Epik sucks… Period. Time to move on folks!
Not sure what more needs to be said anymore, we all know this already, but let me just highlight a quick comment by Scott from SERPs.com:
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.
So really folks, it’s time to move on… Epik has been around for a long time now and they have failed time and time over and over again. Domain mass development is not their thing. So YOU need to cut your losses sooner than later. I’d say now is a good time though before you really get knee deep into shit. Start from scratch on your own, or go with somebody who actually knows what he is doing. It’s that simple. Two options.. Ball is in your court 
Stan
October 31, 2010
Remember their guarantee looks like they will be making a few refunds.
‘There is no lock-in and if after 1 year on the platform, if you have not sold your domain or the site has not yielded at least $249 in gross revenue, we’ll refund you your setup fee, no questions asked.’
Robin Ong
October 31, 2010
As usual, the gullible will lose their pants. The sad fact is, there is a huge market out there who is prepare to be scammed.
Stefan
October 31, 2010
Why are you so obsessed with epik?
Every post you write is about them. You don’t need to tell 15 times to world that they suck.
Chadi Ghaith
October 31, 2010
I don’t share with you this sentiment, yet at the same time, I dont’t expect miracles for 250$.
I have more than 200 sites developed at EPIK, and I have to say the Guys are so dedicated, so modest and friendly and work twice as hard as any similar company I know of.
They are pioneers in the platform and opportunity they present, and they are trying hard every day to elevate the standards of domain development.
Its not their fault, its the way this whole industry is… Its an infant industry, and there is much to be learned and sacrificed along the way to maturity. We have only just yesterday discovered the need to do away with parking and begin developing.
As far as Product Domains, I think the EPIK model is good, because it organizes the web, even though Google is much harder to please.
Their platform brings you all the brands and prices of a given product under one platform. If you are looking for a wooden table for instance, you get all the wooden table you can dream of all by logging into woodentable.etc…
So, what more could someone looking for a wooden table online ask for?
I don’t see much room for development in this case unless each owner of every product domain becomes an owner of real-life company that manufactures and sells this product. This is then a whole different story.
The reasons why Google has de-indexed some EPIK’s sites is primarily due to individual efforts that those sites owners did to promote their sites which violated some of Google’s standards.
Another obvious reason is the implications of internal linking between EPIK’S sites on Google as an Advertising medium on the long run as EPIK’s sites increase in number…
One more thing to mention about EPIK, is that rarely ever you can reach the Chief Head of a company in the way you can reach ROB anytime, and he helps in all the means he has in hand – very modest and down to earth man.
vivariums
October 31, 2010
i tend to agree. i don’t know the people who run it, but tbh people speak well of them so fair enough, but when i first heard of epic i looked at their sites and thought, what are they doing you can’t do with a premium press theme or something?
crosslinking was a prob and didnt anticipate they’d all get dumped like that. feel sorry for those that wasted money
develop one site at a time. yourself or try out different developers. many very reasonable priced ones on forums. i did notice at that epic autcion all the sites were bought by the same 3 people. i wonder if they won’t be paying now or gettin g a refund? where does that leave those epic auctions? im sure the buyers read these blogs, be interesting to hear what happened
Raoul Swanson
October 31, 2010
Poor Owen. Chunkypecker.com, Grandnames.com, Epik.com…
Steve-O
October 31, 2010
Never a smart idea to burn a bridge. What is your real motive behind teh hate?
muhammed
October 31, 2010
The fact that Epik (Rob Monster) has not made a public announcement about this is highly disappointing. He was very quick to blog about the short lived epik success OR to promote the sites. Now, people have been deindexed for days and not a word from Rob about the situation. Sad, very sad.
rmg
October 31, 2010
If you dont like EPIK please show me other valid options…
Gnanes
October 31, 2010
datafeedscripts.net
Amazon Store from codecanyon.net – $12
Chadi Ghaith
October 31, 2010
Rob has addressed the situation, and he more than spoke. He laid out a very professional plan to remedy the situation, a plan that promises to “turn Lemon into Lemonade…”
I agree, he who dislikes EPIK should at least present a better Alternative.
MG
October 31, 2010
————–
One more thing to mention about EPIK, is that rarely ever you can reach the Chief Head of a company in the way you can reach ROB anytime, and he helps in all the means he has in hand – very modest and down to earth man.
————–
Very true! If only many of CEOs would be like this…but they aren’t, even if they run tiny small startups.
As for alternatives there could be:
- http://www.sitedepot.com (advertised on this site)
- http://www.smartnames.com
- http://www.whypark.com
- others probably…
Chadi Ghaith
October 31, 2010
Those are not better alternatives… I’ve tried most of them before EPIK, with all due respect to the people behind them all. There is no comparison.
V
October 31, 2010
I am all for criticism but only if you can show a real alternative rather than these half baked ideas such as:
- sitedepot.com (advertised on this site)
- smartnames.com
- whypark.com
- datafeedscripts.net
All of the above are SHITE. Between me and my partner we have tried them all. Whypark got my sites banned. Smartnames is just using s shopping script. SiteDepot is just a clone of Associte o Matic. Datafeedscript are good but u cannot do any seo.
So basically all alternatives are shit. Alteast EPIK tried and failed and maybe they will learn and get up again.
And talking about developing a proper site – thats a great idea but not easy when you have a full time job and 200 domains to manage.
Louise
October 31, 2010
Hi, Couldn’t let this go! I am very positive on Epik after it irons out terms requiring 2 paragraphs from each developer for each site. It will be like the dentist:
“How often should I brush my teeth?” “Every day you want to keep them.”
“How many domains do I have to post two original paragraphs?” “Only the ones you want to make $$.”
Sneakers.com
October 31, 2010
So Epik has hit a bump in the road. Its not the end of the world. I have some mini sites that are doing better than they ever would with mere parking alone. Epik is building incredible tools and technology. They’ve built an all in one domain marketplace which is a site I use just about every day for information and acquisitions. They’re not revealing all of their tricks to us just yet… so be patient. As for Rob Monster – he’s an intelligent man with a vision and has assembled an extremely talented team over at Epik. In fact, I’d be honored to be a part of their team working along with some of the greatest minds in the industry (look at who’s behind epik) and I’ve been working on my own since 1999. That itself should say something – what they are doing is nothing less than exciting. The portals are just one aspect of the company vision. Mark my words, its only a matter of time before Epik reaches their objectives in the domaining world… and they will not require Google’s help to do it either.
Snoopy
October 31, 2010
“Why are you so obsessed with epik?”
//////////////////
Because he runs a competing service with all the flaws that other “mass development” services have.
Time Machine
October 31, 2010
Yeah,
it does not look good or build confidence when no public statement has been made by Epik? They are so vocal about announcing every little upgrade, but now nothing?
Xou
October 31, 2010
Epik Sucks Big time. There is no business model. They are robbing the newbies , there is no doubt.
But I pity on those people who fell for this shit in the first place. Those people should blame the Owen fragor factor, and his bullshit, whatever he posts on his site, is totally stupid and bullshit and piece of crap to make newbies fell for epic.
So Owen, if u ever read this comment, Piss off and get real and stop putting people in to epic who will lose hell lot of money.
Mike, you are doing goood, people should know about this. Epik is fail!
Steve
November 2, 2010
I knew it would only be time before others were feeling how I did about the Epik network. Honestly it didn’t make much sense to me.
I do like some features to the site, but not on the domain sales part.
Vim
November 5, 2010
WTF,
How did they manage to get icecreammaker.com re-indexed so quickly? I wonder if Google has made a deal with EPIK.
Any comments on that?
Mike
November 6, 2010
Ok, one down… Thousands more to go.