Netwink
This took me a while to get written and posted but it is because I am spreading my proverbial wings on the Internet and learning of other ways to earn money on the World Wide Web and offline.
Look for more on that in future postings when I reveal my new website dedicated solely to making money in other ways besides in a job, online and offline.

This post is the continuation of developing a great business card and in this post we will cover content.

Begin by thinking about the image that you want to project on your business card. Do you want your image to be relaxed and fun loving, or maybe serious and professional. What ever the image is that you want to project, then your business card needs to represent your brand when you are not there to speak for yourself.

It is a proven fact, people will hold onto a business card longer when there is a picture of the card holder on the card. However, if you are like me, every picture you see of yourself  always has something wrong. You want to portray your business as the perfect answer to your potential client, and an imperfect picture may not help in conveying that message.

You can create a great business card without having a graphic on it. In that case you need to have a good font that is in the style of the image you want to portray. There are hundreds, if not thousands of fonts available for free and there is even a site where you can create your own font. A site called YourFonts offers to create a font from your handwriting. You can even create your signature for digital signing. Do you think your business card would be noticeable with your signature on it?

As a suggestion from someone who is now using bifocals. I would suggest that you keep the font as large as possible without compromising your design and please use a contrasting color. It is painful to try and read the card that is medium to dark gray and black font. I immediately transfer my pain to the card and virtually to you. Your card needs to be easy on the eyes and should attract the reader.

Obviously, your name is important when it comes to your business card. In fact, your name is so important, that when I get a business card that is generic and does not contain a personal name, it is one of the first to go when it comes to throwing out business cards.

If you are building your brand around your business name, it is important for people, like me, to feel that I have a personal contact through the card in my hand. Building a business online or offline is still all about relationships and when you do not include your name on your card you immediately remove the ability for me to have a relationship with you. I don't want to connect with your business, I want to connect with you and the service YOU offer.

This leads into your brand. What is your brand? Your card should announce your brand.
When someone looks at your card they should immediately notice your brand whether it is your name or something else. This goes back to the blog post, Do You Have a Great Business Card? Part I, where you are building on the shape, texture, and initial design of your business card. All these elements are building on your brand.

Try this experiment with yourself and other people you know. Take a handful of business cards that are of a variety of designs. You will need for people to not look at the cards, so maybe spread them out and then cover the cards. Then start a 15 second timer and pick up at a minimum 5 cards that catch your eye. Don't read the card, don't think about anything except what caught your eye.

Now, examine the cards that you picked up. What is it about those cards that caught your eye. Every person that you try this with will pick up some of the same cards that you did but there will be one or two that are different. Find out from others what they saw on the card that made them pick it up?

By doing this exercise you will begin to shape the look and feel of a great business card.

Your goal? You want people to ask for your card. You want people to comment about your card. You want people to like your card and connect your card to you.

Achieve that goal and you have a Great Business Card!

Netwink
Probably about a year ago, I decided that I wanted a new business card.
My original business card was...well...OK, but not great.

It served the purpose that I thought it should at the time I made it.
My original business card had the name of, my company, my name, my phone number, my website, and my email. Sounds good, right? All the elements were there so if someone wanted to get in contact with me they had all the information necessary.
 
After about a year of using this practical business card, I realized that I needed a better business card. 

With a mission of making a better business card, I started out pretty much with nothing in mind.

To develop an idea, I decided that in every network meeting I went to I would analyze other peoples business cards and when I saw a business card that had an element that caught my eye or that I just particularly like I would save it in a special place in my binder.
 
After a few months of saving, I took out the business cards and started to analyze what I liked and this is what I found.

First, a noticeable color tended to get my attention. Very few, again, very few of the cards that went in the 'like' pile were plain white with black ink. I had quite a few colored cards that drew attention such as, any shade of red, purple, neon green (actually any neon color), and bright blues and I had one bright yellow, very noticeable. 

The second thing that seemed to draw my attention, was the print. Large print on the card and on many of them the print was taking up much of the real estate and in a contrasting color. Some of the large print had some fancy curls but nothing to drastic. The card was still easy to read and I could read it at a glance without any eyestrain.

Third on the list that got my attention was material. Some of them were very unique and made of non-traditional as well as traditional material. Non-traditional such as leather, fabric, hard plastic, wood, hard acrylic, metal, cork! If you are trying to come up with ideas, just take a walk around your house or apartment and start jotting down all the different materials in your home and what might work for you.

I had a few cards in my like pile that was made entirely from recycled materials. One was recycled plastic and another was recycled paper.

The plastic one was interesting, it was somewhat transparent and that was neat. The problem with the plastic one was I could not write on it. It need maybe a matte finish on one side that will accept ink. 

The recycled paper was better for accepting ink. You could see the fibers from the different paper and it had that nice 'feel good' green thing that is so popular right now. With the recycled cards the card owner did have a notice on the card that let people know they were practicing 'green' by having small print that said, 'We are a conscientious company and practice recycling all the way to our business cards' .
Recycling may not be something you can fit into you image but it is something to think about. I say, if you just want to be green then go for it.

It was not in my pile but I do remember getting a business card that had seeds imbedded in the card. The idea was that you could plant it in your garden. Nice idea but like I said, I no longer have the card and I can't remember who gave it to me. Guess why I don't have the card....I planted it!

That's it for Part I of having a great business card.
Next time, I'll be sharing more about developing the content of your business card.
If you decide to become a member of my site. I just want to thank you.