Moving
3rdPlanetPhotography
Banned Posts: 920 Major grins
We just wanted to let everyone know that we have decided to leave Smugmug as our album/event partner.
We are making more of a business strategy change than just switching companies. We want to have more of the Fire-And-Forget type events. We have chosen to use Collages.net since we can setup an event, let it handle itself then expire without more work on our part. We will keep our eye on Smugmug and maybe we'll return as Smugmug grows with features.
Some of the things that attracted us to collages.net:
1. The ability to put an event up and once it's over it is gone. This can be good and bad depending on what you are looking for. Smugmug is great that we have unlimited everything but it would be awesome to have the ability to expire albums. I've also always wanted to be able to mark an album as "invalid". There are painful ways to do this currently.
2. Multiple print companies. I can even choose a professional lab right here in St. Louis. I have nothing bad to say about EZ-Prints but I'm stuck with shipping charges and sometimes a heck of a wait to get my prints from Georgia. Thumbs down to single lab.
3. Direct deposit my profits weekly. I'm more than unsatisfied with the payout option Smugmug delivers. Paying once per month hurts us that are small trying to grow and have bills to pay. Depending on the purchases it can easily take 1.5 months to get paid for a sale.
4. Phone support. Andy and everyone else handles our support issues with professionalism and they do a great job. Sometimes it's just necessar to talk to someone to explain. Very hard to do via message forum at times and it's nice to call and get an answer. I give you guys a thumbs up for your support efforts but SM needs to provide phone support of some kind.
5. It's obvious that collages.net has fancy flashy albums... but I still must rate SM a full 10 out of 10 for their albums. They are easy to use and laid out very well. SM has all the other competion beat on the albums.
6. It would be nice if SM would require people to enter and validate their email address before viewing the albums. I have no idea who is looking at my images and if they had to provide a valid email address then I would at least have an idea.
7. Some things are very complex to ask for but having the ability to store multiple price lists would be awesome. I know I can set and ablum and copy it's pricing but that's cumbersome. Storing price lists is very straight foward.
Ok you've heard my ups and downs. Smugmug is a great, no it is a perfect service. We are just changing our strategy and find that Collages will work better for what we are trying to achieve. We are still deciding if we will re-new our subscription to keep it for our own storage or let it expire and have everything expire. It's hard to decide everything quickly.
Either way we plan to stay around here and help/watch smugmug grow. I know of 8 customers I've sent to Smugmug Pro. Of course I never thing about getting the coupon but I still send business and I will continue to send business to Smugmug.
Thanks for listening,
Scott
3rd Planet Photography
We are making more of a business strategy change than just switching companies. We want to have more of the Fire-And-Forget type events. We have chosen to use Collages.net since we can setup an event, let it handle itself then expire without more work on our part. We will keep our eye on Smugmug and maybe we'll return as Smugmug grows with features.
Some of the things that attracted us to collages.net:
1. The ability to put an event up and once it's over it is gone. This can be good and bad depending on what you are looking for. Smugmug is great that we have unlimited everything but it would be awesome to have the ability to expire albums. I've also always wanted to be able to mark an album as "invalid". There are painful ways to do this currently.
2. Multiple print companies. I can even choose a professional lab right here in St. Louis. I have nothing bad to say about EZ-Prints but I'm stuck with shipping charges and sometimes a heck of a wait to get my prints from Georgia. Thumbs down to single lab.
3. Direct deposit my profits weekly. I'm more than unsatisfied with the payout option Smugmug delivers. Paying once per month hurts us that are small trying to grow and have bills to pay. Depending on the purchases it can easily take 1.5 months to get paid for a sale.
4. Phone support. Andy and everyone else handles our support issues with professionalism and they do a great job. Sometimes it's just necessar to talk to someone to explain. Very hard to do via message forum at times and it's nice to call and get an answer. I give you guys a thumbs up for your support efforts but SM needs to provide phone support of some kind.
5. It's obvious that collages.net has fancy flashy albums... but I still must rate SM a full 10 out of 10 for their albums. They are easy to use and laid out very well. SM has all the other competion beat on the albums.
6. It would be nice if SM would require people to enter and validate their email address before viewing the albums. I have no idea who is looking at my images and if they had to provide a valid email address then I would at least have an idea.
7. Some things are very complex to ask for but having the ability to store multiple price lists would be awesome. I know I can set and ablum and copy it's pricing but that's cumbersome. Storing price lists is very straight foward.
Ok you've heard my ups and downs. Smugmug is a great, no it is a perfect service. We are just changing our strategy and find that Collages will work better for what we are trying to achieve. We are still deciding if we will re-new our subscription to keep it for our own storage or let it expire and have everything expire. It's hard to decide everything quickly.
Either way we plan to stay around here and help/watch smugmug grow. I know of 8 customers I've sent to Smugmug Pro. Of course I never thing about getting the coupon but I still send business and I will continue to send business to Smugmug.
Thanks for listening,
Scott
3rd Planet Photography
0
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Thanks for the thoughtful and helpful posting. Whatever you do, we wish you only the best of luck!
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