Any other Smugmug users?

crystalview · Feb 21, 2005

I'm curious to see how many others are using smugmug.

Also, what sort of numbers are you pulling as far as hits and percentages overall?

Artemis · Feb 21, 2005

Hehe that be best asked to chase, but im sure we get atleast 5 new members a day :S

And we have ALOT of active members...but yeh ask Chase!

crystalview · Feb 21, 2005

WOW, I had to edit my initial post...I must have been off in space. What i meant was the numbers for your smugmug account. I'm gathering that not too many people on this forum use smugmug though.

I was curious because my first month, I had roughly 4000 hits. This month, nearly 50,000.

danalec99 · Feb 22, 2005

It varies each month.

Aoide · Feb 22, 2005

I use smugmug, mainly for photos that I'm going to post on forums. I honestly haven't really looked at my statistics, because it is not my main photo site.

GerryDavid · Feb 22, 2005

Im considering smugmug. I currently use pbase and I havent been happy with them lately. After I upload a picture, it can take days for it to be stable when linked on forums, and thier support sucks big time, at least when ive tried to ask them stuff.

I dont like the idea of them printing and sending it directly to the customer, since I would like to see it and aprove it before sending it. But if thier printing is reliable, it might be ok. I wonder what thier lab is like, if they are pretty good at keeping a color profile or if its more like walmart level.

Once I do weddings, it would be nice to have a host where I can dump a few hundred pictures into a few catagories for proofing, and maybe some sales to thier friends/family. One site I looked at that is a professional site wants $50us a month for the basic package. But they offer some services that I dont think smugmug even considered, but I could be wrong. Ill have to look into it more. The features would be keeping track of people's emails that visit the galleries *they have to be logged in on the site* and emails them after a while if they dont buy anything after visiting the gallery, apperantly this really helps sales. Also it lets them zoom in on a picture to see if people are blinking or not, another feature that can help boost sales.

Also the name "smugmug" doesnt sound real professional, when you give a client a link, hmmmmm.

Lots to think about.

danalec99 · Feb 22, 2005

GerryDavid said:
Also the name "smugmug" doesnt sound real professional, when you give a client a link, hmmmmm.

You can have your own URL on the smugmug platform if you sign up for the Pro account.

GerryDavid · Feb 22, 2005

Pro costs more. :0) I dont mind $30 a year, but more than that is out of my range right now. But if I get regular weddings, itll be a consideration.

seo3y · Apr 18, 2005

GerryDavid said:
Pro costs more. :0) I dont mind $30 a year, but more than that is out of my range right now.

Gerry, US$100/year is a drop in the ocean compared to that other site you listed at $50/mo. Do the math - a pro smugmug account would cost you less than $8.50 per month. If you're considering only a personal account, it's still worth it for sharing photos online, in my opinion. Check out my galleries at http://scottieo.smugmug.com if you're not convinced. You can even save yourself some money by using coupon sL2HLom4aoVlQ during signup.

GerryDavid · Apr 18, 2005

seo3y said:
Gerry, US$100/year is a drop in the ocean compared to that other site you listed at $50/mo. Do the math - a pro smugmug account would cost you less than $8.50 per month. If you're considering only a personal account, it's still worth it for sharing photos online, in my opinion. Check out my galleries at http://scottieo.smugmug.com if you're not convinced. You can even save yourself some money by using coupon sL2HLom4aoVlQ during signup.

Im already a member of smugmug. Im with the basic account, and hopefully I can get enough referrals to get the pro account. $100 is a drop in the ocean true but ive got to many things to pay for coming up to spend the extra $70, so im going to try to get 7 referrals, hehe.

But once I start doing weddings Ill probably upgrade to the pro account anywase to try to get more sales. I really want to offer metalic prints for it though so thats one of a few concerns.

And I know $50 a month is more expensive than $100 a year but if I signed up with them it would only be for a few months at a time for each wedding *hopefully including many weddings in each month*. The site looks really professional and is geared for wedding photography. With smugmug you have to mess around with css and stuff in the pro account to get it to look like that. Also the other site allows you to do metalic prints, smugmug doesnt. Im not sure if the $50 a month site gives you the ability to do back side printing, but it would be a great feature. I know the smugmug users have a thread on that trying to get it as a feature.

I would probably only go for the $50 a month one if I was making really good money off of wedding's and that probably wont be for a few years, if it does happen.