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Category Archives: Free Printable Greeting Cards

Free Greeting Cards – What Do They Really Say

Google has over 28 million results when you search for free greeting cards.

This is a segment of the market that has grown dramatically over the past few years. Free greeting cards come in various forms including online greeting cards, free ecards, animated cards as well as a few companies offering free printable greeting cards.

Their growth is simple. The cards are free. They are quick to deliver and it’s easy to do. People who frequent such services like these facilities as well as the selection of what’s on offer. Most free greeting card service companies offer a huge selection including animated and or flash cards.

Such cards appear impressive when they arrive in your inbox but can be subject to email deliverability dangers as well. Spam filters today can be set up with numerous messages that stop well intentioned card mail from ever getting into your inbox.

123 Greeting cards and Blue Mountain are the biggest providers offering their potential clients thousands of free cards to choose from. As well as potentially having deliverabilty issues, free birthday cards can also contain advertising from such providers as 123 Greetings. While most people don’t mind supporting such companies by allowing their advertising to appear (actually you don’t get a choice), there is a danger of your recipient moving away from your well meant card and them spending more time at the card company site. I’m sure they appreciated your card but when some people discover these cards can have music, flashes and animation, the temptation is too much. Your card is deleted and it’s ‘hello’ free cards. Let’s hope you are on your recipients return list.

While flashiness matbe a novelty, quality is something that shouldn’t be. most free online cards including ecards look great on your computer but lose their quality once printed. You shoulkd never attempt to send yourself a free card and then print it with the mindset of posting it to friends or business colleagues.

Paper quality is generally inferior to printed greeting cards offered in card shops. Free online cards while quick and easy to use can also send a message to your recipient that they are part of a mass mail out. Feelings of not being special are also generally felt. If you are wanting to build business relationships, you should nver send free greeting cards. It says to the potential customer that they are not special and you can do without their business. Generally that is not the message you want to convey, but your cheapness has already conveyed that message sublimonally.

If you are wanting to mend a personal relationship or just enhance it, free cards can be delivered quickly but once again show your lack of care.

Personally I avoid such cards. I prefer to express my heartfelt messages by printed cards that I can personalize and where I have spent time and money carefully selecting the correct card for the recipient in mind. In doing so I know they feel special and appreciate my efforts. They also enjoy receiving cards the ‘old fashioned’ way – by mail.

Send free greeting cards if you are in a hurry. If you are about to miss a deadline, like somebody’s birthday, then perhaps send a free card.But if you really want to make a statement of “I care” spend time and money and send a physical greeting card.

Free Greeting Cards – Are They Worth It?

There’s a saying that’s pretty true in life – “You get what you pay for” and it certainly applies with free greeting cards, especially free printable greeting cards.

Free greeting cards are:

  • Convenient
  • Cheap – free
  • Easy to send

BUT

  • There’s limited choice per site
  • Designs are limited and generally old in appearance
  • Poor paper quality
  • Not customized
  • Messages are basic and not personalised
  • Photos can’t always be uploaded
  • Free printable cards use a lot of your printer’s ink; thereby making it costly
  • Postage has to be done manually costing you time

Free greeting cards also say to your recipient “you’re not worth paying a card for” or “I don’t value our relationship”. You would never use a free greeting card or a free printable greeting card if you are trying to build a business relationship. It would be quickest way to kill any future business dealings.

So, can you get a high quality, physical printable greeting card that you can personalize the message even in your own handwriting, upload a photo and click send on your computer? And could this card be printed on high quality gsm card paper, have a stamp placed on it and posted for you?

The answer is YES!

Is it expensive? NO!

Visit www.thecardsuperstore.com  and grab a FREE sample of this award winning product

A Brief History Of Greeting Cards

It is believed the early Chinese were the first to send what could be called a greeting card – for the New Year they sent tidings of good will. Evidence also shows that ancient Egyptians wrote greetings on papyrus scrolls.

The next stop on the timeline is around 1400 when the Germans used woodcuts to print New Year’s wishes. In the early or mid 1400s Europeans exchanged handmade paper greetings for Valentine’s Day. The British Museum has a Valentine from the 1400s that is the oldest known greeting card in existence.

The introduction of the postage stamp in 1840 helped the popularity of the greeting card. What was once relatively expensive, hand made, and personally-delivered gift became an effective and affordable means of personal communication. Another factor promoting advancement was the improvement of printing methods. Mass production didn’t mean the end of the elaborate greeting card, however. The Victorian era saw some very ornate and intricate designs.

John Calcott Horsley was commissioned in 1843 to design the first published Christmas card. A young lady from Massachusetts, Esther Howland, was the first regular publisher of valentines in the United States. She started in 1849 with handmade valentines, often using real lace and ribbon, and went on to found a successful publishing company with elaborately decorated cards as a specialty.

The person generally credited with the beginning of America’s greeting card industry is Louis Prang, a German immigrant. He started a lithography business near Boston in 1856 and soon his works were known as the best around.

After a slump in the late nineteenth century, the greeting card industry saw more and more new publishers. Competition created advances in printing, decorative treatments, and artistic techniques. The widespread use of color lithography in the 1930s fueled a continued expansion in the industry.

Humor in American greeting cards became more prominent in the 1950s with the introduction of the studio card – a long card with a short punch line. Cards for a wide range of events and holidays as well as “non-occasion” cards showed up in the 1980s.