For Those Wanting SmugMug

If you haven't looked into smugmug yet, you should, its especially great if your wanting to sell photos online (to your clients or anyone for that matter)

When I talk to most people about smugmug, they are turned off by the cost ($149/year for a commerce account) well, I was just snooping around and found a coupon for 50% of any account) thats right, 50% not $50

the code is YaHoO

Happy shopping

 

I use a power account, and I have to say, the $60 a year I pay for unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, video, galleries, no ads and all the other nice things that come with it is well worth it. You can also get a basic account for $40 a year that still has most of what you get with the $60 account. I only got the $60 account so I could post videos of my daughter for my in-laws to see.

 

Question: why would one bother to use a online picture hosting site and pay for it as well when this can be achieved by using Flickr, Picasa and other FREE websites???

 

The main difference is Smugsmug site has a build-in system capable of selling your photos.

 

because smugmug is NOT just a host... it is a store.. when i do a shoot, I give my client a link and a password, they go to the site, pick the pictures they want, put their CC number in, and the photos are printed and shipped to them and the print quality is amazing.

You can set your own prices on the photos, they take a small cut, but, they handle all the finance work on their end.

 

Thanx for all the information ... i really wasn't aware of all that.
I'm prolly gonna start with a basic account for now ... because I don't have any clients =)

 

no prob, it really is a great service, the pro account allows you to do a LOT, video included.. if you have clients, its totally worth it, even at full cost, so 50% off is even better!.. if you get a basic account, and then decide you want to upgrade, you can do that!

 

SmugMug also allows you to configure how your images are handled by their system. When you use Flickr or Photobucket, they process your images after you upload them. They usually compress them more and sometimes they apply additional sharpening and stuff. Photobucket absolutely ruins images IMHO.

With SmugMug you can disable all image changes, they won't even compress them. You can set how much sharpening is done and other things as well. I disable all of this so my images display exactly as they do on my computer nativey in Photoshop.

 

..................Zenfolio...................

www.zenfolio.com all that smugmug does PLUS.....CHECK IT OUT.......Only $100 a year (not $149) Better lab IMO (Mpix, frames too..cha-ching) Sell digital files (reduced commision).

Referral Code: TEY-M6D-6DG You save $5 and I get a $5 credit.

 

Zenfolio looks great, but I'm pretty heavily committed to SmugMug at this point. I have a custom domain pointing there and everything.

Is that possible with Zenfolio? I don't see that option in my setup screen.

Right now I have inTempus Photography- powered by SmugMug pointing to my SmugMug account.

 

I've been on the fence but, with the 50% off I had to go with it.

Thanks for the info.

 

One word:

Control

You have control over practically everything, even with the basic account. With a power account ($60 a year) you can even customize your galleries to not look like smugmug's standard galleries. You can also use your own domain.

As has been said, smugmug doesn't mess with your photos at all. And there are no ads. The question should be, why are you using a crappy free service like Flickr and Picasa, when you can pay a measly $3.34 a month (basic membership) for an online sharing site with much more to offer.