Welcome to the bf-Stop

Announcing the BIG Folio Extended Summer Sale

Big — Mon Jun 23 12:18:00 -0700 2008

Summer is here. That means sunny days, ice cream cones, baseball, and (here, at least) half-naked people playing frisbee in the park. To celebrate, we're announcing an extended Summer sale on all website designs. The details: All premium sites are now only $500 All standard sites are now only $200 No coupon code required. The new price is automatically reflected when you sign-up. This special will be good through Labor Day–but don't wait too long. Now's a great time to update your web presence and start booking those '09 gigs.

Pick a site and sign-up now

NextProof Slideshows

Big — Fri Jun 13 16:55:00 -0700 2008

One of the cool features of NextProof is that you can define "Featured Images" for any wedding or portrait gallery. This allows visitors to jump directly to your best images. But, you can do more with Featured Images. You can turn on a slideshow that is presented the first time any visitor views your event. This week, we just added the ability to embed that slideshow anywhere. When you blog a wedding or portrait session, you can embed a slideshow of featured images right in the post. The slideshow will link to your NextProof proofing gallery, allowing visitors to immediately jump to the images and order prints. Here's an example:

If you want to get rolling with the coolest online proofing service around (according to me), visit NextProof.com and sign up. It's free for 30 days, so there's no risk. If you're in the market for a website, we also have half a dozen lifetime accounts left. Don't worry, unlike your mother-in-law, being stuck with us forever is a good thing :)

A Few NextProof Beta Spots Left

Big — Fri May 30 21:17:00 -0700 2008

by Erik Dungan We're only a week into our public beta release of NextProof and things are humming right along. We've already added features based on your guys' input, We're adding more video tutorials, I've added a cool new theme for you destination shooters, and some photographers have already received print orders. How cool is that? Anyway, if you haven't yet checked out NextProof, now is the best time. We have about a dozen beta spots left before we turn off signups in preparation for the full release. Not only are all accounts free for 30 days, but if you signup during the beta period, you'll save $5 a month if you want to keep using it. Check out the features and signup now. Next week, I'll be using NextProof for the first time myself to post a wedding. I've received some great marketing tips from other photographers and I'll be posting my results on the NextProof blog.

Mail Status on Server I

Big — Wed May 28 14:18:00 -0700 2008

The email server on Server I went down this afternoon, causing outgoing emails to be delayed in queue (no emails were lost). The system is back up and the email queue is clearing out.

NextProof.com now in limited public beta. 100 accounts available. 30 days free + $5 off your monthly fee.

Big — Fri May 23 20:10:00 -0700 2008

NextProof.com now in limited public beta. 100 accounts available. 30 days free + $5 off your monthly fee. http://www.nextproof.com

NextProof Sneak Peek 4: A Video

Big — Fri May 23 00:20:00 -0700 2008

I figure, enough talk–let's watch a video. Here's one of our NextProof demo videos.

"After using your Rank Higher DVD; I managed to optimize my site for most of the terms I needed. I can proudly say I went from the 3rd page of google, to #4 with a little help from BigFolio."- Aaron Potter

Big — Mon May 19 09:31:00 -0700 2008

"After using your Rank Higher DVD; I managed to optimize my site for most of the terms I needed. I can proudly say I went from the 3rd page of google, to #4 with a little help from BigFolio."- Aaron Potter http://onebloom.com/

NextProof Sneak Peek 3: Order Fulfillment

Big — Thu May 15 14:16:00 -0700 2008

by Erik Dungan

Let's talk about order fulfillment and the options NextProof offers.

Fulfilling Digital Downloads

As we mentioned last week, NextProof allows you to sell high-resolution files. The best part is, fulfillment is totally automated. After completing their purchase, your customers can immediately download. you don't have to do anything. Download links expire, helping prevent customers from unauthorized link sharing.

Print Fulfillment Option 1: DIY

We know many photographers do their own printing. Others use a favorite lab. Some do both. With NextProof, you decide how to fulfill orders. Every order placed is visible in your NextProof Dashboard and flagged as "OPEN". With a single click, you can see the order details, including all prints and products ordered. Once you've fulfilled an order, simply mark it as "CLOSED". Keeping track of orders is easy.

Print Fulfillment Option 2: Send to Pro DPI

NextProof also has the ability to send print orders to a partner lab right from the control panel. The best part is we've partnered with one of the best print labs in the United States: Digital Precision Imaging (ProDPI). I use ProDPI myself–their print quality and customer service is outstanding (plus they're from the 805).

If you have a ProDPI account, you can send any part of an order right from the NextProof control panel. Simply choose the items to send, select the appropriate product and ... BAM! The print order is automagically sent to ProDPI in the background. You can even replace the high-res file we have on the server if you need to do some retouching or editing.

Let me summarize: step 1. create gallery, step 2. upload, step 3. watch orders roll in, step 4. send to lab, step 5. PROFIT!

Aurora Way Now Available for Half Price

Big — Mon May 12 12:32:00 -0700 2008

Aurora Way, the winning BIG Foliolympics site, is now available on our website.

As promised, this site is currently half-priced through May 18.

To purchase Aurora Way and save $375, use the coupon code AURORAGOLD when signing up.

NextProof Sneak Peek 2: The Digital Negative

Big — Thu May 08 22:48:00 -0700 2008

by Erik Dungan

One of the cooler features we've built into NextProof is the ability to sell high-resolution files from any gallery or event. The great part is: you can do it but you don't have to do it.

It's a product ... or several products

High-res files (digital negatives, if you prefer) are simply products that you define in your NextProof account. Simply create a product and check the appropriate box.

You can create several digital products. For example, you may want to charge $100 for files from a wedding, but $250 for files from a senior portrait session.

Fulfillment is automated & secure

When a gallery has a digital product attached, it can be added to the shopping cart–just like a print. When a customer purchases a file and completes the checkout process, they are then given access to download the file. It's that easy.

Benefits

We think the ability to sell and automatically deliver high-res files will have at least two major benefits (I'm sure we'll think of more).

First, we feel it will increase your profits without increasing your workload.

Second, photographers can leverage NextProof to license stock, editorial and news photography. You set the price. You set the terms. You don't lose 30% of your revenue to a microstock agency.

Hey, we know selling digital files is not appropriate for every event or job. When it is, NextProof delivers.

NextProof Sneak Peek 1: The Philosophy

Big — Tue May 06 14:41:00 -0700 2008

by Erik Dungan

This month, NextProof–our new online proofing service–goes into public beta. In fact, a small team of photographers is testing NextProof as you read this. I thought it would be nice to start giving some sneak peeks of the service over the next week or two. In this post I'll briefly discuss the philosophy behind NextProof.

Why another proofing tool?

Every year, more proofing products and services spring up (the same goes for websites, in fact). Suprisingly, we are still continually asked by photographers if we offer one. Until last year, we hadn't given it much consideration–we just continued building great websites and taking care of our customers.

Last fall, we conducted a customer survey. It's primary purpose was to gauge customer satisfaction. But at the end of the survey, we asked our customers "if we offered a proofing tool, would you consider using it?" 75% said "yes". That was the clincher.

Are there several proofing options for photographers? Yes. Are some of them exceptional at what they do? Yes. Is there a need for what we're building? We think so.

Flexible and simple

We're not big on bloated software. We want to be flexible but we know we can't be all things to all people. We set out to build a proofing platform with essential features. We want photographers to (a) spend less time and (b) make more sales. We also needed a system that can grow–fast. Given those goals:

We built NextProof to accomodate all types of photographers–not just the wedding and portrait segment.
NextProof leverages cloud computing platforms, giving us storage that is reliable, affordable, and infinite
We designed NextProof to be fast and easy to use–for both photographers and their clients
We want NextProof to integrate tightly with our existing websites
NextProof should give the photographer multiple options for order fulfillment

Affordable

Look at the existing proofing landscape and you'll see an array of pricing structures–often confusing (at least for me). There are setup fees, monthly fees, per-image fees, per-gallery fees, credit-card processing fees, and transaction fees. Not to mention the hosting fees, certificate fees, and merchant account fees required if you choose an installed/self-hosted platform.

Our main goal was to provide a service that is affordable and transparent. With NextProof, you'll choose a monthly plan (based on storage) and pay a low (as in, single-digit low) transaction fee. There is no setup fee, no contracts, no limits on galleries or events, no hidden fees of any kind. Upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time.

Oh, there's also a free plan.

The hosting dilemma

The biggest dilemma we wrestled with was where this application would live. Would this be a completely hosted service? Or, would we allow photographers to install this application on their own hosting account? We even considered both. In the end, we decided to keep NextProof as a hosted service. We know this alone will keep some people from choosing NextProof. For those who have reservations about using a hosting proofing service, here is how we addressed some of the cons of hosted proofing:

Seamless: I don't want customers "leaving" my website to view their images. Your entire NextProof account can be mapped to a subdomain of your website. It may reside on our servers, but your clients will not know that.
Fees: high transaction fees make hosting your own solution more affordable in the long-run. NextProof transaction fees will be among the lowest in the industry. Combine that with never running out of space, never dealing with merchant accounts, never paying a setup fee, and never paying to upgrade as we add new features. We think NextProof will make you more money, not less.
Fulfillment: I don't want my proofing company to be my lab. With NextProof, you choose how to fulfill your orders. If you want, send print orders directly to one of the best labs in the US (more on that later). It's your choice.

More sneak peeks to come.

BIG Foliolympics Closing Ceremonies

Big — Sun May 04 15:30:00 -0700 2008

by Erik Dungan

The first annual BIG Foliolympics was a huge success for everyone–except me. The people have spoken and its time to crown the winner.

The winning sites

Gold medal: Aurora (developed by Kent)

Silver medal: Monroe (developed by Eric B)

Bronze medal: Flagline (developed by Lauren)

Tin foil medal: Lakeside (developed by Erik D)

New sites available soon

Monroe will be available for sale today on our website.

Aurora–the winning site–will be available on May 12 and will be half-price for 1 week only.

The winning contestants

A special thanks to the hundreds of people who voted and voiced their opinion. We drew names and its time to announce the prizes.

Free Aurora site: Nathan Walker

Free Monroe site: Kate Baker

REI gift card: Ed Stone

Victoria Secret gift card: Jen Thompson

Starbucks gift card: Tim Halberg

iTunes gift card: Cheryl Spelts

"Getting a BIG Folio site is the smartest thing my photography business has ever done... my BIG Folio website is blowing my prospective clients all away and doubling my bookings."- John Warren

Big — Tue Apr 29 12:33:00 -0700 2008

"Getting a BIG Folio site is the smartest thing my photography business has ever done... my BIG Folio website is blowing my prospective clients all away and doubling my bookings."- John Warren http://warrenphotography.com.au/

Votes are pouring in ... who will get the gold?

Big — Tue Apr 22 14:41:00 -0700 2008

Votes are pouring in ... who will get the gold? http://www.bigfolio.com/olympics.php

BIG Foliolympics Voting is Now Open

Big — Tue Apr 22 13:41:00 -0700 2008

BIG Foliolympics Voting is Now Open http://www.bigfolio.com/olympics.php