Working online means you need both kinds of business cards!
An article over at Web Worker Daily titled “Why You Still Need Business Cards” started a mini debate about the need to still have real business cards as opposed to online business cards. Adam Pash, at LifeHacker, has replied to this post with his opinion (here) and started the debate asking his readers (including me) if they still carry business cards.
As my comment stated over at WebWorker, I still strongly believe in real business cards, not only the embarrassment of having someone ask you for one and you saying you don’t have any, but also the fact that it’s a great referral tool, many people have handed me information from a business card, if not the business card in question to fulfill a need I had.
That said, of course, as someone who does most of his work over the web, I have an online business card (www.jamienorthrup.com). I really do believe that both are needed and both have their place.
A common practice I have noticed amongst people who work a lot online, is the custom mini cards offered at Moo.com, basically you can get a bunch of cards with different pictures or images on one side and your information on the other, which seems to be a good way to get remembered and noticed. This is also somewhat of a cheaper way than professional business cards.
As for online business cards, you can easily create your own with Flavors.me (See this article for details) for free or if you want something more personal and flexible you can purchase a template (See 14 Great Online Business Card Templates) and make your own website with it.
A great place to see which designs for “real world” business cards work or don’t is BusinessCardCritic.com.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Freelancing, Web Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Jamie Northrup
I am the founder of the Deuce Group, I have been working online since 1995 in one form or another. Hope you enjoy the articles I provide here and to learn more about me click my name above and see my personal website/blog, JamieNorthrup.com !
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I still carry business cards, i find them essential to carry around at all time because you will always come across a giant client when you least expect it. I would rather not wonder” what what had happened if i had a business card to give to that prospective client i just met at burger king or the grocery store “, avoid the bad habit and always keep them with you and don’t print them out on your home computer that is so unprofessional. When i get a business card from someone that is printed on a home computer i always assume that i am not going to do business with someone who does not take their business seriously.
To cut down on business card design cost try printclick.com that is who i use and i don’t have to pay for designs. They have pretty nice free templates to use.