Your business card is often the first -- and perhaps only -- impression prospective clients may see. Will it encourage them to find out more about you and your business?

Having a good logo design and a clean layout leaves them with a favorable first impression that you're a credible professional businessperson.

Following are 11 easy ways for you to do what the professional designers do; insider secrets about business cards that go right to your first impression and bottom line.

1. Create a focal point or central place that draws a reader's eye.

2. Allow white space to help balance the layout. Don't fill up the card with text.

3. Use a clear, strong logo that looks good when reduced in size on your business card.

4. Use a highlight color sparingly. Make sure colored elements highlight the one main message you want to convey.

5. Limit your selection of type fonts to no more than two, which may also include their "families." For example, a font family includes styles such as bold, italic, or bold italic versions.

6. Format text to be smaller, more compact, and more professional looking.

7. Choose appropriate fonts for your business, avoiding trendy or overly embellished versions.

8. Avoid using all capital letters -- they are more difficult to read, and look unprofessional.

9. Don't use illustrations that are too detailed or delicate, as they may look muddy when printed at a small size.

10. Stay away from amateur-looking or dated clip art (unless you are going for the "retro" look). Find good quality resources.

11. Select a beefy cover stock for your paper. Sometimes 80# cover is not enough. Cards are small in size but huge in importance to your business success. Start employing these design tips to ensure your cards are doing the biggest possible job for you.


--Source: Karen Saunders is the author of Turn Eye Appeal into Buy Appeal: How to easily transform your marketing pieces into dazzling, persuasive sales tools!