Check this out! Has anyone seen the finished product?

-TM

the books are just like My publisher. I have used them before they are decent, but won't take the place of professional grade flush mount albums.

i agree
we actually give all these addresses to our clients so they can do their little gift albums themselves
they won't replace leathercraftsmen or queensbury

Here's another thing to keep on your radar screens...

http://www.goodeye-photoshare.com/index.html

They collect digital images from all the guests who have digicams at an event.

(sigh)

I wonder what happens when they start selling pro-quality books. Do you suppose that once the bride has to pay $500 for a pro-grade book, they would be too nervous to not have their photographer design the book?

-TM

That depends on what your selling.

Are you selling a wedding album? Or are you selling a one of a kind, hand made, custom designed, piece of art that you can't "buy online." You have to know what your selling and more importantly your clients have to know what they are buying.

Hi Chris,

That's a great point, but product positioning can only go so far if the client knows there's a tool that will allow him to produce a similar product. At the end of the day, it's selecting and positioning the images on a page, right?

For me this is academic, as we don't sell images on DVD, but it is an interesting development nonetheless.

-TM

Then provide a more expensive alternative that they can't get a similar product online.

We do Queensberry (matted) and LaVie and I don't think anyone online is going to come out with anything similar to the quality of those albums anytime soon.

And if they do......

Then, come up with something else to sell that people can't get online. Or sell your DVDs at a high enough cost that you make up the lost profits from the albums.

Hi Chris,

Yes, exactly, it's all about staying one step (or two!) ahead of Lulu.

LaView looks really interesting. They hand mount individual photographs, right? I love how some of their pages fold out.

-TM

clients should know already know that the product you design for them is miles above those auto template websites. however if they don't , well the way i look at it is I already made enough off of the photo shoot itself. we actually kinda dig when once in a while we have a couple who doesnt order an album in their package. I spend less time and made enough $. of course then i don't have that nice portfolio on their coffee table...

Well, one step ahead of Lulu isn't a very big step at all.

Except people are outsourcing them. I wouldn't outsource anything that is an opportunity to add value and creativity to what I provide the client.

zaktly