Smugmug users?

Loosing the ability to maintain my former website, for now at least, I've redone my website using the power version of Smugmug. Not currently skilled in HTML, I'm not thrilled with the inability to personalize my site with a bio page, contact links, etc. It may be just a temporary website until I design one from scratch.

Are there any Smugmug power or pro users on NSN, and are your happy with what is offered?

Jeff, I think that if any Smugmug users on here read this they are going to bombard you with the same comments! You CAN personalize the site with everything you listed above. I knew nothing about HTML, and really still do not. I muddled my way through in a couple of days by getting on their discussion forum page and got help with setting up all aspects of it. Many users rave about it. I've been a member for 3 years and I average over 10 thousands hits a month on my site. I've been happy so far and the price - well I haven't found another option that can beat it yet. Only downside to it is your options on the layout of your galleries page that I have found, and if you got to searching, could even probably change it as well.

I have had a Smugmug power account for a year or so and have been happy with it. I have no desire to build my own web site from scratch, and I've been able to customize the Smugmug templates to suit my tastes. They have help forums at dgrin.com which contain tons of customization information, most of which can be done with cutting & pasting code. I have added a navbar which contains among other things a link to my blog at wordpress. I also added a "slideshow" on my homepage which I change seasonally with new work. When I get stuck, I post on the forum and have always been helped fairly quickly. I also purchased my domain name through a partnership Smugmug has with GoDaddy so it's a lot easier to find me rather than using Smugmug's rather clumsy url. You can see my site by clicking on the link in my signature block.

I had same problem with smugmug - I couldn't customize to suit my taste without a lot of help from those who are much better at HTML than I am.

I canceled my subscription and for the past 2 years have had ifp3 and LOVE it! Extremely professional templates, easy to set up - no HTML knowledge needed! Outstanding customer service and support if you have questions.

I've been looking at the website alternatives too. I tried to figure out SmugMug during a trial but decided that it really wasn't much easier than learning a WYSIWYG website software like Dreamweaver that gives you total freedom (I used to have a site that I designed from scratch so it may be less intimidating to me than some). I hadn't seen ifp3 until I looked at it after reading Marcy's post. I'm turned off by Flash which seems to be their only option. I don't like sites that hop, skip and jump. I don't like slide shows. I don't like music that somebody else thought I'd like to hear while looking at their photos. I do like search by keyword. I do like a built-in shopping cart feature. From what I read, most photo buyers share my opinions on those features. I've just signed up for a free trial of PhotoShelter. I'll see how that goes.

Perhaps I'll kepp Smugmug as a temprary site while wintertime will be time to learn 'Dreamweaver".

Smugmug does what I need. I don't sell off of Smugmug. The galleries work for my situation. Maybe too well...I have over 7000 images there! I use the same template for all galleries for a consistent experience. I don't want to learn html either. I've learned enough computer languages to last a lifetime...including Assembly language. Can't get much much lower than that unless you can read 1's and 0's!!

Troup

My family wishes I spent less time than I do on the computer at night, and that is just for working new images in Photoshop. I do not wish to spend even more time, learning HTML and designing a new site from scratch. For now, Smugmug is fine although I hate that name.

I'm happy but looking forward to my custom site soon. Check out TowardsTheLightPhotography.com and this is about the best I can do with little to no HTML knowledge at Smugmug.

Mark