Tag: Memory Preservation

MEMORY KEEPING: THE BEST JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER

Always Striving to Improve

One of the best things about FOREVER is that they never just sit around congratulating themselves on how great they are. Instead they continue to review every single thing about our services and listen to every comment and suggestion that comes their way. Their motto could be, if if’s not broken, improve it. Another great thing is that instead of spending money on advertising, they invest in making FOREVER better.

The latest improvement introduced is in the Digitization department. I mean you do know that not too long ago they opened the largest, most technically advanced digitization center in the world. But that wasn’t enough. They felt the online experience for our clients should match the world class treatment their media was getting in the digitization center. So they took a long, hard look at every inch of the process and considered how to make it better.

Improvements That Matter

I hate when a company raves about their new stuff, but it’s just a repackaging of the old stuff. That’s not what happened in the Digitization department. Here’s what they’ve done:

1. A longer period of time to preview your project: Clients used to have 60 days from the time of digitization to decide what to do about their newly digitized items. For many, digitization is a huge investment, so people would just download their newly digitized images and hope for the best. FOREVER has extended that to 90 days. By extending the time the images can stay in the preview area, clients have more time to make arrangements for permanent storage, so they’ll have the best, rather than just hoping for it!
2. Sharing from the preview area: In the past, to share newly digitized images, clients either had to move them to FOREVER storage or download them to their devices. Now, the images can be shared immediately from the preview area for 90 days. That’s better for new clients and also for the people they want to share with. What’s more, the preview area has been improved to operate just like regular storage. No more handling things one way in the preview area and another way once the items are in your storage. The experiences will be the same.
3. Making it easier to do what’s next: Ordering, filling and returning a digitization box for the first time can be challenging. Even though I explain exactly what is going to happen to each new client, there always seems to be something they miss. “Oh, I didn’t realize I would be charged for extra items,” is the usual one, even though I know I explained the box would be inventoried and they would be billed for anything over the digitization allowance they’d purchased. So, it’s no surprise that whatever I told them about permanent storage, facial recognition and video streaming is totally forgotten by the time they get their images in the preview area. So, FOREVER gently reminds them and gives them the opportunity to purchase these services right in the preview area.
4. Another 90 Days of Video Streaming for New Paying Customers: One thing new customers love is the click & play of videos available in the preview area. So, when that new customer purchases storage for their digitized videos, they get a 90-Day extension of free video streaming, so they can continue to click & play their videos. Without video streaming, they must download to play. That’s a $70 bonus for new storage clients.
5. Something that matters to me: Digitization projects now have a home, just like print projects do. I ordered my first print project from FOREVER back in March of 2021. If I want to take a look at it or show it to someone, it’s right there in my account, just like all the images I have stored in my account. Now, Digitization is the same way. Even if I’ve spread the items in a box all over my account, I can still go to the digitization tab and see each project. It’s another short quick way to access my stuff.

Better Follow-up

Once your digitized images have been in the preview area for 30 days, FOREVER reaches out to remind you to save them and it reminds you of the various ways you can preserve those memories, while pointing out the dangers of merely downloading. This is the easiest way to go about purchasing the amount of storage you need for your project AND you have the choice of a one-time payment or a 24 month payment plan.

If you choose to purchase permanent storage for your project, FOREVER follows up with an email to remind you to download the free FOREVER app and to introduce other wonderful services you might be interested in taking advantage of.

I hope these new improvements inspire you to take the leap and order your first or second, or third…digitization box!

MEMORY PRESERVATION: THE PROBLEM WITH FREE

Another Thing You Probably Didn’t Realize!

Last week I discussed secure cloud storage, data mining and advertising. This week I’m going to discuss the most important thing that sets FOREVER apart from it’s competition and basically, that’s why it’s called FOREVER.

Cloud Storage You Own Rather Than Rent

As I discussed last week, some companies provide free storage and the rest charge you a small (or not so small) fee monthly or annually, like rent. They are giving you a license to use their cloud, but they accept no responsibilities for it and they let you know they are going to data mine your account, while getting paid to advertise to you. If you are using their service for free, they will outline the circumstances in which your account will be shut down and they are not required to inform you about it. Some do, but in the end, if you don’t take action, your images will be deleted. It’s a lot more simple if you are paying rent (fees, maintenance, whatever they call it), because when you don’t, they delete your account.

At FOREVER you pay for storage up front with a one time payment or a 24 month payment plan and then its yours outright. You will not continue to pay a monthly or annual fee to maintain it. Your heirs will not have to take up your payments or pay any transfer fees. If you get dementia, get sick, go broke or die, you descendants not going to lose access to your space on the cloud (unless you want to bar them) and your images will be safe for whoever you would like to get them.

What you want FOREVER to do with those images if and when you aren’t managing them, for whatever reason, is up to you. There’s a way to set up everything up so your heirs get immediate access or you can make everything public or…well, there’s several options and one of them will suit your needs.

But What About That “Updated File Formats” Thing?

Updated File Formats are the icing on the cake and something no one else even mentions. Remember floppy discs? There was a time when floppy discs were state of the art. Now they’re useless (unless you get them digitized by FOREVER).

Well, a day is coming (and it won’t be long) when the same thing will be true of jpg, mp4, pdf and the rest of the alphabet soup What’s going to happen with your images if they are on Google Photos or Dropbox in the new soup? You don’t know, do you?

That’s something FOREVER cloud owners don’t have to worry about. When jpg goes the way of the floppy disc, then FOREVER is going to update your images to whatever the new thing is.

Remember not so long ago when Apple came up with the HEIC format? It was just one of their many ploys over the years to not play well with others. Almost immediately, FOREVER created a work around, so Apple customers would have seamless use of their FOREVER account and just recently, that work around became full integration.

I don’t know what the new alphabet soup will be. Will HEIC become the new jpg? Or is something else being developed somewhere else? It really doesn’t matter if you have FOREVER storage, because FOREVER’s got you covered!

A Few Final Footnotes

See those quotes in the lower left hand corner of the image above. Those were taken directly from the terms you agreed to when you signed up with Google and Apple. Apple has made some slight changes in their survivorship wording, but the effect is the same – you no pay, you no play.

The Google terms still apply. Share one photo from your account and Google owns everything. You’ve probably read something similar posted on Facebook. People tell you to copy and paste the post to protect yourself. These terms do apply to Facebook, the only difference being that by posting it on the social site you have shared it, so they own everything. You can copy or paste that post as much as you want it makes absolutely no difference at all. Tell your friends. I’ve been trying to nip it in the bud from the day it appeared, but the urban legend is bigger than the truth, even though the urban legend is a lie.

MEMORY PRESERVATION: THE PROBLEM WITH FREE

Sampling the Status Quo

Chances are you use one of the companies on the chart above. You’re probably getting the service for free – or at least you were in the beginning. And whoever you’re using they’ve probably sweetened the pot with features like free facial recognition and automatic tagging. Why in the world would you consider paying for permanent storage from a company you may have never heard of? Well, maybe I can give you a few reasons.

Guarantees the Safety of Your Files

Have you read the terms and agreements of your cloud service? Probably not. You just assumed a big household name like Amazon or iCloud, would do the right thing? Right? Wrong!!

Virtually every other cloud company besides FOREVER actually informs you in their terms and agreements you are merely being granted a license to use their cloud space. By uploading your images there, you agree to release the licensee from any liability. They are free to delete, compress, share or transfer your images as they see fit. In fact, they probably will also warn you to have your images backed up elsewhere. Is that what you thought you had signed up for?

Perhaps you did know that stipulation, but you thought that was just the way things are and you had no idea you had any other options. Well, there is a cloud provider who will guarantee the safety of your images for your life plus 100 years. It’s called FOREVER.

No Data Mining

Do you know what data mining is? Remember when Facebook got into trouble for sharing information about their users? That’s data mining. Most (virtually all) cloud providers offering free or cheap storage data mine. They tell you they data mine in the terms and agreements, because that’s how they can afford to offer you free cloud services. You’re the product, not the customer. When they offer you other “free” stuff like facial recognition and automatic tagging, it comes along with you giving them permission to mine your data even more specifically than they could without these services.

Perhaps that’s OK with you. I didn’t see any harm it in when I was a captive audience to their services – but now I really understand the way it works and I want no part of it and I certainly don’t want them having any part of me.

No Advertising

As to Advertising, most of us have gotten used to it, so it may not be as compelling a reason to consider FOREVER as some of the other things I told you about today. We’ve gotten almost to the point we don’t even see the ads at the top, bottom and sides of our screens. You’ve probably got a pop-up blocker on your computer. Who cares? Right?

Well, once you have experienced a cloud without any advertising, you’ll care and when you couple it with the relief of secure storage that won’t be data mined, you start to understand how FOREVER is very different from whatever cloud storage you’ve been using.

You think about these things I’ve told you about today and next week, I’ll reveal a few other things you might not have realized about your free/cheap cloud service.

MEMORY PRESERVATION: IT’S ALL THERE!

The Way It Seems

To the casual observer, which is most people, Memory Preservation has many sectors. It seems as if cloud storage comes from one place, media digitization comes from another and genealogy comes from some place else completely. Then there’s a whole world for print. You print photos here, Christmas cards there and calendars someplace else. Video streaming is another area of expertise. Most people don’t have an idea where to begin.

And there are some big names in the business – Google, iCloud, Amazon, Legacy Box, Ancestry, Snapfish, Shutterfly – the list continues. They’d be good right? Everyone knows them.

The Way It Is

In reality, there is a single company which offers all these things and even more:

• Permanent cloud storage you own and superior media digitization
• Restoration and colorization of faded and damaged images.
• Professional genealogy support and training for amateur genealogist.
• A media migration program developed and heartily embraced by professional photo organizers and genealogist.
• High quality, but affordable, print offerings, second to none.
• The world’s premiere digital scrapbooking software, digital art and an incredible online community of camaraderie, support and training for digital scrapbookers.
• Private video streaming with auto-play and no ads.

Are you wondering why you didn’t know they exist? Well, at the very inception of the company, it’s founder decided FOREVER was going to be different. Instead of setting aside a huge amount of their capital for marketing, they instead invested in the best technology available, because at the core of the company would be cloud storage people owned rather than rented and instead of the average Memory Keeper going to multiple companies to get the services they needed, they’d be able to get what they needed at the very place they stored their precious memories.

FOREVER is not even structured like the usual for profit business, where the point is to create income for the board of directors and stockholders. Instead, the board of directors are responsible for creating a profit to support the business, while providing a benefit to their customers. The benefit is permanent cloud storage which is owned rather than rented and remains available to the owners of the storage and their descendants into the future, long after the initial investment is made, without any additional rent or fees. Currently FOREVER guarantees that benefit for the owner’s lifetime plus 100 years, but the goal of the company is to provide the service forever. Profit to maintain and promote the company is generated from all the other services offered by FOREVER to complement their core service – personal cloud storage for your memories that you own.

That’s not the way the rest of those companies operate. The focus of those companies is their bottom line, especially those offering you free or cheap cloud services. If you read their fine print, you’ll see their goal is to mine your photos for information they can sell to advertisers. You’re a source of income. Not a customer! And if they do upgrade you to a higher level of service, that service only lasts for as long as you continue to pay them rent.

If you’d like to make your life easier, by consolidating your Memory Keeping activities into one service and you’re tired of being taken for granted by companies who use you rather that serve your needs, then we need to talk about FOREVER. Call me for an appointment at 972-971-5263 and I’ll buy the coffee!

Memory Preservation: Why It SHOULD Matter to You

I HAVE A HARD JOB!

Getting any message out these days is hard, because there are so many people out there shouting at the top of their voices, trying to get your attention. With everyone screaming at you at once, it’s hard to get a word in edgewise.

You’re busy, I get it. The last thing you want is one more person telling you something you absolutely must get done right now.

Besides, you might have already “done something” about your memories. You think you’re done and if you’re not, then you don’t want to hear about it.

And you probably think you already know what it is I’m doing. The most frequent assumptions run from hosting scrapbooking classes and selling stickers to professional photo organizing, but that’s not exactly what I’m up to. The funniest assumption was that I work with memory care facilities in some capacity, but I don’t.

If you do know what I’m doing, you presume what I’m offering is exactly the same thing you already get from someplace or someone else that’s a more common household. It’s a misconception, but it’s a common one.

Memory Preservation Posts

What I actually do is come alongside people with Memory Messes and help fix them – the Memory Messes, not the people. I know you’re busy! That’s why I offer to step in to help do whatever needs to be done to preserve your memories for the future, and that looks different for everyone I meet. That’s what I’m going to address in my Wednesday posts.

Everybody’s Memory Mess is unique, but what they all have in common is that their memories are at risk.

Take the people who think they’ve already “done something.” These are the people who are probably the hardest for me to reach. They’ve already spent time and/or money on this and they’re done. The problem is that they are only almost done, if their goal was to preserve their memories for the future.

The easiest people for me to reach are those who KNOW they need to do something and are already thinking about what that is. They know there has to be something they can do, but they’re also scared to death of taking on a big job that’s going to cost a lot of money they don’t have. That’s where I can help the most, but getting them to move from worrying about it to doing something isn’t easy.

So, on Wednesdays, I will share a little information about Memory Preservation and how I might be able to help you. I offer both traditional and digital Memory Keeping Solutions. I can help you whether you want to do it yourself, you just need a little help or you just want me to make it go away. I hope you’ll join me!