Due to ill health, Fabulous Photo Gifts has to cease trading.

Announcement: Continuing bad health problems force Fabulous Photo Gifts to cease trading.

This is the message that greeted customers and visitors to the Fabulous Photo Gifts website this weekend:

Dear customers and visitors to Fabulous Photo Gifts, both past and present.

It is with much sadness that I must announce that due to a continued poor health, Fabulous Photo Gifts is having to close permanently.

I've very much enjoyed working on your photographs and hand producing photo gifts of the highest quality.

Thank you very much for your past custom and my sincere best wishes to you all.

Mandy Collins - Proprietor
Fabulous Photo Gifts.
18th September 2010.

We don't want to say goodbye to all our online followers, although the flavour of the content will change slightly, this blog and our accounts on Twitter and Tumblr will remain very active.

Thank you for your continued support and friendship, through what, recently, has been a very traumatic time.

When we're not personalising photo gifts...

What do we do when we're not personalising your photo gift orders?

Well some of us (me) help out old friends with their website designs - like Alan at Compass Distribution in Sheffield.

We've been very fortunate to know Alan for a while now and enjoyed many family outings to watch his beloved Sheffield Steelers Ice Hockey team as his guests.

So when Alan planned a complete make-over of his website to include the new social mediums of Twitter, Blogging and Facebook, we were only to happy to help.

So head over to Alan's new website now and take a look. Then leave him a comment or follow him on Twitter.

He'll be very pleased to hear from you.

Oh and if you've got some direct marketing material - leaflets, brochures, flyers - even community magazines, then Compass Distribution are the people to call.

Please tell Alan Fabulous Photo Gifts sent you - we're not under any commissions etc - we'd just like to help a very worthy friend out where we can.

Amazing what you can learn from Twitter in just a few hours

What i learned from Twitter in just one day...

It was raining hard enough to stop @Julie_K from hoeing her allotment

The Shuttle launch was delayed for a 5th time from @nasa

A few friends were organising a drink in London @maxamphoto

There was a clever iPhone app for the 3GS video @Elke

Mayor of London Boris Johnson (@MayorOfLondon) keeps a 6ft chicken in his back garden @thedailymash

A 3.2 magnitude Earthquake shook LA Airport @gaynorlove

@RNLIrescues - the new Portaferry lifeboat made two rescue calls on its first day

@stuartsharpe wondered what was the greater achievement - Apollo 11 or Apollo 13?

Meanwhile, PR consultant @emilyrobe took the 'Which classic hollywood actress are you?' test and got Marilyn Monroe.

@tdrury had a close encounter with painters in his office re-painting their stairs bannisters.

@ApolloPlus40 (tweeting events as they happened 40 years ago in the run up to the Apollo misson) Survey says 51% of Americans favor manned lunar landing to 41 against - change from 49 for, 39 against in February.

All good stuff eh? To follow Fabulous Photo Gifts on Twitter - click here.

photo credit: foundphotos

I'm communicating - part 2 (seo article)

Why create your own fantasy 'Desert Island Discs' iPod playlist?

When I first came across Tumblr - I thought "Wow - what an amazing platform - now how can I use it?"

The answer didn't come quickly I'll admit. I knew I wanted to do something special with this social sharing platform - something that I could tie-in to forwarding interested visitors to this blog and the Fabulous Photo Gifts website.

Initially I used it as another platform where I posted blog headlines - not very inspiring.

Around this time I was hoping to get an iPhone (contractual ties meant it would be Christmas before I actually got one) but in he meantime I decided it would be great to start compiling my own 'fantasy' playlist - songs I'd want on my iPod/iPhone.

And so it began.

OK so I haven't always been able to post every single day and some days I get carried away and feature a double bill for my visitors delight. But on the whole, I have managed at least one track pretty much every day - a proud achievement.

Of course it's all very well doing these things but if you don't tell anyone and nobody see's it then what's the point? Well admittedly, I haven't been too worried about traffic to (or from) the Tumblr account - it's become a personal obsession to keep it going - at least for a full 12 months and I've seriously enjoyed hunting down the music and videos I've shared.

Then came Twitter. Suddenly the perfect platform to post a quick 'Tweet' advertising that days music choice.

Believe it or not, I have now developed one or two followers and even get the very odd comment when someone thanks me for reminding them of a particular band or song. Most are '80's tracks (the soundtrack of my young adult life) but because my music tastes are so varied, there's classical to Meatloaf, film scores to adverts in the mix.

The point of all this? I'm communicating - reaching out and extending a hand to all who are interested to share a song or a memory. If music be the food of love - play on.

Catch up with my daily selection at: http://fabulousphotogifts.tumblr.com or follow us on Twitter and I'll tweet whenever I post a new song (which is usually daily).

Click here to read I'm Communicating - Part 1

photo credit: backpackerben

We must Communicate - seo article

It seems you can hardly click on a news website or trip over a social marketeer without hearing about Twitter or 'social networking' these days.

Whilst some will be yawning, others think its the greatest thing since sliced wholemeal bread - you know, the one with the seeds on top.

But what does it all mean?

In a nutshell, it means that website owners, bloggers and social commentators - in fact anyone who has a website (whether that's an online business like Fabulous Photo Gifts) or a private individual, blog or participates on Twitter and Facebook etc want to talk to you ... and want you to talk back.

It's never been easier to leave a comment or post a reply - there's a multitude of 'instant share links' available and any savvy webmaster or blogger will offer you numerous ways to share or comment on what they're saying via your favourite platform.

What's in it for them?
Not only the warm fuzzy feeling you get from knowing someone thought the words you'd slaved over were worthy enough of reading in the first place (akin to wetting yourself in a dark suit - it gives you a nice warm feeling but nobody else notices).

But also, the opportunity to engage with readers, consumers or customers across the globe in ways like they never could have dreamed of before.

What's in it for you?
Not only the truth that you've made someone's day or by passing something you've read on to your own 'community' you might actually enlighten someone else's day. Dare we suggest it might even be helpful sometimes?

No! The other really important aspect of being allowed to comment is that it allows an instant two-way correspondence to take place with the writer. If you want more information, you can ask there and then. Don't understand a point raised? Disagree? Then commenting is for you.

Of course, if that topic catches other readers attention, then a public comment 'conversation' is suddenly enriched by others.

Not forgetting that your 'storyboard' of a conversation will be available for others to review and learn from at a later date.

If the Internet is all about finding information, then the new 'social explosions' are all about sharing what you've found out with others.

Whether you're a Twitterer, Blogger or webmaster - go share!

Photo credit - Yngrich

Make a fashion statement on Twitter - SEO article

Make more than just a fashion statement on Twitter - seo article

If you're using Twitter for any kind of commercial aspect - whether you're a large corporation, or a one-man adsense marketeer, the one thing you should be doing is customising your Twitter page with a 'branded' background.

Why should I change my background? What's wrong with a standard Twitter background?

The problem with standard Twitter backgrounds is they are just that. Thousands of other users will be using the same background and because information is minimal in your bio, there isn't enough to distinguish you from the crowd and make your Twitter page memorable.

Changing your background image means you can put more information in front of your Twitter page visitors (who'll hopefully be so impressed with your background they'll become followers - without seeing what you actually 'tweet' about (a tweet is a single post or comment you make on Twitter).

If you build your background image around your corporate look, and then change font and sidebar colours to suit, you should end up with a distinctive and professional Twitter home page like ours - http://twitter.com/fabphotogifts.

Now doesn't that look better?

P.S Oh and get yourself an avatar image as well - it's well documented that no-one likes following 'blank' avatars. Why not make our logo your avatar like this Twitterer - http://twitter.com/priceengines

(photo credit uaeincredible)

Phillip Schofield on Twitter

Oh Gawd! Not another Twitter post I hear you cry...

Ok so there have been a few but the whole Twitter thing is so darn useful, that it deserves a mention (or two).

Especially when you can 'chat' with real celebrities like Phillip Schofield.

Here's what happened...



So we had a laugh, shared a light-hearted moment, and generally left the experience feeling better than he had previously.

Thanks to Twitter (and Phillip Schofield).

P.S Celebrity follower? See what happened when I got Tweeting with Jonathan Ross...

Adding a Tweet This link to your Blogger blog posts - SEO post

Twitter - everyone from Stephen Fry to local radio's been on about this social networking platform called Twitter, where users 'Tweet' each other (or to anyone 'following' them in a 140 characters or less.

If your in business, then it's a great tool for getting out there and making new contacts and keeping customers up to date with all your doing.

I've had some success myself and been involved in online conversations with Jonathan Ross and more recently Philip Schofield (post to come).

However, in this post, I want to share with you how to add that little 'Tweet This' button and link to the footer of each individual Blogger blog post.

You'll find the various snippets of code and where to place them in your Blogger template here at Blogger Buster

Some blogger templates might differ and indeed, there is one glitch in Blogger Busters code which I and judging by the comments one or two others suffered from but you'll find my comments and other helpful in fixing this.

Before making any changes to your Blogger template, make sure you download a back up of your blog first (don't forget to expand the widgets - tick box - before downloading). That way if things go wrong, you can revert to the saved downloaded version.

Remember with Blogger Buster's code, you'll only see the 'Tweet this' link and button when you click on an individual post. This is necessary to generate the URL that twitter will link to so that clicks go to the actual post rather than to just your blog in general.

So in a few simple steps, you too could be encouraging others to share your posts on their Twitter accounts to their followers.

Don't forget you can also add your own button / link for visitors to click on and visit your profile on Twitter. If they like what they read, you might get a few more followers. I'll be posting my own thoughts on best practice on Twitter in a few days time.

Until then - keep Twittering.

You can follow Fabulous Photo Gifts on Twitter - http://twitter.com/fabphotogifts

Now you can share your favourite posts on Twitter

You can now share your favourite Fabulous Photo Gifts Blog posts on Twitter – it’s an easy and fast to share what you're reading with your Twitter followers. Just in case, however, you’re not sure what Twitter is or how you can get started, here’s our guide to all things Twitter:

Twitter is an online short messaging service, posting a “tweet” is like sending a text message to the whole world. It's a great way to keep in touch with your own friends (or colleagues), and reach out to potential new ones. At Fabulous Photo Gifts we use Twitter to keep you informed of what we're up to, and we've just introduced a new instant 'Tweet this story' function to all our blog posts.

The New 'Share this on Twitter' logo and link at the foot of each individual post with other social bookmarking links like Digg etc.

Signing up to Twitter is free, instant and easy – you simply go to twitter.com, choose a username and password and get started straight away.

Following is how you decide whose tweets you want to see. You can follow others and keep track of what they’re saying – others can follow you and see what you are saying.

Replying to others is simply a case of writing their twitter username proceeded by ‘@’ – so to send a message to Fabulous Photo Gifts, you’d send a tweet which included ‘@fabphotofgifts’.

Private Messages can be sent to people who follow you – these are not shared with anyone other than the recipient.

As we said earlier, we've introduced a new function in the footer (bottom) of every individual blog post which will take the posts headline, and turn it into a 'short url' before posting it directly into your Twitter account for you to 'tweet'. It really is that simple to share, discuss and forward what you're reading to others.

We look forward to welcoming you as a 'follower' and keeping you up to date with everything at Fabulous Photo Gifts.

Making Site Maps more appealing - SEO article.

Make your site map visible and more appealing - an SEO article.

If you're website doesn't have a site map, then get one now - and come back and finish reading this once you're done. No - only kidding. Read this through and then go and build a better sitemap. It might be the best 5 minutes you invest in your website this week.

Think of a site map as a road atlas for a country you've never visited, but written in your language. That would be pretty neat wouldn't it? It would also save you loads of time by letting you find the place you were wanting to travel to easily and quickly. You wouldn't have to keep stopping and asking the locals for one.

If you had a choice of two countries and one had the road atlas and the other did not - which one would you choose to drive through?

So it's the same with websites.

Many visitors will be first time, some may be the first time they've ever used a website full stop! So you need to make it as easy as possible for them to navigate their way around, find what they are looking for quickly and easily (without unnecessary padding and frills) and either checkout and pay / enquire further / make contact (whatever the satisfactory conclusion of their visit may be).

Of course, most, if not all, of this can be achieved with good design, clear directions and a level of a maintained 'look' to each page so the visitor doesn't get any nasty surprises and after getting to grips with where things are, doesn't have to relearn everything again a few pages later.

One such aid is a Site Map. Ok now I bet I can guarantee that most of what you've heard about site maps was to do with search engine optimisation. Am I right?

Well seo is all well and good and there's no reason why your site map can't help visitors - both the human and the robotic kind.

In fact the search engines have their very own site map program over on Google. (read more about Google Site Maps on this blog by clicking here).

Back to the human site map - a couple of things. It wants to be plain, factual and easily followed.

Some site maps are laid out in a flow diagram style, others as a plain list of every page on the site. Both are a step in the right direction but consider this. If you break your list of pages up into bite-size chunks under instantly recognisable headings, then that's got to be better, right?

Also consider where this site map lives. Is there a plain - in sight - link to it from every page on your website? No? Then correct that now.

Another more recent design option has been to run the site map, in its various headings at the foot of each page (see Apple's website for a great example of this). All the pages, all linked too, and because the links are text links, the search engines will love you too.

In fact, Apple actually hide away a product they'd rather you didn't find too easily - the white macbook - in their listed 'site map' at the foot of their pages.

If you opt for a more traditional separate page for your site map, then it wants to mirror the corporate look of your website still - logos and banners - even the font style. Don't just list the pages e.g home, about us, contact us, but put the page followed by a short description of what they'll find on that page - what is this page about? Tip - if you use the description from your description metatag for that page then the search engines will love you too.

Remember, you're trying to be helpful on this page. If a human visitor has visited it, it's probably because they were looking for something that wasn't immediately obvious on the main pages. Perhaps a question and answer session? I've seen examples of where people were searching for your contact details and in desperation ended up on a site map page. Why not make your custom 401 error page a site map too?

People will be looking for different things, but they share one thing in common. Usually they're looking for something.

Did you find this article useful? Any unanswered questions? Thoughts of comments? In fact anything to add? Then please leave a comment below and i'll do my best to answer it.

About the Author: Jonathan is Technical Partner at Fabulous Photo Gifts and when he's not busy (which isn't very often) he enjoys writing SEO self-help articles aimed particularly at other small businesses. He can also be followed on Twitter.

Jonathan Ross talks to Fabulous Photo Gifts - via Twitter

THE Jonathan Ross - BBC personality - 'spoke' to Fabulous Photo Gifts on Twitter the other day.

So huge was this event that yours truly was walking around the office with a cheesy grin the rest of the afternoon.

Here's how the conversation unfolded on Twitter - the latest social networking craze - where replies or 'tweets' are restricted to just 140 characters...



Of course, Twitter isn't just about making funny comments to each other. Twitter asks the question "what are you doing?" and its small maximum post size makes it a ideal micro-blogging platform. It's also incredibly easy to keep up to date with your followers and people you're following using desktop tools like Twitterrific - much easier than keep logging into Facebook etc.

If you're running a business, you can program an RSS feed to alert you everytime someone mentions your company name or perhaps a product or an interest - wouldn't you like to know when you're being discussed - good or bad?

Here's a more fun example of such a following alert - I happened to mention the 'spanish inquisition' scene from Monty Python to a colleague and got this fun message from Cardinal Fang in return. Seems someone's taken the trouble to send this automated 'tweet' every time you mention the spanish inquisition. Go on try it yourself.



Go on give Twitter a go yourself and who knows, you might attract your own celebrity follower's.

You can follow Fabulous Photo Gifts on Twitter by clicking here: http://twitter.com/fabphotogifts

Twitter protocol - do you say thank you to your followers?

For those of you not familiar with it, Twitter is a social networking site where users sign in and then post a 'tweet' - the question being "what are you doing?".

The twist is that your 'Tweet' (your individual post on Twitter) can only be a maximum of 140 characters long. However, forget SMS text messaging, this isn't a platform for C U L8tr (see you later), more a snapshot of information you can choose to interact with by replying to an individual you're following or who's following you.

Most users make use of Tiny URL's and other such URL shortening services to post URL's to items they want to share.

Anyway, I digress - back to the question in hand.

You can apparently automate your Apple mail to look at a Twitter notification that someone is following you. The automated function picks out the username of the new follower and emails them back saying thank you for following me (or whatever you've set the message to).

This caused some debate in our office as I've received one or two of these thankyou's and to be honest, whilst they're an acknowledgement of you acceptance, they're not very personal and easily spotted.

The rule being that you don't have to follow everyone that follows you - like any other social networking platform, Twitter has its share of 'spammers' usually spotted by hundreds of followings, few followers and even fewer tweets.

Personally, I like to tweet a personal thank you along with an appropriate comment on that person / their tweets / their bio information.

Back to the debate - my colleague argued that you don't say thank you to someone for visiting your blog, only when they leave a comment, however, since you don't know who visits your blog unless they leave a comment... plus Twitter is more of a social aspect than faceless blogging.

Each Tweeter has the opportunity to upload an avatar ( I use the same one as i use for all comments and blogging and do get a few followers based on others recognising me) and many other Tweeters also take advantage of this aspect too. Some you will notice change their Avatar on a daily basis - personally whilst it's fun, it can cause confusion - especially if you're a poor memory for names (like me).

I'll continue to say thank you to my new followers in my own way. I feel it's even more important to acknowledge personally especially in this high-tech age where things are accused of moving too fast to be able to respond but that's a pretty flimsy excuse isn't it?

The whole subject of Twitter protocol really got my interest so I searched a bit deeper and came up with these choice words from some fellow Tweeters....

"I follow people that I think have something interesting to say or that I want keep up with. I figure it's like blogs - I subscribe to the ones I'm interested in. Just because I find your blog interesting it doesn't mean i expect you to find mine the same. I hope you do but I don't take it personally if you don't." posted by Pocket Mojo.

"Twitter-like micromessaging is a relatively new communications model, with unique characteristics that affect how we use it and what’s appropriate. It’s an RSS feed for people, a way to directing the attention of audiences, and a means of reaching the famous without burdening them with an obligation to respond.

In short, Twitter is a human API. It’s being defined in real time in front of our eyes, through an amazing example of Internet Darwinism." Bitcurrent.

"I like to keep with all that is sexy on the Internet, so I have a Twitter account and access this from time-to-time from my iPhone. I 'follow' a couple of people and I can see that they are about to wash their hair or walk the dog.

I now read that the Hudson air crash is a potential tipping point for the Twitter protocol, but I don't get it. Someone put up a 'tweet' which appeared before the BBC reported the crash, but presumably I would need to be 'following' this person and just happen to check my Twitter updates to notice this on Twitter before the BBC. Given that no-one I know with a Twitter account happened to be on a ferry to pick up the passengers, how was Twitter going to tell me about the crash before the mainstream news. Am I missing something? Does anyone use Twitter for anything meaningful?" MacNN Forums

"Like a lot of people, I tried out Twitter early on, but didn't stick to it. Most of the early twitter conversation was personal, and I didn't have time for it. I came back when I noticed that about 5000 people were following my non-existent updates, waiting for me to say something. With that many listeners, I thought I'd better oblige. (There are now close to 16,000.) I soon realized that Twitter has grown up to become a critical business tool, ideal for following the latest news, tracking the ideas and whereabouts of people who will shape the future of technology, and sharing my own thoughts and attention stream." Tim O'Reilly

"We really can’t deny the fact that businesses are testing out Twitter as part of their steps into the social media landscape. You can say it’s a stupid application, that no business gets done there, but there are too many of us (including me) that can disagree and point out business value. I’m not going to address the naysayers much with this. Instead, I’m going to offer 50 thoughts for people looking to use Twitter for business. And by “business,” I mean anything from a solo act to a huge enterprise customer." Chris Brogan

"Perhaps the most significant step so far in TV presenter Jonathan Ross's media rehabilitation, after his three month suspension, was the revelation he is hosting this year's Bafta Awards in February.
The news did not come in the usual way though, through a press release or publicist.
It came directly from Ross himself, through his Twitter feed." BBC News - Entertainment

I hope the above links help you make up your own minds about Twitter, about how to use it, about what to expect out of the experience, about the personal and business scope it offers individuals and businesses alike. My thanks to the above for inclusion in my own thoughts on Twitter and Twitter protocol.

You can follow Fabulous Photo Gifts on Twitter - go to: http://twitter.com/fabphotogifts

iPhone Kensington car mount review

My friend garethbraid over at Twitter knows I've been looking into a car mount for my iphone. He tweeted what had i chosen and if it was the Kensington car mount, what I thought of it?

As Twitter only gives you 140 characters to reply, I thought a more in-depth review might be appropriate (and helpful to anyone else considering buying a car mount for their iphone / itouch or ipod - as the Kensington mount fits all three)

First impressions opening out of the box - very sturdy piece of design. The flexible arm from the holder to the suction cup was very stiff - no loose flapping around here!.

The holder was padded in the right places and featured a handy quick release button behind where the top of the phone will rest, to release the two side 'holders' that push in to fit. It can also be rotated independently of the flexible arm so you can twist your iphone screen just like holding it in your hand (probably best not while driving though!).

The suction cup for the windscreen really sticks with a handy plastic (sturdy) lever to clamp up and make the seal complete - I've been driving down some rough roads and it hasn't showed any signs of movement at all.

Fitting:
Fitting was easy - the kit includes a medical style wipe to prepare the glass first - postage stamp size but enough to wipe the patch of window where you're going to place the suction clamp.

Warning! Make sure the wiped area is completely dry before attaching suction clamp other wise it just slides about!

If you prefit the iphone holder (in my case) to the arm which is already attached to the suction clamp, try a few different positions until you're happy with the bend of the arm - it's very difficult to bend it once 'fitted' / in situ.

Try this with the iphone in the holder.

Road Test:
Overall, the holder performs well. It doesn't move about, hasn't dropped my pride and joy iphone and is a sturdy and well built look about it.

My only complaint is that the phone judders with every vibration of the car - transmitted via the windscreen i suspect although the flexible arm does seem to act like a spring on really rough roads.

I've tried positioning the arm so that at its lowest point, it rests onto the dash but this has not steadied it any. It would be really annoying out of the corner of your eye if the iphone screen was lit up the whole time but as it isn't, I think i can live with it.

The Kensington mount does come with sticky pads to affix the iphone holding bracket direct to the dash - probably better (if the pads are as sticky as the suction clamp) for vibration but more tricky for position.

Extras:
My Kensington iphone car mount came with an additional cable (3.5mm to 3.5mm jack plug at each end) presumably for plugging your iphone etc into a mp3 socket on your car and a jack plug adapter.

Overall:
More than happy with the quality but wish I'd read that this judder/vibration problem could exist - might have considered a vent mounting instead if that had been the case. One of those things I'll have to live with.

If you'd like to follow me on Twitter - click here and follow me. I tweet most days.

Twitter ye not!

A very quick post this one.... Fabulous Photo Gifts is now on Twitter!

Twitter has been compared to the old telegraph system put onto the net.

You can communicate with other Twitters via online, email or SMS.

Here's a link to our profile as we dip our feet into Twitter and evaluate its social networking opportunities as another way to keep in touch with our customers and visitors. You'll see our latest 'twitters' in the twitter panel on the right hand side of this blog.

Oh nearly forgot - here's the link.

http://twitter.com/fabphotogifts - click here to visit.