30 or More Suggestions for QR-CodesThe possibilities are just about endless so in no particular order here are more than 30 obvious and not so obvious suggestions:

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  1. Virtual Store: Order products with your smart phone.
  2. Coupons: For sales, discounts and specials. Anyplace you can put a QR-Code you have a paperless coupon.
  3. On Video/TV: You can’t put a hot link in a video but you can put in a QR-Code especially if it’s shown on an HD monitor. Reality shows can use it for voting; News shows can link to related stories; advertisers can link to products; shows and actors can link to fan pages.
  4. Jumbotron: Advertisers in sports arenas can link to specials for sports fans who can scan the code from their seats.
  5. Billboards: Make it big enough so people can scan it from the sidewalk or the road.
  6. Real Estate: Codes on signs, flyers and ads can link to maps and directions to the house. Launch a video or slide show of the property.
  7. Google Places and Maps: Link to a map of your listing for locations and directions.
  8. Virtual Drawings: Put codes on tickets, table tents, menus and flyers and conduct virtual drawings. A few of the codes will show a “winning” ticket.
  9. Surveys: Link to online surveys and find out what people think about what is going on right now.
  10. Collect Information: Capture potential customer information by linking to a form. Be sure to offer an incentive for filling out the information.
  11. Scavenger Hunt: Add some hi-tech fun into your next scavenger hunt. After scanning the QR-Code the hunters get clues to their next destination.
  12. Facebook “Like”: This is the obvious one; make sure it links to your fan page.
  13. Twitter Follow: Get more peeps.
  14. Tweet Your Product or Event: The code sends out a tweet like: “I’m eating at Joe’s and the burgers are great!”
  15. Check in to Foursquare: Or Gowalla or whatever the newest check in platform is.
  16. Contact Information: An obvious use for business cards or flyers. Connect to a .cvs file they can import into their address book. Do you have a personal web page?
  17. Products: You can put a QR-Code on anything with a printed label. A QR-Code on a bottle of beer or wine can send the customer directly to the Facebook page, website or wine club sign up. Other products can link to nutritional information, fan pages, contests or coupons.
  18. Movie Posters: Link to a video preview or theater schedules.
  19. Trade Shows: Link to product information, a Facebook “like” button or a contact form.
  20. Car Shows: Have a separate code for each car that links to a Facebook “like” button so attendees can “vote” for their favorite and promote your event on their Facebook page.
  21. Bands: Link to your tour schedule, MySpace page or .mp3 files of your latest recording.
  22. Schedules and Appointments: Link to bus schedules, event dates and appointments.
  23. Order dinner online: Order your next take-out dinner with your smart phone.
  24. Portfolios: Photographers, designers and artists link to a slide show of your work.
  25. Galleries and Museums: Link artwork directly to an artist’s web page or to information about the artwork. Is the art for sale? Order it on your phone.
  26. Donate: Nonprofits can collect donations when people see your poster or flyer.
  27. Conference Badges: Let people scan your contact information when they meet you.
  28. RSVP: On invitations, websites and event posters.
  29. Self-guided tours: Link to written descriptions, slide shows, videos or audio files.
  30. How’s my driving? On tractors, trucks and taxi cabs let them know how they are doing.
  31. Taxi Cabs: The one in front of you is full? Scan the code and call the cab company for the next one.
  32. Call Us: Link to a phone number and get the call now.

 These are some QR-Code generators and sites that I found useful and easy to use.

  1. Kaywa QR-Code: This is a basic QR-Code Generator. Put in your URL, text, phone number or SMS (short message service) text and click the “Generate” button. You can grab the permalink to the code, grab an HTML code that you can past into your website or download a PNG graphic file of the code. On the right you can see the Kaywa generated the QR-Code of my website.



  2. quiQR: quiQR makes a reader for your iPhone as well as this QR-Code generator. This too will generate a QR-Code based on a URL, phone or SMS. Two added features are a way for adding contact information and a feature for a business such as a restaurant to add their Foursquare venue ID. The Foursquare feature seems a bit buggy as it added a few extra slashes to the code and it really didn’t connect. You can achieve the same goal by putting your Foursquare URL into URL generator of this or any QR-Code Generator. To the right is code that goes to a specific Foursquare account.



  3. Pingtags: Set up an account in Pingtags and you can generate a QR-Code that points to your LinkedIn information and gives your contacts a way to connect to you via LinkedIn. This seems like the perfect code for your business card. Check out my LinkedIn information in the QR-code to the right. This actually seems like a lot of information on your smart phone, but it beats carrying around your resume. Pingtags is still in beta so there may be some changes ahead.




  4. likify: Likify is another application in beta and a way to make a simple mobile web page that says: “Like me on Facebook.” It is supper easy to set up. Enter your Facebook page URL, some text and upload a 300 x 250 pixel PNG file of your logo and you are good to go. You can even load a coupon that will show on the screen after you “like” the page. Like Image Media Partners by using the code on the right.








  5. Snap my info: Snap my info is a pretty nifty sight for making a QR-Code into a business card. Set up an account with all of your contact information and get a QR-Code that should trigger the e-mail function in your smartphone. Simply e-mail the link then Snap my info will send you a .cvs file that you can import into your address book. This could also be the code you would want to put on the back of your business card. Scan the code on the right and down load my contact information.





  6. linkblots: This was really my favorite QR-Code generator because it can be very useful for small businesses. Using their interface you can generate a mobile web page that has your logo, e-mail and address with buttons that will dial the phone, “like” your Facebook page, Tweet the QR-Code, play a video or a slide show and link to a web page. Not only does it do all that but it keeps statistics and tracks of your code. I sent out a tweet from the application on my smartphone and got over 80 views in a couple of hours. The free version is a great way for a small business to try a very powerful tool at no risk and an excellent option for those who occasionally need a professional looking mobile landing page. They have professional packages for power users. Take a look at my linkblots page by scanning the QR-Code on the right. I’ll be talking more about linkblots in future blogs.