17th Aug 2015 | Domains, Web Hosting, Websites, WordPress
Imagine the scene, our hero is being held over a fire, having weights attached to his arms and legs to pull him apart, being pierced by torturous spears. Surely he risks certain death!
Fortunately the star of our next video is not Harrison Ford but is a teddy bear.
Which would you rather do?
a) Read articles about testing toys to comply with European rules on safety, or
b) Watch a video of a teddy in a variety of dangerous situations?
Then think, which is more likely to be shared on Facebook and Twitter… perhaps even going viral?
Unless you are one of my former bosses, you are likely to be saying, ‘show us the video’!
In response to the cries of, “you can’t do that to a TEDDY”, you can respond that you are obliged to, by law. That it is for the safety of children who will enjoy the teddy.
See what has happened, you have gone viral, you are engaging with potential customers and you are not only telling people how you test, but showing them.
Put the video onto Google and you will even help your website’s ranking… Soon you will be able to see the exploits of Harrison Bear – it is still in production (i.e. not available yet), but will be on https://henbethau.co.uk In the meantime, you can see the amazing bears (and other creatures) made from recycled Welsh blankets.
3rd Jul 2015 | Defeating spam, General Information, Security and Safety
As part of my bid to live a healthier life, I have started to visit the gym regularly. It’s gets me into a good mood before work starts, it adds regularity and routine. It’s a good thing.
As I look around I am impressed by the years of commitment that the other folk have put in.1 I also noticed that some of them would put their weights and platforms and other bits in any convenient space, which is often just in front of the fire door.
It always reminds me of the phrase of a buildings inspector, ‘What time have you booked the fire?’ Obviously, you don’t know when the fire will be, so you should keep the fire exits clear at all times.
Similarly, with website security: you don’t know when the hackers or other disaster will strike. Your best defense is to ensure that your website software is all up-to-date with relevant patches, that you have security software installed and, in case all that fails, you have a backup stretching back six months (with a rapid restore option). You could do all that yourself, or you get us to manage it for you, as part of our ‘safe and secure websites’ package for WordPress. As added security, we have just added ‘noCaptcha re-Captcha’ (no more illegible text to decode, just simple questions and a tick-box) as a security option to both Woo Commerce and our website forms.
1Aside: I remember, when I joined the gym, that they showed me the range of health foods/food supplements that they had. I pointed out that if I could eat myself healthy I would be an Olympic athlete. Being in IT isn’t the best for ones physique.
17th Jun 2015 | Consultancy, e-Commerce, Event Bridge, Extract/Transform/Load, Transferring, Web Hosting, WordPress
If you have an e-Commerce website, there is a high probability that you are using either WordPress e-Commerce or Woo Commerce. In recent months, e-Commerce seems to be losing support from plug-in writers. Added to that, Woo Commerce is being bought out by Automaticc (who? the people behind WordPress).
So, it seems to be a pretty good time to move from WPeC to Woo. If you have tried any of the converters, you will probably find that they don’t quite work. Not much good if you are trying to keep your site live AND move platform.
Cloud Genius has a solution – with our expertise in Extract/Transform/Load (ETL) we use some of the best tools around, with a little magic of our own to help you make the conversion.
Talk to us about converting your site today.
21st May 2015 | General Information
Just to let you know that Event Bridge is now fully compliant with the new Eventbrite API (v3).
What does this mean?
Event Bridge just keeps on working!
If you use both Eventbrite, the world-class event booking system and Salesforce, the number 1 CRM system. You need to get your marketing information from Eventbrite to Salesforce.
Event Bridge just keeps on working in the background, creating new Salesforce Contacts and Leads from your Eventbrite events. It keeps them all marshalled into beautiful Salesforce Campaigns. Even better, it uses incredible matching technology to help eliminate duplicate entries.
For more information, just visit Event Bridge.
21st Apr 2015 | Security and Safety
This week we have seen one of the biggest benefits of Open Source – security. Stick with me there is a BIG benefit for you. (Open Source means that the code the programs are written in is available for everyone to see.)
Joost de Valk, who writes many plug-ins for WordPress, became aware of a security flaw in some of his plug-ins. WordPress and its plug-ins are also open source, so he checked other plug-ins and found that they had the same vulnerability. He was able to work with those plug-in writers to fix the flaw. If they were all using Closed Source this would not be possible. This affects some of the big-name plug-ins such as Gravity Forms, Jetpack… See the article at https://yoast.com/coordinated-security-release/
The benefit for you is two-fold:
1) By updating the plug-ins in WordPress you will fix this vulnerability.
2) If you are signed up for our Safe and Secure Websites package we will do it for you! (And check that everything works for you, and back-up your site beforehand and every day.)
4th Mar 2015 | Domains
Since Cloud Genius Ltd relocated to Wales over two years ago, we have been proud to serve the people, companies and charities of Wales.
As of this week it became even to show off this distinctiveness. The .WALES and .CYMRU extensions are all now available for purchase.
So, whether you want to go to cloud-genius.wales or cloud-genius.cymru you will arrive at our site.
7th Jan 2015 | Web Hosting, Websites
This week we have taken two new websites live. Both of them were transfers from other companies but there the similarity ends.
The Finchley Reform Synagogue (FRS) site was handled by a bespoke Content Management System (CMS). This was fine until the company that wrote it didn’t want to support it any more. FRS were given an ultimatum to move from their existing hosting and existing CMS. They wanted to move everything to a modern, open-source CMS so that they would not face this issue again. They had a site with hundreds of pages and hundreds of posts, that delivered live video. They wanted the ‘new’ site to look identical to the old one. They also needed video training materials to train staff on the use of the website.
Cloud Genius worked with the FRS on a plan to move the entire site to WordPress. You can judge the results for yourself at https://frsonline.org. In the new year they hope to move to a more flexible layout – being on WordPress the foundations for that have all been laid.
The second site was Maynard Training Services (MTS). They wanted a new site that was easy to manage. They needed a calendar of events, sections highlighting their training in the areas of First Aid, Security and Hospitality. They needed to be able to maintain it themselves. Well the new site is live at https://maynardtrainingservices.com. Already they are actively updating the site.
30th Dec 2014 | General Information, Security and Safety
This is a short one – I’ve recently phoned my bank and my insurance companies. It’s not because I live a high flying lifestyle, but because I live in the modern world and you can’t do everything on the internet.
What are the security questions they ask? Mother’s maiden name, blood type (or is that only HMRC?) and BIRTHDAY.
These are all supposed to be items of information easily known to you, but more difficult for a potential thief/scammer/fraudster to know. Yet lots of people advertise this information on their publicly available Facebook profile. Perhaps they want lots of presents? Even if you hide the information on a social media site, there has been more than one data leak. (Have you ever had a friend who doesn’t password protect their computer and has had it stolen? The thief of that computer then has your information!)
So, my advice is, put an incorrect birth date on social media sites. Perhaps have it in the same month (so that you don’t get lots of surprise gifts at the wrong time of the year) unless you like having two sets of presents…
But at least you won’t receive the NASTY surprise of having your bank account emptied!
26th Nov 2014 | Domains, Web Hosting, Websites
As many of you know, Cloud Genius is a reseller for one of the largest domain registries in the world. So, we can offer you even better prices than they can.
As part of their security & utility upgrade, the infrastructure of our website is moving.
You can still get you domains and other web services at webhost.cloud-genius.com but there is an outside possibility that you may experience some disruption. If that is the case, let us know – the contact details are on every page of our website.
Easier is to use the widget tool (see right if you are on a desktop, below if you are on a mobile).
17th Nov 2014 | General Information
Bringing the advantages of Salesforce to the people of Wales – Cloud Genius are running a Salesforce Taster Session.
The Taster session will give you the opportunity to try out the full Enterprise Edition of Salesforce. You will find out how Salesforce can help you:
- Do more business
- Be more responsive to customers
- Make more money
- Collaborate better with your colleagues
In the session:
- You will have an opportunity to use Salesforce CRM in a training environment.
- Have access to a computer for the full duration of the course.
- Ask questions.
Following the course, at your option, Cloud Genius Ltd will set up a free 30 day trial of Salesforce for you to try at your leisure.
Training will be led by John Dray, who has been leading Salesforce training since 2011, and has 3 decades of IT training experience.
Not to be missed
Usually, similar courses are £150 per delegate, so this is a chance not to be missed!
All this will take place at the Botanic Garden of Wales:
The IT Suite,
Principality House*
The Botanic Garden of Wales
Llanarthne
Carmarthenshire, SA32 8HN
on Wednesday 10 December 2014 from 9:30 to 12:30.
All this for only £25
Just book up here: https://cgsalesforcetaster.eventbrite.co.uk
If you like leaflets, then download one here and give it to a friend 🙂
Salesforce Taster Leaflet
Even better – after the course you can roam the beautiful gardens at your leisure. (Free entry to the gardens is included in the price of the ticket.)
