First of all let me point out this is not a paid post. If you read my blog you’ll know I shoot straight from the hip and say it just as I see it. Good and Bad. I’m the first to criticize and the first to praise. Today I have praise for Rob Monster and Epik.
Rob has gotten used to my constant emails getting on him about things I’d like to see with my domains. To make it worse on Rob, I only had two with him. Yet despite my rants and raves, Rob always answers and does his best to make it right or at least give me an answer as to why. Would I like to see improvement? Sure, so would he, but things take time. One thing didn’t take time though, getting my domains to the top of Google.
I did Rob a favor a few weeks ago and he kindly traded the favor for a free development of a domain. I had just purchased bookbag.org for $400 and liked the amount of searches the term was getting. I figured the org actually worked for a school type item and the price seemed fair (what I paid for the domain and the free development) so I chose that as my freebie. That was just a few weeks ago and it’s already on the first page of Google and making a few dollars a week. He’s already gotten on the front page for my domain robotic pets but that was easier because there aren’t a ton of sites for that term. Bookbags has millions and yet there it sits.
I still have issues with Epik but they are all things that can and probably will be worked out and I certainly can’t argue with the results. Once you are on the front page of Google you are opening a big can of whoop ass. Especially on a big online buying term like book bags. Good Job Rob but don’t think this will slow down the “Can you do this/check on this for me” emails.
PS: Alabama Grad and not Virginia Tech fan. Easiest pic to grab
Congrats! I have a domain with Epik also and I am eager to see where it goes…
.COM, .Net & .Org domains are apparently easier to rank than other TLDs though commercially meaningful search-phrase .COM & .Net domains aren’t so easy to find and thus normally one has to acquire in the aftermarket. Please keep us updated on the site’s progress and any other EPIK sites you have.
Glad to hear you’re happy with the Epik experience, Shane.
Are the “few dollars per week” from PPC only or is there any revenue share from the sale of book bags through your site?
CPC so far but haven’t received my official report yet. Just saw it on the stats page. You can look at any epik site’s stats but typing in domainname.com/stats
@Shane – Thanks for the update on the progress here. I am delighted to see the traction on your sites. What we see is that the real revenue juice flows when you get to #5 or better, i.e. above the fold. That being said, getting to page 1 is a big step in the right direction and definitely a good sign that things are on the right track. And as always, thanks for keeping it real.
@Shane – Glad to hear your happy with the results. We aim to please and sometimes that takes two or three shots… We try to hit the bulls eye on the first shot but we all know it would be BS to say that happens every-time.
Hey Shane,
Just checked google, site now ranks at #6 for “bookbag” and at #7 for “book bag” (searched with no quotes, quotes added here for clarity).
Bookbag.org is not on Bing or Yahoos first page yet.
Still and even so, it is not a bad showing. Hope things stabilize at first place for you!
J
That sounds great I just ordered three portals myself and can’t wait to see the results.
plus i took this post as an opportunity and just registered bookbag.co I’ll take offers 😉
Otherwise i might be competing with Shane for the top spot soon 😉
Rankings may or may not mean anything. I am more impressed when people talk about traffic or revenue numbers. I see that the search numbers and bids for “bookbag” and “book bag” are pretty good, but with exact match they are somewhat less. Still, when you add in longtail potential your site could earn pretty well.
But with a domain cost of $400 and monthly cost (if you were paying for it) of at least $29, I don’t think it makes much sense if you are only making “few dollars a week”. Perhaps at some point that will improve to at least cover the monthly fee.
But lets say you are making $50 a month, that means your monthly profit is about $20. So it will take you about 20 months to pay for the domain and break even. I guess that is not too bad. Some sites sell for 2-3 years of income. 🙂
I agree but remember it’s only been a few weeks. It’s a great start in my opinion and I certainly hope to make more than a few dollars a week.
Rob and Luke are great and provide lightening quick response time and personal support, which to me is pretty amazing, having a CEO respond personally in minutes to your support related email requests. In fact i hate to have to bug them, although i just did today about a question on my performance reports. i feel like a pain in the behind sometimes but nonetheless they always deliver on excellent customer service so i really have to hand it to them
*ahem*
What are the top domains owned by Epik? What are the top three performing sites they’ve built and the monthly income? This should be big news promoted by Rob and Epik. It should be front page on their conference website, using a domain name that Rob’s been promoting for weeks now, which is… uhh… what domain name has Rob been promoting for his Epik development conference? I seemed to have missed it.
The Epik event has a title, which should be represented by the domain name, and that domain name is… ummm…
Professional and powerful new domain development tools are being hawked by Epik, and they’re holding a conference to discuss domain development. Logically, Epik should be using this “conference” domain as their “brand domain” for their conference to prove they understand the “basics” of domain investing.
What’s the Epik Conference’s domain name? You know, something I can bookmark, typein, and link to? Anyone see that anywhere? Just asking! Even beyond that, what’s the “official” name of Epik’s conference?
If you discover what it is, maybe you’ll be rewarded with “Epik Dollars”! That means, you’ll be rewarded helping a company that wants to tell you how to use your domains and marketing skills, and you’ll get this reward by — helping them learn how to use their domains and marketing skills!
fun stuff!
I knew I liked you for some reason, but I was having my doubts when I saw that image – RTR!!!
Seriously, I have a couple at Epik and they do ok – plus Rob and everyone I’ve talked to at Epik do customer service incredibly well… can’t make the conference, but hope to do more with them as well.
Clay