alternative to smugmug

gbear

Sadly, am unable to get anything to work well , starting from scratch in the new SmugMug after my first page, which worked reasonably well. What is sadder is that as I try successive pages and steps, things work even worse. I am not trying to sell photographs, but offering a modification service changing images to faux artwork.

Smugmug looked ideal, and the idea of building a site, and having access to print companies, with SmugMug handling the money, etc - seemed ideal and well worth the pro money. It just seemed perfect.

If it worked. But it begins to look like SmugMug "bit off more than they can chew".

Can anyone suggest an alternative hosting site for what I hoped would work in SmugMug ?

I am not pulling the plug yet but it looks like I better try to see if there is an alternative out there.

Any suggestions - anyone ? Thanks very much. Bill Wilson (gbear)

gbrookshaw

What's not working for you?

gbear

gbrookshaw wrote: »

What's not working for you?

Thanks, Gary. Nothing works like it is supposed to - it works ALMOST right, or you can find a workaround, or when you want to change the size of letters, say, it will change only part of a highlighted section. To fix this you can take out the WHOLE text and start over. That should not be necessary.

This nonfunctionality degrades my faith that keywords will function, etc - there is a lot of stuff you can't see and check directly in making a site functional. If the part you CAN see doesn't work right, how can you trust the essential parts of the function of the site that you CAN'T see ? ?

You could set up what appears to be a good site - and then get no traffic - because the parts that are supposed to help searches don't function and you can't tell because you can't see them.

Hard to have faith when so much doesn't function. Just look at all the complaints about things that don't work - all of which are VISIBLE functions.

Thanks Bill Wilson

gbrookshaw

Yeah, the text editing is a bit fubar in this first release but you can work around it until they fix...

Ultimately though none of us can really know what's going on behind the scenes in the code i.e. what's working and what's not...even in established software!

I've looked at other sites for my photos and even got as far as buying a Squarespace site but that wasn't as good as Smugmug for hosting client photos...but it was much prettier!

The new Smugmug means I can just stay here and not pay 2 sets of fees...


I've just unveiled my site in new SmugMug and it looks much slicker. Just kept it simple for now but it's much cleaner and more modern that old SmugMug.

I'll add back in full screen slideshows, etc. once that becomes an option.

I've got faith that they'll sort out the teething troubles...this is a massive restructure...

I also expect improvements to be much more rapid now the new structure is in place...


p.s. I don't work for SmugMug - just giving them some time...I work in software...it's hard to please everyone!

denisegoldberg

gbear wrote: »

Any suggestions - anyone ?

You might want to take a look at the thread New Smugmug Alternatives - a brief look. The OP had a bit of a look around, found that it was (still) smugmug that met his needs - but published his impressions of other products.

--- Denise

FTGphoto

As a photographer, my 2 picks would be:

• squarespace.com - runner-up, looks good as a portfolio
• photoshelter.com - the best, when I upgrade, this is where I'll go

Concerning smugmug,

I've had an epiphany today...just like the legacy smugmug, cookie-cutters don't work for me.

In other words, just like my legacy site, if I'm going to stick with smugmug, I'll have to more or less advance customize everything, despite not having java.

That means with the exception of the slideshows & galleries, everything else will have to be html boxes.

And why? Simple, you create an about page add a photo & a text box and then it looks fine until you start resizing your page for other devices and it goes all wonky with odd spacing and the whole look and feel changes.:cry Solution, create a page, then add one html box that includes both text and pic...done .

And the same is true of the cookie-cutter logo and nav-bar and social-icons. See what I'm doing here because cookie-cutters don't work (P.S. my social icons open to a new tab, like they should): http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=238859

Hope that helps

gbear

Thanks again. If I could do HTML, etc I wouldnt need SmugMug

gbear

Thanks, much appreciated

gbear

thanks denise

johnloguk

My concern is that "the old" Smugmug worked fine for me, it was a good shop window for my work and I could sell images direct or get commissions because people liked what they saw of my work on Smug. I'm not against change, but change has to be better than what went before. The new layouts might look better, sexier, slicker, whatever adjective you choose, but the sites don't work. Most people have found it impossible to change over at all, many who did change over have got a new website full of bugs. Some people will never see any negatives with Smugmug, it is like a religious cult at times with all the whooping and hollering and flat refusal to see any negatives no matter how obvious they are. The decision not to support communities in the new layouts, their inability to fix bugs in both the new and legacy layouts in a timely fashion, and a generally patronising attitude is driving people away. So many people are now looking at alternatives, and the "look" is way down in my priorities, I just want something that is reliable and at a reasonable price, things that sadly Smug can't claim anymore

KeithH

Yes. The new Smugmug. It's exactly like a religious cult!

mbellot

johnloguk wrote: »

the "look" is way down in my priorities, I just want something that is reliable and at a reasonable price, things that sadly Smug can't claim anymore

Very well said.