Epik product portals rock! Last time, I wrote all about my personal Epik product portal websites. I currently own 45 developed websites on the Epik network, three of which I highlighted in my last post. Another few examples include Motorbike Jacket, Velour Tracksuit, and Cheap Desk. My last article was a real hit and I’m especially thankful for the awesome comments from all of you! Today I’m thrilled to continue the Epik discussion. Specifically, I’m going to share actionable tips that will help you make money with Epik.
It All Starts Out With The Right Domain Name
So you’re convinced and ready to launch your first Epik product portal website. Great stuff! Whether you’re new to domain names or a seasoned domainer with hundreds (or even thousands) of domains, there are some important things to consider when choosing which domains to develop on Epik. First and foremost, you’ll want to pick a name that is an exact match of a product sold online. If you have other types of names, Epik can still help, but you’ll want to look at their other platforms instead of the product portal that I’m so familiar with.
Second, I suggest picking an exact match domain that gets at least 700-1,000 or more global exact match searches per month according to Google’s keyword tool. My site Velour Tracksuit gets 1,600 global exact searches per month. If you start venturing below this level, you won’t have enough searchers to make it worth your while.
Focus On High Quality Dot Com and Dot Net Domains
Third, you’ll want to pick a name name that’s either a dot com or dot net domain. You’ve heard me talk a lot about dot me, dot co, and other TLDs here on PPC Ian. I’m a huge fan of many TLDs and have developed sites on dot com, dot net, dot org, dot me, dot co, dot info, dot us, and dot biz. However, for the purposes of Epik product portals, they’re looking to really preserve the integrity of the network and stick with high quality dot com and dot net for product portals since the main purpose and intent of these TLDs is commerce. This surprised me a bit at first, but now it totally makes sense. I have a ton of dot org product domains and have been building them out differently – I’m going the article route with my dot orgs and making them more informational whereas I’m going the product sales route with my dot com and dot net domains. The strategy has been working great! Have a killer domain that’s not a dot com or dot net? Share it with the Epik team! They’ll definitely let you try alternate TLDs for product portals if they’re category defining names.
Dot Com Domains With Dashes Are OK
As a side note, you may be wondering about domain names with hyphens in them. Whereas a few years ago, these domains were looked down upon, they seem to be in everyone’s portfolios these days. Taking myself as an example, I developed the domain Cheap-Desk.com on Epik. This exact match hyphenated domain name has 1,900 global exact match searches per month, it’s a great name! Here’s the rule when it comes to hyphenated domains on Epik: Epik totally allows and supports great hyphenated domains on dot com but does not entertain them on dot net. Now, if you’re like me, you’re thinking that rules are meant to be broken! Have a great dot net domain with a dash in it? I would certainly run it by Epik, but it’s going to have to be a killer name to get accepted.
Content Is King On Epik Product Portals
So my first few tips today focused specifically on selecting great domain names for development on Epik. Now, I’m going to shift gears and discuss a few high leverage tips for making the most of your sites once they’re live on Epik. My strategy is really a three tiered one. First and foremost, I always make sure to upload custom articles to my Epik sites. Taking Motorbike Jacket as an example, you can see that I have custom articles about Buying a Motorbike Jacket and Motorbike Jacket Purchasing Tips. I had these great articles written for me on ELance (always go with the more expensive writers, they do better work) and were super easy to upload with Epik’s WYSIWYG editor. My golden rule: Each Epik product portal needs at least two custom articles.
Custom Blurbs On All Epik Product Tabs
Each Epik product portal has a variety of product tabs. On MotorbikeJacket.net, for example, I have tabs for Summer Motorcycle Jackets, Winter Motorcycle Jacket, Leather Motorcycle Jackets, and Motorcycle Rain Jackets. Check out the blurb at the top of each of these pages! They’re all custom and unique. They all differ from the custom blurb at the top of my main homepage. Moreover, if you view the source code of these pages, you’ll see that each has a custom meta title and meta description as well! I have my ELance writers write this custom content when they’re writing the articles. This is really your chance to personalize your Epik Product Portal and get rewarded by the search engines! To summarize, my second content tip: Write custom blurbs, meta titles, and meta descriptions for all product tabs on your Epik sites. It’s super easy to upload this custom content via Epik’s back end tool.
Leverage The Epik Team
It’s really as easy as that! These simple tips will get you off to an amazing start on Epik. Once you’ve completed these steps, it’s all about repeating with more domains and also continuing to add more content to your existing domains. Search engines (and users) love to have as much useful content as possible. As my final tip for today, don’t forget to reach out to the Epik team. They can help with an amazing number of things and are partners in your success. Leverage their expertise to make as much money as possible on Epik.
Image of VelourTracksuit.net © VelourTracksuit.net
Image of MotorbikeJacket.net © MotorbikeJacket.net
Posted in: Domains, Web Publishing | Tags: epik, epik.com | Comments: 29 comments so far, join the discussion!
24 Comments
Yeah Epik is a great platform. I love what they did with IceCreamMaker.com. You could go crazy with http://nameninja.com/q/velour and create epik sites daily
NameNinja,
Looking forward to leveraging it to generate some new domain ideas!
Thanks so much for the comment. Just checkout out your tool and it’s awesome.
All the best,
Ian
I was weary of Epik until I saw their new ecommerce sites and have been impressed with both icecreammaker.com and emergencyfoods.com.
Hi there,
Thanks for your article. I’ll be using it for a couple of my product portals, in fact i have already had a few articles written using odesk.com.
Don’t suppose you would be able to share some of your stats would you? Visitor numbers and how long your PP has been live type of thing.
All the best.
Richard
Hey Ian! Nice to meet you!
Will take a look to this platform, hope to see you around
Jake,
Thanks so much for the comment! I’m totally impressed with the two sites you mentioned as well. While I’ve chosen to start out going the product portal route, I definitely have my sights set on owning a ecommerce site or two in the future. Because of the higher margins on the ecommerce sites, they’re perfect for PPC as well which is definitely exciting for me!
All the best,
Ian
Richard,
Thanks so much for the comment and for visiting PPC Ian! That’s exciting to hear about your experience with Epik and that you’ve already got a few articles written! I would be delighted to share stats. Those posts always get a lot of attention, especially the ones I’ve written in the past about my eBay Partner Network earnings and Commission Junction earnings. I would like to give myself some time to first develop all my sites and ramp up as I’m really new to Epik, but definitely stay tuned!
All the best,
Ian
Fernando,
Thanks so much for visiting PPC Ian! I truly appreciate it. It’s great to meet you as well.
All the best,
Ian
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your reply. Totally understand, i’ll keep my eye out on your blog for the future.
All the best.
Richard
Ian, if one of my x-mas gifts includes a velour tracksuit, I’ll know where you bought it! In case you want any hints, I would prefer that over a cheap desk.
Thanks, Nicole!
I definitely did not get you a cheap desk, but I also didn’t get you a velour tracksuit (although that is a great idea). What I got you is even better!
Hi, tx for your very informative comments, especially regarding our Epik strategy. Can you share a list of your 45 sites you refer to. I only saw your mention of 3 sites, would like to see the diversity in product lines you have chosen, and would also like to know, if you are willing to share; ballpark revenue streams – or percentage of acquisition cost returns say in 3 month, 6 month time frames.
You also made reference to some sites that went live in 2007?? As epik only went live in 2009, was that a type?
tx for sharing your enthusiasm and expertise
tom
Hi Tom,
You bring up some great questions. I plan to answer most of these over time in future posts. Please stay tuned… In terms of your last question, my first sites that went live in 2007 were websites I built myself. These are not Epik sites. The main point is passive income via SEO takes time. The sites I started in 2007 are making the most money now because they are aged. Likewise, I expect my Epik sites that I launched in 2010 to be huge sites as time goes on! Thanks again!
Thanks so much for the comment and questions, I really appreciate it!
All the best,
Ian
Ian,
Thanks and congrats on the success. I found this original post in the paid section of a site and curious why you paid or someone paid to have this disclosed. Do you get compensated with epik bucks? I am curious as to how much you have spent verses your ROI on each and expected break even point? We like the space and tried the service but decided to stick with Rapid Domain Builder from Domain Holdings
Domain Builder from Domain Holdings instead
Hi Chad,
I could use some Epik bucks. No, I am not being paid for any of my Epik posts, so far at least, but that could always change at some point in the future. I’m always looking for new blog sponsors and would entertain this idea in a heartbeat if that opportunity did come up. You may wish to check out my affiliate disclosure here. I actually decided to start blogging about Epik because I’m really fascinated and excited with the platform. I’m an old NexTag guy and comparison product shopping is a topic very close to me. When I started learning more about Epik, I knew this was the future of online product shopping and wanted to start sharing my perspective.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and for the comment. Man, I wish I was getting compensated for the Epik posts!
In terms of ROI, you bring up a great question. I’ve actually gotten that one a few times now. My plan: I want to let my sites sit a little longer and write a post all about that topic. From my experience so far, ROI really depends on the site. I’ve made the most so far on the sites I purchased at SwapFest or from Epik’s store. Why? They are already indexed and making money. That said, I expect to make a killing off of the domains I recently developed with Epik, although the payoff there is offset by the time it takes to age within the search engines.
The way I look at it all: I have a full time job that I love. The time I do have available for affiliate marketing is limited. Thus, leverage is of paramount importance to me. I’m basically trying to make more money with my Epik sites than I do in the stock market. I can buy stocks that yield 5 plus percent, grow their dividend each year, and show stock appreciation consistently all day long. I need to beat that with my Epik sites and am doing that, based on early indications, handsomely. When I look at my Epik sites, or any SEO sites I build for that matter, I try to recoup my initial investment in the first two years. That equates to a 50 percent yield if I were in the market, something that’s unheard of. Now, time will tell what happens with my Epik investment, but I’m definitely pumped up based on early indications (one of the sites I purchased returned 20 percent of my investment quite quickly) and will blog about it as a future post.
Thanks so much, Chad, I very much appreciate it and happy holidays and new year! Here’s to an Epik 2011 for us all!
All the best,
Ian
Ian, thanks for sharing your experience with Epik. I find their platform impressive and I am building a small portfolio of product portals with them.
You mention a minimum number of exact searches, which of course makes a lot of sense. Do you think there is a maximum number too? I mean, more searches mean more potential visitors but it also means more competition on search engine results. There must be a point of diminishing returns. Do you think a 10K searches/month domain would be a good candidate for a product portal? What about 50K or 100K?
Talking about product tabs, I think you can add and remove tabs and change their keywords in the product portal back-end. Did you customize the tabs themselves, or did you let Epik’s staff choose them?
Andrea,
Thanks so much for the comment and questions! You bring up some really great points.
In terms of exact searches, it’s a really interesting question. Personally, I like to focus on sites in the 1,000-10,000 exact searches range. When you start going above 10,000, it’s more difficult to rank and I have found it fun to go after many mid-tail domains versus a few bigger ones. At the same time, if you’ve got the dot com or dot net version of an exact match phrase with greater than 10,000 searches, you’re positioned better than anyone to succeed. So, it’s really up the the individual domainer. While my sweet spot lies with the 1,000 to 10,000 range, it’s my opinion that one can be equally or even more successful with higher volume domains. However, if you are going after the high volume domains, you’ll probably want to focus on fewer domains because each will take more effort to rank.
In terms of your second question, I’ll typically rely on the tabs that the Epik team creates. They do such a great job choosing the specific tabs that all the work is done (something I really appreciate since I don’t have too much time on my hands when it comes to affiliate marketing and domaining). It’s all about leverage for me! Sometimes, I have chosen to change, add, and remove tabs and it’s all super easy with with Epik’s amazing back end tools.
Andrea, thanks again and please stay tuned! More Epik posts on the way.
All the best,
Ian
Ian,
Once more great Epik post.
Seeing as you have a lot of articles and blurbs written using elance, do you have a writer or set of writers that you use consistently and can recommend?
I would like someone reliable to start using for my own Epik sites.
Many thanks,
Ammo.
Ammo,
Thanks again for the great comments, really appreciate it. I’m on my iPad right now so I don’t have access to my Elance account, however would be delighted to help you out. Please shoot me a quick email and I’ll send you my favorite writer’s Elance ID when I’m able to log into my account later.
All the best,
Ian
Hi Ian,
In the above post, you noted you would send Ammo your favorite Elance writers ID’s. I have been looking hard for good writers at ELance. Would you be so kind as to share the ELance writers ID’s with me as well, I could really use them for my Epik Product Portals.
Thanks so much! Love your blog, it rocks!!!!!!
Michael,
Thanks so much for the comment! I just emailed you the Elance username of my favorite writer. The writer I sent you did most of the articles for my Epik Product Portals. Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it!
All the best,
Ian
Hi Ian.
Nice Post there regarding Epik and it’s products.
By the way I have some EpikBucks available that I would like to swap for cash.
If anyone is interested contact me at
Skype Id = m_talhahassan
Cell # +923323367498
By all means, creativity of choosing a business domain name is very essential. It is suggested that domain name should matched a brand name. Use any site that you like to come up with domain name ideas. But, when you’re ready to buy, choose the registrar that offers the best domain name package and price, not the registrar that has the best domain name suggestions.
Hi Ian.
Nice Post there regarding Epik and it’s products.