We often concentrate hardest on what to do online with regard to marketing and advertising online. Marketing programs, products, and services is an art form, not to be undertaken lightly. Serious consideration to how you are going to go about achieving your objective – traffic, new clients, new sign ups, etc., – is critical to your success.

However, how many of us seriously take the time to investigate contacting those not online on a regular basis? Believe it or not for all us cyberspace crazies, people do enjoy getting special messages yes by snail mail! There are those (and yes I count myself among them) who joyfully go to their mailboxes each day in the hopes of letters from friends and family and even interesting internet offers.

So the question is… When was the last time you researched offline advertising to add to your online mix?

Well not only is today a holiday in many parts of the world (particularly the U.S. I’d imagine), but it’s also your lucky day

Vistaprint is offering great specials for those looking for offline ways of connecting with potential and existing customers. Vistaprint postcards come in a variety of sizes and colors and layouts. You can even design your very own (or for those graphically challenged they have plenty of choices ready-made for you).

Browsing their ready-made postcards is a breeze. They actually give you the option to select one from the “board” so to speak or search by keyword, industry, style, or purpose.

Or, of course, if you are logo and word-ready, customize your own.

The one thing we do know personally about Vistaprint (we have used Vistaprint in the past for our business cards) is that your order arrives exactly the way you ordered it, and in a timely fashion. And, it goes without saying, that their prices are very affordable for just about any entrepreneur, business, or home business marketer.

My suggestion this Spring and on into the year is to supplement how you market online with branching out to reach those offline.

Yes postcard campaigns can get expensive, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with your visit to Vistaprint’s postcard possibilities.

And Happy Easter!

Not that long ago, Scott and I signed up for the famous Entrecard. This is a spot where you can freely advertise your blog assuming you have the credits earned on hand to advertise.

It’s a simple process really, and if you look at our right hand column, at the top you’ll see our Entrecard widget.

These cards you are seeing are other people’s blogs. They surfed through Entrecard and/or visited us after we had visited them. If they decide our blog is worthwhile, they choose the Advertise option. If not, normally an Entrecard visitor will drop their card so when we log into our account we can easily see how many visitors we’ve had.

Conversely, you can use this same information to visit their blog, and drop your card or choose to advertise on their blog.

It’s a lot like handing out business cards without any expense except the time it takes for you to put the widget on your blog and surf around inside the Entrecard website looking for appropriate places to visit, drop and/or advertise in turn.

We’ve been using our Entrecard for much less than a month, and while there are many more stats in your own account, here are some that ours is current showing as of this morning:

127 credits in your account:
Scott and I can use these to advertise on other people’s blogs as we find them

7 credits to advertise on your blog
What it will cost if someone wants their card to display here on our blog (again right hand column). We put our Entrecard widget in a prominent position, not everyone does so you might consider that as you’re surfing for spots to advertise your blog on.

Additional stats are there, but here are three more that are of interest to anyone looking for a great way to advertise their blog for free:

Our stats also show:

24 clicks from your blog to others
90 clicks from entrecard.com to you

As well as:

12 ads bought from you

Here are a few excerpts from the Entrecard Help webpage:

“Entrecard is the first and only free exchange network for 125×125 ads. Through this revolutionary platform, you can advertise your own 125×125 Entrecard on any blog in the network, for free, for a number of days.

You pay for this advertising with Entrecard Credits, that you earn for free by networking (a.k.a. visiting blogs and dropping your card for other bloggers).”

Do keep in mind that dropping your card and choosing to advertise on a blog are two different things. You’ll get traffic from your drop directly from the other person’s inside account within Entrecard. People like to check out whose been visiting them, and it’s easy to do.

You must build up credits to advertise, which displays your image on their blog.

Make your imagine attractive! Remember this is something that will show up on other people’s websites. If it’s so-so, they may not approve you. Also keep in mind that as you get people wanting to advertise with you, it’s important to log in and visit these pages first.

Here’s what we created to display on other people’s blogs”

When you log in, you’ll see two columns of cards to the right. The one nearest the middle of your screen are those blogmasters waiting for your to approve their card placement on your site. The farthest column of cards to the right are the one’s you have approved and they queue up to display over the course of time. Typical run times are 24 hours per card.

One more thing to remember is to log into Entrecard before you start crusing the internet. This way if you find another Entrecard member, you can easily DROP your card. If you arrive at someone’s blog and see an X that just means you are not logged in, and Entrecard doesn’t know that you exist (basically) without your being logged onto their system.

The process is very straightforward, and their help button and access to guidance is readily available.

We believe you will find this kind of real human traffic very useful as you build your blog – or even if you have an established one and just want more real traffic.

* * * * * COMING TOMORROW * * * * * *

The program we mentioned yesterday we will be telling you all about on Monday. The Entrecard is just too good to miss though, and we suggest you go join now

PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS – we do link back!