Need Advice - Second account for Portfolio only?

Mac Write

I have been thinking, should I consider getting a second smugmug account for my my portfolio photos (basicly the best of the best) instead of having it as a catagory on my personal (well it seems to becoming that) site which is a sub domain photos.personalsite before the price increase of $50? Or should I save the $100/yr and just use my personal site with a catagory portfolio. I know I c an also have for sale photos in my portfolio only.

I think the own domain should be part of Power Account for the people who want it as a section of their personal site, but don't want to sell photos for profit.

DavidTO

Mac Write wrote:

I have been thinking, should I consider getting a second smugmug account for my my portfolio photos (basicly the best of the best) instead of having it as a catagory on my personal (well it seems to becoming that) site which is a sub domain photos.personalsite before the price increase of $50? Or should I save the $100/yr and just use my personal site with a catagory portfolio. I know I c an also have for sale photos in my portfolio only.

I think the own domain should be part of Power Account for the people who want it as a section of their personal site, but don't want to sell photos for profit.

Why not make all your personal photos a sharegroup and leave your portfolio public?

Mac Write

I have my personal photos at http://photos.myname.net and it's part of the navigation on my personal site.

With the pending big price increase, I was thinking maybe I should have my portfolio and photos for sale (when I get some) as a seperate site so people I tell about my portfolio don't see all my other good photos of stuff that isn't so interesting. I only put the best of the best up of course.

DavidTO

Mac Write wrote:

I have my personal photos at http://photos.myname.net and it's part of the navigation on my personal site.

With the pending big price increase, I was thinking maybe I should have my portfolio and photos for sale (when I get some) as a seperate site so people I tell about my portfolio don't see all my other good photos of stuff that isn't so interesting. I only put the best of the best up of course.

Well, they wouldn't see anything in your sharegroup unless you wanted them to. The public would only see your public galleries.

Mac Write

I don't want shared groups though. I like the setup now (like Ferries, Trains, etc) Shared groups makes it more complex and it's my personal site first not my business site first (well that is what it has become).

jfriend

I went for the 2nd account, but paid for it with referrals

Mac Write wrote:

I have been thinking, should I consider getting a second smugmug account for my my portfolio photos (basicly the best of the best) instead of having it as a catagory on my personal (well it seems to becoming that) site which is a sub domain photos.personalsite before the price increase of $50? Or should I save the $100/yr and just use my personal site with a catagory portfolio. I know I c an also have for sale photos in my portfolio only.

I think the own domain should be part of Power Account for the people who want it as a section of their personal site, but don't want to sell photos for profit.

I decided to go for the second account. I'm going to put my event pics on a different site than my family pics. That way, when I share the talent show photos with the whole school, I won't be inviting them to browse my family pics. I don't know if I would be doing this if it cost me cash to open the 2nd account though because I was able to use referrals to open it (I gifted it to myself) and I'm hoping I'll earn enough referrals in the next year to pay for the 2nd account at renewal time.

Mac Write

Ya referrals are the key (none yet for my personal account). Too bad you can use referrals from one account to pay for another. If I had referrals then I would do it instantly, but as of right now I have ZERO. But I could also put the money towards upgrading my video card from a Radeon 9000Pro 64MB to a Radeon 9800Pro 256MB which supports CoreImage/Video which I need for Aperture. What to do.

Who here has two accounts and why? As it is right now I don't use my existing account much, but I am going to be working through all my photos (14,000+) should help me put lots of photos up. I am just an ameture photographer. But when I do sell photos and Inc. my business domain it would be a good idea to have all my prints I sell and stuff under my business name and stuff.

Who here has a personal and a professional account? They should have a combo account like 2 Pro accounts for $150 instead of $200. Of course referrals would be a key to keeping renewal costs down.

What's your trick to getting referrals? I seem to get ZERO at present.

jfriend

Referral techniques

Mac Write wrote:

What's your trick to getting referrals? I seem to get ZERO at present.

Andy posted about referrals just a couple days ago. I do something like he describes here in some other online forums. I also do "free" event photography (school events, kid sports team events, boy scouts, etc...) and when I share the photos with the parents I also share the idea that I can get them a discount if they want their own photo web site like I have. My theory is that the idea of a "discount" makes them think they are getting a deal and makes them finally get moving and sign up (probably something they've been thinking about for awhile). I've also brought in a few family members.

Mac Write

I am signing my mom up since I think it's easier then iPhoto and .Mac which is a real mess. iPhoto to .Mac homepage has a 45 photo limit. Using the Smugmug uploader, no photo limit and she can just check the albums to upload and then upload.

I was thinking of writing an article on Smugmug on a site I run and compare it to .Mac maybe do a "Alternitive to .Mac for image hosting." That might bring in 2+ referrals.

DavidTO

Mac Write wrote:

I am signing my mom up since I think it's easier then iPhoto and .Mac which is a real mess. iPhoto to .Mac homepage has a 45 photo limit. Using the Smugmug uploader, no photo limit and she can just check the albums to upload and then upload.

I was thinking of writing an article on Smugmug on a site I run and compare it to .Mac maybe do a "Alternitive to .Mac for image hosting." That might bring in 2+ referrals.

You could write it up, but it hardly seems worth the time. You just can't compare the two. They serve two different purposes. .Mac has a lot of things that I quite like, but I'm using the homepage part less and less.

.Mac isn't really a mess--it's just doing so much more than simply sharing photos...

Mac Write

I know that. I use it for Backup. iSync, iDisk e-mail (excellent e-mail address). But as photo display. it is just very week and 1GB eek. Also the webpage is a mess when you have only 10 pages.

She will still keep .Mac, just not use it for photo hosting.