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WTF - Popup adds on my paid account?!?
Ferguson
Registered Users Posts: 1,339 Major grins
Did I sleep through some announcement?
When did smugmug start forcing adds onto pages? One thing I tell people when I refer them to my web site is "no ads".
I don't spend a lot of time on Smugmug but probably land on my pages at least a couple times a week, this is the first time I have noticed it, but I am going to be REALLY upset if Smugmug is now advertising on paid accounts.
What's up with this crap?
Linwood
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Only you as the logged in account owner should see that message. It looks to me like it’s the same system where they let us know about new features … and this is a new feature. Unfortunately it feels a little like an ad while also being a new integration for SmugMug business owners to help run their business.
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
OK, I guess I have no idea whether others can see it or not. It's easy to assume others see if if I see it though.
They send a newsletter (like) thing around. That's great. Popups are just bad... annoying, intrusive... just bad.
I hope you are right, and others will not see it. That's my main concern.
Looks like they really like popups. Logged in the first time since the original posting, got two. Still curious if it's only the site owner that sees crap, or are they popping up stuff for regular users.
Aaron (leftquark) wrote that it's for owners only, and I think he would know.
You can easily see for yourself by logging out of your SmugMug account. You will then see what the visitor sees.
@Richard, yes, I can see the site as others see it, but only at that point in time. These seem to come at random times, it was not obvious I would see them even if some non-owner could. But as they seem to be getting more frequent now as an owner, you are probably right. As to @leftquark, I think he left Smugmug's employ and he said "it looks like", it was not clear if he was saying he was sure.
But the combination of increased frequency, not seeing it logged out, and his comment -- I think you are right.
Still pretty annoyed by it -- why do companies you already pay for a service feel it is OK to intrude on you to advertise new services, the continual "upsell". I get (and actually look at) their newsletter, I don't need popups also. But I guess (given the lack of comment here) no one else minds. We've all been programmed to allow advertising all the time.
I don't know that we've all been conditioned to allow advertising all the time, but we have been conditioned to realize comments won't have much effect on corporate decision-making.
True. And I've got so much invested in the Smugmug web site, can't threaten to leave. So ... pardon the whining, it at least makes me feel a bit better.
These kind of "popups" or "messages" are meant as a way to introduce you to new features and make you aware that SmugMug is providing more value to you. They may seem "random" because SmugMug doesn't follow a typical release schedule -- they release features when they're ready, and then want you to know about them, so they pop up a message to inform you. These aren't advertisements for other products -- they're feature improvements meant to help you and your SmugMug site.
I think this "Found" one is slightly confusing because it's more of a partnership than a SmugMug feature. But it is something that SmugMug Pro's have been asking for forever -- a better way to integrate all the business side of things into your portfolio website. And so now with this partnership, your SmugMug website can become that place where all the business happens. You generate leads that push people to the SmugMug site and then with Found, all the money, invoicing, etc that's generated can happen together.
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
Thank you for the perspective.
Is there any way to disable these? I've had the same message pop up three times now, which is three times too many and also blocks part of the page.
I really don't care about podcasts. I'm not going to listen to it anyway, and if it keeps getting advertised I'm going to end up adding half of Smugmug to my ad blocker.
Don't know, but I also notice they are getting MUCH more aggressive at email advertising, used to be I would hear a few times a year, now it seems like a few times a month, maybe per week.
Seems like the direction the corporate world is heading. Amazon is adding ads to prime video unless you pay extra. Google searches have gone way down hill over the years (remember the days when ads were relatively few and along the right edge of the page so they wouldn't interfere with real search results?).