Business Card Misery, Printsmadeeasy.com

About six months ago I designed my first business cards and was pretty happy with them. Sent the designs off to the printer and a few days later had my first set of real business cards. Printed on a sturdy 15pt stock, full color and glossy on both sides with a pretty accurate trim.

That was with OverNightPrints.com - I was happy with the service, the quality and the price. I paid about $20 with two discount codes. One for free shipping and one for $10 off the order. $20 for 250 nicely done business cards seemed good to me.

Well, one of the business ideas I had which was what the cards were for had been set aside. So I had to get new business cards that are more personal and not quite focused on a project but more on the services I can provide.

I decided I would give a different company a shot and hopefully get a little higher quality (not that there was anything wrong with the first company). This time around I went with PrintsMadeEasy.com

Their website was a little off putting but from what I had read from around the internet, they did a good job with their prints. OverNightPrints.com had some negative feedback around the internet, thus the reason for trying someone else.

So I designed a new card and sent it off. This card would be more widely used so I figured I would need a few more. I ordered 300 and forgot about a big no-no rule. Unless they have been proven, test the waters first, then order the bulk.

300 really isn’t all that much but 100 would have been cheaper. With shipping I spent right around $55. So almost 3x more than the previous company for 50 more cards. A few days later the cards show up and I was so disappointed!

The print quality was poor and the stock used was flimsy and cheap. To make it worse, I assumed they did front & back glossy but was wrong so the back had no gloss coating. The cut job was done well but other than that I was not happy. Even the gloss coating was poor compared to the previous printer.

So back to OverNightPrints.com I go! I sent in the new designs today and only ordered 100 cards since I have 300 cards to waste…

Sorry PrintsMadeEasy.com but your stock used was cheap and flimsy, print quality was lower & gloss wasn’t as glossy. OverNightPrints.com congrats! Looks like you have a returning customer! Thick, strong stock that gives the cards a solid quality feel, print quality was sharp and gloss was fantastic on both sides.

Creating your own embossed business cards and oh yeah starting your own business.

First of all, let me state that the list offered here: 137-ways-to-increase-your-productivity

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is truly great. I think you’ll love it. I am also starting a new business that caters to non-profits. It could also cater to profit taking companies too. I wanted to start by getting a decent web site which I did with brelsforddesigns.com It isn’t that great, it just is and that is a good start. Im using the new word press them k2rc and liking it so far. I am offering very inexpensive outsourced IT for Non-Profits. Most non-profits don’t really have a budget period. They work on Grants and barely have an office if any. With these constraints they will need someone to help get them started and in the right direction. That is where I come in. I will be offering web design, graphical arts and IT consultation to leadership. This will make their lives much easier while starting their non-profit and help them focus on what is important, the mission. The next thing I wanted to do was get a decent business card. I found a good link on how to make my own embossed business cards but I don’t think I’m going to go down that path. instructables.com

I don’t really mind that someone else is doing that but I really don’t think I have the time. He/she hasn’t quite perfected yet either so we’ll see what happens with that DIY. I may just find someone that does an embossed card and have them print it.The other thing that I found pertaining to starting my own business was a great and very FREE Online books site. It is really great with the MOPED edition of their online service I can send free of charge invoices to clients via email and have them pay me via my paypal account. http://www.freshbooks.com/pricing.php One of the other great sites that I found that I think is worth mentioning again is http://www.stevepavlina.com He has some fantastic material and has been blogging about it for a very long time. I would give him a shot. Really like him and http://www.erinpavlina.com/ I hope that others of you find some more interesting articles out there or blogs. Other ways to help your family stay sane and earn a little more income. My wife recently started doing readings on kasamba.com She hasn’t really done anything with it yet but I’ll keep you posted.

Running Websites With WordPress?

Aside from my work in the blogging world, I sometimes accept web development work on the side, such as the Parish website I recently helped launch, in collaboration with a designer colleague. I’ve also helped out my daughter’s preschool in running their own site and email system. And there have been a few organizations I’ve lent a hand to in this matter.

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In all of these cases, the common denominator is the use of WordPress as the content management system. I’m sure there’s not much need to explain why. Being used to running WordPress on an entire blog/new media network, it’s almost like second nature to me. So preparing the hosting account, installing the software, uploading themes and plugins, and actually setting up and maintaining a site running WordPress is something that I’m very much comfortable with. Actually it can be a no-brainer with the easy install scripts (i.e., Fantastico) that come with most hosting packages. A few clicks and a few lines of typed-in information and you’re good to go with a basic install.

I tend to think that others share this sentiment with me. A quick Google search for “inurl:wp-login.php” will yield all indexed sites running WordPress, and some of these will not actually be in blog format, but instead websites and e-zines belonging to companies and organizations. A search for “site:.gov inurl:wp-login.php”, for instance, will show you that a number of US government organizations and local governemnt units running WP on their official websites.

Another observation of mine is that WordPress theme designers are coming up with themes and theme packages aimed at users who want to run a WordPress-powered site that is not necessarily in a blog format. For instance, there’s the Revolution Theme and WP Remix. Then there are those for users who intend to run magazine-like themes like Premium News and Zine Style. (Disclosure: WP Remix and Premium News are advertisers on the Blog Herald.)

So there is a market for WP themes not aimed at the blogging community, but rather for other entities such as corporations or businesses, or perhaps people running traditional publications. This only goes to show that easy-to use back-end software goes a long way. If there are others using WordPress for non-blogging purposes, I’d love to hear how you do it!

Online Presence & Why You Need it… and business cards?

Part One, which talks about why you need an online presence discusses the basics of online identity:
A few months ago I read an insightful article about how more and more job recruiters are putting a heavy emphasis on applicants’ online presence. By online presence, I am essentially referring to how active one is on the web - personal websites, blogs, published articles, activities on programming forums, etcetera. That same article detailed how recruiters hiring in technical positions would ignore applicants that while fully-qualified, lack the online presence that someone with their skills should have. If you’re a Ruby on Rails programmer, there’s no better way to show your passion for the framework by blogging about it, publishing tips and guides or simply helping others work with it. Companies will easily be able to see that, which definitely helps out during the interviewing and selection process.

While I don’t really have a personal website right now (I do own some domains, but nothing I’ve really used for that purpose) - I can attest to the success of having a strong online presence. I’ve secured 4 client gigs - just this year so far - through my various online presence points (Bryghtpath, Telegraphik, Twitter, and LinkedIn).

Owning your name - your name as your domain, that is - is critical. Ask Shel Israel how that’s been working out for him.

The second part shows Paul’s business cards and talks a bit about how they can help extend your online presence into the real world:
As a pseudo-followup to my post about establishing an online identity, I want to talk about creating your in-real-life (IRL) brand. Meeting people at business networking mixers, tech events and conferences is a lot like trying to pick up a girl at a bar. You need to sell yourself in the minute after you shake hands. Talk to anyone that frequents such networking events and they’ll tell you most people forget each others’ names immediately unless they have met before. That’s why you need to give them something to go home with – your business card. It gives people something do to after they get home be it visit your site, check out your company, email you or add you as a contact on LinkedIn/Facebook.

When we set out to create Bryghtpath LLC - we used the services of LogoWorks to create our corporate logo, letterhead, and design our business cards. It wasn’t cheap - but they did a great job helping us establish our online identity. Chris Jennings was then able to take their design concepts and create our online look & feel.

The same design can be applied to your business cards as well - as a nice real world way to extend your online presence.

World’s First Live Author Coaching Event Creates Impact

According to David Hancock, CEO of Morgan James Publishing, it takes the average person 100 formal book proposal submissions only to get a publisher to say ‘no’. Many submissions go unanswered, and many publishers disallow simultaneous submissions. This typically increases the time it takes for a book to get into print.

Although acceptance with a major New York publisher normally takes dozens of rejections, for internet marketer and affiliation expert Ken McArthur, it happened quickly. His proposal got him the coveted “yes” after only a handful of submissions. When Career Press accepted the proposal for his debut book, he was faced with the challenge of actually writing the book to meet a deadline less than four months away. His book, already available on Amazon.com and Target.com, is part of the publisher’s spring 2008 catalog of releases.

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He sought coaching from Glenn Dietzel and his team at Awakened LLC for assistance with the writing and business development process. Dietzel created the world’s first live author coaching event in order to let subscribers listen in and follow along with his complete authoring system.

Participants in the live author coaching program, called “Books Mean Credibility,” have access to the weekly coaching sessions plus other educational materials to help them author their own books for as long as they stay in the program. Those who follow the same steps McArthur took can write their own lead generating book and build a business around it. Dietzel and his team are teaching McArthur how to properly position his book as a lead generator for the business he is building around it.

Robert Kiyosaki, creator of the Cashflow Game and the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, said that his book is his best business card. Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series, stated that the best lead generator is a book. McArthur’s book, now in the hands of his publisher, is designed to be entrepreneurially sound so that it naturally leads readers into a deeper relationship with the author and his material.

Impact: How to Get Noticed, Motivate Millions, and Get Noticed in A Noisy World reveals the key strategies used by some of the most influential people in the world. These people create a measurable effect on millions of people. Stories of well known and ordinary individuals alike illustrate vital impact strategies. Readers learn a simple, strategic system to get attention for their most important messages.

The most successful authors do much more than sell books. Royalties are incidental income as compared with what they generate from income streams such as speaker fees, workshops, home study programs, coaching programs, consulting fees, and other products and services.

McArthur’s book is merely the introduction for a full range of products and services. Even before the book is available, he is building an online Impact community called The Impact Factor. Concurrent with the launch of the book in May, McArthur will offer a coaching program and other services. He has designed the online community so that anyone who refers a sale earns a commission. Now that McArthur’s book is complete the live weekly calls, also available for download to subscribers, reveal traffic generation and other business development strategies. It remains to be seen just how far McArthur will take this venture.