Sharing your photography work online is easier than ever before. Besides social media networks like Flickr and Instagram, you can also choose numerous portfolio site platforms—along with building your own from scratch.
Are you a beginner photography business owner who doesn’t want to use complicated tools? If so, consider trying Pic-Time. You can easily share your work with clients and those who might simply be fans of what you do. Moreover, you’ll find several options to sell what you make.
This guide will talk more about Pic-Time and what it is, then identify the pros and cons of using the service.
What Is Pic-Time?
Pic-Time is a service dedicated primarily to professional photographers and was founded by a California-based couple in 2010. The company’s main aim is to help you share galleries of your work online with minimal friction, along with providing tools that help you stay profitable.
Despite making it easier to manage your clients online, the service also places a strong emphasis on the importance of print photography.
What Can You Do With Pic-Time?
Now that you know a bit more about what Pic-Time is, let’s identify some of the things you can do when you become a member.
Create Galleries
Allowing you to create galleries is at the core of what Pic-Time offers. You can make multiple scenes within each of your galleries, which is ideal if you want to share images from different days, trips, and so on.
When you create galleries in Pic-Time, you can choose the category you want your images to fall under. On top of that, you can pick whether your gallery is private or public. Another handy option is being able to pick whether it expires, and you can customize the SEO as well.
Design a Photography Website
When you sign up for Pic-Time and create a gallery, you’ll have a website that you can easily share with others. And if you want to have more control over your customization, you can use a custom domain. Once you’ve done that, you can remove the Pic-Time branding from your site.
You can also add testimonials, which is one of many things you should consider including on any photography website.
Sell Physical Products
Running a photography business online is easier than it has been in the past, and you can pick several avenues. Starting a photography YouTube channel is a good idea for some people, for example.
However, selling physical products is a great way to bring your creative dreams to life. It can also be quite fun once you figure out how everything works. Having assistance when it comes to selling your products is very beneficial, and Pic-Time offers precisely that.
With Pic-Time, you can sell image prints and other kinds of products—such as calendars. You can choose your refund policy, in addition to the prices you want to set.
The Pros of Using Pic-Time
With the basics of Pic-Time covered, let’s look at the pros and cons. First, you’ll discover the biggest benefits of using this service.
Simplified Product Selling
Selling products requires working with different suppliers and needing to deal with customer support requests. While you’ll still need to put in the effort to market your products with a Pic-Time website, you can eliminate much of the manual labor involved in completing sales.
Pic-Time also makes it easier to choose the type of materials you want your products printed on. For example, you can pick from metal prints, matte paper, and albums.
User-Friendly Website Designs
Wix and Squarespace are two popular website builders, and you can also use the likes of WordPress and Ghost. Regardless of the provider you choose, it’s important that your site is responsive if you want users to stick around.
Making a user-friendly photography website is sometimes challenging because files can consume a lot of bandwidth. However, creating something responsive with Pic-Time is much easier. Users will have an easier time navigating through your different pages, too.
Lightroom Integration
Adobe Lightroom is one of the most popular photo editing platforms, and Pic-Time offers integration with the service. You can use a plugin to sort your scenes more easily, and you’ll also find that syncing your albums between Lightroom and Pic-Time is quite simple. Moreover, you have the choice to publish projects in Pic-Time from Lightroom.
The Lightroom integration is available with all paid plans, but some options—such as certain syncing actions—are only included with some of Pic-Time’s higher-end memberships.
Easier Marketing
While you might think of platforms like Instagram and Twitter as the go-to places for growing your audience, artists can build an online presence without social media in many ways. Having an engaging website is one way you can get your work in front of more people, and Pic-Time has several marketing tools you can use.
With Pic-Time, you can see how much money you’ve made from selling products on your website. On top of that, you’ve got insights that show you how many users have visited your site. You can also view the total number of orders that have been placed.
Multiple Pricing Plans
Another benefit of Pic-Time is that you can choose from several pricing plans. Beginners can opt for a free version, which allows marketing automation tools and client galleries, plus 10GB of storage.
If you need more functions, you can upgrade to one of the paid membership options. You’ll get increased storage, the ability to create both art and client galleries, and—in due course—a blogging option if you want to share your expertise.
The Downsides of Using Pic-Time
Despite the many advantages of using Pic-Time, you should also consider the potential drawbacks before getting started.
Advanced Users Might Want Different Tools
Pic-Time might suit some advanced photographers' needs, but you may want more advanced features over time. For example, if you opted for a WordPress.org website, you’d have access to a broader selection of site plugins.
You may also later decide that you want to have more control over your layout, and you might find more options elsewhere.
Some Testimonial Options Are Limited
Having testimonials on your website is an excellent way to build social proof. While Pic-Time lets you add those that you might have elsewhere, some options are limited. For example, if you want to add testimonials from your Facebook page, you need at least 2,000 followers.
Pic-Time Takes Commissions on Sales for Some Plans
When selling products on your website, you should remember that Pic-Time takes a 15% cut if you have a Pic-Time Art plan, and the Professional category also involves this commission. The same is true for Pic-Time Complete subscribers with either Free or Beginner memberships.
Should You Use Pic-Time for Your Photography Endeavors?
If you’re looking to grow your photography business, Pic-Time is an excellent place to showcase your work. The platform was designed specifically for photography, and that is evident in the user-friendly functionality and suite of marketing automation tools available.
Pic-Time is also an excellent option if you want to sell physical products without dealing with the hassle of finding suppliers. But if you want something with more advanced features, or aren't happy with the commission cut, then it might be worth looking elsewhere.