Smugmug/Zenfolio question....

I'm curious exactly how these sites work. I know that you pay an annual fee for the service and that you store your photos there, where people can access them online and purchase them as prints, enlargements or gifts, right? What I don't know are how you get your "website" built and how you advertise your Smugmug or Zenfolio site.

Are there services to build your website? What do they charge? I'm sure it's probably not that difficult to do it by yourself but I've never done a website and honestly don't have a lot of interest in doing so or the time to do it.

What about advertising? Do you do it yourself or can a potential customer go to Smugmug and type in the keyword of a photo that he's looking for, say "rainbow" or "butterfly"? I would guess that the social networking sites would be one of the major ways to advertise a Smugmug type site but personally, I'm not that into social networking.

For perspective, I'm not a pro photographer but rather a more and more serious amateur as time goes by. I now have about 300 images on Alamy but I've only been there for a couple of months and don't see much activity yet. I'd also like to eventually sell photos at fairs and festivals a few times a year but will probably forego that idea until I become a bit more experienced and until I retire in a year or five.

Thanks for any input, education, ideas or advice.

I am interested in this too and have been searching this site trying to find some tips w/o much luck. Hopefully someone will answer these questions for you/me, haha. I have a long way to go though before I would be able to sell any of my photos but it'd be fun trying.

I use Smugmug and it is pretty easy. Just pick a template you like and your gallery is formatted or 'built' as you put it. You don't have to create a webpage and code it from scratch if that is your concern. More complex formatting and layout will require more work on your part but if you want a simple webpage it is pretty straightforward.

You can keyword photos so when someone searches via Smugmug they will find the photo. Given a term like rainbow or butterfly your customer will come across multiple other photos from other photographers so you cannot depend on a keyword to direct someone to your specific site. If you want to drive customers to your specific site you're going to have to market it.

What's the difference between sites like Smugmug & sites like Shutterstock?

Both Smug and Zen have a set of templates that you can choose from for very good "out of the box" solutions (i.e; a home page, galleries, an 'About' page, 'Contact' page etc etc)

Zen also has 'custom pages' where you can basically build whatever you like (in terms of text, images, slide-shows) in a layout that suits you. With some very basic setup you can integrate these into the rest of your gallery so that the whole thing looks seamless alongside the built in pages. The designer is very simple but if you're handy with HTML I you can go even further with it.

My understanding is Smug has the same options.

Once you've built your site, your choice of keywords will drive your SEO to get you ranking in search engines. This is whole separate topic and one I'm no expert in.

The best way forward is to sign up to one (or both) as a trial, go nuts for a few days and see for yourself!

I'm a very happy Zen user.

I am currently a smugmug user, as soon as my account is up for renewal I am jumping ship to Zenfolio.

Smug/Zen are very popular, if you search the forums here, you will find that Smugmug recently drastically increased their price, prompting many to jump ship and switch to Zenfolio. Its a good site to start with if you plan to eventually move towards selling images through the site (for an increased cost in yearly fees). Others who just want a simple place to show their work without selling, go to some of the other websites- PBase is one, there are quite a few that you can find by searching here as its been discussed quite a bit.

Smug & Zen have nice templates so you can make your own website using what they offer. Easy way to do it if you are not as comfortable building your own website.

As others have said, Zenfolio has a set of very nice templates that you can use to build your own site, very easily. I'm a complete idiot, technologically speaking, but I managed to put together a decent site that even has custom pages. The basic site took me about an hour, plus an additional hour to figure out how to produce and integrate the custom pages. It turned out to be so easy that I bought a basic site for my 10-year-old daughter to host her pictures. She set it up and maintains it herself. It really is straightforward.

You can get a free trial subscription - that's what I did. I took trial subscriptions for both Smugmug and Zenfolio, and found that I was able to get a nicer, more customized result much more quickly from Zenfolio. It's worth trying. Truly, if I can do it, anyone can. Believe me.

I looked at both Zen and Smug, both would have done. I went with Smugmug and never regretted it. I have 2 sites one a money earner http://knockhillimages​.smugmug.com/ and the other is just a bit of fun http://aviationandmari​timeimages.smugmug.com​/ Nothing wrong with Zen but I would recommend Smugmug to everyone

Thanks for all of the responses everyone. I think I'm going to try Zenfolio this winter when my work slows down and I have the time to devote to it. I appreciate the input.

My site is a Zen site (www.andrewrichardsonph​otography.com) not crazy about the look but you can't be the storage, gallery, and purchase options. I'm currently coding a new site to use as the front end but still host via Zen.

Trion wrote in post #15034864
What's the difference between sites like Smugmug & sites like Shutterstock?

Smugmug and Zenfolio are your galleries to do with what ever you want, within in their rules, you pay to use their service.
Shutterstock is a microstock agency that sells you work and pay you a percent of the selling cost of a photo, you need to be approved first then each photo, illustration or video needs to be approved before it is listed.

Jack

To the OP, I would also add that unless you have a good niche/unique content and do the marketing - you are unlikely to generate significant sales.

If building a website new to you then Zenfolio / Smug Mug template are much easier than building it from scratch via Wordpress... I started with Wordpress and got intimidated then turned to Zenfolio and was able to get a hang of it very well.

As far as SEO, does not matter which way you to it's another language to learn to get your website ranking up to the top.

If you want to see my site, it is in my signature. If you have question and need help, just let me know and I would glad to help you to get it going.

Tigerkn wrote in post #15070317
If building a website new to you then Zenfolio / Smug Mug template are much easier than building it from scratch via Wordpress... I started with Wordpress and got intimidated then turned to Zenfolio and was able to get a hang of it very well.

As far as SEO, does not matter which way you to it's another language to learn to get your website ranking up to the top.

If you want to see my site, it is in my signature. If you have question and need help, just let me know and I would glad to help you to get it going.

Thanks, for what it's worth, I love the image of the rings on the flower with the bee hovering nearby.

I'm actually still considering this but really doubt that I'd do the marketing myself and question whether I'd make it worth my while. I did just receive a couple of requests to do photos for my son's soccer team in action and might be able to pay for my subsciption by doing a game or to and putting them on Smugmug or Zenfolio.