As for finding GCU, I put "birthday card flowers paper" (without quotes) into Google and GCU came up as #2. That's on the web tab; if you click on the shopping tab, one of our artists comes up as #1 (congrats Kerra Lindsey!) and #2 (congrats Nicole L Marques!) I've tried this with a number of keywords and received similar results. Our current Google PR is 6 (out of 10) So, hats off to whomever is doing our SEO.
 
It seems as though traffic here will improve as we fill up the categories and as the number of artists grows. It's like a new mall or downtown shopping area: the more shops there are, the more each shop drives traffic to the other shops.
 
We, the shopkeepers, can also drive traffic to our stores by:
 
setting up a blog to talk about our cards, the methods we use to make them, etc
Set up a Squidoo page for our shop
Set up a web page showing our cards
Stumble your cards
Put your cards on Kaboddle
Put the GCU widget on your web page (and receive seller's fees, too)
Put your shop address in your e-mail sig (use the one from your widget and receive seller's fees)
 
All these relevant links to our shops will improve the SEO, too.
 
This is just a quick list. I'm not great at self-promotion, but I know that GCU gave me a shop in a mall and I have to do the advertising.
 
Being able to sell to brick and mortar stores is part of my plan, as it is with a lot of people here. I suspect that most, like me, are waiting to be able to print the artist info on the back of the card. As it's been discussed here a number of times, I'm sure that Mindy and Shaun understand how important it is to us and are working on making it happen. This will increase our repeat on-line sales, too. My poor sister was trying to find my shop using the info on the back of the card I sent my nieces and was very frustrated.
 
Being in on the ground floor of an endeavor like GCU has its benefits.  It's now a small enough community for us to support and learn from each other. Mindy and Shaun are also very open to supporting artists' needs, so we are able to effect change here as they grow. Those who are at (some) other PODs know that that doesn't always happen.
 
I'm not a "cheerleader" type.  But I always keep in mind that GCU doesn't make money unless we do. So I'm sure changes are happening as quickly as possible (but seriously, M & S: artists notes on the back of the cards!! Grin)
 
Pattiann

do be mindful when ordering from Vistaprint  they have great deals but sometimes have charges for extra things that are added in.  the quality is pretty good, i use expresscopy or prints made easy  both have excellent customer service, believe me i am picky and have contacted both with excellent results.

Sue, they do offer notecards, invitations, etc. - I don't know exactly where you'd look as I'm only familiar with the Dutch site. We get 100 postcards printed at a pop but they must have the same design on all. As for notecards, again there's quantity involved; it's much more of a traditional printer than a POD. The Dutch Vistaprint has the minimum print run of 10 cards of the same design (includes blank white envelopes), and you would have to pay a logo upload fee for the design you want to use. That's where the promotions come in handy. The good news is that once you pay the logo upload fee on one lot of cards, you can re-order more cards with the same image and not have to pay the fee again.
 
As Denise pointed out, be careful and read the page when ordering. For example, you usually have to pay extra for any print color other than black, so be aware of the extra charge if you choose to print in blue or whatever other color. Other than that, we haven't experienced any potential extra charges. You will have to pay shipping, of course, and probably tax if you're not tax-exempt.
 
Your best bet if you intend to print postcards for re-sale is to give them local interest and peddle them to local boutiques, stores, etc. We put our website URL on the back of our postcards, printed small at the bottom. It's good self-promotion as we also give them away to art customers, who pass them on to more potential customers. The same for bookmarks. People rarely throw those away.
 
Corrie
http://www.corrieweb.nl

Corrie and Denise,
You are wonderful for sharing your knowledge and time!  Thank you...
I'm not sure I am ready to get into the postcard side.  I am really looking for the least expensive way to print 5x7 greeting cards.  While I can find some reasonable PODs for this, thier prices do not include an inside verse...
C'est la vie.
Thanks again and good luck to both of you!
SueB

Quote from Nicole_133385 on Mar 9^th, 2008, 7:57am:

 
Take your product image source info from "Manage Cards" under "Images and Cards". Just make sure to link it to the picture in your store front so that the visitor to your blog can click on the pic and go right to the proper place to purchase it.

Btw. my blog features other artists too (in other word, you can promote your own artwork there).
I don't know how it is handled here, so I don't post a link.
If you are interested, just send me a short mail and I will give you the link