From SmugMug to Zenfolio, I have been there and done that with online photography sales websites. Both  sites have their share of benefits and challenges. Both are fantastic for what most people are looking for. But, in all logic, SmugMug should have been my end all, be all. Fully customizable, a great web forum and various helpful resources and products – it should be perfect. But, why wasn’t it?

Even though I had spent hours upon hours customizing my SmugMug page over two years, I felt annoyed and angry when looking at my SmugMug online store. I had flawlessly customized it, become a CSS maven (even more than usual) – but after a year and a half, I felt irrationally angry at the limitations I felt within the SmugMug system with what I needed to do to get what I wanted done.

I couldn’t help but wonder – what other quality online photography fulfillment services were available?

Fast forward to this year: another photography fulfillment house, same problem. This time, Zenfolio. But, why? Both SmugMug and Zenfolio charge per year and per sale. They both offer great customization techniques for their members and are specifically geared toward photographer’s photo fulfillment – and often, as in SmugMug’s case, various other trinkets similar to Cafepress and Zazzle. But, do I really need to sell a key chain of a photo? A photo place mat? A shirt with a photograph on it? Do I really need endless amounts of photography size customization, different photo finish types, etc? What if I didn’t want their offered paper for my cards? What if I just wanted to print things on my own high end printer and sell products a la cart for quality control?

I have one of the best larger format photo printers out there. So, why have I been wasting money housing my images on other websites instead of my own?

That question has been brewing in my head for quite some time now. I pondered, researching various e commerce scripts, the idea of putting a secure sales portal on this site. Frustrated, I searched the web again, looking for a decent solution.

No fancy T shirts. No T shirts. No aprons with images on them. Just a place where I can post various artistic items for sell to a community of interested viewers. Within clicks, I found etsy.com. A artist’s heaven, it allows individuals to showcase their handmade, self created, artistic creations on a website devoted to fair pricing and fostering a sense of community.

So now, the main question is: to Etsy? or not to Etsy?

Now, at least for this year – I think I found my answer.

I’ll experiment with Etsy, as it’s an already formed community of artists. Since I do custom matting and have easy access to frames, it’s the closest that I can get to a controlled store environment. And, the best thing? Per payment transaction and not a per year + per transaction cost. I might lose the easy access that customers will have to ordering prints. However, limiting the amount of kitschy BS photo crap that overloads consumers and focusing on providing customers with high quality prints and framed items is a better trade off.

Again, I can only rely on my personal experiences with these services. I chose SmugMug for two years because I obtained a discount coupon that lowered the yearly price. When my renewal came up and I assessed the value of SmugMug to my personal needs, I realized that I needed to search for other options in image fulfillment. SmugMug is a fantastic service and offers an amazing selection of photo gifts and items to customize. Their SmugMug Pro account, from my experience, was easy to customize if you know CSS and HTML. In fact, I made it a seamless working with my then version of this website. I chose Zenfolio due to the better per year price and lack of customization. (Yes, even I get bored of over customization – as I’m a perfectionist.)

However, as my needs have evolved, so has my vision of my product, quality and expectations for customer fulfillment. And for now, at least for this year, Etsy.com is it.

Websites:

Etsy.com: http://www.etsy.com/

Zenfolio: http://www.zenfolio.com/

SmugMug: http://www.smugmug.com/