Photographyblogsites.com

caroline · November 2, 2011

Does anyone have any additional info about this http://photographyblogsites.com/smugmug/

Opinions ?

Caroline

Andy · November 2, 2011

More here, too: we announced this about 5 months ago
http://news.smugmug.com/2011/07/25/new-customization-partner-photography-blogsites/

caroline · November 3, 2011

Photographyblogsites.com -Anyone using them/

Andy wrote: »

More here, too: we announced this about 5 months ago
http://news.smugmug.com/2011/07/25/new-customization-partner-photography-blogsites/

Thanks Andy

Would like to hear from anyone using them, how the experience has been etc

mjordanphoto · November 3, 2011

I actually currently use them specifically because of their SM integration. You can check out my site - www.mjordanphoto.com . So far everyone there has been really helpful, especially when I've run into things that I can't seem to figure out. I like the ability to do a lot of customization, and that's not always an option through their site. That being said, I think my website looks gorgeous, I'm getting a lot more traffic (it seems), and being able to pull things in directly from SM is great.

There are a couple things I'd really like changed, such as when a SM gallery is linked over, the order of the images is not maintained, but from what they have told me, this is something that PhotographyBlogSites and SmugMug are currently working on.

Other than the few minor annoyances with features that I'd like that don't yet exist, I think they've cut the time I actually have to work on my site in half because things just work smoother, and I'm absolutely loving the layout. If you've got any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them - so fire away here or in a private message!

caroline · November 3, 2011

mjordanphoto wrote: »

I actually currently use them specifically because of their SM integration. You can check out my site - www.mjordanphoto.com . So far everyone there has been really helpful, especially when I've run into things that I can't seem to figure out. I like the ability to do a lot of customization, and that's not always an option through their site. That being said, I think my website looks gorgeous, I'm getting a lot more traffic (it seems), and being able to pull things in directly from SM is great.

There are a couple things I'd really like changed, such as when a SM gallery is linked over, the order of the images is not maintained, but from what they have told me, this is something that PhotographyBlogSites and SmugMug are currently working on.

Other than the few minor annoyances with features that I'd like that don't yet exist, I think they've cut the time I actually have to work on my site in half because things just work smoother, and I'm absolutely loving the layout. If you've got any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them - so fire away here or in a private message!

Nice looking site, thanks for the link. I don't have specific questions right now but thanks anyway.

Caroline

schmoo · November 3, 2011

Hi Caroline! I have been using them for my portfolio site, too, and I like it. I mainly wanted a photo-friendly WP blog and then these guys came along with their easy SM integration so I had to bite.

http://schmootography.com/

They do make it very simple to get a clean, beautiful site with lots of SEO juice. They've also been pretty helpful the few times I've written to them with questions. Most of the setbacks I've found with using PBS is the complicated switches and buttons on your dashboard, but that is really a WordPress issue, not theirs.

I like that I don't really have to think too much - I just pick and choose what I want to display and it looks great. The customization is a bit cryptic and I was able to do only a few tweaks that worked, but I think if you really want to play around with that you'd be better off contacting them to see how much help they can give you. I didn't go down that path.

caroline · November 5, 2011

Hi Schmoo!
Thanks for sharing, your site looks fantastic and your images - WoW!

I'll do a little more investigating now bearing in mind what you've said.
Cheers,
Caroline

martythornley · December 5, 2011

mjordanphoto wrote: »

when a SM gallery is linked over, the order of the images is not maintained, but from what they have told me, this is something that PhotographyBlogSites and SmugMug are currently working on.

This was just fixed and released last week! Images should now be instantly updated to be the order as you have them within SmugMug.

Thanks for the feedback about how the galleries are used. Keep it coming!

-Marty
Photography BlogSites

mjordanphoto · December 5, 2011

martythornley wrote: »

This was just fixed and released last week! Images should now be instantly updated to be the order as you have them within SmugMug.

Thanks for the feedback about how the galleries are used. Keep it coming!

-Marty
Photography BlogSites

Thanks Marty! That's outstanding news! I'll have to do some work on my website this weekend to look into everything, but that change was one of things I was hoping for the most! Early Christmas for me!

mjoshi123 · December 7, 2011

Okay can someone help me understand why it is more expensive than www.prophotoblogs.com/ or www.wordpress.com ? Prophotoblogs does provide you site, blog & portfolio in same place. Only advantage I see is integration with SM but for that $299/year is bit steep when you compare it to one time cost of $199. Am I missing something here ?

martythornley · December 7, 2011

mjoshi123 wrote: »

Okay can someone help me understand why it is more expensive than www.prophotoblogs.com/ or www.wordpress.com ? Prophotoblogs does provide you site, blog & portfolio in same place. Only advantage I see is integration with SM but for that $299/year is bit steep when you compare it to one time cost of $199. Am I missing something here ?

Hi mjoshi,

While our sites are powered by WordPress, we provide WordPress-as-a-Service, where with any theme, like ProPhotoBlogs, you get a theme but need to install WordPress and the theme ( maybe hire someone at $200-$500), host it (additional cost of about $70-$100/year), and worry about upgrades when WordPress comes out with a new version.

We provide a hosted service of programming, maintaining and updating the sites, in addition to a level of support that is just not possible for anyone selling themes that users are installing on their own server. (We know because we started as freelance WordPress developers and did custom sites for years). Plus, you just sign up and your site is ready to start using in under 30 seconds.

I actually just did a detailed blog post about some more of the details surrounding how our WordPress-as-a-Service is different from other WordPress solutions:
http://photographyblogsites.com/2011/11/why-our-websites-for-photographers-are-different/

Plus, we are the only website you will find that instantly syncs your design to SmugMug.

http://photographyblogsites.com/smugmug

Best,
Marty
Co-Founder / Lead Developer at Photography BlogSites

mjoshi123 · December 20, 2011

martythornley wrote: »

Hi mjoshi,

While our sites are powered by WordPress, we provide WordPress-as-a-Service, where with any theme, like ProPhotoBlogs, you get a theme but need to install WordPress and the theme ( maybe hire someone at $200-$500), host it (additional cost of about $70-$100/year), and worry about upgrades when WordPress comes out with a new version.

We provide a hosted service of programming, maintaining and updating the sites, in addition to a level of support that is just not possible for anyone selling themes that users are installing on their own server. (We know because we started as freelance WordPress developers and did custom sites for years). Plus, you just sign up and your site is ready to start using in under 30 seconds.

I actually just did a detailed blog post about some more of the details surrounding how our WordPress-as-a-Service is different from other WordPress solutions:
http://photographyblogsites.com/2011/11/why-our-websites-for-photographers-are-different/

Plus, we are the only website you will find that instantly syncs your design to SmugMug.
http://photographyblogsites.com/smugmug

Best,
Marty
Co-Founder / Lead Developer at Photography BlogSites

So does this mean that all I've to do is pay $299 a year and dont worry about maintaining my site ? How the whole process works ?

martythornley · December 20, 2011

mjoshi123 wrote: »

So does this mean that all I've to do is pay $299 a year and dont worry about maintaining my site ? How the whole process works ?

For maintaining, we take care of all the technical side of things... The server setup, daily backups, we upgrade WordPress, all themes and plugins (and make sure they all work together), etc... Everything along those lines is included.

We also support it and fix any technical snags that might crop up.

The owner of each site has control over everything content related - posts, pages, images, etc...

Did you have anything specific in mind about what might or might not be included?

Photographyblogsites.com

Comments