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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Palo Alto, CA
    Posts
    10

    Unlimited Photo Storage (Smugmug)

    I just stumbled upon this site and think it's great. I was looking for a host to share my digital photos and heard about Smugmug. They offer unlimited photo storage for an incredible $29.95/year. Their monthly bandwidth cap is only 2 G, but that is likely more than enough for my purposes. They also offer higher end packages with more monthly bandwidth.

    I'm wondering how they can do this when none of the other "traditional" hosting companies are offering anything close to such a deal. I say traditional because Smugmug is not a hosting company per se, but rather a photo sharing site. However, I would imagine that the economics of their business should be roughly the same as that of a typical hosting company.

    Obviously, they are counting on their customers using a finite amount of storage, but with pictures from today's cameras (3-5 megapixels), this can still add up to be a pretty significant amount of disk space per user.

    What do the experts here think about Smugmug's business model? Is it sustainable?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Duluth MN
    Posts
    3,863

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    1,739
    Originally posted by amish_geek
    well i for one dont think you are the owner of this new wonderfull photo hosting company, i believe with all my heart that you are infact a customer of theirs that though ' oh my god i just have this urge to go and tell the people at WHT about this fantazz host'

    but on the other hand.................

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    tampa, fl
    Posts
    326

    Re: Unlimited Photo Storage (Smugmug)

    Originally posted by rohjuh
    Their monthly bandwidth cap is only 2 G, but that is likely more than enough for my purposes.
    What, no unlimited bandwidth? pffft.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Posts
    68
    Haha busted. I now think of smugmug as spammers. Maybe I should tell a couple friends that mentioned them to me the other day not to bother...

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Palo Alto, CA
    Posts
    10
    I know it may look like spam being my first post and all, but it really is just an honest question. For what it's worth, I am not the owner of that company, not an employee of that company, and not a customer (although I am thinking about signing up).

    What I am is someone who enjoys taking digital photographs and would like an easy way to post them on a website. I am also a budding entrepenueur who is thinking about getting into the hosting business. Rather than being yet another hoster in the sea of thousands, I am thinking about targeting a niche such as people who would like to post, share, and store their digital pictures (like me!).

    I came across Smugmug during my market research and was surprised that they are offering so much for so little. They seem to be attacking the niche that I was thinking about. I am trying to better understand the economics involved in the web hosting business and was just trying to get some feedback from those who have experience in this business.

    Hopefully that clarifies my motives for posting. I'm really just here to learn more about the business and was simply trying to generate a discussion about the feasibility of offering large amounts of storage but limiting bandwidth. Obviously, you can't offer both although some insist on trying.

    So . . . do you folks think that what Smugmug is offering is sustainable from a business standpoint?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    New York's Capital District
    Posts
    2,198
    I really don't think they spammed here ...

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1531770,00.asp

    They seem to be doing pretty well without doing that.
    Know It All Solutions Incorporated
    Web Design, Web Development and Web Hosting

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    St. Louis, MO
    Posts
    1,653
    Well unlimited space eh? I guess I should start uploading my digital pictures then. I got about 3 gig on my hard drive right now...
    Happily hosting @ Dathorn.com (Since 3/2003), Ispeeds.net (Since 2004), & Quadspeedi.net (Since 7/2005)!
    Hosted @ FDC for 9 Years

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