely short interim.

Further, pointing to the power of namePros and the impact it has on registrars, when I went to a random archive.org september screenshot, I was met with Dynadots promo banner on the top right offering something worthy of using. Somehow lately, I've found myself going from a namesilo supporter to a dynadot supporter, and I think this is no small part the the customer acquisition prices Dynadot has paid into Namepros.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

@Grilled based on the numbers in your chart, at $5.99 Epik almost $9200 yesterday. Even at the lose leader price of $7.49 they losed over $5,500.

Where else do registrars make money?

It used to be hosting and the likes.

Now, where is it?

I wonder how much epik makes by sending our expired domains to auction.

Among other revenue streams, such as when domainers reg domains, and list on epik marketplace?

Look, the more domainers domain at epik, the more epik will make. If not immediate in revenue, secondary to company valuation. The more epik is valued, the more value their shares hold for future development. The concern is keeping their burn rate manageable to justify positive growth projections, and ensure additional revenue streams which no doubt are in place.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Btw that chart also says that as a % of change, Epik was almost 3 times stronger than Dynadot.

FWIW, 11/2 update stats were just updated:

compared to 11/1 update

Notice the drop in Dynadot new domains from 4,699 to 1,571. Likely due to the promo ending. Hence my long comment above emphasizing a short window for an opportunistic registrar to pick up the slack, if growth and customer acquisition is of importance. I'm not even saying run a long promo. Was simply saying, promos were being ran when other wells were full of water. And now that other wells have dried up, even if for a short time, a business man could see the value of quenching thirst during times of need, vs times of other options. ANd obviously promo's aren't going to keep the customer, it's epiks features that will, but if not enough is spent on customer acquistion or if it was spent during inopportune times, the customer acquisition rate likely increased due to repeat nature of returning customer and not enough new customers, when if deployed during the right timing, acquisition prices would be further spread out, thus that $5k or whatever is spent, isn't distributed in large numbers over small amounts of customers, compared to if small numbers were distributed amongst larger amount of customers. Running a $5.99 promo here and there a few hours a day, while simultaneously a more established registrar (assuming by customer amount as well) is running a month long $5.99 promo. Not much of an incentive to leave dynadot for epik then, unless I was already an epik customer. Hence, why the same group of folks taking advantage (in a good way I suppose) of epiks promo, is actually hindering the promotion if the promotions intention of losing money was to gain customers. Sure, it will help gain customer loyalty to the group who follows this thread, but it doesn't do much to acquire new customers, unless of course, they are doing it at a time, when they are the only $5.99 in town.

 

[NamesMax]

@Grilled your writing is very well written and and logical.

Yes, monetization for Epik are marketplace commissions and expired. Hosting, not so much as the promo pricing is directed at domainer, which don't buy a lot of hosting.

My point is that losing up to $10 grand a day for such a long time is unfathomable to me. They payback is long term and the risk of our end user purchasers moving the names out, or our not renewing the names is high.

I am just thinking from the standpoint of any business.

I forget who coined the phrase,, "It's okay to lose money as long as you make up for it in volume"

Don't take me wrong, I take advantage of the deal Epik offers when available.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

@Grilled your writing is very well written and and logical.

Thank you. Honestly, having not slept yet, and my writing being more rant style, I was hesitant to see your reply as I second guessed my writing as illogically well written.

Yes, monetization for Epik are marketplace commissions and expired. Hosting, not so much as the promo pricing is directed at domainer, which don't buy a lot of hosting.

I assume there are more revenue streams than just marketplace commissions and expired auctions.

My point is that losing up to $10 grand a day for such a long time is unfathomable to me. They payback is long term and the risk of our end user purchasers moving the names out, or our not renewing the names is high.

Oh for sure. And those costs add each time something such as processing fee's cuts away at their margins. Do you prepay your account, or pay per each transaction? Have you done the recommended wire transfer to fund? I don't have a clue how to do the wire, but I don't imagine it to be that hard.

And, as previously mentioned, should these opportune times be coupled with customer education expenses, such as only valid if prepaid through wire, then it helps cut unnecessary expenses, and over time, and in volume, these add up. Plus, this benefits a customer experience and adds to loyalty when a customer figures out they can utilize the preloaded funds for backorders and what not.

I am just thinking from the standpoint of any business.

I'm more of the "... but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express" kind of guy. And by Holiday Inn Express kind of guy, I mean, I stayed on a friends couch and watched a lot of shark tank kind of guy. ha.

 

[Rob Monster]

Some great comments in this thread. Thanks @Grilled -- you are on fire there.

- On DNS changes, we are actually working to diversify our DNS fgootprint. Right now many people use NS3.epik.com and NS4.epik.com. Concurrent with expanding our Anycast DNS network with more nodes we'll move many domains to their own unique DNS. That said, I am quite sure we have not seen very many transfers out. The thing to check would be changes to the zone files to have a more accurate indication of transfers in and out. We gain far more than we lose, and we don't lose very many other than folks selling domains.

- On pricing, we have done aggressive pricing on .COM and .ORG. The .ORG promo is probably unmatched at $7.49 for registrations and $8.99 for transfers. For .COM we are now at $7.49 for creates and transfers which is actually a material loss. We did have someone start 10,000 .com transfers to Epik last week, and that was at $5.99 so you can do the math there, i.e. that was a $25K loss on those alone.

Looking ahead, the plan is to stay aggressive on pricing but to also be fiscally responsible. So, when a whale does show up, we'll continue the practice of dropping the price for everyone while the whale is moving their names. That is just a way of giving back and sharing the wealth knowing that most people are not moving thousands of names at a time.

You can expect 3 big things from Epik before year-end:

- An escrow dashboard that rocks.

- A CRM engine for smart lead management.

- An upgraded Masterbucks cloud wallet that might improve your life.

Beyond that, we do have many projects cooking in Epik Labs. I am quite excited about all of them of them but the bread and butter of Epik remains domain names so don't worry about our focus. We have dedicated teams focused on the core. The experimental stuff around the core is just designed to increase impact while at the same time making it a lot more fun for engineers to work at Epik versus someplace else.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Beyond that, we do have many projects cooking in Epik Labs. I

Thank you for information, Rob. I really like it that you have a page showing the various lab projects in development. Maybe you have had it a long time but I had not noticed it before your post.

I am sure that the community will have a lot of interest in the CRM engine for smart lead management.

Thanks for keeping NamePros members up to date and involved in the various initiatives.

Best wishes,

Bob

 

[Chris Hydrick]

So what I hear you saying is in order for these promos to continue, or possibly be even discounted further, we need to list and sell all our domains on epik marketplace?

e.g. we did have someone start 10,000 .com transfers to Epik last week, and that was at $5.99 so you can do the math there, i.e. that was a $25K loss on those alone.

Assuming he/she lists the domains in epik marketplace, and at a 1% sell through rate = 100 sales. Average sale price at $2,500, and at average 10% commission equates to $250 per sale. $250 per sale x 100 sales = $25k +/-

Then factor customer retainment rate from the buyers of the 100 sales at 5%, and those 5 new customers help drive down customer acquisition rate, which trickled in from the origin of the 10,000 transfer in.

But wait, there's more!

I think I head somewhere that epik has industry leading landing pages that are driving sales upwards. So at a 1.5% sales through rate, this scenario just jumped to a $12,500 in the green cash crop.

Have a good weekend everyone! And Thanks @Rob Monster for the response. Don't stretch yourself too thin trying to appease us all. When the community really wants something, we'll band together and let it be known, otherwise, the community has an organic way of settling the noise.

Lastly, if you leave a nPer without discount options for too long, he/she will always sniff it out elsewhere. Whether or not the cheese is rotten is usually a chance to be taken with discounted cheese, but it's nice to know if we get the discounted cheese out of the store, we can transfer it to epik for them to prepare and plate the cheese like only a chef knows how.

 

[wwwweb]

Some great comments in this thread. Thanks @Grilled -- you are on fire there.

- On DNS changes, we are actually working to diversify our DNS fgootprint. Right now many people use NS3.epik.com and NS4.epik.com. Concurrent with expanding our Anycast DNS network with more nodes we'll move many domains to their own unique DNS. That said, I am quite sure we have not seen very many transfers out. The thing to check would be changes to the zone files to have a more accurate indication of transfers in and out. We gain far more than we lose, and we don't lose very many other than folks selling domains.

- On pricing, we have done aggressive pricing on .COM and .ORG. The .ORG promo is probably unmatched at $7.49 for registrations and $8.99 for transfers. For .COM we are now at $7.49 for creates and transfers which is actually a material loss. We did have someone start 10,000 .com transfers to Epik last week, and that was at $5.99 so you can do the math there, i.e. that was a $25K loss on those alone.

Looking ahead, the plan is to stay aggressive on pricing but to also be fiscally responsible. So, when a whale does show up, we'll continue the practice of dropping the price for everyone while the whale is moving their names. That is just a way of giving back and sharing the wealth knowing that most people are not moving thousands of names at a time.

You can expect 3 big things from Epik before year-end:

- An escrow dashboard that rocks.

- A CRM engine for smart lead management.

- An upgraded Masterbucks cloud wallet that might improve your life.

Beyond that, we do have many projects cooking in Epik Labs. I am quite excited about all of them of them but the bread and butter of Epik remains domain names so don't worry about our focus. We have dedicated teams focused on the core. The experimental stuff around the core is just designed to increase impact while at the same time making it a lot more fun for engineers to work at Epik versus someplace else.

Who was the losing register of those 10,000 domains if you don’t mind saying?

 

[NamesMax]

Do you prepay your account, or pay per each transaction? Have you done the recommended wire transfer to fund? I don't have a clue how to do the wire, but I don't imagine it to be that hard.

I use my Masterbucks account and pay as I go. Wires are not difficult. Your bank probanly has it available right on it's app.

Holiday Inn. Lol.

 

[marcreative]

I just opened an account on epik.com woohoo! Does epic also included in afternic premium network? thank u

 

[Blitzpotz]

Does epic also included in afternic premium network?

Yes, you may read this.