Thank you all for the overwhelming response to the lifeblob store.

We are glad that you like the choice of products on offer and we are working hard to provide you options that give more more control over the design of products and also offer you a wider choice in the designs available. But thats stuff we are working on and something that I will detail in a future post.

In our continued efforts to make it a rewarding experience for you to purchase personalized photo gifts from our store, we are now offering free shipping on the entire range of our products. Yes, you read it right, you don’t need to pay a penny for shipping as long as your order exceeds Rs 150/-.

So what are you waiting for – visit the lifeblob photo gifting store now to turn your photos into magical gifts and bring a smile on the face of your loved ones.

Two weeks back, we silently turned on the lifeblob photo merchandise store, sprinked around a few tweets and waited in the hope that one of the hyperactive bloggers ( techcrunch, mashable, pluggd.in et al.. ) will discover it before our formal announcement and brag about breaking the big news before everyone else.

The stage was well set, and cards properly laid out for the sensational discovery, but alas, that did not happen so finally you get to hear about it from the horse’s mouth. The good part is that our customers did find out about the store and we got several orders and a lot of great feedback during these two weeks which we implemented before making this announcement.

So here is the grand announcement – the lifeblob store is finally open for business!

If you are already a lifeblob user, its very easy to place an order – simply click the “Buy Prints” button next to your photos and get started. If you are not already using lifeblob, this is a great time to get an account and turn your photos into beautiful personalized products.

We have partnered with Printo to bring you the highest quality photo merchandise at a price that you can afford. Here is a quick preview of what we are selling currently:

1) Photo Mugs, starting Rs 299 Rs 249 only ( you save 17% )

2) Photo Greeting Cards, starting Rs 50 Rs 40 only ( you save 20% )

3) Designer Photo Frames, starting Rs 299 Rs 199 only ( you save 33% )

4) Canvas Prints, starting Rs 1399 Rs 999 only ( you save 23% )

5) Simple Photo Prints, starting Rs 5 Rs 2.99 only ( you save 40% )

6) Photo Books, coming soon

7) Photo Calendars, coming soon

Do try it out and share your experiences / testimonials with us at feedback@lifeblob.com. Please note that the prices above represent a limited period inaugural offer, so place your orders now!

Last week was an exciting and challenging time for us. The NASSCOM Emerge conference in Chennai was coming close and we were working on putting together a showcase of all NASSCOM photos from previous editions on their lifeblob page.

Thats when, Avinash Raghava ( Regional Director of NASSCOM North ) asked us if in addition to the live coverage of the event through photos, we could also provide a live gifting solution where photos of the speakers are used to create photo gifts that are given to them as souvenirs. The idea sounded very exciting so after some initial research we decided to take up this challenge.

So how did we do it?

1) As per the schedule of the event, there were two parallel sessions with multiple participants in the panel through the day. This would mean creating between 5 – 10 photo gifts in 1 hour and this instantly ruled out the possibility of getting the photos printed from an external printer. We decided to carry a HP Photo printer with us.

2) The gifts had to be branded with NASSCOM Emerge graphics. Initially, we created a template that we would merge with the photo to print a branded photo at the event, but we felt that it would increase the turnaround time and is also more prone to errors. We decided to get a tent photo frame printed in Bangalore with a slot where the photo can be inserted. We also got 130 gsm glossy photo paper, a cutter, a scale and glue for the job.

3) On the venue, we setup our equipment at the back of the conference room and did a test run before the event started. Here is Rahul operating our setup at the venue.

4) I took the role of the camera person and Rahul took the role of the gift creator. As soon as a session began, I would run to grab photos of all the speakers and then go to the other room to get photos of the speakers in the other room. It took me 10 minutes to take these photos and thereafter another 30 – 40 minutes to post-process, crop and print them.

5) In the end, the photos were cut out and slotted on the photo frame to create the gift. Here is what it looks like.

It was a great experience for us and I must thank Avinash Raghava for giving us this idea and for Kiruba Shankar for coming up with it. And I hope all the speakers liked it .

PS: We are open for any such ideas for corporate and social events. Drop in a mail at contact@lifeblob.com. We would love to hear from you!

We’ve been thinking how we can help our users do more with their photos and one of the things that we hear very often is:

“Hey, I’m happy to see my photos online and see my friends comment on it, but it would be kinda nice if I could print them!”

So a few weeks back, we decided to figure this out and I’m happy to announce that we will be announcing the launch of a lifeblob photo store really soon.

The lifeblob photo store will allow you to turn your photos into beautiful frames, personalized greeting cards, canvas prints and gorgeous photo books. You will also be able to get your favorite photos printed on T-Shirts, Mugs and several other artifacts.

To take advantage of our location, the store will initially be opened up for delivery within India and will thereafter be scaled up to enable deliveries in other countries as well. If you would like to see your country supported, do send us a note at feedback [at] lifeblob.com and it may just help us prioritize our next steps!

So get your printing wishlist ready and watch out for our launch announcement soon!