Boothify

WHERE TO HOST PHOTOS

There are many many places to host photos online but not all suit the needs of a photo booth operator equally. 


Many photo booth companies have chosen www.smugmug.com to host their photos, probably because once you pay their subscription fee, you can upload an unlimited number of photos, it is relatively easy to upload the photos, you can have it seamlessly connect to your website with your own branding, and as well you can load up to 10 minute videos. Though their pricing is in the middle of the pack, it is certainly affordable. If you are just hosting and not selling the photos, the cost ( as of 2014) is $150 per year, and if you want the ability to sell them then it is $300. I would probably take the $150 package for the free photos, which most of your photos will be as it is included in the package, and then perhaps find somewhere else to “sell” photos you may want to sell, If you are selling a lot of photos then by all means go for the higher package, but I am pretty sure that in addition to the $150 they charge you a 15% commission (I could be wrong about that as I just read it somewhere), so you may want to do some window shopping.


I know smug-mug does the job but here are few of their competitors. The best thing to do is to ask around and see what other companies are using. Some of the websites below are more consumer oriented and may not have all the features you need. The one thing for me that would be a deal-breaker would be a limit on uploads, which some of the websites I am listing below have. The other deal-breaker would be not being able to seamlessly connect to the photo sharing page from your own web page with your own branding. Also you must be able to assign an individual password to every event . Beyond that see if the hosting site meets the needs of your individual business.


www.phanfare.com www.stickyalbums.com www.photobucket.com www.flickr.com www.picasagoogle.com www.shutterfly.com www.snapfish.com www.photobox.com www.kodakgallery.com www.webshots.com www.photoshelter.com www.shootproof.com www.instagram.com www.imgur.com www.deviantart.com www.twitpic.com www.imageshack.com www.tinypic.com www.4chan.com www.fotolog.com www.photo.net www.slide.com 


Anyway, you get the idea. There are a lot more I have not even listed.


Advertise with Photo Hosting


Give a card to everyone at the event that look suspiciously like your business card. However on the back of the card is a sticker that gives them the information they need to retrieve their photos.


The beautiful thing here is that they have to go to your website to get access to the site that hosts your photos. Or at least I certainly hope you make them go to your site first. Think about it. If there are 500 people at your event, here are 500 new prospects. You will be amazed at the number of people that will be visiting your website.


Always hand out access cards. Referral business is the best business, and the least price conscious business. You pay hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to participate in a bridal show, so you can hand out your business cards and information at a show in which you are competing with any number of other photo booths. At a function, you have a captive audience of sometimes as many people as attend a trade show. What better way is there to promote yourself? Remember, to access their pictures, make sure they have to go to your website.


I recently had someone tell me that rather than giving out cards, they post this information on a sticker that they put in each and every photo strip they hand out. They believe that the sticker will be remembered longer on the strip than a card will. This is a possibility and I may test this out to see if they are in fact right. Along the same lines, if someone has any input regarding this or any other issue I would really like to hear from you.