Hi everyone, as there is new rebuild smugmug, it caught my attention....again

Is anyone having luck selling pictures there downloads/prints/merch ?

I was thinking about test the eshop there for customers from sports venues I shoot as an very easy way how to get prints without asking photographer etc. + putting there stock photos also.

Any experience good/bad ?

Thank you

Go Symbiostock, if you do, please be my referral so I can get the bonus for the premium version. Thanks. 

Did try, but to be honest, the website management is too painful, I had troubles with uploads, publishing, design etc. I figure out most of the problems, but still, I dont want to spend my time on that. That's why I also use squarespace instead of my own programmed page, even though I own a webhosting for 20 domains. I just like to pay some fee for the services and focus on shooting and pictures. It is a good trade of for me.
But I understand it in a long run, having own website, eshop is at the end financially better choice.

   I get 3 or 4 orders a year. One order last april was for 15 downloads from the same person for $165. The way Smugmug notifies you, by email, is funny. It always starts off with "Cha-ching! Who loves ya, baby?"

   I've never put in much effort to promote the site. Photography is more fun than promotion.

   http://www.dannysmythe.com

2 years, sales barely cover Smugmug charges without any special promotion.
Uploading pictures is easy through collections in Lightroom.

I've used smugmug for years - not enough sales to pay for the cost, but I find it a useful way to manage my images online, and easy to get links I use on other pages, articles, etc.  I've made more from symbio in its short lifetime

sym is muich easier to install and get running, with much better SEO - my smugmug site gets very little.  also, you have immediate access to your images on sym, while they're hidden away on smug and you have to download a gallery to get copies

sym wins easily on every aspect, and i'm planning to phase out my smugmug acct once I replace all the links I currently have using smugmug

steve

I've used smugmug for years.  I don't make enough money to pay for the pro account I have but it's useful for other things.  When I have photo sets I want to deliver to someone (e.g., TF photos for a model or a set from a portrait shoot) it's great.  Every now and then I get someone who finds something from the stock collection and downloads it.  This used to happen more often than it seems to now and I notice things from my smugmug portfolio don't show up as high in Google searches as they used to.