Uhh Oh.. Looks like Epik’s “featured stores” are now shitlisted
Google the almighty has laid the smackdown on Epik’s featured stores which you have heard so much about… IE: IceCreamMaker.com, HardDrives.com, Bikinis.net, etc. All of these sites which were linked up like crazy on the footer / bottom of all sites part of the “network” are now banned. Hate to do this, but I told you so here and once again here too. But WTF do I know? LOL 
Copy/pasting for those too lazy to catch up… From my post on October 10, 2010:
Your sites are cross-linked with garbage…
What do I mean? Well, Epik catches many dropped domains and develops them. Many of these domains contain 1, 2 or more hyphens… This stuff screams “spam” immediately and red flags start flying all over the place in the eyes of Google. Also, the history for many of these domains I bet you is shady as hell. Marketers or in other words SEO spammers used all kinds of blackhat techniques to get them to rank one way or another. Once they were done with them, they let em drop… But here comes Epik, scooping up the garbage and trying to make something of it because automated valuations say this stuff is gold. Stupid. Real stupid if you ask me.
steve
October 28, 2010
guess that will send them into bankruptcy. Once google cans you its over.
Johnny
October 28, 2010
Everything that was automatically generated and reproduced on mass scale will get banned by all search engines – all these automatically generated shopping/products links, Ebay stores, Amazon stores, etc… And cross-linking all this garbage content together is literally sh*tting on top of another pile of sh*t and telling Google – see I sh*tted some more, now it tastes even yummier.
muhammed
October 28, 2010
Wow, 6000 sites gone in an instant.. Since they are not typein domains and they rely on SEO ranking say audios… Revenue will be dry up in one weeks time. Epik, what were thinking.. You had 6000 sites on the same ip address, this was ludicrous. How long is the refund line?
Louise
October 28, 2010
This is a temporary glitch. I have nothing against you and the opinions you voice, though I prefer cleaner language. Google aggressively seeks to squeeze out the “middle man” and set up its own relationships with the same vendors Epik does business with. Epik is a target because of its enormous success!
Gnanes
October 28, 2010
I just checked for HardDrives.com and same result as you. And I even tried searching “HardDrives.com” and I don’t see domain on first page.
muhammed
October 28, 2010
The problem is these sites were mass produced 6000 times over. Much of the content was duplicated across the epik network and the back linking chain made it an easy target. Epik was adding a couple of hundred per week to the network to the same ip. Sorry folks, it is over.. I have seen this many times over and G is not forgiving. Getting your domains indexed in G will not happen until they are moved off the Epik network and in many cases moved to a new registrar.
Jon
October 28, 2010
Not exactly accurate, bra.net or wifi.com are still showing up in google!.
muhammed
October 28, 2010
Wifi.com is using ip 216.168.46.158 which is different from the product sites. Same with Epik.com which is using the same ip as above except for the last subset. I give bra.net less then 24 hrs…
Mikey B.
October 28, 2010
I pointedly asked Rob on his blog twice about the shared IP issue and he never responded, nor did he even allow the post to be posted. Instead, he left my direct question to him in “Waiting Moderator Approval” status permanently. That said it all to me. He did not have an answer to satisfy this pesky IP problem.
There is no way around this other than buying up blocks of IPs and placing less domains, or only one domain per IP, which will raise business costs for all involved, but would help get around this problem.
Paul Kapschock
October 28, 2010
WOW……Looks like the sites are not even indexed by Google…..forget about losing serp position(s)..Google doesn’t even know they are alive!
Dreams and money just disappeared.
I would imagine Epik will move forward; really probably best for long term growth…take hit or two early and learn from them.
Minimum 6 month – one year set back for those parked domains and sites.
Jeff
October 28, 2010
You’ll notice a lot of the adsense blocks are gone as well. Not sure if these were banned by google. Also all of Todd Johnson’s sites which Epik mentions here are now not even up and running:
http://www.epik.com/blog/how-folks-are-building-wealth-on-epik-6-case-studies.html
His sites included (according to Rob):
* CamoBedding.com – #1 on Google – Makes $210/month
* HomeComputerDesk.com – #1 on Google – Makes $52/month
* ManPurse.net – #1 on Google – Makes $180/month
* BicycleKickstand.com – #1 on Google – Makes $34/month
Now all sites are non existent and he is not in the search engines. Poor guy, as I’ve had dealings with Todd and he’s a good person.
Chris
October 28, 2010
@Louise: I’m afraid you are mistaken. Getting domains blacklisted by Google is 99% terminal. The only way out is to totally redesign the site and show that you are not just another “affiliate site”.
If Google recognizes your company as a “mass producer” of pay per click or affiliate sites, you are in for a world of hurt.
Do I think it’s fair? Hell, no. But I’ve been biten in the past and am now very wary of the snarling, frothing Google.
Louise
October 28, 2010
@Muhammed, Google can’t give Bra.net the shaft – it would violate its own algorithm! Bras.com redirects to the Calvin Kline homepage – that’s not what ladies want! The ladies want to research what’s out there and search the vertical space in the privacy of their homes – they LOVE Bra.net!!! So far, it remains page 2 of Google – not too shabby!
Jeff
October 28, 2010
Moving to a new ip won’t help much…once big G bans you it’s almost impossible to get reindexed.
Shaun
October 28, 2010
Not sure how up to date or accurate this is, but I found a Google blacklist checker online:
http://onlinealley.com/seotools/googlebannedchecker/
dcmike77
October 28, 2010
Thanks for the info. Truly appreciate the candor.
Troy
October 28, 2010
I feel bad for the people that puts tens of thousand or more into their sites. All of mine were trades so its pretty much a wash for me.
Raoul Swanson
October 28, 2010
Can’t wait to see what his best buddy Owen says about this. He’s gonna blow a gasket trying to keep the spin machine running.
Jeff
October 28, 2010
Epik sites have all the marks of what G doesn’t in their index:
1. Nothing new is brought by those sites, Google rather point at the Amazon or store that has the original item. So they are spam that clogs Google.
2. They are interlinked (and easier for G to ban them all)
Louise
October 28, 2010
@ Chris, I like your avatar! Is is a sunsetin Death Valley? That place comes alive in the spring.
The people at Epik have been transparent, which leaves them vulnerable to public scrutiny over missteps or learning experiences. One of my sites for a client lost ranking in Google when I tried something different. I kept it to myself until the site reset to its original rank!
Scott Krager
October 28, 2010
As an SEO I was interested in what EPIK was selling….so I went to their Epik Developer conference in Seattle. While the people were great, and I had a blast at the conference, after the first day I knew there was no way in heck I was going to buy an Epik domain.
The problem was that they blatantly were advertising how well these sites did in Google…but the only reason they were doing well was because of the cross-linking. Nothing else.
My biggest issue came from the fact that they tried to position these websites like a stock. Websites are not securities. You don’t “invest” in websites passively, which is what Epik was pitching.
Building a successful, usefully, Google-friendly website takes more than $249 and then expecting the dough to roll it. If it was just that easy, everyone would be doing it.
I’m sorry to be so critical, I really thought Rob was a great guy, and I loved their enthusiasm, but you just can’t play with fire the way they did and not expected to get burned.
Jacob
October 29, 2010
Pull your head out of the sand Louise, you are embarrassing yourself.
steve
October 29, 2010
Google is strict. Some of us know it and some of us don’t.
The scale that they were trying was sure to get blown up.
Problems. They run the sites themselves, and they can be termed cookie cutter at that amount. How can they naturally add to a site and even seo out it properly. Cross linking is bad idea when google is watching. Google likes unique and natural because its Adwords Advertisers want that. So while someone at google was like it is fine, another department with more clout came in and overruled them and said sandbox them.
steve cheatham
October 29, 2010
I have a couple of networks running with cross links but the are relevant to each other.
Website reputations can be repaired but not like Epik is doing.
Will
October 29, 2010
I had been considering setting up a site for a product domain for months. Epik appeared to be a great platform, and Rob came across as the consummate professional. However, I performed continuous due diligence and was never quite convinced to invest $249. I wasn’t impressed with the cookie-cutter layouts, and, of course the cross-linking… this is a poor metaphor, but Epik was putting lipstick on pigs. It will be interesting to see if Rob can survive this debacle.
Louise
October 29, 2010
@ Jacob, Appreciate your opinion, but I can’t go through life worrying all the time! Suggest you do the same!
Andrew Alleman on DomainNameWire announced Epik intends to upgrade some customers to its new eCommerce platform – huh? A $2500.00 value! It would be worth having some Epik sites de-indexed to qualify for that!
mark
October 29, 2010
Anyone remember the following comment I posted a month back
I guess they know where they are heading, and that’s why they have chosen this name. Epik(Fail)..AMEN.
muhammed
October 29, 2010
Louise
The fact epik is tossing you a bone with their ecomm portal does not change the fact your domain is now GONE from google. What good is the portal when no traffic is coming to it.. Rob is just putting another band aid on the problem that will eventually fail. I see it like this, your home was just foreclosed but wait your mortgage company just sent you a new toaster oven. Problem is it will do you no good since you are out on the streets!
Anil
October 29, 2010
Ditto what Muhammed said above.
Louise
October 29, 2010
@ muhammed, thanx for answering intelligently and keeping it clean! @ Anil, ditto!
As SEO specialist with 3 launched sites page 1 of Google, and 1 page 2, you people can breathe a sigh of relief! It is not SUCH a big deal! I have been emailing Rob back and forth, and he says he is going to put blog capability on each store, that it’s not so difficult, like is on EmergencyFood.com. Lots of his customers have been clamboring for a blog to add their own content. So I’ll take a site that is not de-listed, such as Cheese-Board.com, put an article about entertaining ideas, maybe some links to other suggestion sites – voila! Instant content. But I’m not a fool to copy the content – it must be self-written and original. Google penalizes duplicate content. There’s plenty of examples. Putting a simple blog on each site will bring back the de-indexed ones – as long as it’s original! – and not take very long, either – maybe 2-3 months, tops. If you post quality content, you cannot keep Google away!
Now I have a challenge for all you domainers: Post a couple ORIGINAL paragraphs on each site you hope to make $$ hand-over-fist! You want the big bucks, but you can’t trouble yourself to compose 2 paragraphs of original content? Or hire someone, and check it through Plagiarism Checker: http://Turnitin.com . Even if your English isn’t perfect – JUST DO IT! Here is Matt Cutt’s blog post about SEO – he is head of Google’s anti-SPAM unit: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-for-bloggers
Oh-oh – just gave it all away for free! Oh, well. Enjoy!
Mark
October 29, 2010
Anytime someone tries to convince you to invest in their product because it is so easy to make money from it, you have to ask yourself – if it was that easy why aren’t they doing it?
Hope owen didn’t invest too much during the event where “6,000 domains were sold….”
Bob
October 30, 2010
So, Louise, you’re saying that customers paid $249 (plus 50% revenue sharing during all it’s existence) to have an affiliate website with Blog?
Blog capability on each store????
What’s the big thing???
You can have all that (store/ affiliate products/ Blog/ videos/ review system) with Wordpress and Joomla.
Price: 00$ if you know how to make the setup.
No more than $150 if you have to pay someone else to make all this (and more) for you.
And you’ll not have to share the revenue!
But you’re right on this… you still have to “Post a couple ORIGINAL paragraphs on each site”
Just one more thing, from Epik:
“For Product Portals that are not re-indexed within 90 days, we’ll offer a free upgrade to Full eCommerce.”
Do you remember the $249 money back guarantee (that Epik also removed from the website)????
Ask for your money now! This is the time!
Jeff
October 30, 2010
Louise, putting original content on a deindexed site has never worked for me getting a site reindexed on google. I’m not saying it can’t work but it’s very, very hard getting reindexed.
Dead Hub
October 31, 2010
Owen was a paid spokesman. That’s his job and he’s usually pretty good at it. But this time he sold his soul to the Monster.
steve
October 31, 2010
I think this is the death knell for Epik.
Google is the blood of the Internet and they assured me they had everything on the up and up and talked with google etc etc.
Apparently not enough.
Jason
October 31, 2010
Frank’s icecreammakers.com is still indexed. How does that stay in Google while booting this one out??
Bill
October 31, 2010
Bob, removing the guarantee from the Epik site would certainly be sleazy. I was so surprised at that, I went and clicked all the way back to check it out. It is still there.
Interesting how there is no URL associated with your clearly (intentionally?) false post…
Stick to the facts, please. There is plenty of mud to sling without resorting to easily exposed falsehoods.
tom
October 31, 2010
Bob; I just installed wordpress on some domains i am hosting on godaddy. Can you share some themes that would enable me to create sites that have the features you mention below. Tx
Bob wrote:
You can have all that (store/ affiliate products/ Blog/ videos/ review system) with Wordpress and Joomla.
Price: 00$ if you know how to make the setup.
No more than $150 if you have to pay someone else to make all this (and more) for you.
M. Menius
October 31, 2010
Would Epik not make a direct call to Google? Is there an appeal process of any kind, or am I dreaming? Sounds like it’s a done deal with no recourse (based on above comments).
Bob
October 31, 2010
Tom:
Price: 00$ if you know how to make the setup.
You already have what you paid for!
Use Google (which blocked the Epik sites) to find the wordpress themes yourself.
Don’t be lazy!
If you are lazy, pay $249 more to Epik.
I don’t care!
Ze
October 31, 2010
Anyone care to let me know how Rob’s and Mike’s platforms are so different – besides the revenue model behind it?
At the eyes of big G all of this mass produced, automated, affiliate, ecommerce, duplicate content stuff seems to always be banned sooner or later… So why am I still being sold the same at the bottom of this page, when the blog post is about how bad these sites do with SE’s??
Mike, do you care to explain how your platform is different from Rob’s? If you found a way to avoid these issues, then maybe we all have something to learn from you. ( you probably already did.. in which case a simple link to the post is be fine.)