SmugMug DOUBLES subscription costs! Hello Zenfolio?

[Wayne]

So by that rational, they are now charging the pros more, to make up for the costs associated with the non pros?
Seems completely illogical.

The CEO Don has been responding to some comments on one of the posts on their FB page:
http://www.facebook.com/SmugMug/posts/364610180281321

It seems they're changing the story and saying it's not about the costs, but about investments for future improvements. Seems very flakey to me.

It's not at all illogical when you consider that many with a pro account, who upload and display many GB of images and video in many many galleries yet don't make any sales, effectively cost Smugmug far more than they return to them in commission from sales, because those who don't sell, but utilise lots of storage are only worth $150/year.
I have no doubt that many pro's who do sell, and sell regularly also utilise huge amounts of bandwidth and storage space and whilst they further contribute their 15% commission, Smug can see how much these pro's are spinning through their accounts, and thereby would probably draw the conclusion that alot of them pay their $150/year + commission but if they sell at low cost well 15% of almost nothing is almost nothing..

I think it would be better for all if they just stopped offering the free accounts, and for such a great product, make everyone who wants to use it pay something to lessen the smack to the people with Pro accounts.

[pmack]

To be honest with you this thread needs to be closed.

no need to be precious about it. this is a fairly large announcement and discussion on it is justified, this is not China. They are now double the cost of the competition, i'm doing people a favour and letting them know about an alternative that i only discovered last night. I've since found one issue with zenfolio, and that is that it often takes too long to load photos, however i suspect that is either due to the mass influx of people changing over from smugmug, or perhaps because of my current location in Turkey. Will see how it goes.

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It's not at all illogical when you consider that many with a pro account, who upload and display many GB of images and video in many many galleries yet don't make any sales, effectively cost Smugmug far more than they return to them in commission from sales, because those who don't sell, but utilise lots of storage are only worth $150/year.

I think you misread what i wrote - or perhaps you are trying to make a different point.
And the pros that do not sell anything but upload lots of images, can downgrade to the new $150 plan - meaning smugmug would be no better off as that was what they were paying beforehand. And they're also guaranteed to not make any commision now so.... worse off actually. And that's before you consider all the cancelled accounts and as I expect - huge decline in new memberships.

edit: and not sure where i got $120 in the OP, it's $160 without a discount for the base selling package with zen