Creating photo books can be a convenient way to preserve your most cherished memories. And it can be a lot of fun, too. Even... addictive.

Of course, the most important consideration is going to be where to create a photo book, as the service and product you receive is going to be quite different for each one. There are several different services out there that print these custom photo books. Below, you'll find links to our Make Your Own Photobooks review of some of the major photo book printers:

Picaboo: Probably the highest quality and most expensive. Offers simple flat covers, but also gorgeous leather ones and lay-flat pages. Good for wedding and baby photo books.

Shutterfly: A more "casual" photo book printer with a lot of fun options and custom covers. They specialize in photo sharing, and offer free share sites.

Snapfish: This is a popular photo book printer with a wide range of basic photo books at a low price.

Kodak Gallery: While most of Kodak Gallery's books are on the simple side, they've begun to offer more and more higher quality books.

Or click here for a full list of the photo book printers and links to all of our reviews. There's a LOT of reading there, so only visit if you're really serious about photo books! :)

The first step in answering this question is... you've got to choose a photo printer first. Because how creating photo books works on their site is going to vary from printer to printer.

You make your own photo book either by doing a drag and drop of your photos into a pre-made photo book template (most photo book printers have lots of different ones), or you can make a highly customized digital photo album to specifications you can indicate through the site's interface-- that is, with your chosen layouts, backgrounds, etc.

Read on for tips, or visit our "How to Print Photo Albums" Primer.

Two Important Tips for Creating Photo Books

No matter what service or format you use, there are some considerations to keep in mind as you're creating a photo book.

Get Organized. Before you ever start trying to put together your photo book, you should have the collection of digital photos you plan to use already organized and edited-- this makes uploading them to the service with which you plan to create your photo book a lot simpler, and streamlines the whole process.

Shop Around. You may want to see what products the different photo book services offer before you begin. Some provide different sizes as well as different types of covers and promotional pricing.

You can find details on the different sizes, features, etc. that some of the different photo book publishers offer right here.

Or check here for the latest coupon deals from the most popular companies for creating photo books.

All this preparation makes it much easier to progress to the next stage: choosing what layout, font and background styles work best for the photo book you want to create. After dragging and dropping your photos into place, you'll want to preview your book to make sure it looks perfect, and then order it through the service you've created it with.

And if you're short on ideas, there are a lot of photo book printers out there that have share services, where you can see what others have done. This is a great way to get ideas for layouts and content for creating photo books of your own. My favorite is probably Shutterfly's huge share gallery.

3 Fun Theme Ideas for a Photo Book

Of course, creating digital photo albums with simple photos is a lot of fun, and a great keepsake. But adding a theme can bring the whole thing to life. Some unique ideas and themes for creating photo books include:

A Vacation or Event Log Photo Book

Vacation photo books are a lot of fun, and a great way to remember what an awesome time you had. Photos from your latest trip or party accompanied by a caption can capture the true essence of your most memorable moments.

Journey through Time Photo Book

Perfect for anniversaries and milestone birthdays, creating a timeline progression of photos and captions with a "This Is Your Life" or "The Story of Us" theme result in a thoughtful gift.

Photography Collections Photo Book

If you enjoy taking pictures of tall buildings, dogs, insects or people you watch on sunny days in the park, you can often put them all in one place and create captions to identify what makes each item unique. Creating photo books like this can be a great way for ar an amateur photographer to share their work.

You'll find more great ideas for photo book themes, types, etc. right here.

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