Thinking EM isn't the right path...

I signed up for the free trial for Exposure Manager and I'm thinking it's not the right path.
It's only an online photo gallery and sales tool. I can't find any way to truly customize it beyond that. Am I missing something or do I need to switch to GoDaddy where my domain is already hosted, throw down for some online storage and get a website built?

or...should I link just a sales page to EM?

I switched form GoDaddy to EM. You can use a basic HTML editor to change the headers on the pages. The customer service is excellent at EM and I like the fact that they handle the order. I chose their pro fulfillment over self fulfilment and the way it works is easy. My customer places an order, I get an email telling me what they ordered, I crop to the proper aspect ratio, edit the image and upload it. They have it printed and mail it direct to my the customer. With my branding. They send out email progress updates to the customer and myself. Once a month they mail a check out (if at least $25.00) to me. There is also great flexibility in setup products to offer and you set the prices. Linking from another site will work, but why pay for 2 sites?

I know...I actually used your link to sign up. It just lacks the feel of a regular website you know.

I feel that EM is really geared towards print sales. It does take some time to set it up for the look that you want. In my case I am now getting activity of people looking at my landscape shots when they come to the site for the sports photos. I had no activity before. I think if I were to adjust my prices to be in line with my sports photos, and add more landscapes, that they would sell better than they are. I have the shots but have been too busy to add them to the gallery. Thanks for using my link and the best of luck, whichever way you decide to go.

Mr. Clean, what are your requirements? Exposure Manager is primarily a sales engine. It has some customization capabilities, but it objective is to display and SELL pictures. I would never use it for a full blown, everything I need, web site. I actually mapped a subdomain of my web site to Exposure Manager so my customers can to to my web site and take a link to my exposure manager gallery and never really know they left my site.

I agree with everything Mike and Brice said.
Customer service is excellent, 30 day money back guarantee on Orders.
It's just a sales tool and an excellent one as well. I also front-ended my site although you will know that you're jumping to EM when you select Galleries.

Brice what your site as I'd like to see your setup.
Thanks.

Chris, it's very basic. I've not started playing with headers and footers to any great extent.

Gallery of Gymnastics Pictures

My main gallery is under construction and, thus, has been disabled.

www.photoshelter.com

Numerous e-commerce and archival features for working pros... including self-fulfillment of print sales and rights-managed licencing using FotoQuote as the pricing engine.

There's also the option to fully customise and seamlessly integrate with your own site. Pricing is very competitive.

My site is customised using PhotoShelter... here's a sample gallery:

http://www.photoshelte​r.com …ery-show/G0000_4iFcp_WEdk

---- Gavin

I think the best bet is to map a subdomain. EM is great and has a great feel to it and the customer service was awesome, I just though I could put most of my eggs in one basket which certainly isn't the case. Just another learning experience!

Sounds like a good plan. No one should confuse EM with a full blown web site. It's purpose is to display photos, primarily to sell them to someone. Your domain mapping plan is a good one and depending on your web site design, they can look similar.

I've seen some use header programming to blend their non-sales pages into the EM link, but you need to know what you are doing with EM to do that.

Brice, can you post some of those examples. That's my ultimate goal but I haven't seen any yet and I really haven't spent that much time looking into it. Too many other things going on.
Thanks.

Sample Web sites

Enjoy

One of my problems that I've been banging my head against the keyboard to find a solution to is that I can't price things the way I want.
I have soccer photos to sell to parents for a fixed price, easy, Exposure Manager is the deal.
I have fine art pics to sell, ok, Exposure Manager will pretty much work as long as I determine they're all worth the same price.
I have 'better' fine art pics to sell, or say it's one of those one in a million pictures. No dice! One pic might be worth 65 dollars, another, 75 dollars and so on and so on.
The only way to do per unit pricing that I've found is through Gallery2 mods and even in that case, it's just not scalable! And what I mean by scalable is that if one person sends me 80 dollars for a 11x18 it needs to be the same process if 80 people send me 80 dollars for a 11x18.
Obviously I have no problem uploading and getting a picture printed and shipped via Mpix to my customer, I just can't do that for 80 people.
Thoughts?

I believe there is a function within EM that will allow different galleries to have different pricing. IIRC, you have to create separate pricing list and apply it to a specific gallery.

You might want to send an email to EM to double-check.