Online Business Card Printing: Why Choose an Online Printer?

Don't think business cards have a place outside of big-business? Think again.

If you own a small business or are self-employed, business cards are a crucial informational tool as well as a handy (and cheap!) piece of marketing material.

No matter what your job is, there will be people who you want to connect with on a professional or personal level.  And how will those people remember your phone number (or even your name)?  And what better form of advertising can there be than an eye-catching business card handed out to potential clients?

From networking to dating to winning free lunches from local restaurants, business cards can come in handy.

Thanks to online printing, it's easy to find a business card template on the internet. Check the website of the custom printer you plan on working with to see if they offer any templates. Typically, you'll need some sort of design software (eg. Illustrator or Photoshop) to work with the template. If you don't have the software, check with your printer: they may offer their own design services.

If you decide to do it yourself, here are a few important things to remember:

1. Leave a bleed area of about 1/8 inch around the card. This is space where the background and designs are visible, but no important information or logos are positioned. This is to compensate for variations in cutting so that your information won't be cut off and you won't end up with a white outline around the background.
2. To avoid the possibility of an uneven look, avoid using borders. If the cutting is even slightly off, the card will look off-centered.
3. Don't clutter your cards with too much information or too many graphics. Remember they're small! Even if it's clear and readable on your screen, it may not be so clear when it's shrunk down to real size.
   

Once you've designed your card, the hard part is over. Now it's time to let someone else take over the work.

Simply choose an online printer (do a little preliminary research first: prices? reputation? print quality?) and then place your order!

Ordering usually entails choosing the product you want (business cards, poster printing, flyer printing...), choosing the quantity, selecting paper and then uploading your graphics. Just a few more clicks and you'll have your business cards!

The internet has reinvented the way many businesses run. Think about bookstores. A traditional, brick-and-mortar bookstore has to pay premium rent for its premium retail spot, has to employ a number of staff to cover all open hours (plus after hours stocking and cleaning), has to maintain a tidy and presentable outlet, has to keep up-to-date on what titles are selling and what to return to the publisher... All of this costs money.

Internet businesses are able to operate at a much lower cost due to savings from lower rent, lower staffing costs and more streamlined practices. Simply put: online businesses are more efficient. Improved efficiency translates to a lowered cost of operation, which means that the goods and services offered can be offered at a much lower rate.

Online printers are no different. With savings on retail space, staffing and even storage (products are shipped out as soon as they're completed), online business card printers are able to provide you with your cards at a lower cost than a traditional printer.

The convenience of ordering online is not to be overlooked either! Ordering online saves you from wasting your time driving to and from the printer to place and pick up your order.