1. Sending too many or too often. A little appreciation is a good thing, an e-mail a day is just plain annoying. Use your free e-cards sparingly (or any e-cards). If you send too many, your customer will simply hit “delete” before even opening.
2. Sending E-Cards with Advertisements in them. The purpose of sending an e-cards is to show appreciation for your customer, not to try to “sell” them. Sending a free e-cards that has advertisements (whether you get any benefit or not) is just plain tacky and will not have the desired effect. Your customer will simply feel like you are trying to “sneak” another sale.
3. Sending Business Inappropriate Cards. Yes the dancing can-can girls are funny, and the flatulant farm animals make you laugh so hard your sides hurt, but this is a business contact, and should be treated with respect. Save the off color, adult content, bodily function cards for personal use. If you offend a customer, you may never see them again. Use cards with a professional feel and you won’t go wrong.

4. Sending Awareness and Activism Cards – Many sites offer awareness and activism cards in addition to every holiday you can think of. Be careful of sending cards for causes YOU believe in, but maybe not necessarily relate to your business. If you sell vegetarian recipes and pre-prepared meals, sending a Vegetarianism card is fine. If however, one of your main customers if the president of the local cattleman’s association, sending a Vegetarianism card may cause you to lose your best customer.
5. Holiday Card issues. The same principle on activism cards goes for holiday cards. However, you can send holiday cards as you feel inclined, however, just be aware of how they may be received. I am a Christian and I send out Christmas cards, however, I usually include a note that says something to the effect of “since this holiday is so important to me and who I am, I just wanted to let you know that you are thought of and appreciated at this time of year.” This way you can celebrate who you are without assuming that everyone shares your beliefs or offending anyone.

If you follow these guidelines, you will be much more likely to reap the positive benefits of sending free e-cards. Happy card sending!

123Greetings.com
123Greetings.com has one of the largest selections of free e-cards, they claim 20,000 e-cards in 3,000 categories (I will take their word for it, because I really didn’t have the time to check!) The site is easy to navigate, however, there are banner ads all over the site, a pop-up that snuck in under my blocker, and after you send, you are given even more opportunities to click on ads! However, you can opt out of being put on their mailing list and even opt to NOT have your info saved with a simple click before you send your card. However, I can’t recommend them for business use, because when I was opening a free e-card that was sent to me, I had not 1 but 2 pop-ups that tried to open. There are also banner ads on the page when you view your card. You don’t have to register to send a card, simply put in your name and e-mail and your recipients name and e-mail. Since your purpose in sending cards to your customers is to make them feel appreciated, not bombard them with other ads, keep 123greetings.com for those personal uses with friends who won’t be annoyed by the pop-ups.

AmericanGreetings.com
American Greetings has approximately 160 free e-cards that you can send. There are business appropriate thank you cards as well as cards from just about any occasion or holiday included. The site is easy to navigate, as it is arranged to search by recipient as well as by occasion. To save yourself time, simply type “free” into the search box so you don’t find the perfect card only to find out it is a premium card. You don’t have to have an account to send a card, simply type in your name and e-mail and the recipients name and e-mail. Membership can be either for their e-cards or their create and print studio or both. At the time of this writing, one year membership to e-cards is $13.99; create and print is $19.99 and a membership to both is $29.99 a year. All memberships include a one month free trial. By sending a free e-card you agree to be on the American Greetings mailing list, and you view an advertisement while you wait for your e-card to send. Also, when you send your first free e-card, you are given the limited time option to join the e-cards membership for just $9.99 for a year. I recommend American Greeting for free e-cards because there are no ads on the pick up page to distract or annoy your recipient. To send a free e-card, go to www.americangreetings.com

BlueMountain.com
I have to admit, I’m a little biased towards Blue Mountain. I’ve been a member of both Create and Print and E-Cards for several years now. However, I recommend their membership over sending a free card with their service. With their free e-cards, type in “free” and you will get a list of 25 different categories where they have free cards (I found over 200 cards in just 7 of their categories). There was a banner ad on the side of the page that I sent from, but other than that, no advertisement on the card I sent, and I didn’t have to view any ads to send a card. You don’t have to have an account to send a card, simply type in your name and e-mail and the recipients name and e-mail. You can opt out of their mailing list before you send your card with a simple click of a button. I think Blue Mountain is the easiest to navigate and find cards for whatever occasion you are looking for. Their membership prices at the time of this writing were Create and Print – $19.99, E-Cards 13.99 and Both for $29.99. All are annual subscriptions, and you can have a one month free trial. I like that I can set up alerts, so Blue Mountain will remind be before special occasions and birthdays that I enter into their system. When you send a free e-card, you get a chance to purchase an e-card membership for just $9.99. The downside of the free cards at BlueMountain is that there is one vertical banner ad on the page where the recipient picks up the card. To send a free e-card go to www.bluemountain.com

Hallmark.com
With Hallmark’s free e-cards, you have to register as a member before you can send a free e-card. Registration is simple and doesn’t require confirmation, but you are required to enter your first and last name before you can send a card. The site is easy to navigate, but there are several ads on the pages where you shop for and select a card. Some of these are a bit annoying with sound and they take over part of the page. However, there are NO ads on the recipients end. They don’t offer a membership, but you can purchase premium e-cards for around $1.49 – 1.99 each. Not as big a selection as others, but for business purposes, since there are no ads on the recipient end, I can recommend for business use.

MyFunCards.com
MyFunCards.com does not require registration to send cards. They claim over 1000 cards available to send. However, you have to download their toolbar onto your browser in order to access their cards. I’m not inclined to do so, and so while they may have a good selection, I will never know, because I don’t like having to put extra toolbars on my browser! If you are a myfuncards.com user, feel free to give your review in the comments section.

One of the best ways to establish rapport with your customers is to maintain pleasant casual contact with them (as in contact where you aren’t trying to get more business!) Free e-cards help you to achieve this rapport without costing you anything!

You can use free e-cards to thank customers for their orders. Unlike regular cards via postal mail, free e-cards can hit your customers inbox before that dreaded "buyers remorse" hits. Make sure your customer feels appreciated and feels a connection with you, and they will be less likely to cancel their order before they even get the product.

Remember your customers on special dates like holidays, birthdays and anniversaries. Send a simple e-card to commemorate those special events, even the anniversary of their first order with your company! Not only does it show your customer that you care, but it may even remind them of your presence and encourage a repeat order!

All in all, free e-cards are a great way to maintain contact with your customers, establish rapport, and build a customer relationship that will ensure your home business success.