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THE
VERY BASICS
In three years
of indexing greeting card sites we have seen them all - the very good -
the bad - and the really ugly! In the beginning there were hundreds
and now there are thousands. Before you begin your quest to create
the "hottest" new greeting card site - take some time to review what
we have learned!
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Greeting
Card
"TEN
COMMANDMENTS"
1.
Just because you have a
greeting card site does not mean that the WWW is going to beat a path to
your url!
Having
a greeting card site does not insure traffic. There are really four
different kinds of card sites - the "Commercial" such as "Blue
Mountain" or "123Greeting"
. They are commercial sites even though they offer free cards.
They have a vast inventory and cards for absolutely very occasion.
They are very well established in the market place and competing with them
would be a tall order.
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The
second is "Theme" site - where a subject is carried out throughout
all of the cards. This is perhaps the best nitch for the new card
site but it must be unique. The WWW does not need one more set of
free scenic cyber cards!
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The
"Business" card site is utilized when cards promote products
or services. Once again, this can enhance a web site and offer cards
to customers and potential customers but is no guarantee of volume.
We've seen lots of business card sites from major companies come and go!
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The
last is the "Personal" card site - and the bad news is - the majority
of people sending cards are not going to send a card of your animals -
your kids - your friends - so if you are doing a card site just for fun
then it works - otherwise DON'T WASTE THE TIME!
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2.
Check
The Demographics
Merchandising
a card site is like merchandising a product and you need to figure out
who is going to be sending your cards. Both
MyPostcards and
Card Central (click on "about
this site" ) have stats on card users. Also take the time to visit
our All4Free Cyber Greeting Card Index and
look at the categories of cards - check out the competition and see what
they do!
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3.
Layout Is Very Important!
We
see card sites that have so many split screens - selecting a card is almost
impossible! Because cards sites are always graphic intense by their
very nature they tend to load slower. It is better to divide up your
cards into multiple pages than to have a long load time. Or consider
adding less cards and rotate more often. The rule of thumb load time
of 10 to 15 seconds that applies to web pages also applies to greeting
cards.
4.
Thou Shall Not Steal!
If
you are not an artist, do not have access to original art or are not prepared
to pay an artist then you should consider working with a card affiliate
service that provides graphics and music. While there are lots of
free graphics available on the net most artists will allow free use of
their work on personal and non-profit pages but they restrict the usage
on cards and expect to be paid. If you us art work from the internet
contact the artist first and make arrangements to use their work - abide
by their rules of usage and in all cases give credit where credit is due!
If you intend to use public domain graphics be warned that everyone has
already seen them and no one is really going to be interested in your selection
of cards.
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5.
Give Your Card Site A Title!
The
title of your card site should have something to do with it's theme or
content. Place the title on the top of the page and keep this same
title universal throughout your site. Making the title of your document
"My Cards" or "Greeting Cards" is meaningless and makes it impossible to
link or index.
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6.
Don't Use Welcome!
The
first text line or graphic of a site that begins with "Welcome" , "this
is my first attempt", "my humble site", "about me" "my resume" or
includes "your picture" looks to the rest of the web as totally amateurish
- remember that people are visiting your site to send cards and unless
these are cards of you posed naked they pretty much do not care anything
about you or what you look like.
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7.
Create An Interesting Page
Lay Out!
You're
backgrounds and text on a greeting card page should do one thing - enhance
the cards. Coordinate your background colors and text
to compliment only the cards. If you don't have a sense
of color then surf the web till you find some interesting combinations
that will fit your page. Card sites with java and very high tech
features eliminate some of the card audience! When your site
is up and running test your pages on different and lower level browsers
to see how they look and perform on lower level browsers..
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8.
Avoid Being "Under Construction"
Don't
be in such a hurry to get your card site up on the web that it is has missing
cards. It is acceptable to place a text line of a theme
of cards that is going to be added with a "coming soon" banner. Stay
away from "Under Construction" tags - it's a given that most
cards sites like web pages are always under some kind of construction.
9.
Orphan Pages & E-Mail
I can't
tell you how many card sites we encounter that are either Orphan Pages
(have no easy way to connect to other pages) or have no way to contact
the card site webmaster. An easy to locate e-mail pop up should be placed
at the bottom of each and every page. They work better than any form.
Even if you are going to put in a Guest Registration make an additional
way to get e-mail. This is SO IMPORTANT in the event that something
is malfunctioning in your card script and card users need to notify you!
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10.
Keep Your Card Site Fresh.
Update
your site frequently, make sure that your spelling is correct and all the
cards, music and links are working.
Nothing
is more unappealing than to visit a card site in July and find nothing
but Xmas Cards.
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