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12/01/10
Online Yearbook Publishing Solution MyYearbookBuilder Offers Higher Fundraising Potential
Filed under: Home, Company News
Posted by: Andrew Edwards @ 6:58 pm






Online Yearbook Publishing Solution MyYearbookBuilder Offers Higher Fundraising Potential

New Milford, Connecticut (December 1, 2010) – Odyssey Interactive, the nation’s leading producer of digital yearbooks for high school and other institutions, is proud to offer an online, digital publishing system that makes more money for fundraisers.

At wholesale, electronic yearbooks are about 35% less expensive to manufacture than comparable paper yearbooks, which means more profit for fundraisers.  However, in addition to raising more money per order, fundraisers also benefit from the opportunity to sell more yearbooks to more students because of the lower list price.

“In an environment where schools are struggling to keep yearbooks alive, where schools are cutting sports programs and other extracurricular activities, MyYearbookBuilder offers a much needed alternative fundraising solution that drives more profit, while requiring less planning and work than a traditional pasta dinner” said Joseph Durdock, Founder and Chief Executive at Odyssey Interactive.

Depending on price sensitivity and fundraising goals, electronic yearbooks can sell for $40 per copy in the beginning of the school year and then cost $60 or more by year’s end – an increasing scale commonly used to maximize fundraising potential.  Considering a wholesale price of $25, fundraisers would earn $15 per order at the beginning of the year and $35 per order at year’s end.  Furthermore, our standard practice of offering free and unconditional use of the MyYearbookBuilder.com publishing system guarantees zero additional expenses during the production phase, which results in maximum fundraising revenue.

Lastly, while most paper yearbook publishers require a final count long before closing, digital yearbooks can be ordered up until the last day of production without penalty.

“Today’s fundraisers must be creative.  It’s not enough to just be different; fundraisers have to work hard to reach the largest possible audience and turn energy into income for the school,” said Andrew Edwards, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development.  “The uniqueness of our product and the relevance to students ensures maximum participation and fundraising potential.

For further information, please contact Mr. John McClane.

About Odyssey Interactive

Odyssey Interactive, L.L.C. is a frontier, multimedia publishing company specializing in the development of custom digital solutions for archiving high school audio, video and photographs into interactive electronic yearbooks.

Keywords: digital yearbook publishing company | free digital yearbook software | free video yearbook software | free dvd yearbook software | free interactive yearbook software | free electronic yearbook software | free online yearbook software


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Digital Yearbook Frequently Asked Questions
Filed under: Home, Digital Yearbook Management, Advisors, Copywriting, Multimedia, Staff
Posted by: Andrew Edwards @ 11:43 am




Digital Yearbook Frequently Asked Questions

What materials can I incorporate into an Odyssey Interactive eYearbook?
Odyssey Interactive eYearbooks incorporate digital photographs, video files, audio files and word processing.

The maximum photograph file size you can upload is currently 5 MB; we accept only “*.JPG” (JPEG) format. The ideal pixel dimensions (resolution) should be at least 640 x 480 pixels for a landscape picture and 480 x 640 pixels for a portrait picture.

How “personalizable” are Odyssey Interactive eYearbooks?
Students have complete control over the content posted to their portrait, which includes audio, video, photographs and type-written text. The eYearbook Admin account (editor accounts) controls all peripheral sections including athletics, clubs and student life.

While the architecture of the yearbook is static, there are opportunities to customize the yearbook navigation window with school colors, logos and other graphic representations.

Additionally, the yearbook committee has full artistic control over the yearbook disk cover and various case inserts. Yearbook committees can have school-wide competitions for best design or manage the graphic design process internally.

No changes in graphic design and/or architecture can be made without additional charge. Schools interested in creating a custom architecture must submit their request to Odyssey Interactive by September 30th. All custom design requests must be received by Odyssey Interactive no later than December 30th to guarantee an on-time delivery.

How much information can be stored in an Odyssey Interactive eYearbook?
Odyssey Interactive offers three distribution platforms. For productions less than 620 MB in size, Odyssey Interactive will deliver a CD-ROMeYearbook. For productions greater than 620 MB and less than 4 GB in size, Odyssey Interactive will deliver a DVD-ROM eYearbook. Finally, for productions greater than 4 GB, we can offer USB drives as the distribution medium.

Can I incorporate MyYearbookBuilder into my yearbook or journalism class?
MyYearbookBuilder.com is completely classroom ready. Whether your yearbook program is an extra-curricular activity or a credited journalism class, MyYearbookBuilder.com offers a variety of tools and activities that educators require to teach and manage students. In the formal classroom environment, MyYearbookBuilder allows teachers to assign specific tasks to students, to review their submissions, to track activity and to monitor daily performance.

As the administrator, can I control the material that is posted to the public yearbook?
Multiple screening systems are available to ensure that students are not posting inappropriate material to the public yearbook. Before a student photograph can be posted to the public eYearbook, it must be approved by the administrator via the photograph screener. Additionally, the global dictionary screener is a system feature that monitors text boxes in the admin and individual student accounts. The feature is a database of restricted words that can NOT be posted to the public eYearbook. Finally, for security purposes, the administrator also maintains global overwrite ability; the admin account has unrestricted access to all student accounts and may edit and/or delete material as necessary and/or appropriate, even after student portraits have been closed for editing.

How long is the eYearbook available for editing online?
How long you keep your yearbook running is entirely up to you; however, we require about 3 weeks for publishing turn-around and 5-7 business days for shipping - so yearbook committee’s should plan accordingly. Opening and closing dates must be set for 9th graders, 10th graders, 11th graders, 12th graders, yearbook editor accounts and the admin account, individually.

When are the actual eYearbooks delivered to high schools?
The delivery date is entirely dependant upon your scheduled yearbook closing date. After publishing, which is typically about 2 weeks, the final yearbooks are delivered to you within 5-7 business days.

How long is high school eYearbook data stored on MYYEARBOOKBUILDER.COM?
Currently, ALL data (including pictures, video files, audio files and word processing) is permanently deleted from MYYEARBOOKBUILDER.COM on June 30th of each calendar year, after all schools have received and formally accepted product deliveries. Otherwise, NO permanent online archive of production material/content is maintained. However, we do maintain permanent and redundant archives of actual school productions offline.

Does Odyssey Interactive offer a paper yearbook to supplement the disc version?
While our primary focus is publishing electronic yearbooks, we do offer an optional traditional paper yearbook supplement. Our paper supplement, which fits inside our standard DVD case as an insert, features a heavy-weight paper cover, 20 to 30 pages of full color pictures and 10 pages of standard paper for hand signatures and messages; additional production charges apply.

Does Odyssey Interactive maintain permanent archives of all eYearbooks?
Odyssey Interactive maintains a permanent archive of all high school eYearbooks productions, indefinitely. This will allow quick and easy replacement of an existing eYearbook at standard replacement price. Additionally, we will provide a master to each participating high school, for archiving purposes only. No duplications and/or redistributions can be made of the master without paying appropriate royalty/licensing fees.

Does Odyssey Interactive offer a standard warranty?
Please request a copy of our standard warranty for specific details.

Basically, Odyssey Interactive does offer a limited Warranty. Odyssey Interactive warrants that (a) its eYearbooks will perform substantially in accordance with the accompanying written materials for a period of one (1) year from the date of receipt by customer and (b) that the medium on which the eYearbook is contained will be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use and service for a period of one (1) year.

Does Odyssey Interactive have a licensing agreement for each album?
Please request a copy of our licensing agreement for specific details.

You are granted a non-exclusive license to use the original purchased eYearbook on unlimited computers. Odyssey Interactive’seYearbook (including any images, icons, graphics, animations, audio, music, and text incorporated into the Software) is protected by copyright laws. However, you may NOT make copies of your eYearbooks. You may not give copies of your eYearbook to other persons, or duplicate eYearbooks by any other means, including electronic transmission. You may NOT copy the printed materials accompanyingeYearbooks, and print copies of any user documentation. Odyssey Interactive eYearbooks do also contain trade secrets, and in order to protect them, you may NOT decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or otherwise reduce the eYearbooks to human-perceivable form. Further, you may NOT modify, adapt, translate, rent, sublicense, assign, lease, loan, resell for profit, distribute, or network Interactive’seYearbook, disk, or related materials or create derivative works based upon Odyssey Interactive’s eYearbook or any part thereof.

Does Odyssey Interactive require project sign-off and milestone approvals?
Due to the nature of our business, Odyssey Interactive does require a signature of approval for delivery of the final product. In addition, sign-offs at predefined milestones can and may also be required.

Once an eYearbook milestone has been achieved and approved by the customer, no additional retrospective changes will be made without incurring additional expenses by the customer. Regretfully, we can not offer unlimited revisions.

Does Odyssey Interactive require a down-payment or deposit to begin production?
No, Odyssey Interactive does NOT require an immediate down-payment/deposit to begin production. However, 1 payment is required before final invoicing, which covers approximately 25% of total order cost. Payment is collected on May 1st of each calendar year.

Is there a fee associated with using MyYearbookBuilder.com?
Daily access to and use of the MYYEARBOOKBUILDER.COM website is free of charge during the school year.

Charges are incurred if, and only if, you enter into a publishing agreement and elect to purchase a copy(s) of the final eYearbook. For the individual student, failing to purchase a copy of the final eYearbook may result in the omission of personalized material like “Favorites” and “Year In Review” (for example); however, at a minimum, every student will have an eYearbook portrait with name, grade-level and a primary picture.

How do we promote the sale of the Odyssey Interactive eYearbook? 
Selling our solution to your students is no different than your previous experience. Before and during the yearbook sale, promote the book! Build hype and anticipation. You are competing for money, which may go to gas, prom or the latest electronic gadget, so you must actively seek the sale. Various promotional tools include: 

  • PA announcements
  • Home-made posters and banners
  • Flyers
  • Presentations to homeroom
  • Press releases in school newspaper
  • Incentives and student give-aways

How do I motivate students to buy eYearbooks early? 
The best incentive for early purchase is to create a sliding scale for your eYearbook pricing. Let students and parents know that early purchases include a discount off the eYearbook total price. Let it be known that the longer you wait, the more expensive the purchase price.

When do we need to submit the final quantity for our eYearbook order? 
This will be specified on your publishing agreement and will solely depend on your requested publishing date and final shipping date. It’s usually about 4 weeks before your expected delivery date.

How do I decide on the eYearbook selling price? 
Unfortunately, this process is more subjective because the wholesale price is not completely production-dependant. The wholesale price is dependant on order volume and there’s no specific charge for printing or other expenses. Therefore, determine how many eYearbooks you expect to sell and ad a profit margin on-top of the appropriate wholesale list price.

How do I determine ad rates? 
eYearbook ads are one size fits all; like Internet banner ads, there’s no longer a need to negotiate a ¼ page, ½ page or full page ad. Therefore, determining the price is based on the actual production cost per ad and also how much you want to make on each ad itself. As a starting point, look at four times production cost for your rate and modify as appropriate. An ad that costs $25 to produce should be sold for $100.

How do I keep track of eYearbook orders? 
Students are required to place their eYearbook reservation online at MyYearbookBuilder.com. Upon request, Odyssey Interactive can provide the yearbook adviser with a complete, up-to-date order list in hard-copy format, which was downloaded from the specific school’s account.

What forms of payment are accepted?
Odyssey Interactive will accept all personal checks, bank checks, and cash payments, which are denominated in US dollars. Credit card payment is also accepted.

Does Odyssey Interactive offer any financing options?
Financing options are NOT currently available. Final payment must be made within 10 days of final product delivery.

Does Odyssey Interactive offer incentives to customers that elect to prepay in full?
Odyssey Interactive does offer a 3% discounts for schools that elect to prepay balance in-full by January 1st. This does require that finaleYearbook count be placed before January 1st.

How long does it take to produce an eYearbook?
Production time is completely and entirely up to the individual school. It’s highly recommended that schools work at a comfortable pace, and spread the work load out throughout the entire school year.

Does Odyssey Interactive offer albums for other special occasions?
In addition to our traditional eYearbooks, Odyssey Interactive also provides digital solutions for wedding, family albums, anniversaries, birthdays, reunions and other special occasions.

How do I get started?
Contact Odyssey Interactive today and schedule a free, no obligation consultation. Alternatively, you can also register with us online via “START A YEARBOOK”, and we will contact you shortly thereafter.

 

 

For further information, please contact Mr. John McClane.

About Odyssey Interactive

Odyssey Interactive, L.L.C. is a frontier, multimedia publishing company specializing in the development of custom digital solutions for archiving high school audio, video and photographs into interactive electronic yearbooks.

Keywords: digital yearbook publishing company | free digital yearbook software | free video yearbook software | free dvd yearbook software | free interactive yearbook software | free electronic yearbook software | free online yearbook software



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