Those who know me also know I’m no fan of giant greedy multinational corporations. I abandoned
Mailchimp, for instance, when their free plan became unusable, with zero customer support, and obliterated features. Unfortunately, there are not many alternatives in the Email marketing platform industry at the moment that come even close to Mailchimp’s basic first tier plan. But we’ll save that for another post.

As a website designer with many clients who are artists, I often need to receive numerous images and videos, too many and too large and numerous to be emailed. So, transferring via the Cloud becomes the best option, and there is a clear winner in this department, which just happens to be one of those mega-corporations I mentioned. Can you guess which one?
Dropbox (It’s not this one, by the way. It’s much more obvious.)
I don’t like to use the word, “game-changer,” (Ugh!). But that’s what Dropbox was when it first came out. Nothing (almost nothing) has come close to the kind of Cloud sharing features they created in 2008, and still maintain. Their integration with financial applications and password protection apps is something I still use. But I’m a tight budget kind of guy. My storage capacity with them on the basic free plan is a little over 12GB, 10GB of which I earned through their promotions by sharing the app with friends way back when. So 2 gigs is all that comes free.
To upgrade with them to the next level of 2TB (or 2000GB) would cost me about $120 a year, not really much in today’s market, but $120 too much for me; especially when there’s a less expensive or free option. I still use Dropbox for file transfers of those said apps, and a few files I want to access directly from my phone or computer when not at home on my desktop. But I’m not ready to make the jump.
While I prefer to support companies like Dropbox over this next one (the winner!), it’s hard to resist that with…. dat da da da!… Google Drive I’ve spent zero dollars and received easy document to Cloud capabilities with minor difficulties.
Google Drive (Ugh!)
Drive, which came online in 2012 as an answer to a growing demand for cloud sharing, makes the collaborative editing process easy. I share with a client a folder labeled something like “Esmerelda’s Lovely Art” (artists like to be complimented, don’t we all!). Then, with artists anyway, while they usually have access to their own Google Drive, I have to explain the process to them — just drag and drop the images or videos into the folder, and next time I open the folder I created, there they are! You can purchase more storage, but you automatically have 15GB without spending a penny.

Artists and other creators really don’t like to deal with technology, which means they have more time to bring beauty to our world. Great for us! They also tend to not have a lot of money, which is why I’m waxing about a mega corporate enterprise, which unfortunately, or fortunately, has cornered the market.
What Works for You?
If any of you if you have found something better to share media files, maybe more user friendly, and/or cost effective, I’d love to hear about it. So drop me a line here. CONTACT
Part 2 is coming soon. Stay tuned!
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