Seen byJamieon December 31 2010.
There are13 comments.
Evren Kiefer
on 31 Dec 10
I like it too ! I went there to see what their plans and pricing look like and it was very difficult to find any info. They have three plans with different prices but one can’t tell what they include without signing up. Is it very smart or could they be more up front with it? Especially now, people might want to get off Flickr because of the turmoil at Yahoo.
Evren: The “Features” tab in the same set as the “Why Pay?” tab explains the differences between the tiers.
However, I couldn’t figure out (in 30 seconds, which is not very good) how to get to this set of tabs either. They must not be very important.
As someone who almost went into full-time photography SmugMug was my favorite photo sharing site. Their Why Pay? Page was probably just about the smartest thing they ever did. It is nothing but value for the customer! Great stuff!
Derik
on 31 Dec 10
Fail
Seriously, doesn’t anyone else notice it.
The headline says “Why pay when some sites are free” and instead of having a PAID signup button, Smugmug has a “Try us FREE” signup bottom.
They whole point of this page is to educate the user why they should pay and then they force the user to signup for a FREE plan.
Berserk
on 31 Dec 10
@Derik: It’s not a free plan, it’s a free 14 day trial. Hence the “try”.
What is a turnoff though is (as Dmitry pointed out) the difficulty of finding info about the plans and prices. It should (or ‘must’, as defined by rfc 2119) imo be linked to from the signup page.
michael
on 01 Jan 11
What do you love about the page? The massive undifferentiated blob of bullet points? I dare anyone to claim they actually read through the whole list of bullet points when they first saw this page.
they didn’t convince me, most people don’t care about those points
if they get annoyed by ads they use adblock
most of the free services come with unlimited traffic and uploads
and I will not bother with the other points because they are written for people that have no ideea what these services offer, they are written for noobs
so why pay? because we want your money and we don’t have anything of real value to give to you but we try to write smart ads that will make people write on their blogs and maybe they will convince you how great we are.
Steve R.
on 01 Jan 11
@Michael – I read the entire page first time. I like informative ads and will read them if I go to them (by, for example, clicking a link).
@Evren – The plans were not that hard to find, and you didn’t have to sign up.
That said, I started a trial membership and after uploading a couple of photo collections, there is no readily apparent way to buy merchandise! I tried to set up a mug and a photo book. There are links to both, but no way to order one with your photos on it – at least, nothing in the UI that told a user how to design and order a book. Methinks I’ll let my membership lapse.
I dont get the part right below where it says the pricing… isnt it supposed to be free? That is the only confusing thing, but i do agree with the message.
Danny
on 03 Jan 11
@CurtisP: It’s not meant to be free, this page is meant to convince you why you should pay for their site. I think based on your comment and reading the page the whole thing is confusing.
The ‘try us free’ does not denote a free site, it is a trial option (more or less ubiquitous on paid sites), the idea being that you give up your credit card details and agree to payment if you do not cancel after the trial period. Fairly ethical, but stealth-like to some…
Evren Kiefer
on 31 Dec 10I like it too ! I went there to see what their plans and pricing look like and it was very difficult to find any info. They have three plans with different prices but one can’t tell what they include without signing up. Is it very smart or could they be more up front with it? Especially now, people might want to get off Flickr because of the turmoil at Yahoo.
Dmitry Mazin
on 31 Dec 10Evren: The “Features” tab in the same set as the “Why Pay?” tab explains the differences between the tiers. However, I couldn’t figure out (in 30 seconds, which is not very good) how to get to this set of tabs either. They must not be very important.
Alex Humphrey
on 31 Dec 10As someone who almost went into full-time photography SmugMug was my favorite photo sharing site. Their Why Pay? Page was probably just about the smartest thing they ever did. It is nothing but value for the customer! Great stuff!
Derik
on 31 Dec 10Fail
Seriously, doesn’t anyone else notice it.
The headline says “Why pay when some sites are free” and instead of having a PAID signup button, Smugmug has a “Try us FREE” signup bottom.
They whole point of this page is to educate the user why they should pay and then they force the user to signup for a FREE plan.
Berserk
on 31 Dec 10@Derik: It’s not a free plan, it’s a free 14 day trial. Hence the “try”.
What is a turnoff though is (as Dmitry pointed out) the difficulty of finding info about the plans and prices. It should (or ‘must’, as defined by rfc 2119) imo be linked to from the signup page.
michael
on 01 Jan 11What do you love about the page? The massive undifferentiated blob of bullet points? I dare anyone to claim they actually read through the whole list of bullet points when they first saw this page.
gigel
on 01 Jan 11they didn’t convince me, most people don’t care about those points
if they get annoyed by ads they use adblock most of the free services come with unlimited traffic and uploads
and I will not bother with the other points because they are written for people that have no ideea what these services offer, they are written for noobs
so why pay? because we want your money and we don’t have anything of real value to give to you but we try to write smart ads that will make people write on their blogs and maybe they will convince you how great we are.
Steve R.
on 01 Jan 11@Michael – I read the entire page first time. I like informative ads and will read them if I go to them (by, for example, clicking a link).
@Evren – The plans were not that hard to find, and you didn’t have to sign up.
That said, I started a trial membership and after uploading a couple of photo collections, there is no readily apparent way to buy merchandise! I tried to set up a mug and a photo book. There are links to both, but no way to order one with your photos on it – at least, nothing in the UI that told a user how to design and order a book. Methinks I’ll let my membership lapse.
Ben Atkin
on 01 Jan 11I agree with @michael about the undifferentiated bullet points. It looks like a bad powerpoint slide.
CurtisP
on 03 Jan 11I dont get the part right below where it says the pricing… isnt it supposed to be free? That is the only confusing thing, but i do agree with the message.
Danny
on 03 Jan 11@CurtisP: It’s not meant to be free, this page is meant to convince you why you should pay for their site. I think based on your comment and reading the page the whole thing is confusing.
FX Siteworks
on 05 Jan 11The ‘try us free’ does not denote a free site, it is a trial option (more or less ubiquitous on paid sites), the idea being that you give up your credit card details and agree to payment if you do not cancel after the trial period. Fairly ethical, but stealth-like to some…
Dan
on 06 Jan 11They should continue the paid theme for this page. Not the try us free part button.
This discussion is closed.