Considering a Smugmug account
GerryDavid
Registered Users Posts: 439 Major grins
Im getting tired of pbases problems and lack of support so im considering a move.
I gave smugmug's site a thorough look through *like 40 pages* and I have a few questions.
1. First is the referal fee, if I sign up and put in someone for the referal name, they get $10us off of thier next membership renewal, and I save $5 off of the current membership fee? Or do I have this backwards?
2. Selling prints, I can sell prints from any level of membership, but in order to raise the price and make a profit, I have to be a pro member? Or did I misunderstand that. Id like to sell prints directly from the site, but $100 is to much for me right now, so im hoping im mistaken on this and you can mak a profit off of the basic account.
3. On the basic account, can I customize my page any? Like background color, layout, etc? Thats one feature I like about pbase, I can get my own color theme.
4. I think I read if you sell prints for a profit, you can cash out any time with any amount. I just wanted to confirm that. Also is there a fee for cashing out, like a service charge?
5. Im a bit weary of having a company print the picturs automatically and mail them directly to the customer, Id like to see it myself to make sure it meets my satisfaction, but that would be rather expensive to have it mailed to m and then to the client. Do the pictures get checked for quality control before thier sent out?
6. I noticed you offer other things than prints, like photo shirts, mugs, mousepads, etc. Can you offer these options for a marked up price in the gallery? So customers can order them directly.
7. I noticed on some other printing sites, they offer metalic prints, but I didnt see that option from this site, is it offered? And if not, is it in the plans for the future?
8. Say I was to shoot a wedding, put the pictures on smugmug and had the clients friends and family go there for prints, do they have to become a member of smugmug to order or can they do so as a guest? I think forcing people to become a member may result in some loss of sales.
9. I see there is a free trial for a week, but a week isnt alot of time. Is there a way to get a free account to play with and practice that is only visible to the person logged in. This way I could try stuff out to see if I like the site, and since it would only be visible to the person logged in, the site wouldnt have to worry about someone abusing the system. Also I dont like the idea of giving a credit card number to try something out.
Sorry for all these questions, I realize there is alot of them. I like to thoroughly check stuff out before I invest money in it.
Have a good day.
I gave smugmug's site a thorough look through *like 40 pages* and I have a few questions.
1. First is the referal fee, if I sign up and put in someone for the referal name, they get $10us off of thier next membership renewal, and I save $5 off of the current membership fee? Or do I have this backwards?
2. Selling prints, I can sell prints from any level of membership, but in order to raise the price and make a profit, I have to be a pro member? Or did I misunderstand that. Id like to sell prints directly from the site, but $100 is to much for me right now, so im hoping im mistaken on this and you can mak a profit off of the basic account.
3. On the basic account, can I customize my page any? Like background color, layout, etc? Thats one feature I like about pbase, I can get my own color theme.
4. I think I read if you sell prints for a profit, you can cash out any time with any amount. I just wanted to confirm that. Also is there a fee for cashing out, like a service charge?
5. Im a bit weary of having a company print the picturs automatically and mail them directly to the customer, Id like to see it myself to make sure it meets my satisfaction, but that would be rather expensive to have it mailed to m and then to the client. Do the pictures get checked for quality control before thier sent out?
6. I noticed you offer other things than prints, like photo shirts, mugs, mousepads, etc. Can you offer these options for a marked up price in the gallery? So customers can order them directly.
7. I noticed on some other printing sites, they offer metalic prints, but I didnt see that option from this site, is it offered? And if not, is it in the plans for the future?
8. Say I was to shoot a wedding, put the pictures on smugmug and had the clients friends and family go there for prints, do they have to become a member of smugmug to order or can they do so as a guest? I think forcing people to become a member may result in some loss of sales.
9. I see there is a free trial for a week, but a week isnt alot of time. Is there a way to get a free account to play with and practice that is only visible to the person logged in. This way I could try stuff out to see if I like the site, and since it would only be visible to the person logged in, the site wouldnt have to worry about someone abusing the system. Also I dont like the idea of giving a credit card number to try something out.
Sorry for all these questions, I realize there is alot of them. I like to thoroughly check stuff out before I invest money in it.
Have a good day.
0
Comments
exactly.
in order to set your own prices, and make a profit, you must have a pro account. if you plan on selling your work, then $70 delta between basic and pro account is really chump change. or it's less than twenty cents a day.
no - only on the power user ($50 / year) or pro accounts.
of course theres a fee - becuase smugmug is providing a service - in this case, the fulfilment and collection of monies. the fee is 15%. all the payment and reporting details are here
you meant leery, right? as in skeptical? the prints are of superb quality, you really should do some investigating of smugmug's printing partner, ezprints. you should read this. i'm very very pleased with the quality.
yes
no. send an email to help@smugmug.com and ask .. they're responsive.
no one needs to sign up or register for anything to view your photos.
sorry, but imo, a week is plenty. i was able to decide in less than a day, and that was two years ago when there were 1/3 of the features that there are today
good luck gerrydavid.
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I realize they take 15% of orders, but I meant when its actually time to cash out. Like paypal takes 50 cents when you transfer money to your bank. I think the site says this sends a check, so the 50 cents or what ever would cover the postage.
Hmm, could be leery, ive always used it as weary, but anywase. :0) An example would be I could upload a wedding picture. I believe it would print fine, but the skin could turn out to red and if you uprinted it and was ok with it being red and sent it off to the customer, this would reflect badly on my picture taking skills. But if I seen it before it went out, I could fix it before the customer seen it. I read theres the true color and tanning saloon options, but wouldnt adding yellow to the image effect the white wedding dress? I think the bride would be more upst with a yellow dress than a red face. I realize I should be careful with the file before uploading, keeping an eye on the cmy ratios, but if I do 250 pictures, one could slip by, or I could think its ok but in reality doesnt print ok.
1 - New question - Do I choose how its printed, normal, true color or tanning saloon or does the lab do it for me, or is it an option that the customer gets when ordering?
yes
I was thinking in terms of ordering pictures, not just viewing. Dont they need to be a member to order pictures?
A week is good if you have a day or something to dedicate to checking the site out, if you have the free time. Between college classes, wedding planning, etc, etc, etc, the week could go by to fast.
Also its not so much I dont trust the company with my cc, its just I dont like sending it out over the net, lots of ways to intercept stuff, even if its secure, if you know what yoru doing. Part of the reason I went with pbase at first, they can take paypal.
I hope this post doesnt sound whiney or trying to compare this to pbase, im just use to pbase so its hard not to do a bit of comparing.
Theres a couple other questions I had that I forgot to ask in the original post.
2 - If I upload an 8mp image for the purpose of printing and web display, the site said I can disable the ability of people downloading the full original image, and also the large version. Was that an option, original and large, or original, but leave the large version ok? I think I read the large was 800 pixels which im ok with displaying, but I dont want someone downloading the original wedding picture, allowing them to print it themself.
Not really a question, but a suggestion here. The ability to zoom in on a picture would be a good option to add. Over on another site thats meant for selling pictures, they give the user the ability to zoom in on a picture, for example to get a good look at people's facial exprssions, or to see if the eyes are closed, and at least according to that site, this helps boost sales.
I realize the purpose of the site is to make money, but it seems odd to have to pay a fair bit more, so I could raise the price of prints, which the site also makes money from.
3 - Ill try to find it again, but I didnt see how much the s&h is for to ship the prints to people, to the USA and to Canada. The wedding im planning for takes place in Canada, so it would help if it wasnt expensive. But after that the other weddings will be in the states, so itll be good to know that amount as well.
Sorry if these sort of ramble, its 6:30am, I woke up early and couldnt go back to sleep. :0)
4 - Some pro printing places gives you the ability to put a stamp on the back of the pictures, with the company name and copyright, and contact info. Is this an option? This way a customer cant take it to a print lab and have them copy it. Is this an option here? Currently I write on the back of my prints with an acid free pen my name and copyright, and put a sticker with my website on it. This can help with further sales as well.
there's no fee for smugmug to pay you your money. it's you money, isn't it
you'll need to color manage properly. you can match your color profile *exactly* to the smugmug printing system, there's a color chart, and an icc profile, and everything. then you'll be certain that what you see on your system is what will print.
i tell clients to do no additional color mods to my prints.
nope, no registration of any kind is required.
what can i say - just plan your time properly, i guess. you could always snail mail the credit card info if you fell this way, btw. personally, i'm not worried about cc info over the internet. the site is secure. i've been shopping on the internet with the same credit card for ten years... never a problem.
Theres a couple other questions I had that I forgot to ask in the original post.
you have full control of this, yes you upload the orig full size file but the viewer can be limited to only seeing Medium or you can choose to allow them Large.
please put this in a separate thread, titled "feature request" - sounds like a good idea.
there's a ton of added value in the pro accounts over the basic account. custom pro pricing is only one of them. again, if you're concerned over twenty cents a day, you should ask yourself about how much money you are planning to make from your print sales.....
you should email help@smugmug.com with this request. the shipping will be whatever the usps charges from georgia (where the printing facility is) and your final destination. smugmug couldn't possibly list out every shipping charge. there are other options, 2nd day, overnight, etc. again, all standard
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no, not yet. you should put this in as a feature request.
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20 cents a day isnt much, but when your paying for the entire year at once, it adds up fast, and the $70 difference is substantial for a college student, that has a wedding to pay for soon, cost of moving 14 hours away, and paying for the american visa fiancee paperwork. :0) If something is expensive or not is all relative. I probably wouldnt mind the difference if I had a few weddings lined up. But enough about that. Who knows, maybe I can refer 7 people to get the referal fee to pay for the $70. :0)
Also ive created a few threads with those feature requests.
Once again thanks for the replies Andy, and for your time. I really like this forum, its filled with lots of nice poeple.