Tag: Photos

TRAVEL

Let Me Sort It Out – or Not

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: DON’T LET THE MESS GET IN THE WAY

Are you looking for Photo Organizing or Memory Keeping?

Where is your mess? Is it in a box, on a shelf, in a closet, under the bed, in a crate or is it actually in all of those places. For many people, that mess is the main reason they don’t want to talk (or think) about memory keeping. They think they need to go through it first, but that’s like cleaning the house for the maid to come!

I do this all the time, you don’t. I know the cues to look for. I’m not slowed down by emotions. This is my job. I’m going to get your photos sorted faster and that’s better than never. I don’t know all the details, but that’s the beauty of it and my ultimate goal is focused on providing completed projects which allow you to SHARE your photos. Curating the photos is just the first step in that process.

Perhaps you’ve heard of professional organizers and the the huge fees they charge for organizing photos. That’s not me. I’m a Memory Keeper. My primary product is not a downloadable file. Getting the photos organized is just step one. Saving and sharing your photos with future generations is my focus.

I embrace both traditional and digital solutions to Memory Keeping. I partner with FOREVER and Creative Memories, because they already have easy-to-use, affordable products, that will do a better job for you than anyone, including me, can do.

If what you want is a traditional scrapbook, then I am a scrapbooking artist. I’ve been doing it since I was nine years old and the results are beautiful. I can make them as simple or as ornate as you like. If you need your photos organized before I can start on the album, then I can do that. too.

If you prefer digital, then I have the best solutions in the industry. You need digitization? That’s what FOREVER does at the newest, largest and most state-of-the-art facility in the world. If you need your images to be organized before or after you digitize, well I do that, too, but as with the traditional albums, organizing is just a part of the job.

I don’t want you to just have organized images, I want those images to be on safe, permanent, online storage you own rather than rent. Believe me, that’s not iCloud or Google Photos or Facebook or Dropbox or Amazon or any of the other companies which force you to sign terms & agreements which limit their liability and put your memories at risk. And it’s certainly not your phone, computer or laptop. I want you to put them on FOREVER, where you you can access them from any device and you’re guaranteed your photos will be there for your lifetime, plus100 years and you rather than than some anonymous executive decide what will happen to them in the future.

I don’t want to give you a disc or a drive that can be corrupted, lost or destroyed. I don’t isolate your memories on your laptop or computer where no one but you will ever see them. I want your digital images on FOREVER, so they can be shared now and in the future without incurring monthly or annual charges for whoever comes after you.

So, I don’t tag myself as a Professional Photo Organizer. I am a Memory Keeper. I’ll do your Memory Keeping tasks for you or I’m happy to share all my secrets with you and help you enjoy being a Memory Keeper, too.

Let’s talk about your mess. Let’s figure out your budget – both time and money. Let’s talk about your audience and what will be good for future generations. Then let’s decide how we’re going to get it done – by you, by me or by both of us working together. My number is 972-971-5263. Let’s get started today.

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Who Has the Best Media Digitization?

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: DEFINE BEST

Searching the Web

The internet is a funny thing. We depend on it heavily and yet it has very limited capabilities – in part, because it depends mostly on numbers. Were you to ask it who offers the best media digitization available, you could get a lot of different answers, but chances are, you wouldn’t know what those results meant, because what is best? Is it the company that’s been around the longest? Is it the one with the most reviews? Is it the one with the highest rating?

One of the oldest companies offering media digitization is by far the best known, but they don’t make any of the best lists. Some rating companies point to bad reviews. Others talk about it being expensive. I hate it when people ask me if we’re like XXXXXXXXXXXX, the company they know from the ubiquitous advertising campaigns. Yes, we’re both in the same business, but what we offer is light years ahead of this company, which was once on the leading edge of this industry.

One of our competitors is making great strides, in part because they’ve convinced the rating companies that they do everything – only they don’t. Two words – Scrapbook Pages. They don’t. And their photo restoration is handled by AI, not photo restoration artists. I don’t know about you, but those things matter to me. I think they’ve done a great job of marketing, but I know they actually can’t compare to us.

In fact, when you really start to dig into it, the more you learn the crazier it gets. Bright new start-ups, mobile digitization services, the guy in a garage with an ancient scanner. In fact, the internet hides more than it reveals. If they have a shiny new website with good SEO, chances are the internet is going to love them, regardless of what they do or do not offer.

So What Does FOREVER Offer and Why Should I Use Them?

Well, for one thing, we just moved into the newest, largest, most state-of-the-art media digitization facility in the world. We’re very excited about the “newest” thing, because we literally just built it and moved in, but it’s not the most important thing on the list.

That we built it is rather relevant, because we’ve been digitizing for a while now and we’ve been in some of those older facilities like our friendly competitors. These days we’re not making do with a remodeled strip center retrofitted to meet our needs. We built our facility from the ground up with only one thing in mind – media digitization. From weatherproofed docks which allows Fed Ex to unload their trucks inside to the clean room for processing media, no stone was left unturned which would allow us to do our job better.

Largest is quite significant, because one of the reasons for our size is the number of pieces of equipment we have for digitization. That’s why when we say we digitize everything, unlike our competition who try to say the same thing, we actually do. We’ve invested in a lot of equipment, just so we can digitized anything. We’ve actually developed our own equipment for handling materials that other companies don’t touch (like scrapbook pages, newspapers, 3D items etc.)

Most state-of-the-art is a little of both of these. Our warehouse is innovative, but our clean room is amazing. Our people are pretty remarkable, too. Our hiring process is not about finding warm bodies to shove photos through a machine. We hire and train media specialist with a focus on customer satisfaction. Our mind set is not faster processing, it’s more accurate, better quality processing. And yes, we hire real live artists to handle our photo restoration projects.

Our white glove service isn’t restricted to the clean room. The entire circle of service, from the moment a box comes to our facility until the moment we load the media we’re returning to the customer for delivery (yes, we return your media back to you after it is digitized) we understand what we’re handling. Throughout the entire process, from the moment you order your box, we’re going to keep you updated with exactly where your media is in our process. It’s not media to us – it’s memories.

Beyond Our New Building and Our Boxes

The fact that we deal in memories, rather than media is what really matters. Media Digitization is the beginning of what we do. We also offer the best online solutions for storing and sharing your memories. Those other guys will allow you to download from their site, offer you equipment to store your images or try and rent storage to you.

You can download from our online box center and you can buy equipment like thumb drives and DVD’s if you want to, but that’s not what we want you to do. We know you need a permanent place to store your memories, one that is safe and will be there for generations to come, without having to pay monthly/annual fees. That’s why we have online storage you own rather than rent, protected by an ironclad guarantee you can read for yourself.

We also offer a free app for synching your phone’s photo storage with FOREVER; a computer-based program for sorting, editing and sharing photos that also has facial recognition, scanning and album planning; file migration software developed for professional photo organizers and cherished by memory keepers everywhere; the world’s most advanced and comprehensive software for designing digital scrapbooks, photo gifts and more, as well as a huge selection of digital art; private video streaming; frequent free training events for our customers, as well as an extensive library of free training videos; family research professionals for discovering your genealogy; a very active online community of digital scrapbookers with virtual crops, free giveaways and more training than you can imagine; and that’s still not all we do.

We offer an extensive line of projects you can create and print, on your own. No need to go to the local office supply store, the big box store, the pharmacy’s photo department or one of those online places that offer photobooks and gifts, but has made you sign an agreement saying they can delete, compress or mine your photos. We have Autobooks and Photobooks in a wide variety of sizes, styles and bindings. Our Photo Gifts include tabletop panels, ornaments, coasters, magnets, puzzles, blankets, drinkware and wall décor. Our stationary choices include greeting cards, notebooks, planners and calendars. And if that’s not enough, get Artisan and design anything you want. Oh, and if you want prints, from standard sized photos, to page prints to posters, yes we do that, too.

A Stream-lined One-Stop Shop for All Your Digital Memory-Keeping Needs

There’s just not anything else like FOREVER. There might not be a keyword or phrase you can plug into your search engine that will say we are the best, but after reading through this blog post, I hope you realize FOREVER is the best for you. Call or text me and let’s talk about it!

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Voila! The Group Box

Jane Sadek

Memory Keeping 101: Togetherness for Digitization Value

Welcome to Group Box Digitization

Group Box Digitization is a great way to try out FOREVER’s Digitization Process, with less expense and risk than ordering your own FOREVER Box. Though our Digitization Process is quite easy and safe, some people are intimidated. Joining FOREVER, verifying an email address, choosing a type of box, choosing a size of box and then ordering a box. It sounds like a lot to some people and for the budget-minded or skeptical, it might seem like too much of an expense or risk. Then there’s packing the box and sending it back to FOREVER. We do it every day, but if you never have, you might feel some hesitation.

See there are all those urban legends about digitization companies, most of which may have actually happened, but have nothing in the world to do with FOREVER. We don’t do any of the awful things to your media the other guys do. Turn-around time is quick, everything gets the white glove treatment, nothing is lost, nothing is destroyed by equipment etc. etc. etc., but if all you’ve heard are horror stories from customers of other media digitization companies, sending your treasures off to strangers is scary.

With a Group Box, you don’t pay a penny until your media arrives at FOREVER. I order the box and I pay for most of the shipping. A Group Box is actually a big box with four small individual boxes inside. Your individual box is smaller than a standard FOREVER box, so you don’t feel the pressure to load up the box to get your money’s worth. Send one thing and see what happens. Or load it up and enjoy the reduced shipping fees. It’s up to you.

All you have to do with a Group Box is get signed up for FOREVER and give me your stuff. When I receive the big box, I’ll pack your media and send it back. When the Group Box containing your media arrives at FOREVER, they’ll let you know. Only then will you be invoiced for the digitization and return shipping. Then sooner than you can imagine, you’ll receive notification that your digitized media is online. You can download it or even better, you can invest in FOREVER storage and have those memories ready to share for generations to come – even generations you’ll never know.

Try It! You’ll Like It!

My first Group Box was delivered to my house just the other day. I want to return it to FOREVER before Thanksgiving, so your digitization order will earn an entry in my Crazy Turkey Day Drawing for a $50 Gift Certificate and you can share your digitized memories around the Christmas tree!

For some clients, Group Boxes become a way of life. As soon as I send off their media in one Group Box, they start gathering what they want to send in the next one. For others, sampling Digitization with a Group Box was all the encouragement they needed to order their own Box and ship into high Memory Keeping gear. Maybe, the Group box is just big enough to hold the two or three items you wanted to get done and that’s all you’ll ever need.

Whatever your situation, the Group Box might be just the thing you need next for your Memory Keeping projects. Give me a call at 972-971-5263 and let’s get sgtarted!

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Farewell to The Pricing Roulette Game

Jane Sadek
Photo by Naim Benjelloun on Pexels.com

MEMORY KEEPING 101: SIMPLE & SURE PRICING

No More Buy It Now or Else

In my career as a FOREVER Ambassador, there was one thing I really hated and it was the way their prices were moving targets. The decision to invest in Memory Keeping is an important one and when someone decides to do it, they shouldn’t have to hurry up or wait to make their basic purchases, but the way FOREVER handled some of their pricing made me crazy.

Nobody loves a bargain better than me, so I love FOREVER print deals. I’ve always got a project on my mind and yes, I save them for the 50% off deals and Club Weekends free shipping. That just makes sense. However, some deals just didn’t.

To me, the pricing for much of the FOREVER services were counterproductive to my efforts. When I first started with FOREVER (almost 3 years ago!) the pricing for storage would fluctuate wildly. I get it – they were trying to match what the competition was doing and the competition, those fishes, flies and boxes, use slashed prices to lure in customers, but we had things the competitors didn’t, so why were we slashing those prices?

Obviously, I wasn’t alone. I was a mere newbie, what did I know? But behind the scenes the Executive Ambassadors were saying the same thing I was.

Few people buy permanent online storage or private video streaming on a whim. Most people don’t even realize it exists. They think you have to pay for storage month by month for the rest of their lives. They think their personal videos have to be posted to some social media giant to be shared. FOREVER isn’t a household name, yet.

So, Ambassadors go around letting people know they have a choice, but figuring out what that means usually takes some getting used to and some serious consideration about budget. When the price changed for those unique services week by week and day by day, trying to offer your customers the best value for their dollar was a game of chance.

It Got Better

I am not privy to everything that went on behind the scenes, but at the first of this year, they made a change to the pricing on storage. They set a price that was the price, but they weren’t quite to where I wanted to be, because the price was consistently marked down the same percentage. It wasn’t what I wanted, but at least I wouldn’t be faced with telling anyone the 50% off storage was last week and now they had to pay full price.

In recent months, they tried something with a few of our other premiere products which, like our storage and video streaming, you can’t get anywhere else. When Valet, the file migration software beloved of the professional photo organizers, was introduced, they didn’t kick it off with bargains. They said here’s this unique software and you can try it free for a month, but then this is the price. Nobody waited for a deal, because there wasn’t going to be one. They just purchased it with glee.

That went so well, FOREVER made a change with our other unique software programs, Artisan and Historian. Instead of juggling the price with deals from month to month, they announced the price was the price and that was it. Guess what, sales continued at the same rate they had before. People weren’t buying because of the deals. They were buying because they understood the value and uniqueness of what we offer.

It’s Going to Get Even Better

So, come January, the same thing is going to happen with storage and streaming. The price is going to be the price. The “deals” which have been going on all year are going away, because when something is permanently 25% off, that isn’t much of a deal. I’ve got to tell you there will be a slight (very slight) rise in the price of storage and streaming from the net price you’d pay today, but it will be the price and I am so happy.

So, if you have storage you need to buy or have been considering streaming, the price you can get it for, through the end of December, is the cheapest you are ever going to see it. Come January 1, 2024, the new prices will be announced and that’s going to be the price. The only deal you can get is the 5% off you get with The Club or the $20 off with Welcome and Referral Coupons. That’s it! My job will be easier and I believe our clients will be less confused.

While We’re on the Subject of Deals, Let’s Talk About Our Print Deals

While I think FOREVER has been a little frustrating with some of their deals, I have always been very impressed with their print deals. Just like you, I used to think my only options for photo printing were the fish and the fly. While I was always a traditional scrapbooking fan and didn’t delve into the world of digital photo books (or digitization with the box for that matter), I did go their for Holiday Cards and photo printing. I’d be all excited about a deal and then when I’d made all of my selections, I’d be aghast at the final price. It would seem awfully high.

Well, let me tell you about those slashed prices at the fish, the fly and the box. Their bargains are offered on a particular portion of the sale and then they get you on everything else. If you were buying Christmas cards, for instance, you’d get the reduced price on the basics, but if you did anything beyond that, like a different finish or shape, fees would be added which were not marked down. If you were creating a photobook, the standard number of pages would be discounted, but every page after that had a hefty per page price. And those other digitization people? Who cares if they were going to give you 60% off on the initial items, because they’d always charge you full price on the rest of them.

When FOREVER has a deal, the deal applies to the whole product. If your digitization box is 40% off, then your extra items are going to be 40% off. If your photo book is 50% off, then the extra pages, matte finishes and anything else added to that book will be 50% off. And of course, the same applies with your holiday cards. Now that’s what I call a deal.

I know Memory Keeping is a big investment, however, the returns on your investment are immeasurable. How can you put a price on creating and sharing a heritage which will reach generations you will never even know? I don’t think you can, but with FOREVER and their new pricing policies, you won’t be playing a game of roulette. The price will be the price for the basics and you’ll enjoy true savings on the rest. Call me today at 972-971-5263 to talk about your memory mess.

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography

Curating Individual Images in FOREVER Part II

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: EVERY IMAGE MATTERS

Telling Every Picture’s Story

So, a couple of weeks ago, I went over the editing capabilities in the lightbox for every photo in FOREVER. It was a lot, I know, but it will always be here for you. Now I want to talk about the amazing curating tools available.

First up? Is this a favorite photo of yours, then click the heart right under “Info” and it will go red. When you are in the library (or any album), you can sort by favorites and they will all come up for you.

Next click Edit Info. This is where you get to tell the image’s story. This particular photo is brand new in my Library, so I will show you how I do it.

Before and after curating info

As you can see, I put the names of the people in the photo and the place in the title. That’s what works for me. I don’t need the date, because that was already picked up from the metadata. I can change it if I need to. However, I waxed eloquent in the description. I gave our full names, where we were and explained why we were there. I talked about what was going on around us and mentioned the location was close to our home.

You can go on for as long as you need to for the description. If there are 100 people in the photo – name them all, if you like. Tell what the occasion was, why it was special and whatever other info you think might be of interest to future generations. Naming things like cars, shops, articles of clothing and other items may have important historical information in the future. Having the description of a ceremony or family tradition might thrill someone a few generations from now.

Now, get ready for this. If you are in your app on your phone, you can use the microphone to tell the story, instead of typing it. Voice to Text technology can be a lot of fun. Imagine showing an old family photo to your grandmother, pressing the microphone and saying, “Grandma, tell me who this is and what is going on?” You’ll capture the past in your grandmother’s words. Can’t get much better than that.

I’ve talked about tagging before, so I won’t take up more of your time here. If you’d like to learn more, click this link.

Also in the lightbox, you can add the image to any album. When you click Add to Album a space will open and you can start typing. FOREVER will begin to find albums which match what you type. Your image will always reside in the library, but you can add it to as many albums as you want without it taking up more space in your storage.

And there we are! I edited the photo to keep the focus on Bill and me. I used a filter to make us look extra pretty. I chose the image as a favorite chose a name for the photo and described it, added some tags and put us in the 2023 Album. I’m done! I can click the arrow on the right side and move to the next photo.

If you need some help with any of this, you can call me, or use any of the great videos in FOREVER’s Getting Started section. Where’s that? Right on the front page of the site.

This link is always available to you right under the first image on FOREVER’s home page. When you click Get Answers, this is what you see! Enjoy!

DFW Metroplex, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

VALET Your Way to Done

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: EASY FILE MIGRATION

FOREVER for Memories

When it comes to file storage, you’ve got a lot of choices, but if those files are memories, in the form of images or audio, then you need FOREVER, because that’s where your photos will be safe now and for generations to come.

Safe, because you own it. Safe, because it’s technologically secure. Safe, because it’s guaranteed for your life plus 100 years. Safe because it’s triple backed up in a variety of geographical locations. Safe, because it’s not mined for advertising. Safe, because it won’t be deleted, compressed or transferred.

Most people have their memories spread out over three types of media. They have some things in hard copy – photos, videos, slides, movies, audio etc. The most recent memories are on their phone. And squeezed in between these two are all the places you may have digital photos other than your phone – your pc, your laptop, hard drives, thumb drives, floppy discs, CD’s, DVD’s, even camera cards.

FOREVER – a Place for Everything!

FOREVER is ready for all your memories. We have the very best digitization – bar none- in the industry (and in a few weeks will have the largest, most extensive facility) for all that hard copy media. Then every FOREVER storage account comes with it’s own free app, which will upload all your photos from your phone and continue to synch them as you take them should you desire.

All the rest can be uploaded from your devices, but in the past that could have been an obstacle for potential users. If your images were spread all over your digital life with no type of organization, then a move to FOREVER storage would protect your mess, but it would still be a mess. If your images were neatly organized in one or two places, then a move to FOREVER storage would have, once again, protected your images, but unless you took the time to carefully move them, folder by folder, you’d just have a safe mess. In either case, interested parties might hesitate to make the jump.

VALET Solves Both Problems

VALET is an app for high speed uploading and downloading, but it does more than that.

If your images are spread all over the place in a wide variety of media with no rhyme or reason, then you’ll love VALET. It will sort your images into dated albums by year and by month, as you upload them into FOREVER, and it will do it so quickly you’ll be amazed. When it’s done, all your memories will be safe and organized.

If your photos are neatly organized on your device(s), then you’ll love VALET even more. It will upload your photos into nested albums, based on the organization you have on your device and it will do it so fast you’ll barely believe it. When it’s done, all your photos will be safe and organized.

Here’s the best part! You can try out VALET for free for 30 days, even though you could probably move all your pictures in a matter of minutes or hours. Because it is a trial, it does not have the download feature available, but when moving to FOREVER, it’s all about the upload.

However, if you’re someone who moves a lot of images around or you’ve got so many photos, so many places you can’t get them all uploaded in 30 days, then VALET is only $60 a year. It was developed for use by photo professionals and professional organizers, so there is a pro level of the app which costs more, but for most of us, the standard VALET will do everything we’ll ever need it to do.

If you’re like some folks who just couldn’t face the trials and tribulations of moving your photos into FOREVER then I have to tell you, that excuse no longer holds water. If you’re still unsure about it, call me. I can either walk you through it in a ZOOM meeting or if necessary, come to your house, sit at your and do it for you!

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Win, Win, Win

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: FOREVER REFERRALS PAY OFF THREE WAYS

An Easy Win for You

Most of us would love to refer our friends to our friends, but it can get complicated. With FOREVER it’s easy. In fact, it’s so easy, some people do it without even realizing it.

From the App

Every FOREVER storage owner gets a free app which makes their photos accessible on their phones. If you’ show someone a photo from your collection and they say, “Oh I love it, can you share it?” You can say, “Sure!” and use the handy-dandy share symbol, but you can also be a hero.

You can also say, “I’d love to share it! Can I send you an invitation to join FOREVER? It’s free and it will make it really easy to share not only this photo, but anything else I want to share with you now and later.” If they say yes, and why wouldn’t they, then you’ve kicked off a great opportunity – for you, for your friend and for me!

Once your friend accepts your invitation, sharing photos and albums is very easy – not just that photo, but you’ve got an easy connection for sharing other items whenever you want. In addition, your friend immediately starts to enjoy some of the benefits of FOREVER and they will get a very special gift – but more about that later.

From Your Online Storage

Let’s say you’ve just uploaded all your vacation photos from your recent trip to Disney. Your kids are so cute and you know someone who would love to see them, but how are you going to send them? We’ve all been there. There’s too many to text, your email will convert it to some file you’re friend or kin may or may not be able to open or any other of the various things which can happen digitally. You just wish you could let them see them right there in your account. Well, you can.

You can hit the share button or your can be a hero! With the share button, they’ll get photos they can look at and download, but when you’re a hero, you give them their own access to FOREVER.

Just go to the person icon on the top right of your account, click on refer a friend and choose the way you want to share. In your invitation say, “I want to share some photos with you and FOREVER is an easy way to do it. Just sign up for free with this link.” when they connect with you, sharing will be easy.

So, How Do You Win, They Win and I Win?

When you send them the link and they verify their free membership, they get a $20 Off Welcome Coupon they can use any time in the next 60 days. That gives them time to see the photos you shared with them and they’ll get 2 GB of free storage to play with. When they make their first purchase, whether that’s storage, a digitation box or a print item, you’ll automatically get a $20 Off Coupon to use. That’s how you win and they win.

The more you refer, the more you win! Every time you refer someone who becomes a FOREVER customer, you get a $20 coupon with their first order. Want to buy something a little out of your budget? You can stack up to 3 coupons on any purchase, on top of any FOREVER deal and a FOREVER Club discount.

I will confess though, I am the biggest winner. First of all, I get a new client and that’s the best thing I can think of. What makes it better is that both you and your friend have been rewarded by FOREVER. Those $20 off coupons don’t come out of my pocket. That’s a present from FOREVER. But you know what? I always get a reward from FOREVER, whenever I get a new paying client from a referral link, whether the link came from one of my clients or from me.

So, when you refer a friend to me, who becomes my new paying client, you win, they win and I win in more ways than one. And let me tell you something! Those clients who send me referrals are my favorite clients and rest assured, I find ways to reward you. Please be a hero and refer a friend today!!

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Tag Along for Organizing

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101 – YOUR FOREVER TAGGING TOOL

Three Levels of Organization

With your FOREVER Permanent Storage you have three ways to organize your media. I have told you about two in recent weeks, the Library and Albums. By way of review, your Library is where all the photos in your account reside. Whether you upload them to the Library or an Album, the actual photo will be stored in the Library and your Albums are merely a way of accessing them. For that reason, you can add a photo to as many albums as you like without taking up more storage.

Your Library has a variety of tools you can use to sort, filter and order the images. You can also use the search bar to find images by tags, file name or description. Some people find this to be all they really need and they never get around to using the Albums or Tagging. Most of us love having other tools for curating.

I find Albums to be my favorite curating tool. I choose the categories I want for my top level Albums and then nest related albums beneath them. I can continue to nest other albums under those secondary albums for as deep as I need. It is important to note the images are not “in” the albums, they only show up there. (I will confess that initially I thought I was supposed to “move” images into albums and then I could delete them out of the library. Thankfully, the images remain in the Delete Bin for 30 days and I was able to rescue them, but then I had to repopulate my Albums.)

So Why Tag?

Until I found FOREVER, I was never happy with the way any program, app or service wanted me to organize my photos. Some people identify with organizing by year or with pre-designated categories. I didn’t. If creating your own album names is threatening to you, I will be happy to help you set up something, but for me, the ability to set up my own system was pure heaven.

If you want to know more about how I set up my account, see my post about Albums. It works for me, but I was even happier when I discovered the cross-referencing power of tagging. I’m not always interested in looking at a photo in the context it was taken. Instead I want to find a photo for a certain purpose.

One of the best examples of why you might need tagging involves other people. Let’s say there’s a birthday or anniversary coming up and your family/friends want to gather up great photos of the honoree. Without tagging, you’d have to recall what years or events or places you were with that person to find the images of them. If you’ve tagged your photos with the name of the people in your photos, then all you have to do is go to the Tags section of your storage and find the file for that person. Then enjoy choosing from all the images you have of that person. FOREVER even allows you to show them in a variety of orders to assist in your search for just the right photos. You can also click the hearts as you find those you like.

Multi-Level Tags

But that’s only one reason why you might want to use tags. You can use them for lots of things besides identifying people. The most important photos in my account are my travel photos, so I created a tag called “Travel.” That way, if I’m just in the mood to see a variety of travel photos, I can go to my tags and choose travel. I created a tag for “Cruises” and also for each country, state and/or city I have visited. If I want to see all the photos from my trips to Egypt – boom. I have a “Museums” tag, but also other tags for favorite museums so I can go directly to those.

When it comes to people, I have a tag for “Family” and for “Jane and Friends”, as well as for family members and close friends of which I have lots of photos. I have a Tag for “Bill and Jane” in case I just want photos which have both of us in them.

See, I can have as many tags as I want, so I don’t have to be stingy. If I think I might need to find something using a certain tag, I create it – but that’s me. Some people would be overwhelmed by all those tags. Well then, you do it your way!

So How Do You Do It?

There are many ways to go about tagging. I will go through those I use most often, but there is no wrong or right way to do it.

From the Library

If you want to do some high level tagging, like “Travel” or “Family” then the easiest way is to go to the Library and instead of “All Files”, select to see “Not Tagged”. From that view, start clicking the circle on all the photos you want to include in a tag. (You can do up to 500 at a time.)

As you click you’ll be taken to an area where you have a choice of actions including “Add Tags”. Once you have chosen all you want to include, clicking “Add Tags” will take you here.

Then you just start typing in the tags you want. You can either add new tags or as you type, FOREVER will match what you have typed with available tags. Hit the “Add Tags” button and you are done.

From Albums

If you want to tag from an Album, you have to go deep enough to be in a file with photos in it. You cannot tag the Albums. Then you do exactly what you did in the Library. Start clicking and you will be in an area where you had the same choices you did above and you will do exactly the same thing.

From Individual Images

Whether you are in the Library or the Albums, you can always choose to click on an individual image (not the selection circle) and you will end up on a page like this. On the right side in the middle is the tag section. Click on the “Add Tags” button.

This box opens up and you can start typing, just as you did in the “Add Tags” box from the Library and the Albums section.

Go Give It a Try

If you already have a storage account, go online and give this handy tool a try. If not, it’s free to join FOREVER and you get your own 2GB trial account. Upload some photos and try tagging. I promise you can’t hurt FOREVER!

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

The FOREVER App is FREE with Storage

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: ACCESS IMAGES WITH YOUR PHONE INSTEAD OF HAVING THEM ON YOUR PHONE

Having Images on Your Phone

Let’s face it! Smartphones have spoiled us! Some people do their whole life with their phone. They don’t have a desktop and their laptop might have dust on it, but their phone goes with them everywhere and they use it for everything.

Of course, you want to be able to share images with your phone, but you don’t have to have them on the phone to do that. In fact, having your photos on your phone creates all kinds of problems. What if the phone is stolen, you lose it, you run over it with your car or whatever other disaster might happen. Are the photos on your phone backed up? All of them? Or just some of them? Do you know how to access them?

Losing your phone, however that happens is awful. I know, because I left my phone on top of my car one time and drove away. I only thought of it when it sailed off my car onto the highway and was run over by multiple vehicles – it wasn’t pretty.

You know what else is awful? When I hear someone say, “I can’t take any photos because my phone it full. Phones come with free storage, like a drug dealer gives away free drugs. The point is to get you hooked and once you are, they’ve got you. Breaking away can seem overwhelming, but once you have the ease and security of FOREVER, you’ll discover it’s worth it.

Sure, there are lots of solutions available. You can rent storage or more storage, according to your situation, and upload to the cloud. You can go through and delete a bunch of photos. You could download the images to your computer or move them to some service like Google Photos. Yeah, but chances are you really don’t want to do any of those. You’d just like some sort of magic to happen.

Accessing Photos With Your Phone

So, what you’d like to have happen is for the photos on your phone to be somewhere safe, magically. Well, I can kind of do that for you. It will still suck if your phone gets lost, stolen or destroyed, but with everything else you’ll have going on, you’ll know your photos are safe, that monthly storage charge will disappear and you won’t get that darned notification your phone is full every time you turn around.

When you buy storage from FOREVER, you pay for it once and you get a free app to access the images on your phone. You can buy more when you need it, but paying for it will not be something you have to do the rest of your life. You’re not getting dinged every month for some little (or large) payment for your rented cloud space. In fact, your photos are guaranteed safe for your lifetime plus 100 years, so whoever comes after you won’t have to pay that annoying little fee either.

With the app, you can back-up whatever images you have on your phone and then you can set it to synch with FOREVER every time you take a photo. If your phone says you can’t take anymore photos, just laugh and hit the delete button. How good does freedom feel?

More Than Backing-Up & Synching

The FOREVER App does a whole lot more for you than back-up and synch with the photos you take. You get all the power of the FOREVER Library, Albums and Tagging Features, as well. Most of the things you can do on the FOREVER website, you can also do in the app. If you want to find out about the Library, then see THIS post. If you want to find out about the Albums, see THIS post. If you want to find out about Tagging, come back next week.

If you’ve ever scrolled and scrolled and scrolled to share a photo, then you’ll love the tools FOREVER has to organize, show and share your images. With a few clicks, instead of random scrolling, you can find that beach pic from years ago. And whether your sharing with some across the coffee table or across the world, it’s easier than you can imagine.

So, if your phone is holding your photos ransom, charging rental fees which will never go away (even if your photos do), then lets talk about FOREVER.

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

What Is The FOREVER Club & What Does It Do?

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: 5% OFF EVERYTHING & FREE STORAGE

What the Club is not!

People are wary of getting signed up for stuff and I don’t blame them. Too often we are promised the world and all we get is a monthly charge for something and we can’t get rid of it.

One minute a friend is telling you about some miracle cosmetic and the next you discover you’ve joined their “team.” Or you sign up for some sort of discount, only to discover you suddenly have both a membership fee and a quota. I hate that.

FOREVER is different. It is always free to sign up and there is never an obligation to buy anything. FOREVER does not want you to join my team. Being a FOREVER Ambassador is a serious career path, not a discount program. Various discounts are available all the time without being anything except one of my FOREVER customers.

What the Club is!

However, if you are a frequent flyer with FOREVER or you’ve got a big purchase you want to make, then the Club could be something you are interested in. It is really a budgeting tool. You choose the amount of investment you want to make on a monthly basis, for as long as you want to make it and then you get out of the Club – easily by the way. You don’t have any hoops to jump through to end the membership. Just go online, access your account and stop the club, whenever.

When you use the Club to budget your Memory Keeping expenses, then FOREVER will reward you two ways. First, they’ll give you a 5% discount on virtually everything and you’ll get a gift of storage anytime you stay in the Club for 3 consecutive months.

Ways to Save

There are a number of ways to go about using the Club.

Dribblers like me

I myself am a dribbler. I invest $25/month each month, primarily so I can get that extra 5% off whatever I buy. You know how you can go into a store with a great coupon, but you can only use it on full price merchandise or there are so many other restrictions the coupon is not worth the paper it’s printed on. Or the company’s ongoing promotions without the coupon are a better value than the coupon. That’s not happening in FOREVER.

With FOREVER, I can spend my $25 whenever I want to and only a very few items are excepted from the 5% discount. I also get to stack it up with whatever other deals and discounts are going on – including welcome coupons and referral coupons. That makes it a true bonus, not a come on.

And you know what else, on top of saving 5% on virtually everything, I like that 1/2 GB added to my storage every quarter. It might not be much, but it’s something and if I get it every three months like clockwork, it does add up.

Strategic Savers

Other people are more strategic in their investment plan. When they want something specific, they set a budget for their expense and save up for it. Let’s say someone wants to get a FOREVER BOX and pack it full of scrapbook pages. I’d sit down with them and estimate how much they’d need to spend for their box credit and overage to digitize all their pages.

Just for this discussion, let’s assume they have 500 page sides to digitize at the retail price of about $2 each and they want to invest $100 a month until they’ve saved up enough. Well, first we’d plan on them waiting until there was a 40% off deal going on, because that’s the biggest discount that’s ever offered for digitization. That takes the $1000 price tag down to $600 and their 5% discount would take it down to $570. $570 divided by $100 Club payments equals 6 months and that means they’d save up for that amount of time. During this period, they’d get 2GB of storage every 3 months, so after 6 months they’d have 4 GB.

Want to know something else? We’d make sure they bought their box on Club Weekend when Club Members can get free shipping, which would save them another $30 or so. So, this customer using monthly deals and the Club would get approximately $1078 worth of FOREVER for $600. That is value!

The Club Installment Plan

Some folks like instant gratification and don’t want to wait a six months to buy what they want. Let’s say someone has the same $100.00 a month, but they want to go ahead and buy 250 GBs of storage right now, on the installment plan.

Well, first they’d join the Club and invest their first $100. Forever storage rarely (if ever) has anything more than a 25% discount, which is available virtually all the time. So, they wouldn’t need to wait on a sale. The retail price is $2499 and with the 25% discount, it would be $1875. Then the Club discount would take it down another 5% to $1782 and they would choose the 24 month installment plan (about $75/mo). They’d set their monthly Club investment to go towards the future payments of their installment plan and each month, FOREVER would charge $100 to their credit card.

Since each month they’d pay in $25 more than they needed for a month’s installment, after 18 months they’d have enough to pay off the other 6 months. They would have earned 2 GB of storage every quarter for a total of 12. So, for $1800 they spent, they would have gotten $2600 worth of value.

These are just a few basic ways of using the Club. People who want to make really large investments, such as permanent streaming or Terabyte Storage packages, sometimes get very fancy in their maneuvering.

Review the Basics

So, your monthly investment can be as low $25 and the largest is $250, but nothing is stopping you from stacking up as many Club Memberships as you want. If you only have one purchase to make and all you want to do is get 5% off, you’ll want to get in and then get out as soon as your purchase is made. However, I do recommend staying in the Club for 3 months at a time so you can earn the free storage and take advantage of deals like free shipping. If you decide to stop investing, your dollars never expire, so you can never lose them, but your discount is only good during the months when you are actively paying into the Club.

If that’s no clearer than mud, I’ll be happy to answer whatever other questions you may have. Just give me a call at 972-971-5263.