Paper Inspiration Thursday

A particularly interesting sample piece in this week's Paper Inspiration feature.

Free Adobe Software!

For those of you wanting to learn Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere or InDesign for free, Adobe posted downloads and serial numbers. Even though the software is 7 years old, you can still learn and master the programs and then get up to speed on the newer features later.

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

Postal Rate Increases Take Effect

REMINDER - Postal rates increase on Sunday:
1st class letter = .46
1st class postcard = .33
1st class pre-sort letters = .36-.433
1st class pre-sort postcards = .234-.281
Std pre-sort letters/postcards = .189 - .282
Every Door Direct Mail = .149-.16
We can help you get the lowest rate for your mailings. Contact us today!

Paper Inspiration Thursday

USPS 2013 FSM Guidelines: A Crash Course

Trish Witkowski of Foldfactory.com gives a quick overview of the most important changes and general guidelines for automation and machinable rate USPS Folded Self-Mailers (FSM).

The three print newsletters you must subscribe to in 2013 - and how they will help your business.

Have you made your New Year resolutions yet? Here are some of the ones I have made:

• Have more family time
• Do more mountain trekking
• Learn new recipes

But I have also made some professional resolutions as well.

Print professionals should always make print resolutions

One resolution that everybody in the print industry should make is to read more newsletters. People who read newsletters will benefit in many ways. They will create better relationships with clients and colleagues. This is because they will be full of interesting new print ideas to discuss with them. They will also be able to take the lead and have control over interesting and challenging projects. They’ll be the ones with the ideas and knowledge about how to achieve things successfully.

People who don’t read print newsletters are missing out on great opportunities. They will be known as people whose ideas never change. No-one will want to partner with them for interesting (and profitable) projects. They won’t get to control projects like that. They will struggle to achieve the results they need in this fast changing world of communications. And this is because they won’t be up to date with the latest ideas and developments.

So which are the best newsletters that keep you up to date with the print world?

There are a lot of good newsletters out there. If you subscribe to all of them it is easy to suffer from information overload. I have picked the three that I think are well worth subscribing to.

My choice was driven by a number of factors. These are all newsletters that are highly regarded by many people in the print industry. They have all been going for a good while: they are not going to disappear any time soon. Also they all focus on different themes. You won’t find information overlap in them.

So here’s the first newsletter:

The PrintMediaCentr newsletter

PrintMediaCentr is a fantastic source of inspiration through the latest developments in print and integrated marketing services. You should sign up to this newsletter if you want:

• To be informed about upcoming technologies
• Be inspired by ground breaking campaigns involving print and integrated marketing
• Get a variety of opinion on what’s going on
• Be entertained

There is a diverse range of writers on here. The site has guest bloggers and interviews with many interesting people from our industry and it is all featured in the newsletter. You can sign up here.

Printmediacentr is my number one stop if I want to keep up to date with integrated media. But it’s not my only source of inspiration – here’s another:

The Paperspecs newsletter

If you want news and information about paper, then Paperspecs is a great site to visit. But it covers a lot more than just paper. There are regular interesting blogs and webinars on a wide great range of print related subjects. One of my favourite resources is the regular video of the very best of design and print.

Paperspecs constantly reminds me of the best in print and inspires me to do better. You can sign up here.

Inspiration and ideas are useful. But print companies also need to know the best way to engage with buyers to sell them these solutions. And that’s where the next newsletter comes in.

The Profitable Print Relationships Newsletter

I have to admit to a little self interest in featuring this newsletter as I run it! But Profitable Print Relationships is the only site where a print buyer is showing the print industry how to engage with customers. There are articles every week on how to stand out to customers and how to sell print more profitably.

The newsletter also features other resources that are useful to people selling print. And there are rants on the best and worst of the industry. You can sign up at the bottom of this article.

So these are the three newsletters that you should sign up for in 2013.  However, some people don’t want to sign up to newsletters.

Isn’t this all too much information to cope with?

It is vitally important to spend time keeping up with market trends and new ideas. Otherwise your company will fall behind the curve. More importantly, your personal development will suffer and you will achieve less good results.

How do you achieve these results? When you read newsletters there is one thing you should do.

Make sure you note down action points

I have a little black book. When I read interesting articles I make a note of things that I will do differently. I give myself a deadline by which to achieve these action points. So I make sure that I change and improve the way I do things.

So here’s what you should do next:

Sign up to these three blogs now – make reading print news a New Year Resolution

It should right up there with your own personal resolutions.

Copyright © 2013 Print & Procurement Ltd, All rights reserved. 

Thursday Paper Inspiration

Enjoy this week's Paper Inspiration.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Greenhaven Printing! We are anticipating a highly successful year with our partners, clients and prospects. Join us!