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?

I'm back

Self-Portrait 2012

Yep. I haven't posted since June, and the more I wait the more monumental getting back to the blog feels. I tell myself  that maybe I need to do some really great post to get back into things. Some killer tutorial to feed the hungry masses (because there are those of you who actually follow the blog and then there are the thousands who drop in to find out how to change the background color in Photoshop and then leave). Finally, I decide that if I don't just post something, then I may never post. So here's what barely qualifies as "something."

Back from the dead
Well, not really. Spring/summer was going great: Various scholarly activities, Paris, London, a couple of weeks in Hawaii (You'd think I had money, but trust me, I don't. It's all grants and generous relatives)...and then...double hernia surgery. It hurt like hell for the first week, and then we all piled in the van and took a road trip to Oceanside where I convalesced and watched a whole lot of stupid shows on Netflix. My productivity screeched to a halt. But now I'm back.

The perpetual blog crisis
I don't have a monomaniacal drive to achieve any particular goal with my blog. At best, there's an overarching yearly goal (this year is commerciality), but even then it's a mixed bag. I think a certain degree of uncertainty can be useful. Wasn't it Mary Poppins who said "a spoonful of crisis sweetens the monotony of routine"? No? Must have been the Percocet talking.

Anyway, my current dilemma deals with just how much of the commercial stuff to share. For instance, if I give a tutorial on a current product that retailers have bought by thousands, will it harm sales? If I talk candidly about the business stuff, am I asking for trouble? I'm not sure, but my impulse always tends toward disclosure. I'll deal with that issue in a future post.

The draw of the pin
While my break from blogging has lasted a couple of months, my break from Pinterest only lasted two weeks. Pinning is easy, inspiring, and has been gratifying in terms of followers. Creating content, on the other hand, can be laborious. My immediate plan is to have more interaction between my pinboards and my posts. So expect some posts inspired by pinning.

A bientôt
Now that I've gotten that first re-launch post out of the way, I can resume. See you soon.

Rainy Day in London

I've been neglecting my blog while in Hawaii for the past two weeks. I'm not really much of a beach person. I don't tan, surf, or drink fancy cocktails. If it weren't for some very generous family members I would have been in Cincinnati grading AP French exams instead of snorkeling and eating ridiculously huge cups of shave ice with my wife and kids. I don't think I took more than 20 photos and I have yet to upload them. All productivity slowed to a crawl and then died somewhere in a lagoon, as it should during that kind of vacation. A far cry from last month, in London...

Boots in late May

A schoolgirl helps her grandma stay dry in Chelsea

The patterns that develop when you're willing to stand in the rain and wait

Snapseed is free in Apple App store this week

Snapseed by NIK software is free this week in the Apple app store. If you have an iPhone or an iPad, you'd be crazy not to get it. I mean, I thought it was a good deal when it was $5.