Paper greeting card

Have you heard of Blue Mountain Cards? Back in the 90’s there was a huge rush of companies trying to provide online ecard services. I’m not sure exactly how they built a business model on the idea of giving away a free ecard, but they did. What you must remember is that advertising revenue models were seen as very acceptable back then. This has no changed with people wanting to know where the real revenue is coming from. However, there are some painful similarities in web 2.0 to this idea of building big applications that will make money only from advertising.

Ecards are a difficult business space for me to understand. The business model is essentially one where you are killing another business model, the paper greeting cards space. It seems like the classic case of doing something through technology that was previously manual. But you should look deeper. eCards are not exactly the same product as paper greeting cards. You buy a paper card at a store and physically write on it. Electronic cards are bought online and never touch paper. In this way, it’s a real product transition. So we are actually seeing technology change the wants and desires of the buyer here. You see this also in pcs, telephones, tvs and other electronic products.

So what exactly did blue mountain cards do that was so special? First, Blue Mountain Cards had a big lead going into the game. They planned well.. It seems like the executives at Blue Mountain Cards new they were onto something big, but that it wouldn’t last. So the company was sold while things were still really really hot in the dot com sector. What a move that was.. Looking back, there are many things I wish I had done differently.

How is that in 2008 Blue Mountain Cards is still a going concern? You could argue that the management team at Blue Mountain Cards were the luckiest people on earth to have gotten such a valuation at such a time when that was seen as appropriate. I often wonder if management teams like that are really lucky or create luck due to their experience. This is not a small business. Regardless of their underlying financials, this business made a name for itself in a multi billion dollar business space. I think this accounts for why they are here today. It’s a textbook case of building a brand in a new market. The part this is far from any text book case study is how they exited at the height of the crazy valuations. I guess that’s where a little luck goes a long way.

Blue Mountain cards are published by a company called SPS Studios in Boulder Colorado. The first company that offered free e greeting cards on the internet were Blue Mountain Cards. Blue mountain cards were also the pioneers in publishing verse written by independent freelance authors. The company encourages independent authors to write words from their heart suitable for greeting cards. .

The review team at SPS studios choose the best quality verse from the millions of submissions they receive every month based on the guidelines given to the authors. The company also holds an annual online poetry contest. Blue Mountain cards pay $350 for an accepted greeting card verse and $200 for verse featured on their calendars. . The competition among freelancers to get verse published by the company is very tough. With so many authors for the verse in the greeting cards each card has a unique greeting for every occasion.