The Difference between Digital and Offset Printing

Like most people out there, I used to let my local printer decide what the best means to complete my job were. I quickly found that this type of decision making was compared too bringing my car into the shop and letting the well-educated, experienced mechanics give me an assessment on the condition of my car. Usually this assessment is more beneficial for the mechanic then for your bank account - the same can be said about your local or international print companies.

The most basic knowledge you need to have when deciding on what type of print company you're going to utilize is simple - digital or offset. Both types of printing are very effective depending on the kind of printing you need, and instead of letting the print companies decide whats best for you - you decide whats best for you.

The older and more commonly used form of printing is offset printing. Offset printing was originally invented in 1875 and was used to print on the metal, tin. However, it wasn't until 1903 that Ira Washington Rubel created an offset printing press that could print on paper. Printing on paper with an offset press is a technique that is more than 100 years old and is still practiced today.

What are the benefits of using offset as a printing technique?

• Consistent High Quality Images
• Quick production with printing plates
• Plates can withstand more then 1 million impressions
• Cost

As indicated above - there are many advantages too printing using the offset printing technique. The most beneficial and the one that any person considering printing offset should be aware of is cost. Offset printing is the most affordable printing method to produce very high quality printing in commercial printing quantities. This simply means - its' only cost effective if you plan on printing quantities in the thousands. For smaller quantities of printing you may want to consider offset printings semi-equivalent - digital printing.

Digital printing is the newest printing technique that printing companies have adopted and almost all printing companies offer digital printing as an option, not all printing companies offer offset printing as an option. This should be noted.

What are the benefits of Digital Printing?

• Variable Data Printing
• Less chemical and paper waste
• UV and fuser fluid
• Quick turnaround time

The most beneficial role that Digital Printing plays as a printing technique is its variable data printing. Variable data printing is one of marketing's best kept secrets and one that anyone that uses paper as a form of marketing should know about. With variable data marketing you could, if you so chose, print items targeted at specific marketing demographics, companies, or people. Which unlike offset printing is the future of paper print marketing.

When discussing and deciding what kind of printing is best for the job that you need done, it's best you use this practice.

If you need a lot of materials printed, you're not in a hurry, and want it all too look the same than choose offset printing as your method.

If you need a small or medium amount of printing done, and done quickly, with different pieces of information for each of your materials than choose digital printing as your method.

Both digital and offset printing are extremely beneficial in their own ways, and by being educated on these two popular forms of printing you will be able to determine what the best method for you is in the long run.

Both saving you time, and money.

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Author Information:

Jordan Greve is a marketer for one of the biggest printing companies in NYC. He does the marketing and advertising for 1800 Postcards which is the largest commercial printer of full color postcards, business cards, and more.
  
Instructions on Article Copying:

You're welcome to reprint these articles on your website and in your e-newsletters free of charge, provided that:

• you don't change the article in any way and you include the byline(including a link to our website)

In doing so you agree to indemnify http://www.1800postcards.com and its directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against all losses, claims, damages, and liabilities that arise out of their use.

How to Spin Articles and why it's Effective

Like most marketers, I get tired of writing fresh content for my websites all the time. I find that when my writing becomes a chore I can't utilize my full copy-writing potential. To be honest, there's nothing more annoying then when the cursor blinking back at you. It could be for a series of reasons - but that's beside the point. I'm not here to make excuses as to why I don't want to write fresh content all the time. Instead i want to share a technique that I've been using for a long time.

The technique is called article spinning. Article spinning is a tried and true technique used by many website content writers, copy writers, and marketers. Why does article spinning work? It works because its a way for one of your articles, take this one for example to create multitudes of the same article written differently.

You could spin all of your content so it reads the same but at the same time reads differently. The way to portray this is by using synonyms, the thesaurus, and even PPC search - this is mainly used for SEO after all. Here's an example of how to spin a sentence with one of the many article spinners available.

Example: My [Great|Awesome|New] Article

Looking at this it with no knowledge of whats' happening to the sentence can be very confusing, unless it's broken down into a very simple explanation. Looking above - you will immediately notice a [, accompanied by a |, and followed by a ]. These are characters on your keyboard you will find the [ to the right of the letter p if you're using a standard QWERTY keyboard. And if you move towards the right two more spaces you will find the |. Next to the [ is the ]. Now that you have keyboard placement down lets discuss what each of these characters mean for article spinning.

Take a look at the [Great|Awesome|New] from example 1 above. Do you notice something similar about each of these words? They are all adjectives used to flavor and describe this small sentence. This is where you're spinning your article and where you will learn how and why this is effective.

Looking back at example 1 this is how it would be read if it was spun 3 times:

My Great Article
My Awesome Article
My New Article

Now you will notice there are only 3 words per sentence, but in our original example there were more than 3 words and even more characters. The [ is used to separate a single word, and the ] is used to finish the separation of the word. The | is used as a barrier to add even more adjectives or other words that imply the same thing to the original sentence.

Breaking it down you use those 3 characters ([]|) to spin your articles so they are read differently. This is very important if you desperately need fresh content for your websites, because even though the human reader hears the same message from your content, the website crawlers will see each sentence and word as unique content.

If you take the time and spin each of your articles you can have over 1000 of the same article written differently. There are a lot of article spinners out there today - I only use one though. It's free, and I personally feel that it's the best one out there. It's called spin profit.

After you finish going through each of your words and spinning them, you can choose the format you want your articles to be in and how you want them to be saved. Typically I have all of my articles saved as .txt in a .zip that way I can go through each of them and choose my favorites.

Start spinning your articles today, that way you don't have too write fresh content all of the time. This is one of marketing's best kept secrets.

[Learn why you should start|Educate yourself on|Begin] [Spinning Articles|Article Spinning] [Today!|Tomorrow!|Friday!|At Noon!].

Begin Spinning Articles Today!

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Author Information:

Jordan Greve is a marketer for one of the biggest printing companies in NYC. He does the marketing and advertising for 1800 Postcards which is the largest commercial printer of full color postcards, business cards, and more.
  
Instructions on Article Copying:

You're welcome to reprint these articles on your website and in your e-newsletters free of charge, provided that:

• you don't change the article in any way and you include the byline(including a link to our website)

In doing so you agree to indemnify http://www.1800postcards.com and its directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against all losses, claims, damages, and liabilities that arise out of their use.

250 Free Business Cards | 1800 Postcards NYC

Right now for a limited time 1800 Postcards of NYC is giving away 250 premium business cards. Now these aren't your typical business cards either - these are full color double sided business cards with your art on them.

Don't worry if you're not an artist because 1800 postcards has a great e-card builder that can be used to fully customize and create these free business cards. Anyone can learn to use this business card builder, it's very simple to use - yet complicated enough to make some very professional looking and presentable business cards.

You don't have to use the e-card builder though. 1800 Postcards allows you to upload your own artwork to be printed on fsc certified paper. These business cards will be yours with no marking from 1800 postcards what so ever.

There is no unwanted logos' on your free business cards. There are no gimmicks, no tricks, just genuine business cards for your personal brand.

I'm sure this is a limited time offer, so take advantage of it - and feel the difference.

Google Wave - Free Invites to Google Wave

I have in my possession 8 google wave invites. If you don't know what google wave is check out this link.

So in short if you want to be part of the group of beta testers of googles' newest toy than leave a comment on this post and the best 3 comments will get wave invites.

Leave the email you want your invite sent too, and tell me why you deserve to be surfing on the google wave.

If you're already on google wave leave your wave name and i'll add you so we can keep up the conversations.

Happy Surfing!

Google Caffeine - Not to be launched until after the holidays

Take a deep breath

You no longer need to stress out about not having your ts' crossed and your is' dotted. Google is giving all SEOs' and Business owners a break for the holidays. More or less a break to the people who didn't prepare for the new search engine algorithm Google released - caffeine.

Caffeine has been up for beta testing for more than 4 months, and any SEO or Business owner should have been well aware of that, and prepared for it. The transformation that is taking place is a big one.

Straight from the mouth of Matt Cutts from Google - "Caffeines' roll out will happen after the holidays. Caffeine will go live at one data center so that we can continue to collect data and improve the technology, but I don’t expect Caffeine to go live at additional data centers until after the holidays are over".

You should be aware, reader, that this is a prime time to make sure your websites SEO is top notch for the new update. You have to be ready for this kind of change, or you will be left in the sandbox.

Paper and Print Marketing is still effective

A lot of people look at the world we live in and they only see graphics, and pixels. It's no one's fault really because this is certainly the kind of world we all live in. It is, however, the fault of promoters and media that we only look at marketing opportunities online. There are so many opportunities out there for people to promote their business', products or anything through the means of paper and print marketing.

People look at paper and they give it a scarlet letter. They assume it's going to destroy the world, and not help anyone but tree hating folk' - and we all know how tree hatin' folk act. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Everyone in business today still needs and relies on paper and print marketing in one way or another. People like tangible things, they like to be able to grab and touch the things they are purchasing. It is very important to print business cards and to distribute them, instead of just providing your blackberry pin.

There are multiples of companies that provide direct mail marketing which is a great way to gain exposure for your company. This form of marketing has been used over the years, and continues to be used by some of the biggest companies in the world today. It's not all emails, and newsletters. Marketing requires variety, and some of that will come in the form of something tangible - paper and print marketing for example.

Take full advantage of a direct mail marketing service. They will send out your promotional materials (postcards) to anyone you desire, or they think will desire your products. They do all of the work. They print off the materials for you, they address them, they find out desirable places to send them.

This kind of service can't be done digitally. This is the kind of marketing that is done through print and paper. This is a very important form of marketing, and one that should not be overlooked.

Lean more about direct mail marketing services and start using this archaic way of promotion today.

Reasons to become a Green Printer or Designer

Many of us have no choice but to use paper, even in such a digital world. I know that I'm guilty. Therefore I can't help but feel responsible for some of the irregularities that are happening to our environment.

Until i switched to a Green Printer

I was reading this article , and as you can tell it sparked an interest in this posting. People need to be more aware of who they are printing with, and make sure they are genuinely green.

It's easy to say 'i'm green', but to actually know what that means, and to exercise it is an entirely different story.

So don't do it for me, but do it for yourselves, or at least for this great planet.

Read over the article above. If you find that you can help out by either switching to a different print provider , or by changing some of your environmentally unsafe practices.

Work hard, work hard at keeping the environment green.

An excerpt of my ny daily news interview - Kensington Brooklyn NYC

Interviewed about Kensington, Brooklyn for the NY Daily News

In no way is this “yuppieville,” but neighbors point to recent sightings of a younger, artsy set. Roommates Jordan Greve and Julio Rivera work in the creative printing business in Manhattan. They run underworldmagazines.com, an avant-garde Web site promoting international and local art. The two pay $1,500 for a 1,700-square-foot two-bedroom on the top floor of a house. They moved from Williamsburg in July.

“We had to get away from hipsters,” says Greve. “We lived in this crazy loft where our neighbors were having live music concerts all the time. We wanted something affordable where we could come and go at all hours of the night and feel safe. When we were looking at our apartment I saw a mother teach her daughter to ride a bike. That struck a chord for me. This is a really chill ’hood.”

Read the entire thing here

Google Caffeine - Sandbox Vanished - Are you ready for the change?

If you're not familiar with the new google search engine algorithm it's called caffeine. Caffeine became live April, 10, 2009. At this time it was under beta testing, for the entire world via the google sandbox.

If you decide to click the link above, you will see a message posted by google, and google's associates indicating that they are preparing to release Google Caffeine to the entire world.

I did get a chance to play with Caffeine, quite a bit actually. A lot of my websites are ranking very highly in area's that they weren't touching with the google algorithm we're all used too. I believe that caffeine's new algorithm is based on a few things.

• Strong Unique Content
• Bolding of Keywords
• Strong Anchorwords
• Complete Meta's (Title's & Descriptions)

In SEO, this practice is typical for high ranking, anyone with general SEO knowledge knows that already. The new algorithm, however, is eliminating the the wikipedia pages, the e-how's and other high ranking websites that have less to do with the key word you are targeting. At least that's my grasp on it.

Google can either be an SEO's best friend, or worst enemy. As google changes, you should also change. Or you could end up in the sandbox.

A Gift Basket is a great gift for the Holidays

Don't you hate anticipating a gift from someone and being disappointed by it? I know they say it's the thought that counts, but doesn't it seem more practical for that thought to make a lasting impression?

Well, this year give them the gift basket of a life time. There's this great company called Dream Maker Gifts and they sell unique, cool gift baskets for any holiday, any occasion.

They have Holiday Gift Baskets, Corporate Gift Baskets, Birthday Gift Baskets, Special Occasion Gift Baskets, Gourmet Gift Baskets, and more!

Don't let them frown this year! Give them a gift they will love. A Gift they will remember. A Gift that was meant to be given.

Interviewed for 1800 Postcards via Livemercial

Recently, I was interviewed on the spot about 1800postcards from Livemercial at the Adtech 2009 conference. I was excited to promote this great New York City company, because they do some of the best printing around.

They are the only known printing service that provides 14 pt. thick paper stock, which makes a really big difference.

I have printed with other printing companies before, and i have been very disappointed in their products. Sure, they offer you free printing, but at what cost?

As I say in the video above, don't sacrifice the image of your business by printing with a low-quality printer. For all of your current, and future print jobs choose 1800 Postcards. All of their printing is done with quality in mind.

Print postcards, business cards, stickers, banners, posters, and more today with America's Green Printing Company.