As digital scrapbooking has increased in popularity, companies have developed innovative ways to market their products to scrapbooking consumers. Mixbook, one of the leading digital scrapbooking sites on the web, allows users to collaborate on projects by connecting friends and family members all across the country and around the world. Users can also share their work on social media sites for even greater opportunities to connect with loved ones living at a distance.
In this exclusive interview, Elizabeth Tseng, who is on the marketing team at Mixbook, shares tips with LoveToKnow Scrapbooking editor Kate Miller-Wilson and offers some insights about collaborative digital scrapbooking.
Scrapbooking Online with Mixbook Interview
LoveToKnow (LTK): What is Mixbook?
Elizabeth Tseng (ET): Mixbook is a leading photo book publishing company. Our photo books, cards and calendars are 100 percent customizable, allowing users to begin with either a blank book or an existing template that can then be edited to their liking; we like to think of them as digital scrapbooks. Mixbook also has a unique collaboration feature which allows our users to invite friends and family to work on a project together. Our customers love us and consistently give us rave reviews on our site.
LTK: What are some of the most popular products on Mixbook?
ET: Due to the affordability and customizability of our photo books, wedding albums and guest books are extremely popular. Brides can create products that match their wedding themes, while newlyweds save hundreds, even thousands, of dollars by making their wedding photo books themselves instead of through photographers. Baby photo books are also extremely popular because of the versatility of our website. Along with precious photos of their newborns, mothers can upload personal images such as scans of their sonograms and hospital bracelets to really make their baby books unique. They are not limited to the free creative packages we offer; they can combine elements from several packages to create their own looks.
Getting Started with Digital Scrapbooking
LTK: What are some of the advantages of digital scrapbooking?
ET: There are a ton of advantages in using a digital scrapbooking company like Mixbook. The first thing that comes to mind is cost. Scrapbooking can become a very expensive hobby when you add up the cost of all the supplies. It can also generate a lot of waste, for example, buying 100 photo corners when you really just need 72 for a particular project. Mixbook offers thousands of free decorative elements at no cost so you can feel free to use as much or little as you need over and over again.
Another thing is convenience. When everything is done online, the process is so much faster. You don't have to spend time cutting and gluing decorations onto a page, and there is never any messy clean up. It is also much easier to alter a page with an undo button than to peel off glue, and you never have to worry about trimming a photo too small. Other advantages include creating multiple copies of a book or turning color photos to black and white or sepia with just one click rather than re-printing photos.
LTK: Making the transition to digital scrapbooking can be an adjustment for some people. Do you have any advice on making this transition easier?
ET: The most difficult part of digital scrapbooking is learning to use the software, so the best thing to do is look for an easy-to-use service that has excellent customer support. Most scrapbooking companies do not charge for using their programs, so do not be afraid to play around with the editing function and experiment with the different elements until you feel more comfortable. Scrapbooking sites usually have help sections with frequently asked questions or a getting started section that could be very useful to someone who is not familiar with digital scrapbooking.
Incorporating Social Media Sites in Online Scrapbooking
LTK: How does Mixbook incorporate social media sites like Facebook? How is this helpful for scrapbookers?
ET: Integrating social media sites with Mixbook makes it convenient for our users to find and import all of their photos to our site. For example, scrapbookers can import their photos into their Mixbook accounts from Facebook and other photo sharing sites, such as Flickr, with just one click. Our users do not have to save their photos to their computers from multiple sources before uploading them. Once they are finished building their projects, they can share with their friends and family over the social networks.
Using Mixbook
LTK: Do you have any tips for using Mixbook?
ET: Mixbook's mission is to be the best user experience for creating unique and personalized photo books, cards, calendars and other custom photo products. As mentioned, the most difficult part of transitioning to digital scrapbooking is learning how to use the software. At Mixbook, we recognize this and strive to make our online editor very intuitive and easy to learn, so we recommend just diving right in! You can find tutorials posted on our blog and our YouTube channel, and if you have any questions, our customer support team is available through live chat and email.
LTK: What's next for Mixbook?
We release hundreds of new designs each month, making it easy for every project you create to look fresh and new. In addition, we are launching more innovations than any other company in our space, with brand new features like the ability to customize events in your calendar and easily browse our library of over 500,000 free stickers and backgrounds for use in your projects.
A Special Thank You to Elizabeth Tseng
LoveToKnow would like to thank Elizabeth Tseng of Mixbook for taking the time to share a deeper insight into this unique free service that readers can use.
