With the huge success of our first ever grant program, Picaboo Yearbooks announced this week it will continue the CASH GRANT PROGRAM to elementary, middle and high schools.  Originally slated to close out at the end of April, the program was adjusted slightly to give local dealers like me an opportunity to streamline the process and get schools in coastal North and South Carolina accepted faster into the program.

Picaboo Yearbooks understands that for too long, traditional yearbook companies have strapped schools costing thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours to slave over a product that is a time honored tradition.  Parents and students alike look forward to this time capsule of memories that arrives each spring.  However, with schools facing too many other funding issues, allowing the yearbook to lose money is no longer an option.

When was the last time YOUR yearbook company offered your school CASH?  Maybe it’s time to change your yearbook company…???

With a simple formula (how many pages was your yearbook this year and how many copies did you sell), I can within one business day help you apply for the grant AND GET THE APPROVAL AMOUNT of our CASH GRANT!  If you see our free, easy to use software, our sample yearbooks that are actually BETTER than what you are flipping through now and see the bottom line of CASH back, we have a sneaky suspicion you’ll see the light and join Picaboo Yearbooks in the 21st Century!  Once you sign our agreement, Picaboo Yearbooks will send your school a check in the amount of the CASH GRANT this fall!  Before you even place an order with us, your school can use the money to pay for new computers, a teacher breakfast, improvements in classrooms or whatever didn’t get funded from last year’s budget!

We offer NO MINIMUMS, which means that you don’t need to tell us how many books you (MIGHT, HOPE, PRAY) will sell next year.  If you sold 368 this year, we’ll base the GRANT CASH on that number.  But next year if 427 students buy yearbooks, then place an order for 427 yearbooks and we’ll make them for you.  No leftovers, no doorstops, no storage needed!

NO DEADLINES…no missed football games, no all-nighters where students are grumpy and parents are aggravated.   You as the adviser set the tempo.  Once you have all the sections exactly where you want them, lock the sections and order the books.

THREE WEEK (MAX) TURNAROUND TIME…so never, in the history of yearbooks has Prom FROM THIS YEAR been in the yearbook.  That’s because traditional yearbook companies need everything turned in by February so they can fire up the wood burning stove to create steam that runs the printing presses.  (Ok, I exaggerate, but it’s not far from the truth.)  Picaboo Yearbooks print using state-of-the-art digital printing.  So even if you order 1000 yearbooks, we can get them printed, bound and ready to ship in about ten business days.  We allow about a week for shipping then next thing you know, your signing the packing slip accepting your fabulous yearbooks.  School this year gets out about the first week of June.  So if your Prom or spring sports banquet, or baseball playoffs happen before about May 13, they could ALL be in the yearbook (uhh, THIS YEAR)!

Each yearbook, soft cover or hard cover (oh yea, we offer soft cover as a less expensive alternative so more students can afford a book) comes with FOUR FREE PERSONALIZED PAGES.  How many students have been bummed when they pay $75 for a yearbook and their dorky school picture and one other picture of them in a crowd at a football game are the only two pieces of proof they even went to school that year?  Well, with Picaboo Yearbooks, each student can design four pages free and then if that’s not enough room to hold all the memories, he or she can add more pages for just $.99 a page.  Each student can even customize the back cover…CRAZY!

One last thing…E-YEARBOOKS.  They are ALL the rage because unlike a lot of us, these kids would cherish a computer file full of memories over a five pound book to cart around for life.  Our E-Yearbooks are FREE.  Seriously, FREE.  Not kidding, FREE.  What’s better than free?  So glad you asked…your school can use it as a FUNDRAISER.  If the CASH GRANT doesn’t cover that project, we do a 50/50 split on any money charged for the E-Yearbook.

I don’t know about you, but I always understood things better if the teacher gave an example (or seven examples).  Here’s one:

200 page yearbook (all color, every page).  Hard cover will cost $58.59.  Soft cover will cost $48.09.  Free shipping if over 50 books (in any combo) are ordered.  If the school sets the E-Yearbook cost at $20 and sells 200, then Picaboo Yearbooks cuts the school a check for $2000.  IN ADDITION TO the CASH GRANT.

Here’s another example for elementary schools that have smaller books:  60 page all color yearbook–Hard cover will cost $27.79, PTA sells for $35 each.  Soft Cover will cost $17.29, PTA sells for $25.  If you sell about 250, that’s about $1850 in profit.  Price the E-Yearbooks for $10, sell $100 and that’s another $500.  Plus a cash grant in the fall.  That’s a lot of wrapping paper and cookie dough!

So, to recap:  No storage needed for unsold books, no fines for missed deadlines, Prom and Spring sports can be in the yearbook, students can add their own pictures so no one is disappointed, schools get CASH in the fall from the GRANT and CASH in the spring from the E-Yearbook…Yep, that about sums it up.

Look, I know it’s hard to change.  I know this is how we’ve been doing it since well, since black and white TV was THE COOLEST THING EVER.  It’s time to hit the warp speed button and join the digital age of yearbooks.  The kids deserve to add their own pictures for free, the staff deserves sleep, the Prom Queen shouldn’t have to wait a year to see her image immortalized in print and you deserve a break.

Shoot me an email, give me a call.  I’ll buy you coffee or I’d be honored to buy your entire yearbook staff a pizza lunch and let’s just see what happens!

Thanks,

Sallie Spangenberg

Sallie@PicabooYearbooks.com

910.381.8690 or 843.580.3850 

Thank you to the dozens and dozens of wonderful school age kids (and their parents) who dropped by Michele Parsley Photography last weekend to help Picaboo Yearbooks stock our portrait pictures for some future sample books!

As promised, I am giving away a FREE 20 page soft cover book to TEN of our models!  Two names were chosen per age category and are listed below!  If the winners would email me at Sallie@PicabooYearbooks.com I will email back your code and directions on how to use it!

I will also let you know when our sample books are up on our web site.  They will be here:  http://yearbooks.picaboo.com/yearbook.php

We are not JUST a yearbook company…if you are involved with a sport, dance, cheer, band or any other activity and are looking for a wonderful fundraiser or memory book, please feel free to email me!  Our books start at just $8.49 for a 20 page soft cover book!  Or if your school hasn’t done a yearbook, it’s not too late to do one for this year!

The winners are:

Ages 4-6:  Evan Toro & Aiden Hilton

Ages 7-9:  Chloe Nevil & Donnovan Bautista

Ages 10-12:  Selena Starr & Brittany Silance

Ages 13-15:  Alexis Bayless & Hannah Jones

Ages 16-18:  Jessie Sbrocco & Patrick Martin

Thanks again everyone!

As a Marine Corps family, we have moved five times in the last ten years.  It seems like every few months dozens upon dozens of boxes are stacked end on end in my old/new house.  Several of those boxes are labeled YEARBOOKS and believe it or not, I always make sure those are unpacked.  One of the main reasons I do this is to remind me of home.  I was blessed to grow up in a fairly tight knit community on a barrier island in Charleston, South Carolina.  My parents went to the same high school.  Many of my friends in my senior yearbook were also in my kindergarten class.  These time capsules also remind me of my own history of big hair, football games, yearbook staff and a time of sweet innocence and care free living as well as my friends and events that shaped my life.  Not just high school life, but I even still have my elementary and middle school yearbooks.  I love flipping through the ‘autograph’ pages and reading what my friends wrote to me in 1984.

My sweet daughter sits at her desk across from me as I type this now.  She is working on her history and together we share a tremendous bond that comes from home schooling.  I love our Classical Conversations community where I feel we really get the best of both worlds.  She gets a taste of a classroom environment with a tutor and classmates.  I get to connect with other moms to share ideas, frustrations, laughs and our journey together.  As I chose home schooling I remember one pang of regret that I felt was for the bookshelf in her life that would sit empty.  There wouldn’t be yearbooks forever capturing her school days lined up like toy soldiers.  She wouldn’t have a collection of pictures with her friends and a dorky school picture that years later she would ask me why I did her hair like that!  It’s a small thing in the life of a home schooler, but a vital missing part, just the same.

When I first got the email with the information about Picaboo Yearbooks and the opportunity to become a dealer, I was intrigued.  I actually laughed out loud because in the spring of 2010, I’d used the parent company, Picaboo and made a yearbook for my daughter’s Montessori Class because I didn’t want her kindergarten year to go undocumented.  With great expectations, I took a hard look at what Picaboo Yearbooks was offering and as a home school mom, I jumped at the chance to be a part of this company.

I’m the type of person that when I find a good deal, I share it.  When there is a huge sale, I tell everyone I know, when there is a NOT TO MISS opportunity, I make sure to spread the word.  It’s no different now as for the first time, I think there is a wonderful company that will make having a home school community yearbook a REAL possibility.

Picaboo Yearbooks offers the three biggest hurdles with any yearbook:  1.  NO MINIMUM ORDERS!  2.   NO DEADLINES!  3.  PERSONALIZED PAGES!  All at a price BELOW what other yearbook companies charge!

1.  No minimum orders, no kidding.  No need to pre-pay or collect up front.  If you order one book or 1000 books, the cost is the same.  You could even make a sample book for everyone to look through BEFORE they decide to buy it!  Twenty page softback books start at $8.49 and twenty page hardbacks start at $18.99.
2. No deadlines…just use the software and make the book.  You can collaborate with other moms and even have a dedicated email where everyone can send in pictures.  When you are done, just hit print!
3. Personalized Pages—ok, this is my favorite part.  Most of my yearbooks I am in there just a few times.  With Picaboo Yearbooks, each family can add their own personalized pages BEFORE IT’S PRINTED!  So I can add pictures of our own field trips, our own family Christmas photos, our own family vacation shots making it a true scrapbook of my daughter’s life! (Feature will be available for print books in May 2013)

The free software is super easy to use, it’s very user friendly with icons and explanations.  They offer a choice of soft back or hard back.  This is nice because if you are on a budget or want multiple yearbooks for each child, you don’t have to take out a second mortgage on your home to do it!  The quality is even better than what MY yearbooks have in them (from back in the day) and best of all; I am capturing the pictures and memories for my daughter to line her bookshelf with in the future!

Again, as a military family, we move often.  We have a three year old little boy that gravitates to permanent markers.  If we did lose a book in a move or have unwanted artwork destroy our book, we could just order another one, ANY TIME!  Even years from now when my daughter leaves home and starts her bookshelf, I can go back and order my own copy so my bookshelf would not be empty.

If you realize the days are long, but the years are short and want to forever capture your home school memories in a yearbook that will last, I highly encourage you to take a look at PicabooYearbooks.com or email me at Sallie@picabooyearbooks.com for some discounts we offer to home schoolers.  Who knows, 27 years from now, maybe on a lazy afternoon, your child will take out that book and laugh at how silly her friends were for writing that in her yearbook!

Picaboo Yearbooks is shaking up the yearbook industry…actually more like causing an EARTHQUAKE!  No deadlines, no minimum orders, no lengthy contracts, three week turnaround times, easy free software–and now FREE E-YEARBOOKS!

Starting April 1, 2013, Picaboo Yearbooks will be offering free E-Yearbooks for any school, no strings attached!  Once the yearbook is complete, it will become a digital file that can be downloaded and viewed on computers, tablets and smartphones.

If print copies are desired, they can be ordered one at a time or in any quantity, but no print orders are required to make the E-books.

Any school or organization can go to www.yearbooks.picaboo.com and simply start making a yearbook!  The easy to use FREE software walks even the novice through the simple process.  On April 1, 2013 the completed books can be ordered as a FREE E-Yearbook during the checkout process.

For the entire press release keep reading:

Picaboo Yearbooks Launches Unprecedented No-Cost eYearbook Program
Giving Every School and Student a Yearbook
Beginning in Spring 2013, Picaboo Yearbooks’ groundbreaking eYearbook program will provide schools and students with a professional, digital yearbook at no-cost.
Picaboo Yearbooks, a technology-led yearbook company supported by a nationwide network of locally-based Sales Consultants, announced today that it will be launching its unprecedented no-cost eYearbook program in
Spring 2013.

Through the program, schools, organizations, clubs, teams, groups and associations can go to http://yearbooks.picaboo.com/ and easily create a professional, feature-filed yearbook and order it in an eYearbook format – without cost.
Once designed, the eYearbook will be available as a digital file, and can be instantly downloaded and viewed on computers, tablets and smartphones. The no-cost eYearbooks program starts April 1, 2013, and is being announced now to allow schools the time to create their yearbooks.

“We believe every school and student deserves a yearbook,” commented Bryan Payne, President of Picaboo Yearbooks. “However, many schools and other organizations don’t create one because of the financial risk of going into debt with unsold yearbooks. Our no-cost eYearbooks offer completely changes the paradigm.
Financial risk is a thing of the past, and there is no possibility of going into debt – because there’s no fee of any kind, and no strings attached. It’s our way of giving schools and students something they deserve: a great yearbook they can be proud of, regardless of financial circumstances!”

In addition to the eYearbook, students that wish to print their yearbooks in either soft or hardcover can easily do so from the same web app that created the eYearbook, without the need to make additional changes. Printed  books can be purchased for as low as $8.49 with no minimum volume requirements, and arrive within just three weeks.

“We are unaware of any other yearbook companies offering eYearbooks, let alone eYearbooks at no-cost,” added Payne. “And creating an eYearbook is a great way for students to get engaged in the process. There are many real-world skills that students learn, such as writing, design, photography, production management and
leadership. Plus, students who want a printed yearbook can still order one, since we have no minimum order requirements, and we provide the same affordable pricing whether the order is for one yearbook or more than 1000.”

“Our motto is: `The Yearbook Revolution. No Boundaries. No limits. We’re aggressively striving to change the way schools and other organizations think about producing yearbooks, and it’s very highly energizing” continued Payne. “Our offerings and business model, combined with our ability to let individual students
personalize their very own yearbook cover and inside pages will forever change the yearbook industry. It’s groundbreaking and revolutionary!”
Schools and other organizations that wish to take advantage of Picaboo Yearbooks’ no-cost eYearbook program can learn more by visiting http://yearbooks.picaboo.com/ or emailing info@picabooyearbooks.com.