When I first wrote about Instagram in December of 2010, it was only just becoming the wildly popular social network that it is today. Since releasing their API, some companies started taking the great photos you can take on Instagram and do cool things with them. Take Stickygram for example - choose 9 of your favorite Instagram photos and turn them into fun, high-quality magnets.

GOOD

- The magnets are a lot thinner than I imagined they would be, but who needs fat magnets anyway?

- Having cute photos of my pets will make my mom absolutely giddy.

- The actual printing on the magnets looks pretty good although some coloring looks flat.

- Free shipping.

NOT SO GOOD

 - 15 dollars seems pretty high for what you get, but if you are using the service for a fun gift it's well worth it.

- Stickygram is based in the UK and it took nearly 12 days for my magnets to arrive. Not good for trying to get a last minute birthday gift (like in my case!)

Also, another cool service that makes physical postcards out of Instagram photos is Postagram. 99 cents per postcard and they ship them directly to any address!

Paying or not, your customers are your best marketing tools
From Seth Godin:

 But what if you define "best customer" as the person who brings you new customers through frequent referrals, and who sticks with you through thick and thin? That customer, I think, is worth far more than what she might pay you in any one transaction. In fact, if you think of that customer as your best marketer instead, it might change everything.

I haven't actually contributed any money to Hipmunk (does it even make any reasonable revenue yet?) but they've already got themselves a lifelong fan in me just from this simple gesture. A couple months ago I had a conversation with one of their workers through Olark on their website and I asked if I could have any free swag (I like free stuff, OK?!). Lo and behold, the package arrived at my doorstep after having completely forgotten about it yesterday.

This little chipmunk never fails to make my day! Hipmunk can expect plenty of referrals, conversations about how cute their logo is, and general chatter about how awesome their company is just because they sent me some stickers, a nice PERSONALIZED thank you note, and some travel tags :)