Vistaprint is Great for Much More Than Just Business Cards!
Written: Mar 13 '03 (Updated Jun 04 '04)
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I first came across the website vistaprint.com much the same way other people have come across the site: I got an offer I couldn't refuse.
Many websites promote vistaprint.com's offer of 250 free business cards (really not quite free; you have to pay shipping and handling). I took them up on that when I first started trying to sell myself as an administrative and bookkeeping consultant, even though I had a pretty good idea already who my primary clients were going to be.
The cards were easy to design thanks to the wonderful prompts at the site. When they arrived they the usual size for business cards; on quality stock and in full color. I was quite pleased.
The time came when there was an event for which I was in charge of keeping track of registrations. The registration was going slow - the deadline was coming up and we weren't at the number of people needed to run the event. I came up with the idea of sending out postcard reminders to everyone we had sent registration packets to but had not heard anything.
At first, I cruised sites trying to find some cheap I Love NY postcards. Somehow, I stumbled back onto vistaprint.com. Here there was a nice selection of postcards. I found a beautiful picture of the Empire State Building with an American flag hanging in front of it. I designed the postcard myself with text over the picture on the front and more printed text on the back.
Designing cards is easy. I can choose from templates furnished by vistaprint.com or I can design my own. Vistaprint.com also allows me to upload my own photos for use on the front of the postcards.
The cards came and I was quite pleased. The people I work for were also impressed - once I sent them out the registrations picked up a great deal and we heard many compliments back on the postcards.
Since then, I have ordered oversized postcards for promotions from them three times. Only one time was I slightly disappointed because I kept the uploaded photo within the dotted lines on the design guide provided by vistaprint.com. I found that if I stretch the picture all the way to the edge it looks better than if I stick to the dotted lines. The photos I have uploaded have come out beautiful on the postcards - it is very eye-catching and is a great advertising tool.
Designing the postcards has also made me want to pull my hair out at times. The design pages and templates tend to take a long time to load, and I am on a cable modem! Sometimes the design pages will not allow me to go back and change some text and I end up having to redesign the whole thing. It can be quite aggravating at times, but I feel that the quality product is worth it.
Another plus for me is that by sending the sign-in and password to whomever I am doing the work for, they can view the postcard and tell me if there are any changes before I order it. This way they are not approving a purchase blind. You can have a free proof sent via Adobe Acrobat, but then if you purchase from that order, vistaprint.com tacks on a charge. There is no charge if you choose not to order that particular item.
Being able to see exactly what I am ordering will look like is the biggest advantage I have with vistaprint.com. Prior to using them for our printing needs, we used a recommended printer for invitations to a church's open-house. The invitations had to go back two times because of mistakes, and in the end there was a spelling mistake we didn't notice until after everything had been sent out. With vistaprint.com, I am solely responsible for the text that is in the document - if there's a spelling mistake, it's mine!
There are many other products available on the vistaprint.com site. Stationary, brochures, and address labels are among their products. I have been impressed with the quality of what I have ordered from them, so I would expect that these would be just as nice. I highly recommend their service.
© 2003 Patti Aliventi
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Member: Patti Aliventi
Location: Mount Washington Valley, New Hampshire
Reviews written: 2493
Trusted by: 703 members
About Me: Ambien is zapping my creativity.....
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