Comparison of online hosting/selling sites for pictures

scoobysmak

From what I gather most people use a Flicker account for hosting pictures but figure I would ask everyone's experince of other sites if they have some. I personally use photobucket and have not really had any issues other than when they changed the site layout made a few days of...."where did that folder go????" comments. After I got used to it no problems really, but I have not tried to sell pictures or upload full resolution pictures either.

I seen a few people use smugmug and a few other sites, I can't think of the name of for the moment, if they wanted to be able to sell pictures online.

Guess the two big questions would be if you were going to sell photo's online who would you use and why, then if you just wanted to post pictures who do you use and why. Then is there something you really wish the site you are using did differently?

Rx4Photo

I recently signed up for the free trial at FolioLink and uploaded some files but I've been so busy lately that I haven't followed through with completing my pages and portfolios. I do sort of like what I see of it so far. My intent is to eventually have "business/introduction" type cards made up so that I could hand to people and have my own portfolio web page address on the card. I like the fact that the FolioLink layout is totally customizable by YOU and the presentation is much more professional looking than, say...Flickr.

You can use your website as a proofing site as well as sell from it. I think video can be uploaded as well but the fancier your options the more expensive the annual cost.

I haven't completed my setup yet but I think it's the site I'll stick with once/if I get serious enough with it.

Msmoto

I have used Flickr, 500px, Nikon Image Space and several others. By far, I find Flickr the most user friendly and the others did not do for me what I wanted So Flickr was what I decided to focus on...NPI.

jjdarling

I'm a big fan of Picasa because of how well it integrates with G+ (which is great for finding photography communities). Also, the desktop app is great. I export from LR into folders which Picasa is watching and automatically syncing to the web. Also, they recently upped the free storage allotment to 5GB, but anything with a long edge of 2048px or lower doesn't count towards it, so I only upload the really good stuff full size. Anything that'll never get printed is perfectly fine at 2048px.

I then maintain a blog for writing and showcasing photos. I use blogger for that which integrates Picasa very neatly. I do want a portfolio service of sorts though, and will at some point look into either FolioLink or 500px or whatever else is recommended.

JJ_SO

After some attempts with Picasa, Wuala and dropbox, probably even the Nikon or Canon stuff, I decided to buy a "MobileMe" membership. After I decided, Apple decided not to offer this anymore, so I shut down the MobileMe Galleries. Which were not reliable, sometimes not accessible and a bit "we offer it, but are not responsible for any malfunctions..." But they did look elegant, so I was looking for something like that, but without much programming.

Meanwhile I became happy with smugmug. I like the way these people present themselves and I paid for my second year without any regrets or bad experiences. Support is real quick, 100% size even with D800 no prob, I've already 7.5 GB on their servers, no limits. Access limitations, password security, statistics, customization is doable for a not very experienced HTML-user.

Only thing, I still don't know (but found it not important enough to ask) how to switch off the "buy" button - I don't sell pictures, I share them mostly with persons I photographed. So it might be a bit annoying for visitors.

And smugmug offers two nice uploaders as plugins into Aperture (which might be stopped by Apple any time, right after the winter sleep of it's programmers, probably)

sevencrossing

scooby - when you say sell on line; do you mean sell prints to existing clients, sell prints to the public or sell images for on line use

PB_PM

@JJ_SO I'm with you on Smugmug, I've had nothing but a positive experience with them. The "pro" or sellers account used to be reasonably priced ($150 a year), but now it is over $300 a year, which seems rather excessive. To disable the "buy" button you need to set the "Printable" setting to Off.

scoobysmak

scooby - when you say sell on line; do you mean sell prints to existing clients, sell prints to the public or sell images for on line use

I was more thinking of like sumgmug, give a link to your website on a business card and let them search the site and decied if they want to buy prints from an event or similar.

I guess I have only see people sell photos one of 3 ways, if I am missing something or there is another way it would great to hear about it
1. Hired by an individual or company, direct contact with clients
2. At an event, maybe even one you were hired to be at, took photos and passed out business cards with a link to your web site.
3. Post your photos to some online hosting site (stock photo company) and get .00002 cents for every picture someone buys

JJ_SO

@PB_PM thank you for this information, I'll try that. 300$ is steep but I think, they offer also a pay per download service and this is a Pro feature which can be worth the price if it's easy to use.

PB_PM, excellent. Just discovered the "multiple galleries" option as well. These guys know their stuff

Rx4Photo

Another site I've been looking at is Zenfolio. Similar to Smugmug and FolioLink. I've seen favorable reviews of it as well. My goal is to eventually sell a high quality print here and there as well by giving out business cards where ever possible.