Two yearbook advisers in different parts of the country came to that conclusion about the same time – Olga Martinez-Pagnussat at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, Fla., and Jai Tanner at Franklin High School in El Paso, Texas. Previously, parents and students had great influence in how their personal ads would look in the book. At Our Lady of Lourdes, an all-girls school, the seniors would create their own collages, with photos that were scanned, grainy and too small.
Advertising
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.
My students cringe when they see paperback publications with posed photos, talking captions and weak copy in other yearbooks. They have come to expect more when it comes to producing a middle school yearbook.
There is no reason why a middle school yearbook can’t have lots of pages with great photos and strong copy.
Once you have your sales assignment and know the places you are going to try to sell an ad, it is time to do your homework. Never walk into a business unprepared.
The only person who should be surprised by a senior ad is the senior who is seeing it for the first time.
Money raised from ad sales at Shaler Area High School, Pittsburgh, Pa., has continued to increase over the years based on the idea that the more motivated salespeople you have, the more money you can raise.
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.
