Today sees the launch of a new type of website powered by PixyBlog. Pictorial Press Ltd is an image library specializing in music, film and television stills. Over the past six months we've been working with the Pictorial Press team to migrate their existing website over to use the PixyBlog system.
An image library is a considerably different type of website to a photoblog. There are a number of features which we either needed to enhance or develop before we would be ready to run such a site using PixyBlog.
Our photoblogs already have a basic search function, which makes us different from a lot of similar photoblogging services, but for an image library search is the priority. If picture researchers can't find the images they are looking for, then there will be no sales. We worked on improving the quality of our keyword searches and the work we've done here has already filtered down to all our photoblogs.
When dealing with hundreds of thousands of images, then a bulk upload feature becomes essential. We already had this feature but, like the search, it has been improved somewhat to cater for the needs of an image library. For example, you can now upload images up to 50MB in size.
Pictorial Press is the first site to use our new checkout process. Shoppers can now add images to a basket, continue through the checkout providing their billing information & shipping details and complete the whole order process in just a few steps online.
The checkout process can be branded with the sites title or even a custom logo, and we're now working on making the design even more customizable to match the originating site.
The ability to sell prints, limited editions, high resolution downloads and even image licensing has been a feature which has been requested by a number of PixyBlogger's and we will start to roll-out a beta of this on a select few photoblogs soon.
Image library websites usually have a lightbox facility to allow researchers to put together a selection of images which are of interest to them (often for a specific project or client). PixyBlog now has such a feature. We support management for more than one lightbox, each lightbox can be emailed and client comments can be left on individual images. Similar to our checkout process, we can brand the lightbox management with the sites title or logo.
To enable smooth transactions between supplier and customer we've developed a thorough order management system. Included are email alerts for new orders or a change in order status, a new management console for viewing, tracking and changing orders and a user management console for suppliers to manage and contact their customers.
These new features will start to come available on PixyBlog shortly, and we hope that you are as excited about these developments as we are.
A big PixyBlog welcome to Jacques Bron.
After reading about our PixelPost to PixyBlog import feature, Jacques contacted us about his existing photoblog which was running on software that is no-longer supported by the developers, and he expressed interest in migrating his site, photos, descriptions and comments to PixyBlog.
Being a part-time software developer, we supplied Jacques with some sample data in the format we need to import to PixyBlog (a simple XML document), and one week later we get an email with the data in the exact format we require. Today we ran the import without any problems, and now Jacques is the newest member of our community with a back catalog of over 500 photos going back more than 2 years. Check-out his photoblog, and welcome him to PixyBlog.
It's great to know our import isn't just for PixelPost, but can be easily adapted to other photoblog platforms.
Anyone else out-there who wants to migrate to us?
Do you have a Pixel Post site which you are having trouble maintaining?
Are you having problems getting support from your hosting company?
Need a secure place to back-up your photos?
Have a photoblog but no community?
Any of these could be a reason for migrating your photoblog to PixyBlog. We've now made it easier than ever for Pixel Post users to export their photos, descriptions and comments to PixyBlog. With our new Pixel Post addon you can have your existing photoblog migrated to PixyBlog in just minutes.
For more information, or to download the addon, please read the Pixel Post to PixyBlog article on our wiki.
