Welcome to our Pro family!

Remember: You don't need a fancy site from day one. We'll get to that later, after you lay the groundwork for your biz. To begin we'll guide you to get a solid, functional site up and ready for showing your clients. You can do this in as little as an hour.

Your new site will be easier to set up if you add some photos. So let's get started!

Step One: Get Them Online

Typically, a gallery will be one shoot, or any set of photos ranging from 5 to 5000 images. As an example, you might add all the photos from a wedding reception in one gallery and photos from the ceremony in another.

We make uploading a snap. Make sure you're logged in, then click the Upload button on your pages. Whatever format your camera shoots, convert and upload your full-resolution JPGs and be done with it. (Why full-res?)

Our labs use your files to make lusciously large prints, but we provide lots of ways to protect your photos while keeping them gorgeous in your galleries. Keep printing enabled so you can sell, but go ahead and lock down originals to prevent free downloads. These options are found in your Gallery Settings.

Let your fans share on Facebook and blogs: Watermarking your photos with copyright info is a great way to get free advertising... and to keep your name paired with your work.

Step Two: Start Selling

By default, visitors can order prints at SmugMug's base prices. You're here to make money so choose a print lab and set a markup. Business subscribers can apply different Pricelists to different galleries around their site, for greater flexibility.

Set your Default Pricelist first! This is your "default" pricing and it ensures that none of your photos are sold at-cost. To prevent sales before you're ready, you can turn off printing in the Gallery Settings or add a site-wide password, then change it back when you're done.

Don't forget to give us your information so you can get paid!

When you set your custom pricing, you can also opt for color correction on your prints. Most Pros swear by our labs' color-correction work, but it's your choice. Try our samples and order a calibration print from your preferred lab before you decide.

Review every order. Proof delay gives you an extra level of security. Take up to 7 business days to review, adjust and even replace photos on new orders. We recommend setting at least 3 days to give yourself some enough time. You're the Pro and you want your photos (and your subjects!) looking their best. Plus, if they need to change or cancel the order, we can fix it easily in that time.

Once you're done, just release the order to send it on its merry way. Our print labs will take it from there. Problems? No problem.

Step Three: Market Yourself

You want to be found. Keywording photos and entering descriptive captions go a long way toward enabling search engines - and new clients - to find you. If you're a member of a public forum, link your site and post photos to it often.

Start a blog, too, and show the world what you're shooting. We give some tips on marketing yourself and maximizing search engine results.

Don't shut clients out by forgetting to provide your contact info. A quick blurb in your bio section will do, but enter a Contact Email in your Account Settings to ensure that you can be reached.

Step Four: Make It Yours

Dress up your site with two clicks and a new theme. If you want more, try the Easy Customizer. Add a custom banner, navigation bar and even change fonts and colors to freshen things up. The sky's the limit for the fine-tuning you can do to make your great site even better.

No time to customize? Sit back and let one of our amazing Certified Customizers to do it for you.

Step Five: Tweak

As you find your stride and get settled, try a few of these more advanced options:

• For uploading: We like the Simple uploader because it's, well, simple. But we offer lots of other uploaders to choose from, like Lightroom, Star Explorer, MacDaddy and Adobe to suit any workflow.

• For customizing: Set up a Custom URL to match your brand. If you're lost, just visit SmugMug Domains to snag a great URL and get it hooked up!

  Then use Advanced Customization to put up your logo and get a site as unique as yourself. If you need help, try our Customization FAQ and forum for answers. Change the layout, jazz up that navbar, add a guestbook and do much, much more. Check out these great examples and hire one of our Certified Customizers for the full treatment.

• For selling: (Business accounts only) Each client is unique. Be flexible and create different Pricelists to offer family galleries at a discount, but keep your regular client events at full cost. You can also make shopping easy by offering only just a few different print and gift items, rather than the whole catalog.

  Boost your sales by offering Coupons and Packages. Keep clients coming back for more with custom Order Branding, Personal Delivery and beautiful Boutique Packaging. Special occasion? Cards to the rescue! And don't forget digital downloads.

• For marketing: You and your fans can easily share your photos and gallery links if you enable Easy Sharing in your Gallery Settings. Use Be Social post to Twitter, Facebook and other popular social sites. Quick Share lets your fans Tweet or Like your photo on Facebook.

  Build excitement with Event Marketing. Your clients can browse, tag Favorites and buy prints all in one place.

  Finally, be prepared for any meeting. Show off your site on Android, iPhone or the iPad, and stun them with beautiful business cards from MOO and photo albums from ZOHO.

... and Onward!

We hope that by now you've gotten your business on its feet and are thrilled with the things you can do at SmugMug. To gab with other photographers, share photos, talk business or need advice, stop by our discussion forums on Digital Grin or find a SMUG in a town near you.

Got a quick question? You can always check our Pro FAQ. And of course, our world-famous Support Heroes are always standing by to help if you're stumped. We'd love to hear from you.

Important Notice for Pros: Uploading more than 500 photographs of participants in a single sporting event may require a License from PhotoCrazy, Inc. To avoid patent infringement, please contact:

PhotoCrazy, Inc.
Attn: Peter Wolf
509 Raindance Street
Thousand Oaks, California 91360-1219
Email: peter@photocrazy.com