I’ve been desperate to find cool new promo idea to share with my amazing author friends.  Got it!  QR codes.

They are simple and they are so cool.  Yup, Toyota wasn’t happy with the limit of the linear 20 character bar code, so they invented an information-rich QR code.  A recent RWA magazine article (“QR Codes: Start Scannin’ the News,” by Alyssa Goodnight, in the January 2012 issue) gave me the prompt and I’ve been QR’ing ever since.

Easy peasy (if you have a droid phone or similar).  Get your QR code on line.  Free.  What I did was insert my website and the QR codemaker interpreted it into a QR code.  I downloaded and resized the image.  Now it’s time to get the QR reader on your droid APP.  Check the reviews on different APPs before you download one.  You’ll want to test all the following promo QR images beforehand, with your scanner, to make sure they work.

Here’s what I’ve done with my QR code so far:

1.  Put it on a tee shirt

2.  Bought business cards and postcards with it

3.  Made a promo item with a QR label printed on it

4.  Bought a stamp of my QR code to use on fabric promo items (not sure if this will be too fuzzy to scan…I’ll let you know later if it works on media other than paper)

5.  Bought a BIG banner with my QR code on it…so customers can scan it from way across a room!

If you’ve played around with QR codes, I’d love to learn what you’ve found useful as well as fun.

Cautions:

The code clarity, size and a light background are all important.  Black against white is best.  I’ve read that the three distinct squares of the code must be clear to the scan-reader.

From what I understand, you can “buy” more information to add to your code beyond a simple website address, blog URL or buy URL.  I’m going enjoy using the simple version of QRing until I see a reason to buy such a service.

Another caution:  not everyone has a scanner on their phone.  It’s always best to display your website URL along with the QR code, so no one gets lost on the information highway!

Have fun QRing!  Rolynn

LAST RESORT – on sale now, print and download

The Wild Rose Press: http://tinyurl.com/682vwgv

Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/3cq6d7b

Web:  http://www.rolynnanderson.com

Blog:  http://blog.rolynnanderson.com/

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/63vsnmt