I still have yet to see anyone say that they would leave Smugmug for any reason other than the price increase. Seems like people are pretty satisfied with it, no?
This looks interesting and I'm sure there is a coupon code to be had!
I use VEND right now. It's nice but right now it is Flash based. They are releasing a non-Flash version soon though (recently announced) and it will be a free upgrade for people who've already purchased the current VEND.
I have the shopping cart linked to my paypal account.
I love Smug. I love the cart and the way I've been able to integrate it into my site without too much effort. I'm involved in our local smugmug meetings as well. I like that I don't have to fulfill print orders and like being able to use WHCC.
This price increase sucks. In the end of the day it's a business decision. I usually don't make enough in loose print sales to cover the cost (after increase). I will likely dump it in lieu of another solution. I already have CC processing, so maybe it's time to find something else that will plug into that.
If you can keep unlimited amount of pictures on a server for 25 dollars per month is a very cheap service, try to find hosting for 400 plus gigs and you will see the price. I know any price increase is not popular, but it is really cheap, specially when you get reliable service.
When SmugMug announced this my wife and I watched the video the CEO posted. We looked at each other and said, "Wow. Only $100 a year? That's really not too bad!" After all, we've reaped the rewards for the past 3 years at the $150/year rate.
At the end of the day, people went nuts on SmugMug's Facebook page. I sincerely doubt those people make a dime off of prints. For unlimited storage, the ability to sell prints at a reasonable rate without having to be the middle man, and the access to BayPhoto and WHCC, $300 is worth it. $250 is a steal. $150? I felt like I was ripping THEM off.
Furthermore, the outages SmugMug used to have all the time are long gone. I haven't seen an outage in at least 3-4 months. Additionally, I really don't sell hardly any prints, and I've already made my money back 4-5x this year alone. Their user interface is awesome, while using Pictage (both as a customer and a user) was annoying after spending years as a Smugger.
I'm a huge fan of SmugMug, so take this as you will, but people keep ragging on them for the "100% increase". In reality, for current users, it's a 67% increase. Additionally, a lot of those people have reaped the rewards at either $100/year or $150/year for a long time, And lastly, it really is only $100/year increase for current users. At the end of the day, if you only use it to host photos, all you need to do is place orders on behalf of your clients, upcharge them outside of SmugMug, and then hand deliver/mail them out yourself. More leg work, but if that's worth $100-150 to you, then so be it.
I'm a huge fan of SmugMug, so take this as you will, but people keep ragging on them for the "100% increase". In reality, for current users, it's a 67% increase. Additionally, a lot of those people have reaped the rewards at either $100/year or $150/year for a long time, And lastly, it really is only $100/year increase for current users. At the end of the day, if you only use it to host photos, all you need to do is place orders on behalf of your clients, upcharge them outside of SmugMug, and then hand deliver/mail them out yourself. More leg work, but if that's worth $100-150 to you, then so be it....Show more →
I'm not a user of Smugmug or any other image hosting/selling site, but I am an everyday consumer. Disregarding the fancy nice points you make, an increase that large will upset anyone everywhere regardless of the product or service.
I use smugmug but I am really bothered by the amount that they take from print sales. It ends up being 1/2 of the total sale. I really wouldn't mind the price increase alone but taking so much from print sales is absurd.
$300 a year for a great print company PLUS unlimited JPEG backup that you can instantly download a session or a wedding from anywhere to your inbox in 5 min...I don't know why people are complaining. I’d say that is still a killer deal.
I love Smug, we’ve been with them now almost 4 years and no complaints, they've bent over backwards for us several times with errors clients made ordering and never messed up an order. Ever. Really...is it that bad to pay $300 for someone to take care of all of that back end jazz for you ccard processing wise and print fufilling?! Esp now that we can print with WHCC.
I just don’t see what all the fuss is about. $150 more a year, that is a VERY minimal fee. Up your print prices if you are concerned over something so incredibly small to make up for the difference, but c’mon you shoot with 15K+ of gear but can’t shell out $150 more for a bomb print service that makes your life easier? Makes me confused. Anyway, my two cents. I love Smugmug.
The $100/year update amounts to $.27 a day. if Starbuck's announced a $.25/cup increase, the yearly cost amounts to $91.
Some people are decrying the fact that they aren't making any sales on their prints, and therefore they can't afford the price increase. Not making sales on prints is NOT Smugmug's fault.
The key components of Smugmug's offerings are storage and web presentation. Try writing software for thousands of users on multiple browsers and platforms that's flexible and configurable. That is no easy task.
Yes, they should have done incremental increases over the years to lessen the sting. I give them credit for trying to hold off on raising prices as long as they did.
wer2012 wrote:
I use smugmug but I am really bothered by the amount that they take from print sales. It ends up being 1/2 of the total sale. I really wouldn't mind the price increase alone but taking so much from print sales is absurd.
The percentage they take is relative to the prices you charge. Keep in mind part of the take is for the overhead for taking credit card purchases. I certainly don't want to deal with those charges. It's worth my time as a businessperson to have someone else handle that.
we are using our own in house developed system. it works fine but is not really something i would want to share with anyone because is in very "work in progress" state. if there would be some set of people with mad PHP/MySql skills who would help me to push and publish it as open source let me know on email.
it is basically private gallery with image hosting on amazon and generates print scripts (we print our self but it would be easy to adapt it to any printing service with client api)
it takes folder from local computer or NAS server automatically so no need for uploads as well (just export in capture one or save to networked or local drive)
cbres00 wrote:
Zenfolio's premium account is $250. I noted this one bullet point:
Instant Live Chat support:
Monday - Thursday, 9 - 5pm Pacific Time
Smugmug has 24x7 support. An internet business is not a M-Th operation.
Very few people I know use the premium account. We have the Pro account, and it does well enough for all of our needs. Zen has been flawless for me when I have needed support..usually responding to emails in less than 15 minutes. If you want to pay an extra large chunk of change so you can have access to their support 24/7, then by all means...go for it. For us, I have only needed support 2 or 3 times in the almost 2 years, so it is not worth it.
Personally I've never really liked that Smug support is email-only. Give me live phone support and that would add some value. That is one of my probs with it. They increased price drastically without adding any value.
DigMeTX wrote:
Personally I've never really liked that Smug support is email-only. Give me live phone support and that would add some value. That is one of my probs with it. They increased price drastically without adding any value.
brad
And that is a valid observation. However, the value HAS been added over the past 7 years and you just haven't paid for it. A matter of perspective.
