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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Anyone using PhotoBiz.com?
Pat Farrington, Photographer
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Ft. Collins | CO | USA | Posted: 1:00 AM on 03.07.09 |
| ->> I searched the board and have found three references, all along the lines of "I know a guy who..." Does anyone have any first-hand experience or more information than "I know a guy"? |
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Matthew Sauk, Photographer
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Sandy | UT | United States | Posted: 10:57 AM on 03.07.09 |
->> Pat,
I tried them out and enjoyed it. I ended up not going with them though as I thought the pricing was a bit on the expensive side.
I believe they still over a 30 day money back guarantee so you would have nothing to lose to try them. |
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Greg Foster, Photographer
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Atlanta | GA | | Posted: 2:46 PM on 03.07.09 |
->> I'm assuming we are talking about the PhotoBiz.com that offers template websites.
I've been looking at some of the template sites now available, and I have found them to be about the most reasonably priced option out there. Their normal setup fee is $250.00, but they are currently pricing it at half price, $125.00. The monthly hosting fee is $15.00 for up to 200 photos.
Just as importantly, the customer service looks to be great. I had a question a few days ago, and sent them an email on a Sunday afternoon - a couple of hours later I had a reply. I then called them the next day and got someone on the phone immediately, who spent about 20 minutes answering my questions and explaining things to me.
Some of their sites are a little busy for my taste, but they also have some that are clean and simple. According to the customer service rep I spoke with, you can customize them as far as changing background colors and typefaces.
I would also like to know if anyone else has any experience with them. |
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Juerg Schreiter, Photographer
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Fort Lauderdale | FL | USA | Posted: 3:53 PM on 03.07.09 |
| ->> do the photoshelter thingy .. got tons of cool features, everything you'd ever need! |
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Bryan Hulse, Photographer
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Nashville | Tn | USA | Posted: 8:53 PM on 03.07.09 |
->> Yes yes yes to Photobiz. Fantastic customer service. I looked for a shell high and low and finally went with the 'biz'. I put together my site very quickly. The control panels are very easy and intuitive.
They have all sorts of templates from simple to more complex and you can change them around if you wish.
I like easy, simple and reasonably priced and didn't want to spend countless hours designing my own site. I got all that with the 'biz'. |
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Walt Smith, Photographer
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Frisco | TX | USA | Posted: 9:30 PM on 03.09.09 |
| ->> Absolutely love Photobiz. Been with them over a year. FANTASTIC customer service. Just about everything I've asked for over the last year they have been able to add to the site and service. Feel free to check out my site. www.iiphoto.com. I had it up and running in less than an hour. Very simple to use, and if you are going to use it to sell images, there is no commission on sales. I highly recommend them, and like already noted, it's a 30 day trial with a full refund if you're not happy. |
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Allen Murabayashi, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 11:06 PM on 03.09.09 |
->> i don't know anything about photobiz, but at a cursory glance:
in the portfolio section of the site:
- there is zero search engine optimization. if you turn off flash in your browser, you'll see a blank site. there's no ghosted html site, there's no meta data, nothing. so the only people who are going to find your site are those who know your URL. google cannot see this site outside of the homepage.
- there are no unique URLs for an image. if you find an image you like, there's no way to send a URL of that image to someone. this also means that there is no support for google analytics, so you have no idea what people are doing on your site.
- you should consider putting your location into the meta description.
in the e-commerce area of the site:
- the UI has nothing to do with your site. not a deal breaker, but doesn't do much from a branding perspective.
- the meta data on any given page of images states the photobiz is the copyright holder. not that i think it's enforceable, but it's just one of those things.
- the price for storing photos seems high. $15/month for 200 photos. Assuming each file averages out to 5MB, that's 1GB for $15/month.
- setup fee seems reasonable.
allen |
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Pat Farrington, Photographer
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Ft. Collins | CO | USA | Posted: 11:38 PM on 03.09.09 |
->> Thanks everyone for your info and opinions. A friend of mine told me about PhotoBiz last week and she was all excited. I really need to get a website up and running and the low initial set-up and ability to easily change images and templates really appealed to me. I also thought the fees for storage were high and I didn't know what Allen said about the meta data for the pages, though when I went to Walt's site, not PhotoBiz itself, I couldn't see a PhotoBiz copyright anywhere.
Looking at the FAQs I found this about SEO "You will have the ability to add meta-tags to your website. We also offer useful links to submit your website for free to major search engines"
And I did find an HTML template option though I'm not sure if it's instead of or in addition to the flash template.
So, when all is said and done, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do.
Pat |
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Eric Canha, Photographer
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Brockton | MA | United States | Posted: 10:19 AM on 03.10.09 |
->> Pat do you really need someone else to run the back end? The hosting prices ARE high and the fact that they are charging PER IMAGE as opposed to space is nuts. I'd love to see what they're thoughts would be if I signed up for the 200 photo plan then uploaded 200 full rez tiffs from a mf back.
Why not consider one of the packages that allow you to install on any server or service and have much more control over your site? Nothing is perfect, but you may want to look at Photocart.
I run my site from an UNLIMITED GoDaddy account. For $14.95/mo I have had ZERO issues or downtime (that I know of). I can install modules, add or remove features all on my own. Because the hosting is 'mine' I can give access to programmers and developers as I need to and let them fix things that I have broken :). Not a hands off venture at all, but I have learned and continue to learn web development as a new skill set. |
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Walt Smith, Photographer
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Frisco | TX | USA | Posted: 10:32 PM on 03.11.09 |
->> Pat,
One major concern when trying to get a website up and running is the e-commerce side of things. If you are going to sell your images to your clients, and you have a ton of images to offer, then you will pay a lot of money out in "commission" thru other websites that charge you a percentage of sales. Now before everybody unloads on me about all the "free carts" out there, ease of customer use and ability to add products and packages EASILY is huge. Photobiz is so easy to use my wife uploads photos and pulls orders off and she can't even get her own e-mail (No jokin'). The fees that Photobiz charges aren't that bad for hosting, especially in the higher numbers, plus you can change from plan-to-plan any time based on how many images you need to have up at any given time. As for optimizing for google and other search engines, once you sign up, there is a whole optimization page that lets you add all kind of tags to any image on you site, or any page on your site. Plus, the ability to change your entire site to a new template with just 1 click of the mouse is awesome. It really keeps you looking fresh without any work. I certainly don't work for Photobiz, but I am assuredly a customer who sings their praises. |
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sami ayyat, Photographer, Assistant
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ontario | ca | USA | Posted: 1:22 AM on 06.01.10 |
->> I know I am a bit late on this but here is my opinion.
I am using PhotoBiz. I cant thank them enough. Their site is real easy to use. I can change the back ground in a second. I set up many Album pages, you can customize it as much as you want. external links no problems.
At the end i am in control. They even have a customer photo viewing area sort of like smugmug. Another great service. But photobiz just has the "WOW" factor for a do it your self kind of a guy. Everything is super easy and I love it. you can even add music if you like. Works great for my wedding photography.
Thanks
Sami
LoveMyPhotos.com |
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Paul Calhoun, Photographer
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Hillsborough | NC | U.S. | Posted: 10:08 AM on 06.01.10 |
->> We have our site at www.PhotoActiveInc.com hosted with PhotoBiz. It is our first attempt at building our own template site instead of hiring a guru to build an HTML site. Overall we have been very happy with the results and with our working relationship with PhotoBiz. They offer fantastic customer service, great tutorials and very easy to use software at what seems to us a very reasonable cost.
Sorry for the late response to this, btw, just came across it.
Search limitations are an important issue to be aware of. We studied their tutorial and are very happy with how are meta data keeps our overall site in the top 2-3 pages in our major market areas, but it is a different story for individual images.
As with (I think) most Flash sites, when images are uploaded and "optimized" the meta data is wiped clean from the individual images, so as far as we know there is no way they can register with search engines. Photo Biz somewhat gets around this by offering slots for meta data and key words for each folder of images. We decided it wasn't that much of an issue because it was more important that our site register rather than worrying about the already long odds any search engine would find just one of our images. |
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Brian Tietz, Photographer
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Fort Myers | FL | USA | Posted: 10:49 AM on 06.01.10 |
->> I have an HTML mirror site with my photobiz flash site, works great with the ipad and helps SEO.
I have been extremely happy with the price and customer service.
www.briantietz.com |
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Mitchell Brown, Photographer
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Grimsby | Ont | Canada | Posted: 8:58 PM on 06.01.10 |
| ->> I'm happy with the service they provide |
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