Getting Started With Card.ly

Card.ly is the latest entry among a bunch of services that want to help you own your identity online. You my recall such services as Chi.mp and, more recently, DandyID with similar features. While Card.ly does not give you your own domain, the selling point here seems to be in visual customizations.

Card.ly is different. We focus on providing unique, very sexy styles. We have over 30 absolutely gorgeous designs and are adding 10-20 new ones per week from professional designers. – Daniel Blake

Social Networks and Personal Info

Your first step after sign-up will be to add your social networks. The process is simple:

1. Select the service you want to add
2. Type your username
3. Click the Add button (the + sign)

Choosing a Skin / Theme

While other similar services may have a few more features to offer, Card.ly definitely gets the eye-candy award. There are several themes to choose from so that you can personalize your identity to the fullest. Chi.mp also provides a similar skinning capability, but the actual layout of the site remains the same. With Card.ly, each skin is pretty much it’s own custom page. The basic interface elements remain the same, but that’s about the only similarity between the themes.

Other Features

Your profile can include a short 140-character bio, a full bio, your detailed contact info, and even imports your activity streams from your added services. Card.ly is also vCard and hCard compliant and can be embedded as your email signature or as a widget on your blog or website.

All in all, Card.ly is a solid product and provides a simple and elegant way to show people who you are online. You can send people to your Facebook or social profiles on other sites, but they just aren’t individual enough and customization on such sites is minimal. If none of the other sites have caught your eye or somehow seemed too complicated, Card.ly might be for you.

About the Author
Rahsheen has been a certified geek since before it was the thing to do. He started programming and tinkering in the 4th grade. Now, Rahsheen mostly writes on various sites about technology trends in social media and mobile. . He is also a musician, singer, rapper, writer, and producer. @rahsheen - +Rahsheen Porter - coachrah.com
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