Get FREE business cards for sending us new clients
We’re happy that so many of our customers refer us to their friends and colleagues for printing and web site work. So happy, in fact, that we’re starting a new program: for every 5 new printing or web design customers that you refer to us, we will give you 1,000 FREE premium business cards.
Our premium business cards are full-color, 2-sided, and printed on your choice of 14pt or 16pt stock, with your choice of a glossy or matte finish – a $48 value!
This isn’t a special promotion; it’s a new policy. We want to make sure our customers know we appreciate the referrals. So keep ‘em coming!
While we get organized, if you do send us business, please let us know (or have the customer tell us you referred them). We’re working on a way to track the referrals, but didn’t want to postpone the announcement while we worked out the details.
Computer Design Graphics on the Web [video]
I just created a nifty little “search story” video on YouTube. I can see this as being especially useful if you are just developing your web presence and need some quick video for a website or blog. YouTube/Google Search Stories
Win a Free Facebook Fan Page Design or a Free WordPress installation/makeover
Facebook Fan Contest – Great Prizes!
I’m on a mission to grow my fan base. It’s a great way to promote one’s business, and a fun way to share information.
The contest runs from April 1, 2010 to May 1st, 2010 12:00am. Winners will be drawn at random.
What’s in it for you?
For each 100 people that become a fan of Computer Design Graphics I will draw one lucky winner to win a custom fan page. Not some goofy thing with boxes (which are going away soon), but a real fan page in fbml (facebook markup language), with graphics and links back to your primary web site. I can even embed your YouTube video channel, if you have one and it makes sense.
Even more prizes! In addition to the fan pages:
- If Computer Design Graphics makes it to 500 fans, one lucky winner will get 1,000 FREE full-color, 2-sided business cards on 16pt stock, including the design!
- If Computer Design Graphics make it to 1,000 fans, I will also be doing a complete WordPress installation/blog makeover for one lucky winner. (If the winner is a current customer, they will have their choice of either a site makeover, development of a second WordPress-powered website, or a $200 Amazon gift card.)
Be sure to tell your friends!
No purchase necessary. Existing fans ARE eligible. Winners will be chosen by random drawing. List of winners will be published on May 2, 2010 on this website. Winner of blog installation/makeover must provide their own hosting and provide Computer Design Graphics access to said account. Winners of Facebook fan page design will need to add me as a page administrator during the design and installation process and provide any logos or photos they would like included. Facebook fan page images will be hosted by Computer Design Graphics for a period of 3 years. Winners authorize the use of their name and links to the finished designs to be publicized by Computer Design Graphics. Facebook fan page design valued at $120. Business Cards valued at $68. Blog installation/makeover valued at $600. Article updated on 4/14/2010 to clarify terms. Odds of winning a custom fan page: 1 in 100. Odds of winning free business cards: 1 in 500. Odds of winning a blog installation/makeover: 1 in 1,000. In the event that 100 fans are not added, a minimum of one winner will be chosen at random to receive a custom fan page and one winner will be drawn at random to receive free business cards.
Printing Jargon You Should Know
“Do you want that to bleed?” she asked.
[Deer in headlights look]
“Um… will it hurt?”
<smirk>
Ah, fond memories of learning the jargon of printers. Bleeding, in this case refers to the ink going past the cut edge of the paper, so you have edge-to-edge ink coverage.
Whether you have a designer that handles your art and printing projects, or you work directly with printers yourself, there are some common printing terms you should be familiar with.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| 4 color | This is full color printing using 4 colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, black – CMYK) to produce a vast spectrum of colors. |
| 4:4, spoken as 4 over 4 | Full color printing on both sides of the paper |
| Bleed | Printing that extends to the edge of a sheet or page after trimming. This is created by printing past the trim line, then cutting it off. Bleeds range from 1/16″ to 1/8″, depending on the printer’s requirements |
| Camera Ready Art | A ditial file that is ready for the printer to process digitally without any manipulation. This term is from the pre-digital era, where the printer had to shoot a picture of the art using a special camera in order to make a printing plate from the negative. |
| FPO | For position only. This refers to sample images or dummy text used during a mock up to give a basic idea of how the finished design will look. |
| Color Gamut | The entire range of hues possible to reproduce using a specific device, such as a computer screen, or system, such as four-color process printing. The gamuts for printing and video are vastly different, which is why what you see on your monitor can be so different from what appears on paper. |
| Rich Black | Black created using a mixture of all 4 colors of ink for a denser coating and a richer color (as opposed to just black ink). |
| DPI (dots per inch) | A measure of resolution in relation to printers, scanners, and monitors. Normal high-quality printing requires a minimum of 300 dpi to avoid pixelization. Video and computer images are often referred to by PPI (pixels per inch), which relates to how a monitor represents an image. The higher resolution the monitor, the smaller the image! |
| Portable Document Format. A standard for representing electronic documents, allowing them to be transmitted and reproduced accurately. |
|
| PMS | This is an abbreviation for Pantone Matching System. Pantone created a library of specific ink colors which can be used instead of or in addition to 4-color printing. If used in addition to 4-color printing, it’s called a fifth color. PMS colors can be APPROXIMATED by 4-color printing, and generally will be close, but not exact. |
| Crop Marks | Marks that determine where the paper will be cut after printing |
| Safe Zone | An area that will not be affected by slight shifts in the paper as it’s printed and cut. Images and text outside the safe zone run the risk of being trimmed. |
| Thermography | Method of printing using colorless resin powder that takes on the color of underlying ink. Also called raised printing. (Similar to embossing powder used by rubber stampers.) |
| UV Coating | Liquid applied to a printed sheet, then bonded and cured with ultraviolet light. Glossy! |
| Aqueous Coating | Water-based coating applied to protect and enhance the printing underneath. It provides a high-gloss surface that deters dirt and fingerprints. Aqueous coating improves the durability of postcards as they go through the mail, and protects business cards as they ride around in people’s pockets. |
| 80# Gloss Text | Standard glossy paper stock, about as thick as a light magazine cover. The shiny finish provides an excellent opaque base for rich process color printing. This is our most popular stock for: Brochures, Catalog Inserts, Flyers, Posters, etc. |
| 100# Gloss Text | Similar to the 80# gloss text, but 25% thicker and heavier, for a piece that feels more substantial. Standard Uses: Brochures, Information Sheets, Self-mailers, etc. |
| 14pt C2S Stock
16 pt CS2 Stock |
The pt size refers to the thickness of the paper, as represented in mils; thus 12 pt stock is .012 inches thick. C2S = Coated 2 sides, meaning both sides of the paper are coated with some sort of finish. |
| Matte | Non-gloss finish. |
Distributing your Blog Content
No matter which blogging platform you are using, experts agree that it’s a valuable way to connect with both your existing and future customers. So you might be asking yourself:
“What’s the best way to get readers to follow my blog?”
You need to make it as easy as possible for your readers to follow your blog; fortunately most blogging platforms come with built in tools and plugins to do so. The two most common ways to stay connected to your readers are:
- RSS feeds
RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are simple to use (both as a blogger and as a reader), but some people don’t like them. I personally subscribe to most blogs I follow using RSS and have them fed straight into my iGoogle page (organized by tabs for different topics). The default for most blogging platforms is already set with RSS feeds turned on.
If you’d like to track your subscribers, I recommend using Feedburner (a Google product) to process your feeds.
Email Distribution
With plugins and services like Feedburner, distributing your blog posts via email is really simple. You’ll need to consider whether to distribute whole posts or just excerpts. If you distribute whole posts you will find that your traffic drops off; people don’t need to come to your site anymore. Excerpts then, in my opinion, are the better choice. Your readers get a teaser via email and can click the link to read your complete posts and they get the full benefit of your site (comments, sharing options, related posts, etc.) while doing so.
I’ve tested several plugins for WordPress to add email functionality. From an ease-of-use standpoint, Feedburner wins out, followed closely by a plugin called “Subscribe2″ by Matthew Robinson. Finally, for a full-featured, completely customizable solution, MailPress is hard to beat. Not only can it process your post subscriptions, it handles your forms, and has an auto-responder function in addition to many other features. It’s much more complicated to set up (especially when creating a custom template), but the functionality and controls are outstanding.
Other Considerations
In addition to automatically alerting your subscribers when you make a new post, it’s a good idea to install a plugin or script that will automatically post a link to the new content on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. There are many choices for plugins that offer this function. I prefer two of them: Status Updater (By Francesco Castaldo) and Su.pr, which is a StumbleUpon product. Each has their pros and cons, but the biggest benefit of Status Updater over Su.pr is that it can post a link to a fan page, and not just a Facebook profile. Huge difference! Su.pr offers more ways to promote your site and your posts, as well as tracking information about those links. The Su.pr advantage, to me, is using it for custom tiny URLs — much nicer to have http://computerdesigngraphics.com/PZta than http://tinyurl.com/yktexsf. These two plugins each have a lot going for them. Tough decision! I’ve not had much success getting them to play well together, but with the latest updates to these popular plugins, it may now be possible. (I’ll post an update if I can work out the logistics.)
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