www.SmugMugPro.com

Baldy

pilotdave wrote:

The new and upcoming pro features are great. But the "SmugMugPro" marketing campaign is a flop. You guys made it sound like it was SOMETHING. We signed up for the newsletter or whatever, and nothing came. Then you quietly mentioned on here that parts of the big unveiling were unveiled before SmugMugPro was even "announced." We expected a big bang, but we got what we've come to expect... contstant small upgrades that keep making smugmug better and better.

No complaints about where smugmug is going, but the marketing department needs some work.

Dave

Thanks for the feedback, Dave. We've been planning to brand the pro-level account with SmugMugPro once a few critical features are live, but I didn't want to do it before then. I think the brand and look will make sense once we do that, but the delay in shipping coupons especially has left a mark.

All the best,
Chris

Dano

Wow, I was under the assumption this would be another level of pro service also. Hmmm

Malte

Dano wrote:

Wow, I was under the assumption this would be another level of pro service also. Hmmm

Me too. And I would welcome one. I will never need to sell prints for profit, but I will always subscribe to the tier with the best video offering. I'll suggest you make Smugmug Pro the fourth and top tier subscription and rebrand the current pro as video and social.

Malte

Malte

pilotdave wrote:

The new and upcoming pro features are great. But the "SmugMugPro" marketing campaign is a flop. You guys made it sound like it was SOMETHING. We signed up for the newsletter or whatever, and nothing came. Then you quietly mentioned on here that parts of the big unveiling were unveiled before SmugMugPro was even "announced." We expected a big bang, but we got what we've come to expect... contstant small upgrades that keep making smugmug better and better.

No complaints about where smugmug is going, but the marketing department needs some work.

Dave

Yes, it's a problem of customer expectations, for sure. I don't think anyone is expecting this to be the old Pro getting an upgrade...

Malte

Malte

Baldy wrote:

Thanks for the feedback, Dave. We've been planning to brand the pro-level account with SmugMugPro once a few critical features are live, but I didn't want to do it before then. I think the brand and look will make sense once we do that, but the delay in shipping coupons especially has left a mark.

All the best,
Chris

If you wanna hit... *schhhhh*... Zenfolio where it hurts, you'd introduce a $100 video centric, fourth tier inbetween power and pro. Their price, with video.

That one's free.

Malte

termina3

Malte wrote:

Yes, it's a problem of customer expectations, for sure. I don't think anyone is expecting this to be the old Pro getting an upgrade...

Uhhh... I guess I'm just weird, but that's exactly what I thought was being "sold." The new (yet unreleased) service does carry the same name, after all.

Andy

Andy wrote:

SmugMug Pro is evolving. We'll have more to say when we have two key features that you all are demanding, coupons and packages, out. Stay tuned and thanks.

We hired a new Sorcerer about a month ago and he dove right into one of the big features you guys have been asking for, your name, your brand, in the shopping cart. We just shipped version 1 of our pro branding stuff - have a look and give it a try!

http://blogs.smugmug.com/release-notes/2009/10/26/pro-cart-cbranding-old-journal-love-bug-fixes-october-26-2009/

Dano

Does that include the packaging that the customer receives also Andy?

Andy

Dano wrote:

Does that include the packaging that the customer receives also Andy?

No, and we don't say that anywhere This is V1. We plan to go there, to include your brand on the packaging and in it as well.

Stay tuned!

Lou Gonzalez

This is absolutely fantastic Andy! I can't beleive nobody has even given this feature some well deserved Kudos. A wonderful step in the right direction. Awesome. Thanks guys!

Andy

Lou Gonzalez wrote:

This is absolutely fantastic Andy! I can't beleive nobody has even given this feature some well deserved Kudos. A wonderful step in the right direction. Awesome. Thanks guys!

Thanks Lou! Did you see also in rel notes that we added for pros, bulk replace of proof-delay orders?

You'll want to subscribe to our Release Notes blog, so that you don't miss a single update from SmugMug http://blogs.smugmug.com/release-notes/ at the bottom, there's a link for Entries (RSS) - put that in your favorite feed reader.

Lou Gonzalez

Andy wrote:

Thanks Lou! Did you see also in rel notes that we added for pros, bulk replace of proof-delay orders?

You'll want to subscribe to our Release Notes blog, so that you don't miss a single update from SmugMug http://blogs.smugmug.com/release-notes/ at the bottom, there's a link for Entries (RSS) - put that in your favorite feed reader.

Yeah I saw that. You're in my feed reader so I see all the updates. I especially love the other update you guys made that allows me to edit multiple galleries at once. That is so awesome. I have hundreds of galleries that I'd like to watermark so this is fabulous. Great job guys!

timk519

Andy wrote:

You'll want to subscribe to our Release Notes blog, so that you don't miss a single update from SmugMug http://blogs.smugmug.com/release-notes/ at the bottom, there's a link for Entries (RSS) - put that in your favorite feed reader.

For those of us who don't RSS all the time, is there a thread on Dgrin where these updates are posted to that could be subscribed to?

Andy

timk519 wrote:

For those of us who don't RSS all the time, is there a thread on Dgrin where these updates are posted to that could be subscribed to?

Well - release notes blog is the answer. Get a feedburner and then get email updates. Google for feedburner. Or use Google Reader (it's dead simple).

We usually post a thread when updates come out, for folks to ask questions. But we post our release notes on the release notes blog.

Erick L

timk519 wrote:

For those of us who don't RSS all the time, is there a thread on Dgrin where these updates are posted to that could be subscribed to?

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=86130

Andy

Erick L wrote:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=86130

Yeah, thanks Erick.

But this isn't foolproof, as it relies on me to bump that thread. Which I have been regularly doing but could easily forget

Feedburner wouldn't forget, nor would Google Reader

Lou Gonzalez

Andy wrote:

No, and we don't say that anywhere This is V1. We plan to go there, to include your brand on the packaging and in it as well.

Stay tuned!

Andy,

I am super excited about the upcoming packaging branding. Sweet! This is why I recommend you guys to everybody I know. You guys keep making it better and better. Thanks for taking care of us Pros.

Now if there was only a way to have my clients flag their favorites, I would be forever in your debt.

Andy

Lou Gonzalez wrote:

Andy,

I am super excited about the upcoming packaging branding. Sweet! This is why I recommend you guys to everybody I know. You guys keep making it better and better. Thanks for taking care of us Pros.

Now if there was only a way to have my clients flag their favorites, I would be forever in your debt.

It's another top priority, and we have it assigned to one of our Sorcerers, and we hope that he can start this project soon.

timk519

Andy wrote:

But this isn't foolproof, as it relies on me to bump that thread. Which I have been regularly doing but could easily forget

Feedburner wouldn't forget, nor would Google Reader

If, however, one doesn't do RSS feeds because of the huge amount of time they wind up taking, this doesn't help.

What I've in the past has the blog configured to send out an email when something was posted, and that email would then update other things - such as in your case that Dgrin thread.

Andy

timk519 wrote:

If, however, one doesn't do RSS feeds because of the huge amount of time they wind up taking, this doesn't help.

What I've in the past has the blog configured to send out an email when something was posted, and that email would then update other things - such as in your case that Dgrin thread.

Use Feedburner and have an email sent to you. http://feedburner.google.com

darryl

Lou Gonzalez wrote:

Yeah I saw that. You're in my feed reader so I see all the updates. I especially love the other update you guys made that allows me to edit multiple galleries at once. That is so awesome. I have hundreds of galleries that I'd like to watermark so this is fabulous. Great job guys!

Uh... Does this update allow you to bulk watermark multiple galleries?

I haven't tried it yet, but from the looks of it, it appears that it only lets you change the auto-watermark setting:

Watermarking overlays a semi-transparent image on top of your photo. It discourages the use of your images for reproduction purposes.

You can use this option to watermark photos automagically as they are added to your gallery.

Note: SmugMug doesn't watermark your originals, so make sure you've protected them using other means.

(Emphasis mine.)

In fact, I think an old feature is now missing -- in the past if you switched a gallery's auto-watermark setting to a different watermark or from on to off, or vice-versa, another option popped up asking if you wanted to apply the settings to all of the existing photos in the gallery (which I believe is what Lou wants to do for multiple galleries).

Even for changes to a single gallery, I no longer see this option. This sucks because it means you have to take another step of going to Gallery Tools -> Many Photos -> Watermarking, doing a Select All and selecting your Watermark. Something that was a one-step process in Customize Gallery is now a cumbersome two-step.

So unless I'm reading the new Customize Gallery interface wrong, there is still no way to bulk watermark multiple galleries (except through my handy-dandy Perl script that uses the API. Whew -- good thing there's that API to save SmugMug from the trouble of implementing these features. ;-)

[Bulk watermarking, home page widgets for recent galleries and until recently, recent photos... I'm sure there's more I don't care to remember right now.]

[Yeah yeah, I know, you have a long list of feature requests, and a small but stellar staff. And yes, I know you guys have *great* customer service. And as I've said previously, it's this *great* customer service that sets up inflated expectations that we will also receive *great* response (as in, right now, or heck, even within 4 years -- Recent Photos, Coupons, Packages) to our feature requests. I know that customer support is not the same thing as development, but to a customer, there's not much difference. You may call Coupons or Packages a new feature. We (well, not me, but others) call the lack of these features "broken".]

darryl

BTW, while the new Multiple Galleries UI is nice, does it really offer any functionality over the old "Apply Quick Settings to multiple galleries" option, except save you the intermediate step of saving the current gallery settings as a Quick Setting?

ALSO: having to delve through cascading Categories->Subcategories->Albums multiple times is a painfully sub-optimal way to do a multiple-selection of galleries. I mean, seriously guys -- who thought this was a good idea for choosing more than say, 1 additional gallery?

The UI you use for multi-select in Galleries Pricing is ok -- I could do with an option to skip the thumbnails, as well as Select All in Category or Subcategory, but nevertheless, it beats going through a 3-level cascading menu multiple times.

Granted, that's a pretty heavy UI to slap at the top of the already crowded Gallery Settings screen, but I'm not even a professional UI designer and I know that the cascading menu thing is bad design for this application.

But hey, I appreciate the effort and look forward to V2. :-}

xris

Too Cool -- If and When...

Andy wrote:

No, and we don't say that anywhere This is V1. We plan to go there, to include your brand on the packaging and in it as well.

Stay tuned!

Yet another very important step for SM that's been on the list for several years. Seems things may actually be shaping up for the pro accounts!!

Andy

darryl wrote:

BTW, while the new Multiple Galleries UI is nice, does it really offer any functionality over the old "Apply Quick Settings to multiple galleries" option,

You couldn't use / apply all the features, and you couldn't easily change one setting across multiple galleries (and leaving their different settings alone).

SamirD

Andy wrote:

But this isn't foolproof, as it relies on me to bump that thread.

Here's a built-in feature in vbulletin that would do this automatically:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/rssposter

The only disadvantage is that it will post it to a forum, not a thread. It's pretty slick. I've tried playing with it, and may actually use it to keep track of the new features and have threads added to my administrative area on my site.

SamirD

Andy wrote:

...your name, your brand, in the shopping cart.

Awesome! Now, one more thing I need to work on.

Your list of features to work on gets smaller, my list of features to implement gets bigger.

darryl

SamirD wrote:

Here's a built-in feature in vbulletin that would do this automatically:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/rssposter

The only disadvantage is that it will post it to a forum, not a thread. It's pretty slick. I've tried playing with it, and may actually use it to keep track of the new features and have threads added to my administrative area on my site.

I think every new release should be a separate thread. Too hard to track multiple releases in the same thread. (See also: deprecated Bug Report and Feature Request threads.)

SamirD

darryl wrote:

I think every new release should be a separate thread. Too hard to track multiple releases in the same thread. (See also: deprecated Bug Report and Feature Request threads.)

Then the built-in feature in vbulletin would be perfect.

ivar

SamirD wrote:

Here's a built-in feature in vbulletin that would do this automatically:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/rssposter

That's from the VB 3.8 manual, we're using VB 3.5

DrDavid

ivar wrote:

That's from the VB 3.8 manual, we're using VB 3.5

And given the stupidity that is vB's new *upgrade* policy, I certainly hope SmugMug doesn't give them any money to upgrade! IPB is **VERY** nice, does everything vB does (and more), plus for $60, they'll do *all* the conversion from vB to IPB for you! IPB kinda reminds me a bit of SM; vB on the other hand... Well.. They forgot the "Do no evil" part.

It's a shame. I owned two licenses (still trying to sell one of them w/ blog option). Switched to IPB as a result of all the stuff happening.