Online website hosting/e-commerce

does anyone have experience with printroom.com? i have been looking around at places to put together a

simple website of my work with the option to order prints. This place seemed pretty cost effective for

hosting while offering the printing services all in one..... i was just wondering how the print quality

was....support experiences etc. Any experiences or other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I use printroom. Its not the best service in the world, but its also not the most expensive (and there ya go!). I use it so my clients can have their friends and family members buy small, easy sizes (wallets - 11x14), and boost sales. For the actual clients ( I do mainly family portraits), I tend to sell directly, in packages. Here's why:

Printroom takes a fairly high chunk of change out of every sale, in addition to the yearly fee. Their print quality is nice, but I've dealt with pro labs with identical quality who charge 10% less (sometimes even cheaper, depending on size).

 

Their interface is also not the clearest, and if its easy for me to get confused, then its easy for grandma to get confused. I've heard good things about smugmug, and I've also heard bad things. I think for you, if you're just offering prints of your work, rather than proofing for tons of clients, printroom will be easy but it will also cost more than necessary, both in yearly fees and in commissions.

 

(Also, I see that you wanted to use them for hosting. They only allow you to show 15 photos on your printroom-created website, and you're very limited in what you can change).

yeAh....not thinking it's the best for my needs as i read more into it. i'm open for any suggestions. i wasn't crazy about smugmug after reading about it....for my purposes at least. i just want to offer prints of my work, maybe an occasional portrait or private gallery.

I ues Printroom also. I'm in the process of getting a web site up, but it meets my needs for now. I think I will continue to use them after I have the web site up as a proofing/reprint link. Any of these sites are going to take their cut from the sales. But it's still cheaper if you don't want to have your credit card system. You have to sell a lot to get your money out of processing your own credit cards. I sell a lot from there and have not had anyone complain about not being able to place an order. It's pretty straight forward, pick a print, pick a size, how many, place your order. Their prints are as good as anyones doing this type of printing. They do have great customer service. I sent the wrong file once and got the order before I noticed it. I called and they reprinted the correct file at no charge, which I thought was over and above, since it was my fault. Also got a damaged order, damaged in shipping and they reprinted the whole order and overnited it to me. So I think I will stick with them just for the great customer service.