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Author Topic: Whats your favorite Hosting service these days  (Read 2735 times)

One Frame at a Time

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Whats your favorite Hosting service these days
« on: August 15, 2016, 01:13:01 pm »

Hi,  Did a search and the results I see for this topic on LL is back in 2013.
Im a long time Smugmug user.  Not really a fan.  Everytime I try and do some serious changes I never remember how to navigate the site.  It seems very un-intuitive to me. 
Like re-inventing the wheel whenever I try to make changes to the look or settings in my account. 

Also, a couple years ago I found that people were buying prints of my images (saw them in  a friends store mounted on greeting cards) and smug mug wouldnot tell me what they printed or what was sold because I was only paying them 60 dollars a year.   

I have time on my hands this summer and wondering if I should jump ship?  500px looks cool but I am not really sure what that site is about. 

Thanks,

Paul
« Last Edit: August 17, 2016, 10:33:00 pm by One Frame at a Time »
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BobShaw

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Re: Whats your favorite Hosting service these days
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2016, 12:30:27 am »

There are three things (at least) to consider.
Hosting - is just the owner of the server. It could be anyone.
The Website - can be made by any web designer or even yourself and hosted anywhere.
The Domain Name - e.g. MyPhotography.com - if you own that then you are free to go where ever you like, whenever you like.

If you use say Smugmug then you are on their website, on their server and usually with their domain name. Leaving is difficult.

I use a hosting provider to host my website and I own all the domain names. If I choose I can use any designer and can move any time.
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JKevinScott

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Re: Whats your favorite Hosting service these days
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2016, 03:13:19 pm »

I use both Squarespace and Smugmug.  Squarespace I find is a bit more customizable and their site design and management tools are a bit more usable, IMO.  That said, both have tons of site templates with a huge array of customization options.  You can point both to custom domains.
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One Frame at a Time

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Re: Whats your favorite Hosting service these days
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2016, 10:41:20 pm »

Thanks guys,  I own my domain name so I can go anywhere.  The thought of gathering up all my uploads and trying to reload them into anther host service is nothing I'm looking forward to.  So I'm trying to understand what differentiates them.  Only want to do this once.  I've read some comparison sites and they all seem to have their own fan base. 
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HSakols

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Re: Whats your favorite Hosting service these days
« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2016, 09:49:13 am »

My host is A Small Orange.  Early on, I bought a lifetime membership for their small plan.  Going this route is going to be considerably cheaper than using the big names. 
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Analogue_Rob

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Re: Whats your favorite Hosting service these days
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2016, 06:00:57 am »

Hi there,

I use Squarespace for my website but I use Pixieset as my client interface, it is amazing. Fast upload speeds, far nicer looking than smug-mug which I used to use, you can set security levels and clients can create a favourites list and make notes on images having never used the software/website before. I would really recommend looking at it, you can integrate it with your own branding and the mail templates just rocks. It take no time to learn and has honestly made me look more professional and sped up my delivery work flow massively. (You can probably do the same with smug mug but it takes a lot longer to get it looking good and it eats up more shooting time)

I send a proofing gallery of smaller sized non downloadable images, clients create a favourites list then I will send them a link to download larger file sizes of their favourites. It works for my unit stills and my headshot work.

My squarespace site needs some updating but if interested its www.robyoungsonphotography.com

Check out www.pixieset.com as well

Best of luck,

Rob 
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Rob Youngson - Unit Stills Photographer by Day, Analogue Photographer by Night www.robyoungsonphotography.com - Instagram/Twitter - @unitstillsrob

Analogue_Rob

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Re: Whats your favorite Hosting service these days
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2016, 06:08:12 am »

PS Not sure what the 'Store' option on pixies is like as haven't used it myself but it links t Loxley Colour I think.
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Rob Youngson - Unit Stills Photographer by Day, Analogue Photographer by Night www.robyoungsonphotography.com - Instagram/Twitter - @unitstillsrob
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