Damn! I’m from Brazil!
Good luck to you guys!

On top of giving a stack to everyone I know…
I’ll probably leave them places around town in hopes that will pick them up.

As well as show em off because they make me feel cool/important.

Ehh… I regret that I am from Europe

I’ll use them as coupons for new clients. 10% off projects for 1st time clients who mention the card.

I like that they offer recycled paper content, which is a plus when you are working with clients who are concerned for the environment and minimizing waste. These cards are a good way to promote the values of sustainability which is important.

If I had an enormous amount of awesome cards I could give the ol’ library copier a well needed rest. I would also feel safer knowing that potential clients will hold onto my pretty looking info instead of accidentally washing it off of the back of their hands or using the scratched upon napkin to toss out flavorless gum. I would finally be able to put something into those fishbowls they have at restaurants with everyone’s card in it but mine.

And of course I would let everyone know who the generous people that made such awesome cards were.

I just started a geek blog and I need some very cool, creative, “geeky” cards to hand out to fellow geeks – we all know there are exactly 9,999 geeks in the US and Canada – I am keeping the last card for myself!

These cards will make my blog HUGE and only then will I achieve world domination……
or at least have some way cool cards!

I would get the eco-friendly version of the cards and use them to network with green companies and organizations to help talk with them later to do design and development consultation and also become involved with my new web site coming out soon that focuses on communities becoming proactive in “greening” their neighborhoods and/or city.

Using the eco-friendly stock would be a first impression where they could see that I practice what I speak.

I would love free business cards!!! I have been working on an idea with another freelancer to co-launch a new business that has a green aspect to it. Being able to have new cards printed for us using an eco-friendly option would be great for us as we don’t have the cash to get that many business cards at the moment.

I have also just re-designed the branding on my business site, but again don’t have the cash to match the new image, which sucks! So some of the cards could be used for that!

I am not sure what I would do with the other 8000 cards. They would be great at networking events, to give to clients for referral purposes and to leave at places around the city, I currently don’t have enough cards to do that either.

All told I would be a great recipient of these cards!

Thanks for the great contest!

Rory

While trying to avoid spamming people with my cards at random, I’ve come up with a few ideas for marketing myself to locals:

1. Kids will get cards taped to snickers bars for Halloween. Because parents look through kids candy, right?

2. I’ll slip cards into people’s shoes when I go to yoga. We have a common interest, right?

3. I’ll slip them into books at bookstores in the metaphysical, entrapanour (sp?), and website design sections. And then I’ll buy myself a dictionary.

4. I’ll send a stack to my mom, because mom’s like stuff like that.

5. I’ll go to a quincenera (mexican sweet sixteen for those who don’t know) and try and pin some to the dress.

6. I’ll probably male an awesome flip book with twenty of them

7. I’ll stick them in peoples bike stokes. All the cool Portlandians do it.

8 I’ll throw a warehouse party and stamp the info on the back and pass them out like flyers

9. I’ll pass them out with my demos when I DJ or try to get gig

10. I’ll go to boutiques near my house and try on clothes, and I’ll leave a little “surprise” for the next person in the pockets.

Wow, I just had so much fun coming up with ideas. I’m totally going to do some of these guerilla marketing strategies with some other flyers.

.dom

I try to use my business cards to make sure people remember me, even if they wouldn’t be clients, they might know someone, and so giving out business cards can get me clients beyond the receiver of the business card by making it their paper memory of me

I will bound in and out of the Downtown Mesa area and hand them to all the small business owners there. For some reason that area seems to be a web design tame warp circa 1996. I’ll also keep handing them out to all the business contacts and friends that I meet in my regular life as I already do.

I’d use them as a card for my clients to show off their new website. One side could say something like “check out my new website” with a space for the URL to be written in. The other side would be my services and contact info. This would also serve as a referral card for the client, because if I sealed a deal and the card had their URL, they’d get a referral!

I’d get the coating that would allow for writing in, and go eco-friendly of course!

Howdy,

I recently started a company with my partner and we’re on such a tight budget only he got business cards! Obviously this is a travesty that must be put to an end!

HUZZAH!
-Cameron

I will use my business cards to expand the use of Ruby on Rails here in Colombia – South America (yes, I know, but I can provide a US mail address). Here freelancers are a strange race, and Ruby on Rails is almost unknown. Currently I’m working with US based clients, but I want to expand my business here.

I’m really excited to be rolling with new business!

Exception to moving to one state to another has
left me with little time to work on pushing my
brand awareness. Hence, the business card,
so it would have been nice to have some free
cards like yesterday since I will be attending a
Business Expo. In lieu of BC l will use innovative
ideas for spreading my business.

i will visit every wal-mart in a 500 mile radius… i will place a business card and a bag of pop-rocks in a zip locked bag and place it on every car parked in the parking lot. i will do this until i have only 100 left. as i may need those at the next chamber network meeting…

I will certainly give this contact cards to my major clients, because you can also eat with your eyes

I’m just starting a new company so they will be handy to hand around.
I want a card that people would like to keep just because it is so nice and
that would make it a great promotion tool.

I would doodle a caricature of every contact on the back, and make each one a memorable item they’d be more likely to keep!

I’ll finally be able to spread the word of LedKernal! I’ll launch a full underground, worldwide, with my friends at my side. I’ll leave cards where you wouldn’t expect to find them and send them to friends around the world to do the same. Australia, Ireland, England… I might finally be able to really start remote freelancing… remotely!

That is, on top of giving the cards to everyone I know, to everyone I meet where my band plays, giving them to other bands/venues/booking agents, leaving them at venues I play at. My band could finally tour without my problem of missing work. Laptop by my side, drumsticks in my hand, I will begin to cover the nation. In an almost mysterious manner my card will appear, and call out, to my future clients when they least suspect it and need it most.

Cheers!

I’ve been looking for a business card printer recently and have floated through the possibilities though have not yet made a decision. A designer’s business card is his/her calling card… it is the smallest portfolio there is and I plan on using my ‘mini-portfolio’ to target future clients in unique ways. In the past I’ve found that leaving business cards in odd places can do wonders.

A particularly fun place to leave your card is in a library book that you are returning. This is one unique way to reach a potential (albeit random) future client/book reader. One of the pluses of this odd placement choice is that you already share at least one common thing with your prospective client: you read the same literature. Hey it may sound strange, but that’s a talking point and a gateway into a conversation in which you can share your services. It may be wacky, but it’s one thing I’d try with my cards and you’d be surprised how often wacky works!

I would doodle a caricature of anyone I gave it to on the back, making each one memorable –and a little more likely something they’d keep around.

I would doodle a caricature of anyone I gave it to on the back, making each one memorable –and a little more likely something they’d keep around them.

Well I have started doing a lot of environmental awareness projects. (Cleaning up the local bog, starting a day camp, etc). From this I am making a lot of contacts and it’s difficult to do the usual scribble your name on a scrap of paper and hand it off thing so I would begin to share my information in a clear concise way with my new beautiful business cards.

Secondly I would use my business cards to promote my web design business in the offline world. I would use it when I meet possible clients with the normal cold call / meet and great fasion.

I also would like to support some local organizations such as our towns high school newspaper by placing my business card in an advertising spot.

- Justin

I’ll use them to quit my life-sucking Java office job and become a freelance Ruby on Rails consultant.

I was just getting ready to order some new business cards for my new freelance venture so this would be perfect timing. If I were so blessed as to win this contest, I would have a variety of cards printed for each of my different entrepreneurial ventures that are under way. A web app, a service co., my freelance biz, a web community, etc. As far as stock, options, etc. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I will use mine to win many, many free lunches. That’s me, potential 10,000 free lunch winner!

thanks to Mitch for that one – (www.mitchhedberg.net)

I’d sprint door-to-door right here in the city, handing out cards to the oh-so-many business owners who have websites stuck in the mid 1990’s. I’d leave them in restaurants, perhaps with a sly little rhyme, or limerick scribed on the front that would get the finder’s brain churning.

Because hey, everyone knows someone who needs a website, right?

I’d just spread my existence the old-fashioned way – face-to-face – with a handshake, a smile and a snappy lil’ card.

I would include them in my cold-call mailings to potential customers for my freelance editing business, as well as hand them out to anyone and everyone who looks like they need an editor! Because I’m focusing on the academic market (graduate students, faculty, etc.), having a card would be a great addition to the fliers I’m currently posting like mad in every departmental office I can sweet-talk my way into.

I would use mine, not so much for my freelance business, but for that of my students. I teach web design in high school and this year we started something new in our advanced web design class: Freelance Friday. Every Friday we listen to the Freelance Radio podcast and I help students talk with clients and and work on sites for clients.

It happens to me all the time. Someone makes a comment about needing a simple website. Oh! I think, “My students could do that!” I am always meeting people who want websites that my students could make for them. On my cards I would put who I am and how I can put the person I give the card to in touch with a couple dozen awesome young web design students who are eager to make their website for a good price.

Since the public high school doesn’t pay me extra to get my students jobs – no commission there – having free cards would really help me and my students out.

Thanks for offering the contest, and don’t forget about the kids Giving me free cards means that you are giving 50+ web design students a jump start on their freelancing careers.

I will use the business cards to help spread the word about my new site. 1,000 would be a dream come true, and would help give me that extra push to get the word around my town. As a many of you know, a struggling artist needs all the help he can get, and this is why giving me a set of business cards would be a fantastic choice.
Thanks,
Tucker

“how you’ll use your free business cards to improve your freelancing”

Easy, I won’t have to pay for them so I can spend my money on other forms of advertising as well. I can’t help it I am frugal!

Since my business provides marketing and design services mostly to educational organizations, I would use these cards to help educate! There will be a couple versions and each will have a bit of helpful marketing and/or design advice for whomever picks them up. I will put them all over universities and colleges in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area as well as the conferences I go to for college marketing staff. Pretty please can I win?

A thousand free cards on white stock,
(since I’m doing this off of the clock)
would be quite exultant,
for this web consultant,
to my business the clients will flock.

10,000 biz cards? I’d throw them on the carpet and roll around in them like a big pile of money, right? Biz cards = potential bucks. After I’m done rolling around in my biz card billions, I plan to use them everywhere – seriously.

I am a social media strategist and everyone is a potential customer for me. I leave them with the restaurant tab, with new business owners, with people I meet at events, with my nonprofit colleagues, people I stop on the street, folks at the Internet cafe (they are the best!), in stores that I frequent – everywhere. It would give me the possibility to offer my services much more freely.

OK, so I may not be the most deserving, but hey, 10K business cards? Each one is like a golden ticket to the chocolate factory. (I’m officially laying it on a bit thick). Thanks for the opportunity!

I have frequented this website for a long time. Utilized a lot of what has been posted but have never posted or submitted anything myself.

Why I feel I would benefit greatly from these business cards:
I was diagnosed with an intestinal auto-immune disease that has limited the amount of work I can take on. Sometimes going a couple months without working to tend to my health. So it has cut a lot of my costs for simple marketing techniques such as business cards to self-promote or even hand out before/after meetings.

Starting October 1, I will be required to pay insane health insurance costs as I am on an ‘internal black list’ for all insurance companies due to my disease (it has no cure but can be put into remission and is not terminal unless I let myself go completely for awhile).

I’m fortunate that I’ve grown my career and business to the point where I can work with amazing clients that are sometimes very well known. Lately I have begun working with a lot of healthcare related businesses that may make it possible for universal healthcare or create more efficient ways to help patients.

I am not struggling and do well enough to support myself. So in that regard life is good. But I no longer have liquid assets that allow me to self promote in any way. Something as simple as a stack of pieces of printed paper would benefit me, as a professional and as a person in general, far beyond anything I can post right now.

(A) I would use the cards to spread the word about uprinting / freelanceswitch and my organization. This contest and what is going on in terms of partnerships and on line opportunities.

(B) I would be able to be more generous in their use and free to design some thing really unique not only about my firm but about “being the change you want to see in the world”

First off, I will clear off the jigsaw puzzle off the dining room table. Then, with the 10,000 cards, I will build a ridiculously huge and elaborate house of cards and record the process — as well as the collapse (damn cat!) — as a time-lapse video. THEN I will post the video on YouTube and watch it go viral.

10 000 business cards all around Canada !

I will give 1 000 business cards to 10 friends or relative
They will all keep one card
Next, those 10 people will give 111 cards to 9 of their friends
Their friend will also keep one card
Those 10 people will give 11 cards to 10 of their friends (that’s a lot of friends!)
(They have to keep one card too !)
And finally, those 10 people will give 1 card to 10 of their friends,

10 000 potential clients !!! How sweet is this ?!
Who said the web was only on a computer

i’ll write 10,000 short poems and create the first poetry book on business cards. each holder will hold one part from my 10,000 parts poem, from a 10,000 pages book.

(btw: i’m currently outside the US, but i have a US mailing address.)

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a talker. I strike up conversations with almost everyone I come across. With 10,000 AWESOME business cards, I’ll have the extra motivation to go live with my website and kick my freelancing into high gear.

“Do what you love, love what you do.” That’s what freelancing is to me.

And because I have a heart for environmentally-friendly products, I’ll opt for the recycled stock. As a bonus, I’ll gather together a bunch [maybe not quite 10,000] of simple ways that people can reduce their carbon footprint!

Thanks for the love!

I’ll secretly distribute them to my employer’s clients and use the rest as a cubicle wallpaper just before I quit! Nice way out isnt it?

I’m a photographer, so…

- Go to bookstores and leave them in all the bridal and fashion magazines
- Add it to the tab when I go to restaurants
- Leave a couple at a table everywhere I sit (ie. coffee shops, libraries)
- Add a handful with every product I deliver (so they can give it to friends – I live off referrals)
- Slip them in purses of any girl I see with an engagement ring on…too weird?…maybe I’ll re-think that one…

I will use them at the bridal shows that we go to. There are sometimes a thousand brides, and we’d love to have each one leave with our business card!

…or I’ll throw a contest on my website to win 5000 cards to get traffic in, and use the rest for my own.

That’s 27 cards a day for a year to give away. WOW!

I’ll use some fab new business cards to finally *force* myself out to all of those networking events I’m always avoiding! Who can resist a shiny, new, happy business card? Thanks for the great contest!

Since I don’t have any business cards yet I guess I’d have to go on a creative journey to figure out uses for them. Maybe I’ll pass them out to strangers in a giddy euphoria of finally being somebody — somebody who has business cards!

I will use mine to make castle out of cards glued together. I really hope I win.

I will make origami cranes and give them to all my clients to give to their contacts. I will use some of the cards to weave little bird’s nest baskets in which the good luck cranes can reside. My current clients will love them–bright and lovely they will be–and they won’t be able to NOT share them with everyone they know as they tout how creative and easy I am to work with.

And, because they are free, I can spend my allotted biz card allowance on finally updating my logo and website. Both the cranes and the updated branding will send flocks of customers flying my way

in front of a supermarket and give the business cards to anyone.

I just left my day job a couple of weeks ago to dive in to freelancing head-first – to heck with planning or finding clients or anything like that. I’d just start leaving them everywhere I go. Anywhere that I hear people mentioning the internet in any way, I’d trip while carrying a handful so that clients-to-be get a face-full of cards!

And if that doesn’t work out, I’ll build a gigantic house out of them and sell it on eBay. Or live in it, depending how desperate I am at the time.

I am a high school student, not a freelancer. I’d get them printed with all sorts of crazy images, then fold them into tiny paper airplanes and throw them around my school.

Hey, at least I’m honest! ;D

Starting freelancing, I have one weakness as I am starting out. I need to be more upfront with people being able to network this is how business card helps its that bridge that can help you get a connections to colleagues or potential clients. Also business card is smallest portrait about your profession which is important as a freelancer. Also try to create different versions, hell even invite potential clients if they want a cut and surely I would get credit for their business card as they brag how awesome their free business card are.

1) arrange them in a network of duct tape and make a party dress. I should be finished in time for my daughter’s prom. The four year old daughter’s prom.

2) I like the suggestion of putting them in bike spokes. There’s lots of bikes here.

3) punch a hole in each one and tie it to the leg of a pigeon.

4) fold them into origami cranes and float them down the Willamette River.

I would use them to keep my pockets full. I really need full pockets, and I have little money.

There are three things that I could do with business cards right now to help them improve my freelancing:

1) One of my big clients requires business cards as proof of independent contractor status. I would send them some.

2) I just graduated from a technical school and still have a ton of friends back there (and professors) that I need to publicize my business to. They would get a bunch.

3) I meet people in coffee shops here in Seattle all the time looking for web designers. Right now all I can do is email. Business cards would increase my business by at least half.

Here’s the scoop. I’m a new mom of a three-month old and a graphic designer. I have one client who keeps me somewhat busy (as does the baby). You know the saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket?” Well it keeps me fretting over the fact that I need more clients. So I plan to use my newborn as a marketing tool (don’t worry it’s legal). When people ask, “is it a boy or a girl?” or “how old is your baby? I can use the opportunity to weave my occupation into the conversation and market my services with a much needed business card. Mommas got to do what mommas got to do.

What would I do with 10,000 business cards?

- Create origami to hand out to people/clients and leave behind in bookstores, libraries, coffee shops, taxi cabs, etc.
- Hang them from trees around the city.
- Attach to select bottles at the liquor store.
- Turn them into puzzles/games to engage the curious minds.
- Make an art project of some sort – like a sculpture or humongous origami piece.
- Send a stack to my family overseas to hand them out (why not get some international projects?)
- Use one side as handwritten thank you notes or thinking of you/hope all is well – reminders for clients.
- Give each of my friends a stack to hand out.
- And of course, hand them out at every meeting, convention, conference and gathering I attend.

I am developing a mini-seminar campaign, inviting 4 – 6 people to a local Starbucks for a mid-morning “coffee talk” about WordPress. The goal is to help show bloggers and businesses the benefits of WordPress over other solutions, with a respectful amount of self-promotion for my group’s WordPress development services. For each meet-up, I’ll be buying the coffee for the group, and will be slipping my business cards into each hot-sleeve.

I am also re-developing some of my online promotional material into glossy one-page promotional sheets, to distribute to various niches locally and regionally. Each mailing would have a couple of cards.

Outside of my regular, soul-crushing job, I have a side web design business. Eventually, I want to start doing that full time so I can quit where I currently work. I get leads here and there — nothing too steady — and whenever a new client comes across…I never have cards! I’m writing on store receipts, post-it notes, playing cards…and they all come across as low-class and no-talent. Some professional business cards would be mighty nice to give to clients. And with those clients come even more clients! And then I can quit my job and get one step closer to that American dream….FORECLOSURE!

I’m kidding. But some business cards would be really great.

I’m leaving the live Theatre Industry after working 20 years proffesionaly. I’ll use the new business cards to coordinate with my website and canvas Portland Or. to launch my career as a digital artist.

My first thought was to make coupons that I could mail out with thank you cards, so clients can save on another project or refer a friend. And I might try some of the great ideas people have already shared here too.

I just turned 18 and a High School Senior. I design websites, I do internet consulting, and I do a lot of photography. I love what I do, from advising the head of the IB Department at my school on creating an online content management system and taking head-shots of the people behind the school’s next drama production, to profesional clients such as parents looking for an affordable Bar-Mitzvah photographer to local small businesses. Yet, every time it seems I start something new, I go through the awkward discussion of how I don’t have a business card. Last weekend, when I took over 1,000 pictures during an event, I lost multiple potential clients. When it comes to ordering business cards, I convince myself that I don’t really want the extra work because of school and the time I should be spending on the college admission process. So while I place great value in building connections, I have talked myself out of paying money on something that would put a further crunch on my time.

This is why I need these business cards. I don’t want them nearly as much as I need them. This is my chance to expand beyond a current comfort zone of sorts, a chance for me to do what I can now to build a professional network. 10,000 business cards at the age of 18. I think that would put me on the right track.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
Special thanks to UPrinting.

I could finally hand out business cards without asking for them back after the potential client copies down my info on a sticky note. Why a sticky note? Because they got pissed off when I tried writing my info on their hand. Some people are so sensitive!

Oh, and it would be the perfect way to celebrate the launch of my newly designed site… to be unveiled soon!!!!

I’ll finally update my ancient cheapo business cards that have correct contact info but are outdated and have my previous company name on them. This will allow me to feel confident when handing out business cards when I network.

-QB

With 10,000 business cards I would build a Guinness book of world records winning, Seuss worthy house of cards so tall and wide it would be visible from outer space. The upshot of this would be free advertisement on Google Earth, and who knows, Nasa might even come knocking with their childrens book illustrating needs… hah! Doesn’t every kid dream of a job at NASA?

-SB, http://www.IrregardlessArt.com

First off, a very generous offer from you guys. Freebies are always a nice addition to the regular posts on FSw.

I could really use some new business cards; the last batch I had printed has almost run out and I’ve been meaning to get around to purchasing some more.

The majority of the business I acquire is a result of face-to-face interaction with people, and my business card is an essential part of that. A spiffy new batch of cards would enable me to continue to grow my clientele.

I wish everyone the best of luck!

Since I’m the Random Photography guy, I would randomly leave my new cards EVERYwhere I go – busses, trains, parks, businesses – ALL over the place. And, I would use them as a incentive to book me for a session, of course!

-Denny

Great contest idea! I would pass out the cards to all my friends, family, and acquaintances. Then I’d post them on every public corkboard I could find. I’d leave them everywhere I could think of, and watch my freelance writing business take off.

10,000?!

I would just leave them in the box and use it as a paperweight.

man i need a new cards!!!!!!!
as a photographer i would use the cards to promote my awesome photos!
and with that many cards i could really go “crazy go nuts”.
cards slipped into magazines, books etc in stores and libraries.
cards used to plaster public walls – next to graff walls.
go into clothing stores and slip them into the pockets of jackets and shirts.
put them everywhere!
start a REFERRAL programme with my clients!!

My clients are getting tired of hearing me say…

“I have been so busy with all my freelance work, I haven’t had time to design my own business cards”

…when they want to refer me to their friends and colleagues. So, for the sake of my clients, please give me 10,000 free business cards! :p

I’d autograph five of the business cards and use them like Willy Wonker and his Golden Tickets, handing them out willy-nilly to random strangers on the street and mailing them to random businesses from phone books all over the world. Whoever gets an autographed business card can either cash it in for a free website or sell it on eBay for HEAPS of money. I’m about to become famous which makes my rare, limited edition, autographed business card a priceless asset for the discerning collector.

My first year out of school, and my dream has always been to work for myself. I already have a business card design finished and people are offering to pass my card around. It would be perfect timing to win something like this.

I work in the film/tv industry, so I live and die by my business cards. Without them, I am jobless. Without a job, I am wifeless…

With 10,000 high-quality business cards, I have no excuses for not having a job. When my last set of cards ran out (500 in less than a month), my alibi was that it was “the printer’s fault”. The reality was partly that I was lazy, but mostly due to the fact that I couldn’t find a printer that I could trust.

I have high hopes for my next batch of cards: 100-lb card stock, full color, embossing — the whole shebang! Please make this a reality (and save my livelihood AND wife)!

After 10 years in print working the small business route. I made the corporate move a year ago. Since, I have work on NOTHING that proves worthy of my portfolio and NOTHING that is even close to conceptual or creatively stimulating. I HATE my job. I am ready to WALK OUT. I NEED THIS!!! I’m ready to make the jump to freelance (Just as soon as I catch up on my last 3 freelanceswitch podcast!) I have done noting as far as promoting myself in the past and feel this is just the thing needed to help me jumpstart my new career. (along with the genius advice of the podcast) PLEASE! help a soon-to-be-freelancer out!

Double sided cover weight uncoated cards run through sweet sweet Komori presses; each one signed and treated as gold. With this I will rule the world.

Going to use the cards to simply get rich.

I’d love to give out eco-friendly ones as I am trying to green-up my life more! Plus it would help with business!

I would use them to put my LOGO and CONTACT information on and then give them to PEOPLE. In theory, this will enhance my PROFESSIONAL image and show the COMMITMENT I have to my BUSINESS!

10,000 cards.
10 freebie photoshoots.

split the cards into 10 designs with 2 parts. 10 of the cards of each design would be the match to any of the other 990. Find one of each, voila, free portrait session.

this would be a great way to promote my just moved photography business (over the great divide), have some fun and give me some incentive to toot my own horn and talk myself up. more importantly, others would start doing it too!

so yeah, that’s what i’d do. in fact, even if i don’t win i just might do this!

Gosh, with 10,000 business cards what couldn’t you do?

I mean OBVIOUSLY you’d want number the cards sequentially 00001-10000 (in a really sweet looking silver foil probably) and assign each number to a unique web page that the card recipient could access. You’d perforate the lower fifth of the card, repeating the serial number on that portion so that when you hand the card over, you write the person’s name down and keep the stub.

When the recipient accesses their unique page it greets them by name (because being a diligent freelancer you’ve gone straight home and entered it into your system) and gives them some features allowing them to do some brainstorming and website/design “wishlists.”

The site also has a sidebar with links to some inspirational sites (i.e. FaveUp?) to get their creative juices flowing as well as a running update of your current projects and inspirations.

That way, you start an immediate, no commitment necessary creative dialogue with the recipient (did I mention the silver foil?) that could really get some interesting projects started.

but like I said, what couldn’t you do?

I would finally get real, and start to do some freelancing, stop procrastinating.

I really like how everyone on the board says some crazy shit that they will never do (attach them to liquor bottles, slip them in women’s purses, etc.).

Realistic, you won’t do that stuff.

Nuh uh.

But (here comes my lame pitch hehe):
I am a struggling student photographer so these free cards will definitely help me out tons! Starving students can never afford that many cards. Especially ones with vegetable based ink (yummy)! I would be able to leave business cards up on the board at the local coffee shop omg!

I’ll use them as ninja stars, an throw them at clients.

10 kilo of cards is like… 10 kilos of opportunities
A chance to rebuild my business and social communities
5,000 for the business side of me
the others for me as an emcee
I don’t need a college degree
to know that this deal is my cup of tea
But for what I’ll get in mass quantity
It’ll give me a chance to show mass quality
of work flow for both of my creative sides
so if I get this, I’ll know how high I ride
And the best part? People will get to know both my words and art
Because I’m a freelancer who always speak from the heart.

I’d use my abundant new business cards to shim a wobbly table that my most prestigious client is sitting at, so he doesn’t spill his Chardonnay. We would laugh as I told him the story about how I obtained so many high quality business cards. After we chat and he’s had a good look at my fancy new cards, he’d agree to a lucrative new business proposal. Celebrating our new deal we’d toast to the good people from UPrinting and FreelanceSwitch with another glass of fine wine.

I will use them to grow my natural health business.

I would use these free business cards to advertise my organization that is in its starting phases. It will be an organization devoted to the creation and maintenance of modern skate plaza/ skateparks in the midwest. Starting in the Spring of 2009; We will be offering design and some pre made obstacles for sale as well. I have helped many cities in Iowa get funding for skateparks and more recently been creating grass roots campaigns to have the skate take control and build the parks themselves. Along with helping design the skateparks, making some obstacles, securing funds…we also offer consultation and project management services to cities lost when it comes to managing contractors in the skatepark industry.

Please Select me so I can begin this venture with just a little bit help.

Thanks!!

Well I don’t know if anyone could get as good of a location, but I have an idea that could be extremely exciting.

You’ve heard of those houses and castles where people have built them out of card decks, right? Well, by chance I have an open space in a very busy section of town. I will use between 800-900 of the cards to build a large house or computer. Then I would use the other 99 for individuals to pick up next to the card monstrosity.

Now that is really cool, but wheres the buzz right? Well it so happens that I got all of these cards off a contest I won on a very prominent web site. Once I contact the newspaper with this interesting story and house, they will then distribute it to their thousands of readers. Inside the story they will have a scanned copy of my LAST business card put into their newspaper for free advertising.

Even better yet, I will take a picture of it. Send it back to both FreelanceSwitch and UPrinting.Com. This way, they can display the cool card house that was put into newspapers so everyone can see how it turned out.. Which in turn, gives me links to my site.

So Lets see how many people I can reach with thes 1,000 cards. 3,000-6,000 locals by newspaper and prominent location. Several thousand FreelanceSwitch readers by a linkback from photo.. plus however many site visitors I get from UPrinting.com when I send them the photo if they choose to put it up on their site for an interesting story.

Did I mention the free nod to FreelanceSwitch and UPrinting inside the newspaper article?

I would send a business card to each of the people on this page who have incorrectly assumed that they would receive 10,000 cards instead of the 1,000 they’d actually get

I’m smack dab in the middle of a business rebranding, and I’m taking the time to do everything right. I’ve dedicated far more time and resources towards my business, now that I’m finally motivated and taking myself seriously as a professional. The 1,000 business cards will help me tell people “You should hire me because I am a professional.” My budget is also limited with saving for all the legalization costs, accounting, and other expenses. So naturally, it’d be one more step towards not just a new step in my business, but a new step in my life.

Been running my business for a good year now with only word of mouth and the popularity of my blog. I think its time for me to stop being lazy and get business cards. This contest helps with that. I will be refreshing my inbox constantly every second because I’m confident I will be winning this contest!

It would probably take me sometime to use up so many business cards. I would give some up to my best clients along with a free design for their businesses.

I would also print a lot for my own business and give them out at conferences, seminars, lectures, etc.

Also I could give some for free for new clients.

Thanks!

In June, I launched a new kind of freelance venture: we offer editorial AND literary translation services to book publishers and literary agents.

Sometimes, we need a little help explaining what we do, because we offer a new kind of service.

As a start-up, my first set of cards are basic and attractive – and cheap. I’d love to have business cards that would include a couple of lines about what our freelancers can do:

– foreign-language reader reports
– sample and full translations of fiction and non-fiction
– plus all the editorial services you need in English

We work from fourteen languages (and counting!) and so an option to include international flags or foreign phrases would help to catch the eye of new foreign clients.

I’m heading to Frankfurt Book Fair in mid-October; I’m a newbie, and it’s the biggest book fair in the world, so I’d love to have something a little different to hand out!

Thanks!

Currently, I print my own cards using my own cheap stock. The result is well… cheap. I need something professional to get my year 2 of freelancing in high gear. Next year I plan on really getting my name out there but I’m going to need good looking biz cards to do it.

So far, I have received some work from own cards (about 50), but imagine what i could do with 1000!! I’m excited just thinking about it. Hook me up!

This seems like a great helping hand to get out of my current office job, working for a company that is a sinking ship!

I’d use these cards to print up a killer design, hand them out around my little island community and help jumpstart the freelance career I want to pursue.

I decided to launch my own freelance design services company: Idealien Studios. Launch is be a bit of a misnomer…I bought a domain name and put a coming soon splash page up. Why is it personal projects always take a backseat to professional ones???

Winning business cards would be great – it would force me to get my print materials / branding completed as I would treat it as a real (self-enforced) deadline. In much the same way that I am using a speaking opportunity at Wordcamp: Toronto to create my site (portfolio, css gallery, code tutorials, plugin repository, etc) and document the process for the presentation.

Without winning this content, making new business cards might just be another personal project ‘to do’ sitting on the whiteboard – which still has yet to be hung on the wall. *sigh*

To paraphrase the first crazy Tom Cruise movie I saw, “Help me help me”

As a photographer for stock pictures I often have to approach people in public and ask them for a Model Release when I take pictures of them.
A professional looking business card would give me a more serious (and less “creepy”!) image when introducing myself as a professional photographer.

First, I would have a few hundred printed to promote my freelance business so I could get out of real estate, once and for all.

Second, I would print off a few hundred more as coupons, to give out with my business cards. The coupons would offer 100 free business cards to any customer that spends over $500 in services, 10% off for every other order.

Third, I would use the remaining free business cards to fulfill my offer.

I’ve been doing freelance video and audio post production for the last 18 months and have never attended the first expo or convention, so I never had business cards designed. Now I’m meeting customers from Italy and Mexico that I’ve been doing work for and I realize I have nothing for a business card to share. A great business card should tell a story about your business with just a glance and I know I need professional help to design it. This would be a great opportunity for me to work with professionals and end up with a quality business card that I can be proud of and that score me some second looks from potential customers.
Thank you for the chance.

I will keep 500 for business purposes and the rest I will use as ninja stars to smite my competition.

I will mail one to every client I lost the bid with and draw a smily face sticking it’s tongue out on the back and then below that it will say, “go to hell”.

I don’t have business cards nor do I have any designed. Am I still allowed to participate in the contest? As for what I would use them for would be to obviously give them out to potiental clients, or use them at conferences etc. I have had people as me for my card though i’ve never had one to give out.

I think a business card is a professional way of introducing yourself and your services. As long as the business card looks professional or well done at least. Something unqiue to go along with your unique skills you are offering. Right?

I would love some swag – hook me up!

Unfortunately I live in the UK but thought i would join in anyway.

I’m getting married in 9 months so guess what our guests will be viewing when opening their favour boxes…. Thats right brand new shiny business cards. lol. Also I would go to my local library and insert they in the most common books available. Hiding them behind racks at a supermarket is also a good idea.

I am just starting to push my freelance business into high gear. In the past few months I’ve gone from having nothing, to having a website, portfolio, resume and the final piece of the puzzle which I have been waiting to save up the extra to afford is of course, BUSINESS CARDS!! I have been working like crazy to get my credit cards down low enough that I can pay for the perfect business cards, it’s just been a slow process lately.

I know that if I were to get 1000 free cards I would make the best of them. I have been a little shy in my networking because I feel as if I need a great card to get the word out there on my website. So once those cards arrive I would be taking better advantage local creative network parties we have every so often in my city.

Thanks for everything you guys have done for me and the rest of this community with your website!

I somewhat recently moved to a very small town. I would use the cards to not only promote my web design business (as many of the businesses up here either have no web site or a very poorly done site) but also to introduce myself to people I meet. Moving to a very small town can be hard. Everyone here has know everyone else for a very long time. Becoming involved takes a lot of effort because people are suspicious of ‘outsiders’. A friendly easy to read card that is as social as it is business could make a difference in both my freelance and social life.

In late August, my wife and I committed to expanding our business. We are off to a great start through September, but we could certainly use business cards. We’ve been married for two years now, and all of our cards are still in mine name only. We would like to have both names on our business cards.

Further —- we are HAVING A BABY! in April, so we aim to grow our business significantly by then. The business cards would be a great help!

Believe it or not I would not use these cards for myself. I already have my dream card and too many of them. I would use this free card for a client of mine that I truly believe in. I think what he is doing is not only really cool but it is also extremely helpful and honorable. Unfortunately he isn’t swimming in money so he could barely afford a logo and card design (and I cut him a huge break) let alone a card that I think he truly deserves and will do him and the design justice. So I would use this contest to get him what I know he can’t get on his own, the start of an identity system he will be happy with for years and will represent him the absolute best.

So pick me.

What an awesome contest! And perfect timing too. My old cards are a bit outdated looking (as far as my new branding), I just launched a newly designed website, and I’ve moved to a new address! I could definitely use new cards and I’m pretty stoked about the eco friendly cards too!

I would use the cards as a ticket to win free consulting services. I would put a unique number on the back of each card (might need to stamp this on by hand), and whoever has the card could go to my website and enter the number to see if they’ve won. The percentage of cards winning free quick usability consultation would be significant (I’m pretty generous with these as it is) with a handful of larger prizes in the mix.

Hopefully this will increase the percentage of folks who get my card that actually visit my site, and with any luck some free consultations will turn into paid work.

I’m in the process of branding my business. I would be sending the cards (along with other materials) to all current and prospective clients. Fingers crossed!

- 500 for me
- 500 for my wife (my Marketing Manager)
- A few beautiful designs on various stock showing our amazing web/graphic design skills

Then we’ll paint the town with our fresh cards and swim in the river of emails and phone calls that will flow our way.

As 10,000 business cards is a heck of a lot of heavy-duty card stock, I will use them to build a “house of cards” along a prominent roadside. I will then work out of this office for a few hours during the week to answer potential inquiries…as my house of cards will definitely get me noticed. Once I have a potential customers attention, I will be able to pull them in for a possible sale! I am not sure yet if I would install guttering and spouting on the house…but I have some time to think about it

I will use my business cards to advertise my freelancing since right now my finances are at an all time low. I need as much help as I can get so that I can find more work in the area to help with those financial needs. Also, this helps to get my name out there and allow people to see the work I can do.

I will create a blog post titled “1,000 Business Card Giveaway Contest” and give away 100 cards to 10 winners with the most creative comments.

Anyone named “Josh” will be an automatic winner.

I plan to use the cards to improve my freelancing using the most environmentally friendly way, and not just plastering (littering) them all over town. There are a few vowels between being a Guerilla marketer, and a Gorilla marketer.

Who ever wins this fabulous contest, please, Give a Hoot, don’t Pollute, or make Indians cry. It just ain’t cool.

Wow, 10,000 cards.

1. I would go to the bookstore and use them as bookmarks. Only thing is I would purposely forget to take them out.

2. I would create some fancy envelopes (The kind that looks soo cool that you want to open it), and stick my biz card in it.

3. I would let other designers know that UPrinting.com is the place to go for printing services.

Thanks

I need some business cards to give to the taxi driver when I get drunk to forget my friendly customers!

To make money.

I have been trying to get more business to my company so my main focus in the last little while is on networking and going to industry and business events in my area.

The one thing that I have been lacking is that professional look to my business cards and since I always look extremely professional when going to these events I would absolutely love to have business cards to match me and my company.

The first thing that I would do is identify ideal public areas within a reasonable radius of where I live. These could be anything from coffee houses to office supply stores. Ideally they will have some type of public posting board at their location.

Next I would use creative wording on the cards to intrigue people into wanting to visit my website. I wouldn’t use language to try and sell services, but rather target people who are looking to achieve a broader goal like “A new way to grow your business” or “Open up your business to a whole new market”.

I would leave the cards at the locations I pinpointed almost as puzzle pieces to drive traffic to my website. This would probably have a high bounce rate, but if I earned several good clients from it then I would expand to other local areas — shake and repeat style.

10,000 bright blue business cards used to make a dress + model = walking advertising campaign that sends everyone to my website. Combine that with an accompanying e-mail blast and viral video makes for an effective new business getter.

OR

I have been considering starting a bike messenger company here in nashville. I’d cover my spokes completely with the cards so you couldn’t help but notice them. People would tear them off and poof! Instant marketing.

I do almost all of my marketing online via Google and paid graphic ads on sites. I’ve been wanting some business cards so that I can give people something in their hands. It would be one sweet deal for me and my freelance business. Thanks!

I’m just starting out on the road to freelancing; I’ve started my first solo project this week and I’m launching it this weekend. I’ve struggled in the past with following through on my ideas in the past, and now that I’ve really done it I am feeling really motivated about moving forward towards fully freelancing. Business cards would be one less expense towards getting my name out there and making it on my own.

I would pin them up on bulletin boards, put them between pages of newbie-targetted books in the library and book stores’ web and blogging sections. I would carry a few around with me at all times, in case I had an an opportunity to hand a couple out or put them somewhere noticeable. I would hide them in with napkins or sugar packets at restaurants too.

Maybe I’d set-up a landing page to advertise on the card, so when someone types it in they hit a page meant specifically for people who came via a card, kind of tying in with something the card said on it. So the card could say something to get the reader interested in starting a website, or redesigning the one they already have, and then have a URL that directs them to a page that continues what the card was talking about.

Right now I make my own cards with some cheap cardstock and my inkjet printer. They’re passable, but not as professional as they could be.

i’ll tape them all together to make a giant billboard spelling out how everyone should send me money to buy very expensive coffee. with 10000 cards, i could create a billboard that is roughly 76.5 feet by 76.5 feet. If 10000 people drive by and see it, and each one sent me one dollar, i could buy several pounds of high-test beans, a new laptop, force unleashed for the xbox 360 and still have some dough to sock away for a rainy day.

so – while the cards might not be horribly useful in the traditional sense, you see that they would vastly improve my business – by giving me the caffeine i need to work on the new laptop that would speed up my work enough to give me plenty of time to kill playing force unleashed, thereby pushing me into the need for a rainy day fund after all my clients left because of playing said video game.

it’s the perfect loop, really.

Ooh.. I will use it to expand my WordPress site building business locally. It’s kind of weird to know so many folks online who trust me but the folks living around me know very little about my capabilities. This could do wonders to my home business!

I will use them as small fliers/ cards to promote a soon-to-be-launched citizen journalism website (for local communities) that I have been working on for two years (on a shoestring). I’m finally out of money (my SBA loan dried up) and need all the help I can get! Trying to pull at your heart strings? yes. Also doing a good thing worthy of your blessing? Also yes.

With my “1,000″ business cards I would add to the back of my cards a small paragraph that helps people learn to read. It would involve the importance of reading articles and not just headlines. In today’s instant society, people have somehow lost the essential ability of reading and comprehension- especially when free stuff is offered. I would then pass them out to everyone who commented on this post with what they would do with their “10,000″ business cards because it’s obvious that they need a proofreader.

I’d use my 10,000 business cards to motivate me to finally re-brand and update my existing, 2+ year old website.

The cobbler’s shoes always have the most holes, eh?

I would then take the cards, and try spell out marketing messages, like “website?” on empty networking boards in stores/banks.

I would love new business cards. The last set I got didn’t have the right color of cardstock, which really offset my branding efforts from beige and lavendar to white and lavendar. It’s all in the details!

A new set would be LOVELY:)

kristenlfischer AT gmail.com

With 10,000 free business cards, I would launch a marketing campaign. Stick them on the bulletin boards in all local coffee shops, send them into the sky using a helium filled balloons, leave a stack on the counter of some local businesses and give them out to people I meet at parties and all other gatherings. 10,000 free business cards would be a great improvement to my freelancing.

It will make my SWITCH a lot easier, I’m setting up my resources, what would I do with them?

Firstly I will get them mailed a @ my mom’s in Dallas.

Secondly, she will send them to me to Seville, Spain that’s where I’m @ Right now.

Third I will have my wife Dancing flamenco outside the bullfighting plaza

Fourth, I will join her and start giving those out.

Tell me who’s gonna forget that scene?

Client:”Dude my designer gave me this really nice looking card, and just can’t get him out of my head… he’s an awful dancer.

I need to print professional-quality business cards since my old, less professional-looking ones just ran out!

In addition to needing new cards, I’d use a tip in a previous FreelanceSwitch article and put some coupons on the back of the cards, and give these to potential clients (from Smart Move #3 at http://freelanceswitch.com/money/3-smart-moves-to-make-after-landing-a-new-client/).

I’ll make animated flip books out of them for my potential clients!

I would use the cards to promote my brand spanking new website that I’m trying to get off the ground so I can get myself out of the cube and onto a more freelance-based life.

Business cards are great. Free business cards are better.
With 10K free cards, the potential uses are endless.
I can finally shove them in the free burrito cup at Chipotle for free lunch. That’ll save me some money on my business.
When I ask ‘Oh, do you have a card?’ to a potential client after an interview, no longer will I have awkwardness as they await mine until I say ‘Um, well, thanks! Talk later!’ and jet out the door.
I will not have to rely on Kinkos to print my business cards with the name ‘Patt Manetti’ instead of my real name ‘Matt Pennetti’.
I can look at struggling business’ design and websites, shake my head, then say ‘Here’s my card’.
I can trade a card for a mint or piece of gum.
Sharpie on a napkin is no way to spread business information, a card would negate the need for me to do that.
Hire the newspaper kid from my neighborhood to pass them out at the local businesses. He works cheap.
and last but not least…
Package them in foil and pass them out like collector cards. Clients will then have to call me so they can ‘collect them all’.

I’ll use the business cards in three ways to help my business:

1) I’ll use them as a basis for my new referral program, If I get a business card back with someones name and phone number on it, I’ll send them 5% of the client they referred.

2) I’ll pass the business cards out at WordCampPDX, and other networking events- hopefully generating many new leads.

3) I’ll advertise my involvement with Blog Action Day ‘08, and also my work with other non profits.

Hopefully, with the right business cards, I can make a difference.

I would use this for a new design for promoting my work at a charity chili-cookoff to be held in November!

I could really use some business cards. I just moved across the country, so I am low on money but need new cards with my new contact info! They will motivate me to go and search out new leads. I am stuck in a rut in my full-time job…I need my creative outlet…I need freelance gigs!

Since I am a wedding photographer, the best way to promote my business is by handing out business cards to my clients and my clients’ guests at their weddings, and by handing out business cards I mean giving away at least 200 at every single wedding. And hopefully, at least half of them will contact me the next day to book THEIR wedding!

And 1000 (or 10000 ?) business cards would come in extremely handy if I got to win.

I’d rent a hot air balloon and toss them to unsuspecting victims/potential clients from high altitudes.

No one said promotion had to be boring…

With 1,000 free business cards, I can stop mooching of my current employers stock of paper and printing, and actually make some decent cards to hand out. Nothing says unprofessional then a cheap paper stock business card. I also wouldn’t have to slave over the Xacto knife cutting down sheets of cards that always get messed up anyway.

If I had 1,000 cards I would start attending Chamber of Commerce meetings and hand them out to local business that I want to do work for. I could also give some to my wife who some how finds clients for me but never has cards on her.

And I just bought a nice leather business card holder that needs some cards in it. Please fill it up.

I’d reprint my original cards this time with my phone number.

Hello,
This could not come at a better time for me and my starting freelance business in graphic design . 1.000 is a large number. As I am just finishing a project of logo/business card for a wonderfully nice
and inspiring customer, I will offer 100 cards to her as well as to my next 9 customers . (the contest
says “any combination” right? ) . For a graphic designer, isn’t it fantastic to see its own
work printed beautifully and professionally? Not only it is an excellent publicity , it s also rewarding to
be able to offer a little extra to the people who trust you and give you the opportunity to do the work
you really love. Don’t you think so too at UPrinting?…:-)!
Thank you for reading.

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Illustration 4 years ago and have unsuccessfully tried to acquire enough freelance Illustration work to call myself an Illustrator. I have a position in Graphic Design that is enjoyable and pays the bills, but I would love to see my dreams come true as an Illustrator. I want to do work for Time, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, BusinessWeek and every other publication out there.

It’s always difficult to find the time to Illustrate, but this would be the perfect opportunity and motivation I need to create a magnificent illustration, use the back of the business card to display the work, and send it to every art director available.

Thanks for offering such a great contest.

Considering that every cent that I have is going back into my company. Having !000 free business cards would truly be helpful..

Peace,
Q.

I’d sell them for a nickel each…as bookmarks…or dollhouse wallpaper. Barbie wants to hire me to redesign her logo, I just know it.

I’ve been freelancing for 2 years and still haven’t gotten my business cards printed yet! Granted, all of my projects (so far) have been from online sources, but I am working to expand my client base and actual cards might come in handy to get some new clients, as well as do a little follow-through with past clients.

Thanks for the opportunity!

Hey,

I would really love to have these business cards, because I am trying to maintain my business. It has been doing good so far, but I have set a goal to start having physical clients rather than on the internet. I am 16, so them taking me seriously is very crucial. With the business, I can impress them right from the get-go! So whatdya say! Feed the youth! haha!

Thanks for the oh-so-awesome goodness that you give me every day!

Aloke

I would use the 10,000 business cards in the same creative way I’m using this comment section right now. And that’s to promote my upcoming brand new blog Uncle Fatlips—LA’s Daily Survival Cheat Sheet(www.unclefatlips.com) which launches September 22, 2008!

I’m so EXCITED!!!!

If I win the contest,I would place my business cards in galleries and boutiques all over southern California.

I would print a few eco friendly business cards of course…

But beyond that that, I want to print business card size portfolio pieces. I haven’t had the money to put it together. But I figure having a stack or 2 of portfolio pieces to show to clients in such a small size is the most eco friendly option to show my work, on paper (technically), while giving the potential client something to actually hold. This is a hard day and age to be a preferably-print designer. With the ability to print 10+ versions. I can then leave one with a client with more to spare, and pick the left overs up later. Giving myself plenty of overlap before “recycling”, recollecting and re-showing to another client.

I’d go into more details about what i’d do, but that would just give away my brilliant idea:) Pick me and I’ll show you once i’m done!

The cards would help with my plan for world domination one website at a time.

Actually, I rescued myself from the mind numbing and soul tearing corporate world. But on top of that, I am in the process of rescuing others, as a life line and technical support. I know many cool but abused good people who have important services that they can offer other people. I help with the technical setup/design, the emotional support, and courage to go out on their own. Unfortunately, I am also trying to pay bills with the sweat of my own independent skills. I would use the cards to promote my business, the others I am helping, and other people who will need help growing their business.

The cards would be one big chore off my to do list! This would allow me to have (gasp) free time!!!! A concept that was recently brought to my attention from a different article on this site.

Now if you just had a give away that would take the awesome website designs in my head for my sites and make them real without me having to put it in photoshop and then code….. Oh and I always wanted a pony, but the cards will do!

Ross, you made me laugh, because I have said the exact same thing to clients. This week!

Hi

If I were to win the 1,000 business cards, I would make my 2009 New Year’s resolution to be to contact 50 potential clients per month via cold calling and then to follow-up with them with my marketing material, which would include a business card. I have 50 potential clients within a month before, so I know that this is doable for me; I would just have to commit to do it for each month of next year.

Also, I sometimes attend networking events. My goal would be to attend more of them.

My husband taught me a magic trick that is performed using three playing cards. I adapted the trick so that I am able to use three business cards instead. At social gatherings and networking events, I perform my trick for small groups. People are amazed and ask if I am using special cards. I then give the people my business card displaying, to their surprise, the cards are simply regular business cards and then explain what I do using my “elevator” speech.

Oooooo, 1,000 free business cards would be awesome. Best part?! They’re FREE!!!

I’d use them to get rid of my free time!

I am just getting into freelancing and have been establishing clients from the around the nation. I am so dedicated to my clients work that I have not been able to get business cards printed as of yet. This would help me further my freelance business and I would add a note on my website for Freelance Switch and Uprinting on my resources page. I love this website and read it everyday and would love to be able to use these business cards to promote not only my business, but when people asked, “Hey where did you get those sweet business cards?” I will say I got them by signing up for a content on this awesome website, Freelance Switch, and they were printed by U Printing.

Thanks,
Tony Oravet

New business cards would be a financial relief to a “newbie” in the design industry – fresh from college, perusing the internet for work and paying off those hefty school loans! Plus, it would be nice to update my cards with a promotion of my new hobby – blogging – as well as Coroflot and LinkedIn information.

Due to budgetary constraints, I currently write my contact info on the sides of puppies. With tattoo needles. Business cards would be doing everyone a favor.

Business cards will remove the painful-yet-necessary task of inking the little critters. Besides, pets really don’t make good gifts for potential clients; you’re pushing a commitment onto someone else and expecting them to be grateful for the gesture.

No one cares if a business card gets tossed aside or goes hungry for weeks, but puppies are an entirely different matter. The money I save on these business cards could be allocated toward finding these puppies a good home, and perhaps even springing for laser tattoo removal.

Really, please. Think of the puppies.

First, I would oogle them, get all excited, and give one to my boyfriend.

I would also use them in the process of networking and drumming up freelance work, since my desk job does not make enough to afford me things like free time where I don’t have to spend my “free time” working on freelance projects. Things like food and gas seem to be a luxury in this economy.

I’d sneak them into a few comic books at my local comic book shop. Surprise!

But most importantly, they’d make my grandma really excited. She’s been very supportive of me, my education, and my professional pursuits for my entire life, including funding parts of my college education and making sure I had internet in times of lesser employment. And business cards would be one step forward and put a smile on her face.

Unlike many others, I would first understand that I’m not entering to win 10,000 free business card, I’m entering for the chance to win 1,000 cards, along with 9 other people.

So right off the bat, I’d prolly send my card to all those in this thread, offering my services as a general “foot in mouth” consultant.

Then, I’d use the cards to blow my ROI out of the water. You see, I have yet to utilize cards (word of mouth biz over here). So 1,000 cards go out, and any business earned is on out-of-pocket expenses of…… zero! My accountant will love me.

I just moved to Chicago this week, and am on the job hunt! Recently graduated, but still on a student budget, I can’t exactly afford luxuries such as business cards just yet, therefore I would LOVE the opportunity for free business cards. If I were to win I would start passing them out to everyone I meet. Every new person is a potential job opportunity, and being that I’m new here in the windy city, I’m meeting quite a few new people every day! Having something to leave with my new acquaintances, ,or to pass on to my friends who have design connections, would hands down help me get a job sooner. But when it comes to deciding whether to pay for business cards, or to pay for this month’s rent … I’m gonna have to go for the rent … at least for now!

I’m a beginning designer, and I would love to save some change and win these cards. I can really use a stack of business cards for marketing and promotion. For the moment, I’m dependent on word of mouth and guerilla marketing strategies. Please count me as one of the lucky 10!

The cards would be used to promote our site, Feisty Aphrodite, that’s been around for just over two years. Unfortunately, it’s taken a back seat since we’ve been trying to make ends meet with freelancing full-time so Feisty’s taken a bit of a back seat. We’d use the cards to hand out to the college classes we speak at, go around to local groups that are involved in the same sort of thing we are and hand them out. Oh, and the wonderful suppliers would get a link from our site to theirs!

First off “Will”, the wording was corrected about 3 times on this post. So it can easily be read by people as those it’s a higher number. They removed the “updates” notices so now anyone looking at this before looks like a damn fool.

But I would do the same with 1,000 cards as I would with 10,000 cards.

I would use the cards to invite all my wabbit friends to a party and have them count the rest of the cards.

I work as a consultant within and among NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) engaged in advocacy at the United Nations – and development projects in country, coordinate a network of NGOs coming from every African country/African Diaspora area, and collaborate in networks – activities that bring me in contact with people from every part of the world.

Over the next few months, I will be organizing and participating in conferences that bring together thousands of people from all over the world. One of the most critical aspects of my work is to establish contacts, maintain connections to encourage and facilitate collaborations, share information.

The first and most important part of that being to make sure people know who I am, that this is my focus and how to contact me. In such large meetings, such busy settings, sometimes you only have a quick moment to exchange contact information — just as you are talking with one person, another person you’ve been trying to connect with passes by — or a meeting is ending, and you are one of 40 people trying to speak to a presenter. Or if I am the presenter, to speak to the 40 people in line trying to connect with me.

Everyone is on their own schedule, and we you miss someone you don’t get to see them a few days later, and you don’t get a chance to find them easily if you are in New York and they are going back to Manipur, Juba, Suva, etc. Some of the most amazing projects, most effective sharings of information, have come from people met by chance, linked by chance, and able to collaborate in their work and ideas.

I’d use the 10,000 business cards to help link 10,000+ people around the world who are all working towards many of the same goals to make the world a better place.

wait, is it 10,000 business cards or 1,000 business cards?

either way, I’d make use of each and every one of them, and would by March at the latest have at least one of those cards in every country.

I wouldn’t have to blow throw the small NGO-budgeted stack of business cards that get used up almost instantly, then begin writing my contact information on every scrap of paper that can be found, including resorting to printing them on laser labels and making people stick them in spots they will inevitably forget about (or they fall off). I wouldn’t have to tell four people, as I am writing my information down for one person, that if I don’t get to write it for them at that point, I will see them later (but we often miss each other later), and with people speaking so many different languages, it is useful to have a preprinted card to give them that clearly gives my contact information, rather than my “I am rushing while writing with a dying pen on dark purple paper that already has text on it” typical stance.

My goal is to strengthen my network, strengthen my contacts, get more clients and get more work done.

If get around 10,000 cards i would do the following

1. I would stand at the entrance of bigger confernce or infront of churches and distribute to all the people who come out of the meetings

2. I would go to a parking lot and stick up a card to every wiper blades of the cars.

3.I would give some cards to the newspaper boy to be included with the newspaper at the time of delivery to each and every door.

nice contest

nice contest

I would put together the most egotistical rolodex ever.

…or promote my website daily photo blog staugustinepics.com by leaving a card everywhere I’ve taken a picture so the curious may discover the photograph.

I’m sure once I see UPrinting’s quality though they’ll be tough to share and the few I do will only lead to calls about how great they are and where I had them printed.

I am relaunching my freelance business January 1 and 1000 free business would be a wonderful tool to help get that started. I am giving the business a complete facelift with a new look and will be do offering some services inhouse that I had been contracting out before. I am still conducting business presently but at a smaller scale due to a health situation. I will be having brain surgery to alleviate headaches that I have been experiencing for the past five years. The sugery is minor and will have me down for 2 to 3 weeks, but once the headaches are gone I can truly focus on freelancing……please I need these cards

What was I thinking? I was so tired of my secure-but-dead-end clerical job that I agreed in principle to move to Argentina in order to work for a dysfunctional offshore company. Then I realized that no matter what they told me, they still considered me a freelancer. Instead of moving, I decided to embrace being a freelancer and stay right here, but without a day job. After several months of counseling, pro bono work and portfolio-building I am ready to launch an arts-centered audio production service. Currently I produce or provide support at about a dozen performance events per month and I meet quite a few writers, musicians and visual artists, many of whom I hope to partner with or produce, and in whose hands I expect the majority of the business cards would end up.

Thanks for your attention!

I think I could really use the cards at the new shopping center near me. There’s lots of little businesses that could use some marketing help!

I would love these cards. I run both a web design company with my best friend as well as a personal blog on the side. Having cards with my personal information on them would give me flexibility for all the situations where my professional business card may not be necessary or appropriate.

On the flip side, if I were to use these for my business, we would have high quality cards to hand out to local businesses (as well as giving stacks to friends and family for referrals). This would undoubtedly help our business grow, giving us that extra bump to leave our 9-5 jobs.

You know, does it really have to be for me? I think I’d go the Miss Universe way and shoot for world peace. I’do some pro-bono work for a homeless shelter and try to use form and design in a way that would be helpful to them in their bid to help others in my community. They could do more good with 10,000 cards than the money I’d make (hey, let’s be real: there’s only one of me around this freelance biz I got going and I could always use more clients but seriously!).

I will take Uprinting’s generous offer of “any combination of business cards” and use multiple forms to promote my freelancing service. I will give two cards to each client. One is for the clients to keep: it uses gloss cover (or better, ultra shiny) and prints simple handy applications, such as to-do list or small game, for them to write (possibly with erasable marker) on the back. The other is for them to pass: they can write their email addresses in an originally blank list on the back of the card, and pass it to the next person. In the end, the last person shall mail the card to me. Top referrers will be awarded.

I would open up my shipment of business cards and shout, “Where are the other 9,000!?!?!”
/sarcasm

Having some sweet business cards would give me enough motivation to get back into freelancing.

I’d use it for a pro-bono client to print their cards. They need something snazzy but don’t have the funds!

Not sure which Friday we’re talking about here, but I’d definitely put some sort of coupon code on the cards so I can track where the referral comes from.

I would start handing them out to everyone I know and give them a few extra so they could hand them out to people they know and then soon after a few degrees of seperation I can let you know when I start doing freelance graphic Design work for Kevin Bacon…… then soon I will be one of the biggest freelance graphic designer in hollywood and I can come back to my favorite blog and give something away that the readers can use so I can help make someone else well known. So to parphrase JFK “ask not what you can do for your country, but what together we can do for the world.”

Thanks for continuing to offer great contests and blogs.

I would stand on my head in the middle of the busiest intersection in town, with all of my business cards loaded in a leaf blower.

I figger I could distribute them at all in about 45 seconds.

If that doesn’t work I would pick them all up, and do a more traditional approach.

It’d be nice to know who won…