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:

 

[mwzd]

At the mentioned price points, are you really surprised that not many sites are making any money for the domain owners?

Epik seems to be doing well, they've also launched Masterbucks.com - not sure if it replaces epikbucks but probably.

I'm sure Epik is a huge financial success for its owners, if not for domain investors. At least the domain investors have the privilege of contributing to Epik's success, after all, they'd rather invest in a company than in the solution.

 

[DOTT]

Epik basically has a theme

 

[DnEbook]

At this point i don't think i will share my thoughts of the generic xmas email i received from Rob Monster .......holidaying in the Bahamas with out money !


sites are now being de-indexed by Yahoo and Bing

 

[randomo]

Revenue has fallen way off in the past 2-3 weeks; due to de-indexing, I guess?

 

[enlytend]

Are they still actively promoting their development business? I got an email from them the other day trying to sell me a 30 character .net for mid xxx - first thing I thought was that they were shifting their focus to domain sales/brokerage.

 

[DnEbook]

.......... a bunch of pirates

don't even pay revenue when stated

 

[fisher]

Any news from Epik lately? They were talking about a new format with the product portals.
Does anyone have there sites indexed?

 

[DnEbook]

only on google ............bing and yahoo dropped them

 

[DU]

Shame that I'm reading such bad reviews as I was thinking of investing in their Level 3 Enterprise plan.

$250,000 a year seems reasonable - especially as it includes 100 hrs worth of development.

One of the funniest/saddest things I've stumbled on recently was Settes/com. A product typo Epik portal! That's Epik!

What's with all the wacky epik.com subdomains?

 

[DnEbook]

At moment cannot recommend them for the returns gained, i only spent what i was prepared to lose and currently have the domains still advertised at a price that will recoup all money spent ......patience

 

[RogueWriter]

Gave up on the portal, it had not generated a dime in income for 7 months. The other product domains are seeing returns. Not as high as I would like, but better then any parking site I've run across.

 

[DnEbook]

Gave up on the portal, it had not generated a dime in income for 7 months. The other product domains are seeing returns. Not as high as I would like, but better then any parking site I've run across.

At no stage has the cost outweighed the rewards

............waste of time

 

[mosilager]

Take this for what it's worth... I contemplated for 6 months, reading every single review for epic sites...and though most of them were negative, I decided to splash out $249 for one of their product portals....

5 months down the line, I could have earned 5 times more as a parked page than I did using their live product portal, to say I'm disappointed is an understatement!... (should have stayed with my gut and not paid for their development portal!)

Stay away until improvements are made!...

 

[TheBaldOne]

My advice, from experience with Epik and Monster (and all kept well documented), is do not touch them with a ten foot barge pole. Indeed if you do have a ten foot barge pole then keep at least that distance away from them!

Just my own personal opinion of course.

 

[RogueWriter]

At no stage has the cost outweighed the rewards

............waste of time

I'm not willing to go there yet, with every aspect of their services. One of the domains I experimented with, for example, has taken in $10 in the last 4 weeks ( my cut ). That seems to be typical for that specific domain over an extended period. That's certainly not great, and would take a couple of years to recoup, but I see the amount growing from month to month, too.

Not an intrinsically bad company, or business model, even, but to me it appears as if they are grappling with an unduly extensive amount of projects, and their cost per site is prohibitive, if you have a large number of domains.

 

[Steven]

I'm not willing to go there yet, with every aspect of their services. One of the domains I experimented with, for example, has taken in $10 in the last 4 weeks ( my cut ). That seems to be typical for that specific domain over an extended period. That's certainly not great, and would take a couple of years to recoup, but I see the amount growing from month to month, too.

Not an intrinsically bad company, or business model, even, but to me it appears as if they are grappling with an unduly extensive amount of projects, and their cost per site is prohibitive, if you have a large number of domains.

I mean you can technically get Shopping.com API at http://developer.shopping.com or Shopzilla.com API at shopzilla.com and get a shopping script at http://www.datafeedscripts.net/, http://shopzilla.datafeedscripts.net/default.aspx, or http://www.comparisonshoppingscript.com/ to make those product portal website for free-$250.

Get a freelancer for logo at $30.

For ~$30-$280, you can put adsense or other advertisement, and you get all of whatever the advertisers or shopping api providers/partners pay you instead of splitting costs.

 

[RogueWriter]

I mean you can technically get Shopping.com API at http://developer.shopping.com or Shopzilla.com API at shopzilla.com and get a shopping script at http://www.datafeedscripts.net/, http://shopzilla.datafeedscripts.net/default.aspx, or http://www.comparisonshoppingscript.com/ to make those product portal website for free-$250.

Get a freelancer for logo at $30.

For ~$30-$280, you can put adsense or other advertisement, and you get all of whatever the advertisers or shopping api providers/partners pay you instead of splitting costs.

Yes, and this has been argued before, ad nauseum. If you have the time to spare, adsolutely, do it yourself. I have an 8-6 5 day a week job. I then help out at the family business for an additional 3 hours at night, 3-5 nights a week. I then also have a successful affiliate marketing business where I am spending time on a few sites. I have 300 or so additional domains that I would like to see developed, beyond the ones I am currently using; their program offered the potential of generating additional income without using up my most precious resource, which is time. So I gave them 5 domains or so to work with, as a sample.

Balancing cost/convenience/time is what their model appeared to offer. I am abivalent, still, unhappy with some aspects, but seeing where it might prove useful to me down the road.

 

[DU]

Yes, and this has been argued before, ad nauseum. If you have the time to spare, adsolutely, do it yourself. I have an 8-6 5 day a week job. I then help out at the family business for an additional 3 hours at night, 3-5 nights a week. I then also have a successful affiliate marketing business where I am spending time on a few sites. I have 300 or so additional domains that I would like to see developed, beyond the ones I am currently using; their program offered the potential of generating additional income without using up my most precious resource, which is time. So I gave them 5 domains or so to work with, as a sample.

Balancing cost/convenience/time is what their model appeared to offer. I am abivalent, still, unhappy with some aspects, but seeing where it might prove useful to me down the road.

Suggestion if Epik doesn't work out (I thought they had a money back guartantee of sorts):

Advertise on NP or elsewhere. Someone would set that up for you for under $100 probably.

Might even build an auto-install package that make it a 5-click install for multiple domains for under a $1000. Less if you want non-exclusive licence. If it's exclusive you could sell it on yourself.

 

[Steven]

Defaultuser is right. I and many others can help you install the scripts for a decent price on your domains.

But I understand the time constraints. On my work shifts, I work from 630 am to 8 pm. When I come home, last thing I have on my mind is domaining.

 

[DnEbook]

I had original articles on my epik sites and still yahoo and bing deindexed them ........but i did get a xmas email from monster in the Bahamas though

 

[DnEbook]

just when i thought they couldn't go any lower i have todaylogged only to find now there are no sales stats to be read ......hey epik what next ???

Surely by now your name translates to 'mud'

 

[Rob Monster]

@evirtual1 (Rod Seeber, I presume, aka SpaceRoddy)

Your post is noted. If you ever want to check the status of your Product Portal sites, you can also use the direct API for checking stats. Example:

http://productportals.wishpot.com/s...4-1&end=2011-6-21&domains=babybassinettes.com

Just change the date range and the domain name to retrieve the data from the back-end in XML format.

Also, I encourage you to make use of the 3.0 release. Daily revenues from Product Portals have increased by nearly 4X since the 3.0 upgrade. The product platform is still evolving but anyone who has tried the 3.0 back-end would agree. It totally rocks.

The next step for Product Portals will be a global shopping cart for clearing product sales directly in product portals via the new MasterBucks.com payment gateway. Current Product Portal owners are getting all of these upgrades at no additional cost.

We are also working on a new master control panel to replace admin.epik.com. The upgrade comes along with an acquisition just completed. Details will be announced shortly.

Scalable, low cost domain development is not going to be an easy mission for anyone. While Epik will still encounter challenges in executing on this mission, I still rank our odds about as high as anyone.

As for the Bahamas, while I have not actually been there in years, the good news is that the Internet service there is pretty good.

 

[DU]

Your post is noted. If you ever want to check the status of your Product Portal sites, you can also use the direct API for checking stats. Example:

http://productportals.wishpot.com/s...4-1&end=2011-6-21&domains=babybassinettes.com

I would think for 50% revenue plus one time fee that something more impressive than an XML feed via an API would be available. You know, like a stylesheet or anything. Maybe even a front end?

You are after all, targeting clients who DON'T HAVE TIME TO DEVELOP their assets. What happened to Turn Key solution?

Also, I encourage you to make use of the 3.0 release. Daily revenues from Product Portals have increased by nearly 4X since the 3.0 upgrade. The product platform is still evolving but anyone who has tried the 3.0 back-end would agree. It totally rocks.

Not a Lot x 4 = Not a Lot

How did you determine a pricing model for your customers if the platform is "evolving". Charging for beta versions while claiming it's an end product is really piss poor, imho.

And it rocks. That's great for Mr Rice and Rod. It didn't rock before - do they get refund/discount for when it sucked?

Who's tried it? And they ALL agree that it totally rocks? Pictures or it never happened.

The next step for Product Portals will be a global shopping cart for clearing product sales directly in product portals via the new MasterBucks.com payment gateway. Current Product Portal owners are getting all of these upgrades at no additional cost.

Another "non-currency" here to "simplify" things.

Is this "currency" backed by real monetary holdings of MasterBucks?

Who maintains the currency peg at 1:1 ? On what basis?

Can Epik LLC - sorry I mean Masterbucks - continuously create Masterbucks to ease any deficits?

If this works on a purely $1 buys 1 MB and that money is held in perpetuity (it says never expires) then what's the benefit over paypal? My bank? Moneybookers? or Bitcoin for that matter. The only benefit is that theoretically someone will trade UGC for a fake currency that can be spent on goods within Epik only?

I'm sure this is all covered in the detailed agreement and legalese that I can't find on your site.

Part of what creates liquidity is that people will generate enough MB$ to be able to make purchases. What happens when the MB$ get stuck in peoples accounts? What if there's nowhere to spend it? What if it doesn't create liquidity? How do people get their money OUT of the system?

It's like Bitcoin - only not as clever.

By the way, I went to see participating stores at:
http://www.masterbucks.com/shop/

Very Impressive! A blank screen! Awesome! Where do I sign up!

http://www.masterbucks.com/offers/

Shows four businesses. Phew!

Scalable, low cost domain development is not going to be an easy mission for anyone. While Epik will still encounter challenges in executing on this mission, I still rank our odds about as high as anyone.

This sums up the issue for me with Epik. The mission is about Epik first and foremost.

It's not about providing anything for the customer. Epik will encounter challenges - and you the customer will help us - as we grow into something. It's all about your mission.

I don't believe anyone signed up to help Epik meet challenges. They signed up to have Epik provide a SOLUTION to gains that exceed the investment.

To date, from what I've read, this has been an EPIK fail and you haven't refuted any of it. You've just come in here with MORE to sell. I'm sure you're a nice guy, I'm sure this is a good idea, I just don't understand the dire implementation with regards to respect for the customer.

 

[DnEbook]

Too much B.S for me, names have been advertised at a cost to compensate me for wasted time and effort, nameservers changed as well. Quite sad to think a parking company has my trust more than epik ... "**** off" you can guess the first word

Please don't send any more greetings from the Bahamas

I am done with this thread

"hoo roo" is aussie for goodbye

 

[DU]

... "**** off" you can guess the first word

Curious as to why RobMonster created a new account as RobEpik to push the new "improvements" some of which are Freeeeeeee!