Thinking Year-Round About the Yearbook

It’s never too early to start thinking about next year’s yearbook. That’s because events you may want to include happen all year long. When you start planning in advance you have a greater chance of creating a book that everyone is a part of. So take advantage of the great resources we offer as you design, create, manage and sell your yearbook—starting with this planning guide!

In here you’ll find tips, suggestions, examples and snapshots that will help you start brainstorming, organizing and designing the ultimate yearbook for your school!

Every school is different…some schools have a yearbook class that includes the creation and sale of the yearbook, while others have a group of students that meet outside of class or before and after school. Some even have just one faculty or parent volunteer handling it all. Whatever the case may be, our guide will help you organize your team so you know exactly what (and who) you’ll need to create a great yearbook – even if that team is just you!

Roles Defined

As the yearbook adviser, you have been chosen to be the project manager of the publication. As project manager, your primary responsibilities lie in two areas:

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT (the creation of the yearbook) and
FINANCE MANAGEMENT (the sales and finances of the yearbook).

Production managers (sometimes called “Editor in Chiefs”) usually have
to do or assign someone to the following tasks, along with a completion
deadline for each item:

• Decide what will go onto each page
• Photograph key school events
• Write headlines, stories, and captions
• Choose a cover design
• Choose page designs
• Choose type/text/font specifications
• Troubleshoot production issues
• Establish design custom page design
• Review/proofread page designs and stories
• Complete pages in a timely manner (if applicable)
• Complete advertisement pages
• Work with your yearbook representative
• Work with your school photographer
• Work with club sponsors and coaches for photos and more!

YEARBOOK PLANNING TIP:

Student Editor in Chiefs are often your natural leaders who motivate and empower their peers. A student editor who has the most design experience might not necessarily be the best fit for “Editor in Chief”, but would be a great “Creative Team” leader. This would allow him or her to focus his or her strength in design vs. project management.

YEARBOOK PLANNING TIP:

Don’t overlook possible professional assistance from your portrait photography studio and  the customer service and technical support teams of your yearbook publisher. They
can be great resources to share examples of what has worked for other schools.
Develop a small focus group of students that represents everyone on campus. Pass
ideas by them if you do not have a student staff to rely on for input. What adults find
appealing versus what students
find appealing can be different.

 

Tips for Selling Advertising in the Yearbook

If you wish to raise additional revenue for your yearbook, you may wish to consider offering advertisement space to businesses and recognition space to students, clubs and families. It is amazing the amount of revenue you can raise from one page in your yearbook. Many schools offer space to families, club sponsors, businesses, homeroom teachers, students, etc.

Developing an advertising program for your yearbook can be easy if you have a plan that includes:

  1. Identifying your potential audience for purchasing advertising space
  2. Determining ad sizes, guidelines, and rates,
  3. Creating effective ad sales campaigns, including collection methods.

Identifying Your Potential Audience

Before getting started, identify your potential audience for purchasing advertisement space. You have several distinct buyers: local businesses, school vendors, families, students, club sponsors, teachers, and coaches to name a few. How you pursue each audience may be different.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Local Businesses: These businesses are typically located near the school or in the district. They usually include insurance companies, banks or financial institutions, restaurants, real estate agents, mechanic shops, car dealers, and fast food establishments. Remind these potential advertisers that an ad in a yearbook will be seen for years because yearbooks are saved for a long time.

School Vendors: These businesses are on the school vendor list and do some sort of business with the school/district. Your purchasing office should have a list of contacts and their addresses.

Families: These buyers want to recognize their children for their accomplishments throughout their school years. Many photos will probably accompany their ad as well as words of praise.

Students: These buyers want to recognize their friendships on campus. Many photos will probably accompany their ad as well as words of celebration.

Club Sponsors: These buyers want to recognize their club officers or overall organization. Some photos will probably accompany the ad as well as words of appreciation.

Teachers: These buyers want to recognize a fellow colleague’s retirement or  accomplishments. Some photos will probably accompany the ad as well as words of congratulations.

Coaches: These buyers want to recognize their teams or team captains for their accomplishments. Some photos will probably accompany the ad as well as words of encouragement.

As you can see, you have quite a few audiences of buyers. As you develop a plan of communication, make sure to clearly state your offer to each buyer and include a rate card for the cost of an advertisement and a yearbook as well. Consider developing a rate card/brochure for all prices as well as three to five basic layout designs for all ads. This will help your buyers make a better decision. Also consider offering discount coupons with expiration dates to all buyers during your sales campaign. This may be the driving force to help some people purchase ad space. Remember, everyone loves a deal.

Tips for Distributing Your Yearbooks

At long last, after months of anticipation and hard work leading up to yearbook delivery, the day comes when you can distribute the school’s yearbook with pride!!! Here are more idea to consider when planning for this special day:

1. How will you distribute the book and how will students be notified of its availability?

• Will books be delivered to each homeroom in a way that ensures that each student that ordered a book gets one?

• Will there be designated pick-up times that students are asked to pick up their yearbooks in a central or convenient area of the school?

• If you decided to create and publicize a signing party to coincide with the yearbook delivery day, are you prepared for it? After many months of curiosity, kids are especially anxious to see the book and, of course, never want to miss an opportunity to socialize with their friends!

2. Depending on the book distribution method you choose, how will you keep track of
who has received their book and who hasn’t to ensure everyone has received what they paid for?

• This is where it’s critical to have a detailed tracking mechanism (either manually
or computerized) that allows you to quickly find and record each student who is given their yearbook. It’s helpful to have the yearbook distribution list sorted and available in a multitude of ways so you can easily find the purchaser’s name and check them off the list.Common sorting methods include alphabetical by last name, grade or homeroom.

3. You’ll also want to make sure that you have a method of tracking any additional sales that are made once the yearbook is delivered (versus the advance sales) since many others will want to order a yearbook after seeing it!

4. Regardless of whether you’re distributing a book that was ordered in advance or ordered on the spot, it’s critical that you collect the money prior to handing over the yearbook to the purchaser. Otherwise, it’s too hard to collect the money afterwards.

5. Once the mad rush of book distribution is over, it’s crucial that you reconcile your
records to ensure that every person who ordered a yearbook received what they paid
for. If for some reason, someone paid and didn’t get their yearbook as a part of your
normal distribution process, you’ll want to make alternate arrangements right away to
get it to them. Hopefully, it’ll be easy enough to track them down in school without
having to locate them over the summer or fall. It’s also important that all money
collected be kept in a safe place.

Transitions In UX Design

Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar.

[blockquote text=”Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts.” show_quote_icon=”yes”]

Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen.

Portugal 2013 road-trip gallery

Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar.

[blockquote text=”Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts.” show_quote_icon=”yes”]

Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen.