The evolution of a BlogHer card

One thing that veteran BlogHers like to tell BlogHer newbies is, Pass Out Business Cards. So when I attended my first BlogHer last year, I followed their advice.. This is what they looked like:

Cute, huh? See the beautiful black-and-white photos of my gorgeous kids, artistically laid out on the chic, lime-and-brown background? Unfortunately, once I received it, I realized it's the sort of card you'd hand out to your mommy friends, not to fellow bloggers. This is a card that says "If you want to schedule a playdate with child A, B or C, then contact me at the email address below" rather than "Remember me? Come visit my blog!". Not surprising, considering I had it made at http://www.themommycard.com/.

So even before BlogHer '08 began, I realized I needed to ditch the kids' photos and add the other sites that I blog for. But there wasn't time to order more online. Unfortunately, instead of doing a rush order at Kinko's, I cheaped out and modified some generic name cards that I already had:



I know, I know, it's awful. Not only do the colors CLASH, I didn't even put the sticker on straight. At least the first one had cute photos to look at. In retrospect, this was just a waste of time. I can imagine what the people at BlogHer '08 thought when I handed it to them: Gawd. How lame. Twenty bazillion bloggers are handing me their cards and she expects me to keep that? Visit her blog? Hah. I shall surreptitiously drop this card into the trash once she turns around. Actually, I won't even bother with the surreptitious part.

Fellow BlogHers, I humbly apologize for insulting your visual senses and for using up precious resources and adding to the landfills with that card.

This year, I took the whole name card thing much more seriously. I don't have money to splurge on a graphic designer, but I wanted a card that said something about me, a card that gave people a way to connect the card to the person who handed them the card. I won a gift certificate to http://www.photoworks.com/ from my blogging friend Kim in February, and it took me all the way until June to think of a design I liked. (I probably would have spent a couple more months agonizing about it if the certificate hadn't been set to expire in June). And here's the result:

The other side of the card has my photo on it and a list of the five sites I blog at. Much better, I think (I hope). It gives something unique for people to associate with me, gives a little taste of what my writing style is like, and gives a way for people to connect with me online. I don't think I'll be cringing with shame when I pass these out at BlogHer '09.