Pro gallery v2.0 planning: your feedback requested

As promised I am updating you all on our proposed changes to pro galleries. We have started the planning work and now it’s time to get some feedback from existing gallery owners.

Uploading to your pro gallery

Firstly, I can see that some of you are frustrated that it is necessary to upload twice: once to the old site to sell images through pro-gallery and once again to the new site if you want to order prints. We could add a feature so that you could upload once to the new site (via FTP, in the browser or Picasa) and then import photos from the new site into a gallery album. If you would like to see this feature implemented please let me know. If there is enough support we will get it done ASAP.

New features planned

The new pro galleries are planned to have all of the features from the old service, but appearing in the style of the new site. We feel this will be a cleaner, less cluttered experience for your visitors and customers. Of course your own logos, graphics and contact details will still appear. And when launched all of your content will be migrated over.

These are some of the new features that we anticipate adding:

• Optional password protection for individual collections
• No limit on the number of products that can be offered
• Optional watermarking of medium sized (500 pixel) images
• The ability to set different products and prices for specific collections. Thus you could have a premium collection at higher prices or a collection of panoramic images with only relevant print sizes offered.
• Electronic download at a price you decide
• Search of gallery and optional inclusion of your collections and photos into the main site public search results (pro gallery images will be clearly identified to the visitor when viewing public photos)

And in a later release:

• Choice of page styles, for example, black background rather than white
• Choice of funds collection (the profit from your sales): as a credit to be used on main site or via automated payment into a nominated PayPal account
• Pre-made creations: the ability for you to make a completed photobook, calendar or any other creation product, allow visitors to view it and to buy it for a price you decide

Now over to you. Does the list above sound right to you? Are there any of these features that you feel are not necessary or not described the way you want them? Are there other features that would make galleries much more successful for you? I’m looking forward to receiving your feedback and ideas on what’s important to you.

One final point: we plan to launch a new PhotoBox blog within the next week. This will have two distinct areas: one for consumers and another for our pros. We feel that the issues raised are quite different between the two audiences. We will of course make you fully aware of the new address and redirect you from the old blog once this is available.

I always say this, but thanks again for the feedback. It’s a great thing to have you contributing to our future developments in such a direct way.

Regards
Graham