Pros: How to Sell Cards to your clients

RBrogen

AnneMcBean wrote:

Sorry folks, we're chasing a bug that prevents photos from loading for guests creating a card from a password-protected gallery.

All non-passworded galleries should work fine, so if you see anything out of the ordinary, please let us know!

-Anne
SmugMug Support Hero

Thanks Anne. Is the anticipated functionality to have the photos that are displayed automatcially be from the gallery from which you initiated the "Create A Card" functionality? I think this would be the most ideal solution.

AnneMcBean

RBrogen wrote:

Thanks Anne. Is the anticipated functionality to have the photos that are displayed automatcially be from the gallery from which you initiated the "Create A Card" functionality? I think this would be the most ideal solution.

Yep, but it isn't working like that in all cases. We're still chasing this one down...

-Anne
SmugMug Support Hero

kjarman

Issues with photos showing up for clients
I have a public gallery with the pricing setup for cards and only the photo that was selected when you goto 'Buy', 'Create a card' will show up. After you select the size and styling of the card, the photo tab appears but when you click on it, you just get the loading symbol and no photos actually load. The gallery is a public gallery and no password. Any thoughts?

Gallery link: http://photos.jarmanphoto.com/Portrait-Sessions/Tim-Carla/10470295_QJjpe/1/726358793_WEm9Q

Sheaf

kjarman wrote:

I have a public gallery with the pricing setup for cards and only the photo that was selected when you goto 'Buy', 'Create a card' will show up. After you select the size and styling of the card, the photo tab appears but when you click on it, you just get the loading symbol and no photos actually load. The gallery is a public gallery and no password. Any thoughts?

Gallery link: http://photos.jarmanphoto.com/Portrait-Sessions/Tim-Carla/10470295_QJjpe/1/726358793_WEm9Q

Everything seems to work perfectly for me in that gallery. Can you tell me which browser you were using? And were you logged out or just in visitor view?

kjarman

Sheaf wrote:

Everything seems to work perfectly for me in that gallery. Can you tell me which browser you were using? And were you logged out or just in visitor view?

Everything seems to be working correctly now. I was using Safari and viewing the gallery while logged out.

RBrogen

AnneMcBean wrote:

Yep, but it isn't working like that in all cases. We're still chasing this one down...

-Anne
SmugMug Support Hero

Anne,

It seems that the current functionality still requires the user to first select Private or Public and then select the gallery from that Category. Just to confirm that the targe functionality does NOT require the user (customer) to select the gallery and that as part of your current troubleshooting this will be resolved?

Thanks for your help.
Randy

AnneMcBean

RBrogen wrote:

Anne,

It seems that the current functionality still requires the user to first select Private or Public and then select the gallery from that Category. Just to confirm that the targe functionality does NOT require the user (customer) to select the gallery and that as part of your current troubleshooting this will be resolved?

Thanks for your help.
Randy

Yes, I think we're saying the same thing. Whichever gallery they are in when they click Buy > Create a Card, that will be the only gallery they can retrieve photos from to create the card. And, there is no dropdown/chooser to find a gallery in the card maker itself. It just displays the photos from the gallery without any option to go elsewhere for photos.

-Anne
SmugMug Support Hero

Lou Gonzalez

Sheaf wrote:

This has now been improved greatly. Logged out visitors can create and purchase their own cards if you have set custom prices on the portfolio or gallery level. It was a surprisingly complicated and difficult thing to do, but we believe this is a vast improvement for many of you.

We'll have more details soon on our Release Notes blog.

I am super excited about this! Thanks so much for letting customers order their own cards. I just wish this was in place a bit sooner in time for Christmas. That's ok though, next year I will market this big time.

I have not yet looked at every card design. I shoot weddings. It would be great if you had Save the Date cards. If you do have them, excellent! If not, can you please consider adding some in the future?

All the best.

cal_gecko

This is outstanding!! Glad you guys got it figured out.. I just played around with it and it seems to be exactly what we were looking for! Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the prices are still rather high for most people (I know that this year, I used Walmart for my 4x8 Christmas cards, and was able to upload my photos, design the cards and get them printed up at the store for pickup the following day... 45 cards cost me $18. .... I think that the Smugmug pricepoint is going to be one of the more prohibitive aspects of this new feature, especially by the time we (the photogs) add in our mark-up on the pricing. It's hard to justify much mark-up when we know what other services are out there for the 4x8 cards, at very competitive prices.

I will definitely be marketing this new idea though... thank you!!!

Lou Gonzalez

cal_gecko wrote:

This is outstanding!! Glad you guys got it figured out.. I just played around with it and it seems to be exactly what we were looking for! Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the prices are still rather high for most people (I know that this year, I used Walmart for my 4x8 Christmas cards, and was able to upload my photos, design the cards and get them printed up at the store for pickup the following day... 45 cards cost me $18. .... I think that the Smugmug pricepoint is going to be one of the more prohibitive aspects of this new feature, especially by the time we (the photogs) add in our mark-up on the pricing. It's hard to justify much mark-up when we know what other services are out there for the 4x8 cards, at very competitive prices.

I will definitely be marketing this new idea though... thank you!!!

I agree about the pricing of the cards. Even at our cost, it's a good bit higher than what we could get ourselves at consumers outlets or even labs.

Lou Gonzalez

AnneMcBean wrote:

Yes, I think we're saying the same thing. Whichever gallery they are in when they click Buy > Create a Card, that will be the only gallery they can retrieve photos from to create the card. And, there is no dropdown/chooser to find a gallery in the card maker itself. It just displays the photos from the gallery without any option to go elsewhere for photos.

-Anne
SmugMug Support Hero

Hey Ann,

One last thing. I just priced my cards and all looks good. So I logged out, went to a gallery, went to a photo and went to the card maker and I noticed that all of my branding was gone. The card screen is standard Smugmug black and my header is gone.

Please... if possible, it would be great to be able to keep our branding and color scheme so the experience is consistent. Ther more continuity, the better. Please pass this on the powers that be. Thanks for listening! And again, thanks for all you guys do.

lawrenceelliott

Blank Cards: Image size problem
Hi Andy,

We have been trying to get our pictures to work in the blank greeting card format without success. When it's too large, it cuts the picture off and it won't let us re-size it because it's already at the smallest re-size point. When it's too small, it doesn't allow the picture to be placed in the image placeholder at all. We've tried many different pixel sizes to try to get it to work with the following results:

2400x1600 was too big and cut

2100x1400 was too small to use.

2300x1533 was also too big.

2200x1466 was also too big.


What is the problem? Would really appreciate help on this one. Very frustrated.

Thanks.


Lawrence D. Elliott
Published Author/Photographer
Email: http://www.LawrenceElliott.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Lawrence.D.Elliott.Author

rainforest1155

Lawrence,
The specs for our photo cards can be found here:
http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/84503-make-your-own-photo-cards
4x8 photo cards require a 2400x1200 pixel photo.

Gobler62

Custom Cards Borderless

Andy wrote: »

Then you'll use the "Custom" card option It's currently erem, broken, but we'll fix it hopefully tonight

Then you can do this:



proper product shot coming soon

Hi, don't see a custom option, would also just like customers to be able to choose an image for a borderless 5x7 (or 3x5 if possible) with perhaps my url on the blank back. If Costco can do it.....:D

rainforest1155

Gobler62 wrote: »

Hi, don't see a custom option, would also just like customers to be able to choose an image for a borderless 5x7 (or 3x5 if possible) with perhaps my url on the blank back. If Costco can do it.....:D

Select a card type and then the anything (for 5x7) or more (for 4x8) category. The first two layouts in those categories allow for a full size front. In case of the 5x7 folded cards, there is room for custom text on the inside and back.

While you can't modify cards created by customers during proof delay, you could go about downloading the card and making changes to the card photo in Photoshop (just make sure not to change the basic specs or rotate the card). Or you could create a new card from scratch in our card creator with changes, download it and then replace the customer created card with your new version.

More details on creating your own cards can be found here:
http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/84503-make-your-own-photo-cards

ShoFoto

Is it possible to add branding (logo + text) on the back of 5x7 cards?

rnrjosh

There are blank templates available in the card builder program, but at the moment, the blank templates only allow for text on the back of cards and on the inside. If you want a logo on the back, what you could do would be to create your own card in Photoshop, using the guidelines on this page:

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/84503

Then, upload that image to a gallery and click Buy > This Photo > Cards, and you can add the 5x7 cards to your shopping cart.

ShoFoto

rnrjosh wrote: »

There are blank templates available in the card builder program, but at the moment, the blank templates only allow for text on the back of cards and on the inside. If you want a logo on the back, what you could do would be to create your own card in Photoshop, using the guidelines on this page:

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/84503

Then, upload that image to a gallery and click Buy > This Photo > Cards, and you can add the 5x7 cards to your shopping cart.

Thanks mrjosh. Unfortunately I don't see the option "Cards" when I go to Buy > This Photo. Is it hidden in one of the tabs? Do I need to do anything in pricing? I do see Buy > Create a Card when I'm logged in as well as when I am not.