Gifts and present ideas for under £10

Gifts and present ideas under £10

Gifts under £10 Pound – what present can you get for under a tenner these days?

The answer used to be 'not a lot'. Especially if you wanted your present to look like it cost more than £10.

Luckily for you, and your wallet, Fabulous Photo Gifts have a range of gift ideas that you can personalise with your own photographs and that cost under £10. For example:

Personalised photo mug - £8.49
A beautiful ceramic mug that's dishwasher safe with your photo printed on both sides of the mug (wrap-around style) at no extra cost!
Personalised photo mousemat - £6.75
For the computer user in your home or office, our personalised fabric mousemats not only look great, they also perform! Great for any occasion.
Personalised Ceramic money box - £8.49
Take care of the pennies with our fabulous personalised ceramic money box. Featuring a sturdy rubber stopper in the bottom, and like our mugs, printed both sides at no extra cost.
Personalised Coasters (set of 4) - £8.49
Another great gift idea, our glossy coasters are felt backed, to protect your furniture in a very personalised way.
Personalised Kids T-Shirts - £9.99
Kids love wearing t-shirts, especially when they're personalised. Soft cotton t-shirts in a range of kids sizes from ages 3 to 14 all priced at £9.99. Why not use a holiday snap or one of their pets?
Personalised A5 15 piece & 24 piece wooden jigsaw puzzles - £7.99
Our smallest jigsaw puzzle available in 15 and 24 piece options. Sturdy wooden pieces, perfect for smaller hands with a high gloss finish. Personalised photo jigsaw puzzles are our speciality and we have over 14 sizes to choose from including boxed jigsaws – just like you'd buy in the shops – as well as novelty jigsaws with special messages in the pieces e.g Happy Birthday etc.

Each photo gift order is printed by hand, every photograph submitted is optimised by hand and if you don't have an electronic file of your chosen photograph, then our postal order service is just for you. We offer free scanning (by hand).

So gifts under a tenner? No problem now and the best bit is, our photo gifts really do look fabulous so they'll never know you spend less than a tenner! (Until they order one for you that is!).

Go to www.fabulousphotogifts.co.uk now and start personalising your next photo gift for under £10.

The Etch-a-Sketch help desk...

A friend of mine knows I enjoy help desk parodies and recently sent me this...
If you thought the Windows Vista help desk had problems, spare a thought for those brave people manning the Etch-a-Sketch helpdesk....

Q. What's the shortcut for Undo?
A. Pick it up and shake it.

Q. How do I create a new document window?
A. Pick it up and shake it.

Q. How do I set the foreground and background to the same colour?
A. Pick it up and shake it.

Q. What is the proper procedure for re-booting my etch-a-sketch?
A. Pick it up and shake it.

Q. How do I delete a document on my etch-a-sketch?
A. Pick it up and shake it.

Q. How do I save my etch-a-sketch document?
A. Don't shake it.

It reminds us of a converstaion between an I.T helpdesk and a customer that went something along these lines...

"My monitors just gone blank", "can you see the power lead?", "No", "follow the power lead to the back of the computer", "I can't see it", "why not? Is something obstructing the cables? you may need to pull your desk out", "No it's not that - all the lights have gone out", "have you had a power cut?", "Yes", "that would explain why your monitors not working"

It's very easy to be confused by new (and not so new) technology, especially when it's something you don't do every day - like shopping online for a personalised photo gift.

At Fabulous Photo Gifts, we have friendly, understanding and real people at the end of the phone so if you are struggling to get to grips with online shopping, (you're not alone!) please feel free to call us and we can either talk you through the process or arrange to accept your order by post.

Minimum fuss, maximum understanding, infinite patience and a 'happy to help you' philosophy make Fabulous Photo Gifts the obvious choice for your next personalised photo gift purchase.

Buying presents for parents that have everything – gift ideas for parents

Present ideas for parents that have everything.

Buying presents for parents that have everything – gift ideas for parents.

The trouble with buying presents for parents is that they've usually already got everything, they want for nothing and when you ask a mum or dad what they'd like for their birthday or Christmas, they're generally unhelpful on the ideas front.

So you usually end up with a bottle of plonk or a bunch of flowers. Not very imaginative and very difficult to wrap and disguise.

You want to say than you, show your appreciation for everything they've done for you and heap presents upon them, but when they've already got everything, that can be a hard task.

Not any more.

At Fabulous Photo Gifts, we learnt very quickly that what really brings a smile to parents is a gift that isn't the flashiest, most expensive or most elaborate. It's the presents that have taken a bit of time and trouble to locate. Better still if you can include a picture of yourself (we parents love showing off our children) or better still... include one of the grand-children.

So it will come as no surprise that a lot of our personalised photo jigsaws feature some smashing family pictures and are destined for parents on their birthdays.

But we didn't stop there. We expanded our search for suitable photo gifts for those difficult to buy for parents and came up with a load of imaginative ideas..... place mats, serving mats and coasters to grace their tables. Tea trays, chopping boards and mugs for the kitchen or afternoon tea and not forgetting possibly the largest selection of boxed jigsaw puzzles and wooden express jigsaws available to personalise with your own photographs on-line.

Of course, our photo gifts aren't just for parents! They make great birthday or Christmas present ideas for brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents and god parents and not forgetting friends and neighbours.

So the next time your struggling to find a gift or present that's perfect for mum and dad etc. think of Fabulous Photo Gifts. Our friendly team guarantee to optimise and adjust by hand every picture submitted with an order to ensure that your chosen photo gift is perfect.

And if you can't decide on the picture, why not give a Fabulous Photo Gift Gift Voucher and let them choose their own photograph?

Technical support update

Technical Support Update:
Dear Customers

20/09/2007 - 10.50 GMT - Our website experienced a 10 minute period of downtime due to our Lease Line providor experiencing technical difficulties with one of their Firewalls.

We apologise if you were unable to continue your photo gift purchase during this time.

If you were in the process of submitting an order, you may wish to email us to confirm receipt.

Technical issues have now been resolved and fabulousphotogifts.co.uk is now back online.

Fabulous Photo Gifts Technical Team.

Our answer to the 4 tips

Received recently in the Fabulous Photo Gifts In box:

“Four tips to increase your sales by creating a trustworthy website”
(taken from a recent Axandra Search Engine Facts newsletter)

“Even if your website has high search engine rankings, people might still not buy from you. The reason for that may be that your website is not trustworthy. Of course, a professional website design will help create trust, but you should also consider these 4 additional areas to help convince customers to do business with you:

Show your visitors who you are.
Sounds silly but you'd be amazed at how many on line businesses either omit their contact details – including phone number and full postal address – from their website or bury them away where they are difficult to find. If they're difficult to find or non-existent, what else are you trying to hide???

If customers know where you are, they're more likely to do business with you.”

Fabulous Photo Gifts has a clearly labeled link to it's 'contact us' page where you'll find, postal address, an 0845 telephone number, email link and even a Google maps link showing our workshop location.

“Show your customers your different.

Why should someone buy from you and not your competitors? Is there anything that distinguishes you from the rest?”

At Fabulous Photo Gifts, we're very proud of the fact that we really do go the extra mile to ensure your satisfaction, after all, many of our photo gifts are bought as presents for someone special.

We'll optimise each and every photo received (by hand) using the latest software to ensure your photo is ready to produce the best possible result on your chosen photo gift item. We're not afraid to let you know when your image isn't of good enough quality and will readily offer a full refund should you decide not to go ahead with a gift order.

We're a small company and proud of the fact that your on line photo gift order isn't going to some mass producing company where your photo won't be seen until the gift is actually dispatched. Here, we do check every single photo by hand, whether you're ordering one mug or a 100 jigsaws. Each and every photo submitted with an order is optimised, tonal corrections and highlights attended to before being resized for final printing. That's why you should use Fabulous Photo Gifts. (and we're a really nice bunch of people with over 20 years digital image manipulation experience between us and can readily advise you on line or on the telephone with regard your requests and queries.)

For specific questions that do occur quite frequently, try our handy FAQ's page first.

“Show your awards and testimonials from satisfied customers.

Web surfers don't like risk. If other people used your products and services before then it's less risky for new customers to try them.”

Testimonials – 'customer love' as we refer to it here at Fabulous Photo Gifts is nothing new in our office. Every day, we receive little notes saying simple thank yous for services we consider part of the job. That doesn't mean we're not thrilled every time the in box pings or the phone rings and another satisfied customer leaves their thanks.

Of course, sometimes a simple email isn't enough and our customers regularly put digit to keyboard and send us quite moving and heart felt thanks for the way we've served them.

Fabulous Photo Gifts makes a small selection of such thanks available on a specific testimonial page. Other examples are posted regularly on our blog. We do promise that each and every comment is 100% genuine – we don't even correct the spellings – we do shorten the senders name to initials, just in case it was a gift that hasn't been given yet.

“Show your guarantees.

As mentioned above, web surfers don't like risks. That's why guarantees will help.”

At Fabulous Photo Gifts, not only do we promise individual orders will pay just 99p postage and delivery, whatever they order, we also promise normal delivery of our express jigsaws and other photo gifts within 5 to 7 days and our boxed jigsaw puzzles within 14 days.

Our website might not be the flashiest looking (we quiet like it actually) but we designed it and built in in-house ourselves so we know exactly how it works and where things are, so if you experience any difficulty when placing and personalising your order, then don't hesitate to call us.

We've worked really hard to make our website as straightforward and easy to use as possible and we know from the comments we receive that many of our visitors are exploring on line shopping for the very first time so we're especially proud that they felt comfortable enough to use our website and the ease with which they were able to use it.

Fabulous Photo Gifts realises the importance of having a trustworthy site and we will continue to develop and add to our website to make it an even more rewarding on line shopping experience in line with our ethic of total transparency in the way we operate.

Please feel free to email us your own comments on how you found our website and the level of service you received or post your comments here.

Contact details for Fabulous Photo Gifts - personalised photo gifts

Hi Blog followers.

We just wanted to re-iterate our contact details, should you wish to get in touch.

Click here to go to our Contact Page which contains all the information, including postal address, email link and even an 0845 number (local call rate in the UK).

There's a 24 hour answer machine if we're busy in the workshop or on another call, so please leave a message and we will get back to you.

If you've placed an order for a photo gift recently but not heard anything, please check your email, including your junk folder as you should receive a recipt of the transaction from Paypal as well as out automated 'delivery due on' email.

Remember to check you email records on your Paypal account as these are the details you'll receive feedback on and unless otherwise stated, the address your delivery will be made to.

Many thanks.

Webmaster - Fabulous Photo Gifts.

In the words of Depeche Mode

In the words of Depeche Mode (or as those old enough to remember - Steve Wright would say 'depeachy modee boys') are customers "just can't get enough" of our high levels of service when it comes to their personalised photo gift orders.

Here's two more recent examples hot off the email in box:

"Dear Mandy
Thank you for the photo jigsaw I ordered.
It arrived safely, and the picture on the box looks great. I'm sure my father will enjoy making it up.
Kind regards JM"

and over a recent photo mug order that came with a special request...

"Hi Mandy
They are absolutely fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've just given them to the girls and there were tears everywhere. They are delighted with them! All my colleagues have taken your web address, there really impressed.

If you have a flyer or something similar send it to me and I'll post it on the notice board. I'm sure you will be hearing from us all in the near future.
Kindest Regards Tricia x"

So to recap - we're a really friendly bunch that will do absolutely everything within our power to ensure that you are as pleased as JM and Tricia were when they received their orders.

To find out what they'll all raving about, order your next personalised photo gift from Fabulous Photo Gifts.

SEO – are you using titles in your links?

SEO – are you using titles in your links?

Are you using titles in your links? Either internal site links or external links? If not, then you could be missing out on a golden SEO opportunity.

Titles should not be confused with the page title or with 'alt text' which accompanies an image – the visible text when you place your mouse over an image. The title goes after a URL link tag but within the overall bracket of the link.

E.G:
<a href=”http://purple13.blogspot.com”>Click here to visit the Purple 13 Blog</a>

Becomes:
<a href=”http://purple13.blogspot.com” title=”click here to visit the purple 13 blog”>Click here to visit the Purple 13 Blog</a>

You can use the same method if you're linking to images:
<a href="../images/jigsaw.gif" title="GIF image of personalised photo jigsaw">Personalised photo jigsaw.</a>

Remember this helpful tip: “Supplementary information makes it easier to determine the purpose of a link. Link text should be meaningful enough to make sense when read out of context — either on its own or as part of a sequence of links. Link text should also be short and concise.”
On the subject of same link, but different title text, I came across this nugget of advice:
“Do not use the same link phrase more than once when the links point to different URLs
If more than one link on a page shares the same link text, all those links should point to the same resource. Such consistency will help page design as well as accessibility.
If two or more links refer to different targets but share the same link text, distinguish the links by specifying a different value for the "title" attribute of each A element.
When the same link phrase re-occurs, there is an implication that the links point to the same place. If they do not, users may be surprised and disoriented.”

After you've added a title to a link, when you mouseover that link, the title will be displayed (much like alt image text). This is a great visual clue for visitors as to what lies at the end of the click and can be used to encourage that “the click is worthwhile”.

Title links provide search engines with an additional clue as to what lies at the end of that link too, so it's important to be relevant and concise.

Using title links will help ensure your website is visible and links to other pages within your website get found more easily. It also builds keyword density which in turn should give your website better page rank and help its overall position in search listings.

Hope that helps you all.

P.S My friend has just started his own blog and we wish him well. You can visit it at http://blog.earthshod.co.uk and yes! it is titled.

Like this SEO tip? Jump to the last SEO article on this blog - click here

How to add Facebook social bookmarking icon and script to your Blogger articles

SEO Tip - How to add Facebook social bookmarking icon and script to your Blogger articles:

I was determined to discover how to achieve this, given the popularity explosion over Facebook. Testament to this is the fact that the BBC now add a similar bookmarking function on all their online news stories.

It's taken a while to get it working by a lot of trial and error, but now that it works, I'm determined to share 'how to' with you.

I've had to create images of the code just to avoid a lot of tedious open and close bracket typing so watch out when typing in the code yourself.

Firstly, you'll need to go to your template in Blogger and edit template. Back up your present version first (just in case) and then expand widgets to show all the code.

Next you'll need to scroll down the code until you find 'quick edit pencil' (see example below).


Enter the additional lines of code as shown.

Next, you'll need to enter this script after the close bracket:


Finally, you'll need to close bracket the span e.g. /span (inside open and close brackets)

Now all you need to do is replace the line - http://purple13.blogspot.com with your own blogs URL.

Save changes - it should validate ok. If it doesn't, go back and check you've not missed a bracket etc and try again.

That's it. An easy way to add a Facebook social bookmarking widget to your individual blog articles.

Comments and links to appreciated. Feel free to use the image url or create your own.

Like this SEO tip? Jump to the last SEO article on this blog - click here

new visual guide to photo gift shop pages

New feature on Fabulous Photo Gifts – the visual page guide.

We just wanted to tell you about a new feature on the Fabulous Photo Gifts website.

It's a visual 'map' of a typical photo gift item shop page. Visitors to our site will notice that every individual shop page has the same layout – a picture of the gift idea, some text explaining the photo gift and then a series of purchase options below where you can actually add an item to your basket.

There is other information like delivery times, postal order forms and links to other help and information pages too.

Our new visual display highlights all the features and explains their purpose so you'll be able to get more out of your online photo gift shopping experience.

The addition of this new feature came about as we appreciate that for many, a visit to Fabulous Photo Gifts may be the first time many have actually purchased something online, certainly for many, the first time they've personalised a photo gift online so we wanted to make the experience as easy as possible.

You can view the new visual shopping page guide by clicking here.

You'll also find links to the new visual guide on the 'how to order' and 'faq's page'.

You'll find helpful little note boxes pointing to key areas of information. However, why not explore on your own or if you have any questions, then don't hesitate to get in touch by email or phone and we'll be more than happy to help you further.

Belper, Derbyshire - local places of interest

Belper – guide to Belper, Derbyshire

Belper is a small, bustling little town situated on the A6 between Matlock and Derby, and whilst often overlooked in favour of its nearby neighbours of Matlock Bath, Matlock itself and beyond them Bakewell, is still worth a visit for tourists and those living in Derbyshire itself.

Belper is also the home of Fabulous Photo Gifts – personalised photo gifts and we thought it was about time we introduced you to some of the attractions Belper has to offer. They're in no particular order and we're not trying to show any favouritism here – it's just a few places that we've enjoyed visiting.

Belper has some beautiful old Mill buildings following the line of the River Derwent. The most impressive is the East Mill, which towers over the town. It has a small visitor centre offering guided tours and the ever-present gift shop. Behind the Mill itself, is a public garden and river park called the River Gardens. You can stroll through the riverside gardens which lead to a well maintained childrens play area.

It also has its own indoor childrens play centre – you know the sort with large padded climbing frames, ball pits and slides. There's plenty of comfy seating for mums and dads who can also enjoy a range of hot drinks and pastries etc.

On the river itself, you'll find rowing boats for hire, which you can use to travel upstream and if your time and energy allow, go as far as Ambergate and beyond. There's also a powered cruiser that operates, usually on holiday weekends. Swans, Ducks and Geese frequent the river walk ever hopeful of a few scraps of bread so be sure to go prepared.

The river ends at the river gardens at an impressive weir as the the river level drops under the Ashbourne road before proceeding along the Derwent Valley towards Derby itself.

Heading back into town, there are various pubs and restaurants dotted amongst the start of the shopping area. No shortage of places to eat or drink. All quite reasonably priced. Again, large former Mill buildings follow you along – Fabulous Photo Gifts has a small workshop display area in one of them at Derwentside, Derwent Street.

Heading up to the market place which occasionally holds farmer's markets, you'll come a cross delightful tea rooms and eventually the Ritz Cinema.

The Ritz Cinema is a real gem. A delightful little cinema which shows a great range of new releases and golden oldies. The auditorium itself is small but comfortable and you can book continental style chairs with adjoining tables on the very back row, comfy two seater sofa's to the standard plush seating. All steeply raked so that everyone gets a good view. It's also licenced!

If you head further past the Market Place, then you'll find a collection of Antique shops.

Belper has its own Heritage Trail aimed at preserving the architectural and industrial significance of the area.

With regular bus services from Derby, Matlock, Bakewell and even Manchester, you'll also find Belper has a scheduled local train service that runs along the Derwent Valley.

There's free parking behind the market place or you can pay and display at the River Gardens and other car parks dotted around. The usual MacDonalds, supermarket and diy store are all located on the one central roundabout on the A6 itself.

Another large Mill building here houses a collection of fashion outlets, including a factory warehouse style 'mill shop' where last years fashions are sold at a fraction of their original cost.

You'll find free parking for visitors to Fabulous Photo Gifts within the Derwentside Antiques Mill just off Derwent Street. If you're visiting to discuss a particular gift idea in person, please telephone in advance so that Mandy can be there in person to help with your enquiry.