1) I want to start selling photos online, and people reccomended smugmug, but is it easy to use?
Do i just upload and lay out my format and layouts and they do the rest?
HTML knowledge required?
2) Can I link up and register my own URL so that it'll go onto the smug mug site?
3) I want to send pictures to publishers but I want to format it in a slide show way where 1 click next, or clicking numbers takes the page to another image. So no thumbnails. I also want to burn it onto a disc. What should I use? Can I also add music? Something easy to use but still professional and elegant enough. I can make it where its one click on the next picture = new picture on a website but I don't know how to do it offline, what format. Picasa2 from google is something I've tried but it doesnt allow me to add music and a nice formal lay out. Though its very simple to use and the Gift disc option is great and exactly what I'm looking for. But I need something else that allows me to be more personal.
I have just signed up for Smugmug and I think it is worth it. One of the nice features is that you can sell digital content as well as prints. I think the base cost of the prints is high, but the presentation of the site is very good.
You don't need to know HTML. If you do know some HTML you can incorporate lots of enhancements, but the core support is very good without it. I like the way it presents my photos.
There is a less expensive choice in Fotki.com. It also is user-friendly and the base cost of the prints is much cheaper if you hope to do direct selling. When I say much cheaper, I mean like 50% or more cheaper. That means much higher profit margins to you. If you had your own website, you can integrate Fotki into it and it would all look like you. I think the quality of prints at Fotki is fine for most purposes and average purchasers. If money is an issue, Fotki is much cheaper I think.
Here is a key issue. I think you have to consider how you are driving traffic to your site. If you are hoping that the Internet will just do the job, I think that is not the way it works. I have another site at Pbase.com that gets way more traffic than Fotki -- something like 10 times. I think getting potential customers to find you is a product of being in many channels and most will get to you because you have your web address printed on your business cards and all your children (just kidding). For some reason, more people are finding me through google searches on Pbase than Fotki.
The absolute cheapest source for prints I have found is PEPhoto.com. But they don't have any kind of storefront setup like Fotki. Fotki is quite close on print prices. Pbase has nothing of the sort. They have the gallery and are working on print sales. Smugmug has both.
I hope this helps. I believe you need to be in a few Internet channels to work an Internet marketing strategy. Don't dismiss the significance of your print products in pushing Internet traffic. I used to teach this stuff, I know it.
Check out my various websites and make your assessments. I currently have 4 online galleries, including the one here. Pbase by far gets the most traffic.
Also, at Smugmug you associate your own domain name to smugmug. You can purchase your website name for about $12 a year and it is portable. I think it is well worth it, in fact, I don't think it is optional, it is essential if you are serious.
Michael Dougherty
www.pbase.com/compton_photographer
www.fotki.com/comptonphotographer
http://comptonphotographer.smugmug.com/
www.arkansasnaturephotography.com (soon)
About Smugmug. It is very easy to use. You can drag and drop your pictures, select the layout you want from a pull-down menu, etc. It's really easy.
About prints... Smugmug is more expensive... however, if your'e selling prints then you'll want them to be on quality paper. I would maybe do a test print with both smugmug and the other sites to see what they look like. Smugmug prints on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, which is still one step below Fuji Crystal Archive Supreme Paper. If you are selling pictures, people will expect it to be printed on the best paper.
I'm also a member of Pbase and it's a good site; however, it's not a photo selling site. It's more of a community of photographers who post their work and encourage others with their photography. IT's a great community. I find the majority of hits I get on Pbase are from other photographers, not from outside people. I will say though that Pbase has the very best google ranking of most of my sites. I used to do internet marketing for large international multinational corporations before switching to photography and I can honestly say that Pbase has set up their site to be the most google friendly of SMugmug or any other site online. It has a very high google ranking. Pbase is a great site for simply displaying your work and for seeing what other photographers are up to... unfortunately, if your goal is selling then I'd suggest going to a site that will allow you to sell your work.
If you read the next post, you'll see a problem I do have with the way Smugmug behaves on Google. It's really the only downside to Smugmug.
I think the best things to ask yourself before choosing a site are:
1) Who is your audience (is it high end print buyers?) -- if so... find the site that sells the very best print quality, best print paper. Smugmug is above average, but it's not the best.
2) Do you eventually want to grow your business? Do you think you may become large enough that you'll want a custom layout (maybe hire someone to do the HTML for you)? With smugmug, you can customize your layout to look any way you like with some HTML knowledge, or you can choose one of their 20+ layouts/colour schemes and six+ gallery settings (slideshow, thumbnails, thumbnails with gallery, etc.).
3) Do you eventually want to sell your own stock? If so, you can do it right now with Smugmug. They are also gearing up to begin their own stock photography site and you can resell your work through their online store (or simply keep selling your own digital downloads yourself).
Oh.. .and another benefit of Smugmug.... Smugmug has unlimited disc space... meaning you can add your entire photo collection for years and years to come. You can password protect galleries so you can decide what you want to keep private and what you want to display to the public.
I travel a lot and find it really convenient that if a mag. wants a picture of mine and I'm stuck in the middle of Golfito, Costa Rica without access to my files at home, I have everything backed up on Smugmug. I can go into my private area (or my public), and in a few minutes I can download the original file and then send it to the magazine. The backup/storage possibilities are reason alone to like a site like this.
I can't comment on other sites because I haven't tried them... but I'm very happy with Smugmug (except for how their meta tags show up on search engines).
Whoops... about my beef with Smugmug's wording in their meta tags (re: your search engine results)... Michael is correct that Pbase has a better ranking with Google. However, I've managed to get quite high in google results with my work on Smugmug by simply keywording all of my pictures. You have to do this with Pbase or other sites as well. Make sure... no matter what site you use to post your pictures... that you keyword, keyword, keyword. And make sure you keyword in the description of your site, your homepage, your description of the pictures, etc.
Posted by Kyle Le on September 4, 2007 at 11:37 PM
thanks alot of ur help, that makes things a lot more clear.
now what about the portfolio/slide show software?
I need one that works on a mac, I tried flash slide show maker and it only workson windows..>
Discussion
4 repliesDo i just upload and lay out my format and layouts and they do the rest?
HTML knowledge required?
2) Can I link up and register my own URL so that it'll go onto the smug mug site?
3) I want to send pictures to publishers but I want to format it in a slide show way where 1 click next, or clicking numbers takes the page to another image. So no thumbnails. I also want to burn it onto a disc. What should I use? Can I also add music? Something easy to use but still professional and elegant enough. I can make it where its one click on the next picture = new picture on a website but I don't know how to do it offline, what format. Picasa2 from google is something I've tried but it doesnt allow me to add music and a nice formal lay out. Though its very simple to use and the Gift disc option is great and exactly what I'm looking for. But I need something else that allows me to be more personal.
thanks
You don't need to know HTML. If you do know some HTML you can incorporate lots of enhancements, but the core support is very good without it. I like the way it presents my photos.
There is a less expensive choice in Fotki.com. It also is user-friendly and the base cost of the prints is much cheaper if you hope to do direct selling. When I say much cheaper, I mean like 50% or more cheaper. That means much higher profit margins to you. If you had your own website, you can integrate Fotki into it and it would all look like you. I think the quality of prints at Fotki is fine for most purposes and average purchasers. If money is an issue, Fotki is much cheaper I think.
Here is a key issue. I think you have to consider how you are driving traffic to your site. If you are hoping that the Internet will just do the job, I think that is not the way it works. I have another site at Pbase.com that gets way more traffic than Fotki -- something like 10 times. I think getting potential customers to find you is a product of being in many channels and most will get to you because you have your web address printed on your business cards and all your children (just kidding). For some reason, more people are finding me through google searches on Pbase than Fotki.
The absolute cheapest source for prints I have found is PEPhoto.com. But they don't have any kind of storefront setup like Fotki. Fotki is quite close on print prices. Pbase has nothing of the sort. They have the gallery and are working on print sales. Smugmug has both.
I hope this helps. I believe you need to be in a few Internet channels to work an Internet marketing strategy. Don't dismiss the significance of your print products in pushing Internet traffic. I used to teach this stuff, I know it.
Check out my various websites and make your assessments. I currently have 4 online galleries, including the one here. Pbase by far gets the most traffic.
Also, at Smugmug you associate your own domain name to smugmug. You can purchase your website name for about $12 a year and it is portable. I think it is well worth it, in fact, I don't think it is optional, it is essential if you are serious.
Michael Dougherty
www.pbase.com/compton_photographer
www.fotki.com/comptonphotographer
http://comptonphotographer.smugmug.com/
www.arkansasnaturephotography.com (soon)
About Smugmug. It is very easy to use. You can drag and drop your pictures, select the layout you want from a pull-down menu, etc. It's really easy.
About prints... Smugmug is more expensive... however, if your'e selling prints then you'll want them to be on quality paper. I would maybe do a test print with both smugmug and the other sites to see what they look like. Smugmug prints on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, which is still one step below Fuji Crystal Archive Supreme Paper. If you are selling pictures, people will expect it to be printed on the best paper.
I'm also a member of Pbase and it's a good site; however, it's not a photo selling site. It's more of a community of photographers who post their work and encourage others with their photography. IT's a great community. I find the majority of hits I get on Pbase are from other photographers, not from outside people. I will say though that Pbase has the very best google ranking of most of my sites. I used to do internet marketing for large international multinational corporations before switching to photography and I can honestly say that Pbase has set up their site to be the most google friendly of SMugmug or any other site online. It has a very high google ranking. Pbase is a great site for simply displaying your work and for seeing what other photographers are up to... unfortunately, if your goal is selling then I'd suggest going to a site that will allow you to sell your work.
If you read the next post, you'll see a problem I do have with the way Smugmug behaves on Google. It's really the only downside to Smugmug.
I think the best things to ask yourself before choosing a site are:
1) Who is your audience (is it high end print buyers?) -- if so... find the site that sells the very best print quality, best print paper. Smugmug is above average, but it's not the best.
2) Do you eventually want to grow your business? Do you think you may become large enough that you'll want a custom layout (maybe hire someone to do the HTML for you)? With smugmug, you can customize your layout to look any way you like with some HTML knowledge, or you can choose one of their 20+ layouts/colour schemes and six+ gallery settings (slideshow, thumbnails, thumbnails with gallery, etc.).
3) Do you eventually want to sell your own stock? If so, you can do it right now with Smugmug. They are also gearing up to begin their own stock photography site and you can resell your work through their online store (or simply keep selling your own digital downloads yourself).
Oh.. .and another benefit of Smugmug.... Smugmug has unlimited disc space... meaning you can add your entire photo collection for years and years to come. You can password protect galleries so you can decide what you want to keep private and what you want to display to the public.
I travel a lot and find it really convenient that if a mag. wants a picture of mine and I'm stuck in the middle of Golfito, Costa Rica without access to my files at home, I have everything backed up on Smugmug. I can go into my private area (or my public), and in a few minutes I can download the original file and then send it to the magazine. The backup/storage possibilities are reason alone to like a site like this.
I can't comment on other sites because I haven't tried them... but I'm very happy with Smugmug (except for how their meta tags show up on search engines).
cheers!
now what about the portfolio/slide show software?
I need one that works on a mac, I tried flash slide show maker and it only workson windows..>