First off I'm sorry for everyone who's going through this. I've had a host split on me and lost everything and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. *and for clarification I don't use Blu Domain and never have*
As a way to help out and offer relief for those who's sites are gone we are considering opening up our service early for ONE DOLLAR a month for three months until you can get through the wedding season and make a decision on what you'd like to do for your website.
Showit Sites is still in beta but sites can be made very quickly and we use Amazon S3 for our hosting so we have everything stored and backed up in two places on separate sides of the country so you know that even if a natural disaster happened your data and your business will be safe with us.
Post up here or email me directly if you're needing to get your site up asap.
All the best,
DJ
*There is more conversation on this inside the forum*
*
37 comments:
Call me. I have some advice to offer.
Dan
What's up Dan :) ... I tried to email you but I don't think you have your email address posted on your site. Hit me up - dj@davidjay.com
Would this be open to just Blu Domain customers?
David Jay, we at BLUDOMAIN think it's very unfortunate for you to stoop so low to get attention for your new company.
WE have over the years promoted you, and been nothing but supportive in your SHOW IT WEB venture including giving your clients the support at no cost and recommending your company to thousands. Why spit on a company that helped pave your way today?
Your knowledge of what happened with 40 clients of ours amongst the many of ten of thousands that we cater to clearly misinformed. Do you ever bother to investigate the issue from the source before recklessly posting like this. This was an unfortunate accident that could happen to anyone including you. It's a shame that you feel the need to exploit another's misfortunate to promote yourself. We have been working tirelessly for our clients to ensure the issues are rectified and that they are adequately compensated for the inconveinance this has caused
David Jay your EGO is unbelievable! You should be ashamed.
Wow...I am shocked. I have always looked up to you David, but I must say that I agree with bludomain. This is a horrible way to promote a new product. One of my good friends lost his site in this unfortunate incident, and has had nothing but good things to say with the way bludomain has stepped up to the plate, and took care of him. He is already back up and running with a brand new template.
Very disappointed...Robin
LOL, not sure what to say about the above, but I have of course played with the software and I was wondering, do we have to host on your servers or can we post this to our own servers.
Remember its all about the freedom. :)
Brody
I currently host with bludomain and have nothing but good things to say about them. It is sad that you would use someone else's misfortune to promote yourself. There are plenty of photographers / potential sales to go around. This selfish display is enough to turn me off your product.
Signed,
one sale lost
Wow. I'm shocked by this. Sh*t happens. Nobody and nothing is perfect. It sucks yes, but again, it happens. We also host with Blu and have had no problems with them. I come here a lot to be inspired or learn new things and this was a shocker.
I currently have a BLU site, have not encountered any of the bad things I had heard about BLU (and have made sure I have shared that info with other photographers on many forums), and can say that I have fully enjoyed my experience with them.
Having said that, 40 lost sites in comparison to 10,000 is minimal, and if that is the case, then BLU has reason to be upset. But I would imagine that the 40 lost is for those who hosted with BLU - and not just clients who have purchased BLU templates. To me, that's a huge difference. Now, I could be wrong, but I would imagine that BLU does not host into the tens of thousands.
If my hunch here is correct, BLU has unfairly misrepresented the facts in order to make their problem look much smaller than it actually was. BLU has two separate services: selling templates and hosting sites. DJ's post addresses the latter while BLU's comment addresses the former. If you're going to blast someone like you did, at least be honest. If in fact you do host in the tens of thousands, I retract this statement. If you don't, you made a very dishonest implication (even though you might not have meant to).
DJ, I see nothing wrong with telling people who lost their sites that you will let them try out yours for (basically) free to a) get a site up fast and b) see if they want to switch.
To BLU, if you lose business over this post then there are likely more problems than just this blog. If I lost a site through you guys (I chose not to host with blu), I would take DJ up on his offer. If I liked it better I would switch. If I didn't, I would stay. Bottom line, it would be your product (and not a blog post) that would either keep me or lose me. This seems like you are using this post as an opportunity to take the wind out of showit sites sales before it gets rolling more than it seems DJ was doing something unethical. I'm definitely disappointed.
Bobby
** We host 98% of our clientale's websites.
haha...wow deej...you're apparently way under fire for being a good guy, and business man. anyway...i hadnt heard anything happened with blu. that's a major bummer, but at the same time, its life. i was thinking about hosting with them, but may be changing my mind. lol. anyway. i think there's nothing wrong with volunteering to help out those who lost sites. apparently someone is just looking to pick a fight.
miss you! lots of love!
"We host 98% of our clientale's websites."
I know a bunch of people who have blu sites. Only one hosts with blu. I have a very hard time believing that 98% of wedding photographers (which is who DJ is talking to, after all) who buy blu templates also host with blu. I'm not saying it isn't true, but I wouldn't believe it without seeing numbers.
Bobby
Also, you said that this could happen to anyone. If what DJ said is correct and his hosting company backs up on opposite sides of the coast, then no, it wouldn't have happened for showit sites.
Thank you Brittany and others who realize that I was offering a NO COST AND NO COMMITMENT service to help other photographers who's sites were deleted.
They could always go back to any service they wanted but in the meantime they need a site and we can help with that.
All is fair in love and war [and business].
I am not biased either - I have every one of DJ's products and I have two Blu websites. :D
Lawrence
Furious Photographers
I think it's sad that a large company has to come on here and give DJ a hard time. Welcome to the world of business Blu--he isn't playing unfair, he is offering support to those in need, and if those people decide to stay with him then you'll get over it, if they decide to stay with you, it's no loss. I don't think the CEO's of Mac and Dell try to battle on their blogs, in fact I'll bet if anything they partner up. So pick on someone your own size!
@ DJ - Great thought mate- sad to hear about it however large or small the clientèle... (spelling - you can do it bludomain!!) Great incentive - $1/month for three months is amazing..
@ BluDomain - I'm one of your customers. It took forever to deliver my files. It takes forever to get an answer from your support concierges, over a week just isn't on... I like my site - but I'm not hosting with you because all the sites hosted with you that I'd been too were terribly slow.
I've been a ShowIt customer for three years. Been on Beta Testing - Todd is awesome, Jason's good - and DJ actually answers email. Can you guys say the same?
Next - why did this happen? What happened to redundancy? The service you charge for needs to be reflected in speed, and safety of data. Pull your socks up, blow your nose, wipe the tears from your eyes, and face up to some pretty big issues. This could have been approached in the manner of "Thanks DJ for assisting our customer base with $3 for a quarter and NO additional investment..." alas - no...
Am I considering becoming a "lifer" for a larger investment than the recently reduced price of your sites that I've already sunk into them? Sure am...
DJ scares you that much? Wow...
DJ is a smart cookie, for sure. There is a need for reliability ... and he is willing to provide it.
Sorry about the woes, Blu, but because of all of the grumbles I've heard from customers, I REFUSED to go with a Blu site. Period. Basically, man up. Admit your mistake. Move on.
I just started tinkering around with ShowIt Sites for my editorial site this MORNING and am excited to get it rolling!!!!
DJ,
You have my support fully! It just speaks highly of you that Bludomain is that intimidated by you and your wisdom.
ROCK ON!
dj, dj, dj....
you pot stirrer, you! how dare you mention that something bad happened to a business!?!?! this is ludicrous...lol.
dude, i'm sorry but what you did was in total fairness and while i wondered what blu would do (yes, that rhymed), i also knew that if someone did this to me - i'd totally buck up and deal with the consequences of my misfortune. as someone else stated, this really would NOT have happened to showit because the data will always be alive and well in two separate places. if blu had done this (i feel it's a common sense move if you're hosting sites) then dj would have never had to opportunity to...........*gasp*...............talk about it!!!!!!! aghhhhh!!!!
lol.
but all kidding aside. i do host my site with blu and i've had no problems other than about 50% of my customer support questions (as was mentioned earlier) go unanswered for at least a few days. that's a bummer.
and all kidding aside again....i'm DYING to become a lifer with showit sites. it's amazing and we're literally doing everything we can to budget for it because we're right at the cusp of senior season and we've allocated ALL of our funds to that. just a few more weeks and we'll be in for everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
lol.
my two cents.
It's sad and I sympathize, but the people who lost their sites could and should have backed up their sites themselves. It's a simple matter to access the Bludomain host by FTP and do a backup to whatever source you choose. Bludomain provides clear and simple instructions for FTP access. I do it whenever I make significant changes to my site. It's just good business practice to protect your own assets if possible, even if you are paying someone else for hosting. True freedom resides within.
My goodness BluDomain -- your post above was trying to shift blame and not take responsiblilty. You come across like a bunch of teenagers running the company. The fact that you lost 1 person's data is unacceptable. The fact that you say "it can happen to anyone" is trying to make it seem ok to do so. It isn't. You need to hire a good PR firm to handle these situations because clearly you come across as something less than competent.
Well I am not too sure of what to say here. I agree with Blu that it could seem like an attempt at trying to lure customers to DJ's new product...he's a business man now, not a photographer anymore...lol j/k love ya DJ.
On the other hand, I have to say that I respect DJ for giving those 40 customers (as few as that truly is in the realm of things) a free site...what other company would do that? As for Blu, I think this will bury them, I am a customer of Blu and while not satisfied at all with their customer support, I do like their product.
Personally, I would drop Blu in a heartbeat if their was a comparable product out their with a similar price point but I have struggled to find one.
Not having back-ups for a company like Blu is completely unacceptable!!! There is absolutely no excuse. If they had the proper back-ups, say for the night before, they could have at least put the sites back up the way they were and the customers may have lost minimal info.
I am considering the switch to ShowIt Sites! I like the idea and once I get to try it maybe I will love it enough to pull the plug.
As far as DJ, seriously bud, you don't know me and I don't know you "personally" but I am a huge fan of your work. Keep the great attitude and as you say in one of my favorite videos...KEEP THE PASSION!
Okay...so last night when I read DJ's post I thought "WOW, that was bold, and what a bummer that BluDomain is no longer." Did anyone else read it like this?
But then I read some comments this morning and reread the post, and I thought back to a conversation that DJ and I had (DJ correct me if my memory is bad here).
DJ said, "I've had a host split on me and lost everything and it was one of the worst experiences of my life." But he is not referring to BluDomain here, he is referring to a past host. So far every post I've read about BluDomain on DJ's site has been positive or neutral. I have no idea if he still hosts with BluDomain (DJ?). But what we see here is the danger and easy misinterpretation of "written" versus "spoken" word. Posts and email get interpreted in the manner of the readers current emotional state, which for BluDomain was probably stressed.
My guess is if DJ "said" this versus "wrote" it even BlueDomain would have responded differently.
I do think DJ is "marketing" but I don't think he is "guerrilla marketing". This is a HUGE difference.
The post could have been worded to make it a bit more clear what exactly may have happened to BluDomain, but it would seem more business savvy and responsible for BluDomain to have a post on their own blog providing a "Root Cause Analysis" that they could have linked to on this blog.
I worked for an application service provider for almost a decade and it's standard protocol when an outage occurs...and you want to be the first to let the customer base know...not another customer.
BluDomain's response when read from a business versus emotional perspective very much says, "Oh crap! A better product provided with better service by someone with a stellar reputation has popped up to help out our customers in trouble for almost no cost. We should surely revert accurate-information-rhetoric and name calling and avoid further reputation damage." (That is exactly how it reads BluDomain.)
How about instead posting the link to a root cause that includes a blurb about how BluDomain will provide their service for x months at no cost to everyone hurt by the outage (minimal if for only 40 customers) with the hope that they stay.
To BluDomain: I feel your pain...I have been there. But competitors (even ones you helped and supported) will be there to gain market share when you fall down. Welcome to capitalism. Time to focus inwards and reflect on even the few comments about poor customer support (I'm guessing there are more though), fix them, and then look forward to see what you need to do to keep your market share. If your eyes are always looking back you will suddenly realize there is no one behind you...and that is a scary place to be.
DJ: In looking at this from the outside your words "read" to lack some of the integrity that I know you have. If BluDomain has or is a big supporter of you I hope that you pick up the phone to talk with BluDomain and repair what may be a severed relationship. I think it would be good for the "let's help each other" community that you foster to know that you and BluDomain want what is best for both of your customers.
I'm not a photographer and my business doesn't rely on my website (which is why it is still under construction). But I do think of myself as someone that understands business, and in thinking it through DJ's offer it is both kind to those in need, savy and smart for his own company, and sure spurred some lively conversation.
My long winded take...take it or leave it.
Hey thanks Kevin and sorry for the misunderstanding.
I've never had any type of relationship with Blu Domain and have never used any of their services.
Again, I was just trying to offer a quick solution with no strings attached.
....from what I've heard I don't think contacting them to resolve issues will get any response and I would prefer they respond to their customers and deal with their issues first anyway.
It's astonishing to see how you chase power, money and fame. Anyone can read between the lines. Hard work and good manners is the key to success. I do not believe DJ that you had good intentions of writing this post. I am in shock that this is the same guy who I once admired.
heard about this today in art class... :)I do think it's interesting that Blu Domain is actually helping you get more awareness of show it sites by posting the way they did. Creating buzz is a powerful thing - even if your trying to paint something in a not so great light. Something for everyone the think about! ;)
I'm really confused that some of you guys are blacklisting DJ. Do you understand what happened here? Bludomain doesn't have their clients' info backed up! That's a terrible, terrible thing and DJ was kind in not overly exploiting that fact.
I feel bad for Blu as they have been good to me, but this is the type of blunder that puts businesses down. The way to avoid this mess isn't to blame DJ. It's to say "we messed up and now we are going to have a backed up system."
Bludomain is trying to blame DJ for this huge mistake so you think "boy, DJ sure is mean" instead of thinking "wow! Bludomain doesn't backup their clients' information!"
Bobby
p.s. it's also a bit much to claim that you (BLUDOMAIN) paved the way for DJ. That was where I realized I couldn't take your post seriously.
i do think it's funny that blu totally made this about 534 billion times more of a bigger deal by flipping out like they did.
amazing. i'd guess thousands more people now know about showit sites than before. and not because of dj's post - but because of the bite-back posted by blu.
what an interesting world. i've said this before on gary's site..."blogs are wieeerd, man".
Again, we are just trying to help and I can live with 3 or 4 people being upset but there will always be people who attack what I do but I'm convinced that if I keep trying to help people that the positive will win out.
Rock on,
DJ
Dj I've said it before & I'll say it again. You a freakin' Genius! LOL Rock on bro!
Not sure what the real issue is here? bludomain has some sort of issue once a month or so where emails, sites or servers are affected-for a technology company they really have NO idea about technology. If you use there service this is to be expected. And everyone does have an issue every once in a while, this forum has even gone down before. To air dirty laundry this way is quite unprofessional and to attack DJ is crazy! DJ has to be loving the publicity though :) I would guess that blu's days are numbered!
Apparently this is a hot topic!
Anyone who actually knows you shouldn't doubt your intentions, as a good business person, and as a good person. You've sure got a list of haters though. Geeze Louise.
Wow DJ, you sure can stir up trouble! :)
Blu just shot itself in the head with their post.
How old are the owners?? Maybe their parents need to be informed...
When I initially saw the post, it did feel blatantly opportunistic , but then I thought..."This is an opportunity for D.J. and Showit Sites. Blu-domain has made a series of serious mistakes in their provision of services and DJ has been working on his product for months prior to their gaffe. D.J. would be a fool not to capitalize on Blu's lapses."
D.J. is in a position to provide relief for those affected and from all accounts he is the sort of guy who would and has done things like this altruistically. However it's a little disingenuous of him to coyly sidestep that PART of the motivation of doing so is to bolster his own product profile at the expense of Blu's bottom line. When it comes down to it, it's Blu's fault for even being in this position. Chiding David isn't going to fix any problems they've made for themselves and it will only hurt their image and drive more customers into Showit Sites.
But don't be surprised to see Bludomain hit back. David has opened up a front he may regret if anything significant goes wrong with his launch of Showit sites.
Come on, really? No backups? Really?
As to the controversy...
Was this opportunistic of DJ? Yes. But you know what? Business is business and I would have done the same thing as any smart business person would have done.
Besides, more competition is great for all of us!
I can honestly say that I've liked the David Jay products I've used in the past so as a customer I'm quite happy. However, I think DJ just served notice to his competitors that he's in it to win it.
Response to Bludomains response; NO, your company should be ashamed of yourselves!!! I have only been a Bludomain customer for 1 week...that's right 1 WEEK ONLY and have numerous submit tickets and two phone support requests promising to get back with me and still have yet to receive their phone calls. The list of issues I have would be too long to list here, but one of them (that none of the email support team seems to understand) is that when I bought the Oscar template it asks if I'd like to add a background and then there's a link to 'view textures backgrounds' but every SINGLE time 3 different people (one was me, another my husband, and the third was a neighbor who is a programmer of all things) and he couldn't even locate the zipped file. And when we did find it there were error messages that the file won't open because it's either missing pieces, is invalid or courrupt. I've told this in an email submit ticket and they still don't get it and haven't even answer more than probably 7 other issues I am facing. I've had to close my site at www.christianscreationsphotography.com which means I lose potential clients who can't view my work!!! This is shameful that I have spend countless hours and money that is non-refundable even though I've only been a customer for literally 7 DAYS...that's right JUST ONE WEEK AND ALREADY A DOZEN PROBLEMS WITH VERY LITTLE HELP AND NOT PHONE CALLS TO ME YET!!!!
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