Hey guys! I'm Melissa Jill -- the Owner of Align!  
 
I wanted to take a second to introduce myself to those of you who may not know me. 
 
I started out my career as a professional photographer based out of a Phoenix, Arizona where I shot weddings for 16 years. Five years ago I moved to Huntsville, Alabama where I am continuing to shoot weddings part-time but focusing even more of my energy on Align Album Design. I started this album design company back in 2012 as a way to help other professional photographers get a handle on their album workflow because I know from experience how tough it can be. Small business owners have A LOT of balls in the air at any one time.  
 
I really value albums and always highly encouraged all of my photography clients to include one in their package. But my relationship with albums hasn't always been a happy one. I struggled like many photographers to learn how to sell albums profitably and efficiently and at times it was a rough road! More on that later!  
 
I now live in Alabama with my husband, Bruce, and our little boy, Beau. They are my world:

Our days are filled with raising a human, running a business, pouring into our church, and keeping up with family and friends. Oh -- and eating my husband's amazing cooking! I totally lucked out in that department! 
 
So that's a little about myself. I LOVE what I do, but like many photographers, album design and workflow has been a pain point of mine. I remember sitting down to do my very first album after a client requested one during my first year in business and thinking... "This is going to be easy, I'll just throw this together." Turns out it wasn't so much. There was a HUGE learning curve and every time I thought I had one thing mastered, another issue popped up.  
 
First there were gazillions of options -- which company do I use, which style album do I pick, which cover, which paper type? Do I design it myself or outsource it? Which software do I use or which company do I outsource to? How do I manage proofing with my clients? In addition to all of these choices, I hit so many obstacles with my client workflow. I waited FOREVER for clients to pick their images. Then when I figured out I needed to be pre-designing, I waited FOREVER for them to finalize their design. There were endless rounds of revisions, clients wanting to stuff every last corner of the design with images, and the list goes on and on. I was left wondering -- IS IT EVEN WORTH IT to sell albums?  
 
Clearly I answered that question in the affirmative. And I've lived to tell about it. And not only that, but I figured out how to make albums PROFITABLE. For the last couple years we were in Phoenix, my studio's yearly profit from albums was close to $25,000. I share this only to encourage you that it is possible. And it IS worth figuring out how to navigate through the obstacles and frustrations! 
 
Over the coming weeks I hope to share a few things I've learned along the way that have helped make my album workflow profitable and efficient. These tips will apply to Align clients, but they will also apply to those of you who design your albums yourselves. And while what I share has worked well for my studio, it's not the only way to do things. I hope this blog can be a place where we can have a conversation; where we can learn and grow from sharing our knowledge and experiences with one another. Life is always better lived in community. So I hope you'll join me, follow along, and share your insight in the comments!  
 
To make sure you don't miss out on any of the upcoming tips in this series -- many of which I guarantee will be life-changing! -- click here to sign up to get them sent straight to your inbox! 
 
And exciting news! If you're a photographer who wants to start offering albums without investing hours of guesswork and trial and error -- we have a solution for you! Check out the Album Start-Up Kit and start maximizing your profit today! 

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Blog post written by: Melissa Jill

If you're anything like us, you are going to swoon when you see today's featured album design! 
 
Florida wedding photographer Ailyn La Torre's style is clean, bright, modern and classic. And we might add -- consistent. Her images are beautifully shot and expertly edited. She was the perfect photographer to shoot this playfully colorful wedding at the Tampa Yacht Club! 
 
We've had the pleasure of designing close to 50 albums over the last few years for Ailyn. She loves to work with our designer Shannon who has worked hard to deliver album after album in Ailyn's preferred style -- a clean design to match her clean style that includes 4-6 images per spread, except for reception images which can be a lot more.  
 
Ailyn used our Hands-off Service for this design, which really streamlined the revision process, and the album was completed in just over a month with only one round of revisions. We can't wait to share it with you! 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this stunning design: 

To see the design in full, click through the slideshow: 
 
 
 
Thank you, Ailyn, for trusting us with your clients and images!

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Design by: Shannon (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill

The sweet couple in today's featured wedding album design got married in front of their closest family and friends at one of their favorite restaurants in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The oh-so-talented Jean Smith photographed their day so beautifully.  
 
When it came time to design their wedding album, the couple asked Jean to pick HER favorite images from the day for the album. And this is the result! The design was finalized within 5 days and printed by Miller's Lab as a 10x10 heirloom album that they will cherish forever!  
 
This album is one of over 180 designs we have had the pleasure of creating for Jean and her clients over the past decade plus. We are SO BLESSED to work with such a talented, kind human. 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this sweet design: 

To see the design in full, click through the slideshow:  
 
 
 
Thank you, Jean, for trusting us with your images and clients!

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Design by: Rachel (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill

Hey guys! Melissa Jill here! I've recently shared some of my strategies for solving common album workflow problems. But there are sure to be others that you've experienced that I haven't covered. No matter how hard I work on my photography business, problems inevitably arise. Welcome to being a business owner :). But the secret to really succeeding long-term in business is not just found in solving individual problems, but in systematizing solutions to each problem that arises so that you prevent it from happening again. That's how a business becomes more profitable and efficient over time. 
 
Think for a minute about an issue that you've recently dealt with in your business. Has a client been unhappy about something? Have you been frustrated that someone didn't understand how things worked or didn't get back to you in a timely fashion? Do you have that issue in mind? Good! I'm going to try to help you today to systematize a solution to it so you never have to go through something similar again. 
 
There's an analogy I like to use to help me explain systematizing a business, and help paint a picture of this effort as an ongoing process. I like to call it The Principle of Plugging Leaks. Let's say for some reason that you are in a dry river bed (just go with me on this). You know the water is coming, and you want to build a dam to help stop the water and protect something valuable to you on the other side. So you gather rocks and debris -- anything you can find around you -- to set up a sturdy dam. When you're done, you step back and admire your work. You look at it from every angle, trying to access where the holes might be. You do your best to build the dam well, but you don't really know how it will hold up until the water comes. You might even feel a little over-confident that it will be impenetrable. "No water is getting through this thing!" But when the water comes gushing through the river bed, you instantly see where the weaknesses are, because little streams of water are coming out the other side. For the most part, the dam holds up, but you are left plugging leaks. Occasionally another leak will crop up and you will need to plug that one, trying to make sure it holds up over time.  
 
Since this isn't a remarkably sophisticated analogy, you've probably figured out that the dam is the system you build for your business. Plugging the leaks will be an ongoing process -- we will never be completely done solving problems as business owners. But the goal should be to plug each leak or solve each problem by tweaking the system so that that specific issue does not arise again. 
 
Here are some of the common album-related issues that I myself have experienced and heard are common to other photographers: 
- Waiting forever for clients to pick their images 
- The client doesn't love the initial design and wants too many changes 
- The client wants to cram as many images as possible onto each spread, resulting in a cluttered design. 
- The client makes endless numbers of changes to the initial design. 
- The client is unresponsive and doesn't finalize their album in a timely manner. 
- The client is surprised or frustrated that the photographer designed their album larger than what they ordered and is trying to sell them additional pages. 
- After delivering a larger album design with the option to upgrade, the client doesn't respond quickly and ends up deciding against upgrading. 
 
If you continue to experience one of these issues, click on it and you will find another article with a solution I have systematized that has effectively solved it and removed this pain point from my workflow. If you don't see your issue above, or if you run into other non-album-related issues in your workflow, try to strategize a way that you can tweak what you do to prevent that same issue from happening again.  
 
1 -- Could you create a template email that you send out to your client at a certain point in their experience (or a .pdf you share with clients in your initial meeting) to better educate them and help you achieve the optimum result you desire? 
2 -- Could you create some type of incentive or deadline to help move things along and motivate your client? 
3 -- Could you change your contract to make something that a client has misunderstood more explicit so that expectations are better managed?  
 
Hopefully this gives you some ideas about how to systematize a solution to the specific issue you recently experienced. And next time a problem arises (and we all know it will), rather than beating yourself up or playing the blame game by being frustrated at your client or another vendor, you can use your energy to pre-empt that problem in the future by tweaking your system. 
 
Thanks for reading today! I hope you found something helpful here! As always -- this is a community and we love to hear from you and share a dialogue in the comments below. Have you had issues you've found creative solutions for? Share a comment so we can all benefit from your amazing wisdom!

If you found this post helpful and would like to receive tips like this straight to your inbox, click here to sign up!

And exciting news! If you're a photographer who wants to start offering albums without investing hours of guesswork and trial and error -- we have a solution for you! Check out the Album Start-Up Kit and start maximizing your profit today! 

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Blog post written by: Melissa Jill

Austin wedding photographer Lucy Struve did a really smart thing.... She asked us to design a next-level sample album for one of her favorite Austin wedding venues -- The Arlo.  
 
Lucy is a preferred vendor at The Arlo and she wanted to provide them with an album to showcase the beautiful space, as well as her work. So we made sure to select images that would show off her best work and especially highlight the unique beauty of the venue. As Lucy shared with us, "The venue is such an important part of how a wedding day looks and photographs. My hope is that if a client sees this album and then chooses to book both me and this venue, then they are someone who places a high priority on photography!" 
 
This design was ordered and brought to completion in one week! It is a 15 spread design and Lucy chose to print it through RedTree. What a beautiful gift and smart marketing move on Lucy's part! 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this stunning design:

To see the design in full, click through the slideshow: 
 
 
 
Thank you, Lucy, for entrusting us with your beautiful images!

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Design by: Rachel (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill