SmugMug? Photobucket? Flicker?

YouNeekPhotography

Hey

I was wondering is smugmug better then using photobucket and flicker? And if you can, please tell me why you use smugmug other then the other sites. Like why its better or why you like it. Or if you can the pros and cons? Lol if thats even possible.

And my other question is well, is there any good free photo hosting websites beside Photobucket and Flicker? I like how those 2 are free but they arnt really up to my standards. What Im looking for is like, easy uploads, customizable pages, unlimited space, and uploading at full size with no resizing at all.

Thanks, David :]

paulbrock

Well obviously answers you get on here will be fairly pro-Smugmug!

I use both SM and Flickr, here's why:

1) Smugmug - My main site - originally because it offered unlimited storage and looked a lot nicer than Flickr, now I use the customisation to make it my 'pro' site for my business.

What's good - unlimited storage. Clean interface. Customised and branded for me. Comes up high on Google if you follow the tips.

What I don't like - online sales are geared solely for the US market - prices can only be in USD and doesn't accept cards that aren't common in the US (Maestro). Limited community aspects, and unlikely potential customers will search directly on Smugmug for particular images. Maps don't work as well as on Flickr.

2) Flickr - subsidiary site. Doesn't have any customisation so I wouldn't use it for my main business site.

What's good - VERY popular site, it's where a lot of people would go to search for a particular image, so I want to make sure that my images show up. Images get more hits/comments than on Smugmug by around a 10x magnitude. Very strong on community, lots of discussion boards on every subject imaginable, so a good way of finding like-minded photographers, and swapping tips. Maps are cool too.

What's not so good - not professional looking, can't add your own branding. Smugmug wins on nice clean interface, even on entry level.
EVERYONE uses flickr, so no good if you want something a bit different.

I don't use photobucket as there's no way I can see that someone can search for a photo of mine then contact me.

However I also have a free account at Picasa - don't use it as much as SM and Flickr but another place where people may search for images. Again I wouldn't use it for my main business site but for free it's pretty good!

YouNeekPhotography

Wow thanks, that reallys helps me out on getting started with uploading my photos. I think Im leaning towards using SM :]

JoeG

I hate paying for internet services, because I know there's alway a free alternative out there somewhere.

After 5 days into my 14 day trial for SmugMug, I paid for it.

Here's what I love.
* Visitors don't need to sign up to view my photos
* Easy to use
* Integrates with PhotoShop Elements, and it retains my keywords and captions when I upload from it.
* Users can download full resolution photos to their computer (if you enable it), for FREE.

SmugMug is the only site I saw that offered all that, PLUS all the customizations that it does. from me.

Andy

JoeG wrote:

I hate paying for internet services, because I know there's alway a free alternative out there somewhere.

After 5 days into my 14 day trial for SmugMug, I paid for it.

Here's what I love.
* Visitors don't need to sign up to view my photos
* Easy to use
* Integrates with PhotoShop Elements, and it retains my keywords and captions when I upload from it.
* Users can download full resolution photos to their computer (if you enable it), for FREE.

SmugMug is the only site I saw that offered all that, PLUS all the customizations that it does. from me.

hey Joe, thanks!

can we quote you, maybe here?:
http://cmac.smugmug.com/gallery/152400