USB2U
Click4Assistance
Google-Translate-English to French Google-Translate-Dutch Google-Translate-English to German Google-Translate-English to Italian Google-Translate-English to Russian BETA Google-Translate-English to Spanish
Choose a Language
Get A Quote

Posts Tagged ‘printed’

« Older Entries

Professional Photographers Guide To Buying Printed USB Flash Drives

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

If you’re a professional photographer who is considering abandoning CD and DVD’s in favour of USB Flash Drives then there are some basic facts you need to be aware of before you commit to buying flash drives printed that are printed with your brand or logo:

  1. Most companies that supply USB flash drives printed with a company brand or logo are principally supplying then as giveaway promotional products – the sort of thing that you pick from a company booth at trade and retail shows. Typically these flash drives won’t get a huge amount of usage and the demands the drives need to support in terms of read/write speed are pretty light.

    Typical read/write speeds of a “standard” promotional USB flash drive are going to be around 4MB per second (write) and 10MB per second (read). This is more than adequate if all you’re doing with the drive is loading up a couple of sales brochures maybe the odd short media file and links to your company web site but, if you’re a professional photographer or wedding video company you may (depending on what you are doing with the drives) need to specify certain minimum requirements – read/write speeds, grade of memory chip etc.

  2. If you buy standard promotional USB Flash drives and you then start to load very large video files or wedding portfolios onto them then you’ll immediately notice that they’re not the quickest of products. If you’ve been used to working on Apple Mac’s and you use top end Memory Cards with fast read/write speeds, or perhaps you use Firewire to move data around then by comparison a promotional USB flash drive is going to be a “horse and cart”.

    For example top end SD cards or CF cards have a read/write speed of around 40MB per second – X10 times the speed of standard promotional USB flash drives.

  3. Top end, high performance USB flash drives typically have read/writes speeds of 20MB (ish) per second, significantly faster than promotional versions but still not as fast as High Speed SD or CF cards. These high performance USB sticks also carry a significant price premium.
  4. If speed of data transfer is an issue for you then you might want to consider getting quotes on printed USB Flash Drives that work to the new USB 3.0 standard – these have read write speed of around 50MB – 100MB per second so they are blisteringly quick! Again, the downside is cost (they’re new so they’re going to be expensive) and you need a PC or Mac that is equipped with USB 3.0 USB ports to take advantage of the speed improvements. They’ll still work on USB 2.0 PC’s but only at USB 2.0 speeds! Still at least if you have USB 3.0 and you buy USB 3.0 sticks you can dramatically reduce your own data-loading times – your customer won’t notice any speed improvements until they upgrade to USB 3.0.
  5. A sensible compromise if you’re looking for decent data transfer speeds it to ask your supplier to quote for upgraded USB 2.0 flash drives – they’ll be a little more expensive but you should get something that has a longer warranty period and better performance with speeds closer to the High performance products sold by brands like Kingston and Lacie. Remember if you don’t ask for this you will just get “standard” promotional USB flash drives which are fine they’re just slow!
  6. Apart from speed the aesthetic of the USB flash drive will be important but there are lots of different models to choose from and the internal components of all of them can be upgraded to include High Speed, High Performance controller chips and flash memory modules.
  7. Ideally talk to your supplier about what you plan to use your USB flash drives for and get them to recommend a solution. If you’ve chosen your supplier well and they know their industry they should not only be aware of the issues but they should be able to put forward a range of different solutions.
Photographers UBS Sticks

Photographers UBS Sticks

  • Share/Bookmark
Professional Photographers Guide To Buying Printed USB Flash Drives

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Printed USB Flash Drives | Comments Off

Fund Raising With Printed USB Memory Sticks

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

If you’ve committed to raise funds for your local school, church or club then well done for stepping up to the challenge and sacrificing your own time and energy to do good for others. Often though, the initial moment of madness or enthusiasm that underpinned your commitment is followed by a longer period of panic as you start to realise that raising money it today’s economic climate is not going to be easy.

If you’re fund raising as part of a group then it can be a lot easier than raising funds on your own because you’ll have the benefit of pooling your ideas together and setting up a little committee to work out how you execute your plans. Fund raising on your own is a little more challenging simply because you need to be much more focused, determined and self-sacrificing. The range of activities you can don on your own will also be more limited than those you could do as a group.

Firm favourites for fund raising include:

  • Sponsored walks, runs, cycle rides, silences, bungee jumping, abseiling etc. These are all “doable” as an individual or as a group but they all demand a degree of physical fitness and nerve so they’re not for everyone.
  • Car boot sales, jumble sales, table top sales and garage sales.
  • Quiz nights including pop quiz nights, sports quiz nights or just a general quiz night – these can be great fun but you need to put lots of energy into the promotion of the quiz night to ensure enough people turn up, typically people will want food so this needs to be factored into the planning and budgeting and you’ll need some great questions and a willing compare for the evening.
  • Car cleaning and sponsored bag packing at the local supermarket – again, great ideas but lots of people want to do this and supermarkets only allow it occasionally becuae they don’t want their customers “hassled”.

For something a little bit different you could sell (for a profit) printed USB memory sticks or printed USB wristbands. USB Memory sticks (also known as flash drives, pen drives, thumb drives and pen drives) are incredibly popular at the moment. They have become the de facto way to save and carry around data files and lots of school students use them every day to save their homework onto.

Fundraising with USB Memory Sticks

Fundraising with USB Memory Sticks

You could buy USB flash drives printed with your school, church or group logo on, or you could get them printed with details of charity. One option that would make them a little bit special is to get them personalised with peoples name on – for this you’d have to take “orders” in advance and then get your supplier to print each stick with a different name on (as well as your logo).

Don’t forget you can also pre-load onto the memory sticks documents about your charity; school etc. to give people an idea about what the money you’re raising will go towards. You could also include web links to your blog, your on-line charity donation page(s) and any Facebook or Twitter pages you’ve set up to support your fund raising.

To make it worth your while you need to order at least 25 USB sticks – this way you’ll get a decent price (including the printing) and should be able to sell them on for a reasonable profit.

There are lots of suppliers around that can offer printed USB memory sticks including USB2U who have been around since 2002 and are now one of the leading suppliers in the UK.

  • Share/Bookmark
Fund Raising With Printed USB Memory Sticks

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Printed USB Memory Sticks | Comments Off

Where Can You Get Printed USB Memory Sticks In 24hrs?

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

The usual lead-time for USB memory sticks printed with your company logo or brand on is typically around 10 days from confirmation of your order. During certain times of the year (January and February) when the market is badly impacted by Chinese New Year it can be as much as 4 weeks.

So, if you need to get hold of branded USB memory sticks in a hurry you’ll have to find a local supplier that can offer a “rush” service but even this normally means a wait of around 3 days (typically a little longer if you need data pre-loading onto the USB sticks as well).

USB Sticks in 24Hrs

USB Sticks in 24Hrs

The problem is that most suppliers of branded USB memory sticks don’t hold any stocks of USB sticks in-house preferring instead to place the orders on their factory as their customers confirm them. This de-risks holding stock that might not get purchased or simply might devalue based on fluctuations in the price of flash memory and currency exchange rates (all USB flash memory and memory sticks are traded in US Dollars).  Those suppliers that do hold stock typically only hold very small quantities of a very limited range of model and styles and even then they can’t print them on-site.

One supplier that is different is USB2U. Established in 2002, USB2U been supplying branded USB memory sticks longer than any other promotional supplier in the UK, they hold large quantities of stock in the UK, they have invested in professional data-loading equipment and they have the latest printing technology in-house.

The combination of their experience, their large stock levels and their investment in the latest state of the art technology enables them to provide a lightening fast delivery service. Customer who take advantage of their rush service and who place their orders by 10am can opt to get them delivered the following business day. That’s fast!

So, if you do find yourself up against a tight deadline and you need USB memory sticks, USB credit cards or USB business cards with your company or school name/logo printed on (full colour) then get in touch with the team at USB2U.

  • Share/Bookmark
Where Can You Get Printed USB Memory Sticks In 24hrs?

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in USB2U News | Comments Off

Pity You Can’t Get This In Our USB Barrels

Monday, October 24th, 2011

Wick Whisky, a single malt distilled in one of Scotland’s most remote distilleries has been named the world’s best whisky and regrettably it is not available to us in our USB Barrels – we know because we’ve opened them all searching in vain for the elusive nectar!

The 21-year-old single malt Wick Whisky scored a record-equalling 97.5 points out of 100 beating 1,200 other entries to take the title ”World’s Best” Whisky

USB Barrel

USB Barrel

After tasting the tipple the judge described the whisky as absolutely exploding from the glass with vitality, charisma and class.

The winning whisky is matured in American oak casks and bottled at the Pulteney distillery in Wick, Caithness. The two runners up were both US bourbons.

Of course Scotland is famed the world over for its whisky but Pulteney is relatively new to the limelight simply because its lacks the financial muscle of other more popular brands. Hopefully this award will help whisky drinkers discover this wonderful drink.

Cost effective options open to whisky (and bourbon) distilleries to help promote their brand now include Twitter, Facebook and other Social Media channels but some are turning to exciting new products like USB Barrels (printed with the name of their whisky and pre-loaded with lots of facts and figures about the whisky).

The Custom USB Barrels supplied by USB2U are top quality products that reflect the brand values of the best whiskies in the world – they are made from a range of different real wood finishes and they are topped off with a metal screw cap.

They look fantastic printed or embossed and they attach to a keyring easily. Whilst they’re not World champions just yet they’re a champion product.

  • Share/Bookmark
Pity You Can’t Get This In Our USB Barrels

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in USB2U News | Comments Off

In the immortal words of Vernon Kay…”Our survey says…”

Monday, October 10th, 2011

OK, it wasn’t our survey but a recent survey undertaken by the BPMA (British Promotional Merchandise Association), which questioned businessmen and women about their behavioural trends, and preferences for different promotional gifts came up with some interesting findings.

As well as reinforcing the benefits that spend on promotional products deliver the survey also examined how people felt after being given a promotional item. The aim was to measure how such products affected the feelings, perceptions and the propensity to buy. Just a little more than half (56%) of those questioned said they felt more positive towards the brand/company and a very strong 79% said they were more likely to do business with the company in the future.

USB Flash Drives in Boxes

USB Flash Drives in Boxes

Interestingly the majority said they preferred to receive a promotional gift with a logo printed on it.

When it came to which promotional gifts people preferred to be given the clear winner was a USB stick which took 45% of the vote followed by a pen with 39% and a mug with 36%.

Usefulness is one of the main reasons for people retaining and using promotional merchandise and the majority of people (64%) found a USB sticks useful. The beauty of this is that repeated usage and perceptions of usefulness mean any brand printed on the product will get lots of positive exposure.

Promotional products also have a long term impact with around a quarter of all respondents able to recall the name/brand of the company that gave them the “gift” 12 months later – not something most other forms of advertising can claim.

Unsurprisingly given the results from the survey undertaken by the BPMA sales of USB memory sticks are rocketing at the moment. If you are in the market for your own printed or customised USB sticks then give the team at USB2U a call – they have been supplying USB sticks for nearly 10-years and are one of the most respected and trusted suppliers around.

  • Share/Bookmark
In the immortal words of Vernon Kay…”Our survey says…”

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in USB2U News | Comments Off

Read This Before You Commit to Buy Printed USB Flash Drives

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

The growth in the USB Flash Drive market continues unabated. Recent small prices increases (driven by the turmoil in the currency markets) have not been dampened demand and these days it’s unusual to attend a trade show, retail fair, university fresher’s fair, seminar or conference and not come away with at least one promotional USB flash drive!

The popularity of USB flash drives is primarily because they are an excellent way to distribute data, presentation slides, sales brochures, media files and so on whilst at the same time giving the recipient something that is genuinely useful and will therefore promote the brand that is printed on the USB drive beyond the event.

Printed USB Flash Drives

Printed USB Drives

If you’re in the market for printed USB flash drives for your company or school then there are some basic things you need to know and consider before you place your order with any supplier. Buying USB sticks is made all the more difficult because it’s not so much what they look like on the outside that matters but what goes inside the stick when its manufactured and with the growth in the market lots of unscrupulous sellers are making a quick killing by selling sub-standard, fake, or “masked” USB flash drives.

Here’s a quick checklist of things to ask:

Make sure you get Grade A flash memory chips inside the USB drives?

The memory chips inside any USB stick are the key component – they are what the data is stored on and if they fail you will lose you data files. Grade A chips are either branded (Hynix, Samsung etc.) or they are typically made on the same production lines but are OEM chips – both are OK but what you need to avoid are cheaper recycled chips or Grade B memory chips – these are either chips that have failed the QA checks, they are chips where some “sectors” have failed (e.g. they were manufactured as a 1GB but only 600Mb works) or they are flash chips that have been “recovered” from redundant products.

If you end up with anything other than Grade A memory chips you are highly likely to experience a higher failure rate, those flash drives that work will have a short life expectancy and they will typically have a slow read/write speed.

Make sure they are not masked

One of the more dubious tactics some USB flash drives supplies and factories are employing to win business is to “mask” the drives they supply – this is an industry terms for what amounts to fraudulently doctoring the memory to look as though it’s higher than it is.

In a typical scenario the factory will buy flash chips that failed the QA on the production lines because certain “sectors” of the memory chip could were “dead” – the chip (or wafer) did not fail in full just a proportion of it did. What the factory then does is take this partial chip and process it so that it looks OK – as an example they might dress up a 1GB chip with only 600MB of working memory to look like a 1GB again. It’ll look like a 1GB chip when you plug it into any PC but it won’t let you save more than 600MB of data to it. This is “masking” and it’s a practise that is being used more and more in the promotional sector because suppliers think the customers won’t check and they can get away with it!

Our advice is to always check a small sample of your USB flash drives – to do this you need to load data up to the advertised capacity on one PC, remove the USB drive and plug it in another PC – if some of the data is missing on the 2nd PC then you’ve been supplied USB flash drives with “masked” chips inside.

Will the Flash Drives comply with the RoHS regulations?

RoHS is the acronym that stands for the “Restriction of Hazardous Substances” and it applies to thousands of electrical and computer parts and components imported into the EU. USB flash drives have to comply with the RoHS EU Legislation and it is your responsibility to make sure that any you buy are compliant. The fines are significant so ensure you ask the right questions and if you’re uncomfortable with the answers get copies of the RoHS certificates to prove their compliance.

Above all when buying printed USB flash drives don’t just buy them based on the cheapest quote you get unless you have satisfied yourself that you know exactly what you’re buying. Ideally choose a local supplier that has a proven track record of delivery, a supplier that is going to be around if things do go wrong and a supplier you’re a confident can and will deliver on their promises. The USB drives will have your logo or brand on so they need to work or it will reflect badly on you and your company.

  • Share/Bookmark
Read This Before You Commit to Buy Printed USB Flash Drives

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Printed USB Flash Drives | Comments Off

What Are The Cheapest Printed USB Flash Drives You Can Buy

Monday, September 19th, 2011

If you’re looking to buy some USB flash drives printed with your company or school logo on then no doubt one of the criteria you’ll evaluate them against is cost. Getting a price of USB flash drives supplied in bulk and printed with your artwork on is not as straightforward as going to a web site and getting a price.

Twister USB Sticks

Twister USB Sticks

Why? Well, although some suppliers do put prices on their web sites those that do tend to have particularly high prices to cushion themselves against the daily fluctuations in the market. Buying USB drives in bulk is a bit like buying other commodities such as coffee, tea, gold or oil – they are all subject to the dynamics of the market and prices can be volatile, even within a single trading day.

Suppliers of promotional USB flash drives have to adjust their prices to take into account changes in the price if flash memory, seasonal supply and demand volatility and fluctuations in the exchange rate – all USB flash drives are purchased in USD ($) so when the Pound (£) weakens against the dollar prices increase.

The fluid nature of the market coupled with the fact that most companies looking to buy printed USB drives want them within a matter of days means that the best prices tend to be quoted on a “spot” basis and are only held for 2-3 days. So, to ensure you are getting the best price you need to shop around and get a couple of quotes from reputable suppliers.

When you get your quotes back do check to make sure that all of the costs are included and you’re not going to be landed with any nasty surprises – most good companies will include the print set-up, printing, data-loading and shipping costs. You also need to make sure that a low price does not equal a sub-standard product. Get reassurances about warranties, performance, read/write speeds and the grade of the flash memory being used in the USB stick.

There are some basic things you can do to reduce the likely cost of the flash drives you’re buying:

  • Only buy the memory you need – the most popular size for promotional or give-away USB sticks is 1GB. These are normally large enough to pre-load your own sales material onto and they have enough storage on them to be used by whoever you give them to (so your brand will get on-going exposure)
  • Buy the more popular models like the Twister Flash Drive – these get sold in the millions so they tend to be the cheapest option. Don’t be put off by this, they have remained popular over the years because they are an excellent drive, they’re a good size (physical size), they don’t have a cap to lose and they come in a wide range of colours.
  • Buy a sensible number of them in one go – you can order as little as 25 at a time but if you do this expect to pay a hefty premium. It’s simply because some fixed costs (print and carriage) have to be amortised across every order so on small orders every USB stick is picking up quite a high proportion of the fixed costs.
  • Allow at least 10 days for your order to be produced and delivered – you can get USB sticks in as little as 48hrs but typically these will be printed in the UK (rather than at the factories where they are made in China) so you’ll not only pay a premium for the UK print costs but you’re pay a premium for the “rush” service to get them to you.
Twister USB Flash Drives - The Cheapest Option

Twister USB Flash Drives - The Cheapest Option

If price is an issue then buy the twister, buy no bigger than a 1GB version and give yourself 10-days for the order to arrive.

  • Share/Bookmark
What Are The Cheapest Printed USB Flash Drives You Can Buy

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Printed USB Flash Drives | Comments Off

Putting Serial Numbers On Your USB Memory Sticks

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Lets face it the vast majority of USB memory sticks that are handed out by companies these days are primarily given away to promote the brand that’s printed on the USB stick. Occasionally companies will load them with sales material (brochures, price lists, tech sheets, movie clips and links to web sites) but more often than not the USB sticks are just used as a “giveaway”.

USB Memory Sticks with Serial Numbers

USB Memory Sticks with Serial Numbers

As giveaways they work well because they have a high perceived value and the people they are given to will typically use them to store and carry their own data around with them – it’s this regular and repeated use that gets the company’s brand exposed over and over again and the fact that the brand is associated with something that has real personal value helps to build strong emotional ties to the brand.

If sensitive data is pre-loaded onto the USB memory sticks it’s a good idea to consider password protecting the data or even putting some form of encryption solution of the USB memory stick. You might also want to associate every USB stick you give out to a specific person or company and the easiest way to do this is get a unique serial number printed on every stick and record who you give each one to.

USB Serial Number

USB Serial Number

Some companies that distribute their sales brochures and distributor and reseller price lists on USB flash drives do this not so much to track them if they get lost but to create different “batches” of USB sticks (determined by a range of serial numbers) onto which they then pre-load different prices lists (with differing discount structures etc.). When your faced with 500 USB sticks they all look the same so a serial number is just a bit of a safety net to make sure the right person/company gets the right information – you also have an audit trail of who’s been sent what.

For companies that give flash drives out to their employees of schools and universities that hand them out to students, serial numbers are a handy way of recording who has been given which USB flash drive – this way if they get lost (and they will) they can be returned to the rightful owner.

Whilst the examples here show every USB drive uniquely marked with a serial numbers they could instead be engraved a persons or companies name if preferred – you just need to provide a spreadsheet with these details when you place any order

  • Share/Bookmark
Putting Serial Numbers On Your USB Memory Sticks

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Branded Memory Sticks | Comments Off

Check Out These Printed Gift Boxes For USB Flash Drives

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Whether you’re buying USB flash drives to giveaway as a promotional item or buying them to handout to delegates at a seminar, conference or press event then you’ll need to consider whether you need them boxed or not.

Most USB flash drives are supplied in bulk, which typically means they are supplied in individual polythene bags or bubble bags and bundled into “fives” to make it easier to count them. Occasionally they are supplied in individual polythene bags and a plain white cardboard box – the “poly” bags protect the print on the flash drive and the outer cardboard box helps protect the flash drive itself.

Some companies charge for the plain (unprinted) gift boxes, others include them free of charge. A downside of any packaging around the USB flash drives is the time it takes to unpack them and re-pack them if you are planning on loading data onto them yourself before you hand them out!

So, if you are expecting your flash drives to come in boxes then it’s in your own interests to get any data loaded onto them before you take delivery of them – if not expect to spend a few tedious hours unpacking and packing and sitting in front of a PC and USB hub data-loading….not the best use of your time!

The standard plain white gift boxes most suppliers use can be printed which will lift the overall impact of the flash drives when they’re handed out. Typically this only adds a few pennies to the overall cost so it’s certainly worth considering. The examples shown here illustrate just how good branded USB flash drives look when supplied in printed gift boxes.

Printed USB Flash Drive Boxes

Printed USB Flash Drive Boxes

Understandably some companies are anti-boxes and any unnecessary packaging because they want to push a strong environmental message but the boxes are primarily there to protect the flash drives in transit. Adding a print/logo to the boxes simply makes them look a little more professional. Yes, they’ll end up in a bin but they are made from recycled cardboard and they can be recycled when discarded so any environmental impact is tiny.

If you really want to push the boat out with your packaging then there is a huge range of packaging available including metal tin presentation boxes (with our without a window), plastic gift boxes with magnetic clasps and wooden (bamboo) gift boxes. Again these look fantastic but if you’re pushing an “eco” message its perhaps best to avoid the presentation tins and plastic boxes.

  • Share/Bookmark
Check Out These Printed Gift Boxes For USB Flash Drives

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in USB Flash Drives | Comments Off

5 Reasons You Must Buy Your USB Memory Sticks From USB2U

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Are you looking for a supplier for your branded USB memory sticks? With the range of “new” suppliers that keep popping up everyday it’s increasingly difficult to work out who to entrust with your order – after all, all USB flash drives are the same aren’t they?

The short answer is no – unfortunately there seems to be a lot of USB flash drives reaching the market that are not quite what they might appear at first glance so when you’re selecting a supplier you really do need to be on your mettle.

Branded USB Flash Drives from USB2U

Branded USB Flash Drives from USB2U

Here’s just a few reasons why you should buy your promotional USB memory sticks from USB2U:

  1. We’ve been around for a while – USB2U has been supplying USB memory sticks and other USB related products via its sister company (USBNow.co.uk) since 2002. What we don’t know about the USB standard and products that use it probably isn’t worth knowing. In this time we’ve supplied millions of USB products to hundreds of thousands of customers.
  2. We’re trusted by some of the biggest brands in the world. As you might expect our customers’ range from small start-ups to some of the most powerful and respected companies in the world. The USB memory sticks we supply to these companies carry their brand so it’s their image and reputation that is on the line – no ifs, no buts, the USB sticks we supply not only have to look good but they have to work.
  3. We don’t and won’t supply cheap rubbish – we know a number of other companies are passing off masked or recycled Grade B as new Grade A flash drives – it’s normally pretty easy to tell:
    • The price is significantly cheaper than most other established and reputable suppliers can supply them at – often the price is that low that its cheaper than the core flash memory component is to buy in the flash commodity market.
    • The read/write speeds will be very, very slow – promotional flash drives are normally a little slower than flash drives you might buy in the high street but low quality drives can be significantly slower.
    • A masked drive that claims it’s a 1GB might in fact only be able to store say 600K of data – when you plug it into your PC it will say it’s a 1GB, it will even let you save nearly 1GB of data onto it but if you then try and read the data in another PC it mysteriously won’t be there!
  4. We offer a solid guarantee – our own reputation has been built over the last 9 years and we don’t let out customers down. If things go wrong and in reality it happens occasionally then we’re here to sort it out for you.
  5. Our prices might not be the cheapest but they reflect the best possible price we can offer without making any compromise on the quality of the core product – the USB flash drive. We offer immediate 30-day terms for all educational establishments and public sector organisations and we’re happy to consider requests for credit from all other companies.
  • Share/Bookmark
5 Reasons You Must Buy Your USB Memory Sticks From USB2U

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Branded Memory Sticks | Comments Off

« Older Entries
Share/Bookmark Subscribe