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Shutterfly Announces “Shutterfly Gallery,” Featuring a New Social Network

I’m a big fan of on-demand book printing, and I’ve written about and tested the quality of a number of on-demand printing companies. In my tests, which you can find here in an article on PDNonline, I found the quality of Shutterfly’s books (hard and softcover) to be excellent. On Feb. 20, Shutterfly launched Shutterfly Gallery, a new community platform for sharing and connecting with others.

Below are the some of the highlights of the new Shutterfly Gallery. To begin with, members can now do the following on the site:

-Post their photo book creations, offering inspiration and tips to others;
-Add others’ books they like to a “favorites” list, or “email a friend;”
-Introduce themselves by personalizing an online profile with their favorite picture, unique username and a personal description; and
-Embed virtual photo books (like YouTube videos) into a personal webpage or blog. This makes the site useful as a kind of “flip book creation tool.”

One of the unique features that I found very interesting is the “Make One Like This,” that allows customers to “copy” posted photo books and use the designs as templates for their own personal creations. Customers can select a book they like and choose the “Make One Like This” feature, which will preserve the look and feel of the book design while removing the original photos and text. Customers can then add their own text and photos. This is a lot like using a template, but the advantage is that you will have many more designs from which to choose. I can see this service used by all levels of photographers and scrapbookers. When browsing through the site, I also noticed that Shutterfly offers the ability to share projects with friends and family, including full-screen slide shows of Shutterfly albums, calendars, scrapbook pages and collage posters (even if they are not members). You can find out more about those options on this page.

I looked through a number of the albums, and I’m really impressed. They remind me of some of the Scrapbooking magazines I’ve seen, with great detail taken to make the images and text look great together while telling a story of a trip, or a family event, like a child’s birthday. Their are a wide range of book options that can be used as wedding books, baby books, books for graduating seniors, or fine-art/commercial photography or art portfolios.

A suggestion I have when browsing albums is to click on “Options” above the albums and then drag the slider to the fastest setting. Otherwise, you will probably not be happy with the page turn speed. Also, even though it says to drag the page to see the next page (like turning a real page), that can be a bit tricky, so instead, I recommend just clicking on the right page of any album to go to the next page. I wish that I could turn off the page flip feature and just have the next page quickly appear. I’ll submit that as a feature request soon.

To learn more about the Shutterfly Gallery, visit https://community.shutterfly.com.

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Book and Media Promotion Tips: Book, E-book, and CD/DVD Giveaways

Recently, a question came up on “Podcasters” one of my favorite Yahoo!Groups, regarding book giveaways. I’ve done a number of book giveaways of my new book, 301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques, with hosts of shows and blogs over the last few months, and they have definitely helped to increase awareness of the book. I can also track a number of sales directly to these efforts based on e-mail from listeners of the shows/readers of the blogs.

I think that in general, giveaways are a win-win for podcasters/bloggers and authors. This article covers some examples of book, e-book, and CD/DVD giveaways that I’ve observed, with some tips for authors, podcasters, musicians and others who produce content. These giveaways can also be applied to new products, and depending on our age, we’ve probably all heard the “free ticket” giveaways for music bands, trips to exotic destinations, broadway shows and other performances on radio stations for the last 20-40 years.

GRAMMAR LESSON

Mignon Fogarty, host of the Grammar Girl podcast often mentions in her shows that she chooses winners of books (usually related to grammar and writing) from those subscribed to her e-mail subscription list. That is an opt-in list available on the left side of this page. I think that this is a very good approach because it creates a bit of excitement, and can help to grow an e-mail list. If you don’t have an e-mail list, or if you’d like to try another approach, you can ask people to send you an e-mail with something specific in the subject line.

There’s also nothing wrong with a podcaster/blogger giving away copies of their own book, e-book, or even a DVD archive of all their shows to date. Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl) has given away quite a few copies of her audio book on her show (often three copies at the end of a single show). I also plan to do more of this on my blogs/podcasts. Grammar Girl’s hardcopy book starts shipping this summer, and I think that it would also be an ideal giveaway for her podcast show audience, and for audiences of talk shows like Oprah, Regis and Kelly, Conan O’Brien, Martha Stewart, or Rachael Ray. And the taxes due (if any) on a book for each attendee would not be nearly as much as other less interesting talk show audience giveaways (such as cars).

ANDREW’S APPROACH

To date, I’ve offered as many as three books to guests of particular shows/blogs for their listeners/readers. I think that an autographed copy (or multiple copies) are best, and I would highly recommend that you preview the book (either by purchasing the book, asking the author to send you one, or by taking it out of a library or bookstore), to make sure that you are comfortable with promoting it. Sometimes, an author may be able to send you their book in e-book form for you to review. Or the final product could be an e-book, like in the case of Grammar Girl’s audio book.

Book giveaways work well in my opinion when they are “bundled” with author interviews, or pre-recorded segments with authors. One idea for a host of a show is for her to tell her audience that the author will be interviewed on a future show. Then, during the interview, the author’s choice of the top two or three questions that are received via e-mail (or live in the case of live shows) from listeners will receive books. Show hosts can then e-mail the winners for their addresses and send them to each winner (or have the author ship them).

TYPICAL GIVEAWAYS

A few months ago I did a tips segment related to my book for The Typical Mac User Podcast. I gave away two books after getting permission from the show’s host Victor Cajiao for me to ask people to send me an e-mail through the contact form on my book’s companion site, inkjettips.com. I stated the contest info as part of a tips segment which was used in this show (you can hear my description of the giveaway at about 17 minutes in). I also asked people to put a specific word in the subject line.

In other cases, such as the Amateur Traveler podcast, the host, Chris Christensen chose three winners randomly from his e-mail list and discussion boards. I did an audio interview with Chris a few months ago which included tips for making better travel photos. You can find the audio interview here.

IS THERE A LAWYER IN THE LIBRARY?

I’m not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice, but I’d check with the laws regarding the shipment of gifts to people in different countries. In most cases to date, I’ve limited shipments of my book to winners based in the 50 United States (I live in New Jersey). You might consider a special digital download (for example, an e-book or audio book) for people who live outside the USA if you are concerned about customs, mailing issues, or other regulations regarding gifts.

This may seem obvious, the best book giveaways are almost always from authors who have a book on a related topic to the blog or other show who is giving away the item. If the author is a friend and/or fan of the show or website, that’s even better. That has been the case for all the book giveaways I’ve participated in to date, and I highly recommend all of the shows/blogs I mention in this article.

CASE STUDIES

Here are a few blog posts/newsletters that have included my book as a giveaway:

1. Imaging Resource’s Digital Photo Newsletter – Volume 10, Number 4: The editor asked people to send in statements about which inkjet printer they love, and why. Those who enter will be entered into a drawing for two copies of my book (as of 2/24/2008 it is still open).

2. Each month, the photo tips and community site, DoubleExposure.com, has a book giveaway on this page. A few months ago, I contributed a book for that section.

The best advice I can give is to ask questions of those who are successful in their niche. After you’ve created your “product,” whether it be a book, e-book or CD/DVD, giveaways can help to propel your content to the top of the charts!

Related Links

I wrote an e-mail to Paul Colligan, co-author of The Business Podcasting Bible and host of the Profitable Podcasting Podcast a few months back, which he published as part of this article on his blog. I wrote it because he told an audience at a seminar that I attended that he would promote “What They Did” to improve their business using some of the techniques he covered at a seminar during the Podcast and New Media Expo 2007. Read the post here. There are also some very interesting comments after the post.

Links on Amazon.com to books/e-books mentioned in the article:

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APA|NY 2008 Photo Contest Deadline Feb. 29, 2008

I’ve been a member of the APA|NY (Advertising Photographers of America|New York Chapter) for many years and consider it to be a fantastic organization. Over the years, I’ve benefitted greatly from APA sponsored events with photographers, marketing experts and others at places like the Apple Soho store in NYC and the PhotoPlus Expo in NYC. APA currently has nine chapters across the USA. There are discounted insurance options for members, and there are a number of free member-only materials available, including sample business contracts. I think it’s also a great organization for photo assistants to consider because of special events like the Assistants’ Hexathlon, which I’ve attended in the past. Assistants also have the opportunity to be listed in directories such as the APA|NY Assistant’s Directory.

APA|NY has announced the “Tell Us A Story APA|NY Juried Photo Contest.” Below is an overview of the contest from the main contest page on APA’s website:

This February, enter your finest photo story, whether it’s a single image or a series, and get your work seen by our esteemed panel of jurors. One overall prize winner will be chosen from each the Professional and Student categories. Juror’s Selection honors will also be awarded. Winning work will be on display between March 17th and 22nd 2008 at the expansive HP Gallery at Calumet Photographic. On Tuesday March 18th APA|NY will host an opening for the exhibition in conjunction with a fundraiser for the Exposures program: a cross-cultural exchange program that establishes photography as a common language among youth from diverse communities.

The list of prizes and sponsors for the Professional category is below:

-A complete digital package for use on either a studio or location project courtesy of Drive Digital. (value: approx. $3,000)
-1 Full Access Membership to Agency Access – N. America and Europe ($1,725 value)
-An X-rite i1 Photo LT, the ultimate tool for implementing a color managed workflow ($900 value)
-TrueGrain software courtesty of Grubba Software ($300 value)
-Copies of Blinkbid estimating and invoicing software ($159 value)
-Pro Camera Backpack courtesy of Lowepro ($100 value)
-ExpoDisc White Balance Filters courtesy of ExpoImaging (approx $100 value)

For Students, the Grand Prize is a Canon G9 PowerShot Camera – 12.1 megapixels ($460 value), and additional prizes will be awarded from Blinkbid, Lowepro and ExpoImaging.

In addition, the winning work plus jurors’ selection will be printed and displayed at Calumet Photographic for a week in March. The show opening party as well as a fundraiser for the Exposures program will be held Tuesday March 18th. Print sales and silent auction proceeds will benefit the Exposures program.

For more information, visit www.apany.com/contest .