Blogging and Landing Page

thyfere · April 5, 2018

Hi Folks,

I believe that SM doesn't have native blogging platform. How can I maintain a blogging page on SM website? Need few ideas. I have seen a couple of threads in this regard but they are old. Maybe there are new ways out there. By the way, why SM doesn't work on this feature?

Second, I want to create a landing page for my social media ads that will have forms. Are forms supported on SM website or again this is another feature that is missing? :(

Naj

www.najamimages.com

leftquark · April 5, 2018

A few people handle blogging in different ways. One is that you can create "Pages" in SmugMug that are set to look like blogs. This is a little tedious but can be done. The other option is to use a WordPress or other blogging site and make it look like your SmugMug site, and link back and forth with each other. The benefit to this is that it can help boost SEO by using a website with a high rank like WordPress or blogger, and linking it to your SmugMug site.

Blogging is something we'd love to get to at some point in the future.

Using a "Wufoo Content Block" you can embed forms into your page, using the Wufoo tool.

Dyun · May 12, 2018

I use "pages" in Smug Mug. It does take a while to create, but looks pretty good IMO. My only complaint is that I can't select a "feature" photo for that post from any of the existing albums and I can't "create" a gallery or folder on that page as far as I can tell. It's important, because if I ever decide to share it, it will not have a feature image go to with the link.

Allen · May 13, 2018

You can select any photo to feature on your site for any folder, page or gallery.

Customize > Page Settings > Feature Image
In the upper left corner browse to anywhere and pick a photo.

Customize > Content and Design
Right flyout under "Add Content Block" expand "PHOTOS"
Slide a "Multiple Photos" widget/box out to the page. In it select whatever gallery you want the photos to show from.

If you have multiple posts on one page add a single photo box/widget to each post and select a photo from anywhere on your site.

XC_Photography · June 5, 2018

I have to say, I think it is rather short sighted of SmugMug not to include a blogging service native to the system, the SEO argument for using a different service is really an outdated argument, in 2012 this was the case, but things have changed. There are so many things I love about Smug, but this is a big issue for me, I worked in IT for years, the last thing I want to do is spend all the time needed to make a blog look like my site, the pages option is unworkable, would just be great to have something integrated so we can add to it on the go too, but hey ho, they won't listen so this is just a pointless rant!

leftquark · June 5, 2018

@XC_Photography: Blogging is something that we for sure want to add to SmugMug at some point in the future. As a small company we've had to make hard decisions on what we've focused our attention on. While we agree with you that the current situation is not great, right now there is at least some way for photographers to have a blog; because of that we've been focusing our attention on solving different problems that don't have alternative solutions. In the future, we'd love to build a photographer centric blogging tool. We'll obviously reach out to all of you to understand your pain-points with blogging so we can build a solution that all of you will love.

johncrisostomo · February 13, 2019

> @leftquark said:
> @XC_Photography: Blogging is something that we for sure want to add to SmugMug at some point in the future. As a small company we've had to make hard decisions on what we've focused our attention on. While we agree with you that the current situation is not great, right now there is at least some way for photographers to have a blog; because of that we've been focusing our attention on solving different problems that don't have alternative solutions. In the future, we'd love to build a photographer centric blogging tool. We'll obviously reach out to all of you to understand your pain-points with blogging so we can build a solution that all of you will love.

I think most of the features are already there to create this feature. I tried to hack my way into it today and here are my comments:

1. I find the WYSIWYG text editor very limiting / basic. I can do all the formatting I want with the HTML and CSS content block but it is very cumbersome to do it every time I want to post something. If I can save a page template as a starting point then it will be quite easier. But I still believe that just finding a better rich text editor will solve this issue.

2. No native collapsible, tree-type menu content block (important in viewing archives)

3. No way to show these "posts" other than a grid / collage and etc. This makes the posts look like a gallery of some sort if you put them all in 1 landing page. If there is an option to show them as a list without cover images / placeholders then I can be quite happy with that.

By the way, if some people are wondering why I want to blog in Smugmug is because I want to consolidate the maintenance of my other online pages. My tech blog has a steady audience, and it will be nice if those people can see my galleries, all in the same site. These people will not click on photoblog links no matter how many times I put it in all the menus in the blog, but if they can easily see the galleries in the same site then I think it will be quite different.

Giovanni_Bertagna · March 16, 2019

I share your requests.
I would also like to unify the Blog and the SmugMug porfolio given the greater traffic I have on the first one. I hope this new feature will soon be introduced.
I created a Diary on SmugMug, using the pages, but it is difficult to manage and TAGs are missing ... although I must say that the result obtained is not bad.

Tony_Rotundo · May 30, 2019

> @johncrisostomo said:
> 1. I find the WYSIWYG text editor very limiting / basic. I can do all the formatting I want with the HTML and CSS content block but it is very cumbersome to do it every time I want to post something. If I can save a page template as a starting point then it will be quite easier. But I still believe that just finding a better rich text editor will solve this issue.
>

Cannot agree more, I have to hard return huge chunks of sporting (wrestling) results. It's an insane waste of my time. I've spoken to many SM support people about this, because I'm usually doing that while I talk to them on support. It's like knitting for me now.

> 2. No native collapsible, tree-type menu content block (important in viewing archives)
>
> 3. No way to show these "posts" other than a grid / collage and etc. This makes the posts look like a gallery of some sort if you put them all in 1 landing page. If there is an option to show them as a list without cover images / placeholders then I can be quite happy with that.
>
> By the way, if some people are wondering why I want to blog in Smugmug is because I want to consolidate the maintenance of my other online pages. My tech blog has a steady audience, and it will be nice if those people can see my galleries, all in the same site. These people will not click on photoblog links no matter how many times I put it in all the menus in the blog, but if they can easily see the galleries in the same site then I think it will be quite different.

Absolutely!!

SM what's the update on blogging capabilities? You say repeatedly more than a year ago that you want to add it, so, where is it in the pipeline?

jimh · November 12, 2019

An old thread that I just found. Has anything changed, or is a real blog still perpetually just over the horizon?

If so it's probably time for that full migration to Wordpress which I've been dreading. I need SEO tools and I'm not an event photographer; shouldn't really have set up on SM in the first place I guess.

UPDATE: Never mind. I see another thread on this topic and it's pretty clear blogging is never going to happen.

Blogging and Landing Page

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