E-mailing Christmas cards is quick and easy… for the sender. You preview a card, type in flippant greeting, upload your address list, run it through PayPal, and get back to work, riding your holiday high.
On the receiving end, it can be a bit more problematic. If your greeting company emails the card as an attachment, chances are excellent that it will be blocked, stripped or mangled by network spam & virus filters. Unschooled users who open the attachment may discover the artist’s original intent is a mismatch with their browser settings. Irritation ensues.
Savvier greeting ops simply send links with an access code, like:
http://www.savvier-ecarder.com/vw.asp?code=MC297xY.
Unfortunately, these can be stripped or disabled by content filters that interpreted them as potentially dangerous links that may be used for virus delivery or phishing attacks. And links that pass unmangled are often ignored by users trained to never click on links in email. All too often, recipients dump greetings to the Delete folder, thinking, “What kind of ignorant jerk would send…”
So much for holiday highs.
How can you send a snappy holiday greeting without resorting to the time and effort required by interfacing with your Postal authorities?
We suggest that you find a greeting card operator that allows sending linkless messages, to wit:
Dear Mike,You have been sent a Savvier Christmas card by Bud & Sally (budandsally@lastminnitgrtgs.net).
Please visit www.savvier-ecarder.com and select the Pick Up Card option in the menu. Then enter your card code, which is: MC297xY.
No fancy links, nothing to irritate network filters.
Where can you buy e-greeting cards from such an email-enlightened company? Dunno. While we’ve shared our suggestion with several vendors, none have complied… yet. Until someone catches on, you may consider the snailmail option. That rarely triggers swearing on the part of the recipient. Or drop an IM text message, simple, succinct and cheesy. Merry-flipping-Christmas.
And by the way, if you find… or belong to… an e-brilliant greeting card company, let us know. We’ll do what we can to get the word out.
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6 comments
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December 9th, 2005 at 4:52 pm
wendy
simple solution. if only ebay and my bank would do something like this.
December 12th, 2005 at 8:02 am
Murphx
www.ecards.co.uk Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve changed my e-mail sending script to produce a plain text message, more or less as described
Visit www.ecards.co.uk - we’re free and we won’t hit spam blockers!
December 12th, 2005 at 8:29 am
Millhouse
When I get an ecard from friend or relative, it’s always a cause of frustration or guilt because I don’t want the risk but also don’t want to offend them by deleting it. It would be great if your suggestion was generally adopted.
December 12th, 2005 at 1:24 pm
Mike Hughes-Chamberlain
At Jacquie Lawson, we don’t do software changes 15 days before Christmas!
But also: yes, you are right that plain text notifications would be a very good option to have, and we will do it early in 2006. Promise.
(www.jacquielawson.com)
December 12th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
Tom
This kind of stuff REALLY annoys me. Yes it solves a problem but it’s a usability nightmare!
Why not just send the card as a regular email? No links to mess with… no forcing me to visit your site and get bombarded with ads… just a simple heartfelt message from me to the person I intend the card for.
December 12th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
lolli
Tom, every approach has its place. Visit www.jacquielawson.com, and preview one of their cards. They’re gorgeous, and, because they’re flash, they can’t be presented in an email message. Cards this good are worth a couple extra clicks.