Every day thousands of people flock to the internet to order business cards.

It wasn't always this way of course. In the "old days" people used to walk into their local print shop, look at some templates and card options, give the printer their info and they'd walk out with a stack of new cards.

The idea of free business cards didn't really exist. Couldn't exist.

But with business card printing becoming more affordable with volume, and many of the top websites being able to print volumes FAR exceeding (as in tens of thousands of times) the print volume of a local printer, online print houses began offering free or almost free business cards to lure customers in.

Part of the reason they are able to do this is quite simply, repeat business.

After all, if you get one thing printed with them, chances are you'll return to get more business cards, or postcards, or letterhead, or any of dozens of other personal or business products they carry.

And chances are you'll re-order in near future as well.

You might even tell a few friends about the great deal you just got, and then they'll go and order.

In essence, the free business cards offer is really just a clever "loss leader" to help companies get their foot in the door.

Another reason many companies are able to offer free business cards is the ability to charge shipping and handling on these orders, which in many cases helps them recoup the cost of the printing – and possibly even make money on the transaction. Imagine that… make money by giving something away!

Other companies -- either unable or unwilling to give away cards for free -- decided instead to offer free shipping to win over customers.

So… if some companies offer free business cards, and other companies offer free shipping… the question that naturally follows is, "can I get totally free business cards AND free shipping?

Actually, you can.

Offering free business cards with free shipping has proven to be a great way for companies to get publicity, often in the form of press releases that circulate around the web through news sites, social media sites like twiiter and facebook, and others.

The problem is that these offers go fast. To limit their financial exposure, the companies only offer the deal to a limited number of customers. Get there first… and they're yours. There's an element of luck and timing in getting to these deals.

A few companies however, have found that giving away the cards and shipping them free is a powerful way to earn customer loyalty. On the plus side, they leave these offers on the table for longer periods of time. On the negative side, the quantity of cards they'll give away to each customer is generally pretty small.

Deciding between free business cards with a nominal shipping charge, and one of these smaller, or rarer deals that offer both for free all depends on what you need.

The bottom line is that there sure are some great offers out there!