Demystifying Online Storage Options

If you have quality photos and content, which I hope you do, you’ll need a place to store them so you can easily send them via email to event coordinators, journalists, and anyone else who needs them to promote your work.

Even if you don’t have this type of content, you’d still be wise to have an online storage space for important items in case something goes wrong, and you lose everything on your computer.  Sure, you can have a disc backup, which is always a good idea, but the best laid plan is to prepare for the worst. If there was a fire in your house say goodbye to your computer and that disc backup.

Having files that you use for your business somewhere off site is smart.

But there’s so many options out there, which site should you pony up the money for?

I can’t give you that advice, we’re all different and what may be right for some may not be right for others, but I can give you a rundown on three popular storage options out there – WeTransfer, Dropbox, and Google Drive – so you can start thinking about which one is a fit for you.

WeTransfer – This site is easy to use and trusted. I find it very easy to upload and send files and I like the simple interface. You can get away with the free version for a while but once you start loading video in there it can add up quick, so you’ll probably have to splurge for the year plan which is relatively inexpensive – you get 1 TB of storage and can send and receive 200TB for $120 a year. If you need more than that they have a larger plan at $19 a year. The nice thing about WeTransfer is you do not have to register for an account and neither does the person receiving the item if the files are 2GB or less.

Dropbox – This platform has a nice layout with the ability to organize things in folders to mimic how your desktop may look.  Dropbox allows you to look at files right on the platform vs. WeTransfer which you would have to download. Sharing is a little more complicated than WeTransfer because you don’t just send a link direct from the site, you have to actually go into the folder, click on it to Share, then send a link or invite causing the person to join the site. Dropbox comes in at $9.99 a month for 2TB a month and the free version allows for 25 GB – not much.

Google Drive – You’ll be familiar with Google Drive if you have a Gmail account as it automatically gives you 15GB of space – which goes fast! Anything you send as an attachment will be automatically saved there and you may want to go in and clean things out periodically, so you have more space if you’re only going with the free version. In order to share something, you can either attach it directly to the email or upload it in Google Drive and share from there. Once you get into the paid version there’s a host of other things you can do as well. I personally find it overwhelming but a lot of people love it and if you use Gmail a lot it’s integrated nicely. The price for storage can be found here.

There’s loads of other online storage options out there, so you may want to check those out as well, but these will get you pointed in the right direction.

Photo credit: iStock.com/sematadesign

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Alyssa Collins hails from Minnesota, where snowy days were the perfect excuse to stay warm inside and write. Over the years, she turned that joy into a career and has authored numerous articles for various publications (under pen names). Email Alyssa via alyssa@ynot.com.