Will SM ever get the hint and drop the 15% fee for downloads?

LiveAwake

As I move more toward commercial work, it's clear that SmugMug is a raw deal for anyone offering image downloads. 15% commission is twice or more what others are charging for digital sales, and many other sites also allow customized image licenses, which SM does not.

I like many things about SmugMug, but am strongly considering a switch because of this. It's just not set up well for photographers who sell digital images.

Allen

I don't understand the 15% on downloads. There's nothing that they need to do as I see it other then
maybe a little server traffic. At least for photos there is a guarantee.

Wiren

my .02
and it's only my .02 cents and probably not woth that much even....

I understand the frustration about 15% image download fee and think as well that it is a steep premium and it's just a file transfer......

I also understand a service provider charging for all services provided... even the ones that cost barely anything at all.... a service is being provided....

While I understand charging for said services being provided, I think things like this can be overcharged without much regard for balance.... (tea anyone?)

It would be nice to see a happy medium.... go ahead and charge SM users for providing the service of a file transfer, but keep it a flat fee and an inexpensive one at that. The cost to SM should be the same no matter the file size and you can argue that the service provided requires a fee. SM can still make money for providing the service and may make more for charging less... as users would allow download sales instead of turning that option off and just charging customers directly by providing discs or mails of the same images........ I know I usually turn the download sale feature off and charge my own premium for a disc of images to avoid the 15% download fee but it would be more convenient for me to allow a download sale to customers so I don't have to see them again to deliver the disc of images if SM would only charge say a max of ...... $2 for the service of a downloaded file......

Like I said... just my .02, your mileage may vary.

Pilznr

I've been offering my clients the option of a digital download at the time of the session payment. I still use SmugMug to deliver the file via the "Gallery Download" zip file option in the organizer. I just copy the link over to the client. I get all the money, and I still use SmugMug for the file transfer...
I realize this doesn't solve anything for fine art photos that are on your site all of the time, but for me, the majority of my download requests are from portrait sessions.
However, I also agree that 15% is pretty steep for a file transfer, and that a flat fee structure would be a better option.

LiveAwake

I am strongly considering switching to ShootProof.com for this reason. Better pricing, including no-commission sales through BayPhoto, and they get very good reviews. My main hesitation is their 28MB file-size limit, which will not accommodate my largest images, but most files are smaller than that. Has anyone used ShootProof? Any comments on how it compares to SM?