While it is important to have an online presence, most small businesses still do the majority of selling in a face-to-face environment. What do businesses do to market themselves successfully when talking face-to-face? Sadly, most rely on business cards or tri-fold brochures. Nothing communicates like the power of pictures and storytelling. Think beyond the tri-fold or 11×17 half fold brochures and open up the possibilities of what can be done with 20-100 pages of beautiful full-color photos and personal text all bound in a hard leather cover. It’s time to tell your story. It’s time to communicate. It’s time for a Business Showcase Book.

Marketing is more than just telling people what you do. It’s about your brand, facts, emotions, timing, exposure, communicating, networking, and on and on. Marketing reaches beyond potential customers. It permeates current clients, past clients, employees, competitors, vendors, shareholders and your community.

This list has over 50 powerful ways to market your business. We are sure that you will find many of these ideas fresh and innovative. Although you can incorporate a number of these strategies in various medium, all of our suggestions can be accomplished through the eyeRemember.com line-up of Business Showcase Books.    

 

1-    Communicate your Differentiation: Customer Service: The most common reason small businesses list as “why they are special” is their “great” customer service. Everyone says it and it usually means nothing to prospective customers because they don’t know what it means. Communicate what “great” means with lots of photos. Introduce your people and have them talk to your audience by saying hello or giving a personal service commitment. You can also explain your processes in detail if that is the key to your “great” service.

 

2-    Powerful Testimonials: People are often skeptical of tiny, text-only testimonials squished into a tri-fold brochure. If you want powerful testimonials, add some full-page photos of your best clients. Dedicating a whole page makes the testimonial more believable and trustworthy.

 

3-    Take to Networking Meetings: When you stand to give your 30 second business introduction, use your showcase book to help communicate your business. The large pages grab peoples’ attention. Also, most networking groups have you pass out business cards around a table setting. Pass your showcase book around and everyone will take time to peruse through the pages and get to know you.

 

4-    Communicate your Differentiation: Price: There are some very good reasons why price is an advantage (i.e. built in US and still competitive, purchase in bulk, no middleman, etc.). Show “why” in a series of explaining photos.

 

5-    Explain Complicated Processes: Even the most complicated process can be explained if given ample room and flexibility to do it.

 

6-    Communicate your Differentiation: Speed/Turnaround: Don’t just say you have fast turnaround. Communicate it with photos laying out your step-by-step efficient processes.

 

7-     Impress a Client: An unexpected Client Project Book (book highlighting a start-finish process, such as, installation of an in-ground swimming pool) will knock their socks off.

 

8-    Promote that you Care: People often times need that one extra reason to choose you over someone else. Let prospects know that you care about the community, environment, crime, etc.

 

9-    Communicate your Differentiation: Quality: Use large, up close photos of your products versus the competition, so people can actually see your quality.

 

10- Develop Premier Product Placement Branding: Get your company brand into client gift books. For example, a construction company can make a start-finish project gift book for a house they built. The gift book has their company name throughout the book and is promoted each time their client shows an associate, a friend, or family.

  

11- Personalize Your Company: Offices or stores that are part of a national chain can lose their personality or individuality. Bring the faces, décor and personality of your location into play so you become more real.

 

12- Display in Lobbies: Not only is it a good idea to have a copy of your Business Showcase Book in your lobby, they can be placed in the lobbies of your friends and business associates as well. Since showcase books are usually hard cover bound and very professional in appearance they are more presentable in a lobby than a tri-fold brochure. One of our clients places their leather bound books in hospital waiting rooms.

 

13- Create an Ancillary Revenue Stream: Incorporate our products with your clientele. For example, resorts and travel agencies can sell vacation books to generate an extra revenue stream. (added bonus: resorts obtain premier product placement branding by having their resort as part of the vacation book)

 

14- Educate your Prospects & Customers: Use photos and text to explain in detail, important aspects of your business.

 

15- Give Extra Copies to Associates: Referrals are a key source of getting new business. Most business owners have difficulty giving a 30 second elevator speech. How easy do you think it is for friends and business associates to give one for your business? Help them tell others who you are and what you do by giving them a copy of one of your Business Showcase Books.

 

16- Educate Employees: It is simple to create a training manual with our services. The manual can be changed or updated easily and it is possible to print one copy if that is all that is needed.

 

17- Develop Niche Specialty Books: Create a number of books each showcasing a specific niche. That way when you present to a specific prospect your presentation is laser focused and you don’t look like you try to be everything to everyone.

 

18- Develop Co-op Opportunities: If you do joint projects with another company, team up in a book to show how that relationship is advantages to your prospect.

 

19- Communicate Awareness: This use is especially true for non-profits that need to spread awareness to the community.

 

20- Develop Referrals: Client referrals can skyrocket when you give your customer a Client Project Book (CPB). For example: a remodeling company gives their client a CPB showing the start-finish process of the remodel job. Every time the client shows the book to someone, your company will automatically be endorsed.

 

21- Display your Integrity: Most tri-fold brochures list “integrity” or “honesty” as one the bullet points. Make some room to communicate what you mean by integrity.

 

22- Show your Community Involvement: There is a reason some companies are more community involved than others and it usually has something to do with their values. Let people know that you are actively involved.

 

23- Display Client Appreciation: Put together a book for those longtime clients and let them know you appreciate their loyalty. A book covering a period of time will bring back lots of memories and cause some powerful emotions.

 

24- Give Recognition to Key employees: What do you do with a 10 or 20 year veteran? Give them a watch? How about recognizing them with a memory book?

 

25- Highlight your Companies’ Personality: to Prospects & Clients: Don’t just say you are cutting edge, friendly, conservative, etc. Make it happen in a book.

 

26- Highlight your Companies’ Personality: Prospects & Clients: to Employees: It’s important to develop your company culture. Creating a showcase book for employee training is a great place to portray your companies’ personality.

 

27- Localize your Business: Many brochures are too broad or focus only on features. Incorporate your local surroundings into your book brochure.

 

28- Nationalize your Business: If you need to communicate a national or international presence, use maps, graphs or photos outside your immediate area.

 

29- Communicate your Capabilities: Most brochures do this in a paragraph or two. Try spending 10-20 pages with photos.

 

30- Display Examples: Sometimes it is not possible to carry around sample products or examples of jobs completed. Incorporate photos of the samples into your book.

 

31- Brag: If you are the best in your field, are recognized by your trade association as an expert, or have won some awards….tell people.

 

32- Improve Employee Training Retention: Ever have training sessions were everyone is excited and on board, only to have the program forgotten three weeks down the road? Capture the training in photos and hand out the books to everyone. Now you’ll have a tool that promotes recall. In addition, it’s a great way to keep everyone accountable.

 

33- Promote a Fun Business Environment: If all a business does is work, work, work; employees tend to have less loyalty and buy-in. You don’t have to have a party or gathering every week to give the perception of fun. If you create a party book now and then it will go a long way in letting people know that your company lets loose sometimes. Conventions are a good place to fashion this type of book too.  

 

34- Build a Library: Always make an extra copy or two. These books will come in handy for all sorts of uses.

 

35- Family Environment: If you have a family business, or a “family” type environment, show some photos to depict it.

 

36- Stable Ownership: Be sure to let people know if your business has stable ownership over the years.

 

37-  Use for a Direct Mail Campaign: If you want to get opened and read, send out a special mail campaign of four-color, hard cover showcase books. The direct mail industry reports that response rates for dimensional mail (three dimensional products larger or thicker than a letter size piece) are many times greater than regular letters or postcards.

 

38- Add Trivia: Add interesting trivia about your company.

 

39- Present your Expertise: Describe important patents, research, or innovations your organization has developed as well as the bios of your key employees.

 

40- Place books on your website: Convert your books (such as, client project books, picnics, parties, conventions) to video or flash and post them on your website.

 

41- Convert book to PowerPoint: Convert your showcase book to a PowerPoint presentation as an additional presentation resource.

 

42- Develop Relationships: Giving Client Project Books helps build your customer relationships.

 

43- Use in Sales Presentations: Arm yourself in your face-to-face sales presentations with a multi-page full-color hard bound showcase book. Wow! Much more empowering than a 11×17 half fold brochure.

 

44- Personalize Your Supplier Collaterals: Some businesses are supplied color product brochures from their suppliers that often place the companies’ name on the back page. Take some of your suppliers’ photos and incorporate them into your showcase book as well.  

 

45- Take to Chamber of Commerce Meetings: Ever try to introduce yourself to a stranger? It’s difficult to know how to break the ice and start a dialog. An engaging showcase book helps reduce the stress tremendously.

 

46- Take to Trade Shows: Besides being a great information resource, if you are busy, curious attendees will have something to engage in.

 

47- Use with Cold Calling: Be professional when going to a new business to introduce your company. Relying solely on a script is a formula for poor communication. A showcase book will help you focus on what you want to say and help your prospect understand what you are talking about.

 

48- Make a Book of a Convention: This is a fantastic opportunity to capture the convention, which includes: seeing longtime clients, friends and associates; sightseeing; hospitality parties; keynote speakers; going out for dinners and more. A small investment in a convention book goes a long way in motivating your employees.

 

49- Remember the Company Picnic: Company picnics can take a lot effort and expense. Don’t let people forget about it - put it into a Business Event Book. Your employees will love to go through it and reminisce. It is a small price to pay for the goodwill you’ll foster.

 

50- Do a Year-in-Review: Time flies by and people lose track of what gets accomplished within a year. Chronicling the year’s accomplishments and highlights gives employees perspective and a sense of achievement.

 

51- Highlight a Holiday Party: Everything is not about work. Remember the fun times.

 

52- Give a Project Book to a Client: Do you give your key clients a gift basket? Record the start-finish of a project, such as, construction of a building, a remodel, or installation of a swimming pool and give the book to your client. It shows appreciation, pride in your work, builds relationship and acts as a natural referral generator. Make an extra copy and it makes a great sales tool.

 

53- Use in Seminars or Speaking Engagements: Make books related to your topic and pass them out to attendees.

 

54- Give to Top Performers: Want a fabulous way to have your top producers earn their trip incentives every year - especially if they are married or have a family? Create a Key Employee Gift Book (KEG). Get some of their photos from their trip and make a vacation memory book as a free gift. They’ll be working towards next year’s vacation all year long. As an added bonus; when other people in the office see the book, they’ll be inspired to exceed the required goals as well. 

 

55- Record a Company retreat: Company retreats can be a wonderful experience. Capture the meaningful goals for the upcoming year, the good times together and there usually involves some sightseeing.

 

56- Record History of Company: Our Business History Books are perfect for companies with a legacy to pass along. People love winners who have persevered through time.

 

  

For more information regarding the eyeRemember.com Business Showcase Books, go to www.eyeRemember.com and click on the Business Products tab; call us at 877-685-0124,  or, email us at info@eyeRemember.com.

 

The construction industry has a terrific opportunity to both give to their clients and receive back from them, in the form of Construction Project Books. CPB’s are beautiful full-color, hard cover, coffee-table style photo books depicting the entire process of a construction project and then given as a gift to the client. Whether it is a renovation, a new building or a huge multi-tenant complex, a Construction Project Book is a great idea.

There are a number of benefits for a construction company to create a CPB. First, it is a fantastic, low-cost way to show your appreciation to a customer. Second, it gives you the ability to capture your client’s attention and for them to remember your involvement for years to come. Third, your clients will want to show others, and because your company is highlighted throughout the book it becomes a premium referral device. Fourth, by printing extra copies, your sales team will have an excellent selling tool. Fifth, it seperates you from the competition and shows your professionalism.

Construction Project Books are usually of 30-60 pages, depending on the size of a project. The design and creation can be done using either in-house staff, or a full-service specialist, such as, eyeRemember.com. The most important task for the construction company is to take the photos of the project from start to finish. Besides photos, a good project album includes a thank you letter from the President, some type of company page, and a narration to support the project photos. If you want to go the extra mile and the project warrants it, books can include comments from government officials, photos of the land before the project began, a history write-up of the project, surrounding area photos, and pages that address what the project will mean for the community.

The growth of the digital photo industry in recent years has allowed this new opportunity to arise. In the past, creating and printing one or two full-color, hard cover books had been prohibitive. With state-of-the-art digital presses, book binding equipment and design software, do-it-yourself books can be produced for around $30.00-$70.00.   

A CPB takes some effort. If a company plans to do it themselves, budget 5-8 hours for designing and writing a basic project book. In addition, add some time to learn photo book software. Outsourcing to a specialist, such as, eyeRemember.com will start at $349.00.  However, once you see the reaction of your client receiving one, and you’re your sales team will be able to implement them, they will surely become an important marketing tool that will be utilized over and over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How does a company effectively communicate it’s past, it’s culture, it’s roots? There are great companies out there that people don’t know about. These unaware people include the very employees of the organization and individuals in the community. Knowing the history of an organization can do wonders for morale, pride and community consciousness. Educating personnel and the public on the trials, tribulations and triumphs of the past is powerful.

Via the compilation of facts, photos and recollections from key individuals, history books are the ideal way to pass along the essence of an organization. Depending on the age of a company and number of photos available, these books can range between 60-400 pages.   

There are a few prominent traits, such as, time, perseverance and community that make an organization worthy to tell their story and put it into print. Businesses that stand the test of time are ready to pass their story along. Imagine an employee working for an 80 year old organization and knows only an inkling about the founders; the culture; the details, of the company. It seems to me these employees are not getting the fullness of who or what that institution is all about. Is there a magic anniversary? It’s hard to say, however, if your company is over 10 years old, it’s time to consider a history book. If your organization has reached the 25 year mark - what are you waiting for?

If your business is between 10–25 years, look at a few other factors. For example, community. An organization that consistently gives back richly to its community will create a beautiful story in a relatively short amount of time. Being a vital component to the strength of a community is rare, and should be passed on through the ages.

Another factor that helps determine when a company is ready to tell their story is whether or not they persevered through great trials. People love to hear about companies that persevere. They are winners and people adore winners.

In addition, incredible growth makes for good storytelling. Again, people are attracted to champions. Spectacular growth usually means there are numerous locations and/or subsidiaries. Compiling a comprehensive history is a perfect means of effectively banding an entire institution.

For companies that have longevity, perseverance, huge growth or ties to the community, I believe they have a certain responsibility to tell their story. If they don’t, how will people know. How do current employees know where they came from - their roots? How do new and young people in a community know an organization’s heart for giving? How does an organization pay respect for all the dedicated employees that helped forge their existence? How does an organization inform potential clients that they are different than the competition?

Let’s not forget the possibilities of obtaining free press coverage. Local, regional and national news organizations are constantly looking for interesting stories for their audience. Having a business history book prepared is a proactive step to free exposure because it makes it easy for someone to write a story about you.

Besides being a fantastic communication vehicle, and a proactive means to attaining free press, creating a beautiful full-color heirloom is simply a classy way for an organization to pass along its legacy.

It looks like I’m going to be hosting a video seminar with Eero Johnson (Video One) and Jim Carney (Gateway Centre) for Biznik. Biznik is a social business organization (over 20,000 members nationally) that merges onlineÿsocial with getting face-to-face with other business people. I love Biznik.

Now I’m not an expert on video, but I’ve noticed that I do utilize its value on my website and YouTube. I’ve had Eero produce an amazing video for my website, but I’ve also done a number of in-house “no cost” screenshot videos as well. Videos are a hot topic right now and since so many small business people don’t know much about videos, I thought it would be a good idea to put a seminar together. It has nothing to do with my business (eyeRemember.com); it’s just something positive to do for our Biznik community. And that is what Biznik is all about.

Eero, Jim and I are now pretty jazzed about this seminar. We are planning on covering information for beginners to doing full-blown video production. Eero is the expert with years of experience. I’m going to show people how to use Jing. Jing is free online software thatÿenables you to capture screenshots and do quick and easy video. It’s pretty cool to be able to get on your computer and in about 3 minutes be posting a video on YouTube or your website at NO COST. ÿ

For anyone interested, the event is planned for Wednesday June 10th, from 5:30-7:00 at the Gateway Centre in Bellingham. For more information, log onto Biznik.com and go to Events in Bellingham. Or when you are on the Biznik site, click onto Dennis Zetting -then the events tab.

Cropping is one of the most powerful tools an amateur photographer can utilize to create great photos. When I look at photo books by Do-It-Yourselfer’s, I often see photos that have so much potential, but they were just loaded onto the page “as is.” Cropping allows you to maximize the potential of your photos and take an okay shot and transform it into a great shot.

With today’s high resolution cameras (8-12 mega pixels) I suggest that you take wider lens shots and capture more of the surroundings. This allows you to then take your photos and crop around them to give you many more options of the look and feel you’d like to present in your photo albums. Remember, if you take a close up photo of your subject, you cannot do much with it after that.ÿYou may lose the opportunity to have something in the photo to ground it, give it contrast, or give it intensity.

One of the golden rules in great photography is the Rule of Thirds.ÿThis is where you divide your photo into 9 equal parts (imagine drawing lines creating 9 squares) and then focusing your subject(s) on intersecting lines. The rule of thirds creates tension, power, intensity and interest — four aspects of a great photo.ÿ Taking a wider angle photo allows you the flexibility to hone in and try different layouts of the Rule of Thirds. You can try your primary subject matter in the lower right hand intersection, the lower left hand intersection, the upper right hand or upper left hand, etc. Now you have given yourself at least four excellent options.

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ÿIn addition to the Rule of Thirds, cropping is useful for eliminating background noise which consists of people or objects that distract the viewer or pull the viewer’s eye away from the intended subject. If you are dealing with a photo that is very busy with lots of people, you will probably have to decide between the Rule of Thirdsÿandÿreducing the background noise. You may not have the luxury of being able to accomplish both. Cropping gives you the ability to decide between the twoÿconcepts.

Cropping can be a quick and easy solution to reducing the file size of a photo. Sometimes when loading a photo onto a social site (i.e. Twitter) we are limited to the size of the file allowed to be loaded. By using the cropping feature, often times, I can easily reduce a photo from 2ÿMB down to 700ÿKB and upload the photo in seconds.ÿÿÿ

The nice thing about the cropping feature in software applications is it is easy to use. Once you give the croppingÿfeature a try I am sure that you will use it extensively. It will open up a whole new world of creativity for you to produce outstanding photo books, photo cards, or whatever you are doing with your photos.

Photography is art. Just remember that there is a lot you can do with your photos once you load them into your software. Utilizing the cropping feature allows you to have more fun taking photos and relieves a lot of stress about having to take a perfect photo every shot.

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There is nothing quite like seeing the face of your wife light up on Mother’s Day because you have put the time and thought into getting the perfect gift.ÿThis year, I surprised my wife with a beautiful custom calendar filled with photos of us together, ofÿour two awesome children, of our two dogs, of the gorgeous scenery of the Pacific Northwest that we live in, of family and of friends.

Not only that, but I added all the specialÿbirthdaysÿof family and friends to each specific day in the year. Now all she has to do is glance at the month and there are all the birthdays and anniversariesÿcoming up. In addition,ÿI didn’t want my wife to have to wait until January to use the calendar, so I made it a point to start the calendar in the month of June.

Now she has a wonderful gift of love that she has taken intoÿher work. I have to say that I’ve become a pretty special guy to the women at my wife’sÿwork for getting such aÿthoughtful gift. Hey guys, these photo books and calendars make great gifts. It’s kind of funny, since I make my living creating precious photo products for people, that I’ve never done a calendar for my wife. Yet, when she opened it, it was as if it was made especially for her.

While I did my wife’s calendar, Iÿmade some photo adjustments and also did a calendar for my mother. She had to call me back three times to tell me how wonderful it was and that she absolutely loved it.ÿFlowers may be easy and quick, but if you want something fairly simple to do and is over-the-top, consider making a photo book or calendar. All in all, the calendar took around 1 hour, however, if it is your first time, I recommend you plan on spending closer to two.

Mother’sÿDay has come and gone, but birthdays and anniversaries always seem to be just around the corner.ÿHere’s to spreading happiness and love. Have a great day.

The past couple of weeks I’ve been discovering how calendars canÿbecomeÿan extremelyÿpowerful relationship toolÿfor businesses.

Gone are the days whenÿcompanies have to use calendars with someone else’s photos, with limited exposure of their business name, and nothing specialÿdone withÿthe dates. With the abilities of print-on-demand software that is on the market today, a company can print a personal photo of every client into their calendars. Not only that, a company can incorporate photos that highlight aspects of their own business or surrounding area. All you need is a digital camera. Forget limiting your business to a 4-line print space; in today’s world you can print as big and as much as you want.

What about the dates? Go ahead and list all the special dates you want. If you are a manufacturer, you may list anticipated new product launches orÿindustry trade shows. If you are a resort, you may list reminders to re-book for next year, list important yearly events in your area, or suggestions on other locations. If you are a non-profit you can list fundraising events andÿmeetings.ÿÿ

Why wait until January? Start any month.ÿSome online calendar services allow you to start your calendar on any month you choose. This can be an important benefit for some companies, since it enables you to be in contact with you audience ASAP.

Let’sÿsay you ran a golf tournament and you wanted to thank everyone for their participation. Now you can make a calendarÿfor each individual, with their personal photos, with a personal thank you from the President of the organization, with photos from the golf course you played, with corporate sponsors printed throughout the calendar, with all theÿBig golf tournaments (i.e. Masters, US Open, etc.) added, and with all the upcoming association fundraisers added so the donors will be able to see throughout the entire year. And, if the tournament is in July, you can have the calendarÿstart in Augustÿso you can get themÿout while they are still fresh. Click on the link for a video sample of a golf tournament calendar. http://www.screencast.com/users/DennisZ/folders/Jing/media/ff88e736-2d22-4fda-84b0-14d38e597846

Shop the online calendar providers since some give more flexibility and features than others.ÿShutterfly, Snapfish and MyPublisher all provide calendar capabilities, however, the software at eyeRemember.comÿhas all the features and flexibility you’ll want or need. In addition, eyeRemember.com has a team of designers that can do everything for a business to get their calendars produced and mailed.ÿÿ

Calendars have been used by companies for many years. It is a powerful way to stay in front of prospects and clients on an ongoing basis. Now, companies have the capability of taking this power to a whole new level. Instead of recipients receiving a promotional item that has a practical use, they now receive a relationship item that also carries sentimental value that can build loyalties and increase repeat business.

Feel free to visit our website and our Biznik site. Thanks for reading.

Digital photo books come in a wide range of sizes and types of covers. Today, I’ll go overÿsome guidelines to choosing what photo album best suits a person’s needs.

Justÿa word of caution from a person who makes these recommendations often;ÿit is better to err on the larger size. In other words, if you are not sureÿbetween two sizes, choose the larger. If you are debating between a 9″x9″ photo book and a 10″x10″ album, go with the 10″x10″.ÿÿÿMy experience is that people choosing the smaller size, often wish they would have opted for the larger size. It comes down to the feel of the photo book in your hands and the size perspective of the photos. The smaller photo book in many cases will not meet your expectations.

Baby photo books and books for smaller children (i.e. birthdays, sports, etc.) can satisfy at the smaller sizes, such as, 4″x6″ or 7″x7″ with a soft cover. These booksÿtend toÿget carried around a lot to show off to everyone, and the smaller size allows for easy transportability. Also, these types of booksÿoften have little or no text which is a good thing. Having a smaller book with tiny writing is something to avoid.

The mid-range size books (8″x8″, 9″x9″, 10″x10″, 11″x8.5″) are the most popular. When choosing a digital photo book in this class, I would highly recommend ordering the larger 10″x10″ or 11″x8.5″ size book even if it cost a few bucks more. Imagine going to a show on Broadway youÿhave been looking forward to and you are faced with a choice between okay seatsÿor very good seats for an extra $20.00.ÿIf you choose the okay seats to save $20.00, all night long you’ll be thinking to yourself, “look how nice those better seats are… I knew I should haveÿbought the better seats.” But it will be too late and you’ll have to settle for theÿlocation you have.ÿ

The mid-range photo albums work well for vacation books, family reunions, honeymoons, anniversaries, graduations, yearbooks, special events, personal projects (i.e. inspirations, poetry, words of wisdom, etc.), sports, holidays and corporate projects. May be I’m traditionalist, but I usually recommend clients to get hard cover books in the mid-size to large photo books. Hard covers preserve your photo albums better than soft covers and they help make the statement, “this photo book is special.”

The largeÿcoffee table booksÿ(12″x12″ or 12″x15″), are typically recommended for weddings, corporate projects, and booksÿhighlightingÿlandscapes, fauna or wildlife. However, when it comes down to it,ÿany type of photo memories that have an extraÿspecial meaning would look fabulous in the larger sizes.ÿ

If you do opt for the larger size books, you’ll have to have better grade mega pixel shots. I wouldn’t go with anything less than 7 or 8mp. As the photos are enlarged they will lose their crispness and start to get grainy. Be sure that the software you useÿhas a built-in warning mechanism that preventsÿthe photosÿfrom being printed with aÿpoor quality. A good software example can be found atÿthe eyeRemember.com site. If you enlarge a photo beyond a certain quality an automatic warning pops up on your computer to inform you.

There are a number of hard cover options to choose from when purchasing a photo book. The most common choices include, linen, suede, leather and gloss photoÿprint. Take a look at the extra costs for leather. If it costs $5.00 or $7.00 more, it may be worth your while to go leather because theyÿdon’t get scuffed up as easily as linen or suede. Not to mention, they look and feel wonderful.ÿTheÿgloss photo print covers (theÿcoverÿhas a photo printed on it) also wear pretty well, however, not all companies offer them.

The hard linen cover is probably the most common digital photo book cover. They are quite nice, however, of all the choices, they tend to get noticeable dirt marks and scuffs, the easiest. For people who don’t want to pay extra for the leather, I like to recommend the suede. They usually don’t cost any more than linen, but they have a unique feel and hold up toÿhandling fairly well. ÿÿÿÿ

I’ll leave the color choice up to your ownÿpersonal preference.ÿHappy photo book shopping.

I talk to people quite a lot about how to get their photos from their camera onto their computer.ÿIn my opinion, too many photo book projects never get started because of this issue. I am going to cover some very basic steps that will guideÿus through the process. For simplicity,ÿwe’ll stick with PC’sÿfor this blog. If for any reason you run into a snag or your computer is not compatable with these steps, please shoot me an email or give me a call and I will take the time to step you through the process.

First, remove the camera card from your camera. Once you locate the camera card in your camera (it will be hidden behindÿa protective plate), you will probably have to pushÿit in slightly so it will be allowed to pop out. There areÿa number of camera card types, such as, SD, MMC, RS, MS, SmartMedia, and CompactFlash. If you have a basic point and shoot digital camera, you will most likely be using the most popular SDÿmodel camera card. It is approximately 1″x1.25″ in size.

There are two main options to move your photos onto your computer. If you have a newer desktop or laptop computer, it could very easily have camera card ports. Chech the outside area of your computer and see if there are any slots with labels such as, SD, MMC, MS, SmartMedia, etc. If you do, just insert your card into the proper slot.

If your computer does not come with the camera card slots, then you will needÿthe transfer cord that came with your camera. The cord will have a metal end that fits into your camera and a USB fitting at the other end that slips into your computer.

Once you insert the camera card or cord, your computer will recognize that something was inserted into the slot and give you some options. I like to view and pick the photos I am going to transfer to my computer so I choose [one click on left side of mouse] “Open folder to view files — using Windows Explorer.” Now, all your photosÿon the card should be accessible to view and transfer.

If you want to choose a large group of photos in succession: left click your mouse on theÿyour firstÿphoto choice: hold down the “shift” key, then left click on the last photo of the group. All of the photos in the range you selected should get highlighted. If you want to pick and choose intermittent photos: left click your mouse on your first photo choice, continually hold down the “Control or Ctrl” key, and left click on anyÿadditional photo choices.ÿ

Next, you will right click your mouse and choose “Copy to Folder.” (NOTE: Be careful not to choose “Send to — Documents.” ÿas this will send each photo individually and will be more difficult to deal with later.) Left click on “Make New Folder,” and type in a name for your photos. Next, left click on “Copy.”

There you have it. Your photos should be transfered to their new home. Having your photos on your computer allows you to start creating your own beatifulÿdigital photo book keepsake. Have fun.

I have designed some pretty awesome photo albums. Is there a secret to it?

To tell you the truth, a lot has to do with the photo book software that you use. So many digital photo book sites have software that restricts your ability to get creative. For example, many sites offer a set of photo templates where you simply drag and drop your photos into the pre-determined formats. This is well and good if you want simplicity, however, it can really cramp the creative juices.

Don’t be mistaken and think you have a lot of choices when you look at 20, 30, 40 templates. Look a little closer and you’ll see that they seem to be slight variations of each other. To express freedom, look for a site that allows you to choose the number of photos you want on a page, the ability to change their sizes, and to move them around in any order YOU want. Now you have an unlimited number of photo lay-outs. You’ll never want to go back to 20, 30 or 40.

Another thing I find interesting with some online photo book sites is the limited amount of backgrounds they offer. To be creative, it helps to have lots of background choices. And it’s important that you have the ability to choose different backgrounds for each individual page. I am amazed that some companies restrict their users to one overall background choice that covers the entire book.

For my projects, I find that photo albums can cover a number of events. For example, I may do a year-in-review coffee table book that includes a birthday, a new baby celebration, a vacation, Thanksgiving and Christmas day. If I am restricted to one overall background theme, I would probably be limited to plain white in this case. Having a software that allows me to incorporate birthday backgrounds, new birth backgrounds, fall backgrounds, and winter backgrounds helps me to create photo books that meet my client’s needs.

Now let’s talk about text. I like a software that allows me to write whenever, wherever, however, and as much as I want. I don’t like photo book sites that limit my creativity. Some sites only allow text in certain template spaces. Some only allow you a certain number of characters. And some restrict you on pacing your text to the middle, top, bottom, left or right of the page. Photo book software that allows you to move your text box around the page anywhere you want to, on any page you want, at any size you want, is what I recommend if you want to up your game.ÿ Oh, and did I mention that the ability to tilt your text on an angle can look really cool. Not too many sites offer this however.

I think my overall theme is getting across. The more flexibility and options a photo memory book software has to offer is a big key to fashioning a memory masterpiece. Templates may seem nice and simple to use, but they do not do much for creativity.