Change Home Link

papajay · September 2, 2007

I sure would like to see the "home" link at the top of the a SmugMugger's web site take you the SmugMugger's "home" page instead of the main home page for SmugMug!

It's a confusing link, at best, even for "experienced" smugmugger's, let alone first time or infrequent visitors or email invitees. I'm sure non-computer-confident grandma quickly finds herself at a loss to know how the heck she ended up looking at a website "advertising" SmugMug instead of getting to her grandson's home page when she simply hit the "home" key at the top of his page after following an "invite" link to view one of his galleries! And if the surprise in getting there rattles her at all...finding her way "back" (by simply hitting the "back" key) may be easier said than done in actual practice...("starting over" is no fun.)

An oversimplification, I'm sure, but it seems to me that a bona fide SmugHero could "fix" this irritating anomoly in ten minutes, thus removing what has to be a frustration for some, an inconvenience for others, and a downright turn-off to at least a few!

Suggestion: move the current "home" link to the left (so it's right next to the SmugMug logo) and add the SmugMug user's "home" page link where the current one is (eg "SmugNick's Home"). That quick, that simple...done! End of confusion.

Andy · September 2, 2007

papajay wrote:

I sure would like to see the "home" link at the top of the a SmugMugger's web site take you the SmugMugger's "home" page instead of the main home page for SmugMug!

Hi Papajay, you've mentioned this before, thanks.

I've said to you, that we'd be very happy to customize your site for you, so that there's a home link that does what you want it to. Would you like us to do that?

Andy · September 2, 2007

Andy wrote:

Hi Papajay, you've mentioned this before, thanks.

I've said to you, that we'd be very happy to customize your site for you, so that there's a home link that does what you want it to. Would you like us to do that?

In fact, one of our SmugSorcerers made this just for you, Papajay:

// Change Home Link (from Devbobo)

YE.onContentReady('toolbar', function () { this.innerHTML = this.innerHTML.replace(/href="http:\/\/www.smugmug.com\/([?\w&;=]+)?"/, 'href="' + webServer + '"')});

EDIT: I put this on your site. If for some reason, you don't want it, it's easy to remove. Now, your homelink does your bidding - how cool is that?

papajay · September 2, 2007

Andy wrote:
In fact, one of our SmugSorcerers made this just for you, Papajay:
 
// Change Home Link (from Devbobo)
 
YE.onContentReady('toolbar', function () { this.innerHTML =  this.innerHTML.replace(/href="http:\/\/www.smugmug.com\/([?\w&;=]+)?"/, 'href="' + webServer + '"')});
Copy that EXACTLY into your Javascript box and your home link will do your bidding.

Thanks Andy (and Devbobo, it appears). Much appreciated.

There must be some reason, though, why this isn't done across the board. I'd be surprised if you didn't get 8 or 9 out of 10 (standard users who can't customize or have their site customized by people who know what they are doing) to vote for this if given the chance. I must be missing something.

Anyway, thank you for this...I will "implement" shortly. Papajay

Andy · September 2, 2007

papajay wrote:

Anyway, thank you for this...I will "implement" shortly. Papajay

It's already done, I put it on your site ..and said so in my post

Enjoy.

papajay · September 2, 2007

Andy wrote:

It's already done, I put it on your site ..and said so in my post

Enjoy.

Yep...in such a hurry to go jump in the hot tub, I didn't see the "fine print".

Works great! Thank You both. (And, by the way, Yes...it's "cool".)

PhotographybyRoss · April 29, 2008

Please help me too!
I too would like the "home" link to go to my homepage versus SmugMug's. I would like this done for every gallery and I would also like to know how to do this on my own. I tried inputting what is written below, however, this didn't do the trick. Please advise and thanks for your time.

Andy wrote:

Hi Papajay, you've mentioned this before, thanks.

I've said to you, that we'd be very happy to customize your site for you, so that there's a home link that does what you want it to. Would you like us to do that?

Baldy · April 29, 2008

papajay wrote:

There must be some reason, though, why this isn't done across the board. I'd be surprised if you didn't get 8 or 9 out of 10 (standard users who can't customize or have their site customized by people who know what they are doing) to vote for this if given the chance. I must be missing something.

Hey papajay,

This is a very interesting question. The reason we did it this way is we spent a day behind 1-way glass watching people off the street using SmugMug. The use cases we studied were either, (a) they came to SmugMug to investigate using us for hosting their photos—in which case they expected home to return them to our home page—or (b) they were searching SmugMug for interesting photos of Key West. We have an astonishing number of people who come here now instead of Google or Flickr.

In each case, they didn't think to click on our logo to go back to our home page, where they wanted to go.

The use case you seem to be describing is they go to your SmugMug site, look through some galleries, want to go back to your home page, but don't see or know to use the navigational breadcrumbs. I'm not sure I know how to reconcile those uses but would love to hear ideas.

One thing we've learned from hard experience which won't be music to your ears and certainly wasn't to mine, is things we do around public photo sharing are really popular, but things we do around private photo sharing don't move the needle very much. We did the privacy features you so passionately argued for because they were the right thing to do, but it isn't the path to fame and fortune that Facebook, Flickr and Photobucket follow.

What does this have to do with what the link does? We're under constant pressure to get traffic to public galleries like Flickr does. Now that we have so many impressive photos, it's starting to happen. The use case we see a lot is: someone plans a trip to Mongolia, they search, find a gallery of photos they love, leave a comment for the gallery owner, and click the home link to start another search. The gallery owner is thrilled and wants SmugMug to send even more admirers their way.

Make sense?

PhotographybyRoss · May 2, 2008

Doesn't really apply here
Although I understand what you are saying, about bringing people to your site and most people have one subject to search for in mind. However, many users are paying the professional fee to use this SmugMug for their personal homepage, along with the use of a domain name. Why offer a service to your customers, allowing the to use a domain, when the "home" link doesn't even work to their advantage. The whole purpose of having a professional, or semi-professional website, with one's own domain name is because people want to see that particular artist or website, not do a search for a specific image. Maybe as your site has evolved you should consider how this is affecting your paying clients. I know that if this is not change I will take my business elsewhere.

Baldy wrote:

Hey papajay,

This is a very interesting question. The reason we did it this way is we spent a day behind 1-way glass watching people off the street using SmugMug. The use cases we studied were either, (a) they came to SmugMug to investigate using us for hosting their photos—in which case they expected home to return them to our home page—or (b) they were searching SmugMug for interesting photos of Key West. We have an astonishing number of people who come here now instead of Google or Flickr.

In each case, they didn't think to click on our logo to go back to our home page, where they wanted to go.

The use case you seem to be describing is they go to your SmugMug site, look through some galleries, want to go back to your home page, but don't see or know to use the navigational breadcrumbs. I'm not sure I know how to reconcile those uses but would love to hear ideas.

One thing we've learned from hard experience which won't be music to your ears and certainly wasn't to mine, is things we do around public photo sharing are really popular, but things we do around private photo sharing don't move the needle very much. We did the privacy features you so passionately argued for because they were the right thing to do, but it isn't the path to fame and fortune that Facebook, Flickr and Photobucket follow.

What does this have to do with what the link does? We're under constant pressure to get traffic to public galleries like Flickr does. Now that we have so many impressive photos, it's starting to happen. The use case we see a lot is: someone plans a trip to Mongolia, they search, find a gallery of photos they love, leave a comment for the gallery owner, and click the home link to start another search. The gallery owner is thrilled and wants SmugMug to send even more admirers their way.

Make sense?

Andy · May 2, 2008

PhotographybyRoss wrote:

Although I understand what you are saying, about bringing people to your site and most people have one subject to search for in mind. However, many users are paying the professional fee to use this SmugMug for their personal homepage, along with the use of a domain name. Why offer a service to your customers, allowing the to use a domain, when the "home" link doesn't even work to their advantage. The whole purpose of having a professional, or semi-professional website, with one's own domain name is because people want to see that particular artist or website, not do a search for a specific image. Maybe as your site has evolved you should consider how this is affecting your paying clients. I know that if this is not change I will take my business elsewhere.

Hi, pros can customize and not have that link at all... it takes about 5 mins to replace our navigation with a custom nav bar that is you

Want help? We'll give it you and even do it for you! Just post in the customizing forum, and holler

EDIT: Poked around your galleries (nice work!) - I don't see the 'home link' in your galleries anywhere

tuffphotos · July 2, 2008

Andy wrote:

In fact, one of our SmugSorcerers made this just for you, Papajay:

// Change Home Link (from Devbobo)

YE.onContentReady('toolbar', function () { this.innerHTML = this.innerHTML.replace(/href="http:\/\/www.smugmug.com\/([?\w&;=]+)?"/, 'href="' + webServer + '"')});

EDIT: I put this on your site. If for some reason, you don't want it, it's easy to remove. Now, your homelink does your bidding - how cool is that?

Hi...
I'm hoping to do the same thing with the default smugmug home link. I tried pasting in the above code. Tried it in the CSS box as well as Header Javascript box, and neither seemed to work. I don't know a thing about these codes or where to put them so I was just guessing. Can you help?
Thank you.
www.lgbtweddingphotography.com

richW · July 2, 2008

tuffphotos wrote:

Hi...
I'm hoping to do the same thing with the default smugmug home link. I tried pasting in the above code. Tried it in the CSS box as well as Header Javascript box, and neither seemed to work. I don't know a thing about these codes or where to put them so I was just guessing. Can you help?
Thank you.
www.lgbtweddingphotography.com

This javascript is used when you display the SmugMug header, if you have a custom banner it won't work. Which link are you trying to change?

tuffphotos · July 2, 2008

Hi Rich...
when you are in the shopping cart area ordering a print, at the top of the page there is a "Home" link next to "Login", "Help" and "Search". This "Home" link takes you to SmugMug home.

I'm concerned that a customer will be confused if he or she clicks on that "Home" link in an effort to go back to MY home, and instead ends up at Smugmug home.

Is there a way around this?

Thanks

NWMtnGuy · July 2, 2008

tuffphotos wrote:

Hi Rich...
when you are in the shopping cart area ordering a print, at the top of the page there is a "Home" link next to "Login", "Help" and "Search". This "Home" link takes you to SmugMug home.

I'm concerned that a customer will be confused if he or she clicks on that "Home" link in an effort to go back to MY home, and instead ends up at Smugmug home.

Is there a way around this?

Thanks

I have noticed this as well. Even if you have a customer header, once you land in the shopping cart the header reverts back to the SmugMug header and the "Home" link returns a visitor to the SmugMug homepage instead of the photographer's page.

It would be nice if Pros could change this through customization. (Maybe they can - my CSS knowledge is still pretty basic.) I know Baldy has shared some logic in other threads about why the shopping cart sits in a semi-indepenent zone outsize the photographer's own site, and I appreciate the complexity of that problem. It would still be nice if we could change it

Dale

YoFrankie · October 8, 2008

Please configure HOME link to return to my homepage not SmugMug's

Andy wrote:

Hi, pros can customize and not have that link at all... it takes about 5 mins to replace our navigation with a custom nav bar that is you

Want help? We'll give it you and even do it for you! Just post in the customizing forum, and holler

EDIT: Poked around your galleries (nice work!) - I don't see the 'home link' in your galleries anywhere

Any SmugHero, Please remove the SmugMug HOME link from my personal SmugMug webpage. I tried putting the script in my Java header under cutomization but it did not work. Help. www.frankmalliaphotography.com

richW · October 8, 2008

YoFrankie wrote:

Any SmugHero, Please remove the SmugMug HOME link from my personal SmugMug webpage. I tried putting the script in my Java header under cutomization but it did not work. Help. www.frankmalliaphotography.com

I took a look for you and it looks like the 'hide owner' gallery option is causing the problem. When you set a gallery to 'hide owner' this will remove your customization and navigation back to your homepage.

Go to the 'gallery tools' menu and select 'customize gallery', under 'security & privacy' select 'hide owner - no' and see if that helps get back your navigation.

YoFrankie · October 8, 2008

It worked but.....

richW wrote:

I took a look for you and it looks like the 'hide owner' gallery option is causing the problem. When you set a gallery to 'hide owner' this will remove your customization and navigation back to your homepage.

Go to the 'gallery tools' menu and select 'customize gallery', under 'security & privacy' select 'hide owner - no' and see if that helps get back your navigation.

It worked RichW. The SmugMug HOME page link is gone from the top right of my web page when visitors access my web site. Thank you. However, I went in and practiced buying one of my photos. After I selected the size and quantity of the photo to purchase I clicked on CHECKOUT. On the next page with the fields for the shipping address, I saw the SmugMug logo at the top left and HOME|LOGIN|HELP ... at the top right of the screen. When I clicked on HOME it brought me to the SmugMug home page not back to my home page. How can I remove the SmugMug logo and HOME|LGOIN|HELP links from the top of the address page and any proceeding pages?? I don't want my customers going to the SmugMug home page. I want it to appear the only web site they are accessing is my web site. Please help.

darryl · October 13, 2008

PhotographybyRoss wrote:

Although I understand what you are saying, about bringing people to your site and most people have one subject to search for in mind. However, many users are paying the professional fee to use this SmugMug for their personal homepage, along with the use of a domain name. Why offer a service to your customers, allowing the to use a domain, when the "home" link doesn't even work to their advantage. The whole purpose of having a professional, or semi-professional website, with one's own domain name is because people want to see that particular artist or website, not do a search for a specific image. Maybe as your site has evolved you should consider how this is affecting your paying clients. I know that if this is not change I will take my business elsewhere.

I'm not a pro, but I agree with Ross (admittedly 5 months after his post :-). SmugMug graciously hosts my son's preschool's photos. And I have personal and family photos on another SmugMug site. They are not in their own domains, but simple foo.smugmug.com addresses.

But the point remains -- paying customers, Pro, Power or Standard, should not have to serve as advertising tools for SmugMug. I mean, isn't that one of SmugMug's biggest selling points? Yup, there it is: "No ads or spam."

I'm not necessarily trying to be "found" by Google. Maybe your pros *are* trying to be found by Google, but why do the Standard users who can't customize their Home links or Power or Pro users who may not even realize it have to sacrifice usability so that others can be more easily found?

Baldy -- of course your 1-way mirror study turned out the way it did. Your use cases didn't include a very important (to me) group: people that paying users have shared their photos with. That's right -- you didn't run the grandma test.

As a study of "how can we get more people to get SmugMug accounts", your conclusion and decision make perfect business sense. As honoring your pledge of "No ads" -- it's a little less than truthful, even if it is the cutest little logo and the smallest little Home link.

Note that I don't have a problem with the "Powered by SmugMug" logo at the bottom of the page, and in fact, you specifically state that the only way to remove that is via a Pro account so that professionals can provide a "seamless" experience that doesn't seem hosted.

But to have the prominent Home and Top-Left Logo link go to SM's home page by default (instead of the paying customer's) has always been at best an annoying UI quirk, and at worst at odds with your #1 selling point listed on www.smugmug.com.

(Sorry about joining the party late and then ranting like a maniac, but I just noticed and replied to this thread and was prompted to search whether this had ever been made into a formal feature request. I'll go add it to the official FR thread right now.)

darryl · October 13, 2008

Baldy wrote:

One thing we've learned from hard experience which won't be music to your ears and certainly wasn't to mine, is things we do around public photo sharing are really popular, but things we do around private photo sharing don't move the needle very much. We did the privacy features you so passionately argued for because they were the right thing to do, but it isn't the path to fame and fortune that Facebook, Flickr and Photobucket follow.

What does this have to do with what the link does? We're under constant pressure to get traffic to public galleries like Flickr does. Now that we have so many impressive photos, it's starting to happen. The use case we see a lot is: someone plans a trip to Mongolia, they search, find a gallery of photos they love, leave a comment for the gallery owner, and click the home link to start another search. The gallery owner is thrilled and wants SmugMug to send even more admirers their way.

Make sense?

SmugMug's home page says:

*Your* photos and videos look better here
- No ads or spam
...

(Emphasis mine.)

Flickr's home page says:

Share your photos.
Watch the world.

I realized in my previous post I was essentially accusing SmugMug of being greedy. I don't really believe that -- re-reading Baldy's post, it's clear that *some actual customers* really do want this. These people are wrong. :-}

SmugMug ain't Flickr. I wish they'd stop trying to make it so.

Oh wait, I did have to make one more comment about $$$:

Re: the path to fame and fortune of Flickr and Facebook -- isn't a large part of that fortune due to advertising? Something that SmugMug has repeatedly said they wouldn't do? Yeah, communities and sharing are neat and swell and all, but I signed up with SmugMug 4 years ago because I wanted to share photos with people I knew. Not the Internet as a whole. And 4 years later, I feel the same way.

If SmugMug's priorities have shifted, they should make note of this on their home page. Play up the communities and searching capabilities.

And yes, I realize part of SmugMug's path to fortune has been through the higher-priced Pro accounts, which *do* benefit from more traffic to SmugMug's home page and search. I still maintain that Standard users should not have to sacrifice usability just to give Pro users more clicks. (And it shouldn't be such a pain for Power users to fix it either.)

PatriciaHorwell · December 7, 2008

SO - Is It Possible??
I've read through this entire thread and still have no clue whether it is possible to remove the SmugMug Home link from my shopping cart. It is confusing at best for the customers - and as everyone has said here before me - I really want my customers to stay on my site!

Change Home Link

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