After a few very annoying situations where clients have taken months to order their albums, I'd decided that I should create an incentive to place their orders in a more efficient manner. What happens is that by the time they order their album, after several months, they've forgotten all the information I initially gave them (number of photos, how to create folder for prints), and their Pictage gallery has expired.

Having to go over instructions more than once and having to re-release client galleries is time-consuming, and it takes away from other aspects of my business that I could be focusing on.

I'm thinking about offering their online proofing gallery for only 30 days (it's currently 90), and in that 30 days clients have to pick their album photos. If they extend beyond that time, I'm thinking of assessing a fee to re-release the gallery. Say $125?

I think this might speed up their ordering process.

Does anyone else have this problem? Do you think charging for this service is reasonable?

I've recently switched mine to 90 days. I used to have a limit of 1 year, which was ridiculous. I think 30 days seems a bit too short, but maybe it will work great! I'd say between 60 and 90 sounds more reasonable, because a lot can happen in the first month of a marriage and people get sidetracked.

The un-archive fee is pretty standard now. I charge 150 if people want their gallery pulled from the archives after it has been closed, or if they want to extend it. This is all in my contract of course. Make sure yours is solid in this respect and have a lawyer review it.

Good luck!

well, i kinda disagree wtih this - first off, getting married is very stressful and all the planning can take up a butt load of time - after the wedding, the couple are trying to get caught up and adjust to their new life (well, most of the time anyways).

sometimes, when they return from the honeymoon, they have a lot of visiting to do - getting caught up wtih everyone since the wedding, etc.

while htey may have time to quickly view their images, sometimes picking photos for their album takes a back seat to their now, normal, every day life. notice how i said 'sometimes' - because there will be instances when the couple are head over heels in love with their photos and they want to pick them RIGHT NOW!.

putting a 30 day limit on wedding galleries, imo, is way too short - and adding a charge of $125 just seems really way ott. i know you want them to order, but charging them for being busy just doesnt make good business sense to me.

of course, there is a flipside to every situation and i can see where some people can take over a year and that is getting to be a bit much, but i still would not add such a big archive retrieval fee, i would tone it down to $25.

I do 90 days but if people are still ordering I'll leave it up a bit longer. I also offer to put the galleries back online around the holidays for free for gifts.

Remember also that sometimes relatives want a say in what goes into the album- especially if they are paying for it. This can delay things as well

I do think a fee is reasonable.

90 days from the day the client get the first look. Just to be sure there isn't something there that could upset or embarrass someone.

I think the easiest way of solving your problem is to just not have them pick the album images. It's much, much less stressful for you both if you go through and pick the images and then give them say, up to three sets of changes to the images or design.

+1!!!!

This is what I have switched too. It has been made things SO much easier!

yah, i thought about this too - good point hope - i think that's my new method.

No problem! I should mention that the "up to three sets of changes" bit is Robyn's idea -- all credit goes to her for that! I've never actually had anyone make more than two sets of changes, TBH, so the system seems to work well without any problems for me so far.

This is the way I handle it as well I pre-design all albums and give the clients two chances to make revisions. After that, there's a fee for further revisions. Usually you can get everything sorted out with one initial and one minor, secondary revision. This is, of course, all in my contract. Make sure yours contains this info if you plan on moving to this type of pre-design setup!

i dunno sofaboy... i would be a little afraid to ask for any changes from you!