bikealps Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 <p>My photo sites are hosted by SmugMug. With each sale, SmugMug gives me information about the buyer -- name, address, telephone, email address -- and this information is very useful to me. By knowing who is buying my photos, I can understand why they are buying and in what direction I should take my business to improve revenue.</p><p>I also sell books using Blurb. I recently requested information from them on my sales. Blurb informed me that I am not privy to this information due to privacy laws. It would be very helpful to me to understand who buys my books so I can improve my marketing and design books that target a broader market.</p><p>How can Blurb and SmugMug be interpreting the laws so differently? I can't imagine that the law treats books differently than photographic prints or downloads. Perhaps it is better for Blurb to hold the information so they can drive THEIR business. Or maybe Blurb treats me as a subcontractor but SmugMug treats me as the principal as they are just doing fulfillment.</p><p>Are other book companies more cooperative? If I'm willing to switch publishers, can I find a company that will share info with me to help me drive my business?</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardsnow Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 <p>It's not necessarily privacy laws, but the company's own privacy policy. If it is there policy to not share that information with you, that's their policy. It's also possibly that Smugmug has in their privacy policy that they share their information with the seller...who knows unless you read their full privacy policy/EULA/whatever other legal statements are on their respective pages.</p> <p>RS</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicaglow Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 <p>I wish I could find out who buys my books on Blurb. It would be helpful, and give us some marketing statistics. Lulu.com, and some others, don't give access to that information either.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_h.1 Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 <blockquote> <p>Blurb informed me that I am not privy to this information due to privacy laws.</p> </blockquote> <p>The two most likely reasons. The claim was made in ignorance or it was out of a motivation to get get you to quickly shut up about the issue. Possibly for both reasons.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danmarchant Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 <p>This is almost certainly a business issue and not a privacy issue. Yes, customers want there info kept confidential and don't want it sold to third parties for marketing purposes, but this is not a case of that. You are the actual seller and it is perfectly reasonable for you to have access to their details. Of course Blurb etc know that a business is its customers. If you have access to the customer details you can start to market directly to them and, when you get a large enough customer base, cut out the middleman.<br> Smugmug, on the other hand, may be of the opinion that, while some customers will leave and do everything themselves, enough people will always want the service they provide and that keeping those people happy by giving them useful information is good for everyone's business.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_h.1 Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 <p>I agree with Dan. As mentioned above, the person you spoke to may still have been ignorant or did know it was legal and just wanted to shut down the inquiry without getting in to discussion about the true reasons. While not the best fitting analogy, it is similar, in some ways. to situations where police and security have told photographers it is illegal to shoot somewhere even though it is legal. They either believe it or its just a way to BS someone without revealing what the real motives are or have a debate about it.</p> <p> </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikealps Posted January 4, 2012 Author Share Posted January 4, 2012 <p>John, Dan, Yeah, I think you got it right. My most recent email response from Blurb was disheartening. Rather than answer my questions, he ridiculed me. I expect more from customer service.</p> <p>I like Blurb's product. They were also very good to me when some wedding albums were damaged in shipping. Unfortunately, their customer service could be improved. When I found a technical problem with their book making tool (.jpg artifacts -- mosquitoing -- on some images in the previews) their support was useless. Despite sending countless screen shots documenting the problem, they didn't seem to understand it or care. I was up against a wall, so I published anyway. Fortunately, the artifacts were only in the previews and the book was beautiful.</p> <p>Smugmug by contrast has excellent service and puts the interest of their customer (photographers) first. Sure they are not perfect (product or support) but they are very good and their intent is sterling.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spearhead Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 <p>From a business point of view, I'm not in agreement with the above responses. In the days when books came from publishers, you did your deal with the publisher and didn't even know what stores it was in. If it sold, you got a royalty check and that was it. This isn't all that different except that you know where it's selling, which lets you tell people where to get it.</p> Music and Portraits Blog: Life in Portugal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_ Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 As an FYI, MagCloud has the same privacy policy. When sales occur, MagCloud does reveal the city from which the sale occurs. www.citysnaps.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danmarchant Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 <blockquote> <p>John, Dan, Yeah, I think you got it right. My most recent email response from Blurb was disheartening. Rather than answer my questions, he ridiculed me. I expect more from customer service.</p> </blockquote> <p><br />You should write a simple businesslike letter to the CEO. You should start by saying how much you like their service and then follow on by saying that there are however a couple of issues you think he/she should be aware of. Then factually document the above (date, time, person you spoke to - if known); and also the technical issue you mentioned above and the poor response. <br> It should be an "I want to let you know" not a complaint. Companies that offer good services/products need to know where they are falling down so that they can fix it. If they are a good company they will fix it. If they aren't they won't and it will come back to bite them because, one day, the customer they are rude to will turn out to be someone like Mike Krahulik and the internet won't love them any more....<br> <a href="http://penny-arcade.com/resources/just-wow1.html">http://penny-arcade.com/resources/just-wow1.html</a></p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulie_smith1 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 <p>Can you have your Blurb published books be ordered by the customer contacting and paying you - and then you fulfill the order through them? This would mean you get all the information but also have to have a credit card payment system set up with your business.</p> <p> </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulie_smith1 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 <p>Can you have your Blurb published books be ordered by the customer contacting and paying you - and then you fulfill the order through them? This would mean you get all the information but also have to have a credit card payment system set up with your business.</p> <p> </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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