Stuff4blokes

Learning all the time

2011-10-12T01:28:00.000-07:00

I have not been on here for a very long time for so many reasons I will not bore you with any of them. I have come back this morning and thought that I would indulge myself!

I have been using Facebook for several years and use it to keep in touch with family and friends - think that is what it was intended for anyway. I also used to be a youth worker for many years and keep in touch with quite a few of the young people that I used to work with. It is great to see how they have progressed and to see what they are doing now - some have really surprised me - good and bad!

I signed in for Twitter and do Tweet occasionally but some people do it all the time - how do they find the time and am I really interested to know that they decided to have tea instead of coffee this morning? They just post so many Tweets that I can't be bothered reading them and am getting a bit bored with the whole thing.

Now we come to LinkedIn - I went to a JNet business networking meeting last night at the V+A hotel in Manchester. There was a guest speaker called Will Kintish and he was talking about the value of LinkedIn. He was very entertaining and informative - I had never heard him speak before. I have decided to give it a go and will be starting my LinkedIn account in the next few days. I will let you know how I get on.

So, with Facebook, Blogspot, Twitter and LinkedIn will I have any time to update http://www.stuff4blokes.com?

ITV 60 minute makeover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-10-08T06:17:00.000-07:00

Last year www.stuff4blokes were approached by ITV 60 Minute Makeover and asked to donate some items for one of their shows. After a quick think we sent them a RockQube and a Mini Table Football - that is what they asked for. We waited and waited for the show to be shown and eventually they contacted us to give us the date for the beginning of October. Great we thought and hoping for increased business we bought additional stock.

Well the show went out this week and what a surprise - the table football was not there. Checked on their website and it was not listed. So, emailed and asked what has happened to it. The reply has just come back that they did not use the table football and have sold it for charity.

How do I know that and maybe I do not support that charity. They did not ask my permission to do that and have taken and used our donation which was to a specific cause for something else entirely.

Beware - do not get caught.

Where have you been?

2010-02-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

I suppose what I mean is where have I been? It is ages since I last wrote anything on here and I do not know what I have been doing to not find the time. I seem to have been really busy and not had a chance to write things down but when I ask myself what have I achieved then the truth is very little.

I visited the Spring Fair at the NEC and saw so many different ideas that I am still going through them all to decide which ones we are going to add to the website. The sales people are starting to phone and are asking whether we have decided what we want to buy from them but the trouble is there are so many options to choose from that I cannot decide which to buy now, which to buy later and which to put totally on the back burner. How are some people so efficient - where do they find the time?

What I ask myself though is with so much happening and so many awful events every day why do the media get so obsessed with famous people. The fuss that they are making over the antics of some of the Chelsea footballers! I think that 5Live even had people emailing and texting about whether John Terry should have resigned from England football team instead of Wayne Bridge. They are even speculating whether they will shake hands tomorrow at the Chelsea v Manchester City game. All eyes will be watching and then will talk about it no doubt for ages. What is much more important is whether Manchester City can beat Chelsea, City could certainly use the 3 points and funnily enough I bet it is one of the only times when the red side of Manchester are hoping for a City win.

Anyway back to where have I been - the answer is I do not know!

2009-12-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

Why does the whole country grind to a halt every year as soon as it snows?

We live at the bottom of a hill and it has been very entertaining watching the cars trying (and usually failing) to drive up the hill. Once you get to the top of the hill and onto a sort of main road then things begin to improve but getting up the hill is a nightmare! This morning there was a BMW stuck at the bottom for over 30 minutes before he decided to give up. I managed to get up in my Mini - the other half said it is something to do with front or rear wheel drive. He explained it in detail to me but wheels are wheels to me so it doesn't make any sense. What difference can it possibly make whether you have front or rear wheel drive on a car? Surely all wheels are involved - otherwise what is the point of having them?

I love my Mini, it has great character and I have become a Mini collector - all things Mini. On our website we sell a remote control desk USB Mini and I just had to have one for myself. It is great fun, small and compact but full of character - just like the real thing.

I also have a Union Jack Mini Car Clock sat next to my computer - keeps the time perfectly and makes me smile every time that I look at it. Keeping my eyes open for other things to add to my small but growing collection. It is like being part of a family - quite a lot of Mini drivers acknowledge each other (I think a bit like years ago AA members did).

When I was getting petrol last week there was an original Mini next to mine at the garage and I was stunned to see the difference in size, I am not sure how they managed to get in the original they are so small but still a great car.

SWINE FLU!!!!!

2009-12-07T08:29:00.000-08:00

How do you know if you have had Swine Flu?

Everyone keeps saying that "there is a lot of it about". Fine, but how do you know when a virus or a cold is not just a virus or a cold BUT the famous (or infamous) Swine Flu. I just do not know. I have been ill for a few days, temperature, headache, aches, pains, coughing, sneezing and generally feeling weak. I said that I am just not well but no - others with similar symptoms inform me that they have had Swine Flu. OK, I can understand if you were given loads of money for having this thing but you get nothing, so why claim it and feel proud to have it? Seems to have caught the imagination of the media and it is like a badge of honour - a bit like some people treat an ASBO!

Anyway I have been under the weather for the last few days - that's a funny saying UNDER THE WEATHER - wonder where it originates from? Just when I need loads of energy I seem to have run out - things are going really on the website and we are being kept busy. Sold 3 Techno Balls this week already so some people are going to be having fun this Christmas building them.

Anyway, feeling a bit better so back to work.

Perfect Red Wine

2009-11-26T06:32:00.000-08:00

I have been to the supermarket and to the local shops, bought some very good products and spent most of the day preparing a dinner party for some really good friends. The other half has helped and we have managed not to hit each other "sharing" the kitchen and even the washing up has been done.
Everything is nearly ready, the table is set and I asked the other half to select some wine from the wine rack but for some reason the rack is empty. I didn't realise that we had drunk the last few bottles. (Must have been a good night). Not a problem though because it always makes sense to have some in reserve and there is a new case of my favourite in the garage. Now for some people this would be a problem because red wine in a garage will be cold but I have the solution. A friend had bought me an early Christmas and Birthday present of a Therm au Rouge red wine sleeve which is an excellent invention. Just pop the sleeve around the bottle, click the button and wait a few minutes- the wine is then at the required temperature.

Another brilliant item that I use for wine is the Rouge O2 electronic wine breather. You know when you taste a good wine it is usually smooth and if you are in a posh restaurant they decant the wine into a decanter. Well you can get similar results at home using the Rouge O2 wine breather. Our website stuff4blokes stocked them and I decided to give one a try and thought that it was fantastic. It really made a difference to the wine, made a mediocre bottle of wine into a good bottle of wine. Used it loads of times now and when I don't you can really tell the difference.

A couple of months ago I was driving and listening to Radio 2 when the man that created or invented the wine breather came on the radio to talk about it. Since then there has been a lot of interest in this device but it is amazing that some peopel still do not have one. It is not expensive to buy and it really makes a difference.

TICK TOCK - Fashion or Function

2009-11-18T07:46:00.000-08:00

What sort of watch do you have? When I ask that I mean is it a fashion statement or does it just tell the time?

My watches have always been boring, functional watches that are good time keepers - they tell me what I want to know - basically what the time is when I look at it. They are reliable and always there on my left wrist. I know that some people have them on their right wrist, some have them in their pockets and some don't bother at all. (I wonder if they are the ones that are always late and you see them running for the train or bus?)

Anyway, as part of our website we decided a few weeks ago to stock and sell a selection of men's watches. We looked around and found a couple of ranges that are exceptional value for money - in particular Louifrey Watches. We chose some to start with and they are proving quite popular.

This has started me thinking though about my watch and I have decided that a watch does not need to be boring to be functional, it can also be fashionable. It can make a statement about who you are. I am going to buy some watches for myself - yes "some" - why should I only have one watch? I can have a few watches, different styles and different colours so that I can wear a watch to match my mood, my clothes, whether I am going out or going to work. In the past I have had one watch at a time but things are going to change. The watches on our website are such good value that people buying them could buy 2 or 3 at a time. Now what I need to do is start selling stuff 4 women not just stuff4blokes and then I could buy from myself!!!

Adults Only

2009-11-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

We have expanded the choice of Adult Only board games on our website Stuff4blokes. We used to just have Monogamy which was extremely popular in USA and is becoming more popular in the UK. It is a great game to play with your partner. Certainly not for prudes! We have now managed to get Lust which is exactly what it says! It is raw and raunchy and the feedback from people that have played it is fantastic. You need to be confident with who you are and who you are with to play this. We have heard of some people playing this as a Party Game - a bit too far for me. Each to their own I suppose - and if they are happy.

We have loads more games and the other half thinks that we should try before we sell ................so I'll be back to report but please remember these are for Adults ONLY!

2009-10-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

Went to Business North West on Wednesday at what used to be called GMEX and has been renamed Manchester Central. There were a large number of businesses exhibiting but very few that fitted in with what I was looking for.

What was interesting though was that there were a range of free lectures that anyone could attend. I chose to go to "Google University" and attended a very interesting hour long talk about Google Analytics. I know that many people use Google Analytics and they say how useful a tool it is but I have never managed to get my head round it. I was amazed at how much detail you can find out and the number of tasks it carries out.

It sounded so simple and as soon as I got back to my computer I fired it up and was fired up myself to register with Google Analytics. I was really looking forward to finding out what it could tell me about my website, how I can improve traffic and most of all improve sales.

First step - register, well that bit went fine, not a problem. Then it said that I had to put a specific bit of code on every page of my website so that it could start to read it and then I presume do the analysing bit. Right, now this is where the problem starts because I have not the foggiest how to do that.
I did not create the site from code. It started life as an off the shelf website from EKM Powershop and has just had a redesign by one of the other "EKM ers". EKM are a great little community on the web. If you want a shop and do not know how to write a website from scratch then just visit EKM and take it from there - brilliant.

Now I am going to study the Google Analytics help pages to find out what to do and how to do it and I am also going to post a question on the EKM forum and hopefully someone can explain what I need to do.
If you are reading this and can explain will you please get in touch or write a comment.

The biggest question is why are some people so good at computer technology and others are not. I know that we all have different skills but some seem to have more than their fair share.

Frustrating

2009-10-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

It is so frustrating! We are trying to run an ecommerce shop, bought loads of new stuff for Christmas, paying money to have a brand new design on the website and Royal Mail decide to strike.

Well, for the bigger companies they can negotiate deals with a variety of couriers so that their customers will still be able to shop with them and get delivery of their goods.
For ecommerce shops that do not have a stock and just use drop shippers then they can pass the problem on to the drop shipper.
For those people that have a shop as well as a website they can try to ride the storm and hope that customers will temporarily turn their backs on websites and buy from a bricks and mortar shop.

For small companies that do not have the buying clout to get good deals with a courier, that is IF the courier will even consider them - then we have a big problem! We might not be able to get a courier to do our deliveries and if we do then we will have to pay high prices and probably be pushed aside if a bigger order comes through. As a small company, just developing, we are going to be hit hard. Our sales will take a nosedive because I believe that people will be unsure when they will receive their goods and do less shopping online.Also what sales we do make will make less profit as carriage will be more expensive.

Not an easy time at the moment, rant is now over, thanks for reading - going for a glass of wine!

Taking the plunge.

2009-10-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well - finally taken the plunge and having a site makeover. Getting quite excited about it really - doesn't take much! We have been using a template for the last few months and we wanted the site to look more professional. We have taken advice from a few people and hopefully we have taken the right decision.

We are using a new company - a young person (well most people are young compared to me) just starting off in Web Design. We have seen a few examples of work that he has already done and think that he will do a great job on our site. http://www.stuff4blokes.com/ Maybe bookmark the site and keep popping back to see the changes and if you have any thoughts then please send a comment.

We have just received several new Baby Axe Guitars and have added them all to the site. The quality of each guitar is absolutely amazing. They are a perfect idea as a gift for someone - if they are a fan of a particular group or band then they can own a mini replica of teh guitars used. We know of one person that has quite a collection. They look fantastic. There are other brands on the market but Baby Axe are quality.

ITV

2009-10-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

Brilliant - ITV have been in touch - they are filming 60 Minute Makeover on Tuesday and wanted 2 items from us. They will give us publicity on the programme, they just don't give us money for the items. So, we had to think, do we say "no" and miss out on some publicity or say "yes" and miss out on some money? We decided to give it a try, it could be a mistake and they have taken advantage of our generosity, on the other hand 1.5 million people watch the programme. Time will tell I suppose.

We have only had one of the items in for a few days - they have only just arrived in this country - so someone at ITV is on the ball. It is a RockQube stereo speaker - looks great. The sound from it is absolutely amazing, could not believe that such a good sound could come out of such a small box.
The other item is a Deluxe Table Football We have had those for a while and they are quite popular. They are really solid and give (us) hours of fun. One day I will beat my other half - trouble is he is always cheating! Typical male!

My very first experience.

2009-10-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

I have just signed up and this is my very first blog.

Stuff4blokes is an online shop selling a range of gifts for men. After reading lots of advice about whether to blog or not to blog - my answer to the question is to give it a try.

Don't have any idea what to say - have even less idea of whether anyone will read it or how people will find it. Maybe over the next few weeks I will learn. Anyway need to go now and wrap some miniature guitars for posting tomorrow - so if you ordered from www.stuff4blokes after 5.00pm today your items will be in tomorrow's post.