Here's your ninth issue of The Photo Sharing Tips e-letter. In this issue, we discuss some nasty and often forgotten pitfalls of the photo sharing industry. I have attached some articles to illustrate my points.

Photo Sharing Tip #9 – What you DO NOT want to happen

• This story made the newspapers nationally when it broke – many users outraged when their prints were deleted from a very BIG photo sharing site. Read this tragic story from SFgate to learn more and to educate yourself:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/02/BUG7QB3U0S1.DTL

• I saw this post the other day talking about one of my favorite photo sharing services.  As I mentioned in my detailed review, make sure you understand the service you are signing up for! I know why this user is upset, because Snapfish charges $2.50 to download 50 HIGH RESOLUTION digital photographs. If you have a collection of 2000 pictures (and that’s hardly any), that’s already $100 just to get YOUR own pictures back…if they are even at full resolution…

http://getsatisfaction.com/snapfish/topics/downloading_snapfish_photos

Readers, I know if you are like me, my digital pictures are one of my post precious assets. I would gladly give up my flat screen TV, my couch, even my camera or my car just to save those images, which are totally irreplaceable. But does that mean your should never use one of the “free” photo sharing sites? No, of course not. Just understand what you are getting into, and what they offer, before you RELY on them for something they don’t offer. That’s why I always use Smugmug AND one of the free sites at the same time (whoever has the best deals). Give Smugmug a shot with a free trial today and see what it can give you:

Try Smugmug Now for Free