>

Hotspots

« Interesting Parenting Traditions from Different Cultures | Main | Nice Guy Awards: GM, Ford, JetBlue, Jos A. Bank & Fedex Office »

3 Great Online Tools Merging Design & Technology

Published 03.31.2009 | | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

We're big fans of the beautiful things in life. But, we're also fans of the super efficient.

Thus, we want to highlight three online services Blurb, Pingg and GreetQ, all of which provide services that are highly effective and create beautiful products that we appreciate.

Blurb

blurb_photo_book.png

Blurb is an emerging player in the photo book space. But, it is really so much more. It's a publishing service. We have used the service and the technology is incredibly intuitive to use. But, the quality of the lovely photo books is what really blows the mind. Even the most persnickety will be impressed by the paper quality and binding options. (You know when photographers make this printing service their go-to one, you have made the right choice.)

blurb_photo_book_2.png

We also love that you can put your photo books for sale. So, if extended family members want a copy you can give them access to buy their own copy without you having to shell out the bucks to do it. Perfect for photo books of family reunions and such.

And the pricing? Very reasonable for the high quality of the product.

Democratization of publishing! We love it.

Pingg

pingg_birthday_invite.png

Finally! Online invitations go beautiful. We hope you have heard of Pingg. If not, listen to us. There is no reason ever to use Evite again.

Seriously. Go take a look at the gorgeous options of designs available for FREE. Yes, FREE, through Pingg. But, the goodness doesn't stop there.

The technology behind the service is amazing allowing you not only to interact personally with your invitees, but also post to Facebook and Twitter and complement (for an additional fee) your online invites with mailed postcards.

Picture%20527.png

This is our photo that we uploaded and used on the invite. Pretty, huh?

We have used this service several times and every time we ask ourselves can we do this or that?, and we discover that indeed we can. It is the perfect online invitation service.


GreetQ
We've written about GreetQ before. GreetQ allows you to personalize and schedule paper greeting cards to be mailed to all your friends and family. It's like Netflix for greeting cards.

GreetQ_birthday_card3.png GreetQ_birthday_card1.png

We love GreetQ because the technology makes your life easier and the card options rival any that you would find at a local card store. In one afternoon you can write an entire year's worth of birthday cards and schedule that they be sent out only during the recipient's birthday week. Two weeks before the card is sent, an email is sent to you reminding you that the card is scheduled to be mailed and of your message, which you can then edit if you choose.

The card options are plentiful and very artistic (though they lean on the feminine side) but they are not value oriented. GreetQ is definitely a splurge item in this economy. However, for us it is worth paying the price because forgetting to send a birthday card to a dear, albeit, extended family member on his/ her birthday is personally too-dear a cost for us to pay emotionally. Issues. We've got 'em.


Comments (3):

Carley said:

I LOVE Pingg and every time I use it, people flip out because the invites are so beautiful!
Thanks for turning me on to blurb and greetq... I can't wait to try them!

Posted on March 31, 2009 12:37

Karen said:

Our wedding album, our honeymoon photos, another trip, the birth of our daughter, and now a yearly family "yearbook": all done through blurb with outstanding results. They look professionally done. Especially if you put in some real thought and effort into the layouts. LOVE it. My wedding album cost about $75 and I love it way more than I would the $600 one by the photography company. And we printed 2 extra copies for our parents!

I even broke out all the pics of my niece as flowergirl and made her her own special wedding book. Can't say enough about how I love blurb.

Posted on March 31, 2009 12:53

Kate said:

Blurb is awesome! I used them to make our wedding album and the results were fantastic. Everyone we showed it to had a hard time believing it wasn't "professionally" done and wanted to know where I got it from. I really appreciated that we were able to give copies to our parents and grandparents without breaking the bank. Another big plus is that we don't have to be super protective of our copy since if anything ever happens to it we can just order a new one.

Posted on March 31, 2009 14:29

Post a comment




Remember me?

(You may use HTML tags for style)



alphamomlabs

About this Column

The Hotspot originally started out as a monthly-or-so feature written by our favorite storytellers. Usually products or services were highlighted that tickled us. Over the past year delightful innovations and introductions in the maternity and parenting space have increased, and we feel we need a space to share our discoveries with you. Daily news stories on parenting also inspire us to communicate with you. As such, the Hotspot is now the Alpha Mom daily blog. Finally!

From time-to-time we will feature products that we like. Since there is no pay for play, we only feature products that excite us. However, we do want to know about new product and service introductions and innovations so feel free to drop us a note at contact@alphamom.com.

Disclaimer

This column is only for entertainment purposes. Any recommendations or information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for advice by a trained professional. For a full statement of our site policies, please click here.


© Alpha Mom, Inc. All rights reserved. | Legal | Privacy