it's calendar time

Andy · October 16, 2005

calendars are a big seller for me.

i use lulu.com for my calendars. it's really a cinch - simply pick your photos, arrange them how you want, and start uploading - it takes about 20 minutes to publish a calendar, once you have all your images ready. i provide links to my calendars from within moon river photography.

here's how i promote it in my smugmug site. i show all the images, the cover, a preview, and give a prominent link on how to order it.

for personal use, i make a family edition, with all family birthdays etc in it.

enjoy (selling calendars) photography,

Nikolai · October 16, 2005

That's very cool, Andy!
Darn, we only have one season here in SoCal: eternal summer. Very pleasant, but not too good for the calendars (at least those with 12 months). You have to drive for two (or even three

) frigging hours to see the snow in January..

Jokes aside - it's a very clever marketing!

I need to figure out how to implement that idea for myself, I like it a lot!
The only problem is to get some snow..:-)

Cheers!

Nikolai · October 17, 2005

Got it!!!
I thought to myself: why does a calendar have to be all about seasons?

Didn't we all see kittens calendars, flowers calendars, lighthouses calendars, younameit calendars...

So, without further ado, I'm proudly presenting my first public lulu calendar:
Conejo Valley:: Churches

I was working on that project for a while (if you remember, but maybe not), but never made it to "press". I hope this one could be a decent try to start in the "calendar" business:-).
Of course, I'd need to update my SM page to reflect it, but hey, important thing is done - it's been created and now live!

Thanks again, Andy, you're a great help!

PossumCorner · October 17, 2005

More Calendars
Andy thank you for that help, - and Nikolai, looked at your Churches calendar, it looks good, especially for a niche market. We have been setting one up on CafePress and had not heard of Lulu, it looks much more suitable. We have also made one to sell from 'home' but marketing is the problem. Ours are for a totally limited market, as we are using the Flyball Dogs theme. So will try Lulu for sure.

Andy · October 17, 2005

PossumCorner wrote:

Andy thank you for that help, - and Nikolai, looked at your Churches calendar, it looks good, especially for a niche market. We have been setting one up on CafePress and had not heard of Lulu, it looks much more suitable. We have also made one to sell from 'home' but marketing is the problem. Ours are for a totally limited market, as we are using the Flyball Dogs theme. So will try Lulu for sure.

please put frodo on the cover!

(img from sherbrookephotography.smugmug.com)

Trish323 · October 17, 2005

My family LOVED it.
Andy,

I am

..because I began 2 weeks ago putting the new calendar together. I have a large family and keeping track of birthdays is not an easy task.

You would have thought the calendar they all got was a check for a million dollars the way they all responded last year after receiving a family calendar! My youngest sister called me on October 1st and just wanted to tell me how happy she was that October had finally arrived because that month was her favorite photo!

Your calendar looks great! Has anything changed at lulu? same process?

Andy · October 17, 2005

Trish323 wrote:

Your calendar looks great! Has anything changed at lulu? same process?

thanks, trish

i believe 2005 has been a good year for lulu, seems that things are zippier and easier on the website.

on the family thing - there were two cases of errata on my calendar last year, and i never heard the end of it - went thru the bdays twice this time, to be sure! family

LiquidOps · October 17, 2005

Pure Genius...

Thank You.... Thank You... Thank You!!!

Andy · October 18, 2005

andy wrote:

please put frodo on the cover!

(img from sherbrookephotography.smugmug.com)

i'd like to get to know this dog, he/she looks to be a very cool dog.

Trish323 · October 18, 2005

andy wrote:

thanks, trish

i believe 2005 has been a good year for lulu, seems that things are zippier and easier on the website.

on the family thing - there were two cases of errata on my calendar last year, and i never heard the end of it - went thru the bdays twice this time, to be sure! family

I agree, Lulu site was a bit faster...none of that zaney puffing computer Thingy!

I just re-used my BD list from last year and made any changes..just waiting for my preview copy before ordering the lot!

LiquidOps · October 18, 2005

waiting for my preview copy as well

i wish i would have thought of this sooner... soooo many people are waiting for me to give them the go ahead to buy one!!!

http://wanderingthroughlife.smugmug.com/gallery/893027

w00t

Steven

PossumCorner · October 18, 2005

Done Already!
Steven that was quickly done, and your calendar is just lovely. We are still trawling through dog images from this year, and trying to find a balance of the best of them against owner's who would be hurt if left out etc. Glad of your prompt that we really need to do this before the weekend.

I work in the sales office of a commercial calendar company, Allens, I don't know where they get their images from, it is 'all done' behind doors I don't even get to go through, and the printing is done in another State. They are at www.calendars.net.au - some of the cals they produce are magnificent, but a lot of work I see on Smugmug sites would still blow them out of the water, so to speak. I know selling calendars to businesses to carry their advertising needs to appeal to a very general audience, but I wish they would be a bit more adventurous.

PossumCorner · October 18, 2005

Frodo the Flyball Dog

andy wrote:

i'd like to get to know this dog, he/she looks to be a very cool dog.

Andy thanks for liking Frodo, he is a joy to own. He's part poodle, part Terrier and part Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. So he has poofy days and killer days and royal lapdog days. We 'rescued' him from the Dog-Pound, (RSPCA) he was a bit feisty to be a kid's dog, and a handful for adults to cope with. This led to formal obedience training, led to Flyball training, team competitions, interstate travel: that led to photography coming back in a serious way after years of neglect (my first small photography business was in 1967): that led to finding Smugmug and DGrin.

So its all Frodo's fault. The iMac, the D70/50 / FZ30 - all down to him.
I should have listened to whoever said "Don't let the dogs rule your life".
Too late. Good dog, Frodo.

mwgrice · October 18, 2005

Cool! I've been looking (not very hard) for something like this. What's the quality of the paper and printing like?

Andy · October 18, 2005

mwgrice wrote:

Cool! I've been looking (not very hard) for something like this. What's the quality of the paper and printing like?

heavy paper, fine quality printing. not like a photo, but excellent for the purpose. very happy with the quality.

mercphoto · October 19, 2005

I can't figure out how to do two simple things on my Lulu storefront (www.lulu.com/mercphoto)

1) How to change the price of an existing calendar
2) How to remove a calendar entirely

[edit] Just as I finally give up to ask on the forum, I finally figure out how to manage my storefront.

Andy · October 19, 2005

mercphoto wrote:

I can't figure out how to do two simple things on my Lulu storefront (www.lulu.com/mercphoto)

1) How to change the price of an existing calendar
2) How to remove a calendar entirely

[edit] Just as I finally give up to ask on the forum, I finally figure out how to manage my storefront.

well, that's good, bill

mercphoto · October 19, 2005

andy wrote:

well, that's good, bill

Nothing like making myself look silly in public!

mwgrice · October 19, 2005

Thanks, Andy. I started dinking around with one last night.

Now I just need some better photos.

:

Andy · October 22, 2005

six days later ...
...first page of google search. thanks smugmug for doing the google stuff so well

well, that plus i keyworded the heck out of the galleries

Techman1 · October 22, 2005

Andy,

That's pretty cool being right up there on the first google page especially being only two down from "Ansel Adams" calendars. You've made it now!

Good job.

Fred

Andy · October 22, 2005

Techman1 wrote:

Andy,

That's pretty cool being right up there on the first google page especially being only two down from "Ansel Adams" calendars. You've made it now!

Good job.

Fred

you noticed

DavidTO · October 22, 2005

I want a report early next year of how many you sold....

4labs · October 22, 2005

Well I know he sold at least one.:D

Andy · October 26, 2005

just a small note - and only on my "family edition" that I made... here's a copy of the support ticket i created at lulu:

There seems to be a problem with Lulu printing the "williams family dates" i've added to this project - three dates in "williams family dates" collide with dates on the lulu-supplied "religious" dates that i also included. two dates in "williams family dates" are actually the same - August 11th - and only one printed.

The other dates that DID NOT print from "williams family dates" are:

xxxx Birthday - Jan 1
xxxx Birthday - May 20
xxxx Birthday - May 29

so just be aware, if you are creating your own dates to put on the calendar, there appears to be a problem if there are two events on the same day. i will post resolution to this once i hear back from lulu.

ginger_55 · October 26, 2005

Well, with all these accolades, I just want to say that I don't think my family cared that much about the calendar one way or another.

They are just super tired of commenting on my work, to put it on their wall as a calendar was a bit much. (And I love the photo of Frodo more than my family loves photos of my dogs).

So this year I thought of a calendar with photos of them. When I couldn't figure out why one of them would care about a photo of the other one of them...........I thought I might just get them a book.

Me? I like too many photos, in themes, actually, to pick out just twelve. I could pick twelve from the last week. I love my stuff,

.

ginger (I want to do a calendar, too..... it was super fun last year!)

Andy · October 26, 2005

andy wrote:

just a small note - and only on my "family edition" that I made... here's a copy of the support ticket i created at lulu:

so just be aware, if you are creating your own dates to put on the calendar, there appears to be a problem if there are two events on the same day. i will post resolution to this once i hear back from lulu.

reponse from lulu support:

Dear Customer,

At this moment, we don't have the facility to put more than one event on one day. What I suggest is that you try typing it in as one event; Aunty May's birthday and Uncle Steve's. Hope that helps.

i told them that the fact that they don't tell you this during the date creation process is unacceptable. they're giving me a credit on my proof version, and i just redid the calendar without any dates except the family bdays. sigh.

Andy · October 26, 2005

lulu just told me some new calendar options are coming next week - new choices in formats, paper weights and colors (like buff, maybe?) and some bug fixes. that's all i know.

LiquidOps · October 26, 2005

LuLu also has cool buttons you can use

http://wanderingthroughlife.smugmug.com/gallery/893027

pretty nifty... still working on what to use and the coding, but i like for a quick and dirty while at work... haha

Steven

LiquidOps · October 28, 2005

Test print arrived yesterday!!!

I am soooo happy with the way it came out. Time to market this bad boy

wish me luck!!!

Steven

Trish323 · October 28, 2005

andy wrote:

reponse from lulu support:

i told them that the fact that they don't tell you this during the date creation process is unacceptable. they're giving me a credit on my proof version, and i just redid the calendar without any dates except the family bdays. sigh.

Andy,
Same thing happened to me. They gave me a credit on the preview calendar...it DID NOT state anywhere that only one event per day would work...last year it did! I am waiting until Tuesday when the new calendars come out and I will remake (grrrroan) another calendar. The new calendars will also be incapable of 2 events on a day...IMHO a calendar w/o typical holidays etc is useless. There are only a few days that I need 2, so i will use the fix they gave me.
Still worth it though.

it's calendar time

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