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Wondering what you think of this strategy

davespicsdavespics Registered Users Posts: 93 Big grins
edited May 14, 2008 in SmugMug Pro Sales Support
I have always loved the third party sales aspect of smugmug but I could never get a good grip on the website creation part. I run on a mac and found a service called Rapidweaver that I ended up working with and I finally have a strategy...

I am curious what you think. My website, www.davespics.com has a bunch of galleries and they each link to Smugmug for sales.

I know I am doing extra work so no need to call that out :)

Just wondering what folks think of this approach...is this too much to ask of people? This is just a hobby, so $100 a month would be a huge win. Thanks.

David
My Site - www.davespics.com

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    denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,246 moderator
    edited May 12, 2008
    davespics wrote:
    I have always loved the third party sales aspect of smugmug but I could never get a good grip on the website creation part. I run on a mac and found a service called Rapidweaver that I ended up working with and I finally have a strategy...

    I am curious what you think. My website, www.davespics.com has a bunch of galleries and they each link to Smugmug for sales.

    I know I am doing extra work so no need to call that out :)

    Just wondering what folks think of this approach...is this too much to ask of people? This is just a hobby, so $100 a month would be a huge win. Thanks.

    David
    David -
    I think that you're not showing your photos off in your current web site. Why pay for two services when the photos show better on smugmug than they do on your other site? There's nothing wrong with using SmugMug without customization, and there are plenty of folks here who can help send you on the path to a customized site if that's what you want.

    I also question whether people will follow the purchase link from your www.davespics.com site to your smugmug galleries.

    I believe you'd be much better off using smugmug with your galleries set to stretchy to really show off your photos.

    If your intent is to sell your photos, I'd recommend that you turn access to the originals off. Originals are always used to print, but the way that you have your galleries set up right now I don't know why anyone would buy the photos because the photos are available for downloading for free via the save photo option. If you disallow access to the original then "save photo" will go away too.

    --- Denise
    https://www.denisegoldberg.com ... https://denise.smugmug.com

    Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
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    chuckinsocalchuckinsocal Registered Users Posts: 932 Major grins
    edited May 13, 2008
    Not to mention that anyone can do "right click> save as" on www.davespics.com and get the image for free that way. They don't even need to go to SmugMug.

    After looking at both sites, I have no idea why you need www.davespics.com. I'd cancel www.davespics.com, take the money you're paying for it and pay it to DrDavid, and he'll build you a killer SmugMug site. You'll have no extra cost, you'll have half the work, and a killer web site to sell your photos. And, you can still use the www.davespics.com url for your SmugMug site so there's no need to re educate your public. And, you can protect your galleries to mitigate the risk of people stealing your photos. After all, how many people are going to pay for something they can get for free with just 2 mouse clicks?

    Now, that's a strategy.
    (And, no, I don't work for SmugMug or DrDavid. Just my personal opinion).

    Chuck Cannova
    www.customrideportraits.com
    Chuck Cannova
    www.socalimages.com
    Artistically & Creatively Challenged
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    DrDavidDrDavid Registered Users Posts: 1,292 Major grins
    edited May 13, 2008
    I agree. You're better off using ONE service and just making SM look nice. There are people (ahem.. me...) who can DO your SM site for a fee if you really can't figure it out. But, having two sites to maintain, upload images to, etc.. is just TOO much work IMHO. And, even if you had to pay for a SM site creation, in the long run it would STILL probably be cheaper than paying for two services.

    Anyways, just my two cents.

    David
    Smugization Central (WolfSnap.com)
    Twitter: @WolfSnap
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WolfSnapDesigns

    SmugMug & Wordpress Customization - WolfSnap.com | Custom Domains
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    davespicsdavespics Registered Users Posts: 93 Big grins
    edited May 14, 2008
    Thanks to those who replied...a few quick things...

    - DrDave - I emailed you. I would be happy to pay you for a smugmug site
    - The current site www.davespics.com is a huge achievement for me (in terms of me having a 50 hour a week job, and two young kids at home). I could not figure out the code needed to create a smugmug site
    - I know my current flow is not perfect and some folks can right click/copy but I do believe there is a market out there who will pay a reasonable price for a photo
    - I have disabled originals and am trying to put my old watermark on my smugmug site

    Thanks again
    My Site - www.davespics.com
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