The Pictage Experiment

[duds]

Hi y'all.

I love SM, and always will. But I'm interested in growing a few aspects of my business for which I've found SM to be a bit lacking. So I signed up with Pictage, and, for the moment, I'm using both services.

I thought I would start a thread for those of us who use both services to offer a little compare and contrast... to share some pros and cons of each service.

My impression so far is that neither service is perfect, and both are great - in totally different ways. Here are some initial impressions.

- My profit margins are smaller with Pictage, mostly because my expenses are higher, but my customers get more for their dollar with 2-for-1 prints.
- Nothing beats SM's customer service. Nothing.
- Pictage has a much better system for managing price lists... Simply create a customized price list (including self-fulfillment options) and apply that price list to a gallery.
- SM gets it right by allowing images to be downloaded (for free, if a photographer chooses to do so) from galleries. In fact, the ability to download images in three resolutions, and to do so at full resolution for free, is a major advantage for SmugMug.
- Pictage wins in the marketing department, for sure. I can see email addresses for everyone who visits a gallery, along with their albums of favorites.... and they can easily share their galleries with other people, whose emails I can also see. While SM has recently released a similar feature, I feel that SM has a long way to go before matching Pictage on this front. Pictage also send marketing emails directly to the customers, so I don't have to.
- I like the customization of SM's coupons, and I think Pictage is lacking in that regard. Then again, I spend much less time managing coupons through Pictage...
- I love that SM offers MetalPrints. A personal favorite of mine.
- Pictage allows customers to create books, albums, cards, etc., from their images, and purchase them at prices set by the photographer.
- SM is fully adaptable to your own CSS customization, if you're not afraid to get your hands dirty. Pictage is not customizable. Every gallery is www.pictage.com/XXXXXXX and there's no way to integrate a Pictage gallery with your own website.

These are just a few of my thoughts. I will probably maintain both services, as they serve very different needs for me. Curious to hear if others have thoughts as well...

[picturethelove]

this is funny, because we are coming from Pictage to try out SmugMug.
We just haven't been 100% happy with pictage and find it hard to make money as their monthly fee is so much higher.

the final straw was a phone call i received from them saying that their packages are changing and that we could choose between $19, $49 and $99 a month BUT i saw on their site for new users who sign up they can do so for $9 a month. I told the rep that i wanted the $9 a month plan (you get a little less but it worked for my situation). She told me that it was not available to me as a current customer. I got frustrated and told her i was going to cancel my account and switch to another service.

Also their site seems bulky and not customizable. I've been with them about 6 months and never really thought their service was user friendly.

I'm hoping the switch to smugmug will be worth it to our clients.
-kim

[duds]

My sense so far is that Pictage and SmugMug fit different needs.

It's a bit like owning a hatchback and a pick-up truck. Ultimately, both will get you from point A to point B, but hey have specific strengths and weaknesses that may fit your needs at any given time.

One of my biggest gripes about Pictage is the wholesale price of their color-corrected prints, but they claim that they are about to significantly change their pricing structure, and drop the prices way down. We'll see.

I love the way SM lets me move images from one gallery to another with relative ease (though I'm still waiting for a "Copy to Another Gallery" feature which is inexplicably absent.) It's much harder on Pictage to do this. In fact, I'm not able to create an album with images from multiple galleries, which I can now do with SM's "Collect Photo" feature, I believe.

Anyway, more as I learn it. Would love to hear thoughts from others as well. In the end, I think I do enough business to warrant keeping both services. Maybe not, we'll see.

[Realitytourist]

My beef with Pictage, from a couple of years ago, was that I had to give them my contact info to get pricing info. I decided I wasn't interested, but I got spammed weekly in email, plus some phone calls, for a YEAR from a guy there (whose email address only sent, didn't receive) trying to get me on their team.

I appreciate that SM has all its info out front to help everyone decide (including how to do some of the stuff).

[dustinmeyer]

Hey Guys,

I know we're on a SM forum, but another option to fulfillment solutions is Collages.net. I've been using them for 8 years now and have been extremely satisfied. I started with Pictage and was disappointed with their customer service and their client interface.

I use Collages.net for everything, in-house sales, online sales, albums, prints, album design, etc. Plus, someone always picks up the phone when I call about anything. Also, they're offering several different price plans for all types of studios:

http://www.collages.net/site/SignUpOptions/tabid/828/Default.aspx

I just thought I'd put my 2 cents out there, photographers should be aware of all the options available to them :)

Thanks,
Dustin Meyer

http://dustinmeyer.com
WPPI 2010 Master Class instructor

[NickCorona]

Dustin hit it on the head! Collages.net is by far the best thing that happened to our business! We've only been with them going on 2 years now. Not only are they always above the curve with their awesome product line, but they are also the most "customer service" oriented full service workflow solution company out there. I, too, was very, very, VERY dissatisfied with Pictage's UI and customer service. Plus their products are at best mediocre. Especially as the industry is always changing and evolving, so should be your photo lab. Their prices are very competitive as well. Plus, you can totally customize your event portal so that your customer's never feel like they're dealing with two separate companies (yours and your print lab)

For all of you that are fed up with Pictage and would like a viable & profitable alternative, check out Collages.net, it's definitely worth your time to look!

Also, once you get a glimpse of their incredible product line, you'll be hooked like us!

Check 'em out their products here:
http://www.collages.net/site/Products/tabid/62/Default.aspx

Thanks guys!
Nick Corona


Nick Corona Photography
www.nickcoronaphotography.com

[bettmo]

I was at Pictage for about a year, but what sold me with SM was the commercial license. As a commercial and editorial photographer, this comes in very handy. As does the slideshow share option, I use it for my website portfolios.:barb