Marketing Tips
I wanted to share some general tips relating to graphic design for small businesses:
Always include an address on your business card, even if you are operating a small business out of your home-it greatly increases your credibility and makes you look much more established! If you're concerned about privacy, a Post Office box is a great way to go. When signing up for a Post Office box, consider using a "Mailboxes" store instead of the Post Office-you'll get a street address instead of the typical "P.O. Box", and the store will accept shipped packages from UPS, FedEx and other carriers for you, so you won't need to give out your home address as a shipping address.
Never be caught anywhere without business cards again! Carry a supply of cards in your car so that if you can restock when purse or wallet stash runs out. The same applies for brochures, articles, promotional postcards, samples, informational flyers, and presentation folders with information about your company and capabilities-you never know when you'll have an opportunity to hand them out!
Look for ways to make producing your designed materials less expensive. Need a business card and brochure? Why not combine the two into a folding business card and save on the printing costs? Is your logo designed in so many colors that printing becomes too costly? Try having materials printed digitally by an online printing house like psprint.com or vistaprint.com-they're often much more cost-effective for materials printed on white paper stock. If you want to print on a specialty paper, consider converting your logo to a one- or two-color version just for your printed materials-unlimited colors on a website don't cost extra! We're always thinking up creative ways to save our clients money, and we're happy to offer many more suggestions like these based on your individual needs-just contact us with your questions.
Do you want the professionalism of having a printed letterhead, but don't expect to write 500 letters (the minimum quantity for most printers)? There are two options to avoid this: Design a letterhead that can act as a base for your printed invoices, flyers, report or proposal covers, articles, client intake documents and everything else! This way, all of your materials will be professionally branded-and you'll go through "all that letterhead" quicker than you think! Or, recreate your letterhead design as a Microsoft Word template, so that you can print sheets one at a time from your desktop printer. Just pick up a ream of specialty paper from the local office supply warehouse to avoid that "home printed" look.
If you frequently drive for your business, or if your parking spot happens to be on a busy street, make the most of it by having a set of car magnets designed and printed with your logo, phone number and website address on them-they make a big impact, spread the word all over town and, after the initial investment, it's free publicity!
We hope these tips help you promote your business.
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Erin Ferree is a brand identity and marketing design strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses. Through her customized marketing and brand identity packages, Erin helps her clients discover their brand differentiators, then designs logos, business cards, and other marketing materials and websites to reflect that differentiation, as well as to increase credibility and memorability. http://www.elf-design.com
MLM Just do it!
You have heard the Nike slogan I’m sure and you need to apply the same slogan to your MLM business.
Whatever reason you initially were interested in your MLM business for would have been enough for you to take the plunge and get started but that isn’t enough. There are going to be tons of people who tell you it can’t be done. Don’t listen to them and just do it. You are always going to be able to find a reason why it is too hard … the kids are playing up, you need your sleep, it is costing you too much money, you don’t have the time. For every excuse you can come up with there is an equal and opposite reason why you can do it. You want a better lifestyle, you want time freedom, you want to be able to live anywhere you choose, you want residual income for the rest of your life. Most people who start an MLM business quit just before they see success. If I had a dime for all the times I have heard people say I almost quit and then the next month I started making some solid money I would be a millionaire just off this alone.
Sure, sometimes the going gets extremely tough, sometimes you have to search for your autoship money, sometimes you think why am I doing this. Everyone has doubts but you need to find your inner strength and rise above these doubts and just do it. You will find a way if you have to. So, back to the slogan … just do it and you will find it will all work out. There are very few people who have found success by accident. Successfully people get out there and do the hard yards to make them successful. You won’t find a successful person who said “You know what, I would have done that but it was all just too hard so I decided to watch TV instead”. No, successful people do the hard work to put themselves ahead in the game. Once they have created success, then they can sit back and enjoy the scenery but whilst on the journey they are typically myopic focused. You should be too. Just do it!
Until next time …
Postcards: Creating and Tracing Histories
Postcards are among the top three things that people collect worldwide. Deltiology refers to the hobby of collecting postcards, and again it is one popular hobby that shares its prestige along with coin and stamp collecting. It owes its popularity to the wide range of themes and subject matters that it depicts.
The idea or invention of the postcard actually came from Dr. Emanuel Herrmann back in 1869. But it was only during 1893 when the first postcards were sold as souvenirs.
Postcards served as one of the most affordable and convenient means of communication. They became treasured and cherished collectible items at the same, providing travelers a means to preserve their journeys and take it home with them.
Postcards in History
According to experts, the direct ancestor of the postcard may be the envelopes when these printed articles were produced by D. William Unready, E.R.W. Hume, Dickey Doyle, and James Valentine. These envelopes were printed with comics or themes of Valentines and music. During the Civil War, images that evoked feelings of patriotism replaced these fun and quirky images. These are now called Patriotic Covers.
A regularly printed postcard had appeared in 1870. An advertising postcard, on one hand, came a year later in Great Britain. The postcard came to Germany in 1874 and postcards of the Eiffel Tower were printed in 1889 to 1890 and had created quite a stir. The first multi-colored postcard was produced during this time, specifically in 1889.
This same decade, the government of the United States had exclusively handled the production of postcards. However, on the 19th of May in 1898, a congressional agreement was reached, allowing private sectors to produce postcards. These were called Private Mailing Cards and had a more diverse collection of images printed on them.
Ironically, it was not until 1901 that the term postcard was officially used. And back then, postcards had an undivided back where both the address of the recipient and the note were written together. However, the “divided back” was introduced and was permitted in England in 1902, France in 1904, Germany in 1905 and the US in 1907. With this divided back, the left side is used for the messages and the right side for the address.
Millions of postcards were sold and sent during this time. Scholars coined this period as the Golden Age of the Postcard. However, as popular as the postcard was back then, it had quickly declined due to political turmoil.
Kinds of Postcards
The rapid growing and improvement of technology allowed postcards to be printed on linen in 1930. This gave the postcard a bit more of texture and it allowed the use of more brightly-colored dyes. The cost of production of these linen postcards is also very low. These linen postcards, because of their bright colors, have become the favorite advertising tool of roadside establishments.
In 1939, the photochrome postcards appeared. These are the high-quality colored postcards with extremely bright colors. They still remain to this day as the favorite of collectors and other postcard enthusiasts.
Aside from the photochrome postcards, there are other types of postcards that remain as some of the favorites by both collectors and publishers. These are:
1. View postcards are one of the most common types available in the market. These feature a landscape or a seascape of a town or a city.
2. Another type is the greeting card. This type of postcard is most popular during special holidays like Christmas, New Year and others.
3. Historical postcards, on one hand, usually depict social problems.
4. Another notable type is the art postcards, which are like miniature artworks and paintings of different artists.
5. Lastly, there are the photographic cards which feature real photos of people. These postcards, although short and small, make memories more tangible and long-lasting.
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