Simon Birkenhead: Blogging about Media and Photography

Smart Agencies Understand the Partnership Imperative

2011-10-06T22:10:00.000+01:00

In January 2008, Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis Groupe, and Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, shook hands on the terrace of the Publicis building overlooking the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Their agreement, to join forces and partner in the deployment of new digital advertising technologies, kickstarted a radical transformation in the way that large agencies work with technology companies.

For decades agencies have been the masters of delivering effective advertising campaigns at the best possible value for their clients. A key strategy to achieve this was to maintain an arm’s length (some would say, adversarial) relationship with media owners to preserve objectivity and a strong negotiating position. The slow pace of true innovation in traditional media meant there was little pressure for this to change: agencies’ fluency in offline media required little 2-way interaction with media owners beyond discussions over pricing and tactical proposals.

However, the explosive growth of digital marketing over the past decade, and the associated emergence of Silicon Valley’s fast-moving technology companies, has instigated an urgent reappraisal of this adversarial mindset by the leaders of the world’s largest agencies. The increasing importance of data analytics as a key component of agencies’ service offering, combined with the lightning-paced evolution and technical complexity of the new digital marketing platforms, means that a closer working dynamic with technology companies is no longer an experimental initiative, it has become a business imperative.

When Maurice met with Eric in Paris in January 2008, which was also around the time I joined Google, Google’s product suite was largely limited to Search and our display network. Just three and a half years later, the conversations I have with agencies now cover mobile, online video, social, ad exchanges, global ad-serving platforms, rich media advertising, DSPs, analytics, real-time insights tools, data platforms and even enterprise software.

The pace & scale of change is truly mind-blowing:

In 2008 Search accounted for just 3% of all media investment in the US and Western Europe. Just 3 years later this has tripled to ~9%. In UK, Search now represents at least 15% of all ad spend.
Android has grown from zero to over 550,000 new activations per day in 3 years and, with iOS, is radically transforming how advertisers can engage with customers through mobile devices
YouTube now streams 3 billion video views per day, double the volume just 18 months ago
Facebook, Twitter & Google+ together have close to 1BN users globally, 50% of whom log on every day, half of these through mobiles
In just 18 months, Ad Exchanges, DSPs and Agency Trading Desks have revolutionized the way display media is bought, challenging the business models for hundreds of existing display networks
Google announced over 350 major new products or feature changes over the last 12 months alone, an average 7 per week. (To see what these were, visit www.google.com/newproducts)

As a Googler, with full access to our internal resources, it is a huge challenge to maintain my own knowledge of all these technologies and the associated opportunities they afford marketers and agencies. For agency account leaders, planners and buyers, who also have to be fluent in a similar suite of products from dozens of other digital companies in addition to all forms of traditional media, it has become truly impossible to remain true media ‘experts’. Every new layer of complexity created by technology evolution creates an even deeper requirement to nurture and build strong external partnerships. As Rishad Tobaccowala of VivaKi recently commented, “The world is too complex and moving too fast for any one company or team to do it all. We need to train people who are cross-bred and hybrid and who are willing to work together.” Tight-knit day-to-day collaboration at account team level with technology companies like Google have now become a necessity for agencies to keep up with all the potential options for connecting advertisers with their customers.

Many advertisers have also come to the same conclusion. A key component of many major media pitches recently has been the requirement for agencies to demonstrate the strength of their partnerships with Google and other players in the digital ecosystem, and how they can use these relationships to deliver additional value to their clients.

Smart agency leaders like Jack Klues, Laura Desmond and Steve King have realised that a close global partnership with Google would help their agencies to stay ahead. Today our global partnerships with VivaKi, Starcom Mediavest and ZenithOptimedia deliver immense value beyond the technology collaboration originally envisaged by Maurice & Eric in January 2008:

Our industry experts provide deep insights into consumer & market trends that illuminate new consumer engagement opportunities for agencies, enabling their clients to lead rather than follow
Our display, mobile & video experts work with agencies to create innovative, high impact campaigns for advertisers by pushing the boundaries of what is technologically possible
Our product managers help agencies to understand and prepare for new marketing opportunities generated by technology change
The joint research studies we publish each year with agencies deepen our understanding of consumer behaviour in this new digital realm and deliver the proof points needed to encourage advertisers to leverage these new opportunities
Our training initiatives and digital media certification programmes, covering everyone from the top CEO to entry-level graduates, are helping the agencies to maximise the ROI from their digital campaigns and keep their teams operating efficiently and effectively
Our ongoing partnership with VivaKi’s Audience on Demand trading desk is helping agencies & their clients to improve the performance of their digital campaigns through superior buying processes.Yet despite all this, as I talk to agency leaders around the world, both inside & outside of Publicis, I still occasionally get asked what the value is to an agency from working with Google.

Agency leaders who have not yet figured this out, who are not actively encouraging their account teams to build a deep collaborative partnership with Google, may soon discover they are at a significant disadvantage to their competitors in this fast-changing market.

Simon Birkenhead is Google’s Global Business Leader for Publicis Groupe

[This article was originally published as the 100th article on the blog of Marco Bertozzi, EMEA MD of VivaKi. See original posting here.]

10 Step Beginners Guide to Becoming a Google+ Expert

2011-09-29T22:13:00.003+01:00

Google has seen a surge in usage of Google+ after opening up the product to everyone last week. To help newbies get started, here is my ten step beginners guide to everything you need to know about Google+ so you can quickly discover the full potential of Google+.

ONE - WATCH THESE SHORT VIDEO OVERVIEWS

Full Google+ online demo: http://www.google.com/+/demo/
Circles: http://goo.gl/GXF3l
Sparks: http://goo.gl/JtsSh
Hangouts: http://goo.gl/FgwyC
Games: http://goo.gl/Q1teh
Instant upload: http://goo.gl/tygxV

TWO - LEARN THE BASICS

Google+ Complete Guide: http://mashable.com/2011/07/16/google-plus-guide/
10 Google+ tips for new users: http://mashable.com/2011/07/26/google-plus-tips-tricks/
Set up your profile: Go to your profile page and provide some relevant information about yourself to help people find you.

THREE - SET YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS

Post to circles: Although you might be compelled to post publicly for better exposure, beware that all public posts are indexed by Google. So make use of your Circles to limit who your posts are visible to and only use 'Public' if you really are happy for anyone to read it (e.g. if you're a blogger).
Disable reshare: If you're using Circles to keep certain posts limited to close friends and family, adopt "Disable reshare" so your posts cannot be forwarded on. After posting, click the arrow to the right of the post, and select the option there.
Change photo album visibility: Go to your profile > Photos > View all albums. The little icons next to the album names signify each album's visibility: public (a globe), private (a lock), and limited (two heads). To change the visibility for any album, select it, click the link next to "Visible to," and enter Circles or e-mail addresses.
Control photo tagging: By default, anyone can tag you in photos. To change this, go to Google+ settings (upper right), then scroll down and select which circles can tag you.
Edit the visibility of your profile: Go to your profile and hit "Edit profile." From here, you can click on any element in your About section to change its visibility. Other tabs in your profile, like Buzz and +1, also have privacy options you may adjust.
Change "search visibility": In the "Edit profile" mode, scroll down to the bottom of your About section and find "Search visibility." If you don't want your profile to show up in search results, click it and uncheck "Help others find me in search results."
Hide or expose Circles: When people visit your profile, they can see who's in your circles and who has included you in theirs. Hide either or both of these modules by clicking "Change who is visible here" in the left sidebar of your profile.

FOUR - DOWNLOAD GOOGLE+ MOBILE APPS

FIVE - ADD PEOPLE TO YOUR CIRCLES

Download all your Facebook contacts and photos to Google+: http://goo.gl/Gj6em
Go to the profile pages of your friends and see who they have in their circles - hover over any names you recognise and add them straight into your own circles
Top 50 most interesting people on Google+ to follow: http://www.recommendedusers.com/peoples-choice/
Google’s official list of interesting & famous people (all must have 100,000+ followers on Twitter or other social sites): https://plus.google.com/getstarted/follow
Find people to follow: http://www.findpeopleonplus.com/
Another G+ directory of users: http://www.gglpls.com/
Add your Twitter followers to Google+: http://www.findpeopleonplus.com/twitter2plus
Check out Google+’s top 100 users and the most popular posts on Google+ in real-time: http://socialstatistics.com/

SIX - INSTALL COOL CHROME EXTENSIONS

Google+ Apps Directory (unofficial)
SGPlus (post to Facebook and Twitter, see your feeds inside Google+, and much more)
+Comment Toggle (hide/show comments in your G+ stream)
Extended Share for Google+ (extends G+ to share to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others)
Usability Boost for Google+ (improves readability of your G+ stream, ability to star posts to read later, plus other useful features)
Beautify G+ (fixes positions of left & right panes plus menu bar)
Google+ Tweet (integrate Twitter into your Google+ stream)
G+Me for Google+ (collapses the Google+ stream while keeping live updates: collapses posts, hides comments, etc.
+Everything (keeps the black Google notifications bar at the top of any website)
Search By Image (allows you to see if anyone is using your photos anywhere on the web without your permission)

SEVEN - SET YOUR PHOTO SHARING SETTINGS
Google+ makes it so you can easily share pictures through Creative Commons licensing, which gives you control over how they may be used by others, if at all. Here's how to do it:

From Google+ (or any other Google site), select "Photos" from the top bar to bring up Picasa.
Over in the top right corner, click the Options icon (it looks like a gear), and pick "Photos Settings."
Select "Privacy and Permissions," then "Allow reuse with attribution" next to "Creative Commons."
You may select further options, including letting others use your work for commercial gain, or the "Share-Alike" option, which lets others use your work for any purpose as long as they use a CC license for the resulting work.
Click "Save changes" and you're all set!

If you want to rearranging the photos in your G+ albums, here's how:

Go to "photos" on your G+ bar, it will open picasa albums. All your images are there.
Click "Organize"
Re-arrange by drag and drop. You can also set cover image in action drop-down over there.
Read this Photographers’ Survival Guide to Google+: http://goo.gl/4yrFo

EIGHT - START SHOWING OFF

Start a Google+ Hangout with a YouTube video, directly from YouTube:

Add Bold, Italics or Strikethrough text: Three simple formatting tricks: *bold*, _italics_, and -strikethough-.

Tag friends in posts: Get a friend's attention in a post by tagging them. Type "+" or "@" followed by their name. You'll see an autocomplete drop-down menu show up as you type their name, which presumably includes people in your circles and extended circles. Your friend will be notified they've been tagged in a post, and post visibility will automatically be set to just that person. Don't forget to add more circles and friends (if you want to) before sharing.

Send a "direct message": To send a message to just one friend, tag them in the beginning of a post and let them know it's a private message. Then, comment on the post to establish your own, private thread.

Backup or download all your Google+ data: Go to your Account Settings and select Data Liberation from the left hand menu. Click the Download data button near the top of the next area that loads. You can back up all data or just choose to back up Google+.

Set up a quick link to your Google+ profile to share with friends: glus.to

Ignore someone on Google+: When you ignore people, their posts and anything they've shared in your "Incoming" stream will be removed. In addition, you will no longer be notified when they mention you. Just select "Ignore" in the notifications drop-down, next to their posts in the Incoming stream. Alternatively, go to Circles > People who've added you, and select any number of people to ignore. When you're done, click "Ignore" at the top.

Blocking someone on Google+: When you block people, you won't see their content, they'll be removed from your circles (and extended circles), they won't be able to mention you, and they'll be forbidden from viewing or commenting on your content. To block someone, go to their profile and click "Block" in the sidebar.

Integrate your Facebook, Twitter & Google+ streams: install the SGPlus extension for Chrome

Add a Google+ feed into your blog: http://widgetsplus.com/

NINE - PLAY SOME GAMES

See that icon in your Google+ toolbar that looks like a 4-seater table and chairs viewed from above? That's your portal into many wasted hours playing some cool HTML5-based games in your browser. Way better than anything you can get through Facebook.

TEN - TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS HOW GREAT GOOGLE+ IS!

Photographing Online Celebrities at YouTube's European Creator Camp

2011-09-26T15:57:00.000+01:00

YouTube's Creator Camp is a week-long event which brings together emerging hot talent with existing YouTube creative partners to share ideas, learn how to get the most from the latest technology, and most importantly how to create inspiring & entertaining content to grab the attention of YouTube users worldwide.

After a hugely successful Creator Camp in US earlier this year, YouTube held a competition called NextUp 2011 in Europe to find the best new talent to invite to a European event in London during September. The lucky winners were:

www.youtube.com/tyrannosauruslexxx
www.youtube.com/einAstronaut
www.youtube.com/DxDutch
www.youtube.com/jpelirrojo
www.youtube.com/itsrushsmith
www.youtube.com/Peepholecircus
www.youtube.com/GiR2007
www.youtube.com/ShooRaynerDrawing
www.youtube.com/MarcusButlerTV
www.youtube.com/Khyan1
www.youtube.com/DirectorToby
www.youtube.com/TanzbaerundSimon
www.youtube.com/SceneTakeTV
www.youtube.com/danslapeaudemartin
www.youtube.com/IDTC
www.youtube.com/juliusfhan
www.youtube.com/enricozerodx
www.youtube.com/zizzomagic
www.youtube.com/CreativeByMind
www.youtube.com/TheRHExperience
www.youtube.com/daaruum
www.youtube.com/iBlali
www.youtube.com/faireset2
www.youtube.com/booksandquills
www.youtube.com/clipsetvideo

These talent creators came to London last week to join a whole bunch of existing YouTube celebrities, including iJustine, Charlie McDonnnel (charlieissocoollike) and MysteryGuitarMan. At the end of the week there was a massive party in central London to which fans of both the old & new YouTube celebrities were invited. The US fan party attracted about 100 fans; the London party was completely overwhelmed by close to 500 fans who were queuing round the building to get in.

I was asked to be the official photographer for the event, capturing some of the filming during their Creator Camp workshops and the fan party. See how any YouTube celebs you can spot at www.simonbirkenhead.com/nextup2011.

My Top 40 Essential Android Apps

2011-08-28T16:04:00.006+01:00

As an increasing number of my friends swap their iPhones & BlackBerry's for Android phones, I am frequently asked what the best Android apps are that they should download. I am also usually horrified when they tell me how few apps they have ever downloaded as they really aren't getting the most out of the capabilities the Android operating system offers.

So here is a list of my top 40 essential Android apps that are available through the Android Market. Some are paid-for apps but most are free.

*I have marked those that really are must-have apps with an asterisk.

Adobe Reader - View PDF documents on your phone

Advanced Task Killer - Release memory & reboot apps if your phone is running slow

Amazon Kindle - Sync with your Kindle device & read your ebooks on your phone

*Barcode Scanner - Essential app for scanning barcodes & QR codes into apps like Google Shopper

Car Locator - Very useful if you often forget where you have parked the car. Uses GPS to guide you to your destination

Compass - Accuracy very much depends on the quality of your handset, but does give a general sense of direction

ConvertDroid - Best best converter I have come across: includes weight, distance, area, volume, temperature, pressure, time, speed, density, energy, torque, angle and plenty more

Currency Converter - Very easy to use for converting between multiple currencies. Includes an historical graph of exchange rate fluctuations

Docs - Sync with your Google Docs documents on your phone

eBay - Official app enabling you to browse, bid & sell on your phone, fully synchronised with your online eBay account

*Facebook - Official app

*Gesture Search - One of the most useful apps you can get. Search your contacts by writing a name on the screen. Automatically learns who your favourite contacts are. The fastest way I have found to find a contact.

*Gmail - Manage multiple email accounts in one interface. Full online synchronisation

Goggles - Use your phone's camera to take a picture of something interesting, then let Goggles tell you what it is. Works well with landmarks, buildings, product labels, etc

*Google+ - Official app to manage your Google+ updates

Here I Am - Useful for those odd occasions when you need to tell someone exactly where you are. Uses GPS to send your position by email or text message; recipient clicks the link to see where you are on Google Maps

Kabbee - Find a mini-cab in your local area, get a quote for your journey, and book through your phone. I believe this only works in UK at the moment

Latitude - Let your friends see your location in real time for those chance encounters when you discover friends are nearby

LinkedIn - Official app to manage your LinkedIn profile & contacts

*Locale - One of my favourites: Set conditions for your phone (e.g. volume, ringtone) dependent upon time of day, day of week and/or location. I use this to automatically set my phone to a quiet ringtone during office hours, and to silent at nighttime. Never worry again about your phone playing your weekend ringtone at full volume in a client meeting!

London - Very simple but useful London underground map. Zoom & scroll the map or let it create a journey for you

*London Tube Status - Real-time service status dashboard for all London Underground lines. Includes real-time departure boards for most stations

*Maps - Google Maps on your phone. Essential.

Owner - Help your phone find its owner again if it gets lost. This app inserts your name & contact details onto the Android lock screen so it is easy to see who owns it if misplaced.

Phone Info - If your phone is lost, you will need to give your phone company the IMEI & SIM serial numbers for them to lockdown your handset. This app emails these important numbers to you so you have them recorded.

*QuickPic - A much better replacement for the Android Gallery app. Really fast and easy to select multiple photos for sharing with sites like Facebook.

Rainwatch - Map of the UK showing real-time rainfall and forecasted movement of rain clouds for the next 48 hours

*ReadItLater - The best offline webpage reader I have found. Click on a link and share with ReadItLater, which then downloads the page for offline viewing another time. Synchronises with your online account so you can read these articles on any device with a ReadItLater app, or from the ReadItLater website

Record It - View TV listings and set your Sky+ box to record programs when you're away from home. Easier to use than the official Sky+ app.

Ringdroid - Create your own ringtones by editing any piece of music or song

Shazam - Identifies (almost) any song with name & artist by recording 10 seconds of it & searching Shazam's massive archive of music

*SplashID - The best password database I have found. Records all your account numbers, userids and passwords so you don't have to worry about remembering them, and is itself protected by a secure password to prevent thieves from accessing the app. Easy wireless backup onto your desktop computer with the accompanying Windows software, so you don't lose all your passwords if your phone gets stolen

Stocks - Simple but easy-to-use stock price viewer

StopWatch & Timer - For those occasions when you need to time something or have a countdown clock

Sunrise Sunset - Find out what time you need to be at the beachside bar to watch the sun go down on holiday. Useful for photographers who want to know the best time to photograph a landscape

Time Machine - Set up the city locations of all your friends or work colleagues and this app will tell you what time it is in those cities

Translate - Google's fantastic Translate app. Enter using the keyboard or voice recorder and it will translate into most popular languages.

*TweetCaster Pro - The best Twitter app I have found

WebSharing - Easy to use app that connects your phone to your home computer through your wireless network, allowing you to transfer files between your phone & computer. Great for downloading photos taken on your phone

*YouTube - Official app providing native viewing experience on your phone

Helping my personal trainer promote his business

2011-07-20T15:30:00.000+01:00

I happened to mention to my personal trainer that I was a keen photographer. He is setting up a new website to promote his services and build up his client portfolio, so I offered to take some portrait shots for him to use. A gym environment isn't the ideal studio to use so we waited until the gym had closed on a Sunday afternoon to provide a little more flexibility. I also had to ensure there was no-one else accidentally caught in the background.

It was the first time I had photographed someone doing a job, and we discovered it was actually really hard to create the ideal facial expression whilst working out. Grimacing too hard looked aggressive, but smiling made it look too posed. In the end the best shots were inevitably those where he was just relaxed, like the one above.

Derella family portraits

2011-06-12T18:02:00.002+01:00

I was pleased to be asked to take some family portraits for a work colleague of mine with his young son. Unfortunately rather inclement weather in New York the day of the shoot meant we were stuck indoors in their city apartment. Fortunately the master bedroom had buckets of natural light through a large window and its white walls & white linen provided a perfect studio environment for a portrait shoot.

I used my fantastic 50mm f1.8 lens on my Nikon D3 to maximise depth of field options and minimise the ISO I would need to use to compensate for the indoor light levels. I did use my flash but with a diffuser attached and directed towards the ceiling to give a boost to the ambient light levels and nice catch lights in their eyes, but without creating the harsh shadows that direct flash can generate.

Fortunately everyone was a perfect model, including young Dillon, as you can see from my favourite shot from the shoot above.

New corporate photos for Avinash Kaushik

2011-06-06T19:54:00.000+01:00

I first met Avinash at Monaco Media Forum in 2008 when he was one of Google's speakers at this high profile media conference, sharing his views on website analytics and why he believed marketers were measuring the wrong things when looking at online advertising impact. He was one of the most inspirational speakers at the event that year and was besieged by potential clients after his short speech.

We kept in touch and when Avinash came across my photography website he asked if I could take some fresh portrait photographs of him next time I was visiting Google's Mountain View head office. In June I was in Mountain View for a few days to host a client event and I had brought my Nikon D3 camera with me, so we headed off for a walk around the Google campus to find some suitable locations to take photographs. The photo above is my favourite, although Avinash ended up using another one with a simpler background for his Twitter and other online profiles.

Maurice Levy in 3D

2011-05-16T21:23:00.000+01:00

As one of the official photographers at Google's Zeitgeist event this year I was fortunate to be able to capture many prominent politicians, presenters and business leaders. This is one of my favourites - Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis Groupe, with his son Alain Levy watching a demonstration of 3D video on YouTube.

Photographing Google's annual sales conference

2010-11-03T08:32:00.000Z

Bob Geldorf at the Google EMEA Sales Conference 2010

I was excited to be asked to be the official photographer at Google's 2010 EMEA Sales Conference in Dublin in October. I had taken some great shots at the 2009 event which had been circulated widely around the company & I guess the event organisers saw an opportunity to make a few savings from not having to hiran external photographer.

Low light is always the biggest issue to tackle when photographing events like these but fortunately my Nikon D3 with f2.8 lenses have proved superb in 2009 and this year their low light capabilities meant I could get some decent shutter speeds whilst shooting at ISO 2000 and not having to worry about excess noise when I process the resulting shots. I used my wonderful Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens for the bulk of shots within the conference auditorium then swapped to my 28-70mm f2.8 for the breakout sessions and evening party, where I was able to get closer to the stages without interrupting the audience's view.

The surprise speaker this year was Sir Bob Gelforf who was presented his own Google Doodle as a thank you & very unique birthday present.

Zenfolio: Excellent platform for professional photo websites

2010-07-25T17:17:00.003+01:00

For amateur and professional photographers looking to have a more substantial online presence than a simple Picasa or Flikr account, the easiest and most efficient option is to use a third party website platform. There are a wide number of these advertised, including Photoshelter, Clikpic, Photobucket, Foliosnap and BigBlackBag. But having recently redeveloped my own photo website (www.simonbirkenhead.com), I have discovered a wide variety in the functionality, cost and ease of use.

I initially began building my new site using Photoshelter, as it had been recommended by Will Burrard-Lucas, a professional photographer I respect. However I quickly became frustrated by the lack of customisation features and the Lightroom plugin didn't offer full integration with Lightroom's Publish feature.

Instead I trialled ZENFOLIO, which I have found to be excellent and which now powers my own photo website at www.simonbirkenhead.com.

Great Zenfolio features I have been really impressed by:

Good range of layout templates and impressive customisation features
Automatic resizing of images and slideshows based on the viewer's screen resolution. This also means site owners can export full-sized images into Zenfolio and the software will automatically downsize.
Custom disable of right-click save, providing security over illegal downloading
Fully integrated e-commerce, allowing viewers to order either prints or licences directly from your website, with custom pricing set by the owner. And because Zenfolio stores full-sized versions of all your images, there's no need for the site owner to be involved in the printing process.
Automatic watermarking that you can instantly switch on/off by gallery or individual print
Lightroom plugin that is fully compatible with Lightroom's Publish feature, allowing easy export directly into Zenfolio
Automatic import of metadata from each photo's file, avoiding the need to create individual titles and descriptions (a big negative against Clikpic).
Ability to add individual photos to multiple image collections, so you don't have to upload the same image several times and any changes made to the photo (e.g. viewer comments or changed metadata) are reflected across all the collections it appears in
Easy sharing of individual photos or entire galleries using Facebook, Twitter or direct URLs
Custom security settings for each photo or gallery, allowing you to make it fully public, accessible only with a passport, or accessible only by specific users you invite. Perfect for private photoshoots such as weddings or portrait sessions.
Unlimited storage allowance allowing site owners to upload full resolution images without having to worry about hitting storage limits
Full integration with Google Analytics allowing transparency into visitor interest
Integration with custom domains, allowing URLs such as my own simonbirkenhead.com to point to Zenfolio's pages without any Zenfolio branding.
Ability to download any files back to your computer - since site owners can upload full resolution versions of all their photos, this effectively turns Zenfolio into an online backup for all your best photos
Website guestbook and ability for viewers to submit comments for any photos - a great way to receive feedback on your photos from your friends and followers
Great price - just $100 per year for the premium account. A single image sold from my site for $600 paid for the site 6 times over!