By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Need a quick way to share your important deets without a lot of lengthy links? Having trouble printing up business cards because you don’t know what URLs to include? Card.ly provides an interesting solution.
Card.ly allows you to quickly sign up and grab a unique “card.ly/username” address that links directly to your internet business card. Think of it as a hub for all of your social networks and contact information. By handing out your Card.ly link or embedding it on your website, users can visit your page at their leasure and choose how they want to follow you online.
I made a Card.ly page in about 10 minutes (shamelessly copying the needed information from my own website) and chose “JRogers” as my suffix because some people know me as Jimmy, some as Jim, and others as James.
Here’s what mine looks like:
If you click the “About Me” tab, it attractively shifts the frame:
While the web service is still clearly in beta, there are many available layouts for your Card.ly page. Card.ly also apparently uses Gravatar, because it brought up my avatar as soon as I entered my email address. It’s free to set up an account, but there is a pro version that promises more features. Personally, I didn’t find the free version lacking anything I expected.
If you decide to try out Card.ly, come back and show off your page by pasting your unique URL in the comments section.
[via Jolie O’Dell at ReadWriteWeb]