Subscribe/follow for smumug site?

Drew Pallette

Ok - I pretty sure this has probably been asked in the past but but I couldn't find it with search so my apologies in advance.

Is it possible to add "follow" or "subscribe" on my smugmug site? I get a small number of visitors to my site and would like to hold on to them or at least send them notices of new galleries or photos I put up. Can anyone help?

Drew Pallette
Encinitas, CA

zacHer0

Feeds will probably be your best bet http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93263-what-do-feeds-do-

Luc De Jaeger

zacHer0 wrote: »

Feeds will probably be your best bet http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93263-what-do-feeds-do-

Visitors will NEVER ever find this to subscribe to a web site when 99% of all web sites worldwide show an orange 'RSS feeds' button on every page so that visitors can subscribe instantly without any hassle.

On our SmugMug web site it looks like we need to first post a manual for our visitors to subscribe to our site -- even before they can view our images. This is not convenient at all!huh

Why not introducing an orange RSS feeds button that we can post on every page and/or gallery in a very visible way?

I've never understood the reasoning by SmugMug to hide this option...

Some may, perhaps, argue that RSS feeds are old-fashioned but I disagree. Once you know how RSS feeds work, it cannot be missed. It's fast, convenient (depending on the feed reader you use though) to instantly have an overview of all the additions and changes on as many web sites you like.

Luc

zacHer0

The help page I linked shows how to add the RSS buttons to your SmugMug site.

Luc De Jaeger

zacHer0 wrote: »

The help page I linked shows how to add the RSS buttons to your SmugMug site.

Thanks for pointing to it but because the instructions state: "so just copy the code for the feed you want and drop it into your blog" I did not realize the feed wizard could be used for our smugmug site as well because our smugmug site is not a blog (nor do I have a blog). I took the instructions (too) litterally.

My mistake.

I'll give it a try.

Luc

EDIT: I am not able to get a small orange RSS feed icon between my horizontal navigation bar and the search box. I tried different options on the 'entire site' level but none of the content blocks has a RSS feed button. The Feed content block under the 'Social' shows the most recent images in the block itself (nice for a blog) but that's not what I want. I want a small RSS feed button so that visitors are able to use their RSS feed reader to view my most recent uploads and subscribe to my site.

Any idea how to proceed because the help page is not giving any (step by step) guidance. I must be missing something here.

paulbrock

I think for the average person in the street, an RSS feed is a bit much for them. More often they'll want to follow you through Google+/Facebook/Twitter.

You could manually set up an email mailing list, collecting addresses using a wufoo form .

Luc De Jaeger

paulbrock wrote: »

I think for the average person in the street, an RSS feed is a bit much for them. More often they'll want to follow you through Google+/Facebook/Twitter.

I'm afraid you are right Paul. Because I don't like Facebook and their attitude, I cancelled my photography page though. I also did not want to give the impression that my Facebook page was my 'photography site'. It should have been the entrance to my SmugMug site -- which is was not in reality and that was another reason to cancel my Facebook page.

The e-mail listing looks like another option but I doubt if many people are willing to submit an e-mail address. The advantage of RSS feeds is that, as far as I know, you subscribe 'anonymous'.

Anyway, I just tried to figure out myself how I could add a RSS button and I have added a HTML block with some html code and a link to an image of a RSS button that I saved from the internet. It seems to work.

The only problem I still have is the size of the image/ RSS button on smartphones because it does not resize and becomes way too big. I have not found a way to decrease the size or resize the RSS feed button on these devices yet.

Luc

Drew Pallette

In effect, Smugmug does not have a simple "follow" or "subscribe" option., which sucks. I and most people don't deal with RSS feeds, It needs to be a simple click on option that one can put on the banner. I do have a "contact" button that might help but has never been used.
At least Flickr has a follow option.

I get several hundred "views" a day that might represent 10-20 viewers, I would like to hold on to a few of those, provide new posting or gallery information, perhaps create a community.
drew pallette

Allen

I put the feed link on my index page. When clicked it opens the feed and they can click the "subscribe"
at the top. This adds the link to their "Live Bookmarks". When clicking that link, in the drop shows recent
changed galleries.