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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Photo Shelter or Smug Mug Pros and Cons
Ray Anderson, Photographer
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San Francisco | CA | USA | Posted: 7:08 AM on 02.10.10 |
| ->> Thinking about selling and storing images on line, could any one advise us on the advantages of Smug Mug , Photo Shelter or other sites out there. |
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Brian Blanco, Photographer
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Tampa / Sarasota | FL | USA | Posted: 8:44 AM on 02.10.10 |
->> If you want to make your life (and your clients' lives) easier and put a professional face on your business then the answer is: Photoshelter.
It's very user friendly, fast, and the customer service is amazing. If you have a question you can just pick up the phone and talk to a real-life (and friendly) human... they actually answer the phone too, just like the good ol' days.
Also, the advice (first hand or via webinars) you'll get will actually guide you through the process of growing your business and optimizing your sales, licensing and traffic.
I've come to see Photoshelter as a more than just a valuable tool, but rather an indispensable facet to my business. My clients love Photoshelter and both professional photo editors and less technically proficient commercial clients are all able to use the site with ease. I actually had a new client (someone who is not in the "photo world") ask me, "You do have Photoshelter right?" The other photographer they work with introduced them to it and they've come to love the ease in accessing his images.
As long as my clients keep telling me how easy it is to use it'll continue to be an important facet to my business... not only that but really, it pays for itself every month. |
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Kevin Seale, Photographer
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Crawfordsville | IN | United States | Posted: 10:39 AM on 02.10.10 |
->> I second what Brian posted. Photoshelter is great. Their service people have always been great to work with and have always quickly addressed any problems I have had and done so in a friendly and professional way. Their services are continually advancing and improving and I have no doubt that things will only get better in the future.
Again, as Brian already stated, the additional services and training they provide has been incredibly helpful to me and has done far more to improve the way I manage my web presence than any other source.
Could Smug Mag take care of my photo management needs? Probably. Would I consider moving my stuff to them even if their services were free? No way. |
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James Broome, Photographer
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Tampa | FL | US | Posted: 10:46 AM on 02.10.10 |
->> If cost is much of a consideration, Smugmug wins hands down. Unlimited storage for $149 a year. Customizable themes, code your own headers, footers, and CSS. Huge range of products available.
Smugmug's customer service is outstanding. It's a large mom-and-pop style place. They've always been available to me and eager to listen to anything I've had to say.
I've been using Smugmug for the last 5 years. Great company. |
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Chris La Putt, Photographer
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Jersey City | NJ | USA | Posted: 10:58 AM on 02.10.10 |
->> I use smugmug and the support is wonderful. They've replied to me on Sundays after 8 which is not very typical for sites.
It really boils down to what you need to store. I found for weddings or even photography that smugmug was just so much easier to dump into a password protected gallery and set the prices for each accordingly.
The main reason I used smugmug was that it also handled international shipping of prints. I didn't want to deal with the hassle of printing and shipping and that just made it so much easier.
Customizing the site requires some finesse in CSS but I didn't mind.
My biggest gripe about smugmug is that you cannot put borders and fit an image into a specific size like in adoramapix.
I also had a photoshelter account and I would only use it to upload specific shots a photo editor wanted since it was one of the few sites that had an image rate feature on it (i.e. I had a band a music mag wanted and I'd put it up there and just have the photo editor calculate the rate and see if he/she is still interested).
So if you're more geared toward wedding/event photography I'd use smugmug but if you are more into editorial/reportage work I'd go into photoshelter. |
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John Green, Photographer, Photo Editor
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BAY AREA | CA | | Posted: 12:13 PM on 02.10.10 |
| ->> Sounds like SmugMug is the way to go |
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Debra L Rothenberg, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 12:37 PM on 02.10.10 |
->> Zenfolio is another
$100 a year unlimited storage, password protected galleries and you can also set your own prices |
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James Broome, Photographer
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Tampa | FL | US | Posted: 12:45 PM on 02.10.10 |
->> A con for Smugmug is that they don't yet allow clients to order packages from you. For example, you cannot setup a single item consisting of two 8x10's, four 5x7's, and 16 wallets. They're working on it (have been for a while), but it's not here yet.
They did just add coupons, though. Their way of handling them was perfect. |
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John Germ, Photographer
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Wadsworth | Oh | USA | Posted: 12:48 PM on 02.10.10 |
->> I've used smugmug for several years. A lot depends on what type of services you want. As a sports shooter the three biggest drawbacks to smugmug are:
1) no trading cards
2) no packages - although they're actively working on this.
3) co-branding
They recently introduced coupons which was a bonus. You can password protect if you wish as well as make galleries private and you can obviously set your own prices - although there is no option for self-fulfillment. It would also be nice to remove smugmug's name from any packaging or from email correspondence. In other words it would be nice if your company name appeared alone but that's minor.
I will back up the claim about customer service there. It may not be a perfect site but it's run by photographers and they're VERY, VERY helpful there. In the past I would have issues with their bandwidth or site being unavailable but it's been over a year since anything like that has happened to me. |
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Rick Osentoski, Photographer
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Martin | OH | United States | Posted: 1:28 PM on 02.10.10 |
->> You may also want to look into exposure manager it has all that Smug Mug has and more, packages, coupons and more.Excellent prints never had a complaint. They also offer profiles for prints so no surprises on final prints
For stock sales I would go the Photoshelter route they also offer pint fulfillment through exposure manager
http://www.exposuremanager.com/aff/ozdigital |
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David Stephenson, Photographer
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Lexington | Ky | USA | Posted: 4:01 PM on 02.10.10 |
| ->> Photoshelter does not allow pricing of packages either (yet). They may, but who knows when. I love photoshelter as it does almost everything I need it to. It's a bit pricey IMO, though. |
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Russ Erbe, Photographer
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Lubbock | TX | US | Posted: 4:04 PM on 02.10.10 |
->> I too have been using Smug Mug for a few years. I absolutely love them and couldn't imagine why I would ever want to branch off to anyone else or build my own site. For the cost of a Pro account, it is ridiculous what all you get.
The new coupon availability is awesome!! I don't sell many pics to schools or business. I sell alot of pics to parents and and MX riders and I hardly ever get complaints that my website is to hard to move through. I've set it up to be very streamlined and easy, just the way a consumer website should be.
I too will give credit to their customer service. It's outstanding. I absolutely love not having to deal with payments, credit cards, shipping etc.. It is so worth the nominal fee they charge. My only cons are about the packages. That's a bum deal especially since I'm shooting a big prom this year. Maybe they will have packages by then. The only other thing that I don't care for is that the pics are shipped with Smugmug labels not mine. Honestly though, big deal. That is minor. My customers could really care less that the packages don't say my name on them. All they care about is what's inside. One thing that I really like is they have a upgrade type option for printing. It costs a little more, but each picture is looked at by a printing professional and they do any color correction that might need to be done before it prints. I might not always catch something before I throw it on my site. A second set of eyes is always good. That's my 2 cents. |
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Shelby Daniel, Photographer
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Guntown | MS | USA | Posted: 11:53 PM on 02.10.10 |
| ->> Now that smugmug has joined forces with Bay Photo, the print quality is excellent. Before, when we only had the option of ezprints, I wasn't impressed. I've been with them for four years now, and the one thing that stands out is the customer service. I've never dealt with a company that has better customer service. As mentioned by others, the only thing I don't like about them is no package sales and the smugmug branding on the delivered boxes. For the price you can't beat smugmug. |
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Michael Pina, Photographer
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SF Bay Area | ca | usa | Posted: 12:13 AM on 02.11.10 |
->> +1 for Smugmug. I have been with them for over 5 years. Got in early on the pro side and it has been terrific. Their latest updates with templates and coupons are outstanding. Customer service is perfect.
Smugmug PRO is on the horizon and should be a much improved co branding experience. Also they host monthly meet-up around the SF Bay Area. Always a great time to catch up. Highly recommend. |
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Mike Brice, Photographer
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SLC | UT | USA | Posted: 12:25 AM on 02.11.10 |
->> I like Photoshelter and I don't mind the price, but the customer service is slow - submit a ticket and they say they will get back to you in three business days.
In today's online world, that's just too slow.
I am committed to Photoshelter - that means paid - through December 2010, but I may look at other options for beyond.
One thing about Photoshelter as opposed to the other services, the focus is on safe keeping your images and electronic delivery. Those are two things most other sites lack. Other sites focus on print sales.
I have both Exposure Manager and PhotoShelter - different tools for different purposes. I just wish PhotoShelter would step up their customer service. |
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Allen Murabayashi, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 10:37 AM on 02.11.10 |
->> Disclosure: I'm the CEO of PhotoShelter.
PhotoShelter supports coupons and supports 3 automated printing vendors including ezprints, ExposureManager and AdoramaPix. You can also fulfill orders yourself, if you choose.
When you enable e-commerce from your PhotoShelter site, you are the "merchant of record," which means you receive the funds at the point of sale. This is a crucial difference for photographers who are concerned about cash flow or giving their SSN up for payment.
We have another support representative starting on Monday, so I apologize for the turnaround. I should point out a VERY crucial difference between services, which is we offer free phone support. I'm unaware of any other photo service that offer phone support, never mind "free". All the reps are based in our NYC office, as is our entire company (with the exception of Grover). So to the extent that it matters to you, we are a "made in the USA" operation that continues to create jobs within the US (we've hired 3 people this year). We don't outsource programming or support to other countries.
We're also members of this community, NPPA, EP, and other organizations that support professional/serious photographers. We've partnered with other organizations that support pro photographers like CameraBits and fotoQuote. We offer free monthly webinars on topics like SEO and social media, and have free research reports on these topics as well.
I'm not trying to pitch my pro photographer socialist agenda (i.e. support us because we like pros), but I do think it's important to distinguish our position. PhotoShelter is not the cheapest, but I think we also offer a range of features and services that you do not get when you're dealing with companies whose user base is comprised primarily of consumers.
Lastly, I root for the Yankees (world champions!) the NJ Nets (worst sports team ever!), and I floss daily.
Allen |
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Tim Snow, Photographer
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Montreal | Qc | Canada | Posted: 10:47 AM on 02.11.10 |
->> @ Mike Brice; there is a function within SmugMug that does allow you to disable right clicking. It's a very useful option to say the least!
I've been with SmugMug for a few years now and find it great. The customer service is top notch, and the customization options are really helpful to set yourself apart. |
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Mike Janes, Photographer
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Attica | NY | USA | Posted: 4:32 PM on 02.11.10 |
| ->> I love PhotoShelter for editorial usage - there's nobody better when it comes to setting up for clients and just getting your images seen (SEO). However, when it comes to prints my choice is Exposure Manager because it's the most customizable among print oriented sites (PhotoShelter you can do a ton with as well), EM has the most options for prints/merch (some is self fulfillment while some is just through them), and the storage is unlimited - which is a must with how much I shoot! SmugMug is very good, but would definitely be my third option. |
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Danny Munson, Photographer
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San Dimas | Ca | United States | Posted: 6:14 PM on 02.11.10 |
| ->> I'm with Mike on ExposureManager. Does PhotoShelter still only let you use PayPal for checkout? That was a deal killer for me a year ago when I left SmugMug and went to ExposureManager. The problem I have with Smug is their 15% that they take compared to EM's 10%. An extra 5% adds up to some real cash real quickly. |
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Harry Bloomberg, Photographer
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Pittsburgh | PA | USA | Posted: 10:30 PM on 02.11.10 |
->> Obviously you've got to look at your requirements and go from there. But for me SmugMug works great. I run a site through them to sell prints to Pitt Band members and family.
And yes, they do have excellent customer service! Email responses are quick and to the point. They're great about dealing with problems. I once found a bug in their programming, they quickly gave me a work-around, and the bug was fixed the next day! |
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Russ Isabella, Photographer
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Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 12:43 AM on 02.12.10 |
| ->> Mike: Is your mikejanesphotography.com site with Exposure Manager? Just trying to get some idea of what one of their sites looks like. I see they offer a free trial from their website, but nothing on that website (that I can find) short of the trial account provides a glimpse of how the system works or what some of the set-up options might be. |
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Mike Janes, Photographer
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Attica | NY | USA | Posted: 12:59 AM on 02.12.10 |
->> Russ - when you go to my site the left (youth sports) is through Exposure Manager while the right (editorial) is through PhotoShelter. Both are customizable and I wrote out the html to get the look I wanted. The youth (EM) side is a work in progress and kind of thrown together, still trying to find time to get a new design up as it's pretty basic. Editorial got my design down but just haven't finished it yet. Note that both have pages on a different server that host the main pages and other pages while linking to EM or PS.
This is a direct link to EM and how it looks on my site.
http://mikejanesphotography.exposuremanager.com/g/2009-10_high_school_sport...
They are developing templates and everything I do believe. However, usually not a fan of templates and like to have complete control over it. |
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Russ Isabella, Photographer
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Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 1:05 AM on 02.12.10 |
| ->> Thanks, Mike. I'll check it out. |
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Russ Isabella, Photographer
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Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 1:10 AM on 02.18.10 |
| ->> Just wanted to come back to this thread to thank Ray for starting it as well as those of you who contributed your thoughts about the various options out there. After following up on some of the information here, I've gone ahead and set up an Exposure Manager account and I couldn't be happier with how well their offerings meet my needs. Now I can only wonder how in the world I stuck with Printroom for as long as I did... |
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Patrick Murphy-Racey, Photographer
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Powell | TN | USA | Posted: 10:49 AM on 02.18.10 |
| ->> I've been very happy with Smugmug for the last 18 months... pm-r |
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Ray Anderson, Photographer
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San Francisco | CA | USA | Posted: 3:27 AM on 02.20.10 |
| ->> Thank you everyone for your comments very helpful. |
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