From the category archives:
It is true – the best way to fund your yearbook is to sell ads and yearbooks. However, organizing such sales is time-consuming, and you must compete with other groups in your school, and sometimes other schools, for those dollars. If your yearbook program is self-sustaining like mine is – the district gives us no money – the task of funding a great yearbook every year seems daunting.
The sales plan I devised and have used for years is successful for many reasons.
Some of the most successful companies and products in the world rely heavily on something called “brand awareness” to boost sales. Brand awareness is the level at which people are able to recognize a certain product or company.
Developing innovative fund-raising ideas is a challenge for almost every yearbook staff. The Alchemist staff at Concord Middle School, Concord, N.C., met that challenge by selling nearly $1,000 in patron ads for its 1998 yearbook.
Frank Harbin, Walsworth sales representative in Alabama, has been integral in helping many of his schools increase the sale of yearbooks to seniors.
When Evan Fetter, editor-in-chief of the University of Tampa’s Moraccan, got started on the 1995 book, he wanted to do some restructuring. But rather than use his power as editor to take over the decision-making process, he decided to give others a say in the matter.
Many Walsworth customers have taken the plunge into the World Wide Web and set up home pages for their school or yearbook class. And while they have different reasons for their work on the Web, all are excited at the possibilities this new medium offers.
The line stretches out of the building and into the street. People wait with money and checkbooks in hand, shifting from foot to foot and craning to see the head of the line. It may sound like the ticket line at a Hootie and the Blowfish concert, but it’s not. It’s the yearbook sale during Parents’ Open House Night at Dr. Phillips High School, Orlando, Fla.
