SmugMug | Tips from Successful Pros

Our most successful Professional Photographers recommend you start with these three essentials: image protection, pricing, and branding.

Protect
Price
Customize

Protect

SmugMug Pro places an arsenal of image-protection options at your disposal - how you apply them is up to you (not everyone wants to lock 'em down).

Best Practices

The following can all be accomplished under the Gallery Settings menu of your gallery:

Enable Right-Click/Copy Protection (Gallery Settings)

Prevent photography theft by disabling right-click downloads. Simply find the protected option in your gallery settings.
Apply a Watermark (Gallery Tools / Gallery Settings)
1. Upload a JPEG, GIF or PNG image of your watermark to a new gallery. PNGs with transparency are best. (Here's a step-by-step tutorial.)
2. Navigate to the photo and choose Tools > This Photo > Make into Watermark.
3. We'll take you to a place where you can fine-tune its placement on your images. Play with the slider to set its transparency. Click Submit to save your changes.

Apply them!

Want watermarks applied while you're uploading photos?

Go to your gallery settings, choose yes for Watermarking, and choose which watermark you'd like applied. From now on, photos you upload to this gallery will automatically get watermarked.

To apply watermarks to photos already in a gallery:

Note: When your admirers order prints through SmugMug, the high-resolution original is still sent to the printer.

Choose Watermarking from the Tools Menu. Then choose thumbnails, choose add and click the watermark button.
Restrict the VIEW SIZE (Gallery Settings)

Restrict display size to “Medium” to make your photos beautiful on screen - if clients try to download without permission, they will NOT be print quality.

PRO TIP: Log out of your account and verify your settings as a guest.

Details? Watch the video and get the nitty-gritty.

Price

It is imperative to correctly set pricing before opening your virtual store. To start, your ‘trial’ SmugMug Pro website is priced at the lab’s cost (EZPrints), and all prints/products are available for purchase.

The DEFAULT PRICELIST initially applies to your entire site; create and apply your own default pricelist. Select your preferred lab, unique product offerings, and set your company pricing to enable sales and insure revenue.

Set Pricing

You’ll find specific details on how to create and apply pricelists here.

BEST PRACTICE: Prevent C.C.P. (Customer Choice Paralysis). Make your clients think less and buy more. There are 600+ print/products - scale ‘em down - identify your preferences, and offer only products that will be desirable to your particular clientele.

You don’t need to offer EVERY paper finish for each size print - which works best for your images?
Be selective in print sizes - do you really need to offer both 8x10s and 8x12s?
Don’t sell products that ‘clash’ with your niche - wedding pros don’t need to offer T-Shirts.
Fewer products make for less ’noise’ in the cart - by limiting selections, you help your clients make the right choices.

PRO TIP: When viewing the Cart while logged in, we display your lab cost and a note detailing your customer’s price

BEST PRACTICE: Logout of your account and verify your pricing as a guest.

Customize

You don’t need an engineering degree to create a gorgeous showcase for your photos. Use our Easy Customizer and take your SmugMug Pro website from ‘bland’ to BRAND with just a few clicks. No code required!

Access the Easy Customizer from your SmugMug homepage and follow the steps below:

Custom banner

Make a banner in lightning shutter speeds by going under the “header” options. Upload your own fancy image banner or build a quick one with the text banner option