As a reporter, I always liked business cards that had the following info: Name/title, phone, e-mail, fax, business name. When I get business cards, I take them and enter all the info into Outlook (which I no longer use) right away.

I have a glass-topped desk that I slide some business cards under. I mostly use them for phone numbers that I use often - vendors and salespeople, mostly. It's a lot quicker than going to my cell phone every time I need a number. Other cards get thrown in my wallet after the phone number is stored in my cell phone.

I think a logo of some kind is really important, because that's how I sort them out visually.

When you receive a business card - how do you actually USE it?

for it's intended purpose. chopping lines of coke.

I dislike business cards that are not on the horizontal, i.e. the skinny card.

And I like the cards that have the logos cut out of them, they make me want to get an airbrush and stencil their logo everywhere.

And no shiny foil on the cards, it's very distracting.

jonmc, business cards, not credit cards!

I like definite, bold colors. I prefer minimal info -- slogans, catchphrases, too many titles, or mottoes always seem cheesy to me. Just the person's name, basic title, company, and complete contact info (mail, phone, fax, email) is preferred.

Also, cards that are designed on both sides always seem more elegant and valuable somehow. I mean that there is some sort of color, logo, or design on the back as well as the front.

The nubbly cardstock seems cheaper and cheesier than smooth matte.

Oops -- and I usually file them in my rolodex which is not actually a rolodex, but one of those flip-card files -- so normal horizontal orientation is much better for that.

If you do any business in Asia or with businesspeople from Asia, you need to take your business cards seriously, not do fancy cutouts, rounded corners or unusual orientation (pun not intended). The details are complicated but as long as it's dignified and well-made you won't give a bad impression. Google "Asia business card etiquette" if you're curious, a lot has been written on the subject. I can vouch for some of it from personal experience, though how much of it you're likely to encounter depends on the level you operate at and whether the other parties have spent a lot of time in the U.S.

(On review, you said you'd read all the AskMe posts so chances are very little of that is going to be news to you.)

Oh, two don'ts you may not hear elsewhere

1) Avoid any design that involves lots of ink on the back. For people who keep them in wallets or card cases this causes ink to rub off onto the faces of other cards. This is also why you want a decent print shop; so that the ink doesn't do that anyway.

2) Make sure that it distinguishes your phone numbers in an intelligable way. In other words, NOT this:

v: 999-999-9999
f: 999-999-9999
m: 999-999-9999

Because people have to stare at it and scratch their heads to figure out that "v" means voice and "m" means mobile. Actually say "phone:" "fax:" and "cell" or "mobile", don't make people work it out.

I've seen both these mistakes made on the same business card from companies that should have known better.

I always liked the dual-sided international business cards with the bilingual information we got from Asian / European distributors at a couple companies I've worked at.

That said, almost every boss I've ever worked for will hand me business cards after a meeting with the expectation that the information will be entered into Outlook Contacts, and the physical card then gets filed away somewhere out of sight (if it's an important contact) or tossed (if it's just random sales stuff).

I guess it depends on the company. I have a small stash with important contacts, but the challenge with this area is that the business market is so volatile and people move around so much that there's about a 50/50 chance that if you call that number in 6 months you'll either find it disconnected or that the person has left the company for greener pastures.

As far as design, I've seen all kinds and having done desktop publishing and a little bit of identity design (for cycling teams, etc.) in the past, I can say that there are certain standards:

1) A simple stylish design is always the best bet. Don't get too cute, especially if your company is in the mainstream business sector. Business cards really should be considered an information piece, not your personal expression template. White or cream coloured paper with dark, high contrast text for legibility and reproducibility. Dark backgrounds, glossy paper and soforth vastly reduce legibility when the thing gets run thru a photocopier or fax machine. Less is more.

2) Size matters. Never, never ever stray outside the standard dimensions - many folks still use business card files. Anything that doesn't fit the standard size format runs a very high possibility of getting pitched.

3) Fonts are far more important than anyone can imagine. Business cards often get faxed/photocopied around. I highly recommend a plain, round, san serif font: Helvetica, Arial, Futura (and the like). Narrow fonts, script fonts and fonts with great variance in stroke widths tend to break down rapidly and lose legibility fast when reproduced. (the same goes for resumes, by the way). For example, the old warhorse Times New Roman (a serif font) at 6/8 point tends to become a jumble of stuff that resembles: "1\ //\| |||//11..." after just one or 2 generations.

4) Flow, legibility and whitespace are far, far more important than cramming on a jumble of text on that won't parse to aging / bifocal clad eyes. When in doubt, leave it out. The only stuff you need on there are your company logo, name, SIMPLIFIED title, direct phone#, physical address and email. That's it. Stuff like business mission statements, multiple extensions, nicknames, mobile#s, blablabla are noise. If they honestly want to reach you, then the phone and email info are all that's important.

Oh, even if you don't want to put your address on the card, at least put down a location, so people know what time zone you're in. (This is really helpful if you're meeting people at conferences, etc.)

Anything full-time-job related, goes in the desk for easy reference, anything picked up at conferences goes in the wallet. Conference ones will also usually be transferred to work and home machine address books.

Say. I think now would probably be a fine time (since I failed to do so in the original post) to mention that I work in a non-traditional field. I have no real title since I do a bazillion things. I work primarily with/for comedians. And just for good measure I should also mention that I work from home and will not be listing the address. (I work from home when I'm not working at a show or at someone else's home.) I mostly do assistant-y things but also do quite a lot of web crap and miscellaneous marketing and promo. I'm pretty much available 24/7 since most of the people I work with keep late night/early morning hours.

Now you might be seeing why I am having issues with the damn business cards. Thanks for all your help(s) so far. Keep it coming!

Freelancer in the arts with many many different hats. At one stupid point in my life, I had several different business cards with different titles/professions and emails. God, it was terribly confusing for everybody. What I have settled on, and am happy with:

Name
Professional Email Address
Professional Phone Number
Simple Personal Logo (mine is an evolving stamp of the Chinese Characters in my name - simple, memorable yet not specific to anything except me)

The only thing missing is type of business or occupation. When I meet someone, and I don't feel confident that they will recall the context in which we met, I take out a card and a pen and I write the information on the back.

ie. Arts Educator, met at XYZ conference or whatever

This is also useful when you want to give someone another email (personal) or other info on your company, like adding a website for the particular business. As someone who doesn't schmooze very well, and has to do it as a freelancer, it helps gives a very personal connection to the encounter. I find it very useful, as I can often use this time to collect my thoughts. This small moment when you write on the card helps to solidfy the meeting in the other person's mind. And also helps to distinguish the other non-personal cards in their pockets.

Who knew I had this much to say about business cards!!!???

or do you file it somewhere else

I use this.

The Best of Business Card Design 7 is an excellent resource that I used when deciding on a style.

A librarian should be able to order a copy for you from another library (or post where you are and I will list the libraries in the state or province that have it).

I prefer a heavy card stock (Crane 134lb or 179lb).

mlis, no worries. I'm quite familiar with my local library and their resources! Thanks for the offer, though.

My business card for my small business also acts as a bit of a postcard. On the back of the card is my logo and a photograph of a purse that I make. On the other side is my business name, my name, po box, phone, email along with the words "pursemaker, proprietor, person". It's very minimal, but almost everyone I give one to reads my name, reads that and then laughs as they look at the other side. For most businesses this won't work, but for mine, I think it helps to solidify a face to the business name or my name. Maybe something like that would work for you?

Also, for printing 4-colors on each side I recommend overnightprints.com or 48hourprints.com. I've used both with great success and they're prices are pretty competitive. Good luck.