Have You Had an Epik Experience Yet ?

[DnEbook]

I am starting to hear more and more about epik/com , has anyone here jumped in and had a 'epik experience' ? and if so ....your thoughts please

:talk:

 

[DnEbook]

The web surfer is well aware of a 'dud' site that is just links, if you can offer products or information surely it is a better experience for the web surfer who may return if happy

 

[RevolutionaryDomains]

Thanks. I definitely agree. I would think parked pages probably lose traffic given how generic and otherwise steril most templates look, but that's just my opinion.

There seems to be many domainers who feel as you do with regard to domain parking dying. It just makes me hesitant to go that route if it truly is. I'm considering all my options as I move forward to 2011. I still lack in the development area of domaining, so naturally parking comes to mind. I've got my work cut out for me regardless, I fear.


-Regards

 

[Erdy]

RevolutionaryDomains,
Parking is not worth the time you have spend writing those messages. With 170 domains I'm making $1 a month from parking.

Statistically speaking, I spend $1360 USD a year for renewals to make $12 a year from parking which is 113 times less. If parking was 113 times more profitable than it is now, then it would be worth talking about it.

 

[RevolutionaryDomains]

That's the reason I have stayed away from it all these years. It would appear the time has come for me to learn to build mini sites or solicit the help of those who do. I read in a different thread Noomle is a good place for such. I will have to check it out.

Thanks to you both for your time and thoughts on the matter. Happy Holidays and all the best in 2011.


-Regards

 

[DnEbook]

one site a week overdue at the moment , i am sure that's the norm though

 

[talhahassan]

Hi Guys
I have 700$ available in EpikBucks and want to sell them for some $.
Let me know if anyone is interested.

 

[DnEbook]

they have enough of my cash for now

 

[namemarket]

Almost a year ago when they were being widely promoted I said Epik.com sites were way overpriced and unlikely to succeed. No doubt Rob Monster and his associates spent tons of time and money marketing them last year but they appear to be a failure overall. Now I rarely hear about them vs in the past when so many domainers were excited about Epik.com

I never did like the look and feel of the Epik sites and their overall concept, business plan and price structure. I believe Whypark is something similar and also has not been too successful as far as traffic and ppc income is concerned (at least as far as I know and in my own experience), but at lest Whypark sites are free!

 

[DnEbook]

i only invested what i was willing to risk , no pain no gain

i do wonder if it is a trust issue with the epic sites ?

do the customers actually trust the sites ?

same can be said for the smartname sites which are free , but those clowns didn't answer four email i sent .......wankers

 

[RogueWriter]

As in most other industries nowadays there seems to be an immediacy, an urgency, where results are required instantly or the project is deemed a failure.

Yet, going into an investment with them, I understood that they were evolving, and I could not look at thier company in that way. Since September they have added numerous products, added a call center to help generate leads, and added personnel. I decided to give them 1 full year to convince me, with a limited number of domains. So I will decide in the fall if their program is a success or not.

To date I am ambivalent, but I am seeing traffic and small commissions. Parking at Sedo is a joke, imo, that generates nothing.

I am not going to come back here every week, though, and try to quell naysayers; If you want to know for sure, buy your own dang product site and find out for yourself.

I will say that every time I contact them, I get responses from two or three guys, they go out of their way to respond.

 

[DnEbook]

i have had issues and have not had the happy experience as above, my opinions are based on my experiences and instead of personal replies i have just received generic emails that have not really replied on a personal level to my concerns

I am well aware that things take time but i can say that after writing articles and promoting the stores i am just a bit disappointed that my efforts have had basically no return

satellite.tv has no articles to add to seo , my sites all have at least five articles below is some info for satellite/tv which is only linked to 3 root domains with no articles ??? just headings ?

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/www.satellitPage Authority helpURL score combining all link metricsDomain Authority helpoverall score for the root domainLinking Root Domains helproot domains w/ links to this URLTotal Links helpfollowed, nofollowed & 301'ing pages26/100 12/100 3 124 e.tv/a!links!!ref!linkscape?anything[]=www.satellite.tv&anything[]=a!links!!ref!linkscape

Page Authority help
URL score combining all link metrics

Domain Authority help
overall score for the root domain

Linking Root Domains help
root domains w/ links to this URL

Total Links help
followed, nofollowed & 301'ing pages
26/100 12/100 3 124

Below is for my site black-dress/com
http://www.black-dress.com/articles

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/www.black-dress.com/a!links

Page Authority help
URL score combining all link metrics

Domain Authority help
overall score for the root domain

Linking Root Domains help
root domains w/ links to this URL

Total Links help
followed, nofollowed & 301'ing pages
37/100 29/100 47 1,618

Below is for white-dress/com

http://www.white-dress.com/articles

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/www.white-dress.com/a!links?anything[]=www.white-dress.com&anything[]=a!links
Page Authority help
URL score combining all link metrics

Domain Authority help
overall score for the root domain

Linking Root Domains help
root domains w/ links to this URL

Total Links help
followed, nofollowed & 301'ing pages
38/100 30/100 33 1,585

I have linked to over 30 root domains for each of these sites, written original articles and sourced out other articles to include on my sites , i also requested the logos from the sites for better promotion http://bikinis.tv/our-shops/

Long story short there has not been enough result for effort and i am well aware i have the rest of my life to see these improve but realistically there is a chance they may never and it all ends up being a waste of time

Below is the pricing for a lead generating site
http://epik.com/products/leadgen_pricing.php

and below is the http://epik.com/products/leadgen_features.php

$2500 to set up / 50% revenue and $78 permonth for the privilege seems way too greedy for me

keeping in mind this does have a phone answering component , which makes me wonder what you really get for the $250 set up option i would suggest ......SFA

I did buy four sites and so far are not impressed by the result of MY EFFORTS or THEIRS but i can say i have really tried to improve the sites and gain more links so i feel i have the rite to a qualified opinion

 

[Erdy]

evirtual1,
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. It's very helpful.

Is anybody making money with epik at all? I would be interested to see some data like this:
domain: example.com
duration: 6 months
total spent: $249
total earned: $55
monthly average income: 55/6= $9.16

If this kind data was available you could multiply the monthly average by 24 and compare it to what you have spend. Generally websites are selling for 24 times their monthly income plus the value of the domain.

Has anybody visited this page:
http://stores.epik.com/
If you pick for instance digital-watches.com, it says it is for sale for $1,143 and it makes $21.55 a month.

1) Is digital-watches.com using their $249 leadgen thing?
2) If you bought that domain would you get %50 of the $21.55 revenue? Is this gross or net?

I was thinking that maybe it makes more sense to buy a website that is already making money. They have an awful lot of websites for sale. However I don't like their %50 share model.

They seem to use affiliate links of bizrate.com which is a price comparison site. I thought about creating such a site myself but got lost somewhere during the research.

 

[mike031]

http://www.domainstryker.com/epik-com-stats/

---

Detailed stats are for a little over 6,000 Epik powered “product portal” sites for the week of Sep 27 – Oct 3, 2010.

Only 3 domains generated over $100:

bra.net $289.43
icecreammaker.com $192.02
womens-rain-boots.com $109.35

Only 13 domains generated over 1000 visitors…

porno.co.uk 26685 visitors
kindergartengames.net 16396 visitors
vinylroll.com 5304 visitors
bra.net 4092 visitors
hairy.com 2726 visitors
bl.com 2499 visitors
netbks.com 1943 visitors
icecreammaker.com 1933 visitors
novel.com 1782 visitors
ninjavideos.com 1340 visitors
computerhardware.net 1232 visitors
saws.com 1139 visitors
toilet.net 1025 visitors
ereaders.net 1021 visitors

The stats for all the rest of the domains are pretty shitty if you ask me… Wait, pretty shitty isn’t the correct term in this case… What’s a better word I am looking for?! Hmm….. The numbers are just plain horrific. Do keep in mind the numbers are for the previous 1 week (7 day period) but regardless, multiply the current data by 4.2/3 and it’s still shit. At this pace, 99% of the people should expect to get their ROI much much later than what they originally hoped or were promised.

You can view here the entire list containing stats for the top visited sites

You can view here the entire list containing stats for the top earning sites

I received the reports a few minutes ago from a good friend of mine who is a genius when it comes to data analysis and scrapping, but way way before I set out to get the inside scoop and really dig deep…I already knew that the results would be shitty because the entire setup is flawed from A to Z as I’ve written about previously already numerous times, but wow, even I was surprised to see just how bad things really are across the board and I feel bad for all parties involved but it is what it is. The numbers don’t lie… Do they?

So yea, there is the entire story pretty much, which can be summed up in two words: Epik failed and numbers to illustrate and present the facts. You can go ahead and visit any domain in the list and add /stats to the URL to get them directly from the source and do keep in mind the numbers displayed are then further split 50/50 between the domain owner and Epik, the product portal sites’ operator. Ouch!

In this weekly report a total of 6,031 Epik powered domains generated 173,727 visitors which clicked 49,871 times to bring in the whopping earnings of $7,481.95… Now if it was one or two guys splitting the profits from this little network, it would be ok I suppose, but there are hundreds of people involved if not more.

---------- Post added at 02:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:03 PM ----------

Lots more at http://www.domainstryker.com/search/epik

 

[DU]

Considering that icecreammaker has more blog and marketing backlinks than JCPenneys put together for last Christmas, it's all rather disappointing.

Market yourself not someone else with your sites. Just IMHO.

 

[RogueWriter]

http://www.domainstryker.com/epik-com-stats/

---

Detailed stats are for a little over 6,000 Epik powered “product portal” sites for the week of Sep 27 – Oct 3, 2010.

Only 3 domains generated over $100:

bra.net $289.43
icecreammaker.com $192.02
womens-rain-boots.com $109.35

Only 13 domains generated over 1000 visitors…

porno.co.uk 26685 visitors
kindergartengames.net 16396 visitors
vinylroll.com 5304 visitors
bra.net 4092 visitors
hairy.com 2726 visitors
bl.com 2499 visitors
netbks.com 1943 visitors
icecreammaker.com 1933 visitors
novel.com 1782 visitors
ninjavideos.com 1340 visitors
computerhardware.net 1232 visitors
saws.com 1139 visitors
toilet.net 1025 visitors
ereaders.net 1021 visitors

The stats for all the rest of the domains are pretty shitty if you ask me… Wait, pretty shitty isn’t the correct term in this case… What’s a better word I am looking for?! Hmm….. The numbers are just plain horrific. Do keep in mind the numbers are for the previous 1 week (7 day period) but regardless, multiply the current data by 4.2/3 and it’s still shit. At this pace, 99% of the people should expect to get their ROI much much later than what they originally hoped or were promised.

You can view here the entire list containing stats for the top visited sites

You can view here the entire list containing stats for the top earning sites

I received the reports a few minutes ago from a good friend of mine who is a genius when it comes to data analysis and scrapping, but way way before I set out to get the inside scoop and really dig deep…I already knew that the results would be shitty because the entire setup is flawed from A to Z as I’ve written about previously already numerous times, but wow, even I was surprised to see just how bad things really are across the board and I feel bad for all parties involved but it is what it is. The numbers don’t lie… Do they?

So yea, there is the entire story pretty much, which can be summed up in two words: Epik failed and numbers to illustrate and present the facts. You can go ahead and visit any domain in the list and add /stats to the URL to get them directly from the source and do keep in mind the numbers displayed are then further split 50/50 between the domain owner and Epik, the product portal sites’ operator. Ouch!

In this weekly report a total of 6,031 Epik powered domains generated 173,727 visitors which clicked 49,871 times to bring in the whopping earnings of $7,481.95… Now if it was one or two guys splitting the profits from this little network, it would be ok I suppose, but there are hundreds of people involved if not more.

---------- Post added at 02:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:03 PM ----------

Lots more at http://www.domainstryker.com/search/epik

September stats? Wasn't this exact post discussed/repudiated ad nausuem in October of last year?

---------- Post added at 02:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:07 PM ----------

...The actual data that is cited below about total network revenues is factually incorrect. We have debated about whether to expose the site stats. While we are a fan of transparent reporting, selective scraping of the Portal stats pages provides an incomplete picture -- in this case, the revenue numbers are low by a factor of 5. While we have nothing to hide, we are also not in the business of having data selectively presented by people with agendas....

Again, not an epik apologist, but if you are re-posting aged stats, then this needs to be reposted as well for those not reading through the whole thread......

 

[mike031]

Since then, things have only gone down the toilet... All sites have been banned, and still remain to be banned.

Not much good news to report, for those optimists... Just fantasies and lots of BS you have been fed by the fragers and dnw's.

 

[DnEbook]

sites are not banned ....... who is full of bs ?

feel free to check if my sites are banned

http://www.howrank.com/Is-My-Site-Banned-from-Google.php

white-dress.com
black-dress.com
sexybikinis.net
cheapsunglasses/me

why make stupid comments like the ones above ?

 

[mike031]

Consider yourself one of the lucky ones then.. Most are banned.

 

[Erdy]

Can Epik users share some stats please? How much money do you make?

evirtual1,
For how long is sexybikinis.net with epik? Can you give any numbers about this particular domain? I think it represents the type of domains epik is aiming for.

 

[DnEbook]

haven't i answered a pms from you already ?

stats are not worth sharing at this point

the alexa ranking seems different from the epik reports ..... what can i say

 

[Bannen]

How are peoples' Epik sites shaping up lately? I am curious to know if the latest Google changes to their search metrics for 'certain' sites have at all affected Epik sites and their income?

I did have some interest in trying out Epik... but I keep putting it off... and putting it off... I just don't think their business plan is strong enough for long-term, stable, and profitable earnings... let me know what you think, the good and the bad.

Thanks

 

[spikedo]

Stay away. I saw more traffic when my domains were parked than with Epik sites. Did anyone ask and get their money back?

 

[Bannen]

Stay away. I saw more traffic when my domains were parked than with Epik sites. Did anyone ask and get their money back?

With adsense still hitting rock bottom lately on minisites, and google's recent algorithm changes, I'm betting Epik is now a colossal failure...

Too bad, I'm not wishing ill on them, they tried something committedly and put a lot of effort into it. But I just can't see them paying off anywhere near to being profitable, in the present shape of things. Anyone able to report differently?

 

[DnEbook]

let's just say my names are listed for sale at sedo while we wait for an improvement

 

[DU]

Someone should rename the thread.

Have you had an Epik let down yet?