In a previous blog, I told you about SmugMug. And one of the reasons you haven't heard from me over the last coupe of days is that I've been busy setting up a base camp on SmugMug! Yes, after poking around, I decided to take the leap and become a pro-level customer. And while my photo offerings are still sparse, I have set up four galleries:
• Sedona, Arizona
• Sedona: Ancient Ruins & Rock Art
• Sedona Panoramas
• Wedding Photos
In the coming days and weeks I will feature a few of the images I have posted on SmugMug here. In the meantime, you can check out my first four galleries by going here.
Generally, the SmugMug website is beautifully designed and easy to use. Along with offering a variety of different templates to choose from (I chose their default to start with), there are also options for creating your own unique designs. Creating new galleries, making those galleries public, or private, uploading and moving around photos, all of this is easy. You can also add or remove watermarks, list (or hide) camera and camera setting information, choose the viewable sizes of your images, choose the way you would like your images displayed, allow comments on your photo pages, even password protect galleries. And these are only a few of the options available to pro users.
Some of the features are, however, a bit confusing. The most confusing part for me was figuring out how to price my images. Instead of having one easy to reach, clearly marked button to price photos, you have to navigate through a sub-menu beneath individual images. Once discovered, this oddly placed sub-menu gives you the power to set prices for individual images, galleries, even your entire portfolio, but finding it is very counterintuitive.
You know from my previous post that SmugMug offers a vast array of products: prints, greeting cards, photo books, canvass prints, mugs, mouse pads, buttons, aprons, coasters, puzzles, key tags, refrigerator magnets, ceramic tiles, t-shirts, sweatshirts, even playing cards. They also offer an impressive variety of print sizes and allow you to sell downloadable prints in various resolutions.
In addition to all this, their customer service is surprisingly fast. As I went about setting up my portfolio on SmugMug, I ran into two issues: One involved some pages not loading correctly, while the other question pertained to printing panoramic images. Within a couple hours, I heard back from two different support people: they knew about the page loading problem and were working on it; and while they weren't able to print panoramic images yet, they pointed me in the direction of a helpful workaround.
How good are their finished products? All the comments I've seen have been positive. I'll be ordering my first few prints in the coming weeks and will report back.
Finally, here are a few quick SmugMug statistics from a February 22, 2008 USAToday article:
SmugMug is a "son and pop" shop. Don MacAskill, 30, is founder and CEO, and dad Chris, 54, the president who reports to Don. Also answering to the eldest son: Mom, two brothers, a sister, an aunt and various in-laws.
What it is: Premium ad-free photo- and video-sharing site.
Founded: 2002.
Subscribers: More than 100,000.
Pictures hosted on SmugMug: More than 230 million.
Sales in 2007: $12 million.
Yearly plans: $39.95 for unlimited photo uploads; $59.95 to share video clips and customize home page with unique look; $149.95 a year adds high-def video clips and the ability to sell photos for a profit.
Read the USAToday article here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
SmugMug is pretty good if you are a hobby or semi pro photographer. I use them mostly to showcase and sell some of my better work. Their privacy scare a few weeks ago forced me to take down some more personal photos though. I moved them to Pixamo, a more secure photo sharing site that has more sophisticated features for sharing private photos with friends.
Post a Comment