Well, you can design your own business card. A business card design is much more than just the look of it. The most important part of a business card design is the text you choose to include. Here’s an example of the back side of my business card. The front side has a picture of “Action” and me along with contact info.

I chose the words in a design format that I wanted my designer to use when she created my business cards. So, sure, I took things to a little higher level by first creating my design and then sending it to my designer. But, you don’t have to. There are a number of free business card creation tools on the web. Just search Google for “free online business card maker” and you’ll find a bunch of them. Or, just drop your text into an MS Word template.

The important thing to know about this card is that every time I go to a networking event or conference, 5 of 10 I give this card to will visit that domain name 101TrafficMethods.com and sign-up for my free whitepaper. The actual design doesn’t matter nearly as much as the offer I give to people.

So, let’s take a look at this more closely.  This business card has 5 important elements:

1. Create an Offer that Appeals to a Wide Audience – Almost everyone in my industry cares more about getting traffic to their website above all things business. And, most people think the only way to get traffic is to be #1 on Google.  So, it’s a pretty easy slam dunk that if I was to create an offer that would help someone to get more traffic to their website, that I’d have a winner on my hands. Think about your industry. What “topic” in your industry is so important that it appeals to practically everyone in your target market?

2. Make a Sexy Headline that Asks a Question – People love to answer questions in their minds. Start your headline with “Want to Know the Hottest…” and fill in the blank ending with a question mark.

3. Encourage a Visit to Your Website – I registered a domain name to take the reader directly to a specific page on the HereNextYear website where they can sign-up to get the ecourse and whitepaper for 101 traffic methods. This just makes the process faster than if I was to suggest the visitor visits HereNextYear.com, then look on the left column for 101 Traffic Methods and click the link and then sign-up. Ug! Too much work. A good business card design also factors in speed for the card reader to get to your offer.

4. Urgency – “Go there now because you may be eligible…” is a great way to suggest urgency in your offer because it might go away soon.

5. Name and a Benefit – You really have to be specific as to the main benefit of why the person you gave the card to should go get your offer. It should be obvious why anyone would want more traffic to a website, but I really spelled it out by saying “time proven tips to double your traffic-building productivity.”

Put all these things together and you really will be able to design your own business card. But, you will also have a business card that actually pays for itself. So many people will tell you that business cards are wastes of money and they all get thrown into the garbage can. That’s true for most business cards. But not this one. My business card is a proven tool for building my list and has staying power.

Go ahead and copy it. I did. This technique is not a “Marty special.” I got it from Alex Mandossian years ago and copied his format. So you are welcome to copy mine. Just don’t get the idea of stealing my 101 doc and using it as your own, that’s just not cool.

Come up with your own resource from your own brain and offer it to the world. That’s what will show your originality and knowledge of your business. Remember that design of your business card is not the most important thing. It’s the words and the offer that you put onto it that matters.