ArmandHoltzman825
Advantages
Business card printing for the cost of postage; good selection of designs; easy registration
Disadvantages In-your-face advertising
Whenever you give out a company card, you wouldn't want a lot of it to come off in your potential client's hand. Free business card offers abound, but the quality can be variable to say the least. So when a relative demonstrated a company card that they had got Free of Vistaprint.com, I made a decision to check it out for myself.
As it ended up, there was also a UK version, but when I checked out the available designs, the one I wanted was just available on the united states site, so this is where I went.
Registration When you are getting to the site, the free business card link is on top left. Hitting this takes you to a page where you can see the designs. However, before you can start the process of getting something for virtually nothing, you need to register.
Registration is straightforward: you provide an email address, surname and name, and set your password. You can also complete a company name and provide a password hint in the event you forget passwords later. I chose to not give a hint, then had to rely on my faulty memory on my second trip to the website.
After this you need to tick a box to say whether the card for business or personal use (why does this matter, I wonder) and then have to untick a box to opt out of the company's special offers and prevent them from passing your company name on to others. Finally, you have to specify whether emails should be submitted HTML or plain text, press register and you're off.
You'll then get an automatic registration confirmation (it doesn't include your password for security reasons) along with a link where one can go back and design your business cards.
Design process First, select a design. They are split into categories: most widely used, new arrivals and business, high impact and classy. Hitting a design raises a bigger image along with a left hand column with spaces to go in your business, message, complete name, address, phone, fax and other. At each stage - or at the end - you are able to click the preview button below the image to determine the way it looks. Be warned, though, should you convince you concerning the design at this time you risk losing your text and achieving to go in it again, so make sure you're pleased with the look before you start entering text. I looked at all the designs there were at least three (of a total of about 20) that I liked.
Checkout and other options Once you're happy, enter your initials within the proof approval box and proceed to the checkout screen. You are then presented with a list of options that you could change, with the default ones pre-selected. These are:
1. Quantity - you can get 250 free, 500 for $9.99 or purchase quantities as much as 5000 2. Backside printing - the free business card printing possess a Vistaprint advert around the back. You can also decide to have them plain ($9.99) or choose black and white printing (at $19.99) or colour printing (at $24.99) around the back. In this instance you can pick from a range of calendars, appointment cards and thanks cards. I did not think the designs were particularly inspiring. 3. Paper. Matte is roofed or you can possess a glossy front at $9.99.
Each of the card options is definitely an *additional* cost, so make sure you only select the options you really want.
You then have many delivery options, from slow (21 days, $5.51) to standard (Fourteen days, $8.95) to priority (7 days, $13.95). Prices vary depending on the options you've chosen. You get another opportunity to subscribe to special deals and when you press proceed to checkout you can also choose to buy 25 matching magnets at $9.99.
You're then taken to a secure site where one can enter shipping information, then view an order summary, enter charge card details, and can opt to buy 140 self-adhesive address labels at $3.99. Click accept (with or without labels) and your order is processed, confirmed by email and shipped inside the specified time.
Annoyances As a business, I suppose Vistaprint need to use their site and emails to market products, however i found the advertising obtrusive. Unwary shoppers could well get to the checkout and find they've amassed a huge bill, having ordered magnets and labels as well as the free business cards.
The bottom line My order was shipped 5 days after I placed it from their Netherlands office and was in my hands per week after the order, much quicker compared to advertised A 3 week period. Ordering in the US require me to pay GBP3.14 rather than GBP3.08 from the UK but an additional 6p would be a small investment to have the design I wanted. When I'm ready for a new batch, I'll definitely be using them again. (Update: I've just ordered another batch of business cards. They all come from one site now and there are a lot of free offers.)
Summary: Good service, specifically for small home businesses
