There are a lot of online galleries these days the offer to host the photos you shoot for clients and allow them to browse, favorite, share, download, and to order prints and other merchandise.

Is anyone using them?   Do your customers get engaged on them (Sharing/downloading)?  Are you making any money from them?   Which site or software are you using?


Models, would you ever buy (extra) prints or other merchandise (mugs, pillows, keychains, etc) from such a site where your photos were hosted?  Would anyone you know?


Just trying to get an idea as to if these are worth it or not, and what types of photography are best suited by them.


Thanks, Joe

You'll probably get responses all over the map, as everyone has their preference. Personally, I've been using Zenfolio for several years and like it well enough. I was looking to leave it about six months ago and found that I actually have it pretty good. Price for value seems better than other sites. Specifically, there's no limit on file storage for a pretty reasonable annual fee. Other sites can look more contemporary, but I think Zenfolio is finally getting on the train -- a recent refresh of the interface was a welcome change. I'm still not crazy about the way cataloging works on the site, but the recent refresh improved that too, though not as much as I would have liked.

I've only done one event where people were expecting to purchase prints, downloads, etc. through Zenfolio, and as far as I know it went off extremely smoothly. There are a ton of different printing options, and the quality is great and turnaround quick. You can easily set your own price points and all kinds of different options. You can program different price sheets for different needs and just apply them to a gallery as needed.

Creating custom things like notecards is unintuitive and kind of a pain, but like with anything, once you get over that learning curve, you can get things done more efficiently.

Hope this helps!