Smugmug and printing

[p3photogal]

For all of you smugmug users out there, I have a question! I want to continue using my lab, I had thought that smugmug would send you orders when clients added them to their cart and you did a print fulfillment yourself. Am I wrong? From what I am seeing (14 day trial) they print them themselves and you make profit off of the prices you set? I really just want to keep my lab and control of my printing! (at least for now)

[MJPhotos24]

For all of you smugmug users out there, I have a question! I want to continue using my lab, I had thought that smugmug would send you orders when clients added them to their cart and you did a print fulfillment yourself. Am I wrong? From what I am seeing (14 day trial) they print them themselves and you make profit off of the prices you set? I really just want to keep my lab and control of my printing! (at least for now)

Then you may want to try Exposure Manager...(15 day free trial)
http://www.exposuremanager.com/aff/mikejanesphotography (http://www.exposuremanager.com/aff/mikejanesphotography)

I'm not positive on Smuggie but for EM you can set it to "self-fulfillment" and use your own lab. When an order is placed you get an email that gives you the order details and just fulfill it yourself, nothing more. Also EM is cheaper for a yearly membership (or you can do it month to month) and also they take a lower commision (10% compared to 15%).

[p3photogal]

ok, I am starting the 15 day trial, and trying to find the self fulfillment option, but am lost...this is not nearly as user friendly as smugmug...but if it has what I am looking for! haha.

[MJPhotos24]

ha, it becomes a lot easier - the thing is it has A LOT of options, more than most companies so the main page is layed out different than others I guess. They have TONS of tutorials that you can use to see how to set up self-fulfillment options. Just go to the support section ont top (documentation) and all you're looking for us under "selling photos" - 2nd to last one in the list "self-fulfillment".

[MJPhotos24]

http://mikejanesphotography.exposuremanager.com/p/attica_vs_alexander_9807/attica-alex9807011janes38

It's also the most costomizable site out there I've seen ;)

[jerryr]

Hi !
Just a quick suggestion/idea - you dont have to use smugmug for your printing services. With the smugmug customization features, you can write paypal code that enables you take orders via paypal. The order has the image name/link, print size, quantity, etc... Thus, you can take the order to any printer.
You can see some examples via my customization portfolio
http://www.jrphotosandwebdesign.com/customization
I do smugmug customization on the side - I have worked with a lot of great photographers

Questions - please ask - jerryr

[MJPhotos24]

Ok, so with smuggie you get the 15% taken out and then pay another % through paypal to get the payment making it around 18.8% (or something in that area) - or you can use EM and set nothing extra up at all and get only 10% taken out for commision...on top of paying less for the yearly membership.

SM accounts, even costomized all look the same to me for some reason. Just how it's layed out...the top banner and then links underneath spread out pretty much the same. Sure colors, and text/images, etc. change but the layout all looks similar. One thing finding out with the EM costomization is you can do pretty much anything! However, you need to have a little bit of template/html/wigget knowledge to do so...though I have gotten a bunch of requests to do costomization of EM sites, hmmm...I have a new business plan to write up :P

[jerryr]

Hi - quick correction to your math...
If you only use paypal its 3%+
If you only use smugug its 15%
It is not a combination of them both.

With smugmug - the creavity is up the photographer.
What is the design you are looking for ?
I have some a with left navs, etc as well....
consider most web sites have a left nav or a top nav

good luck with the business plan :)

[MJPhotos24]

Hi - quick correction to your math...
If you only use paypal its 3%+
If you only use smugug its 15%
It is not a combination of them both.

With smugmug - the creavity is up the photographer.
What is the design you are looking for ?
I have some a with left navs, etc as well....
consider most web sites have a left nav or a top nav

good luck with the business plan :)

So they don't take a sales commision from all orders? Processing fee?

I'm not sure how much creativity, because it all looks the same style. I just searched through and they all have the same "feel". I guess the same can be argued for all of the sites - EM has the same inner feel but you can change it around any way you want. You can add/delete different sections, add video under your photos (if selling DVD's for example), pretty much do anything and everything you want to the site...change, improve, butcher, whatever.

I guess the design I would be looking for is something without the same feel over and over again. It's why I changed my EM site because it needed to fit with my own site and have it's feel - not the EM basic feel to it. It's not where the nav bar is (mines on top) its the overall feel of it. Most EM sites have the same feel but they dont have to - most smugmug sites have the same feel and not sure if they dont have to. I'm not sure if they allow costom templates that you can change EVERYTHING on?

Also, just as a side note - I use EM printing for everything, not just online orders - all my youth photos I use order forms for, use EM's lab. They are by far the best I've seen out there and that includes the online places I checked and the local "pro" lab that serves this areas best photogs. EM's lab actually blew them away (and that local lab was 4x as expensive). EM is the only lab I see that has trained pros color correct your photos for free, no extra cost. EZPrints doesn't do that, shutterfly doesnt do that, Millers charges, MPix not sure?

[Nyobie]

Smugmug offers convenience for prints since I don't have time to take orders, handle the transaction, print and ship. So far, I've been quite pleased with the color reproduction of my images thru smugmug and any issues I've ever raised to them, they have excellent response. I believe smugmug has established a business relationship with a lab located in Georgia. If there are other options though, I'm interested in investigating, particularly if there is a way to increase our profits (the photographers) but so far, smugmug has the best pro priceing I've been able to find though I have to admit that I haven't spent a lot of time looking elsewhere. It's just too convenient.

[MJPhotos24]

Smugmug offers convenience for prints since I don't have time to take orders, handle the transaction, print and ship. So far, I've been quite pleased with the color reproduction of my images thru smugmug and any issues I've ever raised to them, they have excellent response. I believe smugmug has established a business relationship with a lab located in Georgia. If there are other options though, I'm interested in investigating, particularly if there is a way to increase our profits (the photographers) but so far, smugmug has the best pro priceing I've been able to find though I have to admit that I haven't spent a lot of time looking elsewhere. It's just too convenient.

I looked into them but chose EM because it was a lot cheaper yearly membership, the percentage they take (10%) was less, they have extremely good costomer service and support group of users who help each other out. I needed someone to handle everything to as I dont have the time, so chose them even though I do "display only" so I dont have to upload print ready files (saves time) it's been perfect for me. Get to edit - which is basically crop - only the photos that get ordered, and they handle the rest. Perfecto!

SM uses EZPrints and I absolutely do not like them after to many issues (and that was the main issue that made me run away from them). Had to return to many orders and have them replaced because of either bad coloring or poor packaging and the photos arrived damaged. Sure they replaced the photos and were good about it, but I'd rather not have to do that in the first place.

Since joining EM I've had ONE replacement and it was because of the post office and not EM or their packaging (they have spectacular packaging). The post looked like they played kickball with the package before running it over with the truck. Oddly, the photos inside only had a slight bend about an inch long on an 8x10 - the replacement was at my house 2 days later and the costomer didn't have to wait.

I think the best thing with EM from my standpoint is I never had to ask a question about image quality, they always come back perfect since they got their own lab going. A long time costomer of mine (about 6 years) said it's by far the best lab I've had so far from his experience with prints and the packaging.