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Archive 2012 · Smugmug Price Increase

  
 
bthatton
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Smugmug Price Increase


Hi all -

So, some of you may know that Smugmug increased their prices from $150 per year for a Business account to $300 per year. I am up for renewal in November. I signed up with Smugmug when I first got started not really knowing what to do really and just stuck with it.

It holds all 480GB of my galleries. Clients can make lists of favorites that I use to draw from for album design and it prints to WHCC which I like. Is there any reason for me to switch to say Zenfolio or something else? The album whore in me wants to use the new Queensberry Workspace but the pricing is making me squeamish.

Making prints equates to 0.00000009% of my income so while I do want the functionality I want it to happen with as little involvement on my part as possible. I really just want a smart way of presenting images to clients (wedding as well as non wedding).

In order of importance this is what is most important to me:
- ease of uploading and creating galleries
- ability for clients to organize images into "favorites" or something to that effect
- ability to enable or disable client digital downloads directly from the site
- printing to a good lab with zero effort on my part

What's your favorite image hosting/print fulfillment service?



Sep 01, 2012 at 08:44 AM
nguyencs
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Smugmug Price Increase


I am looking into Zenfolio and Simply Studio.

Simply Studio may be worth the little extra money if you're in need of a management system. It has galleries, order fulfillment, client favorites, no commission on prints.

Zenfolio may be the cheaper alternative.



Sep 01, 2012 at 08:52 AM
maxwell1295
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Smugmug Price Increase


What a coincedence. I just saw this in some FB photographer group. My first thought was I hope Zenfolio doesn't do the same thing. If you think about it $300 isn't that much for what it does. It's a convenient way to let clients see their images, make album selections, order prints, etc. It's another means of backup for you as well.


Sep 01, 2012 at 08:55 AM
Robin Usagani
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Smugmug Price Increase


That sucks. I love zenfolio and I always refer people to them (3 referrals so far). Make sure you contact me when you do move so we both safe $10 hahahahaah.

But seriously... Zenfolio HAS increased their price but they have NOT increased the price to existing members. Only to new members. I thought that is a classy move.



Sep 01, 2012 at 08:55 AM
Mitch W
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Smugmug Price Increase


I got this too. Like you I sell no prints using smug. Because of this I will likely go with their Portfolio acct, which is half the cost of the Business acct. In fact, I may even look into going with their $60 Power acct since I use them strictly for proofing galleries these days. There was a time when I took print orders off of smugmug, but I actually think I've been wasting money on the Pro acct these past few years. Actually glad this came up.


Sep 01, 2012 at 09:01 AM
Inku Yo
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Smugmug Price Increase


This is what I use to proof and accept print orders. I don't sell many prints, but when I do I simply self fulfill at the pro lab of my choice. $329 one time payment and you host it yourself.

http://www.picturespro.com/i/photo_cart/



Sep 01, 2012 at 09:14 AM
joosay
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Smugmug Price Increase


Inku Yo wrote:
This is what I use to proof and accept print orders. I don't sell many prints, but when I do I simply self fulfill at the pro lab of my choice. $329 one time payment and you host it yourself.

http://www.picturespro.com/i/photo_cart/


Thanks, I was thinking about Red Cart but it is $999 for the self-hosted, one time payment version.



Sep 01, 2012 at 09:27 AM
mcarriere987
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Smugmug Price Increase


We are totally frustrated. We bought a one year subscription and they aren't even allowing us to finish that subscription. We are REQUIRED to upgrade on Oct 15.

See ya later Smug.



Sep 01, 2012 at 10:38 AM
Mitch W
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Smugmug Price Increase


mcarriere987 wrote:
We are totally frustrated. We bought a one year subscription and they aren't even allowing us to finish that subscription. We are REQUIRED to upgrade on Oct 15.

See ya later Smug.

Seriously? How did you learn that? I checked my profile earlier and it still had my normal renew date.



Sep 01, 2012 at 10:51 AM
alohadave
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Smugmug Price Increase


mcarriere987 wrote:
We are totally frustrated. We bought a one year subscription and they aren't even allowing us to finish that subscription. We are REQUIRED to upgrade on Oct 15.

See ya later Smug.


A couple of people on another board have reported that they called and the price increase won't affect them until their renewal.



Sep 01, 2012 at 12:19 PM
Ziffl3
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Smugmug Price Increase


yep.. mine is not effective until next year.


Sep 01, 2012 at 01:26 PM
sivrajbm
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Smugmug Price Increase


Inku Yo wrote:
This is what I use to proof and accept print orders. I don't sell many prints, but when I do I simply self fulfill at the pro lab of my choice. $329 one time payment and you host it yourself.

http://www.picturespro.com/i/photo_cart/


+1
I like all of the options still uploading and setting it up. Great program though...



Sep 01, 2012 at 01:38 PM
ai3x
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Smugmug Price Increase


Hmm I've just started using them and spent quite a while customising it to look like my website. Just got it the way I like it and now they've put the price up.

Was a touch displeased recently as well with the amount they make out of every order. Gave a client a giftcard as part of their album package and the bill I got for the prints was much higher than I was expecting. I also don't like the way that they brand all of the checkout pages. Hmph...



Sep 01, 2012 at 03:10 PM
DigMeTX
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Smugmug Price Increase


That stinks. I had not even noticed.. I just checked and I still have the same renewal date. I looked at their plans though and for me it says $250/yr rather than $300.

One thing I've come to love about them is Bay Photo. They nail it every time. I guess I could seek some other service and self-fulfill directly with them rather than through Smug.

I recently heard an interview on This Week in Photo with a guy who has started a new website called GoPixit that has some unique things about it but that can also do order fulfillment and proofing. I haven't really looked into it yet but the pro price is $140. Might be worth checking out.

brad




Sep 01, 2012 at 03:39 PM
nolaguy
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Smugmug Price Increase


+ 1 for Bay Photo


Sep 01, 2012 at 03:58 PM
mcarriere987
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Smugmug Price Increase


after an email to them they confirmed I won't have to renew until my subscription expires.. the email I got confused me a bit.. glad we sorted that out!


Sep 01, 2012 at 05:58 PM
sboerup
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Smugmug Price Increase


Inku Yo wrote:
This is what I use to proof and accept print orders. I don't sell many prints, but when I do I simply self fulfill at the pro lab of my choice. $329 one time payment and you host it yourself.

http://www.picturespro.com/i/photo_cart/


Mind if I ask a few questions Inku? Is there an option to turn off indexing by search engines? I see it has an expiration date on the galleries, but, does it collect log-in emails and send them automatic reminders about the gallery expiration?

FWIW, I hate online galleries as a means of presenting images to the client. I hate it and think it hurts the industry, and hurts the photographer's bottom line. Unfortunately it is so widely accepted that most b&g's would find it a turn-off if you didn't offer an online method of proofing. I'd love to see them disappear completely



Sep 01, 2012 at 06:18 PM
cas5
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Smugmug Price Increase


@Spencer - I'm using photo cart as well. Totally agree, online galleries hurt sales. The best way to address search engine indexing is to create a robots.txt file and include the following lines:

User-Agent: *
Disallow: /photocart/

That'll stop all the well behaved search engines. Yes you can send reminders on gallery expiration. One of the nicest features is that you have the source code and can make it do whatever your heart desires. I read that they are going into beta on version 7 soon.



Sep 01, 2012 at 09:03 PM
bthatton
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Smugmug Price Increase


http://intothedarkroom.com/vend-photo-cart/

This looks interesting and I'm sure there is a coupon code to be had!



Sep 01, 2012 at 11:18 PM
DigMeTX
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Smugmug Price Increase


I spoke to GoPIXIT and they said they will contact Bay Photo to add them as an available printer. That's one thing about it is that they say you can use any print house you want to fulfill orders. I think I'll be giving them a try when I get closer to my smugmug expiration date.

brad



Sep 01, 2012 at 11:41 PM
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