Hungry to larn more? Lucky for y'all Smuggers, we've got 2 more great webinars on our schedule geared towards one of our almost powerful Business account features: Events.

Backlit window bride with glow by Brandon Busa
Photo by Photography past Busa

1) SmugMug Characteristic Spotlight: Event Marketing

May 21, 2013
5:00 – 6:xxx PM Pacific Time
Annals for this event!

In our monthly pro webinar, we'll deep dive into Events, Favorites and all the groovy things information technology can practice for your. Yous'll be guided through every nook and cranny past our very own Sean Rogan, and so bring your questions and get ready to unleash the power you probably never knew y'all had.

Wedding dip with palm trees by Brandon Busa
Photo by Photography by Busa

2) Increasing Your Bottom Line with Brandon Busa

May 28, 2013
5:00 – 6:thirty PM Pacific Time
Register for this consequence!

Join San Francisco Bay Expanse photographer Brandon Busa of Photography By Busa and SmugMug'southward own Rocky Bowles to acquire how to maximize your potential and go more clients. This free webinar volition teach yous essential techniques designed to go the almost out of your wedding and portrait events. Brandon will share his ain polished workflow and show the best ways to employ the marketing and event features built in to every SmugMug Business account.

Nosotros'll cover:

  • How to get clients, families and guests of events to interact on YOUR website
  • Getting print sales from all guests from a wedding or fifty-fifty a portrait shoot
  • The importance of offering outstanding service

This webinar is perfect for portrait and wedding photographers, as well equally anyone who wants to larn new ways to brand money through photography.

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UPDATE 6/17/2013: Miss the webinar? We've uploaded the recording (in two parts) to our video channel then you can tune in at whatever fourth dimension. Spotter Part 1. Lookout Part 2.

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Register and learn

Information technology'southward our mission to make you an expert in all things Smug… and to be certain that you're making the happiest clients in the biz. Continue your bookmarks on our Events Calendar for all the cracking new podcasts and webinars nosotros're adding all the the time.

See you soon!

As you get ready for wedding season, we want to send a friendly reminder to any of you out at that place who may still be scared of one of our favorite Business features: Events.

Don't be intimidated, because Events are just what the md ordered to continue your friends, fans and family unit sane. If you've never used this characteristic — or its little brother, Sharegroups, available to Basic, Power and Portfolio members — here are simply a few reasons why you should dive in and give information technology a whirl.

1. Your friends will thank you.

Instead of sending a huge itemize of links to your wedding ceremony guests, ship simply one. Both Events and Sharegroups are "islands" that contain equally many galleries as yous wish, so there'due south no need for guests to get off track. Mentally, information technology's an easier and more friendly approach… especially since yous get to option the URL.

In short, you share only ane link and your visitors don't have to poke effectually your holiday pics looking for the bride.

2. You can exercise your OCD tendencies.

Events come arranged with lots of cool features, similar a place to display a slideshow of favorites and details nigh the shoot, the power to add together in as many galleries as y'all wish and arrange them, email templates for sharing and lots more than. Everything stays neat and tidy, and you can use all the options or merely a few. All-time of all, each client (we call them "Participants") gets their own special view of the Event, and a unique gallery to hold their Favorites. So whether it's the bride, her mom or a favorite aunt, their selections don't become mixed up.

Sharegroups are the simplified version of the to a higher place: Bundle all the galleries you want under one Sharegroup and share the link. Similar Events, you tin enter a description and sort the included galleries in any order you wish. You're still able to tweak 'til information technology squeaks.

3. You stay in control.

You're the star; everyone'south waiting with bated breath to meet your photos. When you're set up,release all their galleries with ane click, and (if you lot have a Business organisation account) proceed track of everyone who takes a look. The secret? Events' registration feature. Just toggle the Registration setting to "Required" and anyone viewing your Event will exist asked for their email address.

Both Events and Sharegroups can exist locked down with viewing passwords, so images don't fall into the wrong hands.

The 2-Minute Guide to Making Your Outset Event (or Sharegroup)

one. Go far.

To create an Event, open upwards your Business relationship Settings and await under "Business organisation." Click on the "Making Money" tab and you tin manage your Events on the correct:

For Sharegroups, look under your Accounts Settings' "Discovery" tab and find Sharegroups under the "Sharing" tab:

ii. Give the details.

Once you've opened the director, click the "New" button at the elevation right and fill up in your details.

three. Add the proficient stuff.

You can add galleries and Participants right away to Events. Don't forget to click "Salvage" once you lot exercise!

For Sharegroups, you'll have to save your new Sharegroup first, so become back to add the galleries to it.

If yous desire all the details about how these features work, check out our help pages for all the info. We've got a few other articles in our resource center for Pros on the countless benefits of Events, as well.

Happy sharing!

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Link roundup:

  • Events: What, how and why
  • Sharegroups and how they work
  • Events and Favorites for pros
  • How can I pick my photographer's favorite photos?
  • Account Settings

Hectic vacation? It doesn't have to be if you lot plan on uploading your photos (and videos) to your SmugMug galleries! Yous've already got your hands tied with hot chocolate, ribbons and last-infinitesimal gift planning, so hither's a few tips that will assist brand the picture sharing part of it refreshingly piece of cake.

1) Show Off: Badges and Slideshows

This handy feature lets y'all build your own mini slideshow or photo mosaic to whatsoever size you wish, and gives you piece of cake copy-and-paste lawmaking to embed information technology. You lot don't accept to know any nerd magic to get this going, and it automatically refreshes with new photos when you add more stuff to your gallery.

You'll find this footling feature a godsend for blogs, forums and websites. Anywhere that allows you to embed Flash objects. Here'south how to do information technology.

2) Guest Uploading for Party People

With all those folks at your house snapping away, you demand a hub where guests tin pool their photos and relive the celebrity of your massive decorating skills. SmugMug to the rescue!

Create a new gallery for your event and and then open up the gallery settings. Set any word you wish into the "Upload key" box, like this:

The adjacent time you burn down up the uploader in that gallery, you'll run across a underground link at the bottom that yous can re-create and share. Your friends can visit that link and we'll automagically pop upward an uploader so they can hands drag and drop in their photos from the night.

Only remember that anyone who gets ahold of the link can upload to that gallery, so exist aware when you share. More about guest uploads.

three) Make and Sell Photo Cards

We've been talking a lot about our holiday cards this year, simply they're and so beautiful we merely take to tell y'all again. And in that location is truly no improve, easier way to take the all-time photos you've taken (or the best photos someone's taken of y'all) and pair them upwardly with custom, heartfelt season'due south greetings.

Our catalog is bursting with new designs for everyone, whether your style is vintage, contemporary, minimalist or traditional. Or all of the above. Simply await for the Buy push > Create a Bill of fare option in your favorite gallery and start building your four×8 or v×seven masterpiece!

Read all about cards, including how to price and sell them.

4) Custom Categories for Easy Navigation

Did y'all know that when our pre-loaded list of Categories (and sub-categories) don't work for yous, you tin create your own? And that you tin can edit the URL that shows in the browser bar when you're viewing your categories?

We make it breathtakingly easy to efficiently organize your site, share the URL verbally, and even get amend Google juice. It'due south like Christmas came early!

Accept a closer expect and bone upwards on the nuts of Categories, then have it a stride farther and learn how to use Categories to your best reward. This year, yous'll have your "I will exist more tidy" New year's day's resolutions totally beat.

5) Picmonkey: Funky Photo Editing

Picmonkey may be our (unintentionally) best-kept secret. But if you lot haven't already tried this smart, sassy tool to edit your SmugMug photos, run – don't walk – to your nearest Tools button and notice it now.

It's built right into every SmugMug gallery and you can exercise everything from bones exposure correction and redeye fix to adding graphics, words, textures, frames and filters. And more than. Tons, tons  more than.

It'southward totally free to use — even their premium features, since they're nonetheless the new kid on the block.

Check it out at present and don't exist afraid to have a little fun with your photos. 🙂

half dozen) Camera Awesome for iPhone and iPad

If you've got an iPhone or an iPad, yous've got the perfect excuse to leave the DSLR in your office. You tin shoot upward to 9 fps with our free camera app, meaning you never miss a moment. And apply gorgeous effects and filters to brand them smooth.

Best of all, your shots won't stay locked on your phone where no one volition run into them. Share direct to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram and back them upwards safely to your SmugMug account so you can visit them year after year. Download it gratis right now.

Bonus! Business organisation features for Pros

Since there'south a lot of pros out there, here are three boosted features nosotros snuck in to remind you Business organization SmugMuggers that there'southward a lot more to your website than just photos.

A) Coupons – A no-brainer for getting your customers a little extra nudge this holiday season! With a Business account, you lot tin choose from v dissimilar types and create as many coupons as you lot wish.. which ways you tin can tailor your discount codes to every client. Be sure to set an decease date so they don't sit on a adept deal forever.

B) Events and Favorites – Intimidated? Don't be. Events let you corral galleries into groups, so your customers can easily view only the photos that matter to them most. All-time of all, they can tag and salvage their Favorite photos to a special gallery only they can see. All which makes browsing and buying a breeze.

C) Order Branding -This characteristic actually consists of three separate (and awesome) tools: Cart Branding, Stickers and Give thanks You Prints. All of them ensure that y'all and your make stay connected to your customers until the prints are sitting in their hands. And you can hands switch upward your Society Branding designs from season to flavor, so you look super organized…  fifty-fifty if yous're not.

GIVEAWAY! What's Your Lifesaver?

In the spirit of giving, we're digging through Smuggy'south workshop and rounding upward some of our all-time swag items.

To enter this giveaway, simply annotate beneath and tell usa which SmugMug characteristic you find helps nearly during your holiday blitz.

Nosotros'll pick a random winner and denote information technology in this infinite on Friday, Dec 7th, 2012.

From all of us at SmugMug, nosotros wish you a picture-perfect holiday! And we can't wait to hear what you can't alive without.

**UPDATE** The Magic SmugMug 8-brawl chose Melissa Ponder equally our winner. Congrats Melissa and we'll exist contacting you directly. Thanks to everyone and take a great weekend!

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Link roundup:

  • How to properly evidence off your photos
  • Let your friends upload photos to your gallery
  • How to brand scandalously practiced holiday cards
  • SmugMug's full itemize of custom photo cards
  • How to master Categories and Subcategories
  • Free photo editing with Picmonkey
  • Free your photos with Photographic camera Awesome
  • Make and apply custom discount coupons
  • Events and Favorites: The easiest path to more sales
  • Cart branding, Stickers and Thank Y'all Prints

Honey Pros,

This mail is a result of the passionate feedback many of you gave us afterward our pricing alter—and some incredibly moving stories we heard nearly your photography.

It's been two months since we created two Pro accounts, Portfolio and Business, where once there was one. The main deviation betwixt them was the ability to price & sell.

Today we're calculation the ability to cost & sell to Portfolio accounts. This account level is designed for up-and-coming photographers on a upkeep who don't demand the features higher-volume Pros utilize, but who desire a gorgeous site, protected images, and the power to earn profit through our Pro print labs.

Portfolio accounts include:

  • All the features of Basic and Power accounts, including deep site customization.
  • The ability to fix your ain prices (one Pricelist active at a fourth dimension).
  • Complete image protection including Watermarks, Printmarks, and Backprinting.
  • Proof Delay to edit your photos afterwards the sale.

Business accounts include:

  • All the features of Basic, Power and Portfolio accounts.
  • The ability to gear up gallery & photograph specific pricing with multiple agile Pricelists.
  • Powerful sales tools including Coupons, Packages & Personal Delivery.
  • Powerful marketing tools including Events & Favorites, Order Branding, Cart Branding and Boutique Packaging.

You tin can find a complete list of differences betwixt the accounts on our updated features page.

As we mentioned two months agone, storage is i of the large drivers backside our decision to dissever Pro accounts.  When we dug into the data, it became clear that heavy storage usage was highly correlated with accounts using advanced Business features, including multiple Pricelists.  We also heard great feedback that you needed better visibility about how much storage y'all're using, and what you can do about it.  We've taken that feedback to heart and will provide better tools in the future.

Two months ago nosotros appear that renewals at the new rates would begin October 15th.  Many Pros accept noticed, nonetheless, that nosotros're even so renewing at the old rates.  That's because nosotros didn't want anyone to renew at the Concern rate if they would have been a better fit with Portfolio after this change.  With this change, renewals at the new rates volition brainstorm early Saturday morning time.

Our price change was honestly scary and emotional. Two months later, we're relieved that information technology'due south providing us the power to invest more in applied science considering sales are up. We are gratified by the back up we've received from so many of yous and hope that this change will offer wonderful upwardly-and-coming photographers a gamble to pursue their passion.

We'll keep to mind to your feedback and arrange our account levels accordingly, then keep it coming.

All the best,
Chris & Don MacAskill
Founders, photographers, regular guys

Is there a way to permit my clients pick their favorite photos?

We hear this a lot from inquiring Pros and the reply is a hearty YES!

Here's how:

1) Become to your Control Panel and gear up an Event. You can customize it lots of ways and then add the gallery (or galleries) that you desire to share with your fans.

2) Name your customer as a Participant. This grants them a special access to view the event via a special link.

three) Inquire them to view that link. When they run across a moving picture they love, they can click the red "centre" icon to add information technology to a individual Favorites gallery that only the two of yous can come across.

4) From there, they can share their Favorites gallery with friends and family unit and (best of all) buy prints and gifts.

If you want to get fancy, click the white envelope next to their name to open the email share feature and use our templates to spread the word virtually your Event. Nosotros brand information technology easy to tailor your message to the consequence and salve the wording for hereafter shoots.

Get all the details on how to use Events and Favorites on our Effect Marketing help page.

Tip: If you take Photo Ranking enabled, they may be tempted to click the green or red thumbs-upward icon that appears on the mouseover bar. But keep in mind that information technology's part of your Popular Photos feature and we don't recommend this every bit a replacement for Favorites. You won't be able to run into the vote count, but check your Pop Photos box to meet the best ones!

Enjoy and happy marketing!