Maybe you could limit the number of photos they send and also have them send them insured so that you are not responsible if they don't get to you.
I think it is a nice idea and maybe a trial run would be good to see how warm the water is on it. Good Luck

Think of how long it may take you to do a page for your own album. Sometimes, maybe more than an hour to lay out, choose the papers, crop, journal and do the page. If you charge $20 an hour, that means $200 just for 10 pages and an album is usually 20 or 30 pages long and sometimes more!

I did a memorial album for a law firm that lost a colleague and it took oh, my gosh, more than 60 hours to make. It was GORGEOUS. Not an easy job considering the topic and I used beautiful papers and really put a lot of creativity and time into it. I submitted the invoice for only $800 to her (charging less than $15 an hour) and she fought me on it (she, a lawyer who bills out at $150 an hour just to talk to you on the phone).

The value of a photo album is "irreplacable" but it is hard to charge what your time is worth. If you can figure out how to do it so you don't lose money or at least be paid for your expertise, then I think there is definitely a market for it. People rarely have the talent or the time, yet want so much to have their photos in albums. If you can market to an upscale clientelle, you will have a nice little business going, but be up front about your fee and make sure they understand the value. Good luck!

IMHO, I find most people spend to much time making artwork rather than preseving history. I guess your needs would depend on what your end goal is in having a scrapbook.

I did a memory book for my brother's deceased dog. I have to brag, it came out really good. I mean really good. All he did was put the pic in dated order and left the rest to me. I cannot recall how he paid me. I think he paid for the book and that was it. Because it was only about 20 8x11 pages it literally took me about 8hrs total, during my spare time one weekend.

I was so inspired that I did a 7x7 book for my beloved kitty. It was about 32 pages. I started at 9am and was done by 2:30pm. I did another for my dog, he has two books because he is still living, and his took me about 2 days.

I would love to do books for people's pets. They are really easy to do compared to person books. I simply stuck to a color theme, black and white or tans. On the pics my bro told me he had specific stories, I left some journaling boxes for him to complete.

I have had several friends tell me I should do this for a living. But what would one realistically pay for this? A cheap book would cost about 20, paper would be only a few dollars, same for a handful of stickers.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

If you were to start up a company in scrapbooking, the downside would be competing with all of these other companies -- so perhaps your niche could be the hand-made and custom-designed photobook/scrapbook?

I just did two books for her daughter. Both the books were "big books" I hand sewed and machine stitched a cover for her book with and added a ruffle.
I really did think of taking it up as an actual job. I thought that i would charge a flat fee. .. say $50 just for doing a book. Then a price range depending on how many pages you want done, how you want it done, if you want a cover, and when you wanted it done.

so yea, you can make quite a lot of money off it, but i dont think online is the best way to do it.

its good to sit down with the person to go through the pictures and find out stories behind them. It makes it easier to connect to the person the book is about.