2023 Annual update

Hello!

What an exciting (and FAST) year it's been. It's hard to believe we're approaching the end of 2023. Normally an end of the year email is sent out in the later part of December. However, there's some upcoming changes in 2024 that I wanted to make everyone aware of with as much advanced notice as possible. Please be sure to read this email as it's not a monthly newsletter, it contains important information that could be relevant to your account with SKY6 MEDIA. So, let's dive right into the annual briefing and what you can expect moving forward into 2024.

Price increase

This is something that we try to avoid as much as possible, and we try to maintain the same prices as much as we can. Sometimes this hurts us, but we try to do what's best for our customers. However sometimes the inevitable happens and we much adapt to current pricing structures from our vendors. Beginning January 1, 2024, our prices will increase slightly. Here are the prices that we’re raising:

We tried to keep this increase as minimal as possible, and hope that you can understand that raising our prices isn’t something that we take lightly.

Hosting options

Our most common hosting option is our VPS shared hosting, however there are other options that may benefit you depending on the demand of your website.

                Shared Public Hosting

                                If you’re using a shared public host, then you’re sharing a single server with multiple (hundreds or thousands) of websites. This means you’re sharing important resources like memory and disk space with other companies’ websites. While this is cost effective for many users, it also puts your website more at risk with security concerns. If one website is hacked, then it potentially exposes your website and valuable data. There are also scalability limitations so if one website is using all the server resources, then your website suffers.

                Shared VPS Hosting

                                If you’re using a shared VPS host, then you’re getting the elements of both shared public hosting, and dedicated hosting. This is a happy medium between the 2. A physical server is partitioned into multiple virtual servers for each website. Each server operates independently with its own operating system, resources, and configurations. Your resources are shared with isolation. It’s easy to manage and allocate resources to each individual partition. This is also a much more secure option and is scalable to fit each website’s needs.

            VPS Dedicated

                                A dedicated VPS is like a shared VPS except your website gets all the resources and there are no partitions for other websites. The whole VPS is yours.

                Amazon LightSail

                                We use AWS’ Amazon LightSail for the larger websites with more demand. This is a preconfigured virtual server utilizing AWS cloud technology. The servers are fully scalable to fit whatever needs the website may need. For more information on Amazon LightSail, visit https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/

 We do have new pricing for various hosting options that we offer. If you’re interested in a hosting option other than the VPS shared that you’re currently using, please feel free to reach out to us to obtain a quote for other hosting options.

New customer portal

For years we’ve used the same platform for our CRM software. However, we’re transitioning to a new system for 2024. It operates very similarly from a customer standpoint and in managing your account. Things do look slightly different, and we have also started with a clean database. This means that no payment information has been copied to the new system. While we’ve been testing and evaluating this new software for a while, it’s still new to us and there may be hiccups along the way. If you notice something that’s not working right, please reach out and let us know so we can get it corrected. You can purchase new services, modify existing services, and open support tickets right from your account. You can also pay invoices easier with a single click from the email sent.

Within the next several weeks, we will be adding your account to the new system. You will receive a verification email to verify your email address once your account is added. Please be sure to click to verify your address once you receive this email. Starting in January 2024 you will need to use the new client portal to open support tickets and pay invoices.

You may also continue to use the existing client portal until the end of January 2024, even if your account has been activated on the new system.

OLD CLIENT PORTAL URL: https://console.sky6.media

NEW CLIENT PORTAL URL: https://cloud.sky6.media

With the new customer portal, all invoices and system emails will come from account@sky6.media and this is an unmonitored account. Please do not respond to any emails from this account.

Support tickets

To help us streamline support and keep track of requested updates, we ask all customers to please use your customer portal mentioned above to request website updates and other support questions. Once you login, you can click on the support option from the menu, then click open a support ticket and include your request there. If you’re sending any password or username information in the support ticket, please select Encrypt Message in the lower right-hand corner of the ticket detail.

Please be advised that if you bypass this process and send a direct email, your support request will be delayed because we will open a support ticket on your behalf.

This will help us be more effective and efficient in helping each of our customers. It will also help us keep track of how much support/updates are being used by each client per month.

Knowledgebase

With our new customer support portal, we have added a new knowledge-base system. This answers the most common questions that our customers have. This knowledge base will be constantly evolving and building itself based on what our customers ask. You can find answers to most any question you would have for us for instant answers in this knowledgebase. The knowledgebase can be found at https://cloud.sky6.media/knowledgebase/

Referral program

In 2024 we are bringing back our customer referral program. This is something that was a big hit when we last offered it. It’s very simple, we pay you for referrals! If you refer us to someone and we complete a project for them, you get paid. It’s that simple. We pay 10% of the invoice total for all referrals with no limitations. So, if you refer a new client to us and we complete a project for them and they are invoiced $900, then we will send you a check for $90. Everyone loves free money, and we love new customers. The only restriction is that the customer MUST tell us that you referred them BEFORE their initial invoice is paid.

Testimonials

Speaking of free money, how would you like $10? We need testimonials. If you email us a testimonial talking about our service(s) that we offer you, we will credit your account with a $10 credit that you can use toward any product or service. It doesn’t get any easier than that, does it? Just send your testimonial to josh@sky6.media and we will publish it on our website and notify you that the $10 has been credited to your account.

Scam mail

We want to remind you that we do not use the United States Postal Service. If you receive any mail stating you need to renew your domain or any other product related to your website, you can disregard that mail. We will never send mail through the USPS. All our billing is done electronically and will come from account@sky6.media

However, if you manage your own domain name(s), you may get mail from your registrar of that domain.

Redesign special

With the new year coming, it’s time to consider a new website. In general, a company should update their website every 1-2 years to stay current with company information, trending designs, and just to give your site a fresh look. Website advancements happen so rapidly and if you’re not keeping up, you’re getting left behind. Some enhancements to your website you may consider are adding a booking option to allow your customers to book appointments with you or your staff. You may also consider having us regenerate content for your site using AI. Using AI to generate content for your website enhances your SEO as well as adds much needed content to your website. At SKY6 MEDIA, we are very familiar with and utilize many AI tools such as Jasper, DALL-E 2, ChatGPT 3.5 & ChatGPT 4.0, BingAI, Stable Diffusion 2, Lumen5, as well as others. As an incentive to have you update your website with a fresh new look, we are offering $100 off any redesign! Simply use the coupon code 24REDES100 when paying your invoice on any redesign service. This coupon expires 1/30/24.

EOY stats & suggestions

Each year we send our customers analytic stats for the year as well as website suggestions for the upcoming year. We will still do that this year. This will come in December*. Keep an eye on your inbox for this email to know how your website has performed in 2023.
*However, if you wish to take advantage of the redesign special mentioned above, let us know and we will go ahead and send you those analytics as well as suggestions for the new redesign of your site.

Conclusion

I want to sincerely thank you for being a SKY6 MEDIA customer and supporting an American small business. While we have partners and technologies on a global scale, we’re still based right here in Virginia and are a small business. You’re not supporting a national chain or even a company in another country. Thank you again for trusting us for all your technological needs and we look forward to this wonderful relationship for years to come.