The Art of Business Cards

Is Your Company's Brand Well Represented on the Internet?

2011-09-28T00:54:00.000-07:00

Consumers today are much more sophisticated and savvy about researching information on the Internet about what they want to buy and where to buy it. With the rise in popularity and power of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the consumer now has even more ways to assess information about what they want to purchase. People across the globe use social media very vocally to convey their likes and dislikes - meaning that it is really important to ensure that your brand is well represented on throughout social media.

This means that linking up with Facebook and Twitter is not really enough. To ensure that you are well represented in this important arena, you need to expand your horizons to include other social media outlets like Flickr, LinkedIn, and even YouTube to name a few.

It requires the attention of someone within your company on a routine basis too. You can't just "be there" and not interact...that can cause problems for you. It is not just good enough to provide links with these social media platforms - you must also ensure that you interact with people properly so that it has the positive effect you are seeking. You need to take advantage of the opportunity to provide quality communications that will prove to be effective rather than just get your brand linked randomly with no thought to the process.

Social media platforms should be selected carefully to ensure that you are using the ones that are most advantageous to your brand and the type of interaction that you want from them. Therefore, it means you need to research which ones will produce the positive effect you are looking for and use the highest quality of content that will attract the customers you want.

In addition to social media, you should monitor what folks are saying on other websites as well. Blogging is not dead - in fact the rise of social media has bolstered many bloggers and created additional traffic to their sites. Engage in the conversations on these blogs. Do you have a blog for your company? If so, invite guest bloggers to write for you about their experience with a particular product or service. Get engaged - this will provide you with loads of crucial marketing data that you can't get through traditional means.

These are just a few ways to ensure that your company is well represented on the Internet. We will feature more ways and tips in future articles. Do you have an idea that we should explore? If so, feel free to let us know via a comment or email.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding cheap business cards design or online business cards management.

Groupon - Can It Be Good for Your Company or Products?

2011-09-28T00:32:00.000-07:00

Groupon has become one of the success stories that everyone loves to hear. With an amazing growth rate in less than two years, it has been able to link people's needs with businesses that want to sell its products. Groupon is able to help retailers who need the sales to remain in business or to bolster their business. Customers love the service because they think they are getting a bargain - and in many cases they certainly are.

For a business owner, it is a different way of advertising and one that can be very effective. Groupon uses the social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, along with traditional email marketing, to spread the word and get the customers who are always looking for a good deal to purchase on of their deals of the day in specific geographic areas. Local business owners see it as an alternative to traditional advertising and are signing up in droves to get in on this popular selling tactic. Check out "What's the Secret Success of Groupon" for more information on their success and their incredible growth.

Groupon knows the value of social media and uses it to the advantage of local businesses that sign up with them. New businesses today are much more in tune with the social media concept than older, more established businesses so they have the advantage of understanding the power of this platform for marketing. It is really a simplistic approach to marketing that can transform your business if used correctly. Simply Zesty has a great article discussing the use of social media and the Groupon.

For businesses today, the world of the future includes the Groupon advertising concept that is really simple: involve local business, provide people with what they want, and give them a bargain at the same time. Everyone loves to think they got the best deal for something they buy. Why not try it?

Groupon offers businesses virtually everywhere across the United States the ability to "Get Featured" and "Run a Deal". The beauty using their service is exposure for business owners to their targeted geographic area. This is especially attractive to new start up businesses with products and services to offer. Through the use of the Groupon, a new business can get a one time, major "shot in the arm" publicity campaign that is really unrivalled. There are many case studies out and available on

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or online business cards management.

The Importance of User Generated Content

2011-09-13T23:30:00.000-07:00

Nowadays when people get ready to make a major purchase (television, appliance, furniture, automobile, etc.) most people go online to do a little research to see what other consumers have to say the products that they're interested in purchasing. Sometimes people already have a particular model in mind and want to see how it performs or other times they are just looking for suggestions as to what to buy. Either way, potential customers are searching the Internet looking for reviews and referrals.

What people look for primarily when reading consumer reviews is for the reviewer to tell them whether they really like the product or not - and the reasons why it was liked or disliked. Google has come to value this user generated content or UGC and has been incorporating it into its Search Engine Results Page or SERP. UGC is therefore impacting search engine results meaning that the social content generated by customers does benefit (or potentially adversely affect) those businesses.

What this means is that your company needs to ensure that it incorporates the fundamentals of social media into its business model in order to tap into this important resource. The bottom line is that everyone is looking for the best product at a reasonable price. They also want rapid delivery and a checkout process that is easy to navigate. As a retailer you can win simply by being a site that has a good product at the right price that is deemed reliable by your customers and is easy to use.

Customer reviews or UGC is extremely important for consumers so any retailer should ensure that they have ample reviews on their site and that they are easy to find. The reviews should summarize the highlights of what people like and dislike and show an average rating for the product. Have your reviews be easy to generate so that the customer can get it done quickly. One of the masters of this approach is Amazon. Every single product on their site has the ability to be reviewed and rated by people who purchase it. Over the course of time, this rating/review system can give potential buyers a great snapshot overview of other customer's experience with a particular product.

Using these easy steps at your site will generate more UGC or customer reviews that will in turn yield a better customer experience on your company's website and over time it should increase traffic to better overall site ranking as UGC gets indexed and ranked.

Do you currently allow customers to review products on your site? If so, please let us know how that is working for your company. We would be interested to hear from you.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding cheap business cards design or business cards management.

7 Important Tips for Proofreading Your Copy

2011-09-13T23:12:00.000-07:00

In today's fast paced world, people do not put as much emphasis on punctuation and grammar because they are always in a hurry to get the message out, the proposal to a client, or an important letter to a customer. But in a world where texting is commonplace with all of its misspelled and condensed words, it has become almost routine to put the niceties aside and just get the job done regardless of whether or not it is readable or whether it makes sense. It is still extremely important to slow down a bit and ensure that what you send out - particularly to a client or potential customer - is factually correct, and readable. More importantly, the communications and content you generate should accurately reflect you and your company. Do you want unprofessional content that is poorly written, full of mistakes to be what people use for the basis of their impression of you and your business? Of course the answer is no. Unfortunately, in many cases, the copy created and disseminated is routinely full of mistakes that somewhat tarnish the professional image that business owners and managers are working so hard to build and protect. Here are some tips to help ensure that your copy is always correct when it goes out:

Homophones (Homonyms) - Pay attention to homonyms such as complement and compliment or accept or except as these words have such different meanings that they can really send the wrong message. An excellent list of homophones can be found here: http://www.mcwriters.com/2008/05/29/homophones-and-spell-checkers-don’t-mix/.
Punctuation - Ensure the usage of periods and commas are correct and in the right places. Do not capitalize a word that shouldn't have a capital letter.
Apostrophes or Contractions - Don't use an apostrophe for plurals such as winner's instead of winners. Pay particular attention to words like its and it's or your and you're to ensure they are used correctly.
Concentrate on What You are Doing - Oftentimes in a busy office there are many distractions like phones ringing, people interrupting you, or televisions and radios blaring that can disrupt your concentration so that you do not pay attention to what you are doing.
Watch the Numbers - When using numbers in a message or a proposal one less or one more zero can make a huge difference in what you are trying to say - such as $20,000 instead of $200,000 or vice versa.
Read It Out Loud - Sometimes just reading it out loud will tell you right away that you have made a mistake even if your eye didn't catch it.
Print It and Proofread It - Print it out so that you can see what you have written. Many times you can see a mistake immediately just by looking at it. Better yet, let another co-worker or trusted resource read your work prior to sending it. These are just a few ways to help you in your quest to properly maintain your company's professional image as you write and produce copy that will be read by customers, potential clients, and the general public.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Print Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

Facebook Ads - Do You Use Them? If Not - Should You?

2011-09-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

Business owners are always looking to optimize advertising and use the best locations on the Internet. Ultimately, they need to measure whether the time and effort - and the money spent are worth it. Facebook is one of those prime Internet sites that is emerging as an attractive location for advertisers. With over 500 million active users - that makes Facebook a force to reckon with - and probably one worth considering for advertising your company's goods and/or services.

Let's take a look at the dynamics of advertising on Facebook:

First of all, it is a social media network that is made up mostly of family and friends so the information profile that is tied to each user should be fairly accurate. That makes it an ideal source to tap into targeted groups: by location, by age, and by gender.
Targeted advertising can also be done based on users "Likes" or "Interests" because that is part of the user profiles. This makes it easy to target specific groups such as those that like basketball or ballet. This can be useful but don't get caught up in the restrictions of just focusing on those who picked a particular "Like" or "Interest". Targeting age groups and locations can be just as effective. Regional advertising options are available to companies who don't offer national services.
You can enhance the social recommendations from a Facebook ad by having your brand link with a Facebook page. This highlights that you value the Facebook ad and increases the exposure when friends purchase something from your brand. Facebook will display when your friends "liked" the page. This will only help to make your brand more desirable. Maintaining an up to date Facebook page for your company also displays a willingness to engage with customers, fans, and potential customers. Keeping on top of a company Facebook page adds credibility to your advertising campaign.
Keeping your Facebook ads simple is important because the best ads have been those that extend special offers or calls to action with simple text that grabs people's attention. Too much information will lose people quickly.
Be creative and different. Test a variety of pictures and product ads to come up with the one that works best. Imaging is important and essential for you in order to gain people's attention quickly.
Facebook has an ad format called Sponsored Stories that will turn people's "Likes" and status updates into ads to their friends. It is, therefore, important to ensure that you keep up with Facebook formats and ways of advertising to ensure that you are the one that is always one step ahead.

All of this being said - should you advertise on Facebook? Absolutely! Why would you turn down an opportunity to advertise to such a large audience that is just waiting to hear from you! If you are not a Facebook advertiser - you should be.

Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding professional business cards design or business cards management.

7 Tips for Better Email Marketing

2011-09-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

In this fast paced world of ours, everyone is trying to gain a foothold on your business via e-mail. It is becoming more and more difficult to ensure that the e-mail from you is read and not tossed directly into the SPAM file or simply deleted. With the advent of social media sites, e-mails have become more prevalent and the practices have become trickier to get business owners to open them and read them. Here are a few tips that may help you improve your open rates in your email marketing program:

1. Subject Line - Imagination is the key here in getting someone to open your email based on the subject line. Often people make the subject so long that you get bored just reading it or it is too dull and lacks appeal. The trick is to use something unique that will stand out in a crowded inbox. The best approach is to be creative while maintaining relevancy to the content of your email.

2. Who It is From -For those with a name brand like Apple, you should use Apple in the From line rather than a person's name that may be unknown to the email recipient. This is one of the most important aspects of getting your email opened. If someone doesn't know the person that is sending the email, the chances of it being opened are much lower. Try something unusual or use your company name (unless your name is Steve Jobs - I imagine his emails get opened very frequently).

3. Less is Better -Don't overflow with words that lose the recipient. Say it and get it over with. Less is always better. You can send another message later with more information. Remember the KISS approach (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

4. Images Turned Off -Often someone will not turn on images unless you have tweaked their interest. Therefore, make sure that the message will still be delivered without the images being turned on. This is usually a step in the review process if you use an email management system such as MailChimp. Don't skip this step - make sure it works.

5. Provide the Ability to Control Frequency of Messages -If you grab the interest of a recipient, don't spoil things by inundating them with messages every hour or every day. Give them a break and control the frequency and the types of messages so that they do not get upset and run to your competitor instead. This also lowers the risk of email recipients labeling your email as spam and reporting it as such. Send emails out just frequently enough that potential customers keep your name and products in mind; but don't flood them with too many emails. Balance.

6. Personalization -Many times the personalization of the subject or even the body of the message generate more interest from the recipient.

7. Develop a Mobile Version - With the frequent use of Smartphones, you need to ensure that your message is viewable on a mobile device. Make sure folks can view your email properly from their smartphone or other portable Internet accessible devices.

Email marketing has had ups and downs over the past few years. However, it's an accepted method of marketing and will remain in use for many years to come. Hopefully these tips will help your email campaigns work their way through obstacles and help you get your emails opened and read.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Print Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

7 Ways to Measure Social Media Effectiveness for Your Company

2011-09-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

The advent of social media and its integration into our lives has turned traditional marketing techniques upside down, but it has also given us many, new and unique ways to market that are creative and innovative. In the good old days you ran a marketing campaign and knew how much you spent and where you spent it and how much revenue was produced from it. But today the world moves a little differently. Social media marketing is here to stay and is, at times, difficult to measure as far as effectiveness is concerned.

Just as you have an Internet marketing strategy, you also need a social media strategy as more and more companies are getting on the bandwagon of advertising via social media. What you do with the data gleaned from your social media interactions is extremely important. Social media includes Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Foursquare to name a few. So, how do you measure success or effectiveness within the social media realm? Here are a few methods to gauge how you're doing.

Awareness of Your Brand - Building awareness of your brand is one of the most important aspects of why you're engaged in social media. Ultimately, you can measure your awareness by how many followers you have, the number of searches for your brand name, the number of site visits tracked through links, and the number of keywords or phrases searched for. You need to be able to trend this and track it.
Honest Discussion - The online discussion that you will get can have mixed blessings as it will be unfiltered and completely honest. This means you will get good feedback, neutral feedback, and at times, bad feedback. It's often referred to as share of voice and it reflects the number of times your brand was mentioned in a conversation. You should use a monitoring program to track both your feedback as well as those of your competitors.
Sphere of Influence - Signals of influence can be found with the number of inbound links to your site. Microblogging sites like Twitter and social networks like Facebook. LinkedIn, YouTube, or Foursquare might have people that have made comments and Liked your brand or product. This is then shared with friends and others and the conversations continue. Measuring these social media tweets or likes can provide you with information about why they like the brand or why they don't.
Signs of Interaction - The interaction between people and your site and your brand are important to see how interested people are in what you have to say or offer. This means the ratings given to your brand, the number of mentions good or bad, retweets, photos, video views, and the number of new pages of Facebook likes.
Popularity - This is really the number of people that subscribe to your email or RSS subscribers, followers on Twitter, members of LinkedIn groups, and number of people who like your Facebook page or other social media sites. Other places to track include industry hang outs or content communities like Flickr or YouTube.
Use Monitoring Tools - Seeing lots of activity on Facebook likes or Twitter tweets does not mean much if you don't measure, monitor, and track the information that you are getting from these social media sites. Google Analytics and Measure Map are two tools that can be used to track and analyze the data so that you know exactly how people react and what you need to change in terms of advertising.
Listen and Learn - Pay attention to the feedback that you receive from the social media sites not just the positive feedback but the negative or neutral to see what you can learn and possibly change if necessary. Be proactive about tracking the data and USING it to make necessary adjustments to your ads or your way of advertising. Listen carefully to what is being said, make some suggested modifications, and you will be successful.

Marketing Your Company Should Involve Every Department

2011-09-05T06:33:00.000-07:00

Marketing in every organization is an important department that has a huge responsibility in ensuring that your company's products and services continue to sell and be used. If you ask the people in marketing what makes a good creative piece, they will come up with their normal practice of good ad placement, timing, and getting the professionals in on the creative process early on. This was all well and good in the past, but in today's fast paced world of social media, quick response codes, immediate customer reviews online, etc., traditional marketing needs to be replaced by sound judgment that takes a different approach - one that uses information gleaned from every area of the company and beyond.

With so many poorly designed ads seen every day on TV, on our computer, and in print, marketing needs to still be creative - but in a more innovative and - well - smarter way. This means that everyone in the company should have some involvement even if it is in a small way. The truth of the matter is that most people are a member of social media group and everyone has an opinion that should count. This is because ads are meant to appeal to all ages so the marketing people should solicit input from every area that they can. Brands cannot keep churning out the same old type of marketing just because it did well in years past. No company today can rely on old habits to continue to thrive and grow. Otherwise your brand becomes stale and boring as evidenced by many of the terrible ads seen today.

Get a head start on your competitors and be on the leading edge of turning your brand into the winner it should be. Creating the brand is not just about writing a few lines of creative text and putting your logo next to it. You can have digital or other types of marketing that sometimes might be a little uncomfortable because it is not what you are used to. But that doesn't mean it won't work. You have to be willing to take a chance and to listen to what people are saying. After all, people buy a brand because they either need it, want it, appreciate it, or buy it simply because they always have. But you need to continue to cultivate new customers that will be willing to experience your products and services.

Social media information should also be analyzed and listened to - opinions count and if lots of people are saying they don't like a brand or product, the bad news can spread quickly. Follow up on bad reports and listen to what is being said. Do thorough research if the feedback you are getting is negative and learn from this and turn it around so that the feedback starts to turn positive. Provide regular reports of data to the marketing department. Focus groups are a great way to refresh your ideas and get some inspirational creative juices going from a cross section of your own company. Just because someone works in accounting doesn't mean they don't have an opinion about the product or have heard something that might be important to the marketing department.

Investing in your employees by giving them a chance to voice their opinion or make suggestions can be a plus for them (shows you value their opinions), but may help shed light on how to strategically reach your audience in a better fashion. It will help them feel more like a part of a "team" and be a win-win for everyone in the company - especially for your company's products and services.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding cheap business cards design or business cards management.

5 Ways Companies Benefit When Employees Work from Home

2011-08-04T02:54:00.000-07:00

With the lagging economy today, companies are looking for ways to cut costs while continuing to provide the same level of services that they have in the past to their customers and their employees. For years, many companies have allowed employees to work from home. In return, these companies seem to enjoy a higher employee satisfaction rate and employee retention rate. The work from home scenario provides a win-win for both the company and the employee and it is becoming more and more popular. If your business model will allow you the ability to have employees work from home, here are a few reasons to consider implementing this feature into your company:

Reduction in Costs – Employees working from home saves on office space and parking as office space alone costs an estimated $10,000 per employee. Employees spend less in gas and maintenance on their vehicles due to reduced mileage driven. Lower costs for employees translates into happier employees since they are spending less money to get to work and will have the ability to use those funds as needed in other areas of their personal finances.

Reduction in Absenteeism – Many employees are off work when a child is ill or due to inclement, unsafe weather conditions that preclude them from driving to work. If they worked in the office they would have to take a personal or sick day to attend to a child who was ill. Offering the ability for employees to have what is commonly referred to as "flex time" will allow them to stay at home, tend to their sick loved one or stay safe at home due to weather conditions and still get things accomplished for your company.

Enhances Employee Productivity – Studies have shown that employees are more productive when working from home because there are fewer distractions or interruptions from meetings and less socializing with co-workers.

Balances Work/Family Life – It provides better balance between work and family life since much of an employee's time is spent at work or traveling to and from work giving them less time with the family. By allowing them to work from home, you are giving them more time to provide attention to family by eliminating commute time.

Increases Employee Retention and Loyalty – Employees are happier when they are able to work from home without the added stress of commuting, dealing with rising fuel costs, expensive automotive repairs, etc. Employees who work from home tend to be more content with their jobs and thus more willing to work hard for your company.

Allowing employees to work from home, even for one day of their week, is something important to consider for your company. There are a lot of details that need to be worked out and discussed with your management team. However, if you're able to do it, most experts say that you will see a rise in productivity and job performance will increase as well.

Do you currently allow employees to work from home? If so, let us know what your experience is with offering this to your employees. What kind of impact has it made on your business? Overall do you see it as being beneficial to your company? We look forward to hearing from you.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

7 Ways to "Green Up" Your Company's Office

2011-08-04T02:25:00.000-07:00

Everyone has become more and more conscious of the need to be more earth friendly both at home and in the office. It really is amazingly simple to start making some minor changes that really don't require a lot of extra work or effort, yet yield some great results for our precious environment. In order to get started with some eco-friendly changes in your office, it's simply a matter of educating your employees on how to "green up" and help our planet and offer them a few tool needed to properly implement your new earth friendly changes.

Here are 7 easy steps that your office can take to "green up" the work place:

Use Recycle Bins – One of the easiest first steps is to invest in some recycle bins or just put labels on regular trash bins: PAPER ONLY or CANS ONLY for all the soda cans that are used in an office.

Replace Incandescent Lights – As lights burn out replace them with the efficient lighting CFL bulbs also known affectionately as the "twisty" bulbs. Ensure that all lights are turned off at the end of the day or as you leave a room to save on electricity.

Economize on Paper – If you do not need to print something – DON'T! But if you do - then print it two-sided for office use to save on paper. Also start buying recycled paper. Did you know that the EPA estimates that 700 BILLION sheets of copy paper are used in the USA alone each year? That's a lot of trees! Recycling paper, working to reduce the amount of copies you make and purchasing recycled paper all work together to save trees and reduce landfill waste.

Eliminate paper coffee cups and plates – Utilize reusable mugs, plates, and glasses or ask employees to bring their own. If you do not have a dishwasher, then each employee should be responsible for cleaning their own. If you must use disposable dishware for an event, consider using products made from sugar cane and corn. Not only are these produces made from abundant, renewable, sustainable resources, they also break down in landfills in no time flat - without any negative side affects.

Install Water Flow Restrictors and Aerators on Faucets – If these are installed on toilets and faucets it will save thousands of gallons of water. Not only is it a good conservation tactic - this can be a long-term money-saver for your business too.

Use Old Stationary for Scrap Paper – When you order updated stationary with a new logo or address, use the old paper for scrap or test printing so that it is not wasted.

Use Green Cleaning Products – Ensure that whoever does the cleaning in the office uses green cleaning products. Reducing chemicals that make their way into our water is an important step that should be taken by every business and everyone in their own home too. There are many great cleaning products out that use safer, natural cleaning ingredients and still do an excellent job of cleaning and deodorizing your office.

These are just a few simple things that can be implemented without too much work and financial investment on your company's part. Rally your employees to make a conscious effort to adhere to the green guidelines that you create for your office. Help them understand why it's important and then...get to it!

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Cheap Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

Google's New +1 Button is a Cool Way to Make Recommendations

2011-08-04T02:08:00.000-07:00

A great new tool that has been introduced by Google is the +1 Button that makes it extremely easy to make recommendations about a new restaurant or the best choice for a dog groomer in the neighborhood. This excellent little referral tool can be used on your website or on your Google Account so that friends, clients, and folks who visit your website can essentially give your website or even a particular page on your site the "thumbs up".

For companies who depend heavily on their exposure on the Internet, the +1 system is simply another way to get site visitors to engage and involve themselves with your website. Do you routinely post new articles in a company or personal blog? If so, you should consider integrating the +1 feature onto individual posts/articles so that readers can visually share their agreement with everyone simply by clicking the Google Plus One button.

The way a +1 button works is this: you first have to have a public profile with Google and your +1's are all kept in a tab on your Google profile. It can be kept private or made public – all depending on how you want to manage it. An individual might like to just have his or her +1's sent to friends and contacts while someone who is looking to expand his business would want it kept public.

So…the next time you want to give a rave review about your dog Cocoa's new groomer or relate the best place to go fishing, you can use a +1 button to let everyone know you were impressed and highly recommend these places.

While the positive "bump" that a Plus One vote gives your site, page, or article may be minimal for search engine results, the visual results for visitors and readers is greater. When folks see that you have obviously made an impression with your article, they are more likely to read your post and vote themselves.

So, it's my opinion that Google Plus One is worth looking into and integrating into various places on your own site. Are you already using it? If so, please feel free to comment and let us know your thoughts and opinions on this new referral/recommendation system.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

A Successful Home Page Is a Link Rich Page

2011-07-27T04:25:00.000-07:00

Recently I read an article about the rise and success of link rich home pages over the past several years. After reading through it and processing the information, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of the ideas that were brought forth from that article. It's especially useful for business owners since we rely heavily on our websites ranking and position in order to generate consistent traffic.

"Nobody starts their design with the objective, "We need our home page to be as complex as we can possibly make it." On the contrary, everybody wants to build simple designs. Yet, somewhere along the line, simplicity translated into "Provide as few links on the home page as possible."" - Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering

This quote sums things up well. It also targets exactly what we need to do to make a site successful for the end users. This is one of those cases where we need to ensure that our focus is on what is best for the site users. It's a complex negotiation between what you envision as the optimal website while at the same time ensuring that the end user has a website that will work well for them too.

Is your own home page link rich? Are you providing your site users with relevant, beneficial links that will potentially take them deeper into your site and further showcase your company's products and services? These are important questions to mull over when thinking about the function, style, and format of your website's home page.

News websites have long understood the need to provide multiple links on their home pages. The majority of news sites are loaded with links designed to deliver in-depth information to users. CNN, Fox, the Drudge Report, and many major newspaper sites have hundreds of links displayed on their home page. How many is too many? Take a look at the sites listed below and check out their standings.

Website / Google Page Rank / Alexa Ranking

Yahoo.com / 9 / 3

CNN.com /10 / 16

NYTimes.com / 9 / 28

LATimes.com / 8 / 74

FoxNews.com / 8 / 40

BBC.co.uk / 9 / 42

Bls.gov* / 7 / 1491

Craigslist.org / 7 / 9

*The Bureau of Labor and Statistics website isn't a news site. However, it is a good example of a home page that is comprised almost entirely of links. While this site is very narrow in its appeal, it is heavily used as you can see from its rankings. The same holds true for Craigslist - its homepage is comprised completely of links.

Judging from the rankings shown above for these link rich sites, it's a good choice to include many links on your homepage. However, my advice would be to take a look at the manner in which links are displayed on these sites. With the exception of the BLS site and Craigslist, most of these sites display links in a tasteful, organized manner. So essentially what I'm saying is that you can still maintain the simplistic design approach while at the same time creating a 'link rich environment' which will perform well for the end users of the website.

This is also good reference material for you to use when discussing site creation with your web designer. Please feel free to use the information in this article to point out the need to create a great looking, link rich home page on your website. Hopefully this information will help them understand just how important it is for them to allow you to create a home page that will grab a user's attention and provide them with a wealth of information at the same time in an easy to use, easy to navigate format that is beneficial for your company.

Seven Inexpensive Ways to Boost Employee Morale

2011-07-27T04:08:00.000-07:00

In today's difficult economy many small businesses are operating on thin to non-existent profit margins. With it being difficult to just stay afloat, it's important to get creative when it comes to maintaining employee satisfaction. So with that in mind, here are several effective and affordable ways to make your business a place where your employees are dedicated to a common goal and happy to be working with you.

1. Say Thank You. Seriously. Make it a point to single out employees when they do a good job and say thank you. Be genuine and sincere. If you have a client or customer who thanks you for your services, be sure to pass that on to your employees too. Publicly recognize them for their role in satisfying that customer's needs. If a customer or client singles out a particular employee, send a thank you note to them at their home praising their good work and efforts. Send out a tweet or Facebook post acknowledging that employees contributions.

2. Be Accessible. Take breaks with your employees or eat lunch with them. Do more listening than talking. By spending time with your workforce, you will be able to glean more ways to take care of them in practical ways.

3. Use Gift Cards. Employees always welcome gas cards, grocery store cards, big box store cards, coffeehouse gift cards, and even movie tickets. These are nice, relatively inexpensive rewards to use when money is tight, yet you want to say thank you in a tangible way that they'll appreciate.

4. Support Community Involvement. Provide company time for employees to serve a meal at a local shelter, help out a local food pantry, adopt a family for a holiday, or raise money for a common charity. This not only serves as a great team building opportunity by engaging in something your employees are passionate about, it also creates a positive public image for your business.

5. Free Drinks or Ice Cream. Open up the office soda machine and give out free drinks occasionally. Make arrangements on a hot summer day to have an ice cream truck stop at your business, have your employees choose their favorite item, and you pick up the tab.

6. Free Food. Announce that you're bringing in coffee and bagels or donuts for your staff the next morning. Find out what bagel or donut is their favorite so you will have it for them. You can do the same with lunch by bringing in pizza or other take out foods.

7. Fun and Games. Put a foosball table, pool table, or air hockey table in the break room. Let people have fun with them during breaks and lunch. Challenge one of your employees once in a while (hopefully you'll win a few games).

These are a few inexpensive ways to build morale and keep your employees motivated during tough times. It's important to foster a culture that shows you're going the extra mile for them. Don't forget...it's not the dollar amount that matters, but the thought you put into it that will have the greatest effect on your employees.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

Keeping Your Readers Interested

2011-07-20T14:16:00.000-07:00

Creating Copy that Engages: Keeping you readers interested in your content is critical to the success of your company's website, marketing materials, and newsletters. If you lose your readers' interest after the first paragraph on a webpage, you are not going to get the click-throughs to your "money pages" (those pages where customers order products or services) and you are basically throwing all of the money that you spent on site development and management out the window. To catch and keep your reader's attention, and inevitably direct them to your money pages, you need to develop content that is powerful, useful, creative, and practical to your target demographic.

Crafting Content for Your Target Demographic: One of the first mistakes of content development is that the information written about is simply not interesting to the site's target demographic. For example, if your website's focus is on selling remote control vehicles, you don't want to invest in articles about doll collecting. While this seems like an obvious point, it is often overlooked. When a visitor lands on your page from a keyword search or an in-text link, they expect to find subject matter about a very specific topic. If that topic is not covered in your post or article, they will leave your page after reading nothing more than the page title or headers.

To craft enticing prose for your target demographic you first need to identify what they are looking for when surfing the Internet. You will then want to base your efforts on keywords that are commonly used by your target demographic to find information on your site's topic or theme. By focusing your content on those keywords you will be able to create articles and blog posts that interest your target audience and it will improve the chances that they will navigate their way through your site using your in-text links to money pages or by using menu links to other site pages.

Powerful Content Creates Interest: Powerful content creates a dialogue or reaction from your readers. This is not your average stock information page - it's a well-researched and well-written page that takes a position on an issue or that challenges the norms of a specific industry standard. The purpose of powerful content pages is to create controversy in an attempt to attract more people to your website. To achieve this goal you will need to set up your pages as a blog or interactive page where people can post their comments, views, and responses. To increase the value of these power pages you will want to include in-text links to your money pages or target pages where you want to direct your visitors.

Useful Content Keeps Your Reader's Coming Back for More: While attracting a reader once can lead to a sale/conversion, you are much more likely to make a sale on your website or through your newsletter if the same reader returns to your website multiple times. One way you can accomplish this is to develop useful articles that the reader can use as a reference for a specific application, activity, or project. For example, "how to" articles are generating huge revenues on many sites right now simply because they provide useful information in a step by step format. This format keeps the reader's interest because in order to complete the given task, they have to read the entire article. If you are able to create useful content on a regular basis, you can set up a library that will attract both new visitors and return visitors.

Creative Content Entertains While Educating: An article or blog post that is entertaining is another strategy that you can use to keep your readers interested. Creative content is fun to write; however, not everyone has a knack for it. It is because of this that your creative content needs to be handled by a writer who is skilled in entertaining, but informative, writing styles. In addition to using creative prose you can also enhance the readability of your web pages by integrating interactive features such as streaming elements, video, and widgets. These elements will keep your readers engaged in your article or web page by giving them a way to interact with it and to manipulate it to meet their needs.

Keeping Your Readers Interested: Internet success is elusive, but not unobtainable. The key is quality content created by skilled writers. It needs to be developed around topics that make sense for your target demographic. It needs to be powerful, it needs to be creative, and it needs to be useful. While many online success strategies have come and gone, the utilization of quality content is one strategy that remains a viable, productive strategy for search engine optimization and site performance enhancement.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

Stock Photos, Custom Photos, or a Blend of Both?

2011-07-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, the stock photography market has exploded and expanded exponentially. Iconic stock giants such as Getty Images, Corbis (privately owned by Bill Gates), Alamy, and Jupitermedia, Inc. (parent company of Jupiter Images) dominate high end publications and websites. Unfortunately, most of the images available from the companies listed above are simply too expensive for most small businesses to purchase for their web use, advertising campaigns, and media related ventures. Many times you'll see images owned by these companies used in highly publicized magazines and websites such as Time, Sports Illustrated, CNN, and many others. So, how do small businesses locate quality stock images that they can use effectively to promote their business and/or products?

The answer lies within the microstock websites. This emerging group of sites (such as iStockPhoto, BigStockPhoto, and Dreamstime) allow customers to purchase high quality images at much lower prices. Each site has certain licensing options and distribution restrictions for images, but most of the time a customer can purchase the desired image and the necessary license for a relatively low price.

For most companies, finding a good, applicable image isn't a problem. Just between the three stock sites listed above, there are over six million images. Yes, some of them are duplicates, with the same artist creating galleries on each site. However, there are still several million different images available.

A word of caution though when you are selecting an image to use - try to stay away from the most popular images. Why do I say that? Well, they are popular due to being sold and downloaded more times. Why do I caution you against using popular images? Because you don't want to create branding material for your company or product that is being used elsewhere. Your business is unique...your product is unique...it may not be in your best interest to use an image that has been sold hundreds or perhaps even thousands of times.

What am I talking about? Well, perhaps it's best to just use some visual examples. I came across this blog post which shows how three major electronics companies used the same image in various promotions. Check it out for yourself (link provided at the end of the article).

Better yet, here's a nightmare scenario that you would never want to have occur for your company. Can you imagine the constant explaining that Design Matters has to do regarding their (lack of) association with Vagisil? You see, they both used the same image of a young teen girl in their promotional materials. Unfortunately, the link to the Vagisil ad is no longer active. The Wall Street Journal also featured an article on this dilemma several years ago that is still worth reading (link provided at the end of the article).

These examples are the risk that you run when choosing to use stock photography for your business. I am certainly not telling you to abandon the use of stock photography for your business! Please don't misunderstand. However, I am recommending that you proceed with caution. There are very valid risks to consider. The customer's perception of your business is on the line. David Ogilvy said, "Always give your product a first-class ticket through life." This incredibly important concept is applicable to not only a product, a brochure, or your website - but your business as a whole. Is purchasing an image for a buck or two really the best route to take? It can be if you navigate your way through the process wisely.

Choose a photo that matches up with your purpose. Don't just choose one to "fill space." Rather than use a potentially risky or dull photo, fill that space with great content. Or, at times...empty space might be the best option. Space is good.
Be Creative in Your Choice. Instead of using a picture of a man or woman, (who isn't employed by your company), perhaps a graphic of some sort will convey the same message just as effectively. Or better yet, hire a photographer to take pictures of your actual employees. It may be slightly more expensive to choose this route, but the end result will certainly be more genuine. An example that comes to mind for me was a Sear's sales flyer that I received in the mail not too long ago. It completely missed the mark with me. I flipped through it until about page 3. On that page, I finally realized that every person in every picture had well placed smudges on their faces. (The flyer was geared toward outdoors/construction clothing and accessories.) I even saw painters with paint on their hands and face...however, their painting clothes were spotless. I also wondered why the "architect or engineer" in the picture seemed to have a big muddy smudge on his cheek when there wasn't any mud around in that particular picture...he was standing on a nice, dry concrete slab. The pictures were a complete bust for me. I didn't look at anything in the catalog with the mindset of "hey...I wonder what's on sale"; instead, I was just looking at the ridiculous pictures. In my opinion, the whole catalog was a ridiculous attempt to get me to purchase something...and it didn't work.
Always remember your message. Do the images you're choosing really help you convey your message to potential customers?

Another interesting possibility (at least to me) is to make direct contact with a stock photographer. Let's say you find an image that you like, but it just isn't quite right. It's close, but not 100% on target. I say that you should contact the photographer or designer directly. Ask them if they might be able to create just the image you are looking for. Many times, you can have this accomplished and it will still be relatively affordable. Most of the stock photographers and designers that I know are more than willing to work with a customer to create an image that is perfect for their particular needs. Also, most of them are generally fair in their pricing for such custom requests. The other bonus with going this route is you can generally eliminate the possibility of someone else having the same image.

I think it's well worth the extra dollars spent. This is by far the route that I would choose over anything else. I see myself using the stock sites to locate an artist or photographer whose style fits well into the advertising or promotional concept that I am building. I like working with people…not just using people's work. I would much rather contact them and establish a relationship with them that will result in photographs or designs that will give my business or product that "first-class ticket through life."

http://www.brianbehrend.com/archives/2004/09/more_stock_foot.php

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116467838729434053-j1YX6tWZ7hTQ_MqzLcRfX2utcSE_20071127.html

Creative Brilliance and Logo Design

2011-07-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

David Ogilvy, who's widely considered the father of modern advertising, focused heavily on creative brilliance - the BIG IDEA (which he always wrote in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS) was of extreme importance to him. In his opinion creativity and originality were useless unless they brought results for clients with whom he did business. When presenting something in an ad, it had to be functional and relevant. "Unless your advertising is based on a BIG IDEA, it will pass like a ship in the night", he preached over and over again.

Thankfully, his emphasis on the BIG IDEA doesn't need to translate into complexity. Simplicity, especially in the area of logo design is something we can still adhere to while following Mr. Ogilvy's advice. So, with that in mind, I'd like to offer a few thoughts for those of you who are just starting the process of thinking through a logo design for your new company.

There are many logos that can be highlighted as examples of accomplishing the BIG IDEA while remaining simple at the same time. There are many global companies who adhere successfully to this:

AT&T

Adobe Systems

Caterpillar (CAT)

Citi Group

Dell

Electronic Arts

Verisign

UPS

SnapOn

All of these companies have simple, yet incredibly effective logos that identify their companies. These companies are industry leaders and well known around the world simply through their logos. Several of these companies have created incredible revenue streams just through the marketing of their logos. Many of these companies sell apparel and other merchandise that displays their logos, which in turn generates millions of dollars in additional revenue for their companies. They are simple, yet extraordinarily successful logos.

Logo designs for some recent corporations would easily fall under the same, simplistic design parameter. Some examples would include such company logos as:

Aflac

GoDaddy

Apple

Monster Worldwide

Google

Yum! Brands

Yahoo!

Several of these companies are focused solely on the Internet. Google, Yahoo!, GoDaddy, and Monster Worldwide are primarily web based companies. However, their branding and logos are universally recognized symbols for them. Yum! Brands is an internationally recognized company. Not only is their logo simple and easily recognizable, but so are the restaurants it owns: Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Long John Silver's. Aflac's logo is simply a combination of their name and the primary character of every advertisement...the duck. However, every time someone sees it, they immediately recall the last advertisement they saw, they say "Aflac" in their best duck voice, and they recall the type of insurance services they provide. Their logo is simple, yet exceptionally valuable to their mission as a company. Their logo is the pinnacle of creative brilliance and sums up the BIG IDEA for Aflac. In fact, every one of these logos functions the same way for each of these companies. Their logo completely fulfills the mission of their BIG IDEA.

As we mentioned earlier, most of these companies generate millions of dollars in additional revenue for their companies by simply selling items that display their logos. Think about NASCAR, the NFL, and the myriad of other places where advertising reigns supreme; these companies are all present there. They have created an additional product by simply creating a recognizable symbol for their company that people want to purchase. The consumer is interested in attaching themselves to a company and identifying with them through the usage of their logo on apparel, stickers, and additional products.

The power of exercising creative brilliance and generating the BIG IDEA for your company logo is so amazingly important. This is the reason that virtually everyone recommends seeking professional help in designing a great logo for your company or new product. There are two very poignant quotes from David Ogilvy that sum up the importance of designing your logo correctly. Ogilvy said, "It takes a BIG IDEA to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product," and "Unless your advertising contains a BIG IDEA, it will pass like a ship in the night."

So, what's your BIG IDEA and how are you implementing it into your logo design?

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

Are You Creating the Right Stuff for Your Clients?

2011-07-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

This is a funny video and it conjures up various feelings in everyone who watches it. However, it also highlights some major flaws in true, reliable, customer service. As a business owner, are you truly meeting the needs of your customers? There are tons of blog posts and articles on the Internet from business men and women going on and on about nightmare clients and their sometimes ridiculous demands. Many of them are valid rants. However, there are also many of them that may be the direct result of failures on the part of the business owner. This shouldn't be a shocking revelation, but business owners and upper management aren't always innocent. Failure is a part of every occupation, every business, and every person. To deny it would be ridiculous. Knowledge and implementation of knowledge is what reduces the frequency of those failures. As people who are heavily invested in the success of our own companies, we need to make sure that we are doing all we can to properly meet the needs of clients (our customers).

How is your company using the Internet to its advantage?

"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow." ~Bill Gates

Using Mr. Gates' quote as a focal point, what part of the 'village' are you gearing your products and services to? This is an essential element to consider when creating your marketing and advertising plans. Make sure that your website operates in a way that your customers will "get it" and understand why they should choose to use your services or purchase your products. If customers can interact with your site in a positive way, then your website will be successful.

What's being said about your business on the Internet? Have you looked at Yelp and other review sites to see how people gauge their interaction with your company, your employees or how they perceive the value of your products/services? If you're not checking for those "word of mouth" referrals or unfortunate negative reviews, then you're missing a critical component of being able to provide the "right stuff" to your customers. If you're not listening to them and unwilling to take a look at your internal policies/procedures and quality control standards, then you should just stop reading this article right now.

David Ogilvy, who is considered by many to be the father of modern advertising, always stressed the importance of the "BIG IDEA". He always capitalized those two words in order to make them stand out. Are you doing your best to ensure that your company's customer service, reputation, and quality standards are an integral part of America's economic, political, and social life? What is the BIG IDEA that drives your business? By listening to your clients, understanding their wants and needs, and adapting, you are better able to refine your customer service procedures and better produce the products and services your customers desire. In doing this, you'll be able to convey your company's BIG IDEA in an easier, more effective way.

This isn't an easy task. There isn't one tried and true formula to achieve this - it's more of a mindset and method of operating. In some ways this might seem a bit obtuse and nebulous. The beauty of it though is that this method of operating is one of the major facets of what you'll see when you study the successful models of companies such as Amazon, Dropbox, Google, and others who do a great job of listening and interacting with their customers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heSudg-tfIk.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Cheap Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

Six Popular Image File Formats: What Are They and How Are They Best Used?

2011-07-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

As a business owner, your focused on your company's products, services, and finding ways to grow and sustain your business. Your focus isn't generally on image file formats and what's needed in order to properly reproduce your company's logo, letterhead, brochures, and business cards. But, if you're a small business owner, you wear multiple hats and have the "joyous" task of managing not only the growth and success of your business, but all of the little, technical items associated with getting items printed for your company. And, you're probably the head of your own "Online/IT Department" too.

So, in order to help you become more proficient with the IT hat that you wear, we thought it would be a good idea to introduce you to some basic file format information concerning images (for your logo/letterhead/business cards/etc).

Choosing the right file format for saving your images is of vital importance. There are six major image file formats used consistently in the design field - TIFF, GIF, JPG, BMP, WBMP, and PNG. Each format is well suited to a specific type of image, and by matching your image to the correct format, you should benefit from a fast-loading, high quality graphic. It's also important to understand how these file formats work in certain applications. So, enjoy checking out these six image file formats:

TIFF - The TIFF (Tagged Information File Format) is a file format used for storing images such as line art and photographs. It was originally developed by Aldus (now Adobe Systems) and Microsoft. This is a popular format for high color depth images and it is supported by many image-manipulation programs such as Pagemaker, QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro, etc. Tiff is extremely high in its image quality, providing excellent compatibility with publishing and printing companies. Tiff can be modified and resaved, with the images being used an endless number of times without losing any image data. In addition, the image is extremely usable since it doesn't require software post-processing during or after its download from a camera. It is a flexible and adaptable format.

GIF - TheGraphic Interface Formatis an image file format that was originally developed in 1987 by Unisys using the LZW compression algorithm. For years it has been a standard image format used on the web. However, it has seen its share of difficulties due to licensing restrictions and requirements placed on it by Unisys. In 1989, they also developed Gif89a which allowed animated images. While GIF has enjoyed a significant presence on the Internet, it is being phased out by the emergence of PNG.

JPG/JPEG - JPEG is a commonly used compression method for photographic images. The name "JPEG" stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the name of the committee that created the standard. The group was organized in 1986, issuing this standard in 1992 and finally approving it in 1994. The degree of compression may be adjusted to allow a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. Typically, JPEG achieves 10 to 1 compression with little perceivable loss in image quality. In addition to being a compression method, JPEG is often considered to be a file format. JPEG is the most common image format used by digital cameras and other photographic image capture devices. It is also the most common format for storing and transmitting photographic images on the World Wide Web.

BMP - The BMP file format, sometimes called bitmap or DIB file format (for device-independent bitmap), is an image file format used to store bitmap digital images, especially on Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems. The simplicity of the BMP file format and its widespread familiarity in Windows and elsewhere makes it a very common format that image processing programs from many operating systems can read and write. Another reason for the widespread use of this format is due to it being well documented and free of patents. While most BMP files have a relatively large file size due to lack of any compression, many BMP files can be considerably compressed with lossless data compression algorithms such as ZIP since they contain redundant data.

WBMP - This is short for Wireless Bitmap, a graphic format optimized for mobile computing devices. This is a relatively new file format that only supports monochrome images at the moment. A WBMP image is identified using a TypeField value, which describes encoding information (such as pixel and palette organization, compression, and animation) and determines image characteristics according to WAP documentation. TypeField values are represented by an Image Type Identifier. Currently, there is only one type of WMBP specified; the Image Type Identifier label for this is 0. 0 has the following characteristics: No compression, One bit color (white=1, black=0), and One bit deep (monochrome). Any WAP device that supports WBMPs can only support type 0. WBMP is part of the Wireless Application Protocol, Wireless Application Environment Specification Version 1.1.

PNG - Portable Network Graphics is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression similar to that of a GIF file. PNG was created to improve upon and replace the GIF format, as an image-file format not requiring a patent license. It was basically created in direct rebuttal of Unisys' licensing requirements for using the GIF format. PNG supports palette-based (palettes of 24-bit RGB colors), grayscale, or RGB images. PNG was designed for transferring images on the Internet, not professional graphics, and so does not support other color spaces (such as CMYK). PNG works very well for geometric or line drawings, lettering, cartoons, and other images with flat color and sharp borders, such as computer screenshots. PNG is mostly superior to GIF, as it is newer, supports more colors, and is free of patent restrictions. Unfortunately, PNG cannot be used for animation. However, it does offer highly sophisticated transparency and color support, among other features. In most cases where animation is not required, it is best to use PNG over GIF.

It's interesting to note each format's strengths and weaknesses. Overall, each of them definitely displays benefits in certain applications. The best way to approach these is to know ahead of time what the ultimate application and use for a certain image is going to be prior to creating it. As a business owner, it's important to find a reliable printer that can service your company's needs. CCA is able to accept and modify virtually any image file format in order to create a high resolution, quality image for use on your company's business cards. If you have any questions or concerns about your logo or business card file format, please feel free to give us a call or inquire on our website.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Cheap Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

The Power of Online Video for Your Company

2011-07-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Using video to promote your website, services, or products has become an integral component of online advertising. With the explosive popularity of sites such as YouTube (now considered the number search engine online), Vimeo, and others - it's time to embrace video and make it work on behalf of your company and your website.

Here are some amazing statistics about online video from 2010:

172 million U.S. viewers watched an average of 14.6 hours of video

Over 40% of consumers watch online videos on a weekly basis - Over 70% watch monthly

YouTube serves over 1 billion videos per day

YouTube (owned by Google) is expected to hit $2 billion in revenue during 2011.

Viral video marketing campaigns increase clickthrough rates by 750%. MarketingExperiments.com, November 2006

E-commerce sites that use product videos sell up to 45% more. Onlineshoes.com says it sees a 45% higher conversion rate for customers who watch videos on its website. Zappos.com says it sells up to 30% more for products that it shows in videos instead of just static pictures. (Sources: ReelSEO, Internet Retailer)

Online video marketing first surged in 2007 and has been growing exponentially every year since. Over $3 billion was spent on online video advertising during 2010. With online video becoming such a major marketing player, it's an important advertising genre to consider embracing.

Here are a few basic concepts to keep in mind when considering the use of online video to promote your website, company, products, or services.

If you're going to create video to showcase a product, your services, or just introduce your business...it has to be creative and compelling. Your video needs to spark some type of emotion from the viewer. Whether it's humorous, intriguing, or somewhat controversial, you need this "hook" to create a clip that people will want to see and recommend to others to watch. The hook is at the core of any good viral campaign. Get creative and come up with a catchy plan!

Online video offers another outlet to showcase your brand. Make sure that you include your site logo or company logo on any streaming video that is released. If you create and submit video to video sharing websites or other channels, then using branded video clips will further increase your website and company exposure to potential customers.

Testimonials. These are incredibly popular and important. Again, they need to be genuine and not manufactured. By having real customers discuss why they chose your products or services and how it has been beneficial to them displays a great deal of credibility for your company. These are the videos that you will definitely want to promote on multiple social media sites!

Be genuine and real. If you are going to create a video about your company...film your real employees, in your office, doing real work. Don't "manufacture" a video that is fake and staged. People will see right through it.

Use video as a platform for your products. Show people how they work. Detail how and why your product is superior to competitors and why people should purchase your products. Highlight the benefits that customers will receive by purchasing your products.

If your business is service oriented, then show viewers how your services are performed. Explain to them what makes your services superior to competitors. Tell them why they should call or email you to procure your services.

Webinars (Web Seminars). These are what I like to tag as "stage 2" videos. These are training videos that primarily work best for websites who sell products. These webinars should be created to train your customers on how to properly use your products. Most of the time, this type of video will be much more detailed and involved. However, they are extremely important as well. When a potential customer wants to purchase a product, yet they are unfamiliar on how to effectively use it, they will be reassured to know that you have online videos available to them for additional training.

Once you have videos in place, continue to get creative. With the emergence and popularity of QR codes, you can now offer potential customers the ability to watch a video by scanning a QR code with their smartphone. Create and print new business cards for your company that feature a QR Code that card recipients can scan and then watch a video about your company, your products, or whatever you want them to view.

This certainly isn't an exhaustive list by any stretch. However, I hope it will compel you to think about the myriad of ways that online video can be beneficial to your company. With the constant expansion of Internet users each year, creative marketing is going to always be needed in order to succeed in the World Wide Web. Online video is emerging as one of the best and most effective ways to reach potential customers. So...grab on to it and use it creatively!

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Real Estate Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management from professional business cards company.

Can You Make a Great Impression in Seven Seconds?

2011-06-29T03:47:00.000-07:00

In some circles of Internet Marketing, there is a pervasive thought that says you have less than 10 seconds to make a good impression with the homepage of any website. If someone views the homepage of a site and doesn't like it within the first 10 seconds…they leave and move on to another site. Some people say you have even less time! With many marketing professionals, they say it is around 7 seconds. 7 seconds?!

There are many people who use what is referred to as ‘The Rule of 7' in many facets of their lives and business. The number 7 comes up an incredible amount of times in everyday life. What's so special about the number seven? We have the Seven Wonders of the World, the seven seas, the seven deadly sins, the seven levels of hell, the seven primary colors, and the seven days of the week? What about the 7 tips for a better (insert your favorite topic here). Why are there only seven numbers in everyone's phone number?

There is no real concrete reason why the number seven is so heavily influences our lives. In 1956, psychologist George Miller, after extensive study, wrote a paper entitled, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information". In his study, he equated seven to the maximum number of information segments that humans can process at any given time. While his view on the subject is somewhat contested in various circles, it does raise some interesting questions and ideas. Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist who took some of George Miller's ideas and ran with them in the realm of social psychology. In his book, Tipping Point, he says, "as human beings we can only handle so much information at once. Once we pass a certain boundary, we become overwhelmed." He then goes on to recount some of Miller's research and comes up with that boundary being near six or seven points maximum.

What we do know is that seven is an important number. So, if we use the ‘seven second impression' time limit as our benchmark in the design and presentation of your website's homepage and navigation, then how do we make the best use of those seven precious seconds? Since we're discussing the enigmatic number 7, let's create seven guidelines to use:

Simplicity. Simple, yet attractive works well. Unique and creative doesn't have to mean complicated and overwhelming. Many times too much action and information on a homepage becomes overwhelming, causing people to click away quickly. Many website designs feature seven main operation/navigation buttons (coincidence? Nah!).

Purpose. What is the purpose of the site? Make it immediately clear. "Great taste…Less Filling" is the idea here. Lean and mean. In the spirit of simplicity, get right to the point with the site's message. Where do you want to take a site visitor? Make it abundantly clear.

Consistency in Layout. Make sure that your site's layout remains consistent from page to page. People get frustrated when they have to search how to go from page 3 back to the home page. Ensure that your navigation process is simple and consistent throughout the entire site. Make sure that everything you incorporate into the site revolves around being user-friendly and interactive.

Know What the Competition is Doing. Research your competitor's sites, find out what they are doing right, and do it better on your company's site!

Professional in Content. While you may be considered the most knowledgeable person about your company's products and services, you're ability to write perfect prose may be questionable. It's always a good idea to hire a writer to create your site's content. Or, if you want to generate the message yourself, consider hiring a proofreader and/or editor to review the text for the site. It's in poor taste to have an excellently designed website that is full of run-on sentences, misspellings, and improper punctuation. Create a completely professional package by making sure your content is written correctly.

Test the Site Yourself. Put yourself in the position of a potential customer/site visitor. Use the site from their point of view. If the site is set up to process orders, then go through the entire order process. Make sure it is error free, not confusing, and transitions smoothly throughout the whole process.

Ask Others to Evaluate for You. Ask other people to use the site and review it for you. Asking for outside help can sometimes bring to light issues that you may have never noticed on your own. Try to use a broad cross section of people to review the site. In doing this you will get a good snapshot of the effectiveness of the site.

These seven guidelines are not all inclusive. There are other things that rank highly in importance too for ensuring you get the most "bang for your buck" in the precious seven to ten second opportunity you have with a visitor to your company's website. However, these are seven extremely critical components that should always be considered.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management.

International Relationship Marketing

2011-06-29T03:34:00.000-07:00

Communication, Customers, and Connectivity

Relationship marketing is not a new marketing concept, however, it has become an increasingly more important concept in the modern economy. Relationship marketing basically uses a company's relationship with its current customers as the basis of targeted marketing efforts. This relationship is fostered and closely nurtured to ensure that customers are satisfied with their products or services and that they remain loyal to the company.

Customer Satisfaction

The most important element of relationship marketing is customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction, which can be achieved through quality customer service, quality products, and quality service, is used to not only retain customers and generate referral business, but it is also used as a source of marketing data. After all, satisfied customers are more willing to talk with company representatives about their experiences, to make recommendations (those all important word of mouth referrals), and to accept marketing materials.

There are several ways in which customer satisfaction can be used in relationship marketing. The first way is through an online opt-in communication system. Customers that want to receive promotional materials and communications from the company opt-in to an electronic mailing list. Viral marketing techniques can also be used as a part of a relationship marketing campaign that is designed to promote customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction can also be measured and monitored through the use of relatively new social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook. Two great examples of companies that actively monitor social media channels (especially Twitter) are General Electric and Chili's. Both of these companies employ very aggressive tactics in the realm of social media to monitor what is being said about them, their products, and services.

Customer Retention

Customer retention is another focal point of relationship marketing. In this case the marketing professional would take steps to ensure the customer remains loyal to the company. This is usually accomplished by offering loyal customers special perks such as discounts, promotional items, private sales, and other rewards and incentives.

Once customer retention programs are in place and a relationship has been established, then the marketer can utilize relationship marketing strategies to mine data from the customer. This data may then be used to create customer retention measures, to identify problems, and to develop corrective plans for those identified problems.

Relationship Marketing

Unlike other types of marketing, the success of any relationship marketing campaign hinges on the ability of the marketer to establish an ongoing relationship with their customers. Relationship marketing has really come to the forefront for many companies, especially in the online/Internet realm. With debacles such as the "Motrin Moms", "United Breaks Guitars", the Nestle problem, and the @keyinfluencer/FedEx issue, it's become more and more apparent that companies need to dedicate time and effort in developing, maintaining, and monitoring appropriate relationship marketing tactics.

As social media continues to develop and grow, relationship marketing tactics will continue to evolve and change as well. Companies large and small need to take a proactive step in their relationship marketing - especially in the main online communities such as Twitter and Facebook. With the speed in which bad experiences, poor service, poor performance, or inappropriate actions can be reported and spread online, the need for vigilance in relationship marketing has never been greater.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

Six Tips for Managing Your Company's Social Media Presence

2011-06-29T03:14:00.000-07:00

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, GoWalla, LinkedIn...which do you use? Which ones should you use and why? Business marketing is being reshaped by these platforms and it's important to understand their usefulness for your company and learn how to manage/monitor your company's image with them.

There is a great deal of useful information on the Internet now that discusses the subject of social media and business. If you're relatively new to the social media realm and you do a quick search, you'll quickly get the feeling that you're in over your head. But, don't despair!

As mentioned earlier, there are many different available platforms that are attractive, viable, and easy to use for business owners. Each one offers a slightly different twist or service...making it somewhat necessary to use more than just one. In light of that fact, we thought it would be helpful to highlight the strengths for several of these marketing "game-shapers".

Before you dive in and start using any social media service, it's important to create a plan for your business. While you are working to develop that plan, we want to reinforce six critical components directly related to the use of social media that will aid you in developing your own use policy and guidelines:

Don't simply delegate your company's social media plan and involvement to someone else - whether it's an employee or an outside social media expert. As the owner of your company, you know your brand better than anyone! You understand the importance of reputation, image, and professionalism way more than any of your employees. It's important to take a little time, learn the fundamentals, apply them to your company's overall social media engagement plan, and find the social media systems that work best for your business.

Social media is about return on engagement. It's also a critical component to include in your relationship marketing in today's society. Don't expect massive interest in your products or services without some work on your part. Social media isn't a magical, sales-boosting potion.

Social media isn't an opportunity to reinvent your brand, but to widen your brand's reach. Remember the mantra, "if you're not networking, you're not working." That is extremely evident in the online world. In social media, it's all about connecting with people, LISTENING, and refining your products, services, and marketing approach.

Read the article "10 Commandments of Modern Marketing". http://www.clickz.com/3636027. This excellent article would be a great foundation for any company's marketing plan across the board—not just in the social media realm, but in every facet of how to effectively market your company's products or services. This article is helpful for both new and seasoned business owners to read and apply to their marketing strategy. Be sure to read the comments too as many good insights are in them as well.

Your customers, clients, and partners are watching and reading...EVERYTHING. It's critical to remember this! Social media is a great tool for genuine interaction with people all over the world. But, if you do it wrong, it can create heaps of trouble for you and your business. Two great examples of this are what happened with Motrin and with James Andrews from Ketchum, a PR firm for FedEx at the time. http://mashable.com/2008/11/16/motrin-moms/ http://www.davidhenderson.com/2009/01/21/key-online-influencer/

Do a lot of listening. Don't just try and shove products and services at people you're connected with on Facebook and Twitter. Simply engage in conversation. Be genuine. When it's appropriate, you can mention your products and services. But, for the most part focus on the "social" part. Marketing opportunities will present themselves if people see that you're truly interested in them.

We hope these six principles will be beneficial for you as you develop your own game plan for using social media. Even if you have already incorporated social media into your company's marketing plan, there are still many concepts and principles listed here that may be useful to you as you further refine your use of social media and as new, exciting services emerge.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Cheap Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management.

Business Networking Tips

2011-06-21T23:40:00.000-07:00

There is a maxim in the business world, "Network or not work." A growing number of professional networking efforts are a manifestation of putting this maxim to practice. One of the major keys to networking is communication. The importance of communication can never be denied in any walk of life, particularly when it comes to dealing with business. One of the most effective communication tools in the corporate world is a business card! Are you heading to a local or regional "TweetUp" or perhaps a LinkedIn get together where you'll be able to meet potential clients, partners, and customers? If so, you need to ensure that your business cards are up to date with accurate information and are visually appealing to the people that you meet. Whether you are using it to expand your professional network or for establishing new working relationships, a business card says a lot about you and your business before you verbally introduce yourself.

Just as planning is necessary for every step in growing your business, planning for what type of business card you want to design is critical as well. To begin with, you should have an idea of a background you want, which type of font style you like, and how you want your information displayed on the card. Do you have a company logo or do you want to have a picture of yourself or your business on your card? If so, you have the option of uploading your logo or photo and placing wherever you wish on your card while you're using the Card Editor to create it. Don't forget about the back of your business card! Use it to print a message, a coupon, or directions to your business. Don't be afraid to get creative with the backside of your business card. This is valuable advertising space for your company - take advantage of it and use it. Printing on the back of your card can be vital in disseminating company information at networking events big and small.

QR Codes are a new emerging technology trend that is finding its way onto business cards too. QR Codes can be an extremely effective, visually appealing way to make a statement at your next business networking event. QR Codes are eye catching and you can pack them full of information about you, your company, a specific product or whatever you wish - the sky's the limit. Card recipients can easily scan your QR code with their smartphone and immediately learn more about your company or save your contact information directly in their address book.

Whether you're attending a Chamber of Commerce function, a Rotary luncheon, or participating in a social media driven networking event, it's important to have an up to date, usable and effective business card that you can place into the hands of potential customers as you meet them.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management.

Marketing Code of Ethics

2011-06-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Marketing professionals are responsible for following a professional code of ethics. This code of ethics, which is written and monitored by the American Marketing Association, outlines how marketing professionals should act and how their services should be formatted and distributed to the public. If you are a marketing professional, or if you are responsible for your company's marketing, then you need to learn this code of ethics and apply it to your marketing strategies.

Trustworthiness

The first element of the marketing code of ethics is trustworthiness. This characteristic not only needs to be applied to the marketing professional's actions, but it also has to be applied to their marketing products. To comply with this segment of the marketing code of ethics marketers need to create marketing campaigns that accurately reflect what the product is intended to do and they also need to sell their services to new clients based on their actual qualifications.

Do No Harm

Another important aspect of the marketing code of ethics is the "do no harm" clause. This clause simply means that marketers follow all marketing laws and that they follow professional codes of ethics for the industries they create marketing campaigns for. For example, marketers cannot make statements about a product that they know to be false. This is why the advertisements for psychic lines have a disclaimer printed at the bottom of the screen or ad that informs people that the line is for entertainment purposes only.

Respect

Respect is yet another important element of the marketing code of ethics. This element is very important for marketers to master, as a lack of respect will hurt their business and the businesses that they create marketing campaigns for. To comply with the respect clause of the marketing code of ethics, marketers need to listen to and respect the opinions and desires of their clients, as well as create marketing campaigns that are respectful of people's differences.

Citizenship

The final element of the marketing code of ethics is citizenship. Citizenship, in regards to marketing, means that the marketing professional is an active and valuable member of their community. To accomplish this professional goal the marketer needs to protect the environment, give back to their communities via volunteerism and they need to promote fair trade practices. Finally, acts of citizenship will focus on creating a stronger and more effective marketing community.

Gayle Hawks president of Color Card Administrator is the author of this content. Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management.

The Term Social Marketing

2011-06-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

The term social marketing has been used to describe two different things. The first thing it is used to describe is a process of marketing to improve the social condition of the world. The second definition is used to describe the process of using social networking sites and online tools to market a company. I will be using the second definition as my focus for this article.

Social marketing made a big splash in the world of Internet marketing just a few years ago. New Internet activities like blogging, video clips, and other viral marketing devices caught on quickly, and soon outpaced established online advertising methods like keyword ads and banner ads. Because of this new trend in online advertising, many companies have begun to broaden their marketing campaigns to include social marketing strategies.

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and GoWalla

These social media sites are receiving the most attention these days from online marketing experts for companies large and small. The power to influence yielded by these websites is immense. There are many excellent articles that have been written detailing good methods and strategies to employ for companies large and small who desire to engage the public using these sites. Even if you're not actively marketing your company on these sites, it's important to maintain a presence on them so that you can monitor what is being said about your business and about your competitors.

Blogging

Blogging is still one of the most popular social marketing strategies currently being used by companies and websites to attract customers and web traffic. Blogging is a web log that provides readers with a periodic posting of information. This information is written by a topic expert and usually relates to the focus of the website or a company's products and services. In order to be successful, a blog needs to be formatted as a discussion or informative article, it needs to include links to the site's product and services pages and it needs to offer a way for readers to leave their comments and carry on discussions with the blog writer(s).

Viral Video

Another popular form of social marketing is the use of video. This marketing strategy involves uploading fun or interesting video clips to a website, such as YouTube and Vimeo in the hopes that people will like it and tell other people to view it and pass it on. This creates word of mouth advertising that can spread like wild fire. Think about the effects of some of the popular videos that you know of ("Charlie bit my finger!", "United Breaks Guitars", and a host of others. Videos, when they're effective and truly go viral can generate millions of views.

eBooks

An older, but still effective form of viral marketing is the eBook. An eBook is basically a short manual or basic "how to" guide that is offered free of charge to people who complete a requested task. For example, you can offer an eBook to people who sign up for your website's newsletter or who enter a drawing on your site. The main purpose of giving away an eBook is to attract people to your website, however, it can also help you to develop an opt-in mailing list for your company. In order for an eBook to be a successful social marketing tool, it will need to provide valuable information.

Social marketing online is an ever changing, evolving landscape. It's important to engage, participate, and monitor what works and what doesn't work. Most importantly, social marketing allows your company to have a direct link with customers and potential customers. It allows you to directly engage your niche audience and strategize a method to reach them that is beneficial for your company and for them as customers.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management.

David Ogilvy - The "Father of Modern Advertising"

2011-06-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

David Ogilvy is considered to be the "father of modern advertising." His methodologies and professional philosophies revolutionized the marketing industry, and they continue to play an important role in the marketing industry today. The foundation of his marketing principles was comprised of four major components: research, creative brilliance, professional discipline, and results. These components are incredibly important to look at and very helpful to owners of businesses - large and small.

Research

Research is one of the cornerstones of the Ogilvy's marketing success. This is because his background was in research, and this is what he knew. David Ogilvy felt that the success of any marketing campaign was dependent on the amount and quality of research that the marketing professional did. He felt that it was very important to know the target demographic that you were trying to reach before you started working on the advertising campaign. Do you invest a lot into researching tactics and products that are offered by your competitors? It's something to consider and think about...

Professional Discipline

Professional discipline was another cornerstone of Ogilvy's marketing philosophy. This element of his philosophy put a great deal of stock in the importance of professional training. Ogilvy felt that knowing your craft was as important to a successful marketing campaign as the creative aspects of the campaign's design. Again, this is one of those points where it's good to do some self-evaluation. Are you well-versed and skilled in your profession? Are there some things that you should brush up on in order to make you more effective and valuable to your customers and clients?

Creative Brilliance

Another important element of the Ogilvy marketing machine was creative brilliance. Ogilvy felt that generating ‘the Big Idea" was key to the success of a marketing firm, and a marketing campaign. Ogilvy himself was credited with several "Big Ideas" during his career including the slogan, "at 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock" and many, many more.

Results

The final element of Ogilvy's successful marketing philosophy was results. He felt that creative genius was basically useless if you couldn't sell your ideas afterward. This means that successful marketing executives not only needed to be creative professionals, but they also needed to be able to sell themselves and their ideas to their clients. Are you seeing results from your efforts? Do you have metrics in place to measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategies?

Learning More About David Ogilvy

During his life David Ogilvy wrote three books on marketing and his marketing philosophy. These books included "Confessions of an Advertising Man" published in 1963, "Blood, Brains & Beer" published in 1974 and "Ogilvy on Advertising." All of these books are great reference materials for marketing professionals and small business owners.

David Ogilvy's strategies are ones that we try to employ daily at CCA. We work hard to research new business avenues, refine our customer service, sharpen our design skills, improve our websites, and create useful tools for our clients. We are a results driven company. How do we measure results? We measure them in the number of happy, satisfied customers. We aim to please every customer that orders business cards from our company.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management.

The Long Tail: Background

2011-06-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

The term 'long tail' has traditionally been confined to the field of statistics where it was used to describe the distribution of wealth within a system. However, in the October 2004 edition of Wired Magazine, writer Chris Anderson applied this term to a unique collection of modern business models. These business models based their corporate success on selling lower quantities of a larger selection of products. This formula, surprisingly, allowed online distributors to corner a unique niche in the market and they made a killing.

The Long Tail Business Model

The long tail business model is based on a unique business strategy; sell lower quantities of a lot of different hard to find items. For example, instead of selling 10,000 copies of two or three best selling videos, an online store can make more money by selling 10 copies of 10,000 harder to find videos. Companies such as Amazon have further improved their profit margin by coupling popular items with harder to find items. In doing this, they have been able to cash in on both business market advantages.

Amazon is the Best Example of The Long Tail in Action

As mentioned above, Amazon is one of the most successful examples of the long tail business model. Amazon was one of the first online companies to really perfect this marketing strategy. Today the site offers hard to find items like out of print books and collectibles, as well as in-demand items like newly released DVDs, bestselling books, popular clothing items and in-demand household items. Amazon also offers new textbooks and text book exchanges. Actually, at this point, there isn't much that you can't find or purchase via Amazon!

Developing a Business Using Long Tail Marketing Strategies

In order to develop a successful long tail business you first need to understand why they are successful. You can do this by studying successful long tail businesses like Amazon and Netflix, which is another prime example. Next you will want to figure out what merchandise you can offer that people will be interested in. For example, you can sell hard to find candies, you can sell hard to find auto parts, or perhaps you can sell hard to find toys. Take a look at your own passions and analyze whether or not there is enough of a business margin to perhaps invest in a business that follows your passions. Finally, you need to develop an online interface that will: attract a lot of traffic, be able to display your available items in an attractive manner, allow easy searches of your inventory, have the ability to handle online sales and be integrated into your inventory and bookkeeping systems.

Once You're Ready to Launch or Promote Your Business, You'll Need Business Cards Too

We too have pursued an aggressive long tail strategy within our business. We offer business cards in just about every business and personal niche we can think of! For those niches that we haven't discovered just yet, we offer customers the ability to request a customized, professionally designed business card from our Featured Artist Community. So, when you're ready to launch your new venture, come to us for your business cards.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management.

A Proud Sponsor of Chihuahua Rescue of San Diego

2011-05-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Chihuahua Rescue of San Diego rescues and provides quality foster care for injured, abandoned, abused and handicapped Chihuahuas in the San Diego area. This non- profit animal welfare group provides food, shelter, and medical attention to those small dogs that are in such need. CRSD places them in foster homes and helps to find a loving family to adopt them permanently.

In addition to food and shelter, CRSD provides spaying and neutering services and other medical attention for those Chihuahuas that have been abused or injured. Their love and wonderful care rehabilitates these little dogs so that they can live a life filled with love, happiness, and hope rather than neglect and mistreatment.

Chihuahuas are lively and likeable, comical and courageous, and above all sweet and saucy dogs that can bring love and joy into your home. These small dogs can feel threatened easily so in some cases they might not be a good fit with a family that has small children. But these spunky little dogs are a joy to have around and need the love of a family who appreciates them. It is therefore important to ensure that this small breed is the right pet for your home.

As a non-profit, CRSD relies on the support of volunteers, sponsors, and donations to keep their business going. They hold regular events at local pet stores and attend events such as the Annual Doggie Street Festival, Paws in the Park in Solana Beach and the Dog Days of Summer held in Cardiff by the Sea. All of these activities require help from volunteers and donations of goods and services to keep the Chihuahua Rescue of San Diego afloat and able to sustain their worthwhile services.

As a sponsor of CRSD, Color Card Administrator is proud to assist this worthy cause that provides aid to small animals that have been subject to neglect or abuse and are well deserving of the care that they are receiving at CRSD. We admire the people who are dedicated to caring for these precious little Chihuahuas that are in such need and we look forward to continuing our support of this important non-profit that offers refuge for small dogs in the San Diego area.

If you're a business owner, we encourage you to get involved with a local non-profit organization in some capacity. There are many excellent local non-profit organizations in your area and we're confident that any help you offer to them will be well received and put to good use. Whether you offer products, services, or volunteer time through your company, rest assured that it will be a rewarding experience for not only the non-profit you're working with, but also for you and your staff. Get involved - you'll enjoy it.

Gayle Hawks is President of Color Card Administrator (CCA). CCA is comprised of a combination of online industries involving business cards, stock photography, and e-commerce software licensing. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding real estate business cards design or business card management.

Branding Mistakes Related to Business Cards

2011-05-06T15:21:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that if you own a business or provide some type of service you need to have a business card. Business cards are a means of marketing your company and telling a prospective client who and what you are – and what you do. But what exactly do you need to have on your business card?

Most people think that the standard items listed on a business card include:

The name of the company
Your title
Your address
Your other contact information such as e-mail address, telephone, etc.
Your services or specialties

But which of these items really need to be there? Let's look at them one at a time.

The name of the company – unless it is a big corporation with a brand name that will ensure that you get inside the door, the company name is not absolutely essential. Instead you can use something like "Make an Impression Using My Limo Services" if you are a limousine driver and want to increase your customer base. People will know that you have a limousine service so they don't need to know that the name of the company is ABC Services because it doesn't mean anything.
Your title – if your title really means something like an Engineering Consultant, then it's important to the services you provide. But if your title is Vice President of the B Team that doesn't really mean anything.
Your address – this is important because it confirms that you are a legitimate business. Many people who work from home do not like to put their address on their business card, but you need to have some address like a post office box so that people will have confidence that you are a legitimate business.
Your other contact information – this is vital and probably the most important part of the business card because it is the way that people can contact you. After all – that is the whole point of providing a business card.
Your services or products – most people will not take the time to read a list of services or products. For one thing – those products or services may change over time and consequently your list will be obsolete.

Keep the business card simple with pertinent information that is essential to new business. Also, don't be afraid to create several different business card versions - keeping in mind the different types of uses and circumstances where they will come in handy for marketing your company. A simple card may be best in certain situations, but a full fledged, information packed card that uses the front and back of your business card may be the best thing to give out in other circumstances.

Business Cards Make Good Sense for Job Seekers

2011-05-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

Competition is tough today for job seekers who need every advantage to even get in the door for an interview. Once they get the interview, they need to have an edge that gets them noticed even more and makes them stand out in the crowd of people lining up for every potential job.

So - besides having the experience necessary and the credentials and qualifications that are required for the job, what can you do that is a little bit unique and that gets a potential employer to really focus on you? Most people think that having a good resume and a winning personality will land them the job if they get the interview - and in many cases that might be true. But sometimes a little bit of extra finesse can land you the job when an employer is deciding between two equally qualified candidates.

You could easily swing the vote in your favor with something as simple as a personal business card. A personal business card can have the usual contact information on the front of it with your name, address, e-mail, website, and phone numbers - as well as social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. But you can dramatically change your card to include a mini resume on the reverse side listing your degrees, certifications and other unique characteristics that make you the most qualified for the job you are interviewing for. You can even personalize these cards for each interview to ensure that the information about your qualifications is perfectly suited for each company and position.

A personal job seeker business card shows the employer that you take yourself seriously and that you are very interested in their job. It shows you have initiative and it shows how innovative you are in your thinking. If you are looking for temporary positions or part-time work, then the mini resume on a card keeps it handy for an employer to call you when there is a need for your services.

On our main website, you will find cards suitable for any type of position with templates readily available to provide you with the best business cards to showcase your qualifications for a job interview and future work.

We also just launched the capability of ordering cards in quantities of 250. This gives you the opportunity to spend a little less, yet still have a professionally designed and printed card that will accurately reflect your professional desires.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Jobseekers Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Personal Business Cards Services. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cardsdesign or business card management.

Consumer Buying Behavior – Do You Know Your Customers?

2011-05-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

When it comes to buying products and services, people are motivated by many different factors such as finances, lifestyle, personal taste, and need. Some products are more necessary than others so they often take precedence over other products that might be more discretionary. An example of such might be foregoing the purchase of the latest greatest smartphone and instead getting some much needed clothing for work. All of these factors are generally considered when someone is interested in making a purchase.

A business owner needs to understand the buying behavior of his clients to ensure that he caters to their needs and desires. Obviously cost will be a factor for some people so often some items are simply out of reach financially, but you can still cater to their other needs and simpler, easier to attain desires. Generally speaking, a person who has a limited purchasing budget will buy a cheaper model of phone rather than one with all the newest, fanciest applications and software loaded onto it. As a business owner, you can still fulfill their need for style by offering snazzy colors and lots of accessories for a lower cost phone as well as higher priced ones to satisfy the needs of customers regardless of their financial buying power.

The demographics surrounding your business are also extremely important to ensure you are presenting your products to your audience correctly. If middle-income professionals who are younger surround you, your products should reflect that group's desires and needs. If the area surrounding your business is higher income, older established clientele, your product lines should reflect those tastes. Other factors that can impact the buying behavior are cultural differences or whether you live in a city or a small town as needs will differ in all of these instances.

The media and peer pressure heavily influence younger people. They feel compelled to have the latest, newest products out, so they might be more interested in something that has lots of visual appeal and pizzazz rather than the quality of the product or if it is the best value for the price. Often times, an older person will be looking for practicality and getting the best "bang for their buck". As a business owner your most important lesson to learn is to know your customer and understand their buying behavior so that you can ensure you are marketing your products and services effectively.

Gayle Hawks is President of Color Card Administrator (CCA). CCA is comprised of a combination of online industries involving real estate business cards, stock photography, and e-commerce business cards software licensing.

Five Tips for Creating a Great Business Card for Your Company

2011-05-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Handing someone a quality business card is like a good handshake - it makes an important first impression. Many cards give the impression of a well-established business while others exude a different feeling altogether. What is it that makes some cards give off a different impression? There are several things that can affect the overall impression of your business card when you present it to a prospective customer, client, or in some cases, employer. By focusing on 5 major areas, you can create a card that is more effective and professional in its impression.

Visual Appearance

The first thing to keep in mind when designing a business card is its visual impact. Most modern companies have fortunately started exercising more creativity with their cards and have moved away from traditional, plain looking cards. Many business owners now see and understand that those little 2" x 3.5" cards are important marketing tools. Be creative with the use of color, fonts, and imagery.

Paper Quality

Paper quality is judged and notated in many confusing different ways. For example "80# Text" and "80# Cover", the first is thin like writing paper and the second is thicker, like a thin business card.There are three things that matter in determining what paper stock is going to produce a quality card.

How thick the card stock is.
How dense/compressed the card stock is.
The quality of the finish on the card stock that will be printed on.

Let me discuss items #2 and #3; these two issues are more important to consider than the first. Most people, however, focus solely on the first question, "How thick is it?" Paper density and the finish quality of the paper that will be printed on is determined by how the paper is "calendered".

"The calender is a series of hard pressure rollers used to form or smooth a sheet of material. The purpose of a calender is to make the paper smooth and glossy for printing and writing." - Wikipedia

Think of it this way - in terms of bread. A slice of Wonder bread is much thicker than pita bread. It is how the bread is made that is more important than its thickness. Pita bread is denser than Wonder bread. When it comes to business cards, not all thick papers are created equal either. You can have a 15pt thick card that feels cheap and spongy, yet it is still 15pt thick. On the other hand you can have a 15pt thick card that feels stiff like a metal blade. More expensive and higher quality papers are highly calendered and have that feeling of quality, thickness, and snap everyone desires for their card.

When choosing card paper or a company to print your cards, be careful not to only look for "how thick the paper is (Points)" but also look at the paper quality. It is easy to find thick cheap paper with no substance and a poor printing surface. This paper leads to a cheap feeling business card with poor quality and poor printing on a sub-par calendered finish.

Alignment for Text, Logos, and Pictures

In most cases, people's eyes find aligned text and objects appealing. Make sure that the text on your business cards is aligned left or right or centered. As long as it is consistent over your card it will project a neat, professional look. Experiment with multiple text layouts that allow you to easily upload a picture of yourself, your company, your logo, or whatever you may wish to have displayed on your card.

The Back of Your Business Card

Many people overlook the importance of the space on the back of their business card. While leaving some open space can be valuable at times for short notes or other information that needs to be written down, the back of your card is valuable advertising space. Use it to give more details about your qualifications, your products or services, or print a coupon, discount, or other incentive on there for your prospective customers.

Glossy Stock Business Card Paper

Glossy card stock allows colors to pop and offers a nice, smooth finish. But, if you opt for this, remember that it can be hard to write on glossy paper. If you or your clients ever need to jot notes on your business cards, take into consideration the use of uncoated, glossy, or super glossy finishes.

Considering these 5 points will be extremely helpful to you as you design online business cards for your company. If you have additional questions about card design, please feel free to contact the author.

Made in America - Why That Is So Important

2011-05-06T15:12:00.000-07:00

In today's tough economy it is more and more important that we support the USA by buying products that are made here so that we can support the jobs here in our own country. It takes a little bit of effort but all you have to do is look a little further on a label or package to see where it is made. Often a product that is made in the USA is competitively priced with products made elsewhere so that is an even better reason to purchase USA made products.

More and more businesses are opting to keep production here in United States rather than contract it out overseas. Although it is often cheaper to produce products in other countries like China, businesses often pay a heavy price in terms of poor quality and high shipping costs. If your customers are not happy and dissatisfied with your products they will not continue buying from you. In many cases, attempting to improve quality control in manufacturing plants located overseas is almost impossible. Eventually you will find that it is not worth the aggravation of using offshore resources to do a lot of the work that can be done right here in the good ol' USA.

Sure it might cost you a little more to produce your product here but in the long run, it is much easier to deal with problems when it is in the next town or state so that it takes a few minutes or few hours to get a solution - rather than having to travel to a country that is half way around the globe. And with labor costs rising in China and shipping costs uncertain, the difference might not be so great when compared to what it would cost to produce your product here.

As I said earlier, we're proud to say that we are a US based company and that we print all of our business cards right here in the USA. We're pleased to be an employer that supports our economy and our workforce by providing jobs here rather than outsourcing work to other countries. We feel proud of the fact that the high quality of our products, produced right here in the United States, ensures reliability to our customers and satisfaction with our products, which is extremely important to us. Not only do we print our business cards here within the US, we also base all of our customer support staff and services here within the United States too. We're dedicated to providing quality, professional service to every single customer - whether they call us or contact us via email - all of those communications are derived from the United States.

We look forward to expanding our products and services into other parts of the world - and we're planning to do just that in the coming years. But, we're dedicated to investing in the economy of what we think is the greatest nation on the earth - the United States of America.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative online business cards websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding cheap business cards design or business card management.

Problems Facing QR Codes - And Solutions to Fix Them

2011-05-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

QR codes are touted as the wave of the future in terms of marketing and many other possibilities, but today's consumers are not all necessarily equipped with a smartphone or the add-on QR scanner/app that is required to be able to read them. One reason is that many of the phones today do not include a Code scanner as standard software on their phones. Another emerging revelation is that many of the scanner apps are not as reliable as they should be to in order to consistently read them correctly.

Testing Your QR Code Scanner

Once you have a QR scanner it is important to test it to see how it works, as not all are created equal. A QR code scanner can pick up all types of data that is embedded in a Code of QR graphic such as videos, text, website links, email address, or other customized information such as a grand opening for a new store.

At this time there is no set of industry standards for QR Reader Applications to create a system of consistency in the Quick Response Code reader industry. There is currently one company that has created a QR Code Reader test that you can use to test your own Quick Response code scanner to see if it works properly. Access to the test area can be found here: Quality Standards of QR Code Test v1.02 The test is really designed specifically for app and scanner programmers to be able to test for quality assurance and deliberately showcase flaws within their scanner so they can be rectified. This in turn will create a better end product for customers to use and be able to enjoy all of the benefits of scanning Codes of QR.

QR Code Readers Available

This technology is clearly in its infancy as reading Codes works best on a smartphone - and if you don't have one you are out of luck unless you get the free add-ons that are available from the provider of your phone. But don't despair because just like every other technological breakthrough - time will present solutions to these problems and Quick response Codes are definitely here to stay.

Here is a list of some recommended QR Readers:

For iPhone - Qrafter

For Android - Barcode Scanner

For Blackberry - QR Code Scanner Pro

For Nokia - Maemo/Meego Mbarcode

For Other Devices try Kaywa or QuickMark

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding Online business cards design or business card management.

Punch Cards Create Customer Loyalty

2011-05-06T15:08:00.000-07:00

They say that there is no such thing as a free lunch - but that is not always true when you think about punch cards and how they sometimes do create an offer for a free lunch or free merchandise - depending on what type of business is offering the punch cards.

Punch cards have been around a long time and are often called customer loyalty cards as they create as easy way to get repeat customers coming back to purchase a car wash or a latte so that when you have purchased ten you get a free car wash or a free cup of coffee. These loyalty cards do not really offer something for nothing as you have to keep coming back in order to qualify for the free product or service - but businesses use these cards because often a person doesn't just buy the coffee when they get their card punched. Customers may purchase a pastry or muffin to go with it, so they are spending more than the price of the coffee.

Punch cards are incentives for customers to return and get rewarded for their loyalty. Sometimes businesses offer something completely unconnected with their own products or services in order to incentivize the return of customers - such as a dry cleaner offering a Starbucks gift certificate after they punch their card a certain number of times. Whatever the incentive, it is worthwhile to the business owner to use punch cards as an inexpensive, yet effective marketing tool that gets customers to return and also attracts new customers.

Customers love to feel like they are getting something for nothing even if the reality is not quite true - it still makes them feel good about returning to a shop or a restaurant because they offer something in return for their loyalty. It is a win-win situation for everyone - the business owner gets return customers as well as new ones and the customers get something "free."

When looking for a company to help you design and print your punch cards, it's important to find one that uses heavy card stock and uses high quality offset printers. Remember, your customers are going to use these cards multiple times in your store - so you don't want them to be flimsy and fall apart. Whether the customer keeps your loyalty card in their wallet, in a pocket of their purse or clipped to the visor of your car, you want it looking good until it's ready to be redeemed.

QR Codes Are a Smart Marketing Choice

2011-05-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

Marketing used to be much simpler in past decades. The choices for advertising and promotion were much more limited. Today, however, the choices are vast and constantly changing in regard to how to effectively market your wares or services. One of the most popular and well-received technologies for use in marketing is the creative integration ofQuick Response Codes, more commonly known as QR Codes, which are starting to dominate the marketing arena. Why is that? Today's world relies heavily on hand held devices that offer you the opportunity to talk on the telephone, access your Email, and quickly surf the Internet - all from your smartphone, iPad, or other personal, portable Internet capable device that is with you throughout most of your day. What better way to place an ad than in this creative, emerging marketplace that offers information in many different forms?

How is a QR Code Used?

Basically a QR Code condenses everything into a barcode type graphic that can hold up to 7000 characters in a compact space that somewhat resembles a typical bar code scanned at a supermarket or other retail store. This means you can convey vast amounts of information in a little space. Consequently, QR Codes are popping up everywhere - from magazines, to promotional items and even business cards. All you have to do is have a QR Reader app on your smartphone scan it and you can read the information contained in the QR Code. Often times the Quick Response Code may contain a special coupon, take a person to an interesting video or website. Many of the codes featured on business cards simply contain all of the contact information displayed on the card - it gets scanned and it's automatically saved in a person's address book on their smartphone.

Typical Uses for QR Codes

Used in Asia for some years, Quick Response Codes are now being used more in Europe, Australia, and the USA. A QR Code can quickly access the website of the advertiser instead of needing to type in a web address. It therefore makes it fast and easy for people to read, watch, or hear what you have to say about your products, make announcements, or provide nutritional information about food in a restaurant or a store. Quick Response Codes are also being used for electronic tickets for concerts and to register for an event or provide airline tickets.

QR Codes provide an excellent way to provide more information about your company on your business card. In a small space you can list your products or services and list other subsidiaries or information that is important to a potential customer. QR Codes are the marketing frontier of the future. As technology continues to advance and smartphones and other hand held devices refine their QR Reader apps, the features and benefits of QR codes will become the "Wild West of marketing."

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com or follow us on Twitter @pBusinessCards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding Online business cardsdesign or business card management.

What Does Business Card Etiquette Mean?

2011-05-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

Business cards are an important marketing tool for any business owner. They are used in business meetings as an introduction and left with potential customers as a means of getting a foot in the door. People give them out when someone needs their contact information and business cards should be used often and as necessary to promote and carry on business.

But what does business card etiquette mean? Many times, a business card serves as the first impression that a potential client has of you and your business. It is therefore extremely important that the business card is accurate and that it is clean. It should be easy to read with nothing crossed off or handwritten on its surface. It reflects your personality and should exude the quality of the services or products you provide.

A business card should be treated with the respect that you would treat the person handing it to you. Don't discard it abruptly and put it down without looking at it. Read it when it is handed to you. Look at it and leave it out so that you can refer to information on it if needed during your meeting. Most times business cards are exchanged when people first meet, but sometimes circumstances don't permit that so wait until it is appropriate to do so.

Business card etiquette also says that you should never include business cards with a thank you note or a congratulatory letter or other personal note. It should not be given out at a funeral or other serious events where people's thoughts are on entirely different subjects. If someone asks you for your card then it is permissible - but otherwise keep them in your pocket.

Always be prepared with enough business cards - including extras - when attending any type of business meeting, conference or seminar. Chances are there are going to be additional people there that you had not anticipated. If you do, however, run out of cards, make sure that you get the contact information for the people who did not receive one and have a card sent to them afterwards.

It's important to resist the temptation to just hand out your business cards en masse at certain events. Remember, proper timing is critical along with handing them out at appropriate meetings and venues. Your company's reputation and your own reputation may suffer if you attempt to "do business" at the improper time and place.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business card design or business card management or Online Business Cards.

What Does the Future Hold for QR Codes?

2011-05-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

With QR Codes starting to pop up all over the place, what does the future hold for these unique marketing tools? Ingenuity and technology are hand-in-hand with this type of advertising and it seems to be the wave of the future for advertisers and marketers. The options are limitless with how QR Codes can be used, so let's look at a few examples that get the message across in a fun and engaging way.

QR Codes Come to Life

With so many people on the go it is hard to stop and "smell the roses" so to speak -but if you have an eye-catching poster or print ad with a Quick Response Code and a smart tagline that grabs people's attention, they will take the time to check it out by scanning the QR Code and then seeing what is being offered or promoted. It could be a video, a photo, or an informational message, but the point is to get someone to take notice - after all that is primary reason for advertising in any form.

Interesting Ways to Share Information

QR codes are sharing information with us by transferring us from the print world to the digital/cyber world. It seems that the blending of these two powerful mediums is the wave of the future. Quick Response Codes can be placed on any kind of product from t-shirts to magazines, or a souvenir mug - and provide us with a chance to look at more information on our smartphone or other handheld Internet capable device such as the iPad or Xoom. It is fast, easy, and also fun to "explore" with this new technology. It provides a great way to be entertained while at the same time informing customers and potential customers about a particular product or service offered by a particular company.

Other Ways to Use QR Codes

With people on the go it is worthwhile to have QR Codes full of information at train stations or city bus stops to let people know the schedule. A magazine can provide an entertaining video simply by embedding it into a QR code within a printed ad. A food store or restaurant can offer QR codes that will provide nutritional information about different products or dishes being offered. Restaurants can also create Quick Response Codes that offer special pricing, discounts, or incentives too.

The future is wide open for Quick Response Codes. It will be interesting to see how they will be developed and used over the course of time.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com or follow us on Twitter @pBusinessCards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding Online business cardsdesign or business card management.

Which Employees Need Business Cards?

2011-05-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

Traditionally business cards were given out to executives and other select personnel depending on their role in the business or organization. But more and more companies – particularly small businesses with just a few employees – are finding that it pays to provide all or most of the employees with personalized cards.

Since business cards are an excellent marketing tool – and a very inexpensive one – they can be used as a form of advertising because employees tend to pass out their cards not only to legitimate business contacts, but also to friends, family, and acquaintances because it gives the recipient their contact information. This in turn can create new customers. It is a natural referral system that often develops into concrete business prospects.

Business cards can also help the business owner from the employee's standpoint because it creates good will. It shows the employee that their services are respected and deemed to be important to the business. It also tells them that their job future seems more secure. Everyone likes to have confidence in their abilities and their future prospects, so it is a win-win for everyone.

Many business owners have difficulty determining who should get cards and who shouldn't. Generally cards are given out to those who have direct contact with customers or potential ones. But what about the receptionist who not only answers the phones but is the first contact with any visitors? Often these people are in a position to make a positive – or negative – impression of the company so it is important that they be given business cards to pass out to anyone that visits the company with an appointment or without one.

Small business owners and their employees generally have to wear many hats to keep the company going so it is almost imperative that all employees have their own business cards. They are often in a position to meet the public or potential customers during the course of their daily activities, either at the business or outside, when they are making deliveries or running errands – or even just going to lunch.

Overall – purchasing business cards for all employees is a relatively small investment that has the potential to pay big dividends for your company. It serves a dual role. It's a great way to reinforce the fact that you believe and support your employees, which generates a positive atmosphere within your business. Giving your employees cards also has the potential to bring in more business and more customers for your business too. It's definitely worth the investment!

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management.

Why Google Reviews are Important to You and Your Company

2011-05-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

Satisfied customers are what successful business is all about. All companies want to please their customers, not only to ensure that they will come back, but also so they will also tell others about their positive experience and spread the word about their positive experiences with your company. This in turn makes new clients want to have the same good experience. Word of mouth referrals are a powerful, priceless marketing tool for any business.

With the advent of the Internet and the rise of social media, word of mouth is now carried out on a global scale. There are many websites now that exist simply for the purpose of allowing Internet users to have the ability to state their opinion about a particular business, service, or product. Google reviews have become the gold standard for a business. Reviews placed through Google are considered to carry a great deal of weight and confidence. Since everyone uses Google to research when they are looking for a particular type of product or service, those reviews are seen frequently - good or bad. Google has high standards so a review placed through Google Local, Google Maps, or another section of their system is read by potential customers because they value the feedback from this source. Often times, it seems the only feedback you get as a business owner is the negative feedback. But, when a customer gives you positive feedback, encourage them to take an extra couple of minutes and write it up on Google. If necessary, offer some type of incentive to them (most of the time, this isn't necessary). But, this pro-active approach will do your company a world of good in boosting a positive online presence.

Google reviews are displayed with relevant search engine results too, so it can have a great influence on potential customers. Potential customers then read the reviews and it has the ability to influence people to opt for your business over others. Sometimes potential clients are unsure of which company to choose and good reviews from satisfied customers makes all the difference and ensures that their choice is easy to make.

One source says that 25% of search results for the world's top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content. 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands. The power of customer reviews posted on the web is extremely high. Don't know what Google reviews are? You can check out our reviews here as an example

As a business owner, you can ask customers to provide feedback to Google and explain the process to them. This is an extra step for them but often people are quite willing to share their positive experience. You could print up something with the Google review information on it to make it easy for them when they check out or pay for the service or product provided in your store. You can also ask colleagues at business meetings or other local business owners and customers to share their feedback on Google. As a business owner, every way that you can boost your sales is always positive – and a good review on Google is what it is all about!

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Cheap Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

Business Card Branding Mistakes

2011-04-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

What's important to include on your business card? Should you stick to the traditional information most companies have or mix it up a little and create a business card that's unique and stands out from the competition?

Learn more by reading our recently published article, "Branding Mistakes Related to Business Cards."

Proper Business Card Etiquette

2011-04-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

What are the unspoken "rules" for when to give out business cards? These tips will help you avoid making a mistake that may adversely affect your reputation and potential business for your company.

Read the entire article that was published recently at Ezine Articles and learn some tips you may not have known about proper business card usage.

Google Reviews - What are Customers Saying About Your Business?

2011-04-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Online reviews carry a tremendous amount of referral weight these days. What are customers saying about your company or your products and services? It's important to stay on top of your Internet presence. Read more about Google Reviews and learn a few tips.

How Well Do You Know Your Customers?

2011-04-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

It's an important question. If you're a business owner, in management, or seek to be a business owner - you need to be able to answer that question in an effective, relevant manner. Learn more about this subject by reading our article, "Consumer Buying Behavior - Do You Know Your Customers?"

Pay It Forward

2011-04-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

At CCA, we're thankful to be in business and be in a position to offer assistance to non-profit organizations when we have the ability. Recently, we were able to help out the Chihuahua Rescue of San Diego. Read more about it here.

Photo courtesy of Dannerzz's Photostream via Wikipedia

Final New Article of the Week

2011-03-25T12:57:00.001-07:00

Finally, here's our last offering for the week. This article is titled, "Business Cards Make Good Sense for Job Seekers" and it is loaded with great tips for those folks who are currently looking for new employment.

Check it out:

"You could easily swing the vote in your favor with something as simple as a personal business card. A personal business card can have the usual contact information on the front of it with your name, address, e-mail, website, and phone numbers - as well as social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. But you can dramatically change your card to include a mini resume on the reverse side listing your degrees, certifications and other unique characteristics that make you the most qualified for the job you are interviewing for. You can even personalize these cards for each interview to ensure that the information about your qualifications is perfectly suited for each company and position."

Read more!

Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Another New Article from CCA

2011-03-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

Here's another new, fresh article that we just published. Let us know what you think of it. We would enjoy hearing from you.

This article is entitled, "Punch Cards Create Customer Loyalty" - here's a little snippet:

"Punch cards have been around a long time and are often called customer loyalty cards as they create as easy way to get repeat customers coming back to purchase a car wash or a latte so that when you have purchased ten you get a free car wash or a free cup of coffee. These loyalty cards do not really offer something for nothing as you have to keep coming back in order to qualify for the free product or service - but businesses use these cards because often a person doesn't just buy the coffee when they get their card punched. Customers may purchase a pastry or muffin to go with it, so they are spending more than the price of the coffee."

Read more!

Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Check Out Our Latest Article: "Made in America - Why That is So Important"

2011-03-25T12:32:00.001-07:00

At Color Card Administrator, we're working hard to create relevant, intriguing articles for business professionals and entrepreneurs. We hope you'll find these articles to be helpful. Here's a snippet of one of the latest articles we've published:

"In today's tough economy it is more and more important that we support the USA by buying products that are made here so that we can support the jobs here in our own country. It takes a little bit of effort but all you have to do is look a little further on a label or package to see where it is made. Often a product that is made in the USA is competitively priced with products made elsewhere so that is an even better reason to purchase USA made products."

Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-opportunities-articles/made-in-america-why-that-is-so-important-4463501.html#ixzz1HdrR8AnG
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Color Card Administrator Announces the Ability to Order 250 Business Cards

2011-03-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

Color Card Administrator is pleased to announce the ability to now order business cards in quantities of 250 now from all of their websites.

"250 card quantities are great for new entrepreneurs and for those occupations that don't require heavy business card usage. With new business startups, ordering 250 business cards will save them a few bucks in start up costs, but still give them high quality, professionally designed and printed business cards along with our superior customer service experience," says Gayle Hawks, President of CCA.

So, if you're looking to order new business cards for your new business start up, we encourage you to check out all of the great offerings at CCA's flagship website, PrintBusinessCards.com.

The great looking image used above for this post belongs to Kirsty Pargeter, who is one of the Featured Artists for Color Card Administrator. We encourage you to check out Kirsty's great (and always growing) portfolio of professionally designed business cards.

CCA is "Getting Busy" in Google Rankings

2011-03-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's time for a little shameless self promotion. We don't do it very often, so that makes it okay...right? :)

We've been working hard recently on some various SEO strategies and we're pleased to say that it is working! PrintBusinessCards.com now shows up on the first page of Google results for the term "Business Cards". Can we just share that, while it might sound trivial to many folks who read this, it's an incredible accomplishment. That silly term, "business cards" is an incredibly competitive term. Best of all...we're ranking there organically (not via Paid Search).

So yes, we're proud of it! Thanks for letting us bask in our self-promotion for a moment. Okay - now we're off to keep working hard.

Thanks!

CCA's Latest Press Release Gets Some Great Coverage

2011-03-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

CCA's latest press release regarding the exciting new launch of the Easy Card Designer System is getting some awesome coverage. We've been featured on MSNBC's website and Yahoo Finance. We're hopeful that it will be seen on even more well-known, well-respected websites shortly. We're also confident that we'll see a boost in sales for the members of our Featured Artist Community.

Curious about joining our Featured Artist Community? Take a moment and visit our website that's dedicated solely to our artists at TheArtofBusinessCards.com to learn more.

Advantages of Two Sided Business Cards

2011-03-18T02:39:00.000-07:00

Just about everyone carries a business card today no matter if you are a chef, a gardener or a dog trainer - even if you are a small business owner who works out of his home. It makes it easier to give someone your telephone number or email address without having to write it down. Business cards can be used for far more than just supplying a name and contact information and your website or Facebook account information.

Business Cards Can Be Multi-Purpose

For the gardener or the chef or even the dog trainer, they usually have to make appointments to carry on business. Likewise a hair dresser or an electrician has to make appointments - so why not use the reverse side of the business card to jot down the appointment and give to the customer? Doctors and dentists of have been using two sided business cards for years but it is now catching on that the small business owner can do the same thing!

Showcase Your Services

Another terrific idea to use for the reverse side of your business card is to list the types of services that you specialize in. A gardener can say that there is weekly or monthly maintenance and tree removal services. A dog trainer can say he holds classes for age groups or specializes in a particular method of training. The chef might have cooking classes that you are not even aware of until you see it on the back of the business card!

Market Your Wares

The blank space on your business card's back side is ideal as a place to advertise! It is a golden opportunity not to be missed so you should take advantage of it. Use the space to make people aware of ALL of your services. A client might not know the extent of your services or product lines unless you make them aware of them. It is an inexpensive marketing tool that will surely increase your sales and will definitely lead to new customers. Find a great business card printer who specializes in two-sided business card services. It is an easy way to advertise and keep people informed about your business.

Gayle Hawks is President of Color Card Administrator (CCA). CCA is comprised of a combination of online industries involving cheap business card, stock photography, and e-commerce business cards software licensing. to

Personal Cards Don't Have to be for Business

2011-03-18T02:31:00.000-07:00

Business cards are an important staple in the business world as a means of communication and introduction. This extends into the small business community and self-employed where just about any business owner has created a card to market his or her business.

When Business Becomes Personal

But business cards don't just have to be about business. They can also be personal. Most people today communicate via email or their cell phones for text messaging as well as phone conversations. Whether you are a student, a housewife or a clerk in a drug store you probably use these means of communication – and you probably should have a personal business card so you can easily transmit this information to others.

Personal Cards Introduce Your Information and You

Like calling cards of days gone by when people left their cards in a tray when they visited, personal cards have become a form of introduction and a means of relaying personal information without writing it down on a scrap of paper. Everyone has a phone number - sometimes more than one - along with an e-mail address, a Facebook or Twitter account and often their own website whether they have a business or not.

Unlike a scrap of paper that is easily lost, a personal card is more distinctive especially if you use color or a graphic that stands out in the crowd. It is a great means of communication when you meet someone new or want to establish your identity to someone.Personal business cards can also display other information about you if you have a part-time business like a band or that you belong to a biking club or other activities.

Keep in Touch With Your Personal Card

Personal cards are a means of keeping in touch with friends and when you meet someone new, it is so easy to hand them a card rather than explain everything or try to find a pen or piece of paper. If you are looking for a job, it is a great way to introduce yourself to a prospective employer who should be impressed that you have your own personal business card.

Use a Photo on Your Business Card

2011-03-18T02:16:00.000-07:00

Some might think that having a photograph on a business card is a little bit hokey – especially when it is a picture of you. But in some businesses, having your photo on your business card is an essential part of doing business. Other types of photos can also be used and might be more representative of the business that you are in - such as photography or a fishing boat charter business so you might have a photograph that represents the business rather than you.

A Photo Showcases Your Business

People have more confidence in your abilities when they see a photograph on your card because they like what they see. Realtors almost always have a photo of themselves on the card that readily identifies them for clients and potential customers. This will reassure people rather than put them off because people want to be comfortable with who they are doing business with.

A photographer might specialize in child portraits so that type of photo should be shown on the business card. If the person is a wildlife photographer you might see a photo of a lion or the other types of animals that he most often photographs. A charter boat owner or limousine company might show a photograph of his boat or limo on his card so the client knows exactly what he is going to be using.

First Impressions Are Important

A business card with a high quality photograph makes a great first impression and is always an important means of attracting new customers. Quality counts and if you take the time and effort to portray yourself and your business in such a positive way it will be worth the effort as business cards are usually the first things that a potential client sees – sometimes even before you have met. Photographs are great marketing tools that should enhance your business and attract customers while it shows off who you are and that you care about images as well as succeeding in your business.

So take a look at your business and decide if a photograph on your business card might not be a good idea for you and for your business. It is certainly worth looking into. It's not hard to find an online business card printing company that features photo business card services. Photo business cards are easy to create using the simple to use Card Editor at PrintBusinessCards.com.

Author Detals: Gayle Hawks is President of Color Card Administrator (CCA). CCA is comprised of a combination of online industries involving business cards, stock photography, and e-commerce Professional business cards software licensing.

Color Card Administrator Launches New Revenue Producing "Easy Card Designer" System

2011-03-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

SAN DIEGO, CA (3/14/11) Color Card Administrator (CCA), recently contracted to handle the business card processes for Annex Brands, today announced "Easy Card Designer;" a full-service business card design and e-commerce platform, designed to allow small and large businesses to offer online business card design and ordering through their websites.

Perfected over a 2-year beta test period, Easy Card Designer lets businesses set up a vendor platform and accept business card orders designed online in a few simple steps with virtually no effort.

Customers can design a card choosing from tens of thousands of card templates made available from the world's largest business card design community, TheArtofBusinessCards.com.

"We know through research that a majority of customers who order business cards also purchase other core products and tend to become repeat customers. By implementing Easy Card Designer, business owners are able to offer a value added service without the burden of processes related to ordering, printing and delivery of business cards," says Gayle Hawks, President of CCA.

In addition to being rolled out with Annex Brands, Easy Card Designer is currently being used by other independent and franchise owned companies such as Franchise Services (Sir Speedy / Pip Printing), UPS and Proforma.

To implement Easy Card Designer requires no investment. The profit generated from each customer transaction is shared between CCA and the licensee, while the licensee retains the sole rights to all registrations.

"Easy Card Designer is truly a win-win, turn-key solution. Besides providing businesses with a blazing fast method to generate additional revenue, we are also helping them expand their customer base by gaining new customers on the Internet," says Gayle Hawks.

For more information, visit www.easycarddesigner.com

About Color Card Administrator (CCA)
CCA is a leading global provider of business card design solutions and related vendor platforms. Established in 2002, CCA currently provides business card related services through its websites and licensees. The company is headquartered in San Diego, CA. The new Easy Card Designer system is already the business card system of choice with several large organizations.

Check Out Our Newest Category: Wind Energy Business Cards

2011-03-02T10:41:00.001-08:00

We're working hard to create new categories for exciting occupations and services. Wind Energy is one of our newest categories and we think you'll be pleased with the great looking business card templates that our Featured Artist Community has created so far. Check back often to see more new templates. Don't see what you're looking for? Let us know and we'll get our artists on the job designing a card specifically for you and your company! NO ONE ELSE can do that for you!

Five Tips for Creating a Great Business Card for Your Company

2011-02-08T12:11:00.000-08:00

The following is an excerpt from an article we recently published at ArticlesBase:

Some business cards look great while others definitely give an amateur appearance. Many cards give the impression of a well-established business while others exude a different feeling altogether. What is it that makes some business cards give off a different impression? There are several things that can affect the overall impression of your business card when you present it to a prospective customer, client, or in some cases, employer. By focusing on 5 major areas, you can create a business card that is more effective and professional in its impression.

Visual Appearance
The first thing to keep in mind when designing a business card is its visual impact. Most modern companies have fortunately started exercising more creativity with their cards and have moved away from traditional, plain looking business cards. Many business owners now see and understand that those little 2" x 3.5" cards are important marketing tools. Be creative with the use of color, fonts, and imagery.

Paper Quality
Paper quality is judged and notated in many confusing different ways. For example “80# Text” and “80# Cover”, the first is thin like writing paper and the second is thicker, like a thin business card. There are three things that matter in determining what paper stock is going to produce a quality business card.

How thick the business card stock is.
How dense/compressed the business card stock is.
The quality of the finish on the business card stock that will be printed on.

One point is equal to 1/1,000 of an inch for card stock. Therefore, 15 point card stock is .015 inches thick. Paper with more points is thicker but not necessarily sturdier and paper with fewer points is thinner. Fifteen point paper is good for business cards if the paper is also quality made. It is common to have thick, cheaply made paper.

Let me discuss items #2 and #3; these two issues are more important to consider than the first. Most people, however, focus solely on the first question, “How thick is it?” Paper density and the finish quality of the paper that will be printed on is determined by how the paper is “calendered”.

“The calender is a series of hard pressure rollers used to form or smooth a sheet of material. The purpose of a calender is to make the paper smooth and glossy for printing and writing.” -Wikipedia

Think of it this way - in terms of bread. A slice of Wonder bread is much thicker than pita bread. It is how the bread is made that is more important than its thickness. Pita bread is denser than Wonder bread. When it comes to online business cards, not all thick papers are created equal either. You can have a 15pt thick card that feels cheap and spongy, yet it is still 15pt thick. On the other hand you can have a 15pt thick card that feels stiff like a metal blade. More expensive and higher quality papers are highly calendered and have that feeling of quality, thickness, and snap everyone desires for their business card.

To read this article in its entirety, please go here.

Feelin' Some "Love" from the Artist Community

2011-01-20T16:08:00.000-08:00

Recently, one of our excellent Featured Artists had this to say about being part of our community:

"I would like to add something that I said at MSG [Microstock Group] as well. This site is not a "magazine store" like Zazzle. It's a specialty store that treat both clients (it seems) and us contributors in a direct, person-to-person way. I like that, and it's a differential that can help it get a good slice in this niche market.

And with improvements in the payment structure, how can I complain?"

Thanks Maria! We appreciate the confidence you have in us and we wish you the best with your portfolio! May you continue to sell lots and lots of business cards through PrintBusinessCards.com and our other sites.

Are you a creative artist, illustrator, graphic designer, or photographer? Looking for a way to generate another consistent revenue stream? Check out our Featured Artist Community at TheArtofBusinessCards.com.

Free Business Cards? Not Really

2010-12-20T09:23:00.000-08:00

We've touched on the subject of free business cards several different times over the past few years. Recently (last Friday) though, an article came to our attention that brought the whole subject back to the forefront of our minds and we thought it was important enough to discuss it a little and link to the article.

The article is entitled, "Ray Wilson: Beware The 'Free Stuff'" and is found at The Bulletin (Philadelphia's Family Newspaper). The article is primarily focuses on free software programs and the potential for identification theft. However, he also touches on the very familiar SPAM advertisements seen all over the Internet touting "Free Business Cards". Here's a quick quote from Mr. Wilson:

"Spam ads for business cards at an unassuming price of $1.99 for 500 cards can be a source of privacy invasion. By giving your business address, personal location, with phone numbers, and credit card information is just about all that is needed. These ads may be perfectly legitimate except for the fact that in our fragmented economy anything is possible. Who can you trust?"

So, who can you trust? Many people don't realize that those "free" business cards come with a price. The price you pay is usually the sale and distribution (many times over) of your personal contact information. It may also result in the names and contact information for every single one of your employees as well. That's right...that business card company is most likely losing money by printing and shipping your business cards - but they're making loads of cash by selling your information to every nefarious list collector out there. So, is that set of 250 "free" business cards really worth it? Not in my personal opinion - nor in the opinion of our parent company (Color Card Administrator).

PrintBusinessCards.com (CCA's main Internet website) has been around for 10 years now. One of the core operating principles of PrintBusinessCards.com is the security of their customer's contact information. Since the site's inception, it has never shared or sold an email address or phone number from one of its customers.

We encourage you to do a little investigating of PBC and learn for yourself why it is a trusted source of quality, professionally designed and printed business cards for so many companies. Feel free to read our Google reviews, check out more information about our dedication to guarding our customer's information, and then learn more about our processes.

Thanks!

Kirsty Pargeter is Now Offering Her Designs on Business Cards

2010-12-17T11:20:00.000-08:00

Color Card Administrator is pleased to offer the popular and professional designs of Kirsty Pargeter. Kirsty is well known and respected as one of the top selling designers in the microstock industry.

Her designs cover a broad range of topics and styles. Over the coming months, her portfolio at PrintBusinessCards.com will expand as her designs are transformed into high quality, professionally designed business card templates.

We're excited about the future and look forward to seeing Kirsty's designs sell as business cards in our system.

We Have a Great Group of Artists

2010-12-17T10:53:00.000-08:00

One of the best things about what we do is getting to work with so many talented graphic designers, illustrators, artists, and photographers from all over the world. The creativity comprised within our Featured Artist Community is AMAZING. Seriously.

We appreciate their ability to quickly and professionally design so many attractive business card templates for our customers. Need some proof? Check out the great designs from our community that are featured on this web page. We also appreciate it when they spread the word about our business card website, our Featured Artist program, and the way we work with our artists.

If you're curious about joining our program, learning more about it, and getting true, relevant reactions from our participating artists, we encourage you to visit this forum thread over at the MicroStockGroup. I think you'll see from the conversation there that our program is a pretty cool place to be involved.

If you're interested in joining us, please take just a moment to watch this video that details how our program works:

We're Still Here - Just Been BUSY Growing Our Artist Community

2010-12-16T12:51:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we haven't posted anything here in the blog for the past 11 months! Argh...time definitely flies by too quickly.

We're thankful for our artist community and the great, attractive, professional business cards they design for our growing customer base. We're also thankful that our artist community continues to grow.

Below is a quote from a new artist whose portfolio was published on 11/23/10 and their first sale occurred on 12/15/10. We're confident that Anita will continue to see sales from the great portfolio she has created (and continues to add to).

Anyhow, here are her comments:

Posted: December 15, 2010, 1:39 pm Post subject: Cards purchased from Anita
Got my first sale today. Very happy. I need to make some more templates

Posted: December 15, 2010, 10:02 pm Post subject:
Congrats on the sale! It's a great card - you're off to an awesome start!

Posted: December 15, 2010, 10:40 pm Post subject:
Thanks Tim I also wasn't expecting to get paid for that today either but I did which was awesome

I'm hoping that once all the holiday hoopla is all settled I can get back to making templates.

I heart this place

We like to see every one of our featured artists succeed. We also enjoy sharing those successes with others. Are you interested in joining our Featured Artist Community? Please visit www.TheArtofBusinessCards.com for more information.

Thanks.

Interested in Becoming a Featured Artist for Color Card Administrator? Here's How!

2009-12-17T18:28:00.000-08:00

Attention Graphic Designers, Illustrators, Photographers, and Artists! CCA is making an open call for you to join its Featured Artist Community. If you are looking for a new, interesting, and exciting way to generate additional income with your existing portfolio, we encourage you to check this out!

Dear Artist,

Color Card Administrator, Inc (CCA) has been building a community of Featured Artists on its main website, www.PrintBusinessCards.com as well as affiliated websites that now number well over 450. Featured Artists are rewarded financially for the use of their images on business cards as well as the sale of the artwork on the business card template. Our site does not compete with any site on which you currently display your artwork. The benefits of our community include monetary compensation each time a customer chooses one of your images, occasional contests, a profile of your creative design, and a network with fellow artists. We envision this as a nice exchange: a way for us to build our community, while allowing you to market your artwork through our website. If you would like to join our community please visit our exclusive artist website to learn more, www.theartofbusinesscards.com.

In order to be a Featured Artist, you will need to be proficient in Photoshop and display a minimum of 25 business card templates. You will manage your online portfolio by adding or removing templates as you choose. There are only two restrictions that we place on your portfolio: we do not allow nudity and do not allow recognizable photos of people's faces. We provide you with a multitude of information and tools for increasing your sales, as well as an artist profile page, featuring your images, a biography that includes information about your work, and links to your personal website. Potential customers can view your business card templates on your page as well as many other pages within our system and select them for their business cards.

The artist is paid a flat rate of $5.00 USD for the purchase of a card with his/her image (for more details on how this works, please read through the Content License and Payment Agreement for Content Providers. If you are interested in allowing customers to purchase the image from your business card for additional uses (website, letterhead, brochures, etc.), we have an Additional Use Program that allows you to sell the image for an additional $20. After you have registered, you will have the opportunity to read more about this program and choose whether or not to participate in it. Periodically (one to two times per year), we open up for template submissions from our featured artists that will be sent out as a supplemental update to the templates in our Easy Card Designer Catalog, which is placed in various retail stores throughout the USA.

Once you have applied to become a Featured Artist for our company, your application will be processed within 24-48 hours (it may take longer if you have applied over a weekend). If your application is approved, you will be notified via email and you will have full access to The Art of Business Cards website in order to proceed with fulfilling the registration requirements.

If you have any questions about joining our Featured Artist Community, please contact our Community Development Manager via email, tim@cardadmin.com.

Immediate Sales Opportunity for Our Featured Artist Community

2009-12-02T13:13:00.001-08:00

As promised in the Sales Builder section at TheArtofBusinessCards.com we are number one on Google organically for the search term “Tax Preparer Business Cards.”

Our current issue is that we could be converting many more sales if we had more quality Tax Preparer Business Card templates. Please add templates for this category and enjoy some immediate sales as it is just going into tax season here in the United States!

We still desperately need new templates for many other categories as well. To view the entire list of categories, please login to your account at TAOBC, click on the Sales Builder tab and then click on the article "Template Categories Soon to be Promoted by "Sponsored Links" on Search Engines." Also, please feel free to refer new, qualified artists, photographers, and illustrators to join our Community. We would appreciate your continued assistance in growing our program and making other talented people aware of it.

Thanks everyone!

We Enjoy Hearing from Our Artists!

2009-11-06T10:14:00.000-08:00

We enjoy all of our interactions with the Featured Artist Community. We are privileged to work with each and every one of them. Selfishly, we think we have the best group of artists anywhere on the Internet! Here's a quote from one of the great artists who displays their work for sale:

"I think you are doing a great job marketing the business cards. My sales here are better than some microstock sites with millions of photos. I like being part of a group that is innovative and forward thinking and hope for limitless growth in the future." Melinda

Template and Artwork Sale

2009-11-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

"My second sale, Template and Artwork ($25 total sale)

Great to be a part of this marketplace"

Norman

Quick Sales for a New Artist

2009-11-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

"I put 30 templates up on the site this weekend. Hope you like them.

I'm actually pretty jazzed. I uploaded the first one Friday afternoon, it was approved before 5, and by evening I had already sold it! I hope it's a good sign.

Let me know if you need anything else. I have a lot more templates I can upload, will keep adding.

Thanks!

Sold two more. I need to get busy and start creating more cards. This site proves to be a best seller for me."

2009-10-29T16:07:00.001-07:00

We are going to start posting comments by our artist community here.

Todd Arena has Joined PrintBusinessCards.com

2008-11-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

Todd Arena, a full time graphic designer, has joined the Featured Artist Community at PrintBusinessCards.com. Todd has a fantastic array of business card templates in his portfolio! We are thrilled that he has joined our talented group of artists. Please visit Todd's page on our site today and check out all of his great templates!

Purchase the Artwork from Your Business Card!

2008-11-11T17:03:00.000-08:00

Not only do you have the ability to purchase high quality, professionally designed business cards from PrintBusinessCards.com, but you can purchase the high resolution artwork used on your business card too!

Why would you want to buy the additional use image rights and the high resolution image file? Here are a few good reasons:

• Use the artwork on your website
• Create additional promotional products for your business based on the image (posters, brochures, sales flyers, etc.).
• Create letterhead, envelopes, and other business tools that match up with your business card. This will create a cohesive professional marketing package for your business, increasing the overall quality presentation of your business.
• Product Packaging
• Film and Video Presentations
• Commercials and Advertising Needs

By purchasing the high resolution image file and the additional use image rights, you give yourself the option to create a cohesive marketing and advertising program for your business. It’s a small expense that has the possibility of reaping big rewards for your company!

Valik Rudd has joined PrintBusinessCards.com!

2008-08-22T12:24:00.001-07:00

PrintBusinessCards.com is pleased to announce that Valik Rudd is the newest member of the Featured Artist Community! Valik is a full time web designer. He owns his own web design company, New Media Consulting.

New Media Consulting offers consulting, marketing design and programming services at affordable rates. I am also involved in logo design for many businesses as well. Whether it is a new product logo or a completely new business logo design package, I am able to create quality, professional logos that create great brand recognition for my clients.

Valik's professionally designed card templates are an excellent choice for any business. Check out his business card portfolio here.

66,048 Business Cards and Lots of Spare Time

2008-07-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

I came across this article recently and thought it was worth sharing here. If you ever find yourself looking at over 66,000 business cards and have a spare 600 or so hours of free time, you might want to make your own Menger Sponge. Check it out and read the entire article at Mental Floss. Enjoy!

Over 11000 Templates and Growing!

2008-06-24T23:33:00.001-07:00

The Featured Artist Community at PrintBusinessCards.com is simply awesome! They have now created over 11000 fantastic business card templates. We are constantly adding new templates and new categories to better serve our customers. Come take a look for yourself! You will be amazed at the high quality, professional designs submitted by our hard working artists!

Missouri Photographer Randy McKown has joined PrintBusinessCards.com!

2008-06-24T23:24:00.001-07:00

Hailing from the Kansas City, MO area, well known photographer Randy McKown has joined the Featured Artist Community at PrintBusinessCards.com. With over 20 years of photography under his belt, Randy has an incredibly diverse range of business card templates. Be sure to check out all of his great designs on his Featured Artist Page. Randy and his wife also own and operate their own studio, New Image Photography, located in a historic train depot.

PrintBusinessCards.com is thrilled to have Randy join our expert team of artists. We look forward to more exciting designs from Randy in time! Randy is also available for custom design work. Please feel free to contact him through his company's website.

Celebrate America on Your Business Cards!

2008-06-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

July 4th is less than a month away! Show your pride in the USA by designing a patriotic business card for your business or personal use. Our Featured Artist Community has put together an impressive collection of patriotic themed business cards. We have many excellent card templates displaying Old Glory. What an awesome way to show your love of your country!

Celebrate the stars and stripes with a new business card! Order today from PrintBusinessCards.com and we will have your cards to you quickly so that you can hand them out before Independence Day!

EasyDoesIt is the Latest Member of the Featured Artists Community

2008-06-03T11:09:00.001-07:00

PrintBusinessCards.com is pleased to announce that EasyDoesIt has joined the ranks of the Featured Artists Community. EasyDoesIt is an award winning freelance illustrator who mainly focuses his attention on video games, publishing and advertising. He has been credited in the design of over 11 video games. To learn more about EasyDoesIt's art, please visit his featured artist page. Be sure to check out all of his great looking templates too. EasyDoesIt's templates are perfect for the creation of any professional or personal business card. His backgrounds and textures are visually stunning and will make a great business card!

Television Commercial for PrintBusinessCards.com

2008-05-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

(Drumroll...) Here's the commercial that is running in the San Diego area for PrintBusinessCards.com. A big thank you to the artists who gave us permission to use their templates in the commercial. For those of you we contacted who don't see your templates...we're sorry. We gave the producers all of the templates and they selected the ones you see in the advertisement.

Hopefully we'll do this again in the near future and be able to showcase even more of the great templates supplied by all of our artists. You all are awesome!

My Card's Better than Your Card!

2008-05-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

I had a friend tell me about this movie clip. I thought I'd share it with everyone. Just a funny bit about business cards...enjoy!

New Topics Added to the Marketing Library

2008-05-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

Last month we announced that PrintBusinessCards.com was building a public Marketing Library. As a follow up, we wanted to let you know that there are now many new, informative pages published there. Here are some of the topics covered so far:

* Business to Business Marketing
* Creative Ideas
* Direct Marketing
* Direct Selling
* Effective Signage
* General Marketing
* Internet Marketing
* Job Hunting and Hiring Tips
* Marketing Books and Education
* Professional Marketing Help
* Promotional Marketing
* Technology and Marketing

Please feel free to visit the site and read about these various marketing topics. Make sure you check back often too. Currently, there are more than 20 additional topics ready to be published on their site. If you have an idea for a topic that you would like them to cover, please feel free to leave a comment here. We'll make sure it gets covered!

Sophie Martin is Now a Featured Artist!

2008-04-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

Sophie Martin is now a part of the Featured Artists Community at PrintBusinessCard.com!

"I live in France, sometimes in Paris and sometimes in the south of France. I’m a freelancer dividing my time between photography, design and scouting locations for television and movies. As a locations finder I’m lucky enough to discover, visit, and photograph some beautiful scenes. I enjoy shooting with natural light; I also love to create digital concepts with Photoshop, or adding some effect to my original image."

Sophie has many exciting new card designs. Please take a moment to look through her professionally designed business cards.

Thanks for joining our community Sophie! We look forward to watching your sales increase as people begin to purchase your work.

Traveling to Asia? Don't forget your Business Cards!

2008-04-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

I found a great article today about business cards. If you are going to be traveling abroad for business, especially to Asia, you should pay close attention to this article and its suggestions. Check out the full article here. Let me know your thoughts about it. I'd also like to hear from 'seasoned travelers' who have made visits to Asian countries and had experiences with business cards there. Thanks!

Our Newest Featured Artist is Mark Javer!

2008-04-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

PrintBusinessCards.com is pleased to announce that Mark Javer has joined its Featured Artists Community. Mark has over 30 years of photography experience! He has created some excellent card templates. Please take a moment and check out all of his great designs by clicking here. Also, please visit Mark's own website at www.360photostock.com. He has some fantastic galleries there!

We are excited about Mark's decision to join our community. We look forward to participating in his success on our site! Thanks Mark!

New Marketing Library being Built at PrintBusinessCards.com

2008-03-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

PrintBusinessCards.com is in the process of building a new marketing library. With it, we hope to offer insight and tips on a host of marketing sectors. Whether you are a small business owner, large business owner, manager, just someone interested in marketing, or you are thinking of opening your own business, there is something here for you. Anytime you can read through an article or discussion on a particular topic and take away a nugget of information useful to your situation...it should be considered a success!

We are confident that the materials and topics we delve into here will ultimately be of use to you and your business ventures. Since we are involved with so many business owners and company leaders through our own marketing and products (business cards), we thought it would be helpful to us and everyone else to create a library on many of the popular marketing topics out there.

Check this Area Frequently for New Topics!

This is an area of our website that will always be under constant development. We will continue to add pages on marketing related topics and refine our information here. So, please check back often! We hope you enjoy this addition to our website. If you have an idea or marketing principle that you would like us to explore, please contact us at support@cardadmin.com with your request.

New Categories added to PrintBusinessCards.com

2008-03-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

PrintBusinessCards.com has been busy creating new card categories on their site. Below is a list of newly published categories for business cards:

Electronics
Appliances
Utilities
Tennis
Preschool and Daycare
Education
Archery
Martial Arts
Towing and Wrecker Services

The amount of cards and categories available at PrintBusinessCards.com keeps growing every month! Do you have a suggestion for a particular category or card to offer? Let us know! Leave a comment here in the blog and we'll get on the job!

Business Card Etiquette

2008-03-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

1. Cards should be clean, accurate, and easy to read. Remember, they represent you. Correcting info on your cards yourself is just plain tacky.
2. When given a card by someone else, treat it with respect, remember it represents them. Act as if it is important to you.
3. Read the card when it is handed to you, that way you can ask any questions immediately if they arise.
4. Keep the card out so you can discreetly refer to it if you forget a name.
5. Wait until an appropriate time to give your card out.
6. It is inappropriate to include business cards with thank you notes, congratulations, personal letters and notes.
7. Likewise do not hand them out in uncomfortable situations. Funerals, doctor's appointments, and other serious events are not the time for marketing.
8. Never be stingy with your cards, even if you are running out.

College Grads! Start your Career Search with a Business Card

2008-03-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year. College graduates everywhere are hitting the job market looking for that first job in their career field. A business card is a great tool for college graduates interviewing for a new job. Potential employers will know you mean business when they see you've already invested in yourself. Take a few minutes to carefully think about the way you want to present and promote yourself and your abilities. While building your business card, treat it as a "mini-resume". Use the front of the card to list your name and contact information. Then, use the back of the card to promote your credentials, degrees, professional abilities, etc.

Creating a business card that accurately portrays your abilities to a potential employer may pay big dividends down the line. A great looking, professionally designed business card will assist you in making a good first impression. Potential employers will appreciate having your contact information at hand when they are ready to call you with your formal job offer!

If you are interested in creating a great looking, professionally designed and printed business card, go to PrintBusinessCards.com. With over 10,000 templates, we are confident that we can meet your business card needs!

Attention Landscaping and Lawn Maintenance Companies!

2008-03-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

Looking for a fresh way to start off the new season? Order a new, custom business card for your landscaping or lawn maintenance business. At PrintBusinessCards.com, we have many excellent business card templates designed by our Featured Artist Community that are perfect for your business!

Check them out today by clicking here. Need your cards quick? We offer an incredible turnaround time. Generally, you will have your cards within 3 business days after ordering! Incredible!

With Spring just around the corner now is the best time to create a new landscaping or lawn maintenance business card. Give them out to all of your regular customers and let them be your 'business evangelists'! The best form of advertising is referrals. Make it even better when one of your customers can hand someone one of your business cards along with a great referral!

Banner Ad at the Correct Size

2008-03-07T16:31:00.000-08:00

Anath Hanit brings her Artwork to PrintBusinessCards.com!

2008-02-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

PrintBusinessCards.com is pleased to announce that Anath Hanit is now a part of the Featured Artists Community. Anath is a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer from Israel. Her work has been featured in galleries throughout Europe and Israel for over 20 years. We are sure you will find her business card designs appealing for personal calling cards and professional business cards as well. Take a moment and visit Anath's Featured Artist page and check out all of her fantastic designs. Thanks for being a part of our community Anath!

10,000 Templates!

2008-02-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

The Featured Artists Community at PrintBusinessCards.com has created over 10,000 high quality business card templates! We are very proud of our community and the hard work they have invested in creating such an incredible collection of professional business card templates! A big thank you goes out to all of our wonderful artists! PrintBusinessCards.com has the best group of artists, photographers, illustrators, and designers anywhere on the Internet!

**If you are interested in joining our wonderful team of Featured Artists, please click here.

New Card Categories at PrintBusinessCards.com

2008-02-26T18:41:00.001-08:00

There have been many new categories added to PrintBusinessCards.com recently. Please take a moment and check out the awesome new templates featured on the following pages!

Astrology
Woodworker
Chemistry
Audiologist
Winter Sports
Concessions
Ice Cream
Butcher

This is only a sampling of the new content available on PrintBusinessCards.com. Keep watching though...new pages are being added all the time!

New Artists needed at PrintBusinessCards.com

2008-02-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

Color Card Administrator, Inc (CCA) is looking to build a community of Featured Artists on its main website, www.PrintBusinessCards.com, who will be rewarded for the use of their images on business cards. This site does not compete with any site on which you currently display your artwork. The benefits of our community include monetary compensation each time a customer chooses one of your images, regular contests, a Featured Artists page containing a profile of your creative design, and a network between fellow artists, as well as artists and customers. We envision this as a nice exchange: a way for us to build our community, while allowing you to market your artwork through our website.

Your Portfolio
In order to be a featured artist you will need to be proficient in Photoshop and provide a minimum of 25 business card templates. You will manage your online portfolio by adding or removing templates as you choose. The only restrictions we place on your portfolio are that we do not allow nudity and recognizable photos of faces. We provide you with a list of the most frequently searched terms on our site, as well as an artist profile page, featuring your images, a biography that includes information about your work, and links to your personal website. Potential customers can view the images there and select them for their business cards.

An article will be published in our blog about you too. We will also place a link to your website in our Favorite links section as well. Many of our artists have seen a significant increase in web traffic on their own websites as a result of the links placed on our blog and the links on your Featured Artists page on our main website.

Your Rewards
The artist is paid a flat rate of $5.00 USD for the purchase of a card with his/her image (for more details on how this works, please read through the Content License Agreement and the Content Provider Fee and Payment Agreement on our site). When a customer would to like to use your image on anything else beyond business cards (brochures, letterhead, promotional materials, etc.), they will be advised to contact you directly to negotiate fees and rights to your images. We may also send your images out as a supplemental update to the templates in our Easy Card Designer Catalog, which is placed in various retail stores throughout the USA.

We will regularly have contests for cash and for recognition on our homepage. These contests are listed in the ‘For Artists Only’ Forum section, which you will be able to access once you register.

Your Forum
The Artist Forum gives you a chance to share techniques and ideas with other featured designers, and learn about different genres, etc. It also gives you an additional place to be contacted by customers who are interested in discussing work with you or the rights to your images. We look forward to this area developing and becoming a community that you enjoy.

In all, we are attempting to create unique, professional looking business cards that have widespread appeal. If you have images you’d like to share, please visit our artist sign up page.

Thank you for your time. Please feel free to contact Tim McWhorter, our Community Development Manager if you have any questions (his email address is available on the sign up page on our site).

The “Other Side” of your Business Card

2008-02-12T12:21:00.000-08:00

When designing your business card, don’t forget about the back of your card. The back of your business card can be used to convey additional important information about you, your company, or your services.

PrintBusinessCards.com has created many different backers that may be chosen for the back side of your business cards. Feel free to choose one of them or create your own customized message on the back of your card. Whatever choice you make, you can rest assured that a business card from PrintBusinessCards.com is sure to get you noticed!

PrintBusinessCards.com featured in Web Design Article

2008-02-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

Recently PrintBusinessCards.com was included in an article on the Web Design Ideas Blog. PrintBusinessCards.com and The Art of Business Cards were both mentioned and reviewed in an article discussing the importance of combining three critical web design components (design, function, and content).

The article touted PrintBusinessCards.com's success at combining these three components. So...go check out the full article! Wander around the entire Web Design Ideas site as well, you'll find some good stuff there!

Be Proud of Your State

2008-01-24T15:07:00.000-08:00

Are you proud of where you live? PrintBusinessCards.com has an entire line of business cards developed for every state in the U.S.! Whether you just want to show your devotion to your home state or you are a state employee, these cards are a great choice! They are also a great choice for companies who specialize in state tourism or consumer goods manufacturing that is associated with a particular state (Vermont Maple Syrup for example). Check out all of the various state cards at PrintBusinessCards.com. We know you’ll like what you see!

Your Company's Information is Secure with Us

2008-01-18T15:08:00.000-08:00

PrintBusinessCards.com will never sell your contact information. We are not a data collection company. We print business cards. It's that simple for us. Free or cheap business cards usually come with a hidden, unknown price--the sale of the contact information for all of your employees. Unfortunately this problem is happening more and more frequently. Please read our Privacy Policy which specifically outlines our stance. We will never sell your information. In addition to this peace of mind, we also offer our 100% satisfaction guarantee. This means we will reprint your cards at no charge if you are not completely satisfied.

Upload your Current Card to be Printed

2008-01-17T23:22:00.000-08:00

At PrintBusinessCards.com, we understand that an overwhelming majority of businesses have spent painstaking time and money to create a business card that reflects their image. If you have already created a business card for your company, use our upload system to send us your card to be printed. We will then place it for you in our online management system for easy reordering.

Whether you are creating a new business card or looking for a company to manage your current business cards, the finished product will reflect quality. We do not use copiers or inkjet printers to create your card. We print your card on one of our high quality offset presses. From the quality of our artwork (Ad agency or better), to the heavy stock papers and the offset printing presses...your card reflects quality at every level.

Business Card Slide Show

2008-01-17T11:16:00.000-08:00

Donna Paul, the newest Featured Artist at PrintBusinessCards.com recently put together a unique slide show on her own website to showcase her excellent business card templates. When you get a moment, please go check out Donna's business card slide show...it's excellent! Way to go Donna! Thanks for linking to us and showcasing your business cards in such a unique, creative way.

Design Online

2008-01-16T22:53:00.000-08:00

The Design Online system at PrintBusinessCards.com is the easiest way for you to create a new business card that best represents you or your company. The design options available are endless! We feature thousands of images (over 8500 and growing), a variety of fonts, and papers, 14pt. thick gloss stock and 12pt thick uncoated. Recycled stock, borders, back printing...the list goes on and on!

This system also includes great designs supplied from our Featured Artists Community. The group of artists, photographers, illustrators and designers we have in our community are second to none. This is immediately apparent when you see the beautiful cards they have created for you!

Online Business Card Management

2008-01-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

Do you find yourself reordering business cards time and time again? Do you get annoyed with the hassle of having to order business cards for yourself or even worse, multiple employees? Please take a moment to review our online business card management system. Managing your company's business cards with us is very efficient and easy. You may have one employee manage all of your business card input or allow all of your staff to input their own business card information. If multiple people are permitted to enter their own information, the business cards will be directed to a final person in your company for approval. It is free to put up as many templates as you want.

Managing your company's cards is now as easy as entering a couple lines of information onto each of your employee's business card. All of your desired company information can remain constant, such as your company address. This information will be repopulated in the business card template. This makes ordering new cards easier and reduces the chance for errors. It's FREE and EASY! Get Started Managing Your Business Cards Today with PrintBusinessCards.com! Email us at support@cardadmin.com or call us at 1-888-429-8372 to find out more about this great management tool for your company.