Alternative to online hosting sites???

[iCe]

I've been wrestling with an image hosting site all weekend long. As far as "canned" hosting sites go they are probably no worse than anyone else but I gotta tell ya... I don't like their interface and a few other things about their site. Their java uploader crashes Firefox every time (don't blame FF. I use a java uploader for my other image storage site and it works fine). FTP was clunky. Not being able top move files around sucks. I had to batch upload in groups by type. Not so bad when its a soccer or football game but when it's wildlife, subdivided by species and in the cases of birds even further subdivided it's a major pain in the ass to upload files and get them to the right folder. If you screw up you can't move the files, you have to delete them and start all over? What kind of DOS 2.0 crap is that? Hello!! We have the web now. We can use W I N D O W S.... Upload speed is fast through FTP as far as getting the files to the site and non-existent with their java interface.... but you still have to tell the site that it has files to upload to a specific folder. You don't FTP to the specific folder. It's some kind of generic thing that holds the files until you go to the folder that you want them in and then upload to it. And then there is file regeneration, how it can take a 175kb file and turn it into a minutes long process I have no idea but it sucks Their price sheets are ok, pretty cool really... but as near as I can tell I can't customize pricing by image. If I put a couple of Great Blue Heron images, for example, in the correct folder but only one of them is good enough to print to a 24 x 36 canvas I have no way to delete the larger selection from the other two as far as I can tell. I would have to create another folder and put lower res files there. For my needs that is not going to work. I think that each image should be able to have pricing to fit the print resolution of the image.

To be real honest, compared to other sites that I have used, I thought that just about everything about they were clunky and slow (and that surprised me)

There's got to be someone out there that understands how to handle large quantities of files and subdirectories as well as managing printing and the cash register. My FOTKI site does a great job of file storage and organization. Their web interface is awesome. Upload speed is fast. Their printing on the other hand is horrible. I wouldn't print my toilet paper with them No matter how well you lock the files down, if you want to hot link to your images the image has to be large enough that a simple screen capture will allow someone to snag your stuff. They aren't secure (who is?). Their "cut" is way too high since if you want to use anything but paypal they charge the crap put of you.

I can see that while the site I tried was probably good for some things (not sure what), it's not going to work for me. I don't think any "canned site" will. So that leads me to what? Probably more than I care to think about right now.

Web business is very frustrating...

<edit> Decided that it might not be a good idea to name the site since I am obviously not a fan

[zach-e2]

iCe, feel free to contact me, man.
eleven2 can hook you up.. all TPF members get 20% off of our plans, and if you want, we can walk you through the setup process.
feel free to pm me or if you have aim: eleven2zach

thanks, man!
z

[pix-shooter]

Michael,
I use Zenfolio. I also use Firefox and have no problem with it. I find Zenfolio easy to use, user friendly. Uploading is very simple. There are themes to choose from. I think it's professional looking. It's only $40 a year for unlimited files! If you enter my code, we both get a $5 credit! : HJJ-VS6-SGZ

You can let everyone see your photos, or you can lock them with a password. You have a choice, you can let people purchase prints or download images, or not. There are two labs to choose from. Check out mine: http://www.naturefocusproductions.com/


http://www.zenfolio.com/

-Barbara

Originally Posted by iCe

I've been wrestling with an image hosting site all weekend long. As far as "canned" hosting sites go they are probably no worse than anyone else but I gotta tell ya... I don't like their interface and a few other things about their site. Their java uploader crashes Firefox every time (don't blame FF. I use a java uploader for my other image storage site and it works fine). FTP was clunky. Not being able top move files around sucks. I had to batch upload in groups by type. Not so bad when its a soccer or football game but when it's wildlife, subdivided by species and in the cases of birds even further subdivided it's a major pain in the ass to upload files and get them to the right folder. If you screw up you can't move the files, you have to delete them and start all over? What kind of DOS 2.0 crap is that? Hello!! We have the web now. We can use W I N D O W S.... Upload speed is fast through FTP as far as getting the files to the site and non-existent with their java interface.... but you still have to tell the site that it has files to upload to a specific folder. You don't FTP to the specific folder. It's some kind of generic thing that holds the files until you go to the folder that you want them in and then upload to it. And then there is file regeneration, how it can take a 175kb file and turn it into a minutes long process I have no idea but it sucks Their price sheets are ok, pretty cool really... but as near as I can tell I can't customize pricing by image. If I put a couple of Great Blue Heron images, for example, in the correct folder but only one of them is good enough to print to a 24 x 36 canvas I have no way to delete the larger selection from the other two as far as I can tell. I would have to create another folder and put lower res files there. For my needs that is not going to work. I think that each image should be able to have pricing to fit the print resolution of the image.

To be real honest, compared to other sites that I have used, I thought that just about everything about they were clunky and slow (and that surprised me)

There's got to be someone out there that understands how to handle large quantities of files and subdirectories as well as managing printing and the cash register. My FOTKI site does a great job of file storage and organization. Their web interface is awesome. Upload speed is fast. Their printing on the other hand is horrible. I wouldn't print my toilet paper with them No matter how well you lock the files down, if you want to hot link to your images the image has to be large enough that a simple screen capture will allow someone to snag your stuff. They aren't secure (who is?). Their "cut" is way too high since if you want to use anything but paypal they charge the crap put of you.

I can see that while the site I tried was probably good for some things (not sure what), it's not going to work for me. I don't think any "canned site" will. So that leads me to what? Probably more than I care to think about right now.

Web business is very frustrating...

<edit> Decided that it might not be a good idea to name the site since I am obviously not a fan

[iCe]

Barbara- Zenfolio has a great user interface but unfortunately it doesn't appear to offer custom pricing. If I turn printing on I am basically giving away prints. That's not what I am looking for. Thanks though.

Zach- I need a lot more than web hosting. Thanks for the reply

[pix-shooter]

Michael,
Zenfolio is coming out with custom pricing soon. I asked a week or so ago and they said in a matter of weeks. Ask them. They reply to questions pretty quickly. They were working on it when I had joined them. What I did for a customer is blocked her from ordering prints and had her tell me what she wanted, I told her a price and ordered them myself. Zenfolio says that this is what the other photographers were doing. I don't sell many yet, so it doesn't bother me to wait until Zenfolio offers custom pricing.

Check out Exposure Manager: http://www.exposuremanager.com/

I'm interested to learn what you find and choose.

-Barbara

Originally Posted by iCe

Barbara- Zenfolio has a great user interface but unfortunately it doesn't appear to offer custom pricing. If I turn printing on I am basically giving away prints. That's not what I am looking for. Thanks though.

Zach- I need a lot more than web hosting. Thanks for the reply

[iCe]

Thanks Barbara. That's good news. I'll send them a message just to let them know that someone else is interested in that.