Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

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g-money
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p.3 #1 · Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

DigMeTX wrote:
g-money wrote:
Am I the only one that uses Instaproofs. I have been with them for years now and they are in a word awesome to deal with.

Can you do coupons through them? I don't see any mention of it on their website. Can customers pay directly with credit card?

brad

Yes Coupons, digital downloads, gift certificates, products etc They take all major forms of CC,

Greg

Jan 17, 2013 at 02:28 AM

lukevdp
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p.3 #2 · Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

How did you go choosing a photo proofing cart?

A good one to look at is Photography Orders http://www.photographyorders.com simple and easy to use

A couple of others

redcart.com - great client front end, admin backend is a bit confusing
Picpick.com - expensive but good feature set
kTools.net - lots of features but the ui isn't as intuitive

Feb 11, 2013 at 08:28 PM

BigIronCruiser
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p.3 #3 · Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

Anyone have experience with ImageQuix?

Feb 12, 2013 at 01:33 AM

eephoto
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p.3 #4 · Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

Another vote for Zenfolio! Absolutely LOVE IT!

Feb 13, 2013 at 01:52 PM

bthatton
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p.3 #5 · Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

I'm using Zenfolio right now. I like the centralized interface more. That being said I miss this about smugmug:

- Better Lightroom integration.
- Ability to upload edited files and have the option to batch replace. In Zenfolio you have to replace one by one.
- The ability to see clients' favorites gallery selections as they work on them. In Zenfolio you have to wait until they are shared with you. I like being able to see their progress as well as get an idea of the kinds of images they are attracted to in the case of future shoots. (This is more helpful for my non wedding work)

Zenfolio uploading is way more consistent. It's easier to create groups of images, organize and apply batch gallery settings.

Feb 13, 2013 at 04:16 PM

HubbardJA
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p.3 #6 · Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

If your thinking of signing up for Zenfolio, you can save 10% when you join with the coupon code HZ9-HSH-T4R. The code doesn't expire either.

Feb 13, 2013 at 04:40 PM

Ian Ivey
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p.3 #7 · Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

Brad wrote:
I'm looking to change from Smugmug to something else so I'm really interested in this thread. I started a thread here seeking info about a couple more that I'd like to learn about - Photoshelter and Photo Cart standalone software. Please chime in with thoughts if you use either of these. brad

Brad, I started out using SM, then opened a Photoshelter account, and now I've dropped SM and just use Photoshelter. Use Photoshelter promo code YA8YV9UY9R for a discount if you decide to give it a try.

The primary reason I switched was to get away from having someone else's brand name in my URL (Photoshelter allows me to use CNAME so my clients can just visit www.ianivey.com). I wanted to have just one main site, rather than a separate proofing site. Photoshelter's templates are adequate, but not spectacular. If you look at my site, you'll see what I mean -- I'm using one of their templates without alteration. I believe they offer high CSS customization, but not knowing anything about CSS, I haven't investigated.

Photoshelter is very good about SEO features. They provide good advice, prompt you everywhere you could help yourself with helpful green buttons, and are google friendly. My SM site did reasonably well in search results, but Photoshelter makes it easier, and I'm on page 1 for some key search terms.

Like SM, the client experience is hit and miss, but they're improving. I wish cycling through a large gallery was easier. It's not difficult, but it does feel a little clunky; some other folks' sites with side-scrolling continuous image display seems so smooth by comparison.

I wish I could use Bay Photo as a vendor -- Photoshelter offers EZPrints and Adorama, plus one or two others, but I was always partial to Bay when I was using SM. Nevertheless, I've had no complaints from clients about products.

Photoshelter makes self-fulfillment quite easy, if that's important to you. I've started offering a cheaper vendor for wraps, and do all that by self-fulfillment.

Ping me if you have more questions about them.

Feb 13, 2013 at 06:04 PM

minnigphoto
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p.3 #8 · Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

To throw another name into the ring, we have been thrilled with Exposure Manager: www.exposuremanager.com for the last 5 years. They recently merged with Simply Color but are maintaining their own company/product/service with Simply Color being the exclusive lab.

They have always offered everything we were looking for (custom URL, fully customizable html/css, coupons, vouchers, drop shipping or self-fullfillment..etc.). The best thing through the years has been their customer service. We usually receive email replies from their customer service in less than 15 minutes and they also have online chat with reps for you or your clients to use. We have even received tech support on issues at 2am at no extra cost.

Feb 13, 2013 at 07:36 PM

DigMeTX
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p.3 #9 · Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

I was just looking back over this thread tonight and after looking again at an FMers proofing setup and going back and looking at Instaproofs I'm actually leaning back towards instaproofs. One thing I don't like about zenfolio is sending you to Paypal to pay for online purchases. That has just never seemed very professional to me. My that's just my own personal problem but I don't care for it.

Does anyone have an instaproofs proofing gallery up that I could take a look at and maybe even go through most of the ordering process to check it out?

Also, can you use instaproofs to deliver high res photos to people for free if you so choose or does there have to be a cost on digital downloads? Lastly - can you sell packages on Instaproofs? I haven't had the need for that yet but I want to leave my options open.

Thanks
brad

Mar 04, 2013 at 03:51 AM

spink
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p.3 #10 · Best Proofing Site? Help me decide.

Love Smug, especially since I can skin it to look exactly like my site so users don't see any difference. Not stoked on the price though. We use to make money on it, but since their price increase last year, we now just break even. We pay for it due to client interaction and gallery hosting. Plus I never delete albums, I just hide them from public. We don't focus on print sales though, so really, that's my fault.

Can't really comment on the others, never used them.

Spencer

Mar 04, 2013 at 04:08 AM

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