I’ve got a notebook full of business cards that I’ve accumulated over the years. I’d like to get those cards imported to my address book. I tried a business card scanner and it didn’t work very well. Last week I stumbled across CloudContacts. They take your business cards, transcribe them and put them in a format you can import into your address book. You can also leave the transcribed info on their server and access the cards via the web. They also connect your contacts up with their facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts where possible.
Basically, they charge thirty cents per card with discounts for large quantities. You can sign up for a monthly account and send them cards as you gather them. If you write notes on the cards they’ll even transcribe the notes.
You can mail them the cards, photograph them with your phone and email them or you can scan them and send the image file. They’re willing to work with you in whatever way you need.
If you’re building your practice by building your network (and I’m sure you are) then this service sounds like something worth trying.
Robert Scoble has a great interview of the guy behind the company at Building43.
I’m packing up my cards now and getting them ready to ship.