Netiquette Basics For Holiday Cards Via Email (Ecards) - From Netiquette IQ

It's holiday time for many around the world. Sending ecards for many is something they feel awkward about doing. Others would much rather receive a personalized greeting. Nonetheless, ecards do give you the capability to send many cards which was impossible just a few years ago. The article below, taken from my book, discusses some of the downsides and solutions.

Happy Holidays and Peace for all throughout the world!
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One of the major downsides of ecards is that security can be compromised: when someone purchases an ecard, he or she is providing information to the seller, or third party. One of the more extreme examples of this is that the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is suspended to allow sites to accept a child’s ecard request and addresses without parental permission, as would normally be the case. There are also countless scams involving ecards, which can mislead children or people of any age. It is almost too much to ask certain people to have the discipline not to open ecards.
While there is much positive impact associated with ecards, as has been discussed, the negative issues, particularly many of the most significant ones, can have, more often, negative effects. After all, far more people would rather have a real or, at the very least, personalized ecard.

For those who will steadfastly refuse to open an ecard, there may very well be times when a legitimate message goes unopened—still another negative outcome. This can end up with an effect such as having the recipient feel disappointment that he or she did not receive a greeting or invitation by someone he or she was expecting to hear from. What is a good solution? There are some very popular ecard providers. If you want to use trusted sources of ecards, go to either www.jacquielawson.com or www.care2.com/ecards  Also you can view much more on ecards in my new book at: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00FY3GW7S 
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In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo.  I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.

I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.

Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace.Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.

If you have not already done so, please view the trailer for my book below. 
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Happy Holidays!