Anyone still using Zenfolio to display and/or sell their photos?

I know this has been discussed in the past, but my search of the topic resulted in threads that were over a year old (or older). I'd be interested to hear from anyone who is using Zenfolio to host and sell their photos. I'd also appreciate any input from SmugMug users.

1. Are you happy with the service?
2. Are you satisfied with the SEO?
3. Was it difficult building your page(s)?
4. Do you sell many photos, or is it really not worth the trouble?
5. What advice would you give to a newby?

Thank you, everyone, in advance.

I know nothing about Zenfolio other than they have MANY satisfied users.

I have a Smugmug account and am delighted with it.
Is everything perfect? No, but the niggly bits are far outweighed by the good features.

SEO? I hit first page everytime - and multiple times (but that could be due to me!!!)
Apparently Smugmug is optimised for SEO/Google

Difficult to build pages - not ONCE you learn the basics of how to get around the features and how to access the options.

Smugmug has:
lots of video tutorials http://help.smugmug.co​m …2-new-to-smugmug/articles
they have a very responsive email support program http://help.smugmug.co​m/
and there is an amazing forum of fellow Smugmug users http://www.dgrin.com/

Selling photos - if you want to have a shopping cart facility, you would have to have either the Portfolio or Business account levels.
Me? I'm in Australia and they don't have an integrated Australian Printing business, so I don't use it.
If you think you just have to build a website and wait for the orders to roll in, you are going to be VERY disappointed.
Sales will depend on how much traffic you can drive to your website, how good you work is and whether there is a market for your photos.

I tend to sell packages and value added products (like sports posters) - only some individual prints.
I use my website more for "brand awareness" and as a way of advertising my packages.
But then again it is a hobby for me - photography is not my main source of income. But it does pay for my toys.

Advice? About what?
Setting up a website?
Promoting you website.
SEO
Pricing
Products

Probably a good idea to narrow it down so the good folks here don't just scatter gun replies

Thank you for your input. I probably should have stated that I focus on wildlife, nature and landscapes. I don't do wedding or portrait photography. That certainly limits my potential customer base. I know that it will be my responsibility to direct the traffic to my site and that the photos will have to speak for themselves.

Like you, this will not be my main source of income. Just thought I might be able to use the hobby to help pay for itself.

As far as other advice goes, I'm primarily interested in advice on website layout, but also interested in the Zenfolio vs SmugMug discussion. I know that may be opening a whole can of worms, but I ready for that.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. I do appreciate your input.

I use it but do not really try to sell anything. It is easy to use, building the pages is quite easy and there is a lot of support to help. It is inexpensive and gives a nice look to the resulting presentation. you can check out my pages in my sig

What is this "Zenfolio" you speak of?

philk54 wrote in post #17761771
Thank you for your input. I probably should have stated that I focus on wildlife, nature and landscapes. I don't do wedding or portrait photography. That certainly limits my potential customer base. I know that it will be my responsibility to direct the traffic to my site and that the photos will have to speak for themselves.

Like you, this will not be my main source of income. Just thought I might be able to use the hobby to help pay for itself.

As far as other advice goes, I'm primarily interested in advice on website layout, but also interested in the Zenfolio vs SmugMug discussion. I know that may be opening a whole can of worms, but I ready for that.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. I do appreciate your input.

My suggestions for web layout.
1) on you landing page, make sure you have text that includes words likely to be used as keywords by people looking for your style of photos. Keep it relatively short (less than 70 words = good for SEO
eg "Phil Kester Protography, Macungie, Pennsylvania. Beautiful Nature / wildlife and landscape images of Pennsylvania"

2) Landing or Home page could have a single spectacular image or maybe a slideshow of some of your VERY BEST images

3) Every page should had a way of navigating around your site. Menu bar with sub-menus. Clear logical categories.
So Wildlife might have sub categories of Mammals / Birds / Reptiles / Amphibians
Nature will have ### / #### / ### etc
Try not to have more than three levels deep
Menu/navigation bar should maybe have a links for HOME, LANDSCAPES, WILDLIFE, NATURE, ABOUT ME, CONTACT .... and if you are selling, what products are you offering, price, details prospective customers should know

Each page should show a breadcrumb, so that visitors know where they are and have a quick, logical way to get back to another page.

4) Logo/Header - keep it small (10 - 15% of vertical space)

5) Be careful of backgrounds - keep them plain so that your images are not competing for attention

6) Make sure your site is scalable - that it will look good on desktop, laptop, ipad, iphone etc.
This website allows you to look at simulations of your website:
http://quirktools.com/​screenfly/

etc, etc, etc ...............

Google "good website design for photographers"

Examples of Smugmug photography sites or resources:
http://news.smugmug.co​m …fell-in-love-with-so-far/
http://www.borrowlense​s.com …sful-photography-website/
http://www.dgrin.com/s​howthread.php?t=237680

Excellent advice. Just what I was looking for. Thank you.

i use zenfolio. never used smugmug.

i love it because it's easy to create a folder hierarchy and organization pretty much in any way you want. if you go to my website (pics.xyclopx.com) you can see it's organized very much like a directory structure on your own harddrive, and that's on purpose. most other people do it differently though, and again, it's so flexible can do it any way you want, and name the URLs pretty much any way you want. that sort of organization is impossible on any other consumer-level picture hosting service like flickr, 500px, etc.

seo-wise, it's hard to say cause much of it has to do with the user, in addition to the code. but i would just guess based on my web experience that they might be behind others in SEO. my images simply do not show up in searches even with tons of keywords and good descriptions. the website itself does, but not the subject matter. again, that may be mostly my fault, but not sure.

anyway, i'm happy with it for the most part. my only real complaint is that very recently, like starting about 1 month ago they started having performance issues. these problems never occurred in the past. the ceo even sent out an email to all users explaining their problems. so they know of them. anyway, it's better now but not completely cured.

Can i share photo from Zenfolio to this forum like Flickr?

jimmyt wrote in post #17822489
Can i share photo from Zenfolio to this forum like Flickr?

if you own the account, an option appears in the "share" menu for photos to get direct links at various preset resolutions. this option only appears if you own the account. otherwise people are blocked from right-clicking and downloading.

Xyclopx wrote in post #17822507
if you own the account, an option appears in the "share" menu for photos to get direct links at various preset resolutions. this option only appears if you own the account. otherwise people are blocked from right-clicking and downloading.

Thanks

philk54 wrote in post #17761771
Thank you for your input. I probably should have stated that I focus on wildlife, nature and landscapes. I don't do wedding or portrait photography. That certainly limits my potential customer base. I know that it will be my responsibility to direct the traffic to my site and that the photos will have to speak for themselves.

Like you, this will not be my main source of income. Just thought I might be able to use the hobby to help pay for itself.

As far as other advice goes, I'm primarily interested in advice on website layout, but also interested in the Zenfolio vs SmugMug discussion. I know that may be opening a whole can of worms, but I ready for that.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. I do appreciate your input.

I'm wondering how you're marketing yourself and your website? And even though this isn't your main business, what's your ideal clientele? Answering these questions should be a priority in really figuring out what the best site for you is, because some are going to be stronger when it comes to visual layouts, and some will be stronger at inherent search engine compatibility.

philk54,

Like you, I started with landscape and nature photography. I asked many of the same questions about Zenfolio and Smugmug 6-ish years ago.
Some things may have changed.

I went with Zenfolio at the time for basic price / feature set.

My target audience has changed, and has exposed weaknesses in Zenfolio's selling section. I came to this thread looking for current thoughts, but I can share my experience with Zenfolio as well.

If you are storing, organizing photos and galleries for display or sale and tend to sell mostly single prints or digital images - no problem.

If on the other hand, you shoot events, like dog agility trials, or dog shows and customer need to manage favorites and select package bundles, then the navigation and check-out process lack something.
I am having repeat customers beginning to complain, so I am looking for a new host.

Your mileage may vary. Zenfolio serve me well for years, but my business model changed.