Best Photo E-commerce Site?

[jeff_hansen3]

I've been doing a lot of research on photo posting sites, so that I

can put my weddings on the web and have my clients order online, but

I'm wondering what kind of sites other people are using, and how they

like them.

 

It looks like RubySoft (www.rubysoft.com) has a really good deal with

an unlimited account, and Moments4Ever (www.moments4ever.com) is

pretty reasonably priced, but I don't know about the professionalism

of these sites and whether or not they're very easy to use. I know

that a lot of people use PhotoReflect, but 18% out of every order

seems a bit ridiculous if you ask me.

 

If anyone could just let me know what they use, and what they like and

don't like about it, it would be greatly appreciated.

[david_schilling___chicago_]

Did you see the thread below on online viewing of photos?

[nick_w.]

Check out ExposureManager.com. You pay $9.95 a month for unlimited storage, the customer support is AMAZING, and you can design the layout with a lot of freedom, especially if you know some HTML. They've got a 15-day free trial. I started an account with them about a month ago. This is just what I was looking for.

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

<A href="http://www.pictage.com">They Are The Best To Have On Your Team</A>

[david_schilling___chicago_]

I find Pictage to be rather pricey and have heard several studios complain about how they market Pictage products to their clients. Interestingly, when I clicked the above link out of curiosity, afterwards I was unable to backclick my way out of Pictage and kept getting redirected back to their site.....seems like a virtual marketing ploy. The above post has a "spam" feel to me.

[conraderb]

I have been reasonably happy with Pictage.com. The quality of their printing is high, it gives me an opportunity to gain some revenue on the side (my account generally pays for itself in sales) and clients like that they can use it to see their photography and share with friends and family.

 

However, I would say that their customer service is spotty sometimes, and has caused me to make my clients wait as they play catch up.

 

Three examples:

 

1) it took them two weeks to figure out what happened with some medium format scans I took to them. Two weeks is WAY too long for a client to be waiting. Sometimes emails were unanswered for more than a few days. Unacceptable.

 

2) After they promised to give me a discount for the above referenced event, it didn't appear on my statement, and I had to email them about this. This has happened on more than one occasion.

 

3) I'm waiting for an event that I submitted on Friday (10/28) afternoon. The event usually takes a few hours to be approved and released. I'm still waiting, and despite promises that they would give me an update, I have no idea when they will release the event.

 

If you can get around the spotty service and have a good amount of patience, Pictage can fit the bill, but you need to be very careful in watching your statement and aggressive in resolving any concerns, otherwise they will just bill you and hope that you don't complain.

 

Conrad

[dave_nelson___atlanta__ga]

I really like SmugMug. Here is my latest take:

 

I have been using SmugMug for two years now and have been very happy with them. You can separate your photographs into multiple galleries and in different categories along with public or private options and the ability to have galleries password protected.

 

The reason to choose a service like SmugMug in my opinion is so that you can make sales without being directly involved. I can spend my time taking pictures and finding new clients instead selling prints. Also because they do all of the hard work, I currently have 4010 photos (11.22GB) on my site and use about 4 GB of bandwidth a month. With SmugMug the Pro account includes unlimited storage and 16GB of bandwidth a month. Finding a regular web site hosting company that gives you unlimited storage and 16GB of bandwidth for less than $9.00 a month would be a real challenge.

 

With a "Pro" account you set your own pricing and take any profits after paying EZ-Prints and SmugMug's reasonable markup. This is not my main source of sales, but it is nice to see a photo sell a year or more after the event.

 

One of the nicest features of SmugMug is the ability to brand and modify the design to fit into a web site you may already have.

 

Enter the coupon code "qUWCtMsdEzfIg" during registration and you will get $5 off and I will receive a $10 credit. If you have any specific questions I would be happy to help.

 

http://davenelson.smugmug.com

[aaron_lee___minneapolis__m]

http://www.collages.net

 

Not cheap! So far very fast customer service. Super fast servers. AMAZING user interface for both admin side and for clients. Compare photos, you can fax them a list of email addresses you collect at the wedding and they will enter them for you (priceless for me!)

 

To me, it's worth it. Making it easy to buy for the customer, and easy to upload photos and manage them is of utmost importance to me. Every other site I've tried (including the ones listed above) have had horrifying user interfaces.

 

My $00.02

 

~Aaron