Epik could provide compelling domain monetization strategy — and may spur more direct navigation.
When Rob Monster announced he was closing his venture capital shop, he wrote that he was working on a new company that could change domaining:
We are building a Web 3.0 platform that will be among the first to drive a network effect across domain properties, in part enabled by single sign-on, portable identity, portable reputation, and user-aware content management. Domainers have a huge opportunity to define the future of the web, much in the way a new city gets planned from the ground up. In essence, that is what Epik is about.
The first iteration of Epik launched last night, and today I sat down with Monster at Domain Roundtable in Washington D.C. to take Epik for a test drive.
Epik enables domainers to build content-based sites in seconds. Utilizing a semantic web ontology of two million people, places, and things, Epik automatically sets up a five page web site on your domains. Epik has an exclusive license (for use on domains) for content from semantic web company Evri.
Epik is based on EVO Media Group’s DevHub technology. Monster was the first investor in EVO Media.
Domain owners can sign up at Epik.com and begin submitting domains. On Friday at 5 pm PDT, registered users who have already submitted domains through the system will get access to a list of all domains that map to Epik’s content nodes. This list will be a treasure trove for domainers, as it includes a list of domains that can be hand registered to quickly create web sites.
If your domains don’t currently match one of Epik’s unique and available nodes, the company will inform you if it becomes available in the future. One example I just created is brookhaven.us.
Monster thinks you’ll be impressed with the existing results, but says Epik will roll out new features quickly that encompass the components he described above.
Beyond just making money for domain owners, Monster says his company could swing the pendulum back to direct navigation. When people who search with direct navigation find what they want, they’re more inclined to use direct navigation in the future.
Monster believes domainers could be the largest beneficiary of the move to the semantic web. Hopefully Epik is the key to get there.
Comment deleted – impersonating other person.
Not sure this will “change domaining”? The pages look pretty blah and have that “spammer” feeling due to the overload of ads above the fold with little content. It’s worse if you click on the “video” page tab etc. Personally not a fan by just looking at the domain example given unless I’m missing something. Not a page that I would “return” to via direct navigation.
I first saw an Epik website on JohnMaynardKeynes.com, a domain Monster bought from me. Considering that I didn’t want to sell it at first, it’s good to see it was turned into an active website. Nice to see it as the featured site of the day on their home page, too. 🙂
The websites Epik generates look clean and I think there is potential to what the company is going to do. I’m going to give Epik a try soon.
Do you know how their sites will perform in search engines? Any duplicate content issues? The way I understand it, Epik should be most interesting to owners of domains already receiving direct navigation traffic.
Andrew, FYI, Brookhaven.us isn’t resolving.
Brookhaven.us is resolving for me.
They only allow one domain on each node, and the way it’s sliced up it shouldn’t cause dup content issues.
Andrew,
What type of domains should be submitted for consideration?
The Epik site seems to suggest they are looking for “category-defining domain(s)”.
You showed your Brookhaven.us domain as an example of a submission.
What if the owner of Brookhaven.com submitted his domain.
Would that then replace your .US?
@ Patrick, no, Brookhaven.com couldn’t submit because I already have the node. People and places seem to be the best options so far.
I clicked on one of the videos and went to a parked page I believe you do not own :
creative-kitchens.com
I don’t really see how any of this is game changer. If they can be made as fast as DevHub pages then that is cool, but outside that I just don’t see it.
I also don’t see making more money with this than with parking….actually I would expect less.
DevHub btw still has their payout set at $100, not $5 like they recently announced. 🙂
I will share my project (cmswebsite.com) if stable and tested. I’m still working and making some changes.
This is powered by open source Joomla. Here’s a few examples:
http://www.computest.com
http://www.cavite.com
http://www.phpbusiness.com
http://www.whiny.com
Will share soon …
@Andrew
Thanks for sharing. I look forward to seeing and hearing more about Epik as is moves forward.
Let’s see if any of these sites can “rank”. 🙂
Regards.
I checked epik.com and no fcuking clue how it works
I had no idea what an Ontology was before I checked out Epik.com. Very useful indeed.
I would also like to know the type of domains that will be considered before I submit any.
Regards,
Thank you for sharing that very useful information. I have parked for months some 200 domain names with WhyPark, I have also tried Noomle, but I am definitely willing to try something else. While not perfect, I must admit that I rather like the look of those Epik pages, so I have submitted a few names, and let’s see if something can be developed with them.
Anyway, such attempts are definitely welcome – even more so if they manage to overcome the issue of duplicate content.
@Andrew
Is Rob still active with EVO Group? It says that epik is based on the DevHub technology. Does that mean that DevHub is licensing its technology now or did they part ways but Rob can use it still?
A few clarifying comments on Epik:
– Sites are getting indexed, especially by Bing. I expect Google to like the sites more when we add the User Generated Content and additional tabs (next 2 weeks).
– EVO Group developed some of the technology that powers the domain management platform. I remain a Director and significant investor in the company.
– The Epik sites that are being produced today are just the tip of the iceberg. We announced the platform at Domain Roundtable. Innovation continues apace.
– Monetization is going to be a mix of ads, and from capital gain from sale of websites — an area where we believe there is significant under-tapped value.
– Look for the next major release this Friday, along with the browseable index of the full listing of developed topics in the ontology.
Love to hear from folks with good ideas. Feel free to drop me a note at rob@epik.com.
Rob
Stop spamming domain whois contacts Mr. Monster ! Or is it Mr. Spamster now ?