Online Proofing Company

[tracey_c1]

<p>Hello Everyone,<br>

I'm interested in your opinions regarding the best companies for online proofing. I was considering collages.net, but it seems rather expensive. I want a seamless transition from my website (Bludomain site) to the third party site. I'd also like to be able to fulfill my own orders via my lab. Thanks in advance!<br>

Tracey</p>

[gpjoell3]

<p>Collages.net is great. I just spent a year with them and made tons of money. They bring folks to your site as oppose to you sending out reminders. They will let you fulfill yourself also. Another great site is DIGILABS. I just switch to DIGILABS to save money. The site is not as robust as collages.net and I will have to promote my own galleries, however, you have to make a choice between great interface and paying more or less robust and saving a few dollars. Either way, you win.</p>

[tracey_c1]

<p>Thanks for the insight George. How exactly did Collages.net bring people to your site? I just checked out Digilabs - the price looks right, especially since I don't forsee print sales as a big profit driver for me so I don't want to put a ton of money into my online proofing. Thanks!</p>

[jackie_boldt]

<p>I love using Digilabs. I have had no problems with them whatsoever! They offer a great option for people who don't make alot of money from prints. You pay a yearly fee (I can't remember what, but it's very reasonable) and then it's 17% of the profits of the sales you make. It's a great deal, because the online album hosting basically pays for itself after a few print orders. Good luck!</p>

[keithdunlop]

<p>You mention that your web site is BluDomain. There are plenty of BluDomain templates that have proofing capabilities with ordering. That will be far more seamless than a third party site, and it's free since it's part of the hosting.</p>

[dawn_kelly]

<p>Either do a sales gallery with BlueDomain or purchase a shopping cart for your site, such as eos4you, photocart, redcart, or others.</p>

[eyekandy]

<p>Tracey,<br>

I also have a BluDomain site and decided to go with a third party online proofing/ordering company because I don't want the extra work of fulfilling orders. I went with <a href="http://www.momentshare.com/">www.momentshare</a>. I just uploaded my first wedding yesterday, so I can't tell you<em> first hand</em> how their turn-around time and print quality is<em> yet</em>. BUT I can tell you that they have excellent customer service on the photographers end. They had my link up and running in less than 24 hours. It is seamless, they made my viewing site look exactly like the home page of my website and I did not even have to send them my logo. It is only $59.00 (one-time) fee plus 10% of the orders. You can set your own price list and state's taxes. So far, I am impressed. I got their information through this forum, so I will soon know if it is great all the way around!.com<br>

Hope this helps!<br>

Louise</p>

[chris_whitcomb1]

<p>Wow...if you can't go with a BD site that has proofing/sales cart then before you spend way too muchy money with the ones listed above, check out <a href="http://www.nextproof.com/">Nextproof</a> or Smugmug Professional. We use use Nextproof's 10gig plan for $24/mo with only a 7% c/c processing fee. If you don't need 10gigs of space, they have a 3gig plan for only $9/mo with the same processing fee. Their canned sites look decent enough but if you can program or know someone who can, they will let you totally rock out your site. Smugmug Professional is ok, but you need to have $500 in sales before they will cut you a check so if your not wanting/planning for a ton of print sales, I might stay away from them. One last thing, Nextproof also has a free 1gig plan with 12% processing fee just to get your feet wet. No, I don't work for them or get any kind of kick back, just a happy customer.</p>

[shawn_mertz]

<p>picturespro.com<br>

it takes a bit more work to set up but it is worth the extra control you gain by hosting your galleries on your own site.<br>

one time fee</p>

[francie_baltazar]

<p>I use my bluedomain to place orders - everyone can pay via paypal credit card and then I have my lab drop ship to them - I keep all the profits. It's a tiny bit of extra work but not much... in that I have to place the order but that's it... my lab does great packaging and does not post any of they fees online which I like. </p>

[aimee_pieters]

<p>Marathon Press hosts my site. I get a discount on all their products, free image posting and I sell images with NO commission....-Aimee</p>

[cathy_and_david_bock]

<p>Pictage.com is a great service to use as well as PickPic. </p>

[michael_chiara]

<p>instaproofs.com - easy and free</p>