Comments on: Business Cards for a Freelance Writer http://kineticwriter.com/2008/07/business-cards-for-a-freelance-writer/ Discovering what it means to be a writer Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:54:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Yvette http://kineticwriter.com/2008/07/business-cards-for-a-freelance-writer/#comment-13 Yvette Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:56:00 +0000 http://kineticwriter.com/?p=17#comment-13 Oren, thank you for your keen observations on the solid future of business cards. I agree that they will not be going anywhere, no matter how digital our lives become. There will always be offline moments, and for those offline moments, a business card is an absolutely essential piece of marketing. Joni, I've updated the post to include the actual business card. I blurred out my phone number for a smidge of privacy, though. :) Oren, thank you for your keen observations on the solid future of business cards. I agree that they will not be going anywhere, no matter how digital our lives become. There will always be offline moments, and for those offline moments, a business card is an absolutely essential piece of marketing.

Joni, I’ve updated the post to include the actual business card. I blurred out my phone number for a smidge of privacy, though. :)

]]> By: Oren Tamir http://kineticwriter.com/2008/07/business-cards-for-a-freelance-writer/#comment-11 Oren Tamir Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:33:57 +0000 http://kineticwriter.com/?p=17#comment-11 While surfing the net, lately, I read more and more articles saying old fashion paper made business cards are obsolete and are about to vanish. Many professionals, in the fields of communication, networking, marketing, public relation and sale, together with future forecasters and electronic gadgets freaks, tell us that there are alternatives. The Cell Phones, the Palmtops, the IPhone and the IPod, are going to be the main means of transferring personal data which up till today were written on the paper made business cards. They are talking about "Electronic business card" (EBC). They say that EBC contain much more information, can be modified easily if you need to change some details in your card, no need to throw away hundreds of useless cards and reorder new ones with up-to-date information. The EBC can be passed on from one electric toy to the other and stored there until you retrieve it to be used. Everyone can design his own EBC no need of a Printing Website to contact with and pay for what you can do by yourself. I think this forecast is false. I believe it's far from being realistic. There are at least ten reasons why the good old paper made, conventional and simple business cards will stay here forever: 1. It is cheap. Many printing websites offer 250 business cards for free only shipping costs a small amount of money. 2. It is easy to be carried. 9 X 5 cm and very light. The volume 10 of them require in our wallets is less than a credit card. 3. It is very easy to be manufactured and a professional printing website will do a much better job than amateurs at home. 4. It can be taken everywhere you spontaneously go. No special preparations are need to be carried out in advance. Even in the most unpredictable circumstances you'll pass it on because of immediate request or opportunity. 5. It is electric-power free. No need to be electrically charged or being worried of batteries empty. It doesn't need any care like electronic devices. 6. It is transferred from hand to hand, by human interaction, while visual contact. It is much warmer and creating some kind of an obligation comparing to the cold and remote artificial interaction through electronic devices. 7. It is visually fine! Well designed, attractive, appealing and in many cases a real peace of art. Such cards create deals. 8. It can be customized to be even more useful by adding a calendar on its backside or a note of "next meeting" form. 9. In order to operate all those sophisticated electronic instruments one has to learn how to use them. Researches reveal the famous formula of 80% of the users know only 20% of the gadgets features. With paper made business cards you don't have to be College graduator of an F-16 pilot to handle it over. 10. Paper made business cards are not always "Paper made". Sometimes they are made of wood, metal, plastic, or any other unconventional material. Some of the designs are so creative: people use humor, draw cartoons, or turn their card into a game! And the sky is the limit. All these reasons make the simple and humble business cards irreplaceable. You can issue yourself with the up-to-date state-of-the-art gadgets if you want to impress your associates and show them you are "IN". But never leave home without a stock of some paper made business cards because I didn't meet a respectable businessperson moving around without them. While surfing the net, lately, I read more and more articles saying old fashion paper made business cards are obsolete and are about to vanish. Many professionals, in the fields of communication, networking, marketing, public relation and sale, together with future forecasters and electronic gadgets freaks, tell us that there are alternatives. The Cell Phones, the Palmtops, the IPhone and the IPod, are going to be the main means of transferring personal data which up till today were written on the paper made business cards. They are talking about “Electronic business card” (EBC). They say that EBC contain much more information, can be modified easily if you need to change some details in your card, no need to throw away hundreds of useless cards and reorder new ones with up-to-date information. The EBC can be passed on from one electric toy to the other and stored there until you retrieve it to be used. Everyone can design his own EBC no need of a Printing Website to contact with and pay for what you can do by yourself.

I think this forecast is false. I believe it’s far from being realistic. There are at least ten reasons why the good old paper made, conventional and simple business cards will stay here forever:
1. It is cheap. Many printing websites offer 250 business cards for free only shipping costs a small amount of money.
2. It is easy to be carried. 9 X 5 cm and very light. The volume 10 of them require in our wallets is less than a credit card.
3. It is very easy to be manufactured and a professional printing website will do a much better job than amateurs at home.
4. It can be taken everywhere you spontaneously go. No special preparations are need to be carried out in advance. Even in the most unpredictable circumstances you’ll pass it on because of immediate request or opportunity.
5. It is electric-power free. No need to be electrically charged or being worried of batteries empty. It doesn’t need any care like electronic devices.
6. It is transferred from hand to hand, by human interaction, while visual contact. It is much warmer and creating some kind of an obligation comparing to the cold and remote artificial interaction through electronic devices.
7. It is visually fine! Well designed, attractive, appealing and in many cases a real peace of art. Such cards create deals.
8. It can be customized to be even more useful by adding a calendar on its backside or a note of “next meeting” form.
9. In order to operate all those sophisticated electronic instruments one has to learn how to use them. Researches reveal the famous formula of 80% of the users know only 20% of the gadgets features. With paper made business cards you don’t have to be College graduator of an F-16 pilot to handle it over.
10. Paper made business cards are not always “Paper made”. Sometimes they are made of wood, metal, plastic, or any other unconventional material. Some of the designs are so creative: people use humor, draw cartoons, or turn their card into a game! And the sky is the limit.

All these reasons make the simple and humble business cards irreplaceable. You can issue yourself with the up-to-date state-of-the-art gadgets if you want to impress your associates and show them you are “IN”. But never leave home without a stock of some paper made business cards because I didn’t meet a respectable businessperson moving around without them.

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