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Pre-loading your USB flash drive to start-up on plug-in

It is a good idea to start up a program or presentation once your customer plugs-in the flash drive into a computer or a laptop. The simple functionality of displaying your brand or company information can be rewarding; however there is a significant downside.

It can be interesting and appealing to see your presentation a couple of times; however seeing the presentation every time you plug-in the flash drive into the computer can become increasingly annoying. Do not forget that the start-up will occur each time the drive is plugged in. After a while your company or brand may not be associated with a great feeling, but with a complete nuisance and bother.

Since the automatic start-up functionality can be easily abused by virus makers and malware, many operating systems include the functionality to deactivate the automatic start-up feature. Therefore, the program that you planned to start automatically on the customer’s computer will most likely not start.

While it may seem as a good idea to start-up your presentation or a program automatically, in practice it is not worth the time. Even if the start-up functionality is set to work on your customer’s computer, the automatic nature of your content can be very annoying or bothersome instead of useful or entertaining.

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Secure your data with strong encryption

Flash drives and SSDs (solid state drive) are popular for storing and backing up large amount of data. They are compact and easy to use; however they are also easy to misplace and it is easy for someone to steal these devices.

How do you protect your data? Even if you store pictures and simple documents, there is no reason why your data should be comprimised when it gets into someone’s hands.

The simplest way to protect your data is by encrypting it with strong encryption and strong password. Many people including the author don’t want the hassle of dealing with entering passwords, remembering them, and just the whole ordeal with dealing the “hurdle” that prevents immediate access to data.

While some of us have been delaying with securing of our data, TrueCrypt folks have been busy making encryption of data easy. The encryption software package is small and is available for free. The software can encrypt files, partitions, or whole disks with automatic, real-time encryption with strong encryption standards such as AES.

Installation of the TrueCrypt software is simple and is guided with a helpful wizard. Once the installation is complete and the password is selected, working with your files has never been easier. When working with encrypted partitions or encrypted flash drives or SSDs, the password needs to be entered only once and then your data is accessible and can be used just like on any drive. Once your drive is unplugged from the computer, the data is secure and protected.

When ordering your flash drives, consider security for your own flash drives as well as for your customers. The small TrueCrypt installation can be pre-loaded on your flash drives for free. Secure data should not be optional, protect your flash drives, computer, or SSDs with simple to use encryption package that works seamlessly with your regular computer use.

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Cost of promoting with USB flash drives

There are numerous sites that sell USB flash drives for the promotional market. You don’t have to look closely to notice that all of them guarantee the lowest price. Another gimmick is to use a certain percentage by which a store will beat the competitor’s price. These are fancy marketing tools that are utilized to instill a level of confidence in the client; however is there any substance behind the “hype”?

Product marketing is a game of dollars; a company that can use large marketing dollars most effectively usually wins the largest market share and sells the most product. However, many promotional product purchasers neglect a simple fact of economics – a company that spends large amount of dollars on marketing, hiring staff, and other significant day-to-day expenses must get it back somehow.

How do companies recover the operational costs? In the promotional product world, that means raising the price of the product. Do you feel like an economics detective? Go to any large promotional product website and compare the prices of these large stores to a site such as ours. You will be surprised at a price difference.

Recalling an actual customer conversation, I was told that our prices are so low in comparison to other promotional site that it was scary! Unfortunately, the customer was referring to to an uneasy feeling about purchasing the same product, but for a significantly lower price.

A very low price may actually frighten customers into not buying the product.  People may naturally feel that a low price means low quality product or inferior service. In order to dispell this belief, a company may actually need to start a marketing campaign that lets everyone know that these prices are factory direct, wholesale, or without a middleman. The marketing campaing will in-turn raise the operational costs, and ultematey raise the price. Now the circle is complete!

Believe it or not, we like to keep it simple. Being a small company, we sell quality products at very low prices. The product comes directly from one of our contracted factories, and we pass the savings to you. Everything is checked for quality before it’s shipped and we are always here to help and follow-up with you.

Don’t be fooled by slogans, gimmicks, and hype. Do a straight price comparison; contact the seller to ensure that price checks-out by asking to generate an official quotation. Spend a few minutes to do research; it may pay back in thousands!