The Epik Ecosystem at work

One of the unique aspects of building Epik is the “ecosystem approach”. Specifically there is a unifying architecture that connects the expanding network of Epik-powered sites.  We are 5% of the way through the journey and I could not be more excited about what is coming along.

What do we mean by “Ecosystem”
I previously blogged about the Epik ecosystem.  In that post, I used this visual to begin to explain how the pieces are being assembled to create a more intuitive user experience for consumers as they navigate from site to site.

Like building a city from the ground up, everything is easier for the developers when there is a unified approach to shared services like sewage, water, electric, zoning, and standards for where to find what.  In the next phase of the web, Epik believes that the people who own domain names have a key role to play in building a better web that is more intuitive and more user-aware.

Epik’s implementation of the ecosystem vision is still evolving but the notion of an interconnected network with horizontal components has been a core design principle from the start.  As the various Epik-powered solutions now begin to get serious momentum, we expect that the network effects will begin to build rapidly.  Here are a couple of simple examples of the ecosystem at work.

Product Portal API
The recently announced Epik Wiki platform has been quite popular since going live last weekend.  One reason it is popular is that we give the domain owner 100% of the revenue share from Adsense. So, what is in it for Epik to host these site for free and give 100% of the Adsense revenue to the domain owners?  Well, for one thing, Epik gets the opportunity to add contextually relevant backlinks. So, if you create a Wiki about lawn care, Epik might add a backlink to an Epik store that sells equipment for lawn mowers.

The API is very simple to use:

1. https://api.epikstores.com/search_domains
   This returns the default amount (5) of random domains.
2. https://api.epikstores.com/search_domains/amount/8
   This returns 8 random domains. The number after the term “amount/” dictates how many domains are displayed.
3. https://api.epikstores.com/search_domains/keyword/bed
   This search will look through the main text, tabs, and popular searches of every domain for the term “bed”. The default number of results it returns is 5. If it cannot find enough domains that contain “bed”, it will fill up the rest of the 5 slots with randomly selected domains.
4. https://api.epikstores.com/search_domains/keyword/bed/amount/8
   This would return 8 domains. It will return as many as it can that include the keyword ‘bed’. If it does not find enough to fill all 8 slots, it will fill the rest with random domains from the Epik Product Portal network.

Sample Results from an API call

<summary>
  <totalResults>5</totalResults>
  <domains>
    <domain>
      <name>laptopcomputerpc.com</name>
      <title>Laptop Computer PC</title>
    </domain>
    <domain>
      <name>laptopmemorycard.com</name>
      <title>Laptop Memory Card</title>
    </domain>
    <domain>
      <name>laptoppowercable.com</name>
      <title>Laptop Power Cable</title>
    </domain>
    <domain>
      <name>leather-motorcycle-jackets.com</name>
      <title>Leather Motorcycle Jackets</title>
    </domain>
    <domain>
      <name>lgtouch.com</name>
      <title>LG Touch</title>
    </domain>
  </domains>
</summary>

Sample PHP code
Here is some sample PHP code for anyone with a site or blog who wants to try out the API.

<?php
$keyword     = “furniture”;                         // The keyword you want to search for
$amount      = 5;                                   // The number of links you want returned to you
$ch          = curl_init();                         // The CURL handle needed to make the request
$request     = “https://api.epikstores.com/search_domains/keyword/$keyword/amount/$amount”; // The API URL

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,            $request); // Handle the CURL setup
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT,        10);
$response = curl_exec($ch);                         // Make the API request
curl_close($ch);                                    // Close the handle

if ($response === FALSE) exit;                      // Exit if we got nothing back
$xml = simplexml_load_string($response);            // Otherwise load XML

if ( $xml and isset($xml->domains->domain) ) {      // Ensure the XML file returned domain information
echo “<ul>”;                                      // Display them as an unordered list
foreach($xml->domains->domain as $domain)         // If so, iterate through all domains
echo “<li><a href=’https://” . $domain->name . “‘>” . $domain->title . “</a></li>”;
echo “</ul>”;                                   // end the list
}
?>

If you visit GunPrices.net, you can see an example of a DevRich portal with active Product Portal backlinks.  Look on the right side of the page. Backlinks will also be added to other Epik platforms including the free Epik Wiki network.  DevRich, which Epik acquired in May, powers a fast-growing network of low cost customized content portals.

Although there is currently no formal affiliate program, we do monitor the sources of referred traffic and will do our best to return the favor of backlinks to Epik-hosted stores. We are planning an affiliate network. However, rather than roll out a half-baked solution, we are designing one that is relatively easy and safe to scale.

Comments.com platform for comment management
Comments.com and Questions.com are both examples of what we call “Horizontal components” in the Epik ecosystem. In other words, they work horizontally across the network. After months of planning, the Comments.com platform is being deployed across the network.   For example, the BubbaWatson.com Wiki site that went live on the weekend. Users must register to make a comment. The registration is actually a single-sign-on, powered by Identity.net, another horizontal component. Once you have an Identity.net account the design intent is that this account will work everywhere across Epik.

Single-sign-on and commenting are an obvious synergy.  For example, in the BubbaWatson.com example, once a comment is made on an Epik-powered site, those comments appear on the Epik Wiki site. If you now went to another Epik Wiki site, you don’t need to register yet again, and soon you will automatically be signed in.

Comments.com also goes on step further with managing comments.  At the same time, the comment is also syndicated as an abstract to Comments.com.

If a user makes comments in 100 different sites, all of their comments from all of the sites appear under their comments.com profile.   It literally becomes possible to follow someone across the web and see their comments no matter where they made them.  How cool is THAT?

Looking ahead into the relatively near future, a user will be able to login at their account at comments.com and be able to change or even delete their comments.  Try that trick with WordPress. No can do! At Epik, we believe that the author of the comment owns the comment. As such, they should be able to redact or remove it.

There you have it. The emerging Epik ecosystem at work.