How to Write Humorous Greeting Cards

Greeting cards are a multi-billion dollar market. And, as you might expect with a market so large, that means people are getting rich from it.

Hey - if they're getting rich, why not you?

Now, you may have written for Associated Content or for magazines or newspapers. Your family and friends may tell you that you have a way with words and you may have even gotten great grades on your school papers.

But greeting cards? Well, greeting cards are a different beast all together. It takes a different way of thinking - and a different way of writing - to successfully sell greeting cards. If you can master it, though, you'll have a great side business that provides steady income you can rely upon.

The first step to successfully writing greeting cards is not a sexy one, but it is necessary: researching and analyzing potential greeting card markets. It's essential to read through what a particular greeting card company has published before you attempt to write for them for two basic reasons:

1) Your greeting card ideas may not be correct for all markets. Submitting concepts that don't match a particular company's focus is a waste of your time and theirs.

- AND -

2) It gets you in the right mindset. After reading through everything a greeting card company has recently published, you will actually start thinking like their cards. This mindset will help guide you during your writing process.

Having said that, how do you write funny greeting card sentiments? There are a few basic techniques you can use on the same concept. Let's say, for instance, you want to write a few birthday greeting cards poking fun of the receiver's age. Here are a few different ways you can set this up:

Bait and switch. With this technique, you don't want to start obvious; rather, you want to sucker the reader to open the card for the punch line. You could write the inside as: "Happy 29th Birthday!" and for the inside write "Celsius" or "Celebrating 10 years of sending you the same card" or "Again."

Gentle insult. Here, you're more "in your face" than with the bait and switch. With this greeting card writing technique, you leave no questions about where the greeting card sentiment is going. You may, for instance, suggest a picture of a stack of gold bars on the cover with words like "This should support you during your golden years." On the inside, your sentiment could read "Lord knows your bra won't" or "But if you need a loan, remember that I've never really liked you."

Sight gag. This is a pretty popular greeting card technique. Peruse a rack of humorous greeting cards and you'll see pictures of attractive men and women, animals, caricatures and even famous works of art. Inside, there's usually a bait and switch type of punch line. The front of the card, for instance, might have a heavy-chested woman in a bikini standing on some grass. The cover sentiment might read "She said length really does matter." On the inside, you could write "But at your age, you probably think thats her way of reminding you to mow."

There are many variations off these three basic humorous greeting card concepts. Be sure to research the markets before you begin writing so you're familiar with their voice, then shape these concepts to their needs. By doing so, you'll be on your way to successfully writing greeting cards.