Josh wrote:
What kind of business card would you recommend for the average business student?

Josh, thanks for the question! At first glance I thought, “Why would a student need a business card?” Then I realized you might have just wanted a free link!  Hopefully you’ve already been taught my advice in that fancy business college you’re going to.  Harvard Business School did you say?  Don’t forget me when you’re rich!

Anyways, the only reason I could think that a business student would need a business card would be to court potential employers. If that’s the case I have a few ideas for you that will turn your business card into a mini-resume.

1. List your GPA, assuming you are a better student than I was.

2. Show your affiliations, schools, degrees, etc.

3. Tell them how appropriate for the job you are. You look older than you are, right?

I think the mini-resume is really the way to go. Those three ideas may not be ideal for you, but with a little brainstorming, you should have a perfect line or two that will be irresistible for that new employer!

Andrew Flusche wrote:
How would you recommend a lawyer list his/her occupation on a business card? Is
“attorney at law” preferable, or would something more unique be better?

Andrew, thanks for the question. Since I know how much money you lawyers make, maybe this should be paid advice! I’ll only charge you $250 an hour, how’s that sound?

Well, since I offered pro-bono advice (as you lawyers call it), I’d better stick to it. Here is what I think about lawyer and attorney business cards.

When designing for an attorney I think professionalism is most important above all. In sticking with that theme (professional business cards), I would recommend whatever text made you sound the most professional. I would indeed use “Attorney at Law”. But instead of just that, I would make sure that somewhere on your business card (could be the backside) should be whatever type of law you specialize in.

In that way you are you are promoting yourself in a professional manner, but also giving enough information for your potential clients to make an informed decision.

Hopefully that helps, if not, please don’t sue me!

Who’s next, send me a business card question and get a free link!

Rick Galan wrote:
I was wondering what kind of information is best to put on a business card for
an affiliate site like mine (www.dealdino.com). I would use the card mostly as
marketing, obviously with personal contact info on it, but what else? Any
ideas?

Rick, thanks for the email. For your site, I would first focus online with my marketing. Get you affiliate links up and running, then focus offline.

For your business cards I would make sure they stand out like your logo does. The green and white work great together. I would put a past deal on your business card, something isn’t going to be outdated too quickly. You might also want to put your best deals that you personally have received on the business cards.

You could say something like:

My best deals:

Core 2 Duo Inspiron with 2gb ram = $374
Chase $250 gift card = Free
25 iTunes Songs = $14

That would let people know that your deals are legit and that you have something for everyone.

Hope that helps!

Who’s next, send me a business card question and get a free link!

Simple as that. I have received questions about business card design, marketing, what to put on business cards, how to make business cards unique, and many more.

I’ve also been asked about business card holders and accessories, the history of business cards, business card origimai and much more.

So what are you waiting for? Send in your business card question and your URL and I’ll post a link to your website when I answer your question!

A little more info, sites will be approved at my sole discretion. Sites linked need to be in english. You don’t have to ask a question about your particular website. It could be about anything business card related.

For business card geeks, like myself, there isn’t really anything greater than the club (society?). What they do is, well, collect business cards. If you never have, visit their site. Here is some navagational help:

Main IBCC site

Business Card Museum (a lot of World Trade Center business cards)

Business card collecting tips

I know, their site does need some updating, but they don’t appear to be a “for-profit” type of club so funds are probably pretty low. Looking at their member list they don’t seem to be actively recruiting members either.

Check it out, it’s a good resource.

You can see a full demo at the PixelFumes blog. A screenshot is attached below, check it out and see if you can think of another reason to use this cool business card tool!

If anyone can answer this question, I’ll forever be indebted to you, what is Moo.com? I understand that they, “Love to print”, but are they just a print shop? Their tagline is, “we like printing cool stuff.” Ok, but what do you actually do?

Is this just a Web 2.0 type website for a good ol’ fashioned business card printer? I even read their “about us” page to discover what they were, here are the highlights:

MOO is a new kind of printing business.

There are now more than a billion people online, and most of us use the internet to engage in some kind of social activity. In doing so we help generate over 4 petabytes of unique virtual content a month

We have virtual communication like email, instant message or video. We belong to virtual communities like social networks, image sharing or interest groups. And in these communities we have created virtual identities like homepages, avatars and blogs.

But sometimes life can be a little too virtual.

MOO dreams up new tools that help people turn their virtual content into beautiful print products.

Oh ya, and they have a bunch of investors…for whatever that is worth.

Who are you moo, and what do you do?

The premise is this. Upload your business card and people will see it. That’s about it. You can also pay (the AdWords part) to have your business card listed higher. I don’t know how much traffic this thing gets, but in 6 days I have not received 1 visitor from the site!

Pay at your own risk. Oh, here’s the link to my business card at bla.st!

Did I mention how very Web 2.0 this thing is? I don’t know why except that it has bold lines for a background and uses what looks like Arial Rounded for the font!

Personally I like the layout of this one, it has a very “Web 2.0″ feel to it. I don’t know if it is Javascript or AJAX, but it is very intuitive and easy to use. On second look, the business card creator is Flash based which accounts for the “loading” time of the template maker. They only offer about 8 templates and they all are horribly ugly, but for a novice just looking for some basic cards, these might just be the ticket.

Here are a few of the screen shots I took of the process. First choose the template you want. Second, choose the fields you want. Third choose some colors. Print and you’re ready to go. Oh, you’ll need to print these at home.

This screenshot is the first screen you need to interact with. Choose the fields you want to have on your business cards.
This is the second screen you’ll see. This one allows you to change the colors on the front of the
business card.

There you have it, another web based business card creator review!