WhyTheCards.com

The real question is “Why Not?” But, so as to help you understand why I’m doing what I’m doing, here’s a brief explanation of what WhyTheCards.com is all about and how YOU can become a part of what will hopefully become a huge, yet incredibly simple, “Pay it Forward With a Card” movement.

For the FULL story of how and why the WhyTheCards.com website came to be, see “WhyTheCards: The Full Story”

Encouraging with Cards

There are so many people that all of us see everyday that are clearly depressed and just “going through the motions”. WhyTheCards.com is all about doing more to encourage them – to let them know that they DO matter, that there are people that DO care and that God has a special purpose for their life and doesn’t intend for them to be constantly depressed.

Enter – The Greeting Card Virus

By myself, I can only encourage and support so many people. But, if I could spread my vision through thousands of other people, we could literally uplift and encourage millions of people (and with this economy, who couldn’t use a little encouragement, right?).

WhyTheCards.com is really designed to be a way to “infect” people with the “encouragement virus”. Hopefully, as each person comes into contact with it, they “get the bug” and see the vision to be an encourager.

There’s an online service makes it really easy and inexpensive to do it, but there’s no reason that someone with the vision for this couldn’t just use a big box of nice cards to do the very same thing. Either way, whoever you send your cards to will know that someone cares about them, believes in them and is willing to spend some of their own time and money to let them know.

In fact, YOU may actually be seeing this site as a result of a card that was sent to you – either by me or by someone else that has caught the vision of this website. You may not even know the person who sent you the card, and the reason is simple and two-fold:

1. Those that have caught the vision for what this website is about REALLY want this to spread as rapidly as possible, and the more people that get the vision and start sending notes of encouragement (just because they can), the faster that will happen. So, not only are we sending cards to people that we know, but we are also spending the time and money to send cards to people that we’ve never met. Which brings me to point 2 …

2. I, and many others like me, wholeheartedly believe that EVERY individual on this planet was created by God for a very special purpose, and, for that purpose they were created with unique and special gifts and abilities. I also believe (because the Bible is very clear on this point) that God, the Creator of the Universe, intends for us to have a GOOD and JOYFUL life – not, necessarily one without trials and trouble, as these are what make us stronger and build character – but, a good and joyful life nonetheless (trials and joy are NOT mutually exclusive).

As a result, those that catch the vision of this site can send an encouraging card to a complete stranger and be completely genuine in their desire to uplift that person and encourage them to chase after their dreams and to reach out to others in need. After all, hopefully, we do that all the time, as we go about our day – maybe leaving a larger than necessary tip for our waitress, leaving behind one of our dozen roses for the cashier, giving a penny to a kid who desperately wants to ride the mechanical horse, allowing a stranger to cut in front of us in line because they are clearly in a bigger hurry than we are … I could go on and on.

Just “Be Nice”

It’s about a mentality of encouragement and just, overall, “niceness”. In fact, this really isn’t about cards at all. That’s just the beginning of it. Once somone gets in the habit of sending encouraging cards to people (to friends, family AND potentially even strangers), they begin to see opportunities to be an encourager every moment of the day. It becomes a way of life.

If we all could simply catch the vision of this simple website, a vision of encouragement and just “being nice”, we could, literally, change the world. It doesn’t take some national celebrity, big name politician or elaborate “save the world” organization – it simply takes each one of us, spreading the vision and LIVING the vision. THAT is what will change the world, and THAT is what we’re trying to do here.

It Starts With a Card

All I’m trying to accomplish with this site is to “plant the vision” and encourage a simple action that supports the vision: send a card. You could even send a few for freethrough a really easy to use online service if you like.

Or, if you’ve got a big box of nice greeting cards sitting at your place, and you just want to write an encouraging note to someone every few days or every week, that’s EXACTLY what I’m hoping for. I want to open the eyes of thousands of people to just how encouraging it can be to someone to receive a heartfelt card that simply says “I appreciate you” or “You’re special”. It only takes a minute and it doesn’t cost that much to encourage someone, and there’s just something unique about getting a card in the mail vs. simply an electronic email or a text message (because it’s so out of the ordinary these days).

If you don’t already have a big box of nice cards you can send to people, there’s an online service here, through which you can send out some really nice and really free cards (postcards or greeting cards). Just login, create some cards and start sending. Otherwise, there are plenty of ways to buy some inexpensive cards to use for this purpose.

I truly believe that once you send out a few cards and see how much people appreciate it and are touched by it, you’ll want to send more, and you won’t mind spending a little time and money each week to send out a few cards of encouragement.

I Ask Only ONE THING of You:

Whatever note of encouragement that you send to somone I would really appreciate it if you would please include the WhyTheCards.com website address so that the people you are encouraging may also take a look at the site and join the “movement”. Obviously, the more people that catch the vision, the more people we can reach and encourage, and what better way to help people catch the vision than to simply send them an encouraging note.

When I send my cards, I simply include the website address at the end of the message, as in the following postcard:

Also, if you belong to any social networking sites, like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and the like, please use the buttons below this article to tell your friends about this site. I really think we can have a MAJOR impact on people’s lives if we just get the word out.

Of course, you could explain the vision of this site yourself, if you like, and encourage people to join us, but, the “vision” will probably spread faster and easier if we all just have one central location to point people to, such as WhyTheCards.com

TAKE ACTION!!

If you’ve read this page and you see the value of what I’m trying to do, don’t just sit on it. Do something about it. Go out and buy a big box of cards. But, don’t just make them cheap, cheesy ones. Get some that have a really nice, motivational or encouraging image/note on the front and/or inside.

SendOutCards has about 13,000 cards in their database, and there are ALOT of really nice encouraging cards to choose from (and you can make a postcard OR greeting card out of any of them). But, you can get nice boxed cards at the store too. Just try to find a good deal, because the nice ones can be pretty pricey.

Start acting on the promptings that come to your mind. You’ll be amazed at how much YOU will be blessed when you encourage and bless others. The more you do it, the more you’ll WANT to do it. Just send a few cards to people you know that could use a little “pick me up”. If you want to check out SendOutCards go ahead and use the free gift account to send out a few free cards. If not, just don’t cheap out. If you’re going to send a card to pick someone up, send a nice one. They’re worth it.

And don’t forget to send people to WhyTheCards.com so they can pick up the vision too. Together we really can make a difference. Put the address in your cards, post it to your social networking accounts, link to it from your blog or website. Anything we can do to spread the word.

If you put the address in your cards, you don’t need to make it prominent or include an explanation of any kind. Just write the address down at the bottom on the inside of the card. By not providing any explanation at all, the recipient of your card will likely be curious and will check out the site, hopefully catching the vision and sending their own cards.

Come Back: Tell Your Story

I would love to hear your stories of how people were blessed by a card and/or gift that you sent. Put your story in the comments section at the end of this page or even submit a “testimonial” type article. The more people who post to the site, the more new visitors will be excited about the possibilities

WhyTheCards: The Full Story

If you really want to know the WHOLE story of how and why this site came to be, you can read the longer version of this page HERE.

How to Create a Card with SendOutCards

Thanks,

Mike Kaufman