Online proofing / sales reviews

<p>I am actually a web developer who is married to a talented photographer. I currently run and manage our own e-commerce solution for our online proofing and I personally like it because it's super easy for the client.<br>

90% of the stuff thats out there (smug mug, zenfolio, collages) all have supposed "open api's" yet none of them are particularly suited towards making a website to SELL pictures. While you can pull images from here and there and display them however you want, you can't manage the way the customer buys their pictures and this is a problem! I read comment after comment that all photographers (and probably their clients) are complaining that it's ridiculously hard to find the "buy this print now" button!<br>

<br />On my website it's super easy simply because its set up exactly like any other online shopping experience. You find your category, put in your password, are displayed with a list of "products" which you can browse through.. You can click on a photo and be brought to the product page with the list of sizes where you simply fill out the number of each size and click "ADD TO CART"<br>

Why is there nothing like this for photographers thats a service? An actual photo shopping cart versus some obscure version of online proofing and buying.<br>

<br />Does anyone out there know of any type of service that has this? OR does anyone know of a service that has an open enough API that I can connect with the cart to send info to it? I tried smug mug's api but again, its all about display and nothing to do with purchases.</p>

<p>@Rob - is this what you are talking about?<br>

http://www.4images.com/indexns.htm</p>

<p>If so, thats not what i'm looking for. I'm looking for something that is LIKE picasa or smug mug but that gives you more control over the layout, design, and checkout process.</p>

<p>Most of the ones that you mentioned don't want you mucking around with their site branding or layouts - they want customers to know that they are on a Smugmug or Zenfolio or PhotoReflect site. Especially around the purchase / cart part of things. </p>

<p>Probably the one that came to mind right away - don't laugh - is PayPal. I believe that they have a highly customizable end user payment / cart experience. </p>

<p>Dave</p>

<p> </p>

<p>No, I was talking about this: <a href="http://www.4homepages.de/">http://www.4homepages.de/</a> (their gallery software is called 4images, but looks like they didn't get the domain name ;)</p>

<p>You have a certain amount of control through a site config page, and you can customise using a template. If you want to make more fundamental changes you can edit the PHP code. A while ago I customised an installation for a company, was not too bad even though I'm not a php programmer. I don't really like the default layout (or colours) which most of their installed sites use.</p>

<p>Users can add images to a light box and then download in one go. Can be hooked up to various payment processors.</p>

<p>@David - you are absolutely right.. all of these companies want the control because they want people to look at some big-name photographer's website and instantly know that he/she is using smug mug (or whatever).. That really bothers me on many levels - the main level is that as a business owner, MY branding is and should always be more prominent than the software's branding.</p>

<p>We are actually currently using paypal with an open source cart, but trying to JUST use paypal would be entirely insane! You would have to create an individual button for every single picture you upload, then make a page for each image or minimally make a page for each chunk of pictures.. For a photographer that takes on average 1000 photos per wedding, that would be (as i said) insane.</p>

<p>Here is my current cart: http://printshop.bscphoto.com</p>

<p>I actually LOVE my cart, but I am just getting sick of the up keep and the dealing with managing my own server. I do web development, I love that I created such a perfect cart for photographers that I can't find one that matches up.. but i HATE that I have to deal with all the little issues. Because that cart is built off of an open source platform, there are always security patches that should be installed along with a bunch of other things.</p>

<p>@Rob - that website is from Denmark and I am in the US. I don't think I want to even try dealing with a cart that was not made to deal with US dollars or English. Also, it seems to be more of a content management system than a cart. I don't think it has checkout / buy options.</p>

<p>I'm not so sure I agree with you. I am currently using Smugmug (the Pro version) and their branding is only reserved for the VERY end, with a tiny little logo at the top left-hand corner. Otherwise, they maintain the look and feel I've chosen for my site, including all the customisations, they have a VERY simple two click interface for ALL purchases, allow me to intercept an order before it goes out (so I can, if I want, repackage it completely) or have them package it according to my specifications and using MY branding, not theirs and, more importantly, handle all my discount coupons immediately and electronically...! PLUS they handle ALL credit cards seamlessly without having to go through PayPal (something that is also a BIT more professional...)</p>

<p>This is a service which works, 24/7, backed by a reliable company, ease to use and convenient...that is why photographers use it, not because they don't have other options. After all, having a web-developer design you a customised e-shop is, for a professional photographer, not such an expensive proposition these days. The problem is not the design, it's the reliability. Smugmug guarantees the safety of my images, high enough bandwidth so that I won't have to see error messages, and so on and so forth. Most other services are like that...</p>

<p>Can a service like yours guarantee all that? And for the price of someone like Smugmug?</p>

<p>Marios - from someone who is very much in the branding, design, and development industry, it might not look at that way to you, but the truth is that their branding is everywhere. The add to cart and add to favorites as well as their entire checkout experience has smug mug written all over it. <br /> <br /> As for paypal, I think you are confusing a free paypal account with paypal website payments pro. That being said, seeing yourname.smugmug.com is equal to seeing yournam.paypal.com<br>

And for your great features - those are the features of just about every single photo cart I have looked at. As for my custom cart - my cart does that and more. Reliability is the only teetering issue and that's only because I don't like the platform it is built off of. The physical storage and backups of the photos and info is as secure if not more so because we control those manually or automatically. I've never seen a bandwidth "error" message and the safety is as safe as the script that the developer writes.<br>

I have found a much MUCH better hosted solution that has a better front end interface and all around better functions. The ability for the clients to register for an account, add photos to a package, photographers can create packages, give discount coupon codes, transfer funds into other's accounts, generate user ID's so the bride can send our registration cards and the ability to intercept orders AND use any fullfillment service you could possibly want.All the things my current website does without the need for me to manage the code-base.<br>

I am telling you - smug mug, while it seems to be the choice of photographers now, is not the best choice for your end user. I did some testing - people who are not photographers get more frustrated by those flashy interfaces with music, slideshows, etc than just a basic e-commerce experience.Choose category - see list of products - click product - choose print size - add to cart.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I've found Zenfolio's customization options to be flexible enough to make the site look distinctive and remove all trace of Zenfolio's brand name, including in the shopping cart. I haven't worked with their API directly though, so I can't speak to that. I can say that having used both Smugmug and Zenfolio at the pro levels, I've found Zenfolio to be much more reliable in terms of uptime.</p>

<p>Also, I don't use the online proofing feature in Zenfolio, so if someone likes what they see they can add it to the cart and buy it immediately.</p>

<p>Hi Lindsey - I have been providing Online proofing services for photographers for 9 years - Among other things. My back ground stems from IT design and system analysis. I have provided many systems to many people in many industries that have to use real systems every day,<br>

Firstly how good it is to read notes from someone that understands what it is really about.<br>

Obviously I am biased but I think a lot of Photographers are wowed by glitz and gizmos and only realise there mistake after they have spent a lot of energy integrating a system.<br>

The bottom line is that an online proofing system must sell or lead to the sale of images and to do this it has to be easy to use. A lot of people that view images online are not super Internet savvy. So it has to be Micky Mouse. <br>

My website is Photomemory.net - By all means have a go - there is free account for you or anyone to try. And I would be more than intrested in any constructive criticism good or bad. - Its the only way to improve.<br>

have a good day. - John</p>