Five Tips for Creating a Great Business Card for Your Company

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.

1. How thick the business card stock is.
2. How dense/compressed the business card stock is.
3. 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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

Great to be a part of this marketplace"

Norman

Quick Sales for a New Artist

"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."

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

Todd Arena has Joined PrintBusinessCards.com

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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

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!