As the administrator of a handful of websites, I'm often learning new techniques about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Basically, SEO is all about using web-savvy techniques to move your site's ranking up in search engines like Google. So, for example, if I was starting a company to sell widgets (which I'm not, because - face it - who needs widgets?), but there were already 10 widget-selling companies on the first page of Google when you search for "widgets," it would take an awful lot of work (and good content on my website) for my new widget company to even show up in a Google search result. So SEO is basically a mysterious set of quasi-scientific methods designed to help people find your site more easily by increasing the likelihood that it's seen in a prominent space on a search engine.
Some say SEO is dead or dying, which likely enrages many who've built careers on it. This belief is built on the premise that Google, Yahoo et al are becoming better and better at filtering out worthless content and finding what's truly good, whether it's optimized for search engines or not.
At any rate, I have a proposition for those looking for more SEO techniques in the wake of Google's continual evolution: name your kid something unique! Seriously: "Tristan Schmid" isn't the most difficult search engine term to get a high ranking for (of course, now that I say that, people will probably try to knock me out of relevant searches just for kicks), and if I were to create a company called "Tristan Schmid Widgets Inc.", all it would take would be some simple traditional marketing, and people could find my company online. Or not, since my name doesn't have the additional T on the end that so many people would likely type.
Anyway, people like Lindsay Lohan's mom have been cultivating their children to make them money for quite awhile, so it's inevitable that someone follows my advice and names their kid Buydietpills.com Jones. Or not.
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I received an order of business cards for Adopt An Animal the other day from Natural Printing, and they look great! (Check out the design below.) This is the first time I've designed and ordered business cards for myself, and I'm quite pleased with the final product. I originally thought about using a service such as VistaPrint to get free cards, but they didn't offer 100% recycled (as far as I could tell), and I couldn't quickly figure out a way to simply upload the custom card I designed myself instead of using their templates (such was the case with similar free-business-card sites.) I found a few other places online offering recycled cards, but most required huge orders and were considerably expensive. Natural Printing allowed me to order a relatively small number of 100% recycled cards (don't be fooled by the rather unattractive example) for a relatively cheap price ($60.) Sure, it was more expensive than VistaPrint's free cards, obviously, but with Natural Printing, I got exactly what I wanted, quickly, and supported a small business at the same time.
This being my first business card design, I was a bit apprehensive that I may have set up the printing layout incorrectly. Natural Printing's website gives guidelines on how to set up your design's layout so it prints correctly, and though the directions are easy to follow, Mark from Natural Printing let me know of a minor problem shortly after I submitted my order - the version of Adobe Illustrator I was using (CS2 12.0.1) was too high, even though it's a few years old. So I saved the design as a PDF, sent him the update, and quickly heard back from that my design was good to go. About a week and a half later, the little box showed up, stuffed with perfectly aligned little cards.
I chose to use a one-sided design. I originally thought about including Adopt An Animal's services on the back of the card, but I realized that many times when people give me business cards, I write notes on the blank side about the organization or the person I met. I could've used lighter ink on the card's backside had I used it, but chose to go the simpler one-sided route. I also figure that it's a good idea to use matte printing, because glossy cards are virtually impossible to write on.
The one minor issue I have with my order is that the heavy-duty, pure-white cards say nothing about being 100% recycled, which I think would be a nice feature and selling point for Natural Printing. I'll probably let Mark know about this and see what he says, but in the meantime, if I order more cards, I might just put a small watermark on the bottom mentioning this fact. It might look a little self-congratulatory ("Hey, I use recycled products!"), but with so many business cards floating around out there, people may as well start printing them on recycled paper!
