SmugMug Development Lab

Whether you’re offering keepsakes to holiday portrait clients, or specialty items to art fans, we’ve taken the guesswork out of choosing which items to offer in your store beyond those gorgeous prints. How, you ask? With DATA. 

We’ve taken the most commonly searched-for items and terms to help you pick and choose just what you’d like to feature this holiday season. Beef up your photography packages, list these items front and center in your shop, and feature them in customer gift guides or newsletters for a gift that will delight your customers and their families.

Photo gift #1: Magnets.

We know that photo magnets are always a big seller for portrait clients. But just how popular are they? By using Google data we can find out, down to the sizes people commonly search for.  Here’s how many people search for photo magnets by month:

• 8x10 photo magnet - 6,600 monthly searches
• photo magnets - 4,400 monthly searches
• photo fridge magnets - 720 monthly searches

There are over 6,000 people every month searching for 8x10 photo magnets, so that’s an easy win right there. Try using a smaller size in your photo packages, and offer the more in-demand size to your clients as an upsell! Or you could offer discounts on orders including multiple sizes to capitalize on a diverse range of magnet options.

Photo gift #2: Mugs.

Another holiday classic, photo mugs are a popular search term. Here’s what they look like by the numbers: 

• photo mugs - 3,600 monthly searches
• photo coffee mugs - 1,000 monthly searches
• custom photo mug - 880 monthly searches

The word "custom" here is sneaky: It could mean someone is looking to upload their own image to the coffee mug. As a photographer that’s not going to build your business. But if you primarily do retouching work, it could be an ideal offering!

Like magnets, mugs are a popular item you can benefit from featuring front-and-center in your store. They work nicely as upsell items in your photo packages, too.

Photo gift #3: Stocking stuffers and wrappable wonders.

The numbers don’t lie: People love their keepsakes. Here are a couple other options that came up in our research:

• photo mouse pad - 1,000 monthly searches
• photo puzzle gift - 880 monthly searches
• photo collage gifts - 720 monthly searches

While these may seem like small potatoes in comparison with your first two options, we included the word “photo” in each of these for specificity. If we take that away, you get a bigger picture of the kinds of demand you can tailor your offerings toward:

• jigsaw puzzle - 165,000 monthly searches
• playing cards - 49,500 monthly searches
• mouse pad - 40,500 monthly searches
• coasters - 33,100 monthly searches
• coffee mug - 27,100 monthly searches
• postcards - 18,100 monthly searches
• keepsake frames - 18,100 monthly searches
• keepsake box - 8,100 monthly searches
• refrigerator magnet - 5,400 monthly searches

Each of these photo gifts offers an opportunity to sell your photos, you’ve just gotta get creative with your messaging: “A photo mousepad is a great way to make sure your favorite vacation memories are always with you at the office.” “Playing cards featuring your photos make great stocking stuffers, and will always spark conversation around the card table!” etc.

By including some of these popular items in your store, or featuring them as add-ons during the checkout process, you can inspire your customers to go the extra mile—and make an extra sale in the process.

Happy selling!

Looking to boost your photography business's average order value and make booking appointments a breeze? Crafting the perfect photography package is the key. We've got you covered with this five-step guide that breaks it all down. Plus, we'll sprinkle in some expert tips on how to present your packages to potential and returning clients. Let's dive in!

1. Curate your products.‍

First things first, look at your sales data to see which products are flying off the shelves. Whether it's canvas prints for pawtrait sessions or wallet-size paper prints for senior portraits, tailor your packages to what your clients love.
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Pro tip: Add high-margin items like metal prints or photo books as upsells to specific packages to boost your income and keep your clients happy.

2. Package variety is key.‍

When it comes to package options, three's the magic number. It's enough to offer variety without overwhelming your clients. But hey, if you've got a killer custom bundle in mind, toss in a fourth option for those looking for something extra special. And remember, each package can be tailored to different types of photography, so you're always ready to capture those unforgettable moments.

Here’s an example of offering three different packaging tiers for two different types of photography:

Pro tip: Create unique landing pages for each type of photography you offer to showcase relevant samples of your work to clients and improve your visibility in Google searches.

3. Name your packages.‍

Time to get creative with your package names! Keep it simple with standard labels or jazz things up with a bit of branding. From "Classic Collection" to "Pawsitively Platinum," let your imagination run wild (but not too wild—you want your clients to know what they're getting!).

‍Pro tip: Use themed package names to add personality and create a memorable experience for your clients, like "Hot Cocoa Holiday Specials" for seasonal sessions.

An example of standard package names:

4. Solve the pricing puzzle.‍

Pricing your packages doesn't have to be difficult. Start with a basic formula—think business costs + materials + labor + profit + taxes—and set your pricing based on your margins.

Focus on items with higher margins that are in high demand and aim for a base margin of 50% or higher. For example, if paper printing has a 20% margin and canvas has a 70% margin, include canvas prints in your popular packages to offset lower-margin items. Adjust your package contents to maintain or exceed the 50% margin goal. For instance:

Original package:

• 6 wallet-size paper prints at $10 with a 20% margin ($2)
• 1 8x10 paper print at $20 with a 20% margin ($4)
• 1 24x36 canvas print at $30 with a 70% margin ($21)
  Total margin: 31%

Adjusted package:

• 12 wallet-size paper prints at $20 with a 20% margin ($4)
• 2 8x10 paper prints at $40 with a 20% margin ($8)
• 1 24x36 canvas print at $100 with a 70% margin ($70)
• 1 24x36 metal print at $120 with an 80% margin ($96)
  New total margin: 64%

By making strategic adjustments, you can meet or exceed your margin goal, boosting your profitability.

‍Pro tip: Highlight high-margin items like canvas prints or metal masterpieces in your packages to boost your overall margin and offer added value to your clients.

5. Showcase your packages.‍

Now for the fun part—showing off your photography packages. Whether it's through eye-catching colors, playful fonts, or strategic sizing, make sure your options are front and center.

‍Pro tip: Use design elements like banners or starbursts to draw attention to your best-seller or current promotion and guide clients toward their ideal package.

Here are a few examples of ways to display your photography packages:

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And there you have it—the ultimate guide to crafting, pricing, designing, and showcasing your photography packages. 

Ready to take your business to the next level? Click here to give SmugMug a try for free and revolutionize the way you book clients, sell prints, and share photos securely.

Already followed our recommendations for creating your brand on your SmugMug site? If you're a Power or higher user, we've got another easy way for you to elevate your site's branding. No more boring 404 pages—dress them up with a dash of your personality. It's a simple way to let visitors know they're in good hands.

Customizing your built-in system pages is a subtle touch that can add a bit more character to your brand and, with some clever SEO writing for your SmugMug site, might even give your traffic a little boost. Ready to make your site uniquely yours?

Pages you can customize.

Here's a concise list of system pages you can tweak to match your style. These pages won't appear in your Organizer, so save this reference or keep our handy help link nearby for future styling sessions.

To see these pages on your site now, replace “nickname” in the links below with your SmugMug nickname.

‍404.

• The go-to error page for non-existent destinations on your site.
• Link: https://nickname.smugmug.com/404

Tip: Add a friendly text box to ease visitor frustration and encourage them to reach out for help.

Access denied.

• An error page displayed when someone attempts to access a restricted gallery, folder, or page.
• Link: https://nickname.smugmug.com/access-denied 

Browse.

• A comprehensive page listing all folders on your site; while logged in, unlisted and private folders will also show.
• Link: https://nickname.smugmug.com/browse

Tip: This page comes already linked in our ready-made designs; it’s great for adding content boxes to make browsing easier, like the keyword cloud, map, and timeline search.

‍Client area.

• Exclusively for Portfolio accounts and above, this offers your clients a space to view privately shared photos.
• Link: https://nickname.smugmug.com/client 

Date.

• A timeline view for searching photos within specific date ranges.
• Link: https://nickname.smugmug.com/date 

Keyword.

• A keyword cloud showcasing sitewide keywords and associated photo counts.
• Link: https://nickname.smugmug.com/keyword

Tip: Consider using a keyword-cloud content block on your Browse page to give visitors a more visual way to explore your photos. 

Password.

• Displayed when sharing password-protected galleries.
• Link: https://nickname.smugmug.com/password

Tip: Add a title/text block that invites visitors to contact you for password assistance.

Popular.

• Publicly liked and commented-on photos and videos.
• Link: https://nickname.smugmug.com/popular 

Search.

• A straightforward search field for finding content on your site.
• Link: https://nickname.smugmug.com/search

Tip: The search-box content block is also available for any page on your site.

What’s off limits.

Some core content on a few pages is untouchable. For instance, the password field on a password page is firmly set. How can you tell? When you mouse over them in the Customizer, a little lock icon will appear. (Check it out above.) Don't worry; there's still plenty of room for customization magic elsewhere.

Step-by-step customization.

1. The first step is the easiest: log in to your account.
2. Copy one of the URLs above, and replace the “nickname” text with your own SmugMug nickname. 
3. Head to the top section bar and click Customize Design. You're now backstage in the customizer, where the real fun begins!
4. Drag content blocks and drop them on your page. The green areas that light up are your canvas.
5. Hover over your placed content block, click the wrench icon (it's like your customization magic wand), and refine your options.
6. Take a sneak peek as you go with the Preview button. When you're ready to unveil your masterpiece, hit Done. You can choose to be the star of the show immediately or save the grand reveal for later. Your call!

Linking the chain.

Once your pages are perfect, don't keep them hidden. Add links to them in your site's navigation to make browsing a breeze for anyone stopping by to admire your photos. (Not needed for the 404 and password pages—they’re covered automatically!)

With those links in place, you've finished creating a fully branded experience across your entire site. 

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Have examples of creative system pages you’ve created? Share them with us on Facebook, X, or Instagram.

Whitney Chamberlin left a $250,000/year corporate gig to help people create their own images in the Smilebooth. His unique formula has his Atlanta, GA, booth rentals topping $200,000 in revenue, making $30,000–40,000/year on his own local events. Partnering with SmugMug for its simple gallery hierarchy, social-media marketing, and large, beautiful image display allows Smilebooth event-goers to quickly browse by location and quickly share photos, all while seamlessly integrating with their main site.

‍A booth is born.

In his former life as a brand manager and marketer, Whitney Chamberlin spent his time bringing back iconic Nikes and wallowing in indie music. He was creative and successful, but something was missing. “I was making amazing money, but what I did didn’t have an end—what was I really doing?” he said. “Here I’m making people genuinely happy, just by putting something there for them to do.” 

The Smilebooth idea bloomed when he started joining his wedding photographer wife, Jesse, on weekend jobs. “I was in the giant corporate world during the week, and my wife was shooting weddings on weekends. It was a bummer,” Chamberlin said. “I used to lose sleep worrying about [all the guests] being photographed. I said, I’m not going to walk around begging—it wasn’t my style. So I built the first photo booth out of plywood and a makeshift computer. It worked great.” He continued to refine the booth and grow the business.

‍Putting the “mug” in SmugMug.

Smilebooth milks every drop of revenue from SmugMug’s tool set by exploiting the social aspect of photo sharing. Citing SmugMug’s excellence at showcasing multiple images and large, beautiful displays, Chamberlin said he links directly to SmugMug from his own site so customers can view and discuss their images on SmugMug without any extra clicks. 

Chamberlin likes having an online place to do event postmortems. “Then you can say, ‘I was at this event, come view my photos!’” he pointed out. 

Furthermore, Chamberlin has been known to build clients their own SmugMug site so they can collect revenue from events themselves. “Some of our brides were a bit iffy on using the Smilebooth,” he said. “I said I could discount their Smilebooth and make them their own SmugMug account with Smilebooth images. She can set [the price]. It's enticing for the budget bride.” 

There’s a silver lining for the vendor as well. “As a rental business, I don’t really need [the revenue]; print sales are an amazing added bonus,” Chamberlain said.

‍The booth as boon.

Chamberlin’s original venture exploded into a diverse international enterprise. In addition to Smilebooth rentals and his own company’s shoots, he manages an affiliate network and continues to produce booths for purchase. Seamless integration between his site and SmugMug, along with advanced customization, lets him manage his diverse business arms and maintain a unified look and feel. To his delight, the Smilebooth concept has proved nearly recession-proof. 

“We created the first one in 2005 and growth has been spontaneously amazing. I used to get emails from photographers every week saying how do you get these shots in a photo booth?” he said. “We haven’t had any hiccups. The only challenge is getting photographers to stop interacting with everyone and let the Smilebooth do its job.”

‍Shooting inside the box.

The main lesson Chamberlin brought with him from the agency world was the ability to channel anticipation without meddling. Although letting drama and creativity unfold naturally is second nature to him, getting professional photographers to do the same is more difficult. 

“For a while, I was frustrated with copycats,” he said. “Then I thought, why not build booths for them? I created a whole other business because I didn’t think people would get it.” 

Smilebooth has spawned many imitators, but Chamberlin thinks his team’s ability to let action happen without intervening sets them apart. “I’m not one to hide the feather boa and silly hats, but that’s not our aesthetic,” he pointed out. “You are the creative. [In the booth], you can be creative with nothing in your hands or something physical in the room, instead of bringing the same props everyone has. Custom-made props? Awesome. Relevant props? Great.”

Jesse’s classical training came in handy, he noted, citing her general knowledge of cameras and lighting as key. Typically, his team demos the freestanding booth and clicker for one person. Jesse avoids posing subjects, often just advising them to be themselves. 

“She has a photographic gift beyond the eye,” he said of her charisma and ability to help subjects let loose. “That’s what makes her an amazing photographer. How everything feels with the photo booth is basically that same feeling.”

Letting loose.

The Smilebooth is addictive—and the results speak for themselves, all over Smilebooth’s SmugMug galleries. 

“People don’t get out,” Chamberlin said. “It’s like that Risky Business moment where you’re sliding across the floor in your socks. People regain their childhood when they’re in front of this thing.” 

Chamberlin’s captured grandmothers flipping off the camera, dads hugging sons, and lots of devious teenagers smiling about something they shouldn’t be. “People get excited about doing their own thing in front of the camera instead of being told what to do,” he said. “The game of anticipation is really simple. When you’re in a group and one person has the wireless clicker remote, it’s exciting—it’s unbounded and limitless. You can push the button thousands of times or just once, and there’s a roar of laughter, because it’s a real moment, not a pause—not a tight, confined scenario.”

What’s new.

• We’ve enriched your shopping experience by introducing package and gallery-download options directly within the gallery. Now it’s easier than ever to explore and purchase the perfect package or download high-quality images to cherish forever. Since release, we’ve seen visitors using these new options 10 times more than when they were buried a few clicks away—and more engagement means more sales!

• Enjoy smoother multi-selection sharing with our latest Android app version. Preserve your image selections even after download errors and enjoy hassle-free editing with multiline captions.
• Say goodbye to cropping concerns! Our new crop-warning message in the shopping cart alerts your customers to potential issues, allowing for easy adjustments before ordering. This also helps ensure they’re more aware that cropping occurs before printing, increasing satisfaction when their order arrives.

What’s changed.

• Visitors to your smugmug.com domain are now automatically redirected to your custom domain, enhancing your brand presence and user experience.
• We’ve improved the experience when canceling your SmugMug subscription through our iOS app with  a reminder to also cancel your subscription directly in the App Store. While we wish we could do this for you automatically, Apple’s terms require this step to fully stop future charges.
• Say goodbye to reliance on browser cookies for your stats—we're keeping up to date with modern browser requirements while respecting your privacy! As a result, stats may now include owner views. 
• We've also revamped our image URLs to ensure robust security without relying on browser cookies. Your photos are now even safer, giving you peace of mind every time you share or view them.

Bug fixes.

• We squashed a pesky bug in our latest iOS app version that caused auto-upload notifications to be sent erroneously, even when auto upload wasn't enabled. 
• We fixed bugs preventing video publishing and RAW photo uploads in our Lightroom plug-in, ensuring your photos and videos continue to reliably upload to SmugMug for secure storage and sharing.
• We resolved an issue where RAW uploads (with a Source subscription) weren't generating JPG previews. Although the fix wasn't retroactive, affected files are now ready for primetime.
• Fixed a bug where sort orders weren't always honored when viewing your site while logged out. Now your content displays just the way you want it.
• Tackled an issue where feature/thumbnail images would sometimes stop displaying in our Windows app. Update to the newest version for improved browsing and viewing experiences.
• Our Android app now lets you make purchases from private galleries even when your account has a custom domain, providing you a quick and easy way to order personal prints on the go.
• Our iOS app now displays all folders and galleries when adding or uploading.
• Enjoy glitch-free navigation on our mobile apps. We resolved issues with image processing, checkout, and gallery visibility on both Android and iOS platforms.
• Fixed GST calculation issues on digital-download purchases in Australia.
• Quashed an issue with photo-size shrinking when rotating a device in the Lightbox, ensuring optimal display quality.
• Resolved a concern where coupon restrictions weren’t applying to gallery downloads, ensuring consistent pricing and discounts.

Tim Miller's journey into the world of wedding and dance photography began with a high-school class. Little did he know that class would set him on a path to becoming one of the premier photographers in the eastern Pennsylvania region and one of the highest-selling pros on SmugMug. But like many success stories, his journey was far from linear. 

We had a chance to chat with him about what makes his photography business so successful, and how SmugMug helps contribute to that success.

1. Branding matters. 

In the early 1990s, Tim noticed a lack of creativity and spontaneity in wedding photography. Determined to change the game, he and his wife, Liz, began experimenting with a new approach: focusing on the candid moments that truly reflected the emotions of each wedding day.

This "Your Day, Your Way" concept resonated with couples seeking a personalized and authentic wedding experience. Soon, Tim and Liz were booked solid, photographing weddings all over the region. But Tim didn't stop there. 

After sparking up a conversation with a wedding DJ who also worked in a dance studio, he ventured into dance photography. "I created a separate site and named it ArtOfDance.Photo after a big dance studio in Easton told me they would've hired me three years earlier if I had dance photos on my original site," Tim said. 

Using SmugMug’s variety of customization options made it easy to brand each site separately, making them unique enough to avoid confusion among his clients.

His journey from Tim Miller Photography to ArtofDance.Photo underscores the importance of strategic branding. Learn from his experience and make sure your brand reflects the specific niche or audience you serve.

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2. Know your audience. 

"My advice is do your own thing and solve problems for your clients," Tim said. And his approach has paid dividends, with his business flourishing even amid the pandemic.

His decision to split his photography ventures based on client preferences also highlights the significance of understanding your audience. Whether it's weddings or dance photography, catering to the distinct needs of your clients can set you apart in a competitive market.

"Brides don't want to see dancers, and dancers don't need to see brides," he said. But it wasn't just about differentiation; it was also about scalability and brand longevity. 

3. Plan for growth. 

"You don't want to name your business after yourself," Tim recalled, echoing the advice of a fellow photographer. If the business grows enough that you can sell it, people will always wonder who and where the named photographer is. Tim’s friend later lamented he would’ve been able to sell his own studio for more profit if he had known this tip himself.

Once you’ve chosen your name, think about getting a custom domain and logo to fully brand your business. Also monitor your growth easily with SmugMug stats and sales reports as well as third-party analytics.

4. Timing is key. 

Tim's knack for identifying and addressing industry frustrations didn't stop with weddings. He saw an opportunity to revolutionize the timing of dance-company photoshoots, shifting them from the bustling spring season to quieter winter months. This not only alleviated financial strain on parents but also ensured a steady stream of income for Tim during the offseason. 

Tim’s strategic shift in photoshoot scheduling demonstrates the importance of timing in maximizing sales while easing the financial burden on clients.

5. Problem-solving = success. 

He also changed how studios could approach their photo days to make them less disruptive and more customer-friendly. During his pivotal conversation with the wedding DJ/dance studio assistant, she explained why picture day was difficult: time had to be set aside to pose all the kids and to collect prepayments for packages—which might include photos the parents didn’t even want. 

After listening to her woes, Tim had an idea: “What if we took photos during class instead of on a separate day? And instead of making parents prepay for photos, what if I posted the photos online for them to choose from?" And so began a new chapter.

Tim's entrepreneurial ethos centers around solving problems for his clients. Embrace this mind-set and offer innovative solutions to problems in your industry that satisfy your customers and give your business a boost at the same time.

6. Leverage technology. 

Also central to Tim's success was his partnership with SmugMug—the “answer to everything," he said, emphasizing its indispensable role in streamlining his workflow and facilitating seamless transactions. The platform's robust features, coupled with exemplary customer service, have been instrumental in his ability to deliver exceptional experiences to his clients. “The superfast delivery of digital images is a strong selling point for me,” Tim said.

Partnering with platforms like SmugMug can simplify your workflow and enhance your customers’ experience. 

7. Customer relationships are key. 

Tim's dedication to excellence extends beyond business transactions; it's ingrained in every interaction he has with his clients. "I love what I do, and I don’t take myself seriously," he remarked. His success is rooted in the bonds he's built with his clients over the years. “People remember how you make them feel.”

Cultivate genuine connections with your clients by prioritizing their needs and delivering exceptional experiences. 

8. Stay approachable. 

A lighthearted approach can go a long way in building rapport. "I just love to have fun with my clients," Tim said. His down-to-earth demeanor and humorous anecdotes create a welcoming environment that fosters trust and loyalty.

9. Continue learning. 

A couple years into his dance-photography journey, a studio owner challenged Tim by asking, "Why do we take the same boring pictures? Why don't we capture leaps or something?" Instead of shying away from this knowledge gap, he approached the question with one of his own: “How would I do that?" The studio owner responded by borrowing his camera, giving the dancer a countdown, and snapping the photo with one shot. 

From there he discovered his studio strobes couldn't stop action, so he invested in better lighting. And he continued to learn the timing of leaps. “That's what changed me as a photographer, and when sales started going through the roof,” Tim said.

Embrace a growth mind-set and remain open to learning from both successes and failures. Tim's willingness to adapt and evolve has been instrumental in his journey as a photography entrepreneur.

10. Efficiency is essential. 

On the day of a photo shoot, Tim hands out letters to parents that explain how SmugMug works and hangs QR codes around the studio. These codes, generated on SmugMug, take parents directly to the photos’ online gallery when scanned. “I’ve already seen an increase in early sales with the QR codes,” he said.

“Also key to what I do is fast turnaround,” Tim said. “I use only three things for post-production: ACDsee for viewing and numbering the photos, Lightroom to edit the photos, and SmugMug to display and sell the images.” This allows him to edit and upload 12,000 studio images in three hours or less. 

Tim's efficient approach to post-production and client communication allows him to handle high volume with ease while maintaining quality. Streamline your workflow and optimize your processes to maximize productivity. 

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By incorporating these insights into your photography business, you can carve out your own niche in the industry. Remember, it's not just about taking photos—it's about building relationships, solving problems, and delivering outstanding experiences that keep clients coming back for more.

SmugMug users photograph everything: be it weddings, cats, races, mountains, architecture, or cat races, there’s room for you on SmugMug. And we’ve got great features built in to every account type to help take what you’re shooting to the next level. Here are a few recommendations for SmugMug features that can boost your site, depending on what you love to shoot.

Event and sports shooters.

If your adrenaline gets going when the competition does, you probably have a number of galleries with exciting photos. Stay in the game by staying organized and ensuring every subject in every photo can be found.

• Keywords.
  Keywording is just as important as the photos themselves. You want to keyword your images not only with the event name, but also with location, date, and player name if it applies. Don’t forget to add a search box or display a keyword cloud so clients can find their photos easily.

• Sitewide organization.
  Organization with SmugMug’s seven layers of folders and galleries is invaluable when it comes to busy event seasons, so structure your site clearly and easily: simple enough for you, your assistants, and your clients to find exactly what they’re looking for.

Client-seeking pros.

If you’re putting your business online, there’s a few things we recommend to help impress your client base. Whether your profession is photography, graphic design, architecture, or something else—SmugMug’s great for businesses of all types.

• Best-of galleries.
  Your site should show off what you do. Whether it’s pictures, video, or text, your clients want to get a taste of what you do and what makes you unique. Create a gallery or page that visually delivers your elevator pitch, then upload your best content, or collect and curate it from around your site. Then highlight this gallery in your navigation bar so it's easy for clients to find.

• Contact form.
  We still see websites that make it difficult (or impossible) to contact the site owner. If you want people to hire you, make sure your contact information is clearly visible on your homepage. SmugMug gives you a safe, ready-to-use contact form you can add to your site menu.

World travelers.

It may be tough to keep track of which time zone you’re in, but you can always remember where you took those photos with a few SmugMug features.

• Maps and pins.
  If you shoot with your phone, or if you have geotagging enabled on your camera, your photos keep their location data when uploading to SmugMug. You can also manually add locations. If you want to share where that secret beach is with your visitors, use our built-in map content block.

• Text content blocks.
  A photo may be worth a thousand words, but a few lines about what you did and how you got there adds to the story. Try out title and text content blocks on your homepage and custom pages, and fill in title and caption fields under every photo for some extra SEO.

Family snappers.

Stay closer to home? Photos capture important memories for you and your family, but you don’t want those photos falling into the wrong hands. Your favorite memories should also be easy to find for the feels.

• Privacy settings.
  We recommend logging out of your account to view your SmugMug galleries as a guest. Are the galleries you unlisted hidden? How do passworded galleries appear? We’ve got several privacy options available for you in your account settings and individual folder and gallery settings.

• Folders and galleries.
  SmugMug gives you the ability to nest your folders and galleries up to seven layers deep.. Organize your content so it makes the most sense to you, whether it’s by child, by event, or by year. Or a combination of all the above. Then use your photo library to find specific photos quickly.

The socially savvy.

Social media is great, but you never know how long your content will be relevant online. Build one forever home on SmugMug and use it to share to all your social-media outlets.

• Social designs.
  Put all your cards on the table with our default SmugMug design template, or the Dash design. Both let you set a profile pic, display your name and a cover photo, and list your favorite social-network sites.
  

• Comments.
  This is a simple content block you can drop anywhere on your site to encourage your visitors and friends to engage in discussion. 

• Share galleries.
  Want direct-sharing options instead of additional buttons? Enable social sharing in your gallery settings to share individual photos or entire galleries with a click.

We hope no matter what you shoot or how long you’ve been with SmugMug you’ve discovered something that’ll give your site that extra oomph. What features have you made the most of?

What’s new.

• Discover a more visual and convenient buying experience with our Collage and Thumbnail gallery styles. The all-new buying flow allows you to effortlessly select and add multiple photos to your cart with a single click. Shopping has never been easier.

• Make your Collage or Thumbnail gallery more interactive with a new hover feature for your shopping-bag icon. Let your photos speak for themselves without any overlays until your customer is ready to buy. Enable this feature in your gallery settings.
• We fine-tuned our Android and iOS apps to address your concerns about gallery card sizes and icons. Explore a smoother, more enjoyable scrolling experience—because your visual journey should be flawless.
• A new help feature reminds you that filenames won't show if a photo has a caption. 

What’s changed.

• We made numerous updates to our help pages, offering detailed insights into new features, buying flows, SEO best practices, and more. Check them out and make the most of your SmugMug experience.
• Our ongoing efforts ensure your SmugMug site remains at the forefront of search-engine results. We continued SEO improvements for an even stronger online presence for your photos.

Bug fixes.

• Some users faced a small issue with default pricelists not being assigned, which we swiftly resolved.
• Your events and custom domains now work in perfect harmony! We squashed the bugs, ensuring a smooth and unified experience.
• We diligently worked to correct a temporary glitch in stats reporting and retroactively updated affected stats pages. 
• We fixed an issue that was causing private-sharing emails to ghost their recipients.
• No more worries about duplicate email addresses with different names when sharing—we've addressed the glitch.

Pictures tell stories, but sometimes the story is bigger than the frame: crazy moments, behind-the-scenes secrets, you-had-to-be-there experiences. A photo blog offers the perfect opportunity to share those stories with the world. But managing another site or customizing it to match your main site is a tedious task. So why not keep it simple and keep your blog where your photos are—on SmugMug?

This step-by-step guide will walk you through everything you need to set up a photo blog on your SmugMug site.

Step 1: Create a folder for blog entries.

First, you’ll want to create a folder to contain all your future blog entries and name it something simple, like “Blog.” This will not only help you keep things organized, it will also give your blog a shorter, readable URL. This makes it easier for your visitors to remember, and it can also boost your search-engine optimization (SEO).

Step 2: Create a gallery outside the blog folder.

You’ll need a place to upload the photos you’ll be sharing in each blog post, but you don’t want this gallery to live within your blog folder or else the gallery itself will show up on your blog landing page. We recommend naming the gallery something that relates to your blog, such as “Blog Photos,” and using the Organizer tree to drag the gallery close to your blog folder. This will help keep things organized as you add more content to your blog in the future.

If you don’t want this gallery to be discoverable in your site’s navigation, change its accessibility setting to Unlisted. This will keep the gallery itself hidden from view but allow the photos within it to be seen when you add them to a new blog post. Have a Portfolio or higher plan? Encourage more sales of your blog-worthy photos by making the gallery Public instead and creating a pricelist for it.

Step 3: Upload photos to your new gallery.

Now that you’ve got your new gallery, it’s time to fill it with photos! Upload photos for each blog post as you go, or upload several photos at once for blogs to come in the future. For an extra SEO boost, title and keyword your photos after you upload them.

‍Step 4: Create a page for a new blog post.

Now you’re ready to blog! Create a page within your blog folder for a new post and select from one of the available layouts to kick things off with ease. Want complete control? Choose the Custom page option for full reign. 

We recommend making the page Public and filling in all the page-settings information for the best SEO, but at a minimum you’ll want to enter an eye-catching title. Your title will automatically create a custom URL for the page, but you can change the URL to anything you want. Keeping it readable and informative will help search engines and potential visitors get a great idea of what they’re in for before they even click the link. And if you add a feature image, a thumbnail will appear alongside your blog’s search results.

Step 5: Customize the post.

Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to design your blog. Navigate to your new page and open the Customizer to reveal all the goodies available for your blog post. Drag and drop different content blocks onto the page to craft your perfect post. These are just a few ideas on how to use the blocks to bring out the best of your blog:

Photos, slideshow, or carousel.

Show off what the people came for: your photos! You’ve got several options in the Photos category to display your images in style. Drop in Single Photo blocks to maximize the size of your work and fill your page with large, beautiful images, or drag in a Slideshow or Carousel block for a more compact display. Want your visitors to be able to fill their screens with your work? Buy a photo? You can choose how you want your photos to react when clicked: open large in a lightbox, take the viewer to a gallery or different URL, or keep it as is.

Text, HTML, and CSS.

Use Text content blocks to fill in the story between your photos. For additional styling, use the HTML and CSS blocks for more control over how text and other content appears on the page, like we did for the sample blog at the top of this article.

Title.

Title content blocks are a great way to break up text on the page and give your visitors strong entry points into the story behind your photos. Use them as subheads to chop up larger blocks of text or highlight photo captions. We recommend using at least one at the very top of the page for the title of your blog post.

Separator.

We love this underrated feature for creating clear boundaries and visual breathing room. You’ll find it under the Design category of your customization options, perfect for giving your page a polished look.

Step 6: Get social.

For a finishing touch, don’t forget to invite your readers to join the conversation!

Comments.

Even if a conversation is happening on social media, it can be nice to give your visitors the option to leave direct comments on your blog post. Add the Comments block to give fans one more way to communicate with you. We offer a moderation option so you can review all comments before they’re posted to your site. To enable this feature, visit your Account Settings > Stats > Comments section and click on the Details button. You’ll see a checkbox in the upper right of the following page to require comment approval.

Step 7: Publish.

Photos are in. Story is written. Design is polished to perfection. Your post is ready for its debut! Once you’re ready, click the green Done button in the upper right-hand corner and select Publish Now. Still unsure? Try the Preview button instead to get a glimpse of what your visitors will see before the post goes live. Or if you’ve written posts for future release, choose the Save for Later option after you click Done. You can come back to the post later and publish whenever it’s time.

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Ready to start your own photo blog? Share it with us on Facebook, X, or Instagram! Or if you’ve gotten stuck somewhere, our Support Heroes are standing by.

As Camp Tecumseh celebrates a century of sun-soaked adventures, we sat down with Marketing Director Sam Hirt to discuss the visual history of this camp. Beyond the rustic cabins and laughter, Hirt shares insights behind immortalizing Camp Tecumseh's spirit—unveiling the transformative power of photography and videography, and SmugMug’s role in creating a digital haven where each canoe ride and campfire flicker can be preserved. 

Tell me a little about Camp Tecumseh.

Camp Tecumseh is celebrating its 100th year now in 2024. The camp started in 1924, and we’re about 25 minutes from West Lafayette, where Purdue University is, on the Tippecanoe River. When people think of summer camp, that’s Camp Tecumseh: canoeing, swimming, singing songs, making friends, hanging out in cabins together, looking up to camp counselors. We serve between 5,000 and 6,000 kids every summer, and we serve more than 30,000 annually. That includes school field trips, outdoor immersive experiences, and a number of curriculum-based or leadership-based programming for outdoor education. We also have a department for groups and conferences, so anyone who needs a meeting space or a place to have a retreat can also come here.

We have nine week-long sessions of overnight camp and seven weeks of day camp within that same time period during summer. Each Sunday we have a new group of 500 overnight campers, and Monday morning we have a new group of 200 day campers. At the end of the week, they all go home. 

The rest of the year, there could be days where all 600 to 700 beds are full with a variety of schools and retreat groups, or there could be a random day in between those groups where it's empty. It's pretty busy throughout the year with lots of groups coming in and out.

How did you get involved with the camp?

My wife actually grew up at this camp. Her dad worked in the camp industry for 40 years, including at Camp Tecumseh, and she lived on site. So she has it in her blood. I didn't grow up that way, but I did go to camps growing up. When I met her, I learned about Tecumseh, and we worked a summer there together when we were in our early twenties. I was on the media team as a videographer, and I used SmugMug for the first time back then. 

I later got into the camp industry separately, working for the American Camp Association. When a full-time opportunity came about to be the director of marketing at Camp Tecumseh, I took it. I've been here full time since 2019, so this spring will be five years. 

How’d you get into videography?

I was really into camera stuff, but I didn't have any technical training, so I taught myself. Then I started filming friends' weddings, then other people's weddings. That was my introduction to videography, which led me to photography. From a professional standpoint, I do more photography than I do video, but I do both in my job and both on the side. And this job has made me a much better photographer.

How does that translate into telling Camp Tecumseh’s story?

Our priority is to show the magic of camp—what's wonderful about the experience and what it looks and feels like to be a camper or counselor at Camp Tecumseh. I think the photos and videos really help convey those feelings. The goal is to capture as much as possible to show all the activities you can do at Camp Tecumseh in a given week. I really like that parents have to do some gallery searching after their kids attend camp because the parents get to see the whole experience and not only a single photo of their kid. 

Could you tell me a bit about your process?

I have a team of three that work for me; one does video, one does photography for overnight camp, and one does photography for day camp. At any given moment, we've got one person taking photos for 500 campers and one person taking photos for 200 campers.

The media team that works for me in summer focuses only on summer camp. The rest of the year it's just me whenever I have time. So in summer, my team will look at the schedule for the day and make a list of the activities they want to capture, whether it be horseback riding, canoeing, pickleball, swimming, or whatever. Then they'll go out with a golf cart and some Fuji camera gear to capture as much as they can. 

Once they've shot a decent amount, or filled a memory card—we shoot RAW so they fill up fast—they'll come back, offload the card onto a Mac, and sort to find good photos. We don't look for the perfect photo; we look for clear, appropriate photos that help tell the story of the day. Then they edit in Lightroom, export, and upload to a new gallery on SmugMug.

Any event that's happening at camp on a given day ends up being a gallery for us. On a good day, for example, we'll create a folder for Monday. Within Monday we've got galleries for chapel, Newdls (where kids learn a new skill and use their brain—their noodle), afternoon activities, and lake time. It helps us create a folder full of galleries, which really is a day full of events.

Part of what I do is oversee the process and make sure things are looking okay. As the week goes on, I challenge my team to seek out shots they might not have gotten yet. Have you made it to archery? Have you made it to the River Village? 

How does this work help the camp?

As far as marketing, word of mouth has been the best thing for us. Like when parents share our photos with new neighbors who moved into the neighborhood: "Here's where our kids go, and here's a link to their photos. See how great it looks." Also every Saturday, when a given session is over, all our summer staff will find photos of themselves and go to Instagram to make a post. We have hundreds of notifications each weekend. It's free, organic marketing that’s a gift that keeps on giving because we have high-quality images at the volume we do.

Also, everything we upload can be purchased by the parents. But we explicitly tell them on the site they can download images for free. We don't make a ton of money off that, but we do get 50 million hits in the summer, which is a really high amount for a nonprofit like us. 

The benefit we get from people saving the photos is they share them on their own social media or with their neighbors, which outweighs any kind of money we could make from them in my eyes. And everything is password protected for the high-resolution downloads.

How does SmugMug factor into your work? What got you started?

My predecessor, who's a friend of mine and a great photographer, chose SmugMug for the camp ten years ago. Then I've ushered it forward. 

SmugMug does a great job of handling our volume because we take lots and lots of photos, and I like how quickly it uploads everything. We upload anywhere from a couple hundred to a thousand images in a single day, so parents have to look through a lot to find their child, which is their number-one priority when they're looking at the photos. And I want them to do that. I think that's great. 

I also like that our SmugMug site can seamlessly tie in to our own site and branding, which has been crucial. I would hate for parents to be taken somewhere else and think, "What is this? It looks so different." Right now they can go to our SmugMug site and think it’s just part of our main site, which is great. I want it to look less like SmugMug and more like our own thing, and so far that's working the way we want it to.

Gallery presets are really handy for what we do, too. At the start of each summer, I can show all three of my staff at once how we set up a gallery, save it as a preset, then give them instructions on how to use that preset when creating a new gallery. Then the rest of the summer they can do it without me overseeing it.

Any tips for new SmugMug users?

If you're a camp, or some other organization that posts galleries based events, take advantage of SmugMug’s folders for organization. You could look at how we do it to get an idea of how useful they are. For example, we might create a folder for week one of 2024 overnight camp,  then within week one, there's folders for each day of the week. Within each day, there are galleries for events. That's a really clear way parents, staff, or visitors can see the whole experience. 

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We really value photography and videography here at Camp Tecumseh. It's not just me as the marketing director or even just the media team. It's all my coworkers. They talk it up to other people and say, "Check out our photos." We take pride in our hard work and the output we have, and I’ve always liked that SmugMug has been a good place to host our photos.

In this SmugMug Spotlight, we had the privilege to meet aerial and landscape photographer Andy Yeung. Based in Hong Kong, Andy has been taking spectacular photographs since 2005. You may even recognize some of his photos — his series called “Urban Jungle” went viral on social media a few years ago.

SmugMug: We are so excited to sit down and talk with you, Andy. Your work is stunning. Can you tell our readers a little more about what got you started in photography?

Andy Yeung: I developed a passion for photography at an early age when I received my father’s old camera as a hand-me-down. It was this early exposure that introduced me to the world of photography, which I believe has a healing power. I believe that a great photograph can speak to people’s emotions and make people pause and think.

SM: You definitely do give us all such a unique perspective of the city! Can you tell our readers more about the gear that you currently use to capture these images?

AY: I use a Canon 5D Mark IV. It is a full-frame camera and has excellent image quality and multiple lens choices. That makes this camera really convenient for me. I also use a DJI drone. This drone provides me a new perspective of where I’m at and is very reliable and stable to fly.

SM: Awesome. Tell us more about why you chose to shoot your genre of photography.

AY: I photograph cityscapes and architecture — mostly capturing the unique visual and structural characteristics of Hong Kong from the perspective of a local photographer. I got into drone flying in 2015 and that has added the new perspective that I was looking for.

SM: Your aerial shots definitely show a unique perspective of Hong Kong that you wouldn’t get if you were just walking the streets. Why did you choose SmugMug to be your partner in presenting and preserving these amazing shots?

AY: I’ve been using SmugMug since 2014, if my memory serves me right. I started using SmugMug because it is very user-friendly and a great platform for photographers to promote themselves and offer prints for purchase. Plus, many well-known photographers are using it.

SM: Wonderful! We are so glad that you’re happy with the platform. One last question: Do you have any advice or tips for a new SmugMug user?

AY: I highly recommend customizing your website template! Spending the time to do that will help you stand out even more.

SM: Thank you, Andy! Great advice and again, thank you for your time and allowing us (and our readers!) to get to know you better.

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About Andy Yeung: Andy Yeung is an award-winning photographer specializing in architecture and landscape photography. As a born-and-raised Hong Konger, he learned to cull inspiration from the familiar, especially when it comes to coming up with shots of his over-photographed city. He relies on a good eye and knowledge of techniques to capture magical moments of Hong Kong and transform what he has seen into something that mirrors how he feels.

Follow Andy on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and 500px.

Richard Burley is an educator, photographer, and the founder of Epic Action Imagery. He travels the world photographing sporting events from football and hockey to obstacle races like Tough Mudder and Spartan. We caught a moment of his time to talk about luck, sofas, and velociraptors, among other fun details.

SmugMug: Hi Richard. To start with, tell us about yourself!

Richard Burley: I’m a sports and action photographer based in the UK. Prior to taking up photography as my full-time job, I worked in education. Initially as a college teacher progressing up the career ladder to management roles. In 2014, just as my photo business was starting to grow, a conversation about volunteers for redundancy saw my hand shoot up. A few weeks later I packed up my desk and headed out of my office and on to what became a huge adventure. I do still teach a few hours and enjoy that side of my life too, but I fell in love with action photography early.

SM: How’d you get into photography?

RB: I’ve had an interest in photography since I was a child watching my dad in his home darkroom developing photos. It wasn’t until much later that I started to think more seriously about taking photos professionally, but my interest in capturing sport, action, and movement was growing.

I bought my first DSLR with the royalties from a text book I co-authored and started to learn lessons by trial and error. I prefer to learn by experimenting and finding out what works and what doesn’t rather than reading or watching others. The only qualification I’ve actually got is a badge from Cub Scouts. I’m very much self-taught.

SM: Tell us about starting and growing a photography company?

RB: The real start of it was in January of 2010. I’d stopped coaching football and decided I wanted to get into photography, and was shooting semi-pro matches for a friend. But I just wasn’t getting the shots I wanted, because I was convinced I didn’t have the right lens.

So I go to the camera shop, just to look at a new 70–200mm lens…and 30 seconds later I’m walking out with the box. [laughs] And I’m thinking “I’ve just spent the sofa deposit on a new camera lens, this is gonna take some explaining.”

So I told my wife I spent the money we’d saved for a sofa on a camera lens, and she responded “Well you’re gonna have to take that lens and make that money again.” Which I took very literally! I said okay, I’ll start a business.

SM: The right equipment can make all the difference! What happened next?

RB: A couple of months later, I’m shooting the occasional sporting event, making a little bit of money, but still employed full-time with the college, when on a trip to Cambridge with the family I spot a billboard. On this billboard is a picture of someone jumping over burning straw bales, and I thought “that looks like fun, why don’t I see if they’ve got a photographer?”

There’s a concept people in business will often refer to called “luck.” I think I’ve benefited from an enormous amount of luck. This was a billboard for Spartan Race. They’d just started — one event in the US, no events anywhere else, this was their first event in the UK — and they said “you know, we hadn’t thought about course photography, of course you can come!”

That first moment at a Spartan Race really told me what it was gonna be like: I’m set up along the course, waiting for people to come from the right, and suddenly they appear to my left like velociraptors. And that was it. That said to me “don’t ever expect everything. You know that thing where you like things to be predictable? You’re gonna have to part with that.”

SM: What a lesson to learn on the first day. How’d you grow that into the Epic Action Imagery we see today?

RB: Well, one thing led to another and soon Spartan was asking me to shoot their international events. Then other events start asking me to shoot, because they’re pulling from Spartan’s pool of course photographers, and suddenly I’m doing this full time and building teams. I’d call it an accidental business, really. An experiment that got entirely out of hand.

I think I was fairly lucky, again, because I was an educator and a manager in my full-time work before this. I was used to recruitment, I was used to building teams, passing on information, delegating, and allowing people to grow. Everything I did was very developmental.

The whole purpose of education is to help people grow to become better than yourself — and not be intimidated by that, which is a great fit for photography. It’s really something I look for while building a team of photographers: work that makes me stop and go “whoa. I’ve gotta know how you got that.” I’ve had the privilege of working with other photographers that inspire and enthuse me to work hard and to keep learning.

SM: What is it about action photography that calls to you?

RB: I enjoy the challenge of capturing movement at the right time. Facial expressions in sport really tell a story too. Emotions are often amplified in a sporting environment and seeking to tell the story is a challenge that I enjoy. Participants on a Tough Mudder course emerging from ice filled pools or getting zapped by electricity really brings out a range of expressions. And I’ve done a couple of the events myself so I have an inkling of what they’re experiencing.

I enjoy the people too. Sports events have an energy and a vibe that I find motivating. Capturing people overcoming fears or beating their personal bests is a responsibility I take seriously and I work hard to ensure that moment is captured for them to share with their friends and family. There’s been several moments where I’ve captured people who’ve overcome significant changes in their life to achieve a sporting goal. Often I find there’s a bit of dust in my eye when seeing such a victory.

A big motivation for me to make amateur sports people look like pros, giving them an image in which they look truly epic. From my personal perspective I always try to take a picture that makes a person look and feel like Usain Bolt. When they’ve had a bad day and they’re reaching for that beer in the fridge, they can see a picture on the fridge door of themselves leaping over flaming hay bales and think “I am awesome! I am epic!”

SM: Last business question: what’s the biggest challenge in shooting action photography?

RB: The vagaries of the weather, absolutely. I’ve worked in 42 degree heat (108° F) in Bahrain, and I’ve worked in -20 cold (-4° F) in Canada. Thigh-deep snow, I’ve been swatting flies off, days where it feels like someone’s hitting me with a firehose, but I love that. I love being outdoors. To reframe that: I don’t think there’s a challenge apart from loving what you do, really.

Even when you’re shooting the same thing — someone jumping over flames or crawling through mud — how do you tap into the journey they took to get there, to be fit enough to run five miles and leap over these flames? The biggest challenge, and the biggest joy, really, is tapping into the energy and euphoria of these participants each and every time.

SM: What gear do you use to capture those moments?

RB: Canon 1DXs (3 x mk1 and 1 x mk2) with a range of lenses from 16mm to 400mm. I started with Canon in 2006 and have yet to be tempted to try anything else. I am curious to try a few mirrorless options and listen to the experiences of other photographers when considering my kit choices, but the 1DX is a versatile workhorse and has coped very well with the range of conditions that I find myself working in and the image quality means that I can get the images I want.

The lenses I favor for events are the 16–35mm and the 70–200mm. My kit gets a fair amount of scuffing on rocks and hard ground so I use an EasyCover to try to keep my kit protected.

For football, I’ll have the 400mm and 70–200mm as a main set up and the 16mm on a remote camera positioned behind the goal using a PocketWizard set up. The 400mm is my favourite lens. It’s an old-school mark 1 IS 2.8, but so crisp and ideal for capturing the action that unfolds at the other end of the pitch. It’s a little heavy and if the teams change ends before kick off, it’s quite a challenge to run round the pitch perimeter with all the gear. I hear the mkIII may be a little more mobile and I may make the switch in the future.

SM: Speaking of gear, what got you started with SmugMug?

RB: I started with SmugMug in 2013. I met a representative at the PhotoShow and at the time was looking for a platform to host event images in a cost-effective, reliable, high quality, and simple to use manner. I was also in search of something that would let me search my photos by keywords and bib numbers so I could easily sort participant photos. We had to be able to deal with the kind of peak demand that these events generate. Fortunately, SmugMug met all these criteria and I signed up that evening. 4.7 million photos later we’re still going — if I posted one photo every minute, it would take me 7 ½ years to get through them all. We love it.

SM: What’s your most-used or favorite SmugMug feature?

RB: I actually just redesigned the site last week. Part of our post-COVID recovery has been taking the time to think about what we do and why we do it, and engaging with my local business community. I met with a local marketer who told me “your photos are amazing, but man your website’s old fashioned.”

So I tried a landing page, liked the look, and three hours later I’ve got the whole site looking brand new. It was that easy.

In terms of what I use a lot, it’s image library management. SmugMug works as part of our client relationships, so Spartan or whoever can go in and retrieve images easily, and we manage their photo library as part of the business relationship. They tell us what details they want for the photo — keywords, metadata, factoids, you name it — and we’ll get those set up for them.

Photo sharing is a big part of it, too, and obviously sales, which we like because they’re all seamless. It’s also visibility. I can see what photos people are buying, track stats, keep up with what’s popular. Sometimes you get excited about an image as a photographer because all of the elements came together, and you get to see people excited about those same things enough to buy and share them, too.

SM: Lastly, any tips for a new SmugMug user?

RB: Learn. Keep learning. See what others do, interrogate the style, and let that style influence you as you capture your images and organize your site. There’s so many wonderfully talented photographers showcasing their work on SmugMug, it’s a great way to find inspiration and to showcase your own work.

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Follow Richard Burley on Instagram and Facebook. Also, visit his website at https://www.epicactionimagery.com.

And, tell us what you think of this interview! Start a conversation on SmugMug’s Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

A newborn baby is one of life’s most precious additions and the source of many joyful moments. But how to capture those moments, fleeting as they are? Enter LA-based photographer Erika Seress, founder of The Pod Photography, a modern portrait studio specializing in helping make parents and their little ones look their very best. We sat down with Erika to talk to her about the work she does, why she does it, and what advice she can offer anyone new to SmugMug.

SmugMug: Hi Erika, thanks so much for chatting with us! Your work shows off such wonderful passion. Please, tell our readers more about you.

Erika Seress: Hi! So nice to chat with you today, and thank you! I’m Erika Seress, and I founded The Pod Photography in 2008. I had a vision of creating a modern portrait studio for today’s sophisticated clientele, and I love photographing people—especially tiny ones! I specialize in documenting baby’s first-year milestones. I’ve also authored The Parent’s Pocket Guide: Taking Kids’ and Family Photos, am a photography workshop teacher, and appeared on Lifetime, Hollywood Access Live, and various celebrity reality shows. I’ve also been published in Cosmopolitan magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

SM: That’s incredible! You’re one busy and successful photographer. Our readers always love to hear this part, so please tell us how you got started in photography.

ES: I started taking pictures to document my travels while living abroad in Thailand and Germany. I loved capturing the culture, people, and my daily life so I could look back on them. When I moved home to Los Angeles, I got a degree in photography on top of my business degree and then started my portrait studio in 2008.

SM: Amazing. Thailand and Germany are two incredibly stunning areas of the world. Another insight that our readers like to know is what equipment do you use and why?

ES: I am a Nikon shooter. I love how intuitive the gear is as well as the sharpness of their lenses. I shoot 90% of my photography with a Nikon 70–200mm f/2.8 lens since it is perfect for really flattering portraits of people, plus I can zoom in and out to take both full lengths and close-ups of a child without moving my body. You've got to be quick when it comes to kids!

SM: It’s so true! They definitely change and move in a blink of an eye, but It sounds like you enjoy the challenge and have mastered it. Your photos definitely reflect how good you are at capturing that moment. Could you tell us more about the type of photography you shoot and why?

ES: Sure! As mentioned, I am a portrait photographer specializing in newborn, maternity, babies, kids, and family photos. I have always loved photographing people, and at the beginning of my career I did mainly fashion and commercial work. I came to realize that I felt much more fulfilled by working with private clients and creating art for their families, so I have shifted my business toward that focus. 

Today, my company, The Pod Photography, has really flourished in Los Angeles where we focus on a mix of modern natural-light portraiture and elaborate set design. I love the art of creating custom sets that reflect a family’s or child's hobbies or personality or just bring some whimsy to the portraits. I was recently commissioned to create intricate sets recreating a Starbucks store, the Oval Office, Star Wars, as well as design elegant tea-party sets for my newborn and first-birthday clients. We have a lot of fun at my studio!

SM: What brought you to using SmugMug for your photos?

ES: I've been using SmugMug since I created my very first website in 2008. I love SmugMug because of its integration with sales, and how I can seamlessly sell digital and printed products through my website. I'm also a big fan of the unlimited storage!

SM: That’s awesome! OK, one last question: Do you have any advice for someone who’s just starting to use SmugMug themselves?

ES: Get creative designing your website! Start with a template but don't be afraid to customize it so your website stands out from the rest. SmugMug makes it so easy to have a unique website.

SM: What a wonderful tip! Thanks so much for sitting down with us today and for sharing your story with our readers—we really appreciate it!

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For more about Erika Seress of The Pod Photography, visit her website at https://www.thepodphoto.com/ or follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Need to make a custom page with text and photo features? On SmugMug, it's as easy as drag, drop, and go. Here's how to build a custom page in three easy steps.

Step 1: Create it.

First, create the page you want. If you want to create an About Me page, for example, start by hitting the Organize link in your site header, then click Create > Web Page.

Give it a name, keywords, settings, and any other information you’d like to add. Hit the Done button at the top of your browser window to save.

Tip: Your new page will appear at the bottom of your folder tree list when you open your site Organizer. You can drag it to any other place (like into a folder) if you want to move it.

Step 2: Customize it.

Next, find the page you just made. You can do this by typing in the URL for it, or you can click the link from the preview window in your site Organizer.

Once you're at your new page, open up customization by clicking Customize Design at the top of your page. To make sure you'll be applying changes to only the new page (and not your whole site), look for the following folder list at the top right.

Browse through the different content boxes available in the Content tab and drag the ones you like wherever you want onto your page.

Tip: A light green line will appear in any spot that can accept a block. If you miss, we'll show you a dotted outline mapping out where valid areas lie on the page. Experiment and have fun!

Step 3: Link it.

You always get an instant, live preview of changes as you’re making them, but to clear the windows, click the Preview button and then Done when you're finished.

Copy the URL for your new page from the top of your browser, then in the Customizer, click to highlight the top-level, Entire Site option from the top right.

If the site design you've chosen comes with a menu bar, click the little wrench to open the edit box.

‍Tip: If your design doesn't include a menu bar, you can add one by dragging and dropping the Menu content block from the Content > Navigation section.

Click the "+" sign to add a link to the menu. Fill in the copy you want and paste in the URL for the new page you created. Click Done. 

That's it! Your new page is ready to be seen.

A happy customer is a return customer. Your clients chose you over others because they knew you could meet their specific needs, but your job is much more than creating a few good photos: you need to deliver a quality experience from first contact to getting those prints into their hands.

Make a great first impression.

All websites have some basic, common elements: a landing page, header, footer, content boxes, and a way to navigate from page to page. You can change all these elements using customization on your SmugMug Power, Portfolio, and Pro sites.

In addition to the above, you should include the following:

• Your logo
• Contact information (a must!)
• Navigation
• Homepage description and meta keywords

You can also spice your website up with

• A slideshow or video
• Your most recent uploads
• A search box
• or any of the many different content blocks available on your SmugMug homepage.

Don't hide your email address.

Make use of your built-in SmugMug profile. Add your name or business name, an image of yourself, and a background image to take full advantage. You want this info to be easy to find, either on your homepage or in an “About Me” page.

All SmugMug accounts also get a contact email address to fill in on their profile. That, in turn, creates a contact request form available from the contact link in the footer or in your navigation menu.

Keep your site organized.

While galleries are the building blocks of your site, they can be categorized into higher-level folders up to seven levels deep. Keep your site organized to make things easier on your visitors. Then build a navigation menu to help them get around your site.

A navigation menu is a row of links at the top or side of every page, best used when you link to specific galleries, pages, or folders on your site. For extra assistance navigating your site, consider adding breadcrumbs. These additional links at the top of each gallery easily take your viewers back to a gallery’s category or to your homepage. Nothing's worse than a digital dead-end.

Prevent analysis paralysis.

Limit choices and don’t overwhelm the viewer. Cull your shoot down to the best of the best. Limit the products that you sell as well—price only those that best suit your photos' and your clients' needs. 

Then organize your photos to provide a great customer experience in a meaningful and easy-to-navigate way. Your viewer will have an easier time browsing their wedding photos if you take the time to organize them into galleries rather than showing them one gallery with all 1,200 photos.

SmugMug smart galleries can be a real timesaver. Create your galleries and define rules based on keywords, then upload all your photos into a single Unlisted gallery. The smart gallery settings will automatically pull in photos that match your rules based on your keywords.

Take this one step further by making use of events and favorites so customers can pick and choose their favorite photos. Favorites are put into a separate gallery that both you and your customer can see, providing a great way to discuss their choices.

Create a sense of urgency. 

Giving clients incentive to buy sooner than later can make all the difference. Try these tips:

• Create limited-time discounts immediately after the event. With SmugMug, you can easily create a coupon good for only a few days to get clients buying while their memories are fresh.

• Try seasonal or special-event discounts. Encourage customers to avoid the Christmas rush by having a special deal available only in September.
• Take galleries offline (make them unlisted or change the password) after a certain date. Just make sure potential customers know this deadline so they know exactly how long they have to browse and purchase.

Creating an easy and user-friendly site will encourage customers to linger on your site: clear, organized navigation, easy-to-find galleries, and a simple list of products they can buy are all incredibly helpful. Try these tips to keep your bounce rate down and your sale rate up.

As your photo library grows and grows, so does the challenge of keeping track of your memories or your clients' shoots. It's crucial to keep your site neat, and it's exceptionally easy to manage all your folders and galleries with the powerful Organizer tool.

But beyond that, the content you display on your pages is the most important part of your viewers' experience. Think about what a guest or a potential client is looking for when they see your website for the first time. Will they find what they need or will they give up and move on?

How do you go about guiding them to the right stuff?

There are several really great ways to guide visitors that arrive on your homepage to the content that you want them to see most. We've gathered a few of the best examples from SmugMug photographers.

Homepage content blocks.

Choose exactly what to display on your homepage using our drag-and-drop content blocks. You can add any of the following:

• Single image blocks that click through to a favorite gallery.
• Folder, gallery, or page blocks that lead your visitors right to the work you want them to see. 
• Video from your SmugMug site, YouTube, or Vimeo.
• A feed from your blog.

These can be used as a “call to action” to move a visitor from your homepage and into a specific selection of pages on your site.

Here are a couple of elegant examples of content blocks on the homepage:

‍Keyword cloud.

Take advantage of the keywords you've added to your photos to help visitors find the right stuff. You'll find the keyword cloud content block among the discovery choices in the customize content block panel.

‍Navigation menu.

A well-constructed menu bar allows you to bring attention to the galleries you want to be seen first, and to link to other places around your site: your portfolio, your “About Me” page, your pricing, your contact information, and so on.

The SmugMug default navigation menu includes links to Home, Browse, and Search, but we recommend you add more so your guests don't have to slog through all your galleries to find examples of your work.

Look here to see how to add new links to your menu bar.

Mix and match.

Why choose? The best (and clearest!) way to guide your guests is to use both a well-curated homepage and a well-manicured menu bar.

Here's what we suggest:

• Use the menu bar to link to an About page, how to contact you, and what services you offer.
• Use content blocks to show your fans specific galleries that demonstrate what you do best.

Getting your visitors and potential clients quickly to your best and most relevant content is an ideal way to increase engagement and potentially land that new sale. Have any other tips that you’ve found helpful? Share them with us.

The beginning of the year can be a slow time for photo-taking, but it’s a great time to work on everything else you do with photography: update your portfolio, create or clean up your photo website, set new business goals, or even write down a new bucket list of shots to take.

We all change with time, so whether it’s been two years or five since your website has seen a makeover, you’ll want to present the truest version of yourself to your fans.

Here are a few tips to get your online self ready, without frustration.

Breathe new life into your existing site.

There’s no better way to feel “new” than to make changes to the site you already have. Thankfully, SmugMug makes this easy. Tip: If you’re short on time, pick just one or two of the following steps; but tackle all five for maximum results.

1. Kill your darlings. 

We’ve heard 24 images is the ideal number of photos for your portfolio. If you’ve been taking photos for a while, you probably have more favorites than this for sentimental reasons. Now’s a great time to trim that back. Creatives call this "killing your darlings."

• Be critical. Be sure your short list features only your most powerful work.
• Stay on topic. If you’re looking to book sports events, get rid of the landscapes in your portfolio. Or create a separate portfolio gallery for each type of work so you can link your clients directly to the most relevant one.
• Enlist your fellow photo friends. Removing your own emotion about your photos is extremely difficult, but friends with good taste can help you pick the gems best suited for your portfolio. Ask them to choose the photos they think tell the best story. 

2. Reorganize what you have.

Think like a fan who stumbles onto your site: What interests you?

• Reorganize the photos on your site using the Organizer on SmugMug. Drag old photos from your portfolio gallery to your archives, and drag your new favorites into your portfolio. If you’d rather not shuffle photos, use the collect tool to place a virtual copy of the original into your portfolio gallery.
• Want to make big changes? The Organizer will also let you move, collect, and delete images, galleries, and folders all in one go. Or simply change the privacy settings on your pages, galleries, and folders to hide your older content without actually removing it from your site.

Dozens of beautiful layouts come free with every SmugMug site.

3. Paint the front door.

Changing your theme, site design, or homepage gives you the biggest bang for your buck. (Especially since it all comes free with your existing SmugMug subscription.)

• Your SmugMug membership includes dozens of beautiful designs that instantly change the look and feel of your site. Change a little or a lot, and your original design stays the same until you’re ready to share it with the world.
• If you’ve reorganized your content like we recommended above, don’t forget to update your navigation bars and your homepage layout to direct people to the new stuff.

4. Ask, “Can my site be found?”

Do an SEO audit. Whether you need your friends to find your site, want to attract new clients, or simply want to be Internet famous, your website and photos need to be found by search engines like Google.

• Update your meta descriptions, meta keywords, custom URLs, and photo keywords. Make sure they’re specific and relevant to your photography, location, business, and more.
  
  Poor example: "wedding photos"
  Good example: "Salt Lake City analog medium format wedding photography and portraiture by Hass L. Blad"

• Double-check your privacy settings in your account settings and on your public galleries and pages, like your portfolio. Remember: Private and Unlisted galleries can’t be seen by search engines.

5. Pros: Look at your business plan.

Is your goal this year to break the bank in sales? 

• Update your pricelists. Inflation, cost-of-living increases, and you getting better at your job are all reasons to keep your prices competitive. If you don’t know how much to charge, we’ve got some basic tips on how to price your work.
• Review (and use) all the Pro business tools available to you from SmugMug.
• Avoid theft! Keep your images protected from unauthorized use.

We hope these tips help you create a website you’ll always love to share. Whether it’s January, June, or any time of the year, your confidence could always use a boost.

The layout, design, and overall look and feel of your photo site all play a huge role in the first impression you make on visitors. That’s why we give you complete control over how your site is designed on SmugMug. 

Note: Not all features mentioned below may be available on all account types. Check our account comparison chart if you’re unsure about which features are available to you.

If you’re a pro photographer or anyone else who takes photos for a business, customization is also the most powerful way to bring your brand to the forefront and give a clean, organized, put-together appearance. Nothing says, “I’d hire that!” more than a clean, beautiful, unified look and feel.

Here are some examples of beautifully beautifully customized SmugMug sites:

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‍How do I customize on SmugMug?

You’ve got a few options ranging from "I don't have time for more than a few clicks" to “I'm all in." But we promise you’ll love the way your site looks no matter how deep you dive.

Contact our Support Heroes if you’ve got additional questions or if you just need a helping hand.

Themes, designs, and content blocks.

These are the building blocks of SmugMug. All SmugMug accounts can choose from dozens of beautiful designs that bring your website to life and suit virtually any mood or palette. Additionally, all SmugMug owners can add, remove, or swap content blocks on the homepage, giving you endless configurations for the first photos, videos, and words your visitors will see.

Power, Portfolio, and Pro accounts have additional options to change the look and feel of the site, including modifying and creating completely custom themes. Changing the overall design gives you different layouts that change the location of essential features like a navigation bar, thumbnails, your cover photo, and your profile photo. The best part is you can create several versions of the same website using different designs, then swap between them.

CSS and HTML.

If you’re not a beginner or want to create more powerful tweaks, you can use your own CSS and HTML to personalize your theme or make changes to specific pages on your site.

To have your code apply across your whole site, look for the Advanced tab under your theme options where you can add your own CSS. To have your code apply to only a single page or gallery, drag and drop an HTML or CSS content block onto any page of your site and add your code there.

Need help? We’ve got cut-and-paste code shared by our in-house customization experts as well as tweaks shared by fellow SmugMug users like you in our Digital Grin customization forum.

Short on time? We get it. That's why SmugMug gives you everything you need to publish your site quickly and easily. All you need to know how to do is click a mouse. 

Step 1. Choose a design.

We offer several beautiful site designs for you to choose from, and you can always choose a different template later. Each one comes with an out-of-the-box, designer-approved layout, font choice, and color scheme. We’ve created a variety to fit many styles of photography, so scroll through and pick the one that speaks to you. 

‍Step 2. Add photos.

When you open a new SmugMug account, you'll want to add photos to it right away. There are many ways to upload your photos, from our built-in browser-based uploaders to our publish service for Lightroom users. 

FYI: At this point your site is good to go. Simply hit the Show Me My Site button and your new website will be visible to the world! But if you want to make further changes, keep reading.

Step 3. Customize the design.

We make it easy to change the look and feel of elements that appear across all your site's pages. Some examples include adding a background image, including your name in the header, and changing text on your menu bar.

To open customization mode, click Customize Design at the top of your site. 

Here are a few things you could tweak first:

• Personalize the header.
  Most designs already include a basic navigation bar with a way for your viewers to get back to your homepage, view your site content on a Browse page, and search for a specific photo. You can add more links by editing this content box.‍
• Change the theme.
  Designs have their own color schemes, but you can pick individual page colors and fonts if you prefer a different feel.‍
• Adjust the footer.
  If you have a Power, Portfolio, or Pro account, you'll see an option to add your name, social buttons, or whatever else you wish to the footer.

Tip: Make sure you’re on the Entire Site customization mode; otherwise, your tweaks won’t show up across your site. 

Step 4. Personalize your homepage.

Your design will include various galleries and content on your homepage, but you can edit them (or add more!) by clicking Customize Design and making sure Homepage is selected.

Drag and drop, remove, or edit the individual content blocks that appear on this page. You'll know where they can go when you see a highlighted arrow and green line appear. Note that you can stack content blocks one atop the other, or line them up to create columns across the page.

‍Tip: The page elements are color coded, so you can edit any level content block from any page. For example, if you click the Customize Design button from within a gallery, you can still tweak sitewide things like the header and footer.

Step 5. Publish!

Once you're happy with the content blocks you've arranged, you can click Preview to see your changes without the customization menus covering the screen.

Love it? Hit Done. Your new site is now available for the world to see. Congratulations!

‍(Bonus) Step 6. Keep going!

Your design will have the essentials already built in, but with a Power, Portfolio, or Pro account, you can add more pages to suit your style. For example, you can create an “About Me” page with your photo and bio, a “Services” page, etc. Simply click the Organize button at the top of your homepage. Once inside the Organizer menu, choose Create > Web Page and name it.

Next you’ll see your brand-new page. From here, you can customize and add in any content blocks in virtually any configuration you want. When you're happy with it, publish your changes. 

If you’d like to make your new page easier to find, open customization mode and mouse over your menu bar. Click to edit it and add a new link, then find the link to your new page within the Pages I Choose picker menu.

Tip: You can drag to rearrange the different links in your preferred order. 

And with that, you’re done!

Optimizing your photography website for SEO is simple. Whether you’re trying to sell more prints, attract new portrait or events clients, or simply get more eyes on your work, you can do it by following a few simple steps. 

Step 1: Add and edit content.

Content is what search engines use to identify what's on your page. Although some search engines like Google use natural-language processing to try to understand what each word means, the more specific in text you can be the better. 

Your easiest SEO win starts here: go through your website and find headers, page titles, and blocks of body copy, and review them for simplicity and clarity. 

Instead of saying, “The stunning skies over mountains in Utah’s national parks,” in a gallery description, maybe say, “Art prints of the mountains and sky in Zion National Park.” Both will tell a visitor similar information, but the second version is easier for a search engine to understand, making your page that much more likely to be found. 

As you’re reviewing your content, also look for opportunities to build internal links. These are the linked words or phrases on most websites that help guide a user to the information they’re looking for. For example, your “Art prints of the mountains and sky in Zion National Park” might add an internal link to “Art prints” that leads to a catalog page, where users can browse the products you offer.

The keywords you use for these links help your visitors find the pages they’re looking for, and search engines use them to determine what each page is about. But be careful not to link the same words to two separate pages. This will cause confusion for search engines and potentially your customers.

Search engines will also look at the amount of links pointing to each page on your website. The more links you assign to a specific page, the more important a search engine will think it is. This gives that page more priority, so make sure your main galleries, signature shots, and business-generating pages are linked to from as many places on your site as possible. 

Step 2: Name your images and galleries.

Just like the copy on the page and internal links, wording matters on your images and galleries. Naming your images includes the actual name of the file, the title, the caption, and keywords.

These elements are used both by browser helpers for people with disabilities and search engines to understand what the image is about. A lack of image titles, keywords, and captions makes it harder for a search engine to understand what the image is, so the search engine will likely choose another photographer’s work to display.

Your words matter here as well, especially regarding genre and location. If you're selling a print of The Vessel in NYC, name your photo, “fine-art photo of The Vessel building in NYC.” If you're a sports team photographer, name a photo, “Soccer team group photo New Orleans.” Including specificity in your naming and keywording will go a long way toward getting your work found. 

The naming and structure of your galleries also contributes to your site’s SEO. Start with the overall theme on a folder, then add niche galleries underneath. 

For example, you could create a folder called Assateague Island Photos that houses all your favorite shots from this specific place. Inside this folder you could build galleries like “Assateague Beach Photos,” “Assateague Island Wildlife,” and “Camping Photos on Assateague Island.” If you make wildlife a folder, too, you could even build subgalleries for the island's famous inhabitants, like wild horses.

By naming your folders and galleries, you ensure your visitors and search engines both have a clear understanding of what's on a given page. As you add copy and internal links, you’re also providing easy navigation to help people find the exact shots they’re looking for.

Tip: Don't erase your EXIF data. Google and other search engines can use this information to determine where a photo was taken and verify the photo is actually of the area claimed in the title, filename, and caption. When uploading to SmugMug, we keep your EXIF data intact by default. 

Step 3: Register in Google My Business.

Google's My Business is a free service that helps Google understand what you do. You’ll want to create and verify your account, then make sure you fill out every field possible when registering for this service.

Make sure to define the area you serve (statewide? A few counties? Just in the city? Be specific!), list out the services you offer, and add hours of operation. 

The more complete your answers are, and the more often you update your listings, the more chances you have for your business and photography website to show up in local search results like “portrait photographer in Tulsa” or on a map as someone is looking for “holiday photographers near me.” 

For that second example, you can amplify your SEO by building a dedicated holiday page on your website, then updating your My Business listings with your new service, and even a discount if you’re a SmugMug Pro subscriber.

Step 4: Build backlinks.

Once you have content that defines your pages, your images are named and keyworded, and your account on Google My Business is complete, you need to build what SEO experts call authority. This is how trustworthy or reputable your site is considered and can be done through citations and backlinks.

A backlink is a link from an external website to your SmugMug website. It’s important to make sure these links are naturally occurring and come from a trustworthy website like your local news, trade publications, other businesses, or niche blogs. 

Often, professionals looking to increase their SEO will collaborate with each other, trading blogs and features to drive traffic to each of their sites while building authority. This can also be done through PR outreach to local publications and news outlets when you have something big to announce! 

For example, if you’re hosting a workshop on wedding photography, you could ask a wedding blogger to give you a shout-out on their blog, reach out to venues and vendors you partner with and ask them to list you as a resource, and let the local news know about your event.

Just be sure you’re not spamming links to your website on forums, blogs, or irrelevant websites—these will get you penalized by search engines. If you look for natural fits for your photography, you’re likely to find lots of opportunities to connect.

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These four simple steps will help you get found by search engines and customers alike, so get to it and good luck!

Welcome to day 2 of the Photo Seller’s Foundations series. If you missed part 1, be sure to check out yesterday’s products, pricelists, and packages post, or continue reading for today's deep dive into coupons, discounts, and limited-time offers. We’ll also walk you through how to make an automated “thank you” discount for your customers all year round.

As always, you can power through the whole series on our Photo Seller’s Foundations page, or get into the nitty-gritty of photography marketing and business strategy with our Marketing for Photographers ebook.

Setting up coupons in SmugMug.

First things first: Coupons and discounts are only available for SmugMug Pro subscribers. If you’re a Portfolio subscriber who’s been on the fence about upgrading, consider this one more reason to take the plunge and invest in your photography business. 

Coupons are a powerful tool to grab attention, drive sales, and even prime return buyers for more purchases down the road. On SmugMug, coupons are generated via a code that your customers enter during checkout. The option to enter a coupon will only appear when coupon-eligible items are in your customers’ shopping carts. 

You can manage coupons from the same place you find your pricelists: Just click “Manage” under the Coupon section of your Selling Tools page. Here you’ll see any previous coupon discounts you’ve run, and the option to create more.

More of a visual learner? Everything to get you started with coupons is also covered in our Pro Workflow webinar, Coupons: How and why?

Step 1: Choose your coupon type.

When you click the “+ Create Coupon” button in your coupon manager, you’ll be prompted to choose an initial coupon type. SmugMug coupons come in four different flavors: 

• Amount Off: Choose a set amount to take off a purchase, before or after shipping is calculated.
• Percentage Off: Choose a set percentage to take off a purchase, before or after shipping. 
• Free Shipping: Free standard shipping for your customer, or free airmail shipping if the order is international. If the customer opts for faster shipping at checkout, then an amount equal to standard shipping will be taken off the shipping total. 
• At Cost: Offer your lucky customers the option to purchase photos at the same cost you’d pay to print them.

Once you’ve chosen a coupon type, you can fill in the details, including a title, description, desired currency, and discount amount. We recommend giving your coupon a descriptive title that will help you quickly identify it in your coupon list, like “Amount off portraits” or “Percent off metal prints.”

Last but not least, you can choose your custom coupon code. Have fun with this part! Choose something eye-catching, memorable, and descriptive to grab the attention of customers browsing their inbox or social feeds. 

Step 2: Customize with restrictions.

Choosing your discount type is a great start, but the real power of coupons comes alive when you start applying restrictions to fine-tune your offer. These can be mixed and matched to build the perfect coupon for your customers. 

When you click the “restrictions” tab, this is what you’ll see:

Valid from and Valid through will let you set the start and end dates of your promotion, if you 

choose. Many promotions benefit from a limited duration, but some (like the one we’ll walk through making below) are good to leave open-ended. 

Here are your other restriction options:

• Minimum Purchase: Set a minimum total price for the entire purchase before your coupon can be applied to a customer’s order. This can help you ensure the order amount is large enough to cover your coupon’s discount.
• Maximum Discount: The most you want a customer to receive off an order’s total. Especially helpful to ensure a large discount doesn’t eat too much into your gross profits.
• Maximum Uses: How many times a coupon can be used on separate orders. If this is left blank, your coupon will be good until it expires. 
• Maximum Items: How many items the coupon can be applied to in a single order. The most expensive items will automatically be selected for the coupon application to give the buyer the largest discount.
• Choose galleries: By default, your coupon will apply to all your photos, but here you can choose specific galleries you want it applied to instead. This is an easy way to make client- or genre-specific offers.
• Choose products: Like galleries, your coupons will apply to all your products by default, but if you have some special items on sale (like ornaments) or you have a higher profit-margin product you’d like to promote (like gift cards), this tool will let you limit a coupon to a specific product or product category.

Pro tip: By combining coupon types and restrictions, you can create engaging sales like limited-time offers, bulk discounts, and buy-one-get-one deals. We have five great options broken down step by step here: Want to sell your photography? Use coupons. Any one of these would make a great promotion for that best-selling gallery you made yesterday, too.

Step 3: Get your promotions out there.

We’ll cover search-engine optimization (SEO), email, social media, and more in tomorrow’s post, but specific to coupons, here’s an easy way to get your discounts into the hands of people who’ll use them.

Ongoing discounts: Who says coupons are just for selling season? Promote return sales all year round with an automated 10% off “Thank you” coupon for all print orders. It’s an extra $1 per order, but you can deliver your coupon via a custom print, sticker, or, in some cases, both (visit our Help Center article for full details). 

Here’s how to get it set up:

• Create a coupon for your thank-you promotion:

• In the coupon manager, click “Create” and select “Percentage off.”
• Title your coupon something descriptive, like “Thank you 10% off.”
• Enter a coupon code—for this example we’ll use “THANKS10.”
• Enter 10 in the “Discount Amount” field.
• Click “Create” and you’re done with the coupon.

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• Enable “Thank You Prints”:

• Download these customizable PSDs and make them your own! Just be sure to keep the sizing the same—prints need an exact 3:2 ratio, and stickers need to be 2:1.
• Go to your Account Settings page, click the Business tab, and find the Printing section.
• Click “Manage” under the Order Branding subhead to open the Pro Branding tool.
• Upload your images for your coupon and sticker. 
• Check the box next to Thank You Print and Sticker, then click “Done.”

And that’s it! You’ve just made an ongoing coupon to encourage your customers to buy again—or encourage their friends to buy by sharing the discount. It’s a great way to keep in touch with your customers, help them feel seen and valued, and drive repeat sales in the future.

Next up, it’s all about outreach and how to connect with your customers: SEO, email, social media, website updates, and more. Don’t miss it.

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Still confused about coupons? Reach out to one of our sales specialists for help.