For many schools, fundraising is an important way to offset the cost of the yearbook for students. With the extra funds raised, the yearbook can include extra features like color pages or a hard cover  without raising the cost.

Organizing the Salespeople
Whether your ad sales staff consists of a couple parent-volunteers or a large group of students, it is important that members be organized. To avoid overlapping sales efforts, be sure each salesperson has specific prospects to contact or specific areas of the community in which to sell. Make sure everyone understands how to price ads and fill out contracts.

Selling Retail Ads
Potential advertisers for your yearbook are everywhere. The list below should get your sales team off to a good start.

• Renewal Advertisers: Look at last year’s book to determine businesses that advertised in prior years. Send them a letter thanking them for last year’s ad and encourage them to expand to an even bigger and better ad this year.
• Parents:  Send home a letter to all parents soliciting advertising. Many parents are business people and would be glad to support their school with an ad.
• Area Businesses:  Target local businesses that would be a good fit to advertise in the yearbook. Start with businesses located in the vicinity of the school that are frequented by students. (Music stores, clothing stores, local restaurants, orthodontists, etc.)
• Booster Pages: A booster page is a page on which parents, students, business people and organizations that support the yearbook are listed for a set amount of money (generally $10 or more). Some schools list different booster levels for different contributions. For instance, those contributing less than $20 may be listed as Silver Boosters, while those contributing $20 or more are Gold Boosters.
• Recognition Ads: These ads are a great way for a parent, friend, teacher or relative to congratulate a student on an accomplishment – graduation, honor roll, athletic achievement, etc. Recognition ads are also a popular way for students to congratulate their friends. A home mailing is probably the best way to sell recognition ads. Be specific about the type and size of ad that may be bought, the number of words permitted, the cost, a deadline date and payment information. Also, provide recognition ad order forms to all of the students in your school.