SwapFest.com launched. SwapFest-Miami is ON!The first SwapFest in Seattle was a surprise hit.? The efficient Dutch auction model made it possible to auction more than 3,000 domain assets in less than 90 minutes using an auction format that is fun and transparent.? The idea of SwapFest was big enough to justify developing a business around

Epik ships full eCommerce – The next chapter beginsAt the September Epik Developer Conference, we announced that Epik would be shipping full eCommerce in Q4.? Well, I am delighted to announce that the first eCommerce portal to go live is EmergencyFood.com.?? The platform is officially launched and we believe that this is the single largest...

What happens when Domains become accepted as an asset class?The theme of Domain Names as an investment asset class was covered at length in the opening presentation at Epik DevCon last month.? It also led to some good discussions, offline and online.? What I think many Domain Investors don't fully comprehend is the notion of

How folks are building wealth on Epik – 6 case studiesIt is always interesting to me to see how folks are building their development portfolios on Epik.? There are widly different strategies that are working for different people in terms of how they are building value.? This post spotlights a few individuals and their strategies.

Pay for TRAFFIC with EpikBucks – Offer expires on September 30We always knew that Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu had had vision.? So, when we asked them if they would be open to the idea of accepting EpikBucks as a form of payment for the upcoming TRAFFIC conference in Miami, it was no surprise that

If you think the stock market is rallying, I have newsThe stock market is having an up week. Or is it?? Normalized for purchasing power, it is flat in the short-term and down sharply in the intermediate term. The Dow-Gold ratio provides a truer indicator of the health of the stock market.? And that indicator

The dust is settling from what was a successful first-ever SwapFest last Friday in Seattle. Herewith is a summary of what was won at SwapFest, as well as an updated SwapBook which includes remaining inventory from SwapFest #1. A recap of SwapFest #1 The prices below include the in-room SwapFest bids. ? In total, more

Extended Auction – A guided tour of the featured listingsThe Extended auction for the Epik-Moniker auction of Developed sites ends on September 23.?? Here is a guided tour of some of the assets remaining from the Live Auction. The full contents are presented to you in … Slideshow.com. For anyone interested in bidding, you can

Reflections on Epik DevCon 2010Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to get a lot of feedback from attendees of the 1st Annual Epik Developer Conference.? It was an action-packed 3 days and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.? I want to thank everyone who made this event possible. This post also catalogs some collected

SwapBook for Epik SwapFest is live for downloadThe much-anticipated SwapBook for this week's Epik SwapFest is live. Herewith you will find the download of the SwapBook along with answers to questions about the process leading up to the Dutch auction on Friday for whatever remains from the Swap inventory.? A supplemental list of names will...

Pardon our DustAugust was a month of what I have come to call "hypergrowth".?? The business nearly tripled in August compared to July.? During the same period, quality actually improved.? And while? operating gaps remain, we know what they are and are closing them.? Here is a brief recap of August and a rundown of

So what exactly is a Developer anyway: Donald Trump or Steve Jobs?At Epik, we use the term Developer to describe the community of entrepreneurs that are building out domains on the Epik Platform. The interesting thing about the term Developer is that it means different things to different people. If you come from Real Estate

Seattle Domainer Meetup on 9/15Friend of Epik, Jay Lohmann, will be moderating the Epik DevCon lunchtime panel on 9/16 with Andrew Allemann and Chris Pirillo.? Jay also enjoys spending time microbreweries and has organized a Meetup at Pike Brewing on Wednesday 9/15.? We invite you to come have a beer on Epik and meet up

So who is BUYING EpikBucks?The objective of creating EpikBucks is to create a medium of exchange to enable transactions that would otherwise not get done, or would be considered taxable events subject to capital gains taxes.? Deals are getting done using EpikBucks as a medium of exchange.? So, the obvious question then is how to

Yes, you can use your EpikBucks to pay for Epik DevCon RegistrationA question came in from an individual who plans to attend Epik DevCon next week in Seattle.? He asked if it would be possible to pay for his conference registration with EpikBucks.? The short answer is? yes.? In other words, you can pay for

When it comes to domain names, the cream of the crop are known as "category-defining domain names", a domain name that exactly describes the type of business or subject the site is about. To be sure, having such a domain name is not in itself sufficient for success, but the odds are greatly improved, particularly

Would you buy a kit car?Morgan Linton had a good post this week about the Domain Dream changing.? This morning "Steve" had a very insightful comment. Here is what Steve said: Its very simple, 90 % of current domain sales are Domainers to Domainers. Why? Because we can understand the potential value and the only

There is a great deal of anticipation about the Domain Swap event we have planned for the Epik DevCon.? This post provides some context about what we seek to accomplish by conducting this unique swap event and why. The Single Biggest Problem in the Domain Industry: Absence of Liquidity Since becoming a full-time domain investor/developer

A popular post on this blog discussed 4 case studies that showed how Epik Developers are achieving scale economies.?? These models all came from listening to the Developer Community and responding with innovative solutions that map to personal situations and goals.? Earlier today I had the opportunity to speak to another ambitious Epik developer wh...

So, where exactly is the money? We found out.With more than 5,000 Epik-powered stores live, we now have some decent visibility into which categories make money.? To help domain owners with selecting domains and product categories that monetize here is a digest of the August CPC numbers by category. Appliances Air Purifiers $0.36 Blenders $0.36...

Four ways to build big-time on Epik — without breaking the bankEpik Developers are having success.? A growing number of them are expanding their portfolios to the point that the investment level in domains and portals becomes material.? This post discusses 4 case studies of individuals who are building big-time without breaking the bank. Volu...

Does your Epik site need a tune-up?One of my favorite places in the world is a placed called Caneel Bay in St. John.? One of the long-time staffers is an aging bartender who has a rather unique presence.? If you ask him how he is doing, he always has one pat answer, delivered with characteristic

Color is moneyEpik Developer Todd Johnson checked in tonight to say that his color sites are making money on Epik.?? I checked it and it is true.? For example, you can check the stats on Todd's WhiteShelves.com by clicking here — $39 net in a week for what used to be a parked domain. I

Guest Post: Securing Your Place in The SEO UniverseChad Fisher of Pyramid SEO will be speaking at the Epik DevCon on the morning of September 16.?? His talk will be part of our Acquire-Develop-Operate-Sell series. Chad is an SEO veteran.? He regularly consults with Epik Developers and also manages one of our content sourcing relationships.??

Hotels near Epik DevConThe Edgewater is now fully booked during the Epik Developer Conference — September 15-17.? We are on the hunt for more rooms and have secured 5 more rooms.? If you need assistance securing a hotel room, please contact Kristine Oliver — [email protected].?? We'll update this page as we secure additional group rates...

The Epik DevCon T-shirt Design Poll #2I am a big fan of asking the customer what they think.? In keeping with that philosophy, you will see that the Epik DevCon T-shirt got better. And now we need to ask you one more question! The back of the shirt The feedback about the back of the

.CO Development — All systems go!When the .CO TLD landrush began, Epik made an early commitment to support the TLD.? Our caveat to the early developers was that we were uncertain whether .CO domains would get indexed or ranked.? While it is still early days, the indications are good. Here are a couple of illustrative

Please help settle this debate!The official Epik Developer Conference T-shirt is coming along. However, the Epik team needs your help.?? We are down to 2 final concepts.? Please help us settle an internal debate by answering our poll question before August 25 . As a thank you, we'll be happy to send you a free

Explaining Domains as an Asset Class to Finance typesMany smart, financially-savvy people are not? informed about domain names as assets.? So, if your banker or financial advisor still does not get domains, here are the main points, in language that finance-types understand. Simply described, Domain names are the raw land of the Internet. And while...

During a brief visit to New York City, I had a chance to visit with a number of Epik partners and clients.? Power-Developer, Kenny Hartog, kindly opened up his home for a late night visit following DomainFest.? During a far-ranging discussion, Kenny asked me about stocks.?? He was surprised to learn that I own no

I am just boarding the plane here in Seattle for the red-eye flight into NYC to attend DomainFest on Wednesday. Looking forward to a great event.? If you are there and want to talk about domain development, drop me a note at [email protected].? Looking forward to a fun conference.? Epik is sponsoring.

Pioneer Award to be presented at the Epik Developer ConferenceOne of the things that we get excited about at Epik is applauding the exceptional individuals that have made the domain industry what it is today, and who are continuing to shape it in the yeas ahead. In line with that, we are also pleased to

Earlybird registration for Epik DevCon ends TODAYThe Epik Developer Conference is coming together well. Platinum Sponsor Oversee-Moniker and Gold Sponsor GoDaddy share Epik's enthusiasm for Domain Development as being core to future of the domain industry.?? We are excited to host the leading practitioners in the area of domain development and to s...

The Quest for Recurring IncomeBack in the good old days, domainer owners would buy a name, park it, and wait for the check.? During the 2008-2010 recession, that model largely broke down. Since then, we have seen a period where liquid domainers bought inventory from the illiquid domainers.? However, recently, domain traders are reporting that

The Chinese are comingBack in November, I blogged about what is sometimes referred to as The Pacific Century.? There are a number of scenarios that could still play out that would make this not the case. However, the odds-on favorite to emerge as the next global economic super-power is China.? And right on queue, the

Seriously folks, who is dropping these?One man's trash is another man's treasure.?? So the saying goes. Seriously though, I am mystified that names of this caliber are being dropped.? We are happy to catch them but it seems symptomatic of what must be a significant shift in domaining.? Domains that were economically useful during the parking...

Clarification on $500 offer from EpikThere have been some questions about our $500 incentive program for the Epik Developer Conference. Herewith, a few clarifying remarks: What is it?: As an incentive for conference registration, we added a $500 Developer Credit. This credit can be used for any Epik or DevRich services, including domain developmen...

Test Drive a Directory As readers of this blog well know, Epik has developed several platform to cost-effectively create useful and profitable websites for the domain owners. The Epik | Directory platform is used to build out domains whose names can best be represented as a directory of information, whether is is a location, a category

Easy. Not Ugly.When we first launched Epik Wiki on July 4, I did not know what to expect in terms of user adoption.?? Although it is way too early to declare victory, the early signs are encouraging as users embrace the platform and breathe life into domains that would have otherwise gone undeveloped. Case Study –