A Few Smugmug Questions

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  flyingpylon Registered Users Posts: 260 Major grins

  September 12, 2005 edited September 12, 2005

  I think you're right in thinking that you'd need your own web site to accomplish what you've outlined here (and links between the two should not be a problem).
  
  Smugmug is different things to different people, but when it comes to selling the concept that makes it clearest in my mind is to think of Smugmug as an online photo retailer/distributor/marketplace where photographers can post photos and people can buy them through Smugmug. That is to say, the customers are buying prints of your photos but they are Smugmug's customers. Their credit card statement will say Smugmug, if they have problems they contact Smugmug, and Smugmug retains their customer information. As a photographer you have a limited ability to customize your selling "booth" or "shelf" and set your prices, but Smugmug retains control of the selling process and takes 15% for providing their services.
  
  I think where people get frustrated is when they view Smugmug as a service that provides completely customized selling solutions for professional photographers. They get upset by the perceived lack of customization in organization or look-and-feel, by the variance between Smugmug's print prices and EZPrints' prices, and things like that.
  
  If you think of Smugmug as a big store that will sell your prints (and other photographers') on consignment and then realize that for custom product arrangements, pricing, delivery, etc. you're simply going to need your own site then you'll be one step ahead of the game.
  
  Just my two cents.

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  Andy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins

  September 12, 2005 edited September 12, 2005

  apoartar wrote:

  I’m thinking of signing up for the pro account, to sell photos. I’d like to offer customers various types of print options – for example commercial prints (Smugmug), commercial prints signed (Smugmug?-> EZprint-> Me-> Customer), and my own (in-house) custom printed prints that I could offer as optionally signed, matted and framed. I’m thinking that to accomplish this I would actually need a Smugmug pro account and my own website and links from/to each site.
  
  
  
  So here are my questions:
  

  • I noticed that Smugmug said that they don’t release customer addresses. Is this correct?
    
    

  as a pro, you'll have the ability to contact your buyer by email.
  

  
  
  [*]If I wanted to offer signed prints, is it possible for a customer to place an order and have EZprints send me the photo, so then I could sign it and send it to the customer?

  • Problems would include that I would need the customers address.
  • I guess Smugmug would get the 15% commission on the total higher cost of the signed version of the picture?
    

  
  hmm - only if your customer made the "ship to" be your address. not sure if there's a css way around this or not, i'll ask jt to chime in. you are correct that you'd share 15% with smugmug in this case, too.
  

  
  
  
  [*]This is a longshot but, if I also wanted to add an option for the customer to place an order directly with me (where I would print, sign, mat, and/or frame the picture), would that be possible?

  
  yes, i've seen some smugmug pro sites that have a link to other sites for certain types of order fulfilment. i'll try to find that site for you.
  

  • If so, would Smugmug get a 15 % commission?
  • Or could I include a separate price option with a link to PayPal or my own merchant account?
  • Or would I need to have a completely separate website and a link from Smugmug to it? Does Smugmug allow links to other websites?

  
  
  yeah you'd have a link to another site to handle this type of transaction.

  • Also, what’s the largest size that Smugmug can print? I noticed that on the EZprints site they can print quite large.
    

  
  print catalog here
  

  • Is there a limit to the size of file that you can upload?

  
  

  
  yes, 16mb files for pro accounts

  Andy
  
  Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  

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  apoartar Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner

  September 12, 2005 edited September 12, 2005

  Andy and FlyingPylon,
  
  Thanks for the insights. I guess what got me thinking along these lines was the fact that I could use my own domain name to setup a smugmug site, and ideally that would be the only site I would need to sell the various products that I described. I like the analogy of the consignment storefront, that makes sense. As long as I can create links to/from each site than it should work.
  
  - Brian

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  Andy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins

  September 12, 2005 edited September 12, 2005

  apoartar wrote:

  Andy and FlyingPylon,
  
  Thanks for the insights. I guess what got me thinking along these lines was the fact that I could use my own domain name to setup a smugmug site, and ideally that would be the only site I would need to sell the various products that I described. I like the analogy of the consignment storefront, that makes sense. As long as I can create links to/from each site than it should work.
  
  - Brian

  
  excellent. holler if you need more help - and don't forget, you can always email help@smugmug.com

  Andy
  
  Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  

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