Collector-Worthy Ecards

What is your perception of ecards? The typical ecards that I come across depict either a couple of crudely drawn cartoon characters singing and dancing frenetically or a nauseatingly sweet puppy saying something like “I wuv you”. Thats why we started Ojolie.com. Ojolie ecards are truly different from average, run-of-the-mill ecards. It’s a different level of computer graphics – less commercial and more fine art. We represent a new niche of ecards – one that will charm our audience with elegance, personality and creativity.

When the recipient sees the Ojolie.com. link on their email, we want them to have a sense of anticipation. We want them to have the same joy that one has when they receive a paper greeting card in the mail. This new idea in ecards transcends the ordinary to create original works of art that are translated to the computer screen for your enjoyment or that of friends and family. Our initiative here at Ojolie is to change the face of ecards and up the ante to include those who previously may have been left out of the loop because of the lack of sophisticated, stylish ecards on the web. Our hope is that the door will be opened for a whole new throng of ecard enthusiasts. So welcome to Ojolie!

How To Protect Yourself Against Bad Ecards

From Greeting Card Scams Foist Trojans of About.com,

Be extra suspicious if (a) the greeting card doesn’t address you by name; (b) the card sender’s name isn’t included in the body of the email or the name isn’t familiar; and (c) it’s not a holiday, a birthday, or any other occasion that might warrant a card. If the card requires that you install a special viewer or tries to download a file to your system, treat it like a trojan. Cancel the download and scan your system with up to date antivirus software. Be extra vigilant. If you receive a card from someone you know but you aren’t quite sure it’s legit, compose a new email to that person and ask if they sent you a card. Don’t reply using the email you received – the From address just might be bogus.

In addition, you should always install anti-virus and/or anti-spyware softwares. When you are brought to the “bad” websites that try to install malwares/spywares to your computer, the security softwares will stop them.

Here are the FREE anti-virus and anti-spyware that I am running on my system.

The main thing that is different from the paid version is that when you schedule a periodic scan of your system, the software scans your whole computer. You are not able to specify the drives or directories that you want to include or exclude. But for most people this is not really a problem.

The main thing that is different from the paid version is that when there is a new update, the application will stop; the icon in the system tray will grey out. You just need to manually click the update button, and the application will continue working.

You can have all of them installed in your system to maximum security. I don’t have any conflict between them so far.

While traditional security companies had gotten relatively good at addressing technical threats like viruses, they were failing to prevent a new breed of “social engineering” tricks like spyware infections, identity theft scams, and sites which send excessive e-mail. To address this challenge, we built a system of automated testers which continually patrol the Web to browse sites, download files, and enter information on sign-up forms. We document all these results and supplement them with feedback from our users, comments from Web site owners, and analysis from our own employees. The software for Internet Explorer and Firefox summarizes website safety results into intuitive red, yellow and green ratings to help Web users stay safe as they search, browse and transact online.

The NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Flock, Seamonkey and others mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript and Java execution only for trusted domains of your choice (e.g. your home-banking web site). NoScript’s unique whitelist based pre-emptive script blocking approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even not known yet!) with no loss of functionality…
You can enable JavaScript/Java execution for sites you trust with a simple left-click on the NoScript status bar icon, or using the contextual menu, for easier operation in popup statusbar-less windows.

Let me know your free security setup!

Ready for B2B ecards?

There are not many business to business ecard sites out there. Idiooz.com is a new comer. It offers ecards for many occasions. The ecards are picture only, not animated. The monthly subscription of the service costs $29.00.

Jeanne Caligiuri has launched a new Business Greeting Cards Company, Idiooz.com, to assist in professional communications in business to business or personal use. Idiooz.com provides online greeting cards (e-cards and e-notes) for various events and announcements to clients, potential clients, employees, teachers, dentists as well as for personal use.

Is there a market for a B2B ecard site? Are there other B2B ecard sites out there already? What do you think?

Paper cards vs ecards

According to An e-card for Valentine’s Day? Honestly, you shouldn’t have, ecards and paper cards are not the same.

Cedric Chin-Yick won’t soon forget the year he sent his wife an e-card for her
birthday. She made her disapproval quite clear.

“She prefers the hard copy. It’s substantial. It’s a material thing,” Mr. Chin-Yick, 44, said Tuesday as he fought the crowds shopping for Valentine’s Day at a Carlton Cards store in downtown Toronto. But he noted that he’ll back up the paper card with an electronic one.

Despite dire predictions a decade ago that e-cards would lead to the demise of the traditional card business, the two have found a happy co-existence. While Valentine’s Day is the busiest day of the year for electronic cards, many shoppers wouldn’t think of sending their sweetheart an online greeting.

“It certainly has not ended the card business,” said Sally Babcock, general manager of americangreetings.com, whose parent company also operates Carlton Cards stores. “What we see is that people send e-cards to different people than they’re sending paper cards to. They also supplement their card-sending with an e-card.”

However, there are many reasons to use ecards.

  • Artistic, animated ecards can express your sentiments that may be difficult to do through words only. Sometimes a picture, a video or an animation is worth more than a thousand words.

    “Of the many, many ways to express loving feelings, the Japanese red crowned cranes’ dance and the graceful movements of trumpeter swans are among the most beautiful.” – About.com”

  • Ecards are environment friendly.
  • For the friends, coworkers, and business contacts that you don’t generally send paper cards, you can send ecards to keep in touch.
  • In the countries where the post mail is not reliable, the ecards get there on time.
  • You can save time and money on the paper cards and postage. No more trips to the store to pick out cards and waiting in line at the post office.
  • Do your part to save the environment

    Do your part to save the environment. Send ecards whenever you can. Here is why…

    Businesses urged to save environment with Christmas e-cards
    “With a staggering 744 million Christmas cards delivered by the UK Royal Mail last year, Envirowise is calling on UK businesses to help cut the national Christmas card `mountain’ by sending their seasons greetings electronically. Recent statistics show that one billion Christmas cards, weighing 20,000 tonnes, will end up as waste this Christmas.”

    2 new ecards released for Easter and Spring

    2 new ecards have just been released for the Easter and Spring season. “Easter Delivery” is an Easter card where the Easter bunny brings a very special surprise to mother duck.
    http://www.ojolie.com/index.php?step=preview&ec_id=17 “Origami” can be used for many occasions and is inspired by spring and the Japanese art of Origami.
    http://www.ojolie.com/index.php?step=preview&ec_id=18

    Ecards for Abortion

    Exhale, a nonprofit group that counsels women who’ve had abortions, offers ecards on its web site, www.4exhale.org.

    Do you know someone who’s had an abortion? Are you having trouble knowing what to say? Do you want to let them know you care?
    Send them an e-card. Remember, each person’s experience with abortion is unique. These e-cards were created to address the range of experiences people can have with abortion. As you consider which e-card to send, think about the person you are sending it to. What do they need to know? What are they feeling? What message will provide the most comfort? Each card is provided in English and Spanish.

    Ojolie.com was featured on the Featured Page of AboutUs.com

    Ojolie.com was featured on the Featured Page of AboutUs.com on March 24, 2007. Here is the featured blog article on AboutUsWeblog.org.

    “If you’re in the market for some high-quality, imaginatively clever eCards, take a look at Ojolie.com. These moving works of art manage to perfectly capture the sentimentality and creativity so often lost in the freebie eCards cluttering up the net. Sure, there’s a price, but at $10 for a year’s worth of access to high quality cards, it isn’t much to pay, especially when you realize that the proceeds go to the talented artists behind the cards. Of course eCards are also easier and cheaper than buying cards at the store (and save all that licking of envelopes), and they help the environment by reducing paper waste, but the real reason to go to Ojolie.com is that they offer some of the coolest eCards out there, and that alone is worth a look.”

    Ojolie.com’s ecards are chosen by About.com TopPicks for ecards

    Our e-cards are chosen by About.com TopPicks for ecards.

    #1 in Top 10 Favorite Christmas E-Card Sites
    Hand-painted and animated with incredible attention to details and nuances, the Ojolie Christmas card brings holiday spirit to every home by means of angel dust. #1 in Top 10 Favorite Birthday E-Card Sites
    An amazing lovable seal delivers heartfelt birthday greetings with big eyes. #2 in Top 10 Favorite Valentine’s Day E-Card Sites
    Of the many, many ways to express loving feelings, the Japanese red crowned cranes’ dance and the graceful movements of trumpeter swans are among the most beautiful. Of the many, many ways to send Valentine’s Day greetings via email, Ojolie cards (animating said cranes and swans) are among the most lovely. #3 in Top 10 Favorite Thanksgiving E-Card Sites
    The beautiful squirrel family is up to something… and I have a suspicion it has something to do with Thanksgiving. Send one of the most classy e-cards from Ojolie.