Presented by SmugMug Support Hero Sean Rogan (January 17, 2013)

If you’re not a SmugMug user yet, the ideas that Sean presented at the January SmugMug meeting might just convince you to sign up. If you’re already a user, Sean offered many tips to optimize the power of SmugMug for your business and marketing plans.

BACK UP…BACK UP….BACK UP. As you (or at least I) know by experience, without a backup, a fool and his/her photographs are soon parted. The hard drive crashes, the external drive won’t function, the DVD’s get scratched. (I won’t go into the natural and man made disasters that could also affect your collection). SmugMug IS your backup…unlimited…full resolution…and offsite. Owner download allows you to import the photos you want right back into your computer whenever you want. You can’t get much better than that.

VIVA LE VIDEO – You can also upload videos of up to 3 gigabytes/20 minutes. That’s a lot. They have a “sister service” called Amimoto for easily creating edited videos. There’s a limited free version, and then one for $30 years Personal endorsement…I’ve bought many video programs over the past few years in hopes of being the next Spielberg. Didn’t work so well. I made a video slideshow last night with Animoto – about 150 photos, text, and music (royalty free tracks are included). I’m addicted. And it could load directly into Smug Mug. Imagine offering a video of a kid’s birthday party, a family reunion, a girl’s night out – anytime if you a specific group of people who would look forward to reliving (or at least remembering) the event (to fill in the black out periods). And marketing them is as easy as sending out links to your SmugMug page. And then, include a coupon for 20% of any still photos they want to buy from the same collection. POW /WHAM!

Obviously, the committee who put this together has never been on a PAC camping trip, accounting for the understated purple slide in the right pie. However, that’s not the focus of this webinar. What is the focus is the ‘RAINBOW OF RESPONSIBILITY” represented by the left pie. HERE IS HOW SMUG MUG CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!! Let’s dosey-do around the circle (women in the center, men on outside) see what SmugMug could do for you.

EDITING PHOTOS – Let’s start at the big green slice -. I don’t display proofs. But I do know some photos are going to be subjected to more criticisms than others by the client. (The bride really isn’t go to care about her Aunt Betty’s attempted to do the cha-cha.) In Lightroom, fix all the basic stuff, focus on the key photos, and post. A group of people will tend to order 10%-20% of the photos displayed. Let them pick the from the ‘presentable ones’ you posted. You can ask SmugMug for up a seven day delay so you can review your customer’s order and ‘spruce them up’, correct cropping, photoshop Aunt Betty out, etc. You’ve just save about 70% of the time it would take to professionally post process 100% of your photos.

THE MONEY SIDE – SmugMug keeps tracks of your orders, profits, tax info, will deposit money directly into your bank, etc. Excellent for those of us not that good with money. They also send you an email with ‘CHA-CHING” in the subject line when you make a sale, which is so much better than the emails from the bank saying ‘your statement is ready.

COMMUNICATIONS – There’s a place for personal consultation and delivery (especially if there’s lace, roses, and a $500 album involved). But for the most part, almost all communications can be done through your website. You have the ability to send emails to your clients, track their orders, send them coupons for their next order (or maybe tie it into a referral request).

And speaking of $500 albums – SmugMug has direct access to another company that creates beautiful albums for those very special occasions.

BLOGGING – I’ve heard you can create a blog on SmugMug. I don’t know how. Didn’t learn how in this session either. Maybe next time. But, you can encourage people to post your photos to social media. One way is to allow them the SHARE (free). Or you can sell websized downloads for $1.99 – just like i-tunes

NETWORKING – My business cards have my website on them. I bet yours do too. I have found most of the time, my business cards do a better job when they are out of my hand and in someone else’s. Ninety Percent of the time, I will get a response saying that they looked at my website.

Seeing is believing.

ADVERTISING AND MARKTING – The SmugMug name is one of the top Google recognized sites. That counts for something when you site is linked to their name. Keyword, keyword, keyword (easiest to do it in Lightroom before you export out your photos…the keywords will follow). Every so often, post an album on your personal Facebook Page. Not only do you share them with your friends, but they share them with their friends, and on and on and on. A few months ago, I was speaking with an acquaintance I had done some event photography for, and she said she noticed her husband was looking at a photo of some bird on the internet. She looked over, and noticed the KLICK logo and excitingly announced “I know her!!” It felt so good to be noticed 30 miles away

PRINT ORDERS AND LAB WORK – THE SHINING STAR OF OUR STORY Having their album on line gives your customers plenty of time to view and share the photos when making their decision. But—even more importantly, once they decide to buy, everything is done directly with

the printer (thus eliminating the dark green slice and replacing it with “party like a rock star.” or maybe spend some more time in that red slice. And would we all like that. And then, once we’ve all done that, we can work on expanding the green slice in the left hand chart.

Smile,

Sandy Klewicki, SmugMug Scribe

P.S. Thank you Sean

To Join Monthly Meetings Join our PAC Camera Club Here: https://captureschool.net/