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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Anyone ever left Neonsky?
Jesse Hutcheson, Photographer
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Newport News | va | United States | Posted: 9:37 PM on 02.25.11 |
| ->> I'm considering leaving Neonsky as my web host but I would like to keep my blog and email. Will I lose all of this if I part ways with NeonSky? |
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Andrew Fielding, Photographer, Student/Intern
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Denver | CO | USA | Posted: 3:09 AM on 02.26.11 |
| ->> Not 100% sure about Neon Sky but if it is a software as a service company like squarespace then you would. I can't seem to gather what exactly they do from their website but I'll be happy to help you figure it out. Feel free to email me from my member page. |
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Phil Hawkins, Photographer
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Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 3:25 AM on 02.26.11 |
| ->> Jesse, my advice is ask them if you lose blog and email. Pray tell, not that it's any of my business, but I'm curious as to why you want to leave. I've been with them for around 5 years and not once have I ever seen my site down. It has to have been at some point, all sites go down at some point. But I've never seen it. There's never been a point at which questions were not answered in a timely manner, and, best of all, the price has never increased in 5 years. I think this is what they call not being broke. So, I ain't gonna fix it. I'm a big believer in not jumping the fence to gain what appears to be greener grass until the lawn you're standing on turns brown. Mine is still very green. |
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Harrison Shull, Photographer
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Fayetteville, WV | Asheville, NC | | Posted: 7:37 AM on 02.26.11 |
->> Phil, I can give you one reason - since it is why I left Neonsky. However, it has been close to a year now and maybe things have changed at Neonsky.
I had been with Neonsky for several years at the time and had been consistently begging Neonsky for most of that time for the implementation of changes that had been promsied for a long time. The first and foremost of these changes was deep linking in Flash.
The way Neonsky had their flash sites set up allowed spiders to crawl the site and get image info from individual images (either caption or meta but not sure). Then if somebody Googled a set of terms that was related directly to several wordds in your image info, it would come up high on Google. All good, right...
But the problem came with the fact that when the searcher clicked your link at Google, they were taken to your index page rather than to where they had expected - the page holding the actual image that held the match to the terms the search was for. I heard from several frustrated PE's that they gave up hunting through my portfolios/galleries to look for the image when they had expected to be dumped right there by the google search as they would with most every other site host.
So I got fed up with their stalling to implement this very critical fix along with a few other issues and I left for better features (flash with deep linking), service, and price elsewhere. I really like the Neonsky and was psyched to be with them since they are in my backyard (NC), but it came down to utility and response to customer needs.
Neonsky is a great group of folks and I hope they have gotten all that stuff straightened out, but that is "why" at least one person would leave.
Jesse - the blog should be portable if it is with something like Blogger, Wordpress, or the like or maybe even "exportable" if this is something that NS does in-house. Emails can be taken to whereever you next host your domain without issue |
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Phil Hawkins, Photographer
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Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 12:14 PM on 02.26.11 |
| ->> Can't argue with that reasoning... It is indeed a shortcoming for them. I have to admit I use them for display purposes only, and not for drilling down for individual images. So, I don't experience that situation. I'm going to ask Jayeson if this has been fixed. |
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Jonathan Nimerfroh, Photographer
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Philadelphia | PA | USA | Posted: 12:34 PM on 02.26.11 |
->> Hey Jesse,
Please let us know how you make out. I'm also consider just making my website and blog all one page using Pro Photo on wordpress.
Thanks! |
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Jesse Hutcheson, Photographer
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Newport News | va | United States | Posted: 1:45 PM on 02.26.11 |
->> Harrison,
They have direct linking now. I LOVE NeonSky but I'm just looking to cut costs in my life. I haven't decided to leave yet and I have figured out how to take my blog content and email with me if I do decide to part ways. Their service is amazing and quick. I would highly recommend them to anyone. |
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Harrison Shull, Photographer
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Fayetteville, WV | Asheville, NC | | Posted: 6:27 PM on 02.26.11 |
->> Agreed. Neonsky is very good.
I heard from Jayson today after my earlier post and NS does now have deep-linking apparently. At the time of my departure, though, things were different. I never had any issues with NS as a web host other than the reason I stated.
Anyone looking at a web solution should definitely put NS into the mix. |
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Phil Hawkins, Photographer
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Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 11:01 PM on 02.26.11 |
| ->> I also heard from Jayson, and tested it thoroughly and it indeed does deep-link. Name your files accordingly and they will be picked up by Google. |
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Armando Solares, Photographer
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Englewood | FL | USA | Posted: 1:34 AM on 02.27.11 |
->> I have been a happy Neonsky customer since I started my business in 2006. There are less expensive services out there, but like Phil said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
As a matter of fact someone tonight, a fellow photographer who I met a week ago said he really liked my work and my website. He saw it on his iPhone.
Customer service is top notch. And now for the same price I have been paying for the last 5 years, I can have 3 different domains.
We have recently decided to have a separate site for our weddings. We are still tweaking it, but for the most part it is done. www.SolaresWeddings.com
The staff is always helpful and quick with responses. The sites are easy to upkeep too. |
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Christopher Record, Photographer
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Charlotte | NC | USA | Posted: 10:41 AM on 02.27.11 |
->> I've been a happy Neonsky customer for many years. I've known Jayson since he was a fine newspaper photographer working in North Carolina.
He designed my first custom website and I later shifted to the template sites.
They helped my transition from long-time newspaper photographer to freelancer. And I credit the websites to helping me grow my business.
Like Phil and Armando, nothing but good things to say about Jayson, his company and his staff. |
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Thomas Pickard, Photographer
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Rarotonga | Cook Islands | Cook Islands | Posted: 4:10 AM on 03.06.11 |
->> Jesse - I recently left NeonSky. My email came with me as it was with Google Apps via NeonSky - easy.
Transferring my blog was harder though. These are the steps I took:
- found a new host (Laughing Squid)
- had NeonSky email me the latest back up of my blog database
- exported my blog
- backed both up myself
- had NeonSky turn my account off (NeonSky and Laughing Squid both use Rackspace, so NeonSky had to turn it off, before Laughing Squid could set up my account, domain name space etc..)
- via Laughing Squid, upload my blog database, import my blog and then configure it all via the CPanel. This was the hardest bit, as with Laughing Squid I am responsible for maintaining my blog at the back end (NeonSky used to look after this).
NeonSky are a great company with great customer service. I left because of the reasons explained in this post:
http://bit.ly/id1GwN
Cost was a factor too, given I have a Photoshelter site. |
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