Sell your development-grade domains at the September 16 Live AuctionThe countdown to the September 16 Live Auction event has started. This event is unique in 2 ways: (1) the live auction is focused only on sites that are either already developed or in development, and (2) the event content is designed for a diverse audience

Amazon.com — cracks in the foundation?Amazon's Q2 earnings are out. They missed the analyst estimates and the stock tanked 15% in after-hours trading.? Domain owners with product category names, take note, as I believe this has implications. I previous blogged about Amazon here. I continue to follow Amazon closely, not just because they are a...

.CO TLD Domain DevelopmentThe .CO sunrise and landrush has generated a tremendous amount of interest.?? One of the main challenges for past TLD launches has been the anemic level of actual development, which ultimately resulted in the irrelevance of the TLD — .ws, cc, .mx,? .whocares??? In the case of .CO, a lot of the

Owen Frager is pretty irresistible when he wants to be.?? When he asked me to do a webcast, I was thinking something small scale and low profile.?? It looks like it will be a well-attended broadcast. I am looking forward to the event and hope you will join us for what should be informative session

Every dog has his dayCreative dealmaking is something that I enjoy, particularly when it gives Epik the opportunity to work on a domain that might otherwise be out of reach for development due to the circumstances of the owner.? Sometimes it means bringing together a 3rd party. If it is a deal that makes sense,

Introducing Epik Marketplace for WikisThe Epik Wiki solution has grown quickly since the announcement on July 4.? Our Wiki platform provides a free solution for building sites that are crowd-edited.? It is perfect for How-to sites, People sites and Reference sites. And now, we go one step further by offering a Wiki marketplace where the

The Epik Ecosystem at workOne of the unique aspects of building Epik is the "ecosystem approach". Specifically there is a unifying architecture that connects the expanding network of Epik-powered sites.? We are 5% of the way through the journey and I could not be more excited about what is coming along. What do we mean by

Domain DevelopmentDomain Development is hard.? Let's not kid ourselves.? Having an exact match domain name is without question a huge competitive advantage. However, by itself a great domain is insufficient to sustain organic traffic.? A robust development methodology helps. At Epik, our process consists of? domain selection, ideation, creation, op...

Start the conversation with an Epik Wiki — it is freeHappy Independence Day. One of the early promises of the Internet was that it would lead to a proliferation of independent media targeting an ever-expanding array of topics. On the surface, the 1st amendment would appear to be alive and well. Yet the web is still

Epik and Moniker/Oversee join forces for live auction event at September 16 DevConOver the last several months, I have had the privilege of working with several of the talented folks at Moniker and Oversee. In addition to confirming Moniker as the exclusive auction partner to manage the upcoming sale of Patents.com at the August

Epik Developer Conference – The Domain Developer event of the yearThe Epik Developer Conference is shaping up to be a must-attend event for anyone interested in learning about domain development.? We are putting together what should be an enjoyable and rewarding program.? This post provides an update on the Conference Venue and some of what...

Temporary Insanity: We just bought our first .mobiI never thought I would do this but I guess there is a first for everything. Luke Webster — SVP Operations at Epik, and President of the DevRich business unit — convinced me that we should buy SEO.mobi.?? I trust Luke's instincts and am rolling with him on

Why Epik Stores outperform Amazon and Shopping.com powered storesA number of folks have asked about why our Product Portals perform as well as they do. How can it be a that a site makes little to nothing on a parking network, Amazon store, or Shopping.com store, and then months later on Epik dramatically more? There

Show me the moneyWhen we launched Product Portals,? we did so with a model of a 50/50 revenue share.?? However, with sites like IceCreamMaker.com racking up $1,200 in monthly net, and Epik-developer Kenny Hartog now operating more than 500 Epik-powered sites, the monthly revenues quickly become material. It is time for Epik to up the

Domain GreenhousingIn a previous post, I compared domain development to farming.? Even baseball uses the term "farm team" to describe the place where you incubate up and comers. While the idea of "domain farming" is certainly not unique, Epik's execution of the domain farming metaphor is definitely unique.? A key component of the domain farming...

Video Portals – a sneak peak at what is coming next from EpikThe recent TechCrunch Disrupt conference revealed something interesting: FunnyOrDie.com already makes tens of millions of dollars in what is likely high margin revenue for hosting video humor. This has interesting implications for domain developers as the world moves rapidly toward...

The Epik Product Portals have been a huge hit, with over 1200 portals already in production. For names like IceCreamMaker.com, the Epik | Product platform is an excellent way to increase the value of the domain and tap into the search volumes that would otherwise never come to the site. But, of course, not all

Epik acquires DevRich.com — Luke Webster joins Epik as SVP OperationsI am pleased to announce the completed acquisition of DevRich.com — an innovator in the area of mass domain name development.? As part of the transaction, Luke Webster, President of DevRich will also become SVP Operations of Epik.? Luke will continue as President of De...

1st Annual Epik Developer Conference — Sept 15-17, 2010 in SeattleI am delighted to announce the First Annual Epik Developer Conference. The conference will be hosted in Epik's home town of Seattle from September 15-17, 2010. Client Summits are an important growth driver As many people in the industry know, prior to starting Epik, I spent 8...

Bob Parsons: Tear Down Your Privacy WallI first began using Domains By Proxy from Godaddy in 2009 after the strong encouragement from Epik's Account Representative at Godaddy.?? In most cases, the product was free, and otherwise near-free at $0.25 per year. For anyone considering Domains By Proxy, I would advise you to steer far clear

As expected, the run for the exits appears to have started as the global fiat currency regimes begin to crumble — starting with the Euro.? Dealers for physical gold and silver bullion have been reporting capacity shortages for months now.? This week's explosive jump in gold to all time highs suggest that other durable commodity

It has been confirmed from two authoritative sources that Moniker sold Slots.com for $5.5 million.? If this does pan out, it will set up a big week for Moniker auctions.? Epik also has WiFi.com, Hobbies.com, HardDrives.com and Hobbies.com as premium "domains with assets" in this auction.? Congratulations to Buyer, Seller and Broker.

101 New Product Portals Released for Week 22On the weekend, Epik delivered another 102 custom product portals.? In this post, I share some examples of why I think this is a pretty strong set of product portals that we are excited to be building. A few point worth noting about the portals of week 22: An initial

The volatility in the financial markets today was breathtaking.? The Dow Jones Industrial Average came within a few points of triggering the 1000 point circuit breaker before snapping back.? Within a few minutes of trading fortunes were made and lost. I expect we'll eventually find out who was on what side of which trade. Then

Retail Appraisals — A useful tool for selling domains to end-clientsWhen trying to determine a fair price for a domain, end-clients usually look for some type of objective 3rd party assessment of what is fair market value for a domain name.?? In the past we would send a client to Estibot. However, Estibot is really

In my recent discussions with domainers from around the world, there are a few recurring patterns. One of the patterns is that many domainers are "long on domains and short on cash".? This creates a challenge for domainers with large portfolios who cannot possibly fund development of all of their development-worthy domains. In times like...

How to value a website with trafficOur friends over at Moniker are managing the auction for the WiFi.com website. WiFi.com has 30,000 monthly unique visitors for a keyword with a healthy CPC.? While there are a number of ways to value a website, the most obvious is to put a value on the traffic that

Product Portals — 100 new portals, a case study and a shot of Google CaffeineEpik's Product Portal Network continues to grow rapidly. Last week, the Epik team delivered a whopping 100 custom product portals for clients bringing the total to more than 1,000 Product Portals launched.?? This post also shares latest search rankings from Morgan...

Free (domain) Love FridayYesterday evening, I witnessed a beautiful thing. Epik Network Partner, Todd Johnson, decided he no longer needed the domain name YellowBikinis.com. Kenny Hartog, another Epik Network Partner, has been assembling a swimwear domain portfolio.? Todd gave Kenny the domains — for FREE.? I am pretty sure Kenny and Todd are...

The Parthenon is for saleIt could not happen to a nicer country.?? 2500 years ago Greece was the center of Democratic humanity. Remember Solon's reforms? Old glory. Today, the country Greece is for sale.? What's next? Endorsement rights for the Parthenon? Pay attention since this actually matters to the domain name asset class. Why it matters? Thi...

Search Engine Optimization is a critical ingredient to launching a new site.? This post shares some of my experience with SEO — good and bad.? It also describes a special program for clients who want to experience the impact of professional SEO. I used to be a SEO skeptic My first serious exposure to SEO was through

Location, Location, Location – The Morgan Schwartz case studyOne of the things I really enjoy about what we are doing at Epik is helping folks become effective domain developers.? One guy who is on the way to building a pretty sweet portfolio of income-producing properties is Morgan Schwartz.? He has figured out what I think

Pagerank domains – what you need to knowOne of the derivative benefits of domain development is building Pagerank.? A number of the early developments have now achieved page rank — in some cases significant.? We can't possibly develop all of them so from time to time we'll make names available for sale or co-development. What is...

Hives.com now at auction at Epik AuctionsI am pleased to announce that Epik is the exclusive auction house for the premium domain name Hives.com.?? The domain appraises on Estibot at a whopping $384,000 and the owner has priced it to sell THIS WEEK with a reserve of just $25,000. Some notable stats about this listing: 1 out

Diapers.com raises another $20 million. That's good news for domainers.Diapers.com's latest news provides further evidence that niche/segmented retail is attracting capital. Diapers.com's? closed a $20 million financing and is on the way to shipping a half-billion dollars worth of diapers using a proprietary supply chain platform. That's interesti...

Please give me your hyphenated domainsDomainers who still avoid names with hyphens are stuck in what I call the "parking industry time warp".? Search engines actually like hyphens.? Nevertheless, every day, great hyphen names are dropping.? Epik is picking them up by the dozens.? This post summarizes a few recent hyphen catches and why I...

Product Portals – Big news and an unbeatable guaranteeIn this post I want to share a preview of the next upgrade of Epik's Product Portal platform. I also want to tell you about an unbeatable guarantee.? This post also includes a no-holds-barred collection of turnkey product portals (domain + website) available for just $249. Yup,

The shell gameIt has been a little busy over here at Epik HQ. As a result, there has not been as much time to comment on the global economy.? For anyone needing a quick update on what is going on with fiat currencies, and the US dollar in particular, here is an informative post on

Catch of the dayYesterday, I mentioned Epik's program for making drop-catch names available to anyone who wants to develop on Epik.? We will also make this program available for the names that we catch for our own account. Herewith, I share today's catch. First come. First serve. Domain Appraisal ($) Google Ad competition Avg Cpc Sear...

Catch domains for reg-fee … or even free!Do you ever get tired of paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars to a drop-catching service who you know paid reg-fee? I know I did. That's why I spent the last year working on an approach to (1) screen for names, (2) drop-catch them for reg-fee, (3)

Product portals – make money, guaranteedDuring the last 6 weeks, the Epik team has had the pedal to the metal across several project areas. One of the more exciting areas has been the commercial rollout of Epik's product portal platform. During the last 6 weeks alone, we have released more than 300 new product portals

Slideshow.com and Questions.com go live + A update on the Epik ecosystemFebruary is shaping up to be a productive month at Epik. In this post, I will briefly highlight two of our latest beta releases — Slideshow.com and Questions.com – and will then put these latest developments into the broader context of the emerging Epik

Why domains are better than dollars – Part IIThe financial wizards are hard at work so far in 2010. On the heels of the annual Davos summit, central bankers and finance ministers from around the world have been on world tour — from Sydney to the Arctic. There would appear to be a lot of

Patents.com and UTEK (UTK) form strategic partnershipI am pleased to announce that after months of planning, Epik portfolio company, Patents.com, has formed a strategic partnership with publicly-traded UTEK Corporation, a leader in intellectual property licensing.? Details of the deal can be found here which includes both an operating partnership a...

The Gini is out of the bottleThe Gini coefficient is a topic that I expect we will be hearing a lot more about in the coming months.? For domainers, it is worth understanding because it is a reliable indicator of seismic changes in national economies.? It also happens to be good news for domainers. What is