There's a new site out there you might come upon: ColorPrintingSite.com. This site serves as a source of information about the digital printing industry and is a great place to start if you know absolutely nothing about the process.
It contains information on file formatting for bleeds and other applications, paper types and weights, design help, FAQs on digital, offset and screen printing, and more. There are also links to news articles relevant to the industry.
Check it out when you get the chance!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Now offering 5 percent discount for schools and non-profits
Hi everyone! Hope the summer finds you well.
We've recently assessed our pricing and decided it's time to offer additional savings to non-profits. This includes schools, churches, colleges, charities, or any organization with legitimate non-profit status.
If you're a non-profit placing an order with us, enter the coupon code "np5" to receive 5 percent off your order. Also be sure to include your non-profit ID number in the job comments section.
We used to offer discounts to non-profits, but that was before a dramatic drop in pricing effectively brought ALL orders down to the non-profit rate. Now that's not enough.
Times are tough across the board right now, and often non-profits and charities feel the brunt of a bad economy. We want to be able to give back to the community and the country where we can, and this is just one way in which we do it.
We recently hosted a concert in Northern Wisconsin, featuring free live music all day long to raise money for the local Fire and EMS Departments (money was raised by selling food and beverages).
A couple months back, we had a similar event near our headquarters in Hudson, Wisc., to raise money for the local food bank.
Last summer and the summer before, Docucopies made a substantial donation to the Pinnstock Music and Arts Festival in their effort to raise money for the Urban Arts Academy (donations were made directly to the UAA as well).
Got any ideas for how we can help out further? Let us know what you're thinking and how we can help.
We've recently assessed our pricing and decided it's time to offer additional savings to non-profits. This includes schools, churches, colleges, charities, or any organization with legitimate non-profit status.
If you're a non-profit placing an order with us, enter the coupon code "np5" to receive 5 percent off your order. Also be sure to include your non-profit ID number in the job comments section.
We used to offer discounts to non-profits, but that was before a dramatic drop in pricing effectively brought ALL orders down to the non-profit rate. Now that's not enough.
Times are tough across the board right now, and often non-profits and charities feel the brunt of a bad economy. We want to be able to give back to the community and the country where we can, and this is just one way in which we do it.
We recently hosted a concert in Northern Wisconsin, featuring free live music all day long to raise money for the local Fire and EMS Departments (money was raised by selling food and beverages).
A couple months back, we had a similar event near our headquarters in Hudson, Wisc., to raise money for the local food bank.
Last summer and the summer before, Docucopies made a substantial donation to the Pinnstock Music and Arts Festival in their effort to raise money for the Urban Arts Academy (donations were made directly to the UAA as well).
Got any ideas for how we can help out further? Let us know what you're thinking and how we can help.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Docucopies Champions Freedom of Speech While Valuing and Protecting the Comfort of Their Team Members
Here at Docucopies we believe strongly in freedom of speech as established and implied by the First Amendment. It is the most important of all our amendments, as it establishes the right to speak up against the government, and the right to freedom of the press, essentially making it an invulnerable tool for political and social change. Without the First Amendment, many of the ones that followed would not have been. (This blog’s author, by the way, carries a B.A. in Journalism and is an avid defender of the Constitution.)
But freedom of the press is a double-edged sword. Inevitably, every printer must make tough choices and set policies about what they will and will not print. Sometimes these choices are based on the beliefs and views of the company’s owners. Other times they are based on the comfort and dignity of the employees who must work on the jobs.
Docucopies has to make choices, too. I remember getting a phone call from a man who wanted to print up handbooks for new members of the KKK. Obviously I rejected his job, probably more politely than I should have. In this case, it was based on both a fundamental disdain for their hateful views (we do not print hate speech) and the comfort of our employees.
From time to time, people also send us racy material, including sexual and/or pornographic material, and expect us to print them. While we as a company make no official judgment on the role these sorts of things play in society, we do have a strict policy to not print them. This is both for the comfort of our team members and the integrity of our business. From a purely legal standpoint, we could be sued by our employees for sexual harassment should we make them work on these sorts of things. (Forcing someone to view sexually offensive material as part of their job is a form of sexual harassment, something we, like all workplaces, have a very strict code on.) But more so, we are a conscious and empathic company who genuinely cares about the comfort and dignity of our employees, whether they’re on the clock or not.
The funny thing is when people assume because of the First Amendment that we are obligated to print whatever they send us. This is simply ludicrous. The First Amendment, among other laws, guarantees our right to deny service. The free market dictates it as well; if one printer will not work with a customer, there’s always another who will.
Because of our output volume, not every single file is inspected for offensive material. And inevitably, as we put out millions of copies a month, some of it might occasionally slip through without our knowledge. So in some cases customers who have had things printed with us before suddenly find that we will not print a new job. This is not reflective of a sudden change in policy. More than likely it’s because some element of the job required taking a closer look at the files, at which point offensive material was discovered. In these cases, we politely inform the customers that we will not print their job.
Obviously this can cause a backlash. Following a recent incident, dozens of posts were made on blogs and forums relating to a certain customer’s niche industry. Random and anonymous people hurled slanderous insults and accusations about our company, creating quite a fervor. Fortunately, a good chunk of these people also defended Docucopies and our policy to not print offensive material. But others clearly had a misconstrued understanding of our policy and incorrectly linked our rejection of said-job to the social and political views of our company and/or our owners, which is just silly. In almost all cases, rejection is for the comfort of our employees and is not intended to be a form of censorship.
After a couple weeks of consideration, we decided to write this blog post in response to the back-and-forth banter coursing through the forums in question.
So, to clarify where we stand:
Docucopies DOES NOT discriminate against customers or their orders on the basis of political affiliation, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, age, physical disability, or any other factors pertaining to the customers’ personal views, dispositions, or lifestyles or such views as expressed in their files.
Docucopies DOES discriminate against orders which are overtly sexual or pornographic in nature, constitute hate speech, contain illegal material, infringe on copyrights, or any other orders which we reasonably believe might make ANY team member feel uncomfortable, undignified or discriminated against.
Fortunately our team members are all fairly reasonable, moderate people, so it’s rare that this sort of thing arises. But when it does, we feel it’s better to address the issue than to ignore it, as we value quality customer service.
We hope this settles our position on this issue, and we look forward to continuing to serve our customers!
But freedom of the press is a double-edged sword. Inevitably, every printer must make tough choices and set policies about what they will and will not print. Sometimes these choices are based on the beliefs and views of the company’s owners. Other times they are based on the comfort and dignity of the employees who must work on the jobs.
Docucopies has to make choices, too. I remember getting a phone call from a man who wanted to print up handbooks for new members of the KKK. Obviously I rejected his job, probably more politely than I should have. In this case, it was based on both a fundamental disdain for their hateful views (we do not print hate speech) and the comfort of our employees.
From time to time, people also send us racy material, including sexual and/or pornographic material, and expect us to print them. While we as a company make no official judgment on the role these sorts of things play in society, we do have a strict policy to not print them. This is both for the comfort of our team members and the integrity of our business. From a purely legal standpoint, we could be sued by our employees for sexual harassment should we make them work on these sorts of things. (Forcing someone to view sexually offensive material as part of their job is a form of sexual harassment, something we, like all workplaces, have a very strict code on.) But more so, we are a conscious and empathic company who genuinely cares about the comfort and dignity of our employees, whether they’re on the clock or not.
The funny thing is when people assume because of the First Amendment that we are obligated to print whatever they send us. This is simply ludicrous. The First Amendment, among other laws, guarantees our right to deny service. The free market dictates it as well; if one printer will not work with a customer, there’s always another who will.
Because of our output volume, not every single file is inspected for offensive material. And inevitably, as we put out millions of copies a month, some of it might occasionally slip through without our knowledge. So in some cases customers who have had things printed with us before suddenly find that we will not print a new job. This is not reflective of a sudden change in policy. More than likely it’s because some element of the job required taking a closer look at the files, at which point offensive material was discovered. In these cases, we politely inform the customers that we will not print their job.
Obviously this can cause a backlash. Following a recent incident, dozens of posts were made on blogs and forums relating to a certain customer’s niche industry. Random and anonymous people hurled slanderous insults and accusations about our company, creating quite a fervor. Fortunately, a good chunk of these people also defended Docucopies and our policy to not print offensive material. But others clearly had a misconstrued understanding of our policy and incorrectly linked our rejection of said-job to the social and political views of our company and/or our owners, which is just silly. In almost all cases, rejection is for the comfort of our employees and is not intended to be a form of censorship.
After a couple weeks of consideration, we decided to write this blog post in response to the back-and-forth banter coursing through the forums in question.
So, to clarify where we stand:
Docucopies DOES NOT discriminate against customers or their orders on the basis of political affiliation, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, age, physical disability, or any other factors pertaining to the customers’ personal views, dispositions, or lifestyles or such views as expressed in their files.
Docucopies DOES discriminate against orders which are overtly sexual or pornographic in nature, constitute hate speech, contain illegal material, infringe on copyrights, or any other orders which we reasonably believe might make ANY team member feel uncomfortable, undignified or discriminated against.
Fortunately our team members are all fairly reasonable, moderate people, so it’s rare that this sort of thing arises. But when it does, we feel it’s better to address the issue than to ignore it, as we value quality customer service.
We hope this settles our position on this issue, and we look forward to continuing to serve our customers!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Thanks to Wendy for Our 500th Testimonial!
We started highlighting testimonials from our customers in 2005 as a way to boost confidence for those who aren't sure about ordering copies online.
Wendy Turner is one of our repeat customers who has been printing with us since June, 2007, and she recently had this to say -- our 500th testimonial:
I am a previous customer and since the first time I tried Docucopies.com, I've been completely hooked. It's the only place I go when I need new copies of menus or fliers. You have such reasonable pricing; I can get beautiful full color menus for a comparable price to a lesser quality black and white made locally. For me, there is no other choice.
Wendy Turner - 6/8/2009
Thanks, Wendy!
Wendy works for Jerry's Pizza in Central South Carolina. If you live in the area and you're hungry, check out Jerry's: http://www.awesomepizza.com.
:)
Wendy Turner is one of our repeat customers who has been printing with us since June, 2007, and she recently had this to say -- our 500th testimonial:
I am a previous customer and since the first time I tried Docucopies.com, I've been completely hooked. It's the only place I go when I need new copies of menus or fliers. You have such reasonable pricing; I can get beautiful full color menus for a comparable price to a lesser quality black and white made locally. For me, there is no other choice.
Wendy Turner - 6/8/2009
Thanks, Wendy!
Wendy works for Jerry's Pizza in Central South Carolina. If you live in the area and you're hungry, check out Jerry's: http://www.awesomepizza.com.
:)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Docucopies Extends Lowered Minimum Order
The Web's premiere color copying and digital printing company, Docucopies.com, has extended their reduced minimum order amount indefinitely after getting a great response from customers since the holiday season.
The new minimum order of $50 (reduced from $70) was originally intended to boost copying and printing sales over the holidays, when business is typically slower than usual. But the marketing department was astonished by the positive response from new and existing customers.
"This was originally going to be a limited-time promo offer," says Jeff Corbo, marketing director for Docucopies.com. "But we've had such a swell of new customers since implementing it, and our existing customers are also pleased. So why tinker with a good thing?"
Docucopies.com offers color copies and digital printing at the lowest prices on the web. They also specialize in saddle-stitched booklets, spiral and comb-bound books, postcards, business cards, calendars, promo products, and their newest product line, T-shirts. Customers can price their orders right on the website and place their order any time of day through their automated system. They offer free shipping on orders of $150 or more.
Docucopies.com has worked with companies such as 3M, ESPN, MGM Grand Hotel, and Pepsi, schools like CALTECH, Penn State, and Texas A&M, as well as a host of small- to medium-sized businesses, organizations, and individuals. They have been in the copying and printing business since the 1980s and were one of the first companies to integrate and automate their services for the World Wide Web. For more info, or to place an order online, visit http://www.docucopies.com.
# # #
The new minimum order of $50 (reduced from $70) was originally intended to boost copying and printing sales over the holidays, when business is typically slower than usual. But the marketing department was astonished by the positive response from new and existing customers.
"This was originally going to be a limited-time promo offer," says Jeff Corbo, marketing director for Docucopies.com. "But we've had such a swell of new customers since implementing it, and our existing customers are also pleased. So why tinker with a good thing?"
Docucopies.com offers color copies and digital printing at the lowest prices on the web. They also specialize in saddle-stitched booklets, spiral and comb-bound books, postcards, business cards, calendars, promo products, and their newest product line, T-shirts. Customers can price their orders right on the website and place their order any time of day through their automated system. They offer free shipping on orders of $150 or more.
Docucopies.com has worked with companies such as 3M, ESPN, MGM Grand Hotel, and Pepsi, schools like CALTECH, Penn State, and Texas A&M, as well as a host of small- to medium-sized businesses, organizations, and individuals. They have been in the copying and printing business since the 1980s and were one of the first companies to integrate and automate their services for the World Wide Web. For more info, or to place an order online, visit http://www.docucopies.com.
# # #
Friday, February 20, 2009
You CAN Get the Exact Price Without Signing Up
A quick background before I get to the point here --
Those of you who found us by searching for "color copies" on Google may also have come upon another site in the top results. It's a blog entry by a man named Tim Heuer. The entry itself is terribly outdated -- I'm talking 2005 -- yet it has remained near the top of the search results for quite a while. This is due to a few factors, not the least of which is that thousands of people read and link to his blog every day. I'll spare the technicalities of how search engines rank (since it's all voodoo anyway), but suffice to say that this entry is basically about how Kinko's is a rip off. That in itself probably would not have stayed on top of the rankings forever. But when others in our general market saw how high his post ranked for such a major search term, they [we] all started posting to it, each of us telling him that there are cheaper solutions and that our company is the best, each of us trying to draw more traffic with our posts.
Then came the avalanche, because everyone started trying to outdo the last guy. Now there's a constant influx of people in our industry posting their links, trying to squeeze a few web surfing customers out of the techy blog's readership. The irony is that all these new posts just keep his entry fresher, guaranteeing it a spot at the top of the search results! Good for him; the shortsightedness of others in our market who don't really know SEO is actually helping him and hurting them. That's one sweet business model.
But I digress. Most recently there was a post from a woman named Marcia. She was disappointed with the posts because according to her, all of the companies which quoted prices in their posts wanted her to sign up for an account before showing the actual cost, including shipping, surcharges, etc.
This is a response to her. I hope she gets it, because she left no email and her website is listed as under construction.
Marcia -- not sure if you looked at our company's site (we did give a quote on Tim's blog), but we definitely do not make you register to find out our prices. All you have to do is go to the order form. As you fill in information, the price calculator will update in real time. Once all your job information is in you can click "calculate shipping cost and time" to get the price of shipping. And of course shipping on all orders over $150 is free at Docucopies.com. The only other charge is a standard $7 setup fee. There are no hidden charges, and no taxes because it's done over the Internet -- the world's last unregulated market.
I hope you see this, as I have taken a stand to stop posting on the aforementioned blog. Next time you need a copy job done cheap, fast, and with great quality, check us out at Docucopies.com.
Those of you who found us by searching for "color copies" on Google may also have come upon another site in the top results. It's a blog entry by a man named Tim Heuer. The entry itself is terribly outdated -- I'm talking 2005 -- yet it has remained near the top of the search results for quite a while. This is due to a few factors, not the least of which is that thousands of people read and link to his blog every day. I'll spare the technicalities of how search engines rank (since it's all voodoo anyway), but suffice to say that this entry is basically about how Kinko's is a rip off. That in itself probably would not have stayed on top of the rankings forever. But when others in our general market saw how high his post ranked for such a major search term, they [we] all started posting to it, each of us telling him that there are cheaper solutions and that our company is the best, each of us trying to draw more traffic with our posts.
Then came the avalanche, because everyone started trying to outdo the last guy. Now there's a constant influx of people in our industry posting their links, trying to squeeze a few web surfing customers out of the techy blog's readership. The irony is that all these new posts just keep his entry fresher, guaranteeing it a spot at the top of the search results! Good for him; the shortsightedness of others in our market who don't really know SEO is actually helping him and hurting them. That's one sweet business model.
But I digress. Most recently there was a post from a woman named Marcia. She was disappointed with the posts because according to her, all of the companies which quoted prices in their posts wanted her to sign up for an account before showing the actual cost, including shipping, surcharges, etc.
This is a response to her. I hope she gets it, because she left no email and her website is listed as under construction.
Marcia -- not sure if you looked at our company's site (we did give a quote on Tim's blog), but we definitely do not make you register to find out our prices. All you have to do is go to the order form. As you fill in information, the price calculator will update in real time. Once all your job information is in you can click "calculate shipping cost and time" to get the price of shipping. And of course shipping on all orders over $150 is free at Docucopies.com. The only other charge is a standard $7 setup fee. There are no hidden charges, and no taxes because it's done over the Internet -- the world's last unregulated market.
I hope you see this, as I have taken a stand to stop posting on the aforementioned blog. Next time you need a copy job done cheap, fast, and with great quality, check us out at Docucopies.com.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Why Do They Choose Us?
Many of our customers are quite Internet-savvy, which means they are probably aware of the color copying services offered by some of our competitors. It would be hard not to know about it, since some of them rank higher on certain color copy keyword search terms, and many pay more to list higher in the pay-per-click search results.
There weren't nearly as many competitors in our general price range for color copies as recently as two years ago. Since then many more have popped up. Many of them are using our business as a model and trying to emulate what we are doing. In fact, a Sir Speedy branch out east directly plagiarized some of the wording I wrote on our website! Some competitors who started out rather ambitiously by paying more to rank higher for "color copies," or by dropping thousands of dollars on SEO, have now apparently failed and dropped off the map. I'm sure this leaves some of them scratching their heads, wondering how it is we do what we do so well.
I'm not an expert, nor do I make marketing decisions. I'm just a PR guy. But from what I can observe, what separates us from virtually all our competitors is how easy we make it to price a job and place an order.
For one thing, we're the only one I have seen with an automated cost calculator built into the order form. Our customers know that if they want to get a price on a color copying job, they don't need to fill out a form, send it in and wait for a response by e-mail. They don't have to call in and sit on hold while we run up a quote. They can do it all themselves from the privacy and comfort of their own homes and offices, which alleviates the pressure to "act now" and lets them take the process at their own pace. Pressure is the last thing you need when you're ordering a print job.
Our customers also know if they need help with any part of their job they can call us. And when they call, they will speak with real live people at our plant whose job it is to know what they're talking about. Our team of customer service reps are friendly and knowledgeable. We don't hire punk kids looking to scrape up some extra spending money during college. We hire career-oriented individuals who are in it for the long run.
These are just a couple things that set our company and our color copying services apart from the rest. What about you, friends? What have you noticed about us that is better than "the other guy"? Anything we should improve on?
There weren't nearly as many competitors in our general price range for color copies as recently as two years ago. Since then many more have popped up. Many of them are using our business as a model and trying to emulate what we are doing. In fact, a Sir Speedy branch out east directly plagiarized some of the wording I wrote on our website! Some competitors who started out rather ambitiously by paying more to rank higher for "color copies," or by dropping thousands of dollars on SEO, have now apparently failed and dropped off the map. I'm sure this leaves some of them scratching their heads, wondering how it is we do what we do so well.
I'm not an expert, nor do I make marketing decisions. I'm just a PR guy. But from what I can observe, what separates us from virtually all our competitors is how easy we make it to price a job and place an order.
For one thing, we're the only one I have seen with an automated cost calculator built into the order form. Our customers know that if they want to get a price on a color copying job, they don't need to fill out a form, send it in and wait for a response by e-mail. They don't have to call in and sit on hold while we run up a quote. They can do it all themselves from the privacy and comfort of their own homes and offices, which alleviates the pressure to "act now" and lets them take the process at their own pace. Pressure is the last thing you need when you're ordering a print job.
Our customers also know if they need help with any part of their job they can call us. And when they call, they will speak with real live people at our plant whose job it is to know what they're talking about. Our team of customer service reps are friendly and knowledgeable. We don't hire punk kids looking to scrape up some extra spending money during college. We hire career-oriented individuals who are in it for the long run.
These are just a couple things that set our company and our color copying services apart from the rest. What about you, friends? What have you noticed about us that is better than "the other guy"? Anything we should improve on?
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