Blue Mountain cards com - All good things must come to an end.
Written: Jan 30 '02 (Updated Jan 31 '02)
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Darn. The party is over.
Blue Mountain cards (www.bluemountain.com) is NO LONGER A FREE CARD SPACE. You can get some “everyday” cards for free, but those are NOT for the occasions you would generally want to send a card. The Freebies include categories like Miss You, Peace, and Wacky Holidays. If you want to send mom a birthday e-card or drop a Valentine in your sweetheart’s Yahoo box, then you will have to pay.
When you click to Blue Mountain, it is clear that you must be a paying member to send cards. You can still look at the cards, but you can’t send them until you sign up. The price is not listed up front. You’ll see that the cost is . . . “pennies per day.” That is actually pretty accurate, though I would prefer to see the cost up front. You have unlimited access for $11.95 per year or about $1 per month.
Blue Mountain has been my top pick for e-cards. They have a good selection in a variety of categories ranging from the holidays you would think of like Christmas to the ones you would not think of like “ballet day.”
The site is easy to use though it is pretty busy when you consider all the options. I find that it takes about a half hour to find the perfect card. That time factor involves the looking more than the page load time though I find the site slow at times and especially so right now in the transition period.
Basically, you find a picture that you like. Many are in the cartoon category. They depend heavily on specific artists, so the toon style drawings look similar. In other words, I would know a Blue Mountain from the style. They also have line drawings, photos, animation . . . really a full range if you look around.
Once you select the art, then you can add your own message. Blue Mountain has always been poetry oriented, and the fields work better if you write in verse or write choppy sentences. You are not going to be able to write a chatty note or letter in these fields.
In many cases, you can add music to the card. These are generally elevator-sounding pieces. I would guess that is related to copyright. The music is fine though I don’t especially like music screaming from my speakers unexpectedly and especially when I have a CD on while I am reading online.
Cards can be sent on-the-spot, or you can select the day for the delivery. Usually, I think of an e-card at the last minute and don’t need the delay. If you plan ahead, then this option is nice. Most card sites do offer this feature.
Blue Mountain is dependable. I’ve never had a problem with the site. They will send a copy if requested to my email box. I did that the first few times, but I don’t do that now. I feel sure enough about the site to know that they will take care of the card sending.
Another option at Blue Mountain is to add on a gift. Several good companies are associated with the site. You can add a gift certificate to 10 dollar com, send flowers from 1-800-Flowers.com or even a phone card or magazine subscription. If you select a gift, then you can pick any card whether you signed up for membership or not.
Blue Mountain is a good company. They have been on my bookmark list since they started up. The cards are cute, the selection is great, and you can personalize to some extent.
I didn’t really consider a paid membership. My thoughts on that are that e-cards are considered junk mail in some cases and especially with the music added. They really are not the same as a card in the mail with the writing in your own pen. I appreciate the e-cards when they come, I send some from time-to-time and usually Blue Mountain in the past. Still, there are so many free e-cards available online that I would not pay for a service that I could get for nothing and would not consider top priority.
If you plan to pay for e-cards and use the services like the holiday reminders (available only with paid now), then Blue Mountain is a good bet. Otherwise, I would suggest looking around at other free card sites and using a service like ICQ (free) to send reminders.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
CyndiA
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 in Home and Garden |
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Member: Cyndi
Location: out in the yard grilling
Reviews written: 1156
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Get some sleep and dream of rock 'n roll - Bread.
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