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Why you probably might not have what you think you have

Friday, December 9th, 2011
Why you probably might not have what you think you have

The November 2011 bankruptcy of MF Global and the subsequent global search for the million $1+ billion in customer deposits is looking increasingly like the tip of the iceberg. There is a much larger risk scenario that is beginning to unfold.  Pay attention now or suffer the consequences later.

Hypothecation is far more prevalent than you might think
At first blush, you might think that the bankruptcy of MF Global was an isolated situation where a rogue company acted outside of the boundaries of their contracted fiduciary duties to customers.  And you would be wrong. The reason why Corzine will almost certainly not get the Madoff treatment — at least in the judicial sense — is because his customer agreements have authorized the company to hypothecate and re-hypothecate anything on deposit.

So, earlier today I took a look at my TD Ameritrade account agreement and low and behold we have the following on page 6 of the customer agreement, apparently last modified in November 2011:

In other words, property on deposit — including cash — is not required to be segregated. It can be pledged, re-pledged, hypothecated and re-hypothecated at their sole description, without notice and without recourse.  If those hypothecated trades go great, the house keeps 100% of the upside. If those house trades fail catastrophically, the depositors have been exposed to the potential risk that they will suffer without recourse if the company were to become insolvent or bankrupt.  This is counter-party risk.  Is it legal? Apparently yes. Is it ethical? Personally, I don’t think so.  Will it end happily? I fear possibly not. That is why I don’t invest in hedge funds, fund of funds, or derivatives.  The opportunity of obfuscation of ownership just too great.  I would rather own something outright — like investment-grade domain names.

For more perspective on the issue of hypothecation of custodial assets, I strongly encourage you to read the excellent piece from earlier today on Zerohedge, which you can find here.  It was one of the most useful things I read during 2011.  If nothing else, it should serve to make any investor more highly conscious of the true counter-party risk for any investment.  Otherwise you just might end up with the proverbial:

 

Why you probably might not have what you think you have

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Posted in Economics, Life, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Transferring Domains from GoDaddy into Epik Registrar

Sunday, November 13th, 2011
Transferring Domains from GoDaddy into Epik Registrar

The recent launch of the Epik Marketplace has generated a great deal of interest in registering domains with Epik.  Why?  Aside from offering a full-service customer-friendly registrar, domains that are registered at Epik are able to list in the Epik Marketplace commission-free and be visible to a fast-growing audience of predominantly end-users.  There have been a number of questions on how to transfer domains into Epik.  GoDaddy is one of the main places from where users are transferring domains.   It turns out that transferring from GoDaddy into Epik is really quite easy. Here are the steps for migrating a large number of domains from GoDaddy to Epik:

1. Launch the GoDaddy Domain Manager:  https://dcc.godaddy.com/default.aspx

2. Select the domain you plan to transfer and unlock them — you can do this one at a time or in bulk.

3. Export your GoDaddy authorization codes by going to Tools –> Exportable Lists

4. Click Add New Export

5. Save the file as an uncompressed CSV

6. Once the export file is created, you can open it in Excel, Word or a text editor.   Excel is easiest and the default for CSV.  When you open the file, you will see something like the following:

7.  In Excel, now delete the middle columns so you have just Domain name and Authorization Code

8. You can now import your domains at the Epik Transfer Manager:  https://registrar.epik.com/domain-transfer . Simply paste in the rows like this:

Press the Begin Process button to start the transfer.  Epik will then verify that your domains are eligible for transfer and then walk you through the remaining steps to complete the transfer process.  If you get stuck, you can always send your exported file to support@epik.com and we’ll complete the remaining steps for you in your Epik account.

Note on Registrar Locking:  Many registrars make it difficult to transfer a domain out of their registrar. Epik will always cooperate with transfer-out requests and in most cases will release a domain within 24 hours rather than the customary 5 day wait period.  We do not and will not arbitrarily registrar-lock your domain unless required to do so by ICANN or UDRP.  If your registrar has a registrar-lock on your domain and your domain is more than 60 days old, please contact us at support@epik.com for assistance with navigating your registrar’s locking policy.

 

Transferring Domains from GoDaddy into Epik Registrar

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Posted in Registrar, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Why new gTLDs are GOOD for domains

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Why new gTLDs are GOOD for domains

The long anticipated  announcement by ICANN about opening up the namespace to new gTLDs has received a great deal of attention in the domain industry.  A number of people have asked for my assessment.  My bottom line is that more TLDs is fundamentally good news for domains.

 

Why more TLDs is good news for Domains
The real battle for domains is not about which TLD one navigates to, but rather I believe the long-term battle is about the addressing system itself.  In my assessment, ICANN is making a historic move that preserves the long-term viability of domains as an addressing system.  Yes, there will be winners and losers created by the act of increasing the available supply of registerable domains. However, ultimately, I think the bigger risk to domains as an addressing system is changing user behaviors, particularly around the broad adoption of low cost mobile devices and the emergence of closed ecosystems on the web.

 

The Contenders that can challenge Domains
What are some other emerging addressing systems beyond domain names?

  • QR Codes and machine-readable codes:  QR codes are increasingly visible in daily life.   It has not reached mainstream status in the US, but is gaining traction in Asia, notably Japan where most mobile phones are equipped with a QR code reader.  No need to type in a URL. Simply scan the QR code. In the current practice, this will typically route the user to a web address where the content they are seeking is rendered in a web page. However, that does not necessarily have to be the case which is why QR codes are a risk factor.

  • Mobile Apps: Mobile Apps have moved beyond entertainment. An eCommerce store can replicate the traditional catalog shopping experience using page-turn technology. The experience is highly intuitive and simulates leafing through a printed catalog.  In most examples that I have seen, the ordering process still takes you to a web page to clear a transaction.  That said, payment system integration on mobile devices is maturing quickly and so once again, a redirect to a web page would become optional.

  • Closed Ecosystems: The average web user is spending more time on fewer sites.    They are developing brand attachment to services like Facebook.  These are increasingly closed ecosystems that have near-zero operating dependence on external domains.  If you link out to from Facebook, it will be through a redirect URL.

 

  • Decision Engines: Search engines are increasingly becoming decision engines.  Rather than take the user to Weather.com, they will simply give you the answer in the search result.

  • Reputation-centric Networks: Twitter is fundamentally a reputation-centric network.   The @whoever addressing system could ultimately compete with email addresses as a primary identity on the web.   Payment services like PayPal are built around email addresses, which in turn are built around domain names.  So far, application services like TwitPay have gone nowhere. I would expect that to change soon when Twitter starts  more aggressively acquiring enabling technologies that builds on their addressing system.  Epik’s own development of Identity.net as a network-wide addressing system is partially a response to the need for domain-friendly addressing systems built around single-sign-on and portable reputation.

 

Addressing Systems tend not to go away quickly
In the history of addressing systems, very few have actually ever gone away completely.  The Telex was replaced by the Telefax, which is increasingly being replaced by scanned attachments.  However, street addresses have not been replaced by GPS coordinates, and phone numbers are not meaningfully different from the 1940′s when Bell Labs introduced the concept of telephone area codes or the 1960′s, the country codes we use today became an international standard. As such, for the simple fact of inertia and entrenched behavior, I expect domains and email addresses will be with us for a very long time to come.

 

Marketing Budgets are usually a zero-sum game
The primary target for new gTLD are corporate sponsors. So, as a domainer, which would you rather see happen?  Would you rather have Coca Cola spend $5 million on acquiring and deploying a .COKE TLD, or would you rather see Coca Cola allocate that same budget to rolling out a QR code or mobile application?  At the end of the day, more money that is directed at acquiring and maintaining more domain names increases the pool of stakeholders that care about the long-term viability of an addressing system that also happens to offer a level playing field for new publishers to become producers of content using established publicly available TLDs like .COM and .NET.

 

Bottom Line:  The real competition is not other domains
Long-time holders of super-premium .COM domains are probably the most impacted by ICANN’s latest move.  For example, it is cheaper to buy .RETIRE than to buy Retirement.com.  This means the holders of undeveloped premium .COM names have a finite remaining window to turn their undeveloped .COM domains into recognized brands. For the moment, the search engines and social networks are willing partners in this matter. After all, they send free traffic to your site.  My personal outlook is that this pattern will not continue into perpetuity as new addressing systems emerge and as web properties become increasingly effective at keeping traffic on those web properties and not directing users elsewhere.  All that said, domain investors who are proactive and adaptable should do great in a period of rapid change.

 

 

 

Why new gTLDs are GOOD for domains

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Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

The **** is hitting the fan – Hedge Accordingly

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
The **** is hitting the fan – Hedge Accordingly

As predicted, the price of silver has continued to rocket.   The story is being chronicled in near real-time by ZeroHedge, Max Keiser and Turd Ferguson.   Silver is up a whopping 22% in the last 30 days. A massive short squeeze appears to be under way and picking up a head of steam into the March delivery month with record futures contracts setting up to stand for delivery in volumes that may well far exceed available supply. This is symptomatic of a larger issue — the synchronized collapse of fiat currency regimes around the world.

Why is the **** hitting the fan?
Massive amounts of printed currency is heading for the exits. Although the house of cards started collapsing in earnest with the failure of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, I believe the real problem traces it roots all the way back to Nixon’s decision to take the US Dollar off the gold standard in 1971. With no gold standard to put a collar on fomenting of more debt-based currency, the US government proceeded to run up the credit card — initially with petrodollars and treasury debt, and now with blatant debt monetization by the Federal Reserve.

I fully expect the situation on Main Street will not improve.  Not helping the situation on Main Street, the synchronized collapse of decades of dictatorial rule in the Middle East provides more air cover for currency debasement. The price of oil shot up a ridiculous $7-8 today. The **** is definitely hitting the fan folks. All of a sudden, my February 14 forecast of $200 oil is not sounding quite so crazy.

Hedge Now
One of the most popular hedges against currency collapse is physical commodities, notably silver which crossed $34 per ounce earlier today and has more than doubled over the past year.

Without question, the case for physical silver is strong. By all means, feel free to own some. However, for serious amounts of money, it has significant  challenges as an asset class. In particular, here are a few considerations before going big-time on delivery of any physical commodity. I will use silver as a case study:

Taking Delivery is a weighty issue
A single futures contract is a whopping 5,000 ounces, or 312 pounds. In other words, that stuff is heavy. Mathematically, a $1 million investment is going to mean taking delivery on ~2,000 pounds of cargo.  Good luck transporting it securely over any sort of distance!

Taking delivery means storing it securely
Physical delivery is not without risk. Earlier this month, a Canadian resident reported having $750,000 in physical silver stolen from his home in a violent robbery.  His life savings in silver bars is apparently missing and untraceable.

Taking Delivery means accepting Confiscation Risk
In 1933, the US Federal Government imposed mandatory redemption of precious metals.   This is spelled out in Executive Order 6102 which could be invoked in one or more variants in order to stop the dollar from completely collapsing.

Domain Leasing as Inflation Hedge
Epik’s domain portfolio has grown steadily over the past year and is now more than 17,000 Development-grade domains.  For a number of reasons discussed at length elsewhere, I consider domains to be an excellent hedge against a number of economic scenarios. For investors looking for a versatile hedge, one area we are experimenting with is the notion of a domain lease with a fixed-price purchase option. This program will be available for any Epik-powered domains, including domains owned by network partners. We’ll be announcing details of this Domain Leasing program next month as part of continued commitment to developing domain names as a thriving Alternative Investment category for individual and institutional investors.

The **** is hitting the fan – Hedge Accordingly

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Posted in Domain Investing, Economics, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

‘Tis the Season

Monday, December 6th, 2010
‘Tis the Season

Call me crazy but I really like seasonal domain names.   They fall out of favor when they are not in season but come roaring back when their season comes around.  This year is no exception as many of the top performers for November and December are related to the winter and winter holiday season.

Included in the Epik top-100 product portals we have the following Christmas names:

christmasstockingpattern.com
christmasornamentideas.com
outdoorchristmasornaments.com
guitarornaments.com
stockingschristmas.com
giftornaments.com
irishornament.com
lightedwreaths.com
santafigurines.net
christmastoysoldier.com
christmaswallhangings.com

Some of these sites are relatively new yet already monetizing nicely. For 2010, we are only monetizing via affiliate but for 2011 will be looking at eCommerce as the margins on these products are insanely high if you are importing these goods.
Also in the top 100, we see a lot of winter apparel, for example:

holidayblouses.com
convertiblemittens.com
redeveningdress.com
goatskingloves.com
elbowlengthgloves.com
sherpajacket.com
embroideredsweaters.com
ladieswinterhats.com

Any day now I expect to see a spike in jewelry-related sites as guys take care of last minute shopping.  However, some early winners are appearing:

catnecklace.com
littlegirlsjewelry.com
goldwatches.net
momring.com
ovallockets.com
swissarmywatches.net

You can find these and more at stores.epik.com.  To note, the November revenue cycle is paid out on December 20, and December is paid out on January 20.  If someone buys these sites before December 16, the new owner gets the November and December 2010 revenues paid to them.   Buyers can settle with cash, EpikBucks or interest-free financing.

And now for your holiday entertainment
On the weekend, I was taking care of some holiday errands.  After hearing Taylor Swift’s holiday CD for the Nth time, I could take it no longer and switched to the radio. On comes the Adam Sandler holiday classic — The Chanukah song. Still hilarious.  If you have never seen the live version, it is a classic:

Happy Holidays to all.

‘Tis the Season

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Trainwreck: 77% of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck

Sunday, December 5th, 2010
Trainwreck: 77% of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck

By now, for most people, Thanksgiving 2010 is a distant memory.  In my case, I will remember this one for a very long time to come.  Thanksgiving 2010 was when I fully grasped the concept of “Two Americas”.  This year, we spent Thanksgiving in New York City where we met up with my extended family.  We had a great time –  Thanksgiving Day Parade, Broadway show, Times Square, 5th Avenue, SoHo, Chelsea Market, skating in Bryant Park, Knicks game, etc..  We had a great time but something was not right.

So what’s wrong with this picture?
On the Sunday morning after Thanksgiving I found myself at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Midtown-Manhattan. The place was packed. I was there to exchange a new Macbook for my son, Jack, that we had bought the day before. Jack had found a single pixel defect on the screen of his newly-purchased Macbook. While waiting for the replacement Macbook, I observed 2 undercover security guys grab a young man by the collar and escort him into a room. The suspected shoplifter was a young black man — I am guessing about 20 years old.  I looked around the store. This fellow was the only black person in the entire store who wasn’t an employee of the Apple store. The Apple employee who was assisting me explained that this happened on a near-daily basis.

Minutes later I left the Apple store to meet up with my family at the FAO Schwarz toy store. I walked out of the Apple store, took a sharp left, walked past 2 smiling Beefeaters standing in front of FAO Schwarz and made my way to the second floor where the family was observing a live performance on the famous FAO Schwarz Big Piano.  If you have never seen such a performance in person, it is entertaining and looks something like this:

After the performance, the crowd applauded enthusiastically. One of the performers then made a brief remark about the performance. The performance itself was memorable. However, the part I will never forget was this:  you could own one of these Big pianos for $150,000.  Does that include delivery and installation…? And if you walk one block west — past the panhandlers — there is Dylan’s Candy Bar, where it is not too late to order your $15,000 walk-in gingerbread house.  Can’t make it to NYC…? No problem.  Neiman Marcus will ship it to you.

On 5th Avenue, the luxury stores were packed. It was standing room only in the Louis Vuitton store. Broadway shows were sold out at $250 per ticket for seats in the Mezzanine.  We returned home last Sunday evening to a mailbox full of catalogs with more luxury must-haves. Not.

Here is the other America
According to a national survey by CareerBuilder.com, 77% of all workers in America are now living paycheck to paycheck up from 40% 3 years ago.  Although this is a shocking statistic, it is in line with the inequality trend that I have previously blogged about here: The Gini is out of the bottle.  One year later, the trend has gotten worse as the proportion of the economy attributable to government spending continues to rocket higher.  And even with the government subsidy, the top 0.1% earns more than the bottom 50%.

As of November 2010, nearly 43 million persons in the US are now subsisting on Foodstamps, an all-time high.  The average monthly assistance per person is about $130. At the same time, food prices have started to spike.  Keep in mind that to be eligible for Food stamps — now called SNAP — you need to have not more than $2,000 in “countable resources”.  In other words, you have to be completely broke

Meanwhile, the November Non-farm Payroll (NFP) numbers came out on Friday.  As I feared, the numbers were horrible — only 39,000 jobs created versus the forecast number of 150,000.  Masked in the NFP number is that a very large proportion of the payroll is shifting from full-time to part-time.

Also, masked here is that the welfare state is collapsing.  During December, two million long-term unemployed are likely to lose their long-time Federal unemployment benefits. In February 2011, it looks like there will be four million long-term unemployed with no benefits.

In theory, the Federal government can at least fund these Welfare-state operations through issuance of Treasury debt — a significant portion of which can be monetized by the Federal Reserve. The States cannot monetize their debts denominated in Federal Reserve Notes. And therein lies the trainwreck called America.

Surviving and Thriving in the era of Two Americas
Consider the consumer tech darling, Apple. Apple manufactures a laptop computer that is comprised of say $400 in (mostly imported) costs which it then sells at retail for say $1,500. The economics of that business are fantastic which is why Apple is sitting on a $44 billion cash hoard. Apple charges enough that it can pay a fair wage to its employees, provide great customer service, export to the world, and deliver a fantastic return to shareholders.  America would be very different if we had another one hundred Apples.

The reality is that most businesses are not Apple — a closed technology ecosystem wrapped around an amazingly strong brand led by a profoundly effective leader.  As such, the prospect of selling high margin product to the masses is not readily available to most entrepreneurs.  Most products are non-differentiated commodity products vulnerable to instant price comparison.  If you can sell a product for $40 with $5 shipping, and someone else sells it for $2 less, odds are good, you lose.  There is almost no profit to be made in that environment which is why I don’t envy Amazon.

So, how can a business hope to create a foundation on which to earn a sustainable margin?  In this age of instant price discovery and brutal competition for share of wallet, I think there are really three core models that can thrive in this climate:

  • Deliver compelling value in a winnable niche — Be the Amazon of  ____ :  If you are going to sell to the masses, you will need a superior value proposition. Spend a few hours on a site like Alibaba.com and you will see the true cost of products — fashionable earmuffs cost about $0.20, swim goggles about $1.25, etc., an ice cream maker about $10.  Shipping a 20-foot container costs about $2200 from inland China to a west coast port city like Seattle. Shipping a 40-foot container costs about $2700.  Sure, Wal-Mart will pay less but not that much less. If you want to be the best at selling high margin non-perishable consumer good online, there is an abundance of product that can be imported profitably. An exact match domain name can be the foundation on which to sell a compelling value proposition in volume.
  • Create a brand that offers a unique promise that has broad appeal:   Building a great brand often requires laser focus on delivering on a promise that is implied in that brand. A great brand is often planned to the smallest detail — environmental design, packaging, fonts, colors, etc.  Moreover, veteran marketers know that the best brands are built on stories — the story of how the brand came into existence. Think about famous brands that you know and you will likely know the story of how those brands were created.  The implied promise of a brand is the foundation on which consumers build trust and even emotional connection which is what gives brands pricing power, brand loyalty, word of mouth, etc. Brands can be huge (e.g. Apple, Virgin, Trump) or specialized (e.g. Burts Bees, Airborne).
  • Offer an Ultra-Premium product which appeals to a demographic that can afford it :  The top 5-10% of American households are doing just fine.  In addition, a growing number of emerging economies have pockets of extreme wealth.   For the truly rich, the very best has a high price.  In fact, for the truly rich, price is a value signal.  For the truly rich, if the price is too low, many won’t buy it because (1) lesser mortals can afford it, and (2) the quality is probably not to their standard.  Ultra-premium is a hit and miss business but there is always a market for the best of the best. In bad times, only the rich can afford them. In good times, the less-rich aspire to afford them.  Still don’t get it? Flip through a copy of the Robb Report or stroll through Neimans and take note. I am not saying it is rational. It is what it is.

Entrepreneurship still works. Stumped for ideas? Subscribe to Inc Magazine — it is full of practical case studies of folks who are building businesses from the ground up with little or no capital. The local library probably has the back issues.

Do you know someone who needs a good domain name on which to build a business?  Check out the inventory at stores.epik.com (turn-key stores), EpikDomains (undeveloped domains).  Assuming it is an Epik-owned domain, we are happy to provide interest-free financing or consider offers.

The Week Ahead
On Sunday evening, at 7 pm ET, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will be on 60 minutes.   This is his second appearance on 60 Minutes. The last time he appeared on 60 minutes was a week after the 2009 low on the Dow of 6440.  I think this means one of two things: (1) the fix is in and the Dow is heading higher in dollar terms, though not in gold/silver terms, or (2) the Fed fears they are losing control of the situation.  The timing of this broadcast is interesting for two reasons:

  • There is a global short squeeze under way in the market for physical silver with one very large Fed member bank (JP Morgan Chase) reportedly with a bet-the-company short position.  December is a delivery month for Comex silver. The last delivery month was September 2010.  In September 2010, there were contracts for delivery of 12.5 million ounces of silver. For December 2010, the contracts outstanding for delivery are 86 million ounces which may or may not be available for delivery. Oops.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. If you got this far, hopefully you at least understand where my head is at these days.  The fact is that the internet economy is as strong as ever.  In fact, I really can’t think of a better time to be an Internet entrepreneur. The online economy continues to out-grow the offline economy. If anything, that growth gap is widening. Yet, without question these are challenging times for anyone stuck on the wrong side of history.

Trainwreck: 77% of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck

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Does your Epik site need a tune-up?

Saturday, August 28th, 2010
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 Carribean glee: Could be better …. There is always room for Improvement! And that about sums up how I think about Epik. Simply stated, the bar is never high enough! The only question is who raises the bar?


With Growth comes Responsibility
In a relatively short amount of time, the Epik platform has become significant.  The Product Portal platform alone extends to more than 5,000 stores.  We are proud of this progress, but by no means complacent.  With thousands of live sites, and hundreds of owners, we also know that there are a lot of stakeholders that are counting on Epik to get it right.  I am confident that we will.  One reason for my confidence is because there are a lot of eyeballs on the lookout for areas for improvement. I call this a “demanding customer” relationship believe it is key to success.  We don’t want passive customers.  We want engaged partners.  That’s how we win.

Kaizen
When I was living in Japan, from 1995 through 1999, the term Kaizen was widely used in manufacturing. The term describes a process of “continuous improvement” and was an import from Edward Deming, an American process design expert who was famous in Japan long before he was respected in his home country.

By the same token, at Epik, we believe that Development is not an event.  Rather, it is a process.  The process of optimization never stops. As such, we have provided Developers with an email alias for convenient use when relaying feedback – Optimize@epik.com. If you see an improvement area, let us know.

Here are a few of the main areas that we are watching closely:

  • SEO execution:  This is one of the highest ROI tasks.  Well-executed Title, H1, H2, Meta and Alt tags are price of entry for a high performing site.  When we get that part right on an exact-match domain name, the prospects of achieving a solid initial ranking is good.
  • Links:  Epik does provide an embedded network of contextual backlinks.   We continue to refine our approach for collecting links and will be expanding the link development program substantially this Fall.
  • Product or Content mix:  A good indicator of whether the user experience is being fulfilled is bounce rate, i.e. the % of visitors who leave your site promptly after visiting without engaging with any of the content.  A tuned Epik site will have a bounce rate of under 20%.
  • Graphics: In general, our graphics are pretty good. However, sometimes we get it wrong and the graphic does not do justice to the business opportunity.  Well-executed graphics are important for the brand.  It won’t drive traffic, but it will drive engagement.
  • Site performance: Exponential growth usually does not come without growing pains.  Epik is no exception.  One by one, these platforms are maturing into robust profit engines.  If your site loads slowly or has errors, let us know.
  • Indexing and Ranking:  If you see notable moves in your indexing or ranking, we are always interested in knowing about possible insights into the why behind the what.  Many Epik Developers are experimenting with different strategies for promoting their sites.  Let us know what worked.
  • Monetization Patterns: Todd Johnson reported this week about his success with color domains. That is an insight that we had not picked up on before, but learned because Todd was minding the store — his stores specifically. That insight has now helped other Developers.
  • User experience and Functionality: Although improvements to the user interface don’t usually happen overnight, much of the improvements are driven by listening to Developer feedback.  Keep the feedback coming.

Thanks for listening, and thanks for the feedback.

Does your Epik site need a tune-up?

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Posted in Domain Development, Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Test Drive a Directory

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Test Drive a Directory
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 of people or things, or both. And as we expected, the interest and uptake of this new platform has been substantial. Epik | Directories are proving to be a major new platform for the creation of useful and revenue generating sites.
We at Epik are so excited about our new directory platform that we want to spread the word even more. We want to make it even easier for site owners to convert their directory-related domain names into something substantially more useful and valuable than a standard parked site.
Take a Test Drive
So now, Epik will automatically generate a directory site for you, and let you test drive it. For free. And getting started couldn’t be easier.
Simply point the DNS records of the appropriate domains to NS1.EpikDirectory.com and NS2.EpikDirectory.com. Your site will temporarily resolve to a new “under construction” lander <include screenshot>, and shortly thereafter, your directory — automatically generated by our systems — will appear. It’s really that simple.
TANSTAAFL
Sounds almost too good to be true. And, as as readers of Robert Heinlein know, TANSTAAFL (“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”). So, think of these auto-generated directories as an appetizer. By pointing your sites to the EpikDirectory DNS, we essentially turn your directory-related domain into a smart lander containing basic directory information on that particular locations and/or subject.
However, these “lander directories” have some restrictions compared to our standard directory products, most notably:
No customization
A complete directory implementation includes a custom logo and other associated graphics, color scheme, etc., as well as advanced search capabilities customized for the site’s subject area. “Lander directories” do not offer this level of customization; in this sense they are generic.
Lack of rich content
Complete directories contain a much richer array of content, including pictures, comments, reviews, etc. Again, the more generic “lander directories” do not offer these.
No monetization
The site owner does not participate in any revenue generated by the increase in traffic to the site, or through any ads served by the site. They do, of course, reap the benefits of any increase in appraisal value due to increased traffic volumes created when moving from a simple parked site to a lander directory.
So What’s In it for Epik?
Lander directories are a wonderful way to see how turning your domain into an Epik Directory can drive traffic to your site. And once you see the impact even a generic directory can have on your traffic, we believe most of you will want to upgrade the site to the richer, more customized version that puts monthly revenue directly into your pocket.
So, if you have domains that you believe lend themselves to implementation as directories, but are not yet sure if you want to place an order for a customized Epik | Directory, try a little test drive and let us help show you  the value of our platform.

As readers of this blog well know, Epik has developed several platforms 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 of people or things, or both. And as we expected, the interest and uptake of this new platform has been substantial. Epik | Directories are proving to be a major new platform for the creation of useful and revenue generating sites.

We at Epik are excited about our new directory platform that we want to spread the word even more. We want to make it even easier for site owners to convert their directory-related domain names into something substantially more useful and valuable than a standard parked site.

Take a Test Drive

So now, Epik will automatically generate a directory site for you, and let you test drive it. For free. And getting started couldn’t be easier.

Simply point the DNS records of the appropriate domains to NS1.EpikDirectory.com and NS2.EpikDirectory.com. Your site will temporarily resolve to a new “under construction” lander and shortly thereafter, your directory — automatically generated by our systems — will appear. It’s really that simple.

If at first your directory does not populate with listings, wait up to 48 hours for the listings to populate from our databases.

TANSTAAFL

Sounds almost too good to be true. And, as readers of Robert Heinlein know, TANSTAAFL (“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”). So, think of these auto-generated directories as an appetizer. By pointing your sites to the EpikDirectory DNS, we essentially turn your directory-related domain into a smart lander containing basic directory information on that particular locations and/or subject.

However, these “lander directories” have some restrictions compared to our standard directory products, most notably:

1. No customization

A complete directory implementation includes a custom logo and other associated graphics, color scheme, etc., as well as advanced search capabilities customized for the site’s subject area. “Lander directories” do not offer this level of customization; in this sense they are generic.

2. Lack of rich content

Complete directories contain a much richer array of content, including pictures, comments, reviews, etc. Again, the more generic “lander directories” do not offer these.

3. No monetization

The site owner does not participate in any revenue generated by the increase in traffic to the site, or through any ads served by the site. They do, of course, reap the benefits of any increase in appraisal value due to increased traffic volumes created when moving from a simple parked site to a lander directory.

So What’s In it for Epik?

Lander directories are a wonderful way to see how turning your domain into a Directory can drive traffic to your site. Once you see the impact that even a generic directory can have on your traffic, we believe that many users will want to upgrade the site to the richer, more customized version that puts monthly revenue directly into your pocket.

So, if you have domains that you believe lend themselves to implementation as directories, but are not yet sure if you want to place an order for a customized Epik | Directory, try a little test drive and let us help show you  the value of our platform.

We welcome your feedback.

Test Drive a Directory

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Posted in Directories, Domain Development, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Introducing Epik Marketplace for Wikis

Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Introducing Epik Marketplace for Wikis

The 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 Epik-powered sites can be bought and sold.

Why do we need more Marketplaces?
The remarkable success of Flippa.com is indicative that there is market demand for a place to buy and sell sites. However, if you have ever bought a site there, you realize that this is not an efficient marketplace and there is nothing Flippa can do to solve it.  Why? For anyone looking to build a portfolio of income-producing sites, there is an inherent scalability challenge. In particular, every developer builds on a different platform. This means that every new site purchase means integrating assets that were inherently incompatible.  Surely there is a better way.

By integrating site development with a marketplace, it becomes possible for domain developers to be able to manage integrated portfolios without having to worry about the back office requirements for operating the sites. At any given time, there will be domain developers who need to sell as well as domain developers who want to grow their portfolios. If developers have a shared platform, the “integration” of the acquired site is a non-event.  This is what Epik-powered marketplaces will be working to solve.  In other words, once a site is purchased, the acquired SITE is added to your account, including historical data about the site and control of all of the content.

For a preview of the EpikWiki marketplace, you can visit here.

Introducing Epik Marketplace for Wikis

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Posted in Domain Development, Domain Names, Uncategorized, Wiki | 4 Comments »

Epik Developer Conference – The Domain Developer event of the year

Monday, June 28th, 2010
Epik Developer Conference – The Domain Developer event of the year

The 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 we have planned for the delegates of the 1st Annual Epik Developer Conference.

Conference Venue Selected — The Edgewater Hotel in Downtown Seattle
The Edgewater Hotel is Seattle’s only true Waterfront hotel.  The venue combines Pacific Northwest style with the modern amenities of a downtown waterfront hotel.  Delegates will enjoy an ideal environment for learning about latest developments and building partnerships. The Edgewater was also the site of this month’s Search Engine Strategies Conference.

Edgewater_Hotel

Room rates for delegates have been negotiated to $199 for city side deluxe rooms, or $229 for the waterfront full view premium rooms. I checked the hotel venue on Friday and can say the extra $30 is worth it for the waterfront full view.


Work and Play on the Seattle waterfront
The program will start with an evening reception at The Edgewater on Wednesday, September 15 and ends mid-day on the 17th.

The conference on September 16-17, and a Live Auction event on September 16 will be be conducted in the Main Ballroom of The Edgewater which features a panoramic view over Seattle’s Elliot Bay.

After the Live Auction on Thursday, September 16 delegates and spouses will be treated to a 3 hour cruise, open bar, and a 4-course Pacific Northwest menu.

mainimage-ships

The hotel is also walking distance to the Seattle Space needle, Waterfront attractions, and the Pike Place market for anyone who feels the needs to take in more of the full Seattle experience during their visit. And yes there is a Starbucks on nearly every block.

Early Bird Registration — Special incentive ends July 1
The early bird registration for the event is just $695 and ends on July 31.  For registrations made before July 1 (this Thursday), we will also include $350 in Epik Developer credit, for a net cost of just $245.  Use the credit for any development project, site purchase, backorder or content services.  Your registration fee remains refundable through September 1. If you have not reserved your spot, you can register here.

Epik Developer Conference – The Domain Developer event of the year

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Posted in Conferences, Domain Auctions, Domain Development, Seattle, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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