Friday

Spiral Bound Notebooks



We have just added this colorful range of spiral bound notebooks to our website which would look good on any executives desk or in their briefcase.  These are a practical cost effective way to promote your business or service.

Thursday

Advantages of Using Promotional Business Gifts

There are multiple advantages of using promotional business gifts in your marketing plan. These can be given to customers as an incentive gift with a purchase, an outright gift or as a traffic builder for events like grand openings and special sales events. Internally you can benefit from using promotion business gifts as rewards for employees, special thank you gifts or appreciation and deal maker gifts to give to clients and business associates.
Promotion business gifts are not terribly expensive when purchased in bulk. You have the unique opportunity to make every piece a small advertisement for your company, service or product. Use printed items to the maximum at sale events or conventions. These are commonly known as advertising promotional gifts and there are literally hundreds of thousands from which to choose.
Besides their affordability, promotional gifts and corporate gifts extend a measure of goodwill to customers and clients. Many items are very useful items, such as laptop bags, clothing, clocks, miniature radios and computer accessories. Some of the standard promotional items most businesses first order are printed pens and printed bags. Add your company logo or product image to the promo items for maximum advertising reach. Your message will be around and in the public eye a lot longer than the one event at which they are presented.
Printed business gifts include desk items like small lamps, photo frames, desk sets, pens and pencils, mugs, mouse pads, and a raft of other desk and computer accessories. Fancier corporate gifts are more expensive but you normally are not purchasing them by the hundreds or thousands. Printed bags, umbrellas, glassware, wall clocks and other larger items will fall into this category. For a very special client there is no limit on what you can purchase and use for advertising printed gifts. As long as there is available space on an item there is room for an imprint, engraving or embossing.
That is one of the best features about using promotional business gifts. For conventions and meetings order imprinted note pads, convention folders, pens, pencils and lanyards. Printed gifts will always remind the recipient of your business. They provide a convenient way to keep your contact information within easy reach. Promotional items have been in use since the time of George Washington and the industry is thriving globally today. The bottom line is that most people love to get an advertising gift.

Promotional Pens as Complementary Articles

The promotional pen is probably one of the most popular items ever in the history of promotional products. Promotional pens have ruled the popularity charts for ages and continue to do so till date. All thanks to their low cost nature and the universal utility they offer, promotional pens are one of the most widely used business gifts. This simple and easy to use promotional item can be used in more than one ways. Whether one gives them away to his employees or distributes it as freebies amidst the customers, it is completely one's call. But, irrespective of how you plan to put this fantastic promotional item to use, you are sure to hit the right notch.

There are countless ways in which these promotional pens can be put to use. One of the methods of using this promotional item could be giving it away as a complementary gift article. This incredible promotional item can be given away along with a certain or every purchase that a customer makes from your company. Giving away promotional pens as complementary articles has a dual advantage. One it pleases your customers by offering them more value for the same amount of money and secondly it helps in boosting your sales. This free gift gives your customers a reason to be happy and impressed with your company. And at the same time, promotional pens as complementary articles also work as an incentive for customers to buy your products and services.

While giving away these promo pens, as a free gift along with a certain purchase is one great idea, there can be various other ways to use it as a complementary article. How about thanking your customers for their visit to your store with these promotional pens? Giving away promotional pens to each and every one who visits your store as a thank you gift is one great idea to cast a long and indelible impression on customers mind. Your customers are sure to be much more than just impressed for the gratitude that you have shown via these promotional pens. And, who knows you store might just be flooded with people, courtesy-these promotional pens.

Promotional pens can also be provided as a complementary article along with a couple of other stationary items. You can place this fabulous promotional item along with other products like a notepad, pen pot, business card holders and the like. This wonderful promotional pen is sure to have a harmonising effect and make your gift a complete and a perfect one. So the next time you are looking for a gift for your interest groups, stack in these promotional pens with other stationary goodies and gift your audience the perfect thing.

Promotional Gifts: Pick up your Best

We all know how employees look like and probably the address as well. But the ever important question is how do they feel and think about their respective organizations. The answer to the question is placed under extreme security and only restricted access is available. Couple of high performing organizations shares the password and every time they visit the place, their performance level starts soaring and unprecedented success becomes normal. Wish it would have been possible for all of us to check and find that what is secretly hidden over there? Or one thing that we all can experiment with is spend more time with employees and encourage promotional gifts to bring the best out of them. This might work and our companies can also get some percentage of profit.

We all like to wear things that we feel proud about or support as a human. Imprinted logo items are close and can motivate employees when other things fail hopelessly. Appreciation was invented centuries ago and still is running quick and fast. Employees need daily dose of it in order to beat whatever that was promised yesterday. Yesterday precedes tomorrow and today is what employees hold firmly. They are never shy of taking few steps into the world of unknown and unfamiliar territory. Their endeavors bring them more courage and countless are the number of chances available to them.

Promotional gifts are meant for every such employee who has done more than what was required or asked for. Customers are made and kept for a lifetime of period when employees treat them as more than money spending machines. Customers are there and that is why we are here. Any employee, who is given recognition and proper space to grow, would eventually turn into an asset. This is what has been asked of employers and employees expect such a behavior every time the entrance door is being opened to them.

It is relatively easy to keep employees rather than to hunt for honest minds. Promotional gifts are equivalent to three-time meal that is supposed to be taken at regular intervals. It was wisely said once that ‘to understand customers, be close and next to employees and ask them about it'.

Imprinted logo items are likewise to the concept of showing that what you really believe in and take care of. If we look closely, employees serve best when they act as customers and are beneficial to society when that take on the role of an employee. Promotional gifts bridge the gap between employers and employees and within no time. Employees are encouraged to beat the previous set records or targets. Employees hold no magical secret or there is no such place as was mentioned earlier but the success lies in employer and employee engagement.

Wednesday

Five Important Rules for Yoga

The word "Yoga" drives from Indian Sanskrit "yug" or "yuj" which means harmony and accordance. It is a traditional mental and physical discipline, originated in India, which helps people to develop their potentiality. The essences of yoga lies in attaining mental peace, improving concentration powers, harmony in relationship and a relaxed state of living. Yoga postures are easy to learn and improve their capability in psychology, emotion, spirit and physiology. In recent years, Yoga becomes a popular exercise, especially for women because it has many benefits.
The most important benefit of yoga is physical and mental therapy. Study shows that yoga can reduce the catabolic process of cell deterioration and slow down the aging process because it could keep your body in clean, flexible and well lubricated states. And yoga is a good mental therapy which could influence all system and organs of the body according to medical experts. It is a preventive and curative therapy.
The word "Yoga" drives from Indian Sanskrit "yug" or "yuj" which means harmony and accordance. It is a traditional mental and physical discipline, originated in India, which helps people to develop their potentiality. The essences of yoga lies in attaining mental peace, improving concentration powers, harmony in relationship and a relaxed state of living. Yoga postures are easy to learn and improve their capability in psychology, emotion, spirit and physiology. In recent years, Yoga becomes a popular exercise, especially for women because it has many benefits.
The most important benefit of yoga is physical and mental therapy. Study shows that yoga can reduce the catabolic process of cell deterioration and slow down the aging process because it could keep your body in clean, flexible and well lubricated states. And yoga is a good mental therapy which could influence all system and organs of the body according to medical experts. It is a preventive and curative therapy.
And then, people with high blood pressure, back pain and respiration problem could get many benefits from yoga. For high blood pressure people, yoga could pay a positive role in treatment. Under regular practice of yoga, people with respiration problem could gradually control their breath. In brief, yoga is conducive to people's health.
But yoga has its own features. You could abide by some rules when you practice yoga. At first, you should choose the best time to go yoga. Generally speaking, people go yoga in the morning, afternoon and at noon. Actually, you could practice it all the day if only your stomach is empty. In other words, you shouldn't practice it within three hours after meals. But yogi believes that four to six o'clock in the morning is the best time.
And then, place plays an important role. You'd better to practice it in a clean and comfortable room with sufficient space for stretching yourself. Green plants, flowers and soft music can help you to relax nerves. An open area without gale, pollution and strong sunlight is also a great choice to practice yoga.
Third, some props are necessarily. Yoga mat has a cushioning action and help you to keep balance. For beginners, yoga rope, yoga strap, yoga socks, and yoga block are other necessities to practice some difficult postures. By the way, you could purchase a yoga mat on online stores because they usually sell yoga mat with other props. It is easy and convenient for you to prepare for the learning.
Fourth, the cloth should be loose and soft. The cotton material is the best choice. When you practice it, you should take off shoes, socks (except for in winter), watch, glass, belt and other accouterments.
Fifth, it isn't a good habit to practice yoga twenty minutes before and after taking a shower. It could hurt your health and consume your energy if you take a shower before practice it. The blood circulation could speed up after take a shower. In this way, it could increase your blood pressure, and add the burden on heart. The best way is taking a cold shower after practice it.
Yogic theory and practice increases self-knowledge which is a spiritual sort pertaining to grasp something about the nature. You could get lost in a rush of activities and push of desires after you are at peace, as a being and at rest state.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5383039

Friday

Computer Power Supply Unit (SMPS)

SMPS - Switch Mode Power Supply - is the technical term for what we generally know as the computer power supply unit. It is basically a box-like device used for the supply of power to your computer unit. So what does it do? In very simple terms, it converts the AC (Alternating Current) power supply from the general electrical sockets available at your home to DC (Direct Current), basically the type of current you get from a battery. The "Switch" term in the SMPS comes from the fact that the computer power supply unit converts AC to DC using switcher technology. We now use the ATX supply power units for the computers as the industry has settled on a standardized case and motherboard (ATX).

Typically, three voltages (12V, 3.3V and 5V) are supplied by the power supply unit.

If you are selecting a computer power supply unit, how do you go about doing that?

1. The first thing of course is to know what power requirements you are looking at. You can check the power requirements of the various devices of your computer and add them up, or you can just ask the vendor for the same. Once you have the total wattage, (that will be the unit of power), you can go for a slightly higher rated SMPS.
Now why you want to do that is because, at a later point of time, if you want to upgrade your computer, like a new DVD RAM drive, you may need a higher power supply.
One more thing to remember is to check the actual wattage against what the label on the power supply unit indicates.

2. It is always a good idea to go for a branded power supply unit. But that might not help if price is an important criteria.
The SMPS supplies power to all the components of the computer, like the motherboard (24/20 pins), hard drives and CD ROMS etc (IDE 4-pin), floppy drives (Floppy 4-pin), etc.
What happens is that, once the computer is powered on, there is a surge of current and as a result, it gets heated up. The fan, in such a condition is crucial, other wise, high temperatures might result. You should have at least one 80mm fan. It is even better if there are two fans instead of one.
(One such problem is the continuous restart of your computer as the temperature rise due to a faulty power supply causes the computer to shut down without giving any error message, and in some cases, not even the BIOS screen.)

If you have a branded SMPS, you can rest assured that there is not much chance of such an event occurring.

3. Number of connectors and the efficiency rating – These two factors are at par with the other factors while considering the computer power supply unit. The efficiency rating, is important as it is directly related to the heat output and subsequent temperature rise. Higher efficiency rating ensures that the SMPS causes a lesser rise in temperature.
The number of connectors is important as it determines how many devices you can use with your computer.

4. Lastly, the noise level – Apart from the CPU fan, the SMPS fan also determines the amount of noise generated – Except from a fine whirring sound, which is basically indistinguishable, you should not have any other sound coming from the SMPS.

Thursday

How to select a computer motherboard

What is a computer motherboard or a ‘mobo’ anyway? It is the primary circuit board of your computer. It effectively means that it is one of the most important part amongst all the other devices present in your computer. And combined with the CPU (Central processing unit), it is the costliest as well.

So, if you are planning to get a computer assembled and would like to choose each device, how does the motherboard part come into it? That’s because all other parts depend on the motherboard for operation and compatibility with the motherboard is a must for the sound operation of your computer.
Before we get to selecting a motherboard, let’s get to know it a bit. A computer motherboard broadly consists of the following parts:
1. Processor: This is the part where the computer does its calculations. It is generally hidden behind the heat sink and the cooling fan.

2. Main memory: This is added to the computer motherboard in the slots available (DDRAM slots in the picture).

3. Other Components:·
ATX (Advanced Technology Extended) connector or, rather, the power plug-in for the motherboard·
PCI Slots – These slots are available for adding various components to the motherboard, such as sound cards, Ethernet Card (for LAN), etc·
AGP(Advanced Graphics Port) – For video adapters·
BIOS (Basic Input and Output) – The part responsible for initializing the vital components of the computer when it is turned on – (CMOS battery responsible for the BIOS is shown in the figure.)

Now let’s get to the question of actually selecting a computer motherboard. What features do you want in it?

1. Which processor are you planning to use with it – Check with your vendor whether the motherboard is compatible with the type of processor you want to use with it.

2. FSB (Front Side Bus) or Bus Speed – Check the FSB of the computer. It is the speed at which your computer communicates with the processor as well as with the PCI and the hard drives, although at a slower pace. If the speed of your hard disk is higher than the bus speed, you run the risk of underutilizing your hard disk.

3. Type of chipset – Check the type of motherboard chipset as the motherboard is basically dependent on it for almost all operations.

4. Memory Support – Which type of memory you need – SDRAM, DDRAM or DDR2. Most of the modern motherboards come with a DDR compatibility as it is cheaper and faster.However, check for the number of slots provided, so that you can upgrade the memory later.

5. Does it have an AGP Slot? (Find the AGP in the picture show at the end.) - This is necessary if you plan to use a video card for enhanced graphics performance.

6. How many PCI slots does it have? More number of PCI slots means more flexibility to add components such as sound cards, Ethernet cards etc. Go for a motherboard which has at least three slots.

7. Does it have an inbuilt sound or graphics card? – That means lesser driver conflicts and hence, better performance at lower cost if you are not the game-crazy type.Remember that choosing the motherboard determines the possibilities of up-gradation later. So keep that in mind.