We just reduced the Max plan to $99 a month. If you’re a Pro plan user and running out of space for high-res files, now’s a great time to upgrade.
Also, we’re getting very close to releasing some big updates. Most notably, custom gallery theming and international currency support are on the horizon.
Sneak peak: custom theming
Custom theming allows you to completely customize the layout and styling of your NextProof themes. It can be as simple as swapping out a button and changing a few colors; or as complex as rearranging the entire HTML structure of your galleries. Custom background pattern? Easy. Move the right-hand sidebar to the left? Sure. Make room for a bigger logo? No problem.
Here’s a custom theme I’ve been working on as a proof of concept
If you wanted to get real tricky, you could even …
Embed a video
Embed a chat widget
Add additional links to your blog or Twitter updates
Heck, share or sell your own custom themes if you want. Knock yourself out. More information will be posted as we get closer to releasing this. We’ll also be adding plenty of documentation.
We were chatting about Aperture today and got on the subject of exporting and uploading via FTP directly from Aperture. After some quick googling, I came up with a couple interesting links.
Obviously the beauty here is that you could export versions and FTP to NextProof all in a single step.
ÜberUpload looks like a nice export plug-in for Aperture. It has keychain support (i.e. it can store your FTP password) and allows you to create folders on the server. Looks pretty nice.
A small Windows utility for Lightroom. You select it as your post export action and the exported files will be uploaded via FTP.
Looking for some feedback
I’d love to hear some feedback from both LR and Aperture users. If any Aperture/NextProof users out there want to write up a review, let me know. I’ll buy you a copy of UberUpload.
We just pushed out a small but handy update for FTP uploading. After uploading images via FTP and then adding them to a gallery, you’ll now get a status message.
The status will tell you that the FTP import is either “Pending” (i.e. it’s queued up in the background) or “Processing” (i.e. images are being added to your gallery). If the import is processing, you’ll also see how many images are currently in the gallery.
The status updates automatically every 10 seconds (AJAX baby) and will notify you once the process is complete.
Recently, we’ve been having issues with order notifications getting delayed (primarily by @yahoo.com addresses). Currently, emails sent from the NextProof system come from nextproof@bigfolio.com and this seems to be part of the issue.
This week we’ll be changing the FROM address. Any emails from NextProof (order notifications, billing notices, etc.) will begin coming from system@nextproof.com.
We’ve taken great pains to ensure this address doesn’t get marked as spam (including SPF records and DomainKeys). Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to add this address to your contacts or email whitelist.
Also, none of this affects emails sent to your customers. Those are sent from your email address (in your account settings).
As promised, a new update has been deployed. Here’s a brief overview:
New features
Products can now have a description and an image
Merchandise (the “More Products” tab) is now displayed with an image and description
You can now browse the favorites of all registered users via order details or the user’s profile
Bug fixes
Fixed bug where deleting a product that was part of the default settings prevented new galleries from being created
What now?
Get rolling and create some product images and descriptions. Also, when emailing your customers, have them use the “Favorites” feature to create their album picks.
Sometime this month we’ll be rolling out a big update to the “More Products” section (aka merchandise) of NextProof galleries. Remember that any product marked as “merchandise” and added to a gallery will be available for purchase in the “More Pruducts” tab.
In this upcoming release, you’ll be able to add an image and a description to any merchandise item. The “More Products” tab will have an improved layout and include the images and descriptions.
The descriptions will even support basic HTML tags and embedding videos/slideshows. So, for example, you could sell a DVD slideshow and even offer a preview.
A related feature coming as well: when you customer places an order, you’ll be able to view their favorite images in the order details screen. This will allow customers to use their favorite images as part of an album purchase.
How to prepare
In preparation for these updates, we recommend getting images together and writing copy for your merchandise.
Ok, a few updates for you. First off, we’ve got a new theme in the system. Butterscotch has some nice muted tans and browns–perfect for your Autumn galleries. It’s available in the control panel now and we should have a sample gallery up later today.
Prettier Emails
We’ve been working to improve the emails that go out to both you and your customers (order notifications, invoices, etc.). We just updated the order notifications that go to you–they now look like this:
More pretty emails are on the way (they take a quite a bit of testing to ensure formatting on popular email clients).
Tax Rate Update
Thanks to Fresno photographer Mark Janzen who notified us that some govenments like to collect taxes in the ten thousandths of a percent. We’ve updated the NextProof system to reflect this–you can now set tax rates like 7.0625%.
Help
You may have noticed there’s now a Help link in the NextProof control panel. Click it for quicker access to our help pages and to submit a support ticket.
More Resources and Stability
Since moving to our new host (EngineYard), we’ve been working hard to make the entire NextProof system faster and more reliable. We’ve recently made changes that should improve the speed of FTP imports and orders sent to ProDPI.
Since the move to our new server, some users experienced issues with the featured images slideshows (both in the gallery and embedded).
We think we’ve resolved these issues–slideshows should be a bit more stable now.
Remember, it’s very easy to embed a slideshow in your blog. It’s a great way to get people over to your galleries and place orders. Just follow the steps in this help document.
