Squarespace & Smugmug partnership

JamesGPhoto

I have questions regaurding the partnership.

1. Is this the alleged "redesign"

2. So we use Smugmug as a shopping cart only if we use a SS design?

3. Are there more details coming??

mbonocore

Hi James,

1) This is an update on Squarespace side that allows them to now pull photos into their sites via SmugMug.

2) You can use to use SmugMug as your shopping cart solution whether you have a SquareSpace site or not.

3) Not really any more details are needed. Nothing changes in regards to your account or SmugMug website. This is simply a way for people who have a Squarespace site to easily import photos from their SmugMug site, as opposed to having to upload them again.

Michael

JamesGPhoto

aw, I was getting excited. I thought it was a hint of the new redesign... *sigh*

mbrady

This is very interesting though... Seems weird to partner with a different service that does the whole front end of your galleries instead of smugmug...

Might not be a bad idea actually. The flexibility of the Squarespace front-end combined with the back-end commerce and fulfillment by Smugmug could be an interesting prospect.

It seems like if the new Smugmug redesign was already done, that integrating with Squarespace would hold little value for most users. But since it's not out yet, this may be very appealing.

Ann McRae

This is a service integration meant to simplify Squarespace and SmugMug users workflow, by eliminating the need to upload to Squarespace if you have a SmugMug account.

Squarespace has this kind of service for their users with lots of other providers, like YouTube, 500px, etc.

It's really a similar service to SmugMug subscribers as our friendship with Animoto, ProShow, Blurb, to name a few. It gives our users access to other services directly using the photos already uploaded to SmugMug.

Just another way to try to simplify our user base workflow. And we hope that it does that for you!

ann

Scubaay

Are the images right-click protected with the Square Space and SmugMug integration?

Ann McRae

Hello Scubaay

The SmugMug right click protection setting is a gallery specific setting and it doesn't follow your image when that image is displayed external to the gallery. So, just like sharing an image here, or on social media, the right click protection would not accompany the image to SquareSpace. Yu'll still want to use the more robust image protection settings such as limiting your largest display size and watermarking.

Hope that helps.

ann

Scubaay wrote: »

Are the images right-click protected with the Square Space and SmugMug integration?

Cameron

Wow, I just checked out the Squarespace offerings - the visual presentation makes most SM sites look pretty dated. I've been using SM for 7+ years and am tempted to create a more visually appealing portfolio on Squarespace. I'm getting tired of waiting for the long-rumored SM refresh... I realize it's comparing apples to oranges, but for a clean & professional portfolio/blog the Squarespace offerings seem quite attractive.

ZBlack

SquareSpace also just publicly released their e-commerce solutions using Stripe for the financial portion. If you're one for self-fulfillment, it's definitely worth a look to completely make the switch. I'm using both services, my photography business is here on SmugMug, and my personal site/blog is over on Squarespace. Most of the pictures definitely share a home at both places and I am happy to be able to link from SmugMug to SquareSapce, expecially for my Prints that are for sale.

Squarespace does have their developer module so you can heavily customize your site, but it's not as easy as just writing code or even copying/pasting. I haven't successfully been able to accomplish much for it, and believe it or not, find customizing SmugMug to be a bit easier. I am not a developer though by any means.

One issue to be aware of, and may not be an issue for some in the coming days, is I upload my full resolution images to SmugMug, and some are even enlarged. I was unable to import these albums to squarespace and oculdn't figure out why. I contacted their support, they escalated the issue and found that the images were of such high resolution (most of them standard res coming from my D7000), there was some issue with the importing. They have since been in contact with me saying they are working on a fix that will select the proper size so they can then import properly.

I love the templates and the block system of SquareSpace, and it's pretty easy to change the look of sites with their current customization options. The SS6 is just a fantastic platform, and I'm hoping SmugMug's redesign will include a lot of options and responsiveness that SquareSpace has implemented. Their support is also top notch and any time day or night I fire off an email, I 99% of the time get a response within an hour. I've had just as good of luck with SmugMug's too. Seeing these two companies meshing together even more would make me a happy camper.

mbonocore

ZBlack wrote: »

SquareSpace also just publicly released their e-commerce solutions using Stripe for the financial portion. If you're one for self-fulfillment, it's definitely worth a look to completely make the switch. I'm using both services, my photography business is here on SmugMug, and my personal site/blog is over on Squarespace. Most of the pictures definitely share a home at both places and I am happy to be able to link from SmugMug to SquareSapce, expecially for my Prints that are for sale.

Squarespace does have their developer module so you can heavily customize your site, but it's not as easy as just writing code or even copying/pasting. I haven't successfully been able to accomplish much for it, and believe it or not, find customizing SmugMug to be a bit easier. I am not a developer though by any means.

One issue to be aware of, and may not be an issue for some in the coming days, is I upload my full resolution images to SmugMug, and some are even enlarged. I was unable to import these albums to squarespace and oculdn't figure out why. I contacted their support, they escalated the issue and found that the images were of such high resolution (most of them standard res coming from my D7000), there was some issue with the importing. They have since been in contact with me saying they are working on a fix that will select the proper size so they can then import properly.

I love the templates and the block system of SquareSpace, and it's pretty easy to change the look of sites with their current customization options. The SS6 is just a fantastic platform, and I'm hoping SmugMug's redesign will include a lot of options and responsiveness that SquareSpace has implemented. Their support is also top notch and any time day or night I fire off an email, I 99% of the time get a response within an hour. I've had just as good of luck with SmugMug's too. Seeing these two companies meshing together even more would make me a happy camper.

Thank you for the feedback and the kind words Zach! If you could, please let us know here when that issue is resolved. Thanks!

Michael

ZBlack

Not really a big update, but Squarespace just emailed me to say that this is a known issue and is actively being worked on to get fixed as quickly as possible. I should receive an update when they have it finished and I'll update the post here again.

mbonocore

Thanks for the update Zach!

ZBlack

This problem should be taken care of now. I received an email stating it had been fixed yesterday and I have been able to import albums successfully now. It takes a few minutes for a gallery of say 35 or so pictures to complete, but it does finish and I'm able to browse and view the gallery.

mbonocore

ZBlack wrote: »

This problem should be taken care of now. I received an email stating it had been fixed yesterday and I have been able to import albums successfully now. It takes a few minutes for a gallery of say 35 or so pictures to complete, but it does finish and I'm able to browse and view the gallery.

Thanks for the info Zach! I had another customer have the same problem. I will let them know to try again now.

Thanks again!

Michael