My review of the new Smugmug

A screen shot of my new Smugmug homepage

I'm glad I was too lazy to switch to Zenfolio, because the new Smugmug has most of the features I was hoping for. I'm happy enough, in fact, that I'm shamelessly linking with a referral link just in case somebody out there decides to join (it gets you a discount and me some credit). But don't take the referral link as bias—I recently dumped all affiliates on my site. 

My number one complaint about the old Smugmug was the look. Well, the look and the sudden major price hike with no new features. But after nearly a year, they finally launched a huge overhaul. When I first learned about the price hike on Smugmug, I decided that the ideal way to offset costs would be to dump my web hosting for my regular photography site and customize Smugmug (which previously I had only used for proofing and orders). In other words, merge it all into one. So I went about trying to customize the site. I had planned to do a post about it, but I was never satisfied with the results and the post would have been nothing but a string of swear words. If you had a lot of expertise on code and/or were patient enough to comb through all of the various forum posts looking for weird workarounds, you could eventually get something that looked pretty good.

Now, you just have to choose a template and tweak it as much or as little as you want. You can change templates at any time. Or, if you're good at web design, you can go crazy and customize all you like. Here's a screenshot of a few of the templates:

See the one with the snowboarding dude? That's the first one I chose. I had swapped out the background photo, put in a logo, added my own menu, and set up galleries in less than an hour. It was amazingly easy. And as long as you don't click "unveil," other people don't get to see the mess you're making of your site.

Once I had it set up, I decided that I was tired of full screen templates (even though—or maybe because— I have used one for years). It looks good for wedding photography, but my priorities have changed. I just want something clean and functional that works really well on tablets and phones (i.e. a "responsive" site).  So I took the "Octavia" template, changed to square, fairly large thumbnails on the home page (each of which takes you to the corresponding gallery where you can buy prints). I adjusted the spacing, selected photos, etc. I added a link directly to the abc paris galleries, and just checked a box that let me include the hover-over menu you see in the screen shot below (normally, I hate those, so it's the only one I put on the site).

The "buy art prints" menu item goes to all of the other galleries (and I'm still working on populating them). Here's the fairly no-frills (by choice, you can go crazy on your own site if so inclined) page with the galleries (I plan on getting rid of the label "Galleries.")

One of the great things about the mostly intuitive new templates is that you can tweak an existing template and then save it as your own theme. You can build up different themes and easily switch whenever you please. The only confusing part about switching was that when I clicked "done," it would revert to the first theme I chose. It drove me crazy. Finally, I broke my vow to not bother the poor customer service people (and in case you didn't know, Smugmug pretty much has the best customer service ever. true.) and of course, they solved my problem.

In case it happens to you: there's "done" there's "publish now," "publish later," and then there's "unveil." I was clicking "done" and then "publish later" because I didn't want the site to go live. Turns out, you need to click "done" and then "publish now." It doesn't go live until you hit "unveil." Problem solved.

The old smugmug galleries drove me crazy because:
1. I just didn't like the look
2. They did not help sell prints at all. The "add to cart" button was really hard to find. It did nothing to entice customers.

Problem 1 is solved by giving you seven gallery style choices. You just choose which one you like from a pull-down menu:

There's plain old "journal" style (sort of a basic tumblr-esque scrolling of photos):

Or, maybe collage is more your thing:

(partial screenshot)

You can do horizontal or vertical collage styles, with or without captions.

Or maybe thumbnails (which you can adjust in various ways):

Problem 2—the "add to cart" button is only partially solved, in my opinion. This is one area where I think Smugmug could still use improvement. On the "journal" style (look at the pink umbrella shot above) you see "add to cart" underneath every photo. With the other styles, it's less visible. If you're trying to sell prints, you want to remind people that those pretty photos are not only nice to pin, they're also for sale. For that reason, I chose the rather plain Jane looking "journal" style.

There are still a lot of things I want to do to customize my site—including, finally, dumping my old host and porting my .com over to smugmug—but I'm impulsive, so I couldn't wait to "unveil" the new version.

There are also other big improvements (in managing content especially) that I won't go over in this post. For now, I just wanted to report on the positive experience I've had. I was pissed at Smugmug when they had their price hike. I wanted to switch out of spite, but the alternatives were just as expensive and didn't have the labs I like to use. Also, I have never been happier with customer service than with Smugmug. Now that they've done something big, I feel great about sticking with them.

And in case I didn't sound like enough of an infomercial already, here's my last shameless plug to sign up using my referral link. 

Anyone else out there have a similar experience? Or a negative one? Maybe you switched and are happy you did? Maybe you're having regrets? Let me know.

The New Smugmug

Thank heavens! This is the feature I had been hoping for. Once I've experimented with it, I'll do a post about the experience. Finally, a smugmug that doesn't look clunky and outdated.

New Smugmug "unveiling" on July 30

http://www.ustream.tv/smugmug

After Smugmug announced its massive price increase for pro users, I investigated some alternatives. A lot of users jumped ship, from what I can tell, and Zenfolio was the most popular choice for dissatisfied Smugmug customers. I waited it out, knowing that I still had months left before I would have to renew. At that point, I thought, I would leave Smugmug unless they made some major improvements. They didn't. Out of laziness, I stuck with Smugmug, but like many pro users, I downgraded my account to the version ("portfolio"I think it's called) that doesn't let me set different price lists for different galleries, or offer coupons and boutique packaging, but that does still let me use the pro labs for orders). Finally, nearly a year after the maddening price hike, it looks like Smugmug is going to do something big. Will it be enough to make people return to Smugmug? Will it be worth the wait? I guess we'll see...

The New Year Post 2013

Time to assess last year—ok, well. past time by about two weeks. It doesn't bode well for 2013.

First, the overall picture. Since I started this blog, number of posts per year is:

2008: 88 (which was in half of a year)

2009: 118

2010: 73

2011: 76

2012:  *gulp* 45

Notice any trends? And then there's the fact that I feel like I should begin the blog with a confessional ("It's been more than a month since my last post.")

The average life span of a photoblog is two years. Actually, I just made that up. I have no idea what the lifespan of a photoblog is, but as a reader, I have seen many of them come and go. Will mine be next? Probably not. Will my posting become more frequent this year? I guess we'll see.

So, on to the day of reckoning for last year's goal....

2012 was to be the year of shameless commercialism. After my artsy "epic fail" project of 2011 during which I learned that success in gallery shows can be expensive, I vowed to devote myself to the commercial realm. The screen shot above (from art.com) shows that it was the year of black-and-white Paris photos over vintage text and the year of dogs. The year was off to a good start when about 10,000 prints sold in January. Things kept going (but at a slower pace) for the rest of the year, and then in May, I ran into a postcard rack with two of my dog prints.

I must be rolling in cash from all those sales, right? Not really, since my royalty payment is a modest percentage of wholesale. Not that I'm complaining (just trying to give an accurate picture). I know that some photographers only dream of galleries and high end art sales (and I'd love that, too), but I dream of seeing my photos on the art aisle of Target (or some similar store). 

Advice to the new photographer—you can earn more money doing weddings. Nevertheless, I'm drifting away from the wedding market—at least at my old prices. I've decided that the absolute cheapest package I will now offer is $1800. The mid-range package (with album, engagement, wedding, etc. pretty much everything you really need) is $3400. The price increase, while not enormous compared to some (Jonathan Canlas, anyone?), definitely puts me out of the range of a lot of potential clients. Raising prices in bad economic times is a risky move, but I have a limited amount of time and my old prices just led me to resent the work. 

Speaking of risky price increases, let's talk about Smugmug. 

When Smugmug decided to double their annual fees for pro accounts with no corresponding increase in features/service, many people started looking for alternatives. Being a huge Smugmug fan, my response was to save money by attempting to customize my smugmug site to the point where I could dump my regular .com and hosting plan, thereby offsetting the price hike and streamlining my web presence. I spent hours trying to tweak code in Smugmug, but never finished and am not happy with the results so far. I still have until April to downgrade or abandon Smugmug before my annual renewal. So far, I'm pretty disappointed with Smugmug—not with their stellar customer service, but with the fact that they don't provide stylish website templates (just *meh* themes). Yes, you can tweak the code like crazy if you have the skills, but I don't have time to master java, CSS, and whatnot.

Back to last year's goals...

Last year, I said I would do an occasional tutorial (I did. not often.), some posts about books I'm reading, a "variety of projects," and hopefully some "real-life retouch" posts. The real-life retouch didn't happen, so I make no promises this year.

Also related to last year, my pathetic attempt at monetizing my blog with skimlinks has thus far earned me enough money to buy a couple of albums on iTunes. I'm sure I would have done better had I written more posts and spent more time trying to promote products, but hey—it's still money and I haven't cluttered my blog with ads, so I see no reason to remove skimlinks.

A word about Pinterest

On Jan 1, 2012 I had 146 followers on Pinterest. Today, I have 1,710. The ease of pinning (vs. writing posts) and the immediate satisfaction of seeing "likes" and "repins" and increasing numbers of followers means that I have more incentive to pin than to post. I can blame Pinterest, at least in part, for my decrease in blog posts, but I don't see it ever replacing my blog.

So what's this year's goal?

I don't know. To be honest, the Sundance film festival starts this week which means I will be watching movies non-stop for the rest of the month. I knew that if I didn't force myself to do this post tonight, then I might never do it—which ultimately shows that I still maintain at least some degree of commitment to my blog.

So if I force myself to come up with a goal, here, on the spot?

Portraiture. I want to get back to portraiture, preferably starting with my own kids. You can therefore expect:

• one or more posts about my quest to redo a photo wall in my home
• some portrait inspiration and experimentation
• the occasional tutorial
• ???

And in a project unrelated to photography, 2013 will hopefully see this parked domain turn into the promotional vehicle for an amazingly cool French book (sort of the anti-textbook French textbook that will make pedagogues gnash their teeth and cry out in horror) I am writing (with boy-wonder Andrew of crustaceansingles.com ) for iPads everywhere. 

That's as ambitious as this year gets. If you've made it to the end of this post, thanks, loyal reader! So nice of you to indulge my yearly New Year's rambling. I hope to repay you sometime this year with inspiration of some kind.

I'll be back post-Sundance.

5 Smugmug Pro Alternatives

I recently renewed my Smugmug account, so I've got months to think about whether it's worth it to jump ship. Here are five alternatives to Smugmug that are popping up in discussions among the disgruntled:

1. Zenfolio

Advantages: A "Premium Account" is only $120/yr. That includes way better templates than Smugmug, unlimited storage, reasonable lab fees (12% for partner labs as compared to 15% on Smugmug), and most of the features a pro would need. See their pricing for details.
Disadvantages: You only get access to the pro labs with the "Premium Business" plan, which at $250/yr, is comparable to Smugmug. Some say the customization is more limited, but from what I see the templates would be sufficient for me.

2. Photoshelter

Advantages: Nice templates, SEO and marketing tools built in, a large network of labs for worldwide print sales, takes RAW, PSD, and all the other file formats you could want, and many other features you can see on their site tour.
Disadvantages: Price. A Pro account is $549.99/yr. It's just the kind of thing that makes Smugmug's price increase seem reasonable.

3. Photoswarm

Advantages: Unlimited photos, customization, your own domain name, commission-free Paypal sales. $99/yr for Pro account
Disadvantages: Frankly, I find their site confusing and their sample galleries uninspiring. Compared to the sites above, it seems to be lacking in features.

4. Exposure Manager

Advantages: Unlimited storage/uploads, packages, automated email campaigns, only 10% commission fee (compared to 15% on Smugmug), pro lab or self-fulfillment, etc. See more features on their site.
Disadvantages: Premium account is $25/month, customization is apparently limited to simple changes like headers/footers, colors.

5. Pictage

Advantages: Full spectrum of service, from scheduling and contracts to print fulfillment. Album design service, packaging, and many others you can see by scrolling down on their plans page.
Disadvantages: Price. The cheapest plan is $29/month. The Pro plan is $99/mo.

Disclaimer: I haven't used any of the above. However, these are alternatives that I see mentioned in discussions on forums, facebook, etc. All of the above offer sales and galleries. I have chosen to ignore standard website options or photo sharing sites (such as Flickr), because I am interested in exploring comparable alternatives to the Pro Smugmug plan.

My conclusion:
As much as I hope the Smugug caves to the pressure and cuts the price hike, the proposed price point does not seem unreasonable compared to what I've found elsewhere. The plan I would most likely choose would be the Zenfolio "Premium Business" plan.

Please add to the list in the comments if you have other suggestions. If you've used any of the above sites, what was your impression?

Smugmug Pro Price Increase

Smugmug's recent announcement of a massive price increase for pro accounts is making some unhappy customers compare the move to the Netflix fiasco. That's a bit harsh, given Smugmug's incredible customer service, but judge for yourself:

No customer is happy with a price increase, but some objections are more substantive than others. For example:

• Why not introduce some killer new features along with your announcement (or at least give specifics about future improvements)? Wouldn't major improvements mitigate the price increase?
• Wouldn't incremental price increases be less painful, or was this a ripping-off-the-band-aid philosophy? (note: Baldy says in a forum that he regrets not doing it incrementally over the last 7 years)
• If all that storage is costing so much, why are only the pros seeing a price increase? My wife, who has a basic account, probably uploads more than I do with my pro account, and I doubt this comparison is unique to my home.
• If Smugmug is in such urgent need of new revenue, it hardly builds confidence.
• The new "portfolio" level doesn't offer enough features for hobbyists who need to sell prints. Why not bump up the price once a certain level of sales is reached?

I have been nothing less than blown away by Smugmug's customer service. I love that I can let Bay Photo fullfil customers' orders online—saves me a lot of hassle and the quality is excellent.

While many customers claim they will downgrade or take their business elsewhere (Zenfolio is the most likely competitor), I have decided to see if I can get my money's worth out of Smugmug. My goal: customize my site to the point where I can dump my website and run everything through Smugmug. I've spent all weekend finding tutorials about advanced customization (CSS, Javascript, etc.) and I am nowhere near my goal. If you want to pay hundreds for someone to do the coding for you, Smugmug gives a list of "certified customizers," but if you want to do it yourself, you have to cobble together what you can from their forums and this post. Why oh why can't Smugmug give pros some good advanced templates? And while we're griping, what about giving pros the ability to upload RAW files at no extra cost? If those two things happened, I'd stick with Smugmug. As it stands, I don't have to renew until next April, so we'll see what happens between now and then.

What about you? Any Smugmug users out there? What about Zenfolio or other alternatives? Do you think this is a disaster à la Netflix or will it all blow over in a week?