Greeting Card History

Ever wonder where greeting cards came from? Yes, the kind you buy from Hallmark and send your dad for Father’s Day. Believe it or not, these nifty pieces of paper have a longer history than you would think. See if you knew these greeting card facts.
Cards’ Origins:
• In the early 1400’s (before Columbus sailed the ocean blue) paper greeting cards were given to friends and family in Europe.
• In Germany, greeting card makers used wood for these unique creations.
• The first Valentine’s Day card was exchanged in 1415, but didn’t gain notoriety until the Penny Press era (mid 1800’s).
• The first Christmas greeting card given during the holidays was in England in 1843.
Greeting Cards in the US:
• A Boston lithograph owner named Lois Prang is given credit for inventing the first American greeting card.
• After WWI, the printing industry took off and greeting cards improved in style and quality.
• Greeting cards were given to soldiers overseas fighting during WWII. Talk about patriotic!
• In the 1980’s, cards were printed for many holidays and expressions. Forget finding only major holiday cards in stores. Greeting cards such as “Thank You” and “Saying Hello” flourished.
• Nearly 8 billion greeting cards are sold each year, hiking in revenue for greeting card companies.
Like most industries, even greeting cards have transitioned into Net sales. 6StarReviews.com reported that American Greeting is a service providing some of the best greeting cards online. Customers are given fun perks like adding digital photos, text and sound to their online greeting cards. Sure beats carving wood engravings into homemade greeting cards!
Kelly Liyakasa is a staff writer for 6StarReviews.com. Kelly Staller is site manager at 6StarReviews.com, a site dedicated to giving YOU, the consumer, the best product and service reviews around. If you like saving time and money by having someone else review leading sites and products, then Visit our site at 6StarReviews.com
Greeting Card HistoryCopyright (c) 2007Kelly Liyakasa
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kelly_Liyakasa

E-Cards- The X-Age medium to express your Emotions!

Gone are the old days of perspiring in a card gallery to choose the nearest appropriate message to convey to your dear one on the varied occasions of life. This is an era which Introduces E-Cards. This now makes it easy and fun to send a customized message and song — a great way to tell someone you care. E-Cards helps people connect and express themselves in a fun and easy way. Today E-Cards are highly popular in all the sectors of life. From businessman to students from lovers to a family man they all agree that E-Cards are the coolest way to convey their message. Ready-made E-Cards save you time and money while still offering all the benefits.

E-Cards come to you for all possible occasion and expressing multiple emotions to suit your needs in your everyday life.

• The Valentine Day: This auspicious day for lovers beckons you in the next turn ahead and it’s time to relive the ultimate pleasure of romance. Take a break from the hectic rat race of life and set the sensual mood this Valentine's Day with romance-oriented thoughts and deeds. Life is all about love and togetherness and the Valentine Day is a perfect excuse to let your companion know how much you care. And on this special day choose a heart warming card with a special gift for your loved one to say how much this relationship means to you. This sensual day with all its magic is never complete without a special E-Card which conveys your true dedication and love along with all the loving words that you always wished to convey to your lover.


• Birthday E-Cards: This is a big occasion and a birthday of a dear one hardly seems to be complete without a personalized greeting card.

• Anniversary E-Cards: Remind your spouse how much precious this companionship means to you or take this opportunity to wish your near ones on their anniversary.

• Wedding E-Cards: The moment of wedlock is always so very memorable and what better way can it be than to wish someone with a card bearing your heartfelt message.

• Love E-Cards: To say you love with a beautiful soul stirring message is a matchless gesture that touches your heart like nothing else.

• New Year E-Cards: The beginning of a year can always start with an extra special note of good wishes and promises conveyed to you through an E-Card.

• Christmas E-Cards: When good rules over evil and when we are all excited in wishing the coming of Jesus to this world, we care to do it in a special way. Celebrating with an E-Card is always so warm in the winter festivities.

• Diwali E-Cards: The celebration of “Lights”, with a touch of divinity and uniting in love and harmony always happens in Diwali. Celebrate it in style with the extra edge of an E-Card.


Benefits of E-Cards:

The popularity of E-Cards has surged sky-high. The masses prefer it over Paper Cards. The reasons behind it are multiple:

• More cost-effective than paper cards
Many companies spend thousands of dollars every year on paper Christmas cards and postage. Why not send an E-Card instead and put the money saved back into your business – or better still donate the rest to a worthy cause.

• Increase your website traffic
Using E-Cards that include your corporate logo and a link to your website also means that your logo is exposed to more people. If the E-Card is entertaining, your clients will forward it within their business increasing your name recognition with your customers. It's the ultimate in viral marketing.

• Reach thousands of customers within a few minutes
Sending an email to your contacts with a link to your E-Card is the quickest and most instantaneous method of broadcasting your logo and message.

• Easily forwarded to friends and family
Fun and interactive E-Cards are more likely to be forwarded, thereby spreading your logo and message – even beyond your existing customers.

• Bypass the Post Office backlog at Christmas
Encouraged by the Post Office as they ease the pressure during Christmas. By using E-Cards, you know your contacts will see your E-Card on time.

• Eco-friendly
E-Cards are encouraged by environmental groups, as they reduce the waste associated with huge volumes of printed greeting cards, not to mention saving paper, trees and fuel.
There is undoubtedly no comparison to the beautiful animation, personalized statement and the color graphics of an E-Card. We can say without doubt that the X-Generation is rightly basking in this fever of E-Card age. It is unbeatable. Enjoy it.

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About the Author: This article is written by Subhasis Chatterjee for ecard4all. It is a free article and can be used by any webmaster on their website, provided they will keep the link intact with the article.

Why Virtual is Better

We all enjoy sending and receiving greeting cards from friends, family and loved ones. But sometimes our lives are so busy that we don't think about little things like greeting cards and remembering to buy stamps. Sending a greeting card requires going to the post office, and buying the card from a store, then getting stamps and mailing it off. These things may seem simple, but many people don't send greeting cards as often as they would like for these simple reasons.

That is where virtual greeting cards come in. Virtual greeting cards are easy to find, easy to send, and cost next to nothing, or sometimes are even free. Whenever you think about sending someone a greeting card, you simply go online, create a virtual greeting card, and send it off via email.

There are many different types of virtual greeting cards. Some virtual greeting cards are free to create and send. These are the best type of virtual greeting card, because it only takes minutes to create and email off, there is no travel required, and best of all it doesn't cost you anything!

Other virtual greeting cards cost a minimal amount, such as ten or twenty-five cents each, or you can purchase memberships to virtual greeting card sites for a few dollars a month. The price is so low it might as well be free, and it is certainly cheaper than a stamp! Signup is usually quick and painless as well as secure, and within minutes you're ready to send virtual greeting cards to everyone on your list! A few minutes of personalization, and you're ready to go!

Virtual greeting cards are great not only because of the minimal cost, but because they are more personalized than a greeting card you buy in the stores. Virtual greeting cards can be personalized with a special message, names, music, graphics, animations, and many other features that lets your special someone know that you know what they like. Personalize a virtual valentine's card with a poem you wrote yourself, and accent it with "your song."

Virtual greeting cards are also great for birthdays and anniversaries, because you can choose the subject matter, the message, and customize the virtual card to show the age or number of the birthday or anniversary. Virtual greeting cards are also good for Christmas card lists, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and Thanksgiving.

One of the best features of a virtual greeting card is that they can often be saved to your computer or on disk. This way, even if something were to happen such as a fire, tornado, or other disaster, the cherished memory of celebration and caring is still there in your virtual greeting card. Nothing can take away that precious and personalized virtual greeting card because it's not on paper that can be easily lost or destroyed.

With the ability to personalize, the flexibility of time and effort, and the low cost, there is no doubt that virtual greeting cards are much better than paper.