5th Nov 2013 | Charity, General Information, Web Hosting, Websites
It is not often that I promote a particular client, so there must be a really good reason!
The reason is that they make life better for local communities.
Community Spirit Partnership (CSP) work with communities to bring about Neighbourhood Development Plans. These plans are for the betterment of the local community and they only become a reality if the whole of the local community keeps informed and is in agreement. (Not just the ‘interested few’ who are seeking to make the local area better for themselves.)
[ss_screenshot width=’300′ site=’https://communityspiritpartnershipcic.org’ align=’right’]As you can imagine, this is quite a shift for many communities. Often there are those who get involved in local planning and ‘the rest’. CSP helps local communities get over these hurdles. It brings communities together. CSP itself is a cross between a company and a charity – a Community Interest Company (CIC), which is a special type of organisation that was created for just this sort of work. I have also known some of the people involved for more years than I care to remember – so I know that they are brilliant.
Throughout the planning and implementation process it is vital for the local community to be kept up-to-date. Part of keeping a community informed is an up-to-date website. One that is easy for the various parties to update, but allows for editorial controls, automatic, consistent formatting, allows for the posting of plans and comments and send out emails alerting people to updates and links in with social media and is rock solid…
Please check out CSP – their work is changing lives and communities. I cannot do them justice in this short article. Go to their website CSP for the full information.
It would also be GREAT if you would leave a comment. Go on – just hit that comment button. I don’t often open comments, but I would really love to know what you think about this.
1st Nov 2013 | General Information
Cloud Genius is very excited to announce a new association.
We are very pleased to have many happy customers. Now we can offer you even more!
From 1 November 2013 Cloud Genius will be working more closely with Naturally IQ Ltd. The prime players in this are John Dray of Cloud Genius and Paul Ginsberg of Naturally IQ.
This new association of friends enables us to offer more support options and draw upon a broader range of Salesforce implementation experience. We will, of course, maintain our ethos of transparency and flexibility that defines Cloud Genius and makes us so proud of our work.
21st Oct 2013 | General Information
Hello!
I have been spending some time writing tutorials on setting up websites and website hosting. I am doing this partly to ensure that I have consistent documentation, but I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be good if people found out how to set up things themselves’. I have been in the IT business a long time. So long that I soldered my first computer together!
For four years I set up and ran a department for a multi-million pound IT outsourcing company. I used that time to find the best suppliers, find the best ways to set up website hosting and domain names (and enterprise email filtering/archiving and security certificates and administer/set-up CRM packages…) Things have changed over the years and now I think things are ripe for people to do it themselves. True it is possible to use some services (e.g. 1 & 1, Wix) to set up everything for you. However, you do tend to be stuck with templates that look the same as everyone else, you cannot add all the features you want, or they may be a significant extra expense. If you want flexibility of your own website domain (e.g. cloud-genius.com, widgets.co.uk) you suddenly find them becoming expensive or inflexible. What starts out looking cheap suddenly costs an arm and a leg.
If you use my techniques, you can end up with websites that are truly unique, easy to administer (you supply the text/pictures, the website looks after the formatting), work well on mobiles as well as desktop PCs and perform excellently on Google search. You own the domain name (e.g. cloud-genius.com), you have full access to the hosting (so you can move it elsewhere if necessary). You will find that the costs are low and predictable. You want to add new features? No problem (and no cost)!
As I say, I have already had people asking me about this, but I am interested in what you think.
You can either comment on this post to let me know what you think, or sign up for information about my course – then I will let you know when it is coming.
Happy websites!
John
PS I would love to know what you are thinking. Just hit the comment button right now and let me know.
7th Oct 2013 | Defeating spam, General Information, Security and Safety
I am writing about this particular scam because it is so plausible. (First, this does not originate from Microsoft, just people purporting to be from Microsoft.)
I have received a phone call. The person on the other end of the phone informs me that I have a problem with my computer. This is causing issues and may cause my computer to be blocked from the internet. Now, as someone who knows the capabilities of malware, this is not beyond the realms of possibility. The main slip-up was that they told me how to access Windows control panel. I did play along for a while before revealing that I do not use Windows.
Here is an article from someone who played along for a little longer before revealing his hand. He was blocked from the internet, because they deleted his network driver!
[ss_screenshot width=’300′ site=’https://blog.malwarebytes.org/intelligence/2013/04/phone-scammers-call-the-wrong-guy-get-mad-and-trash-pc/’ align=’right’]
My expectation was that they would install a Trojan… I had not expected them to be so ‘hands-on’. Other scammers may try other ways to affect your computer. In the most recent call, I asked them who they were calling from – the line went dead.
Do you have experience of this type of scam? Let me know, as I am thinking of writing a tutorial, if enough people are interested.
By the way, the linked blog is from Malwarebytes. I have used their anti-malware software with Windows to great effect.
Thanks
22nd Aug 2013 | General Information
I am sure you have see vans driving around. They are all beautifully branded. Then you look at the email address and see that it is a Yahoo, or Google or and address belonging to their telecom provider. Suddenly, it does not look so professional. The thought goes through your mind, ‘Am I dealing with a fly-by-night company?’
So, why have professional email?
1. It’s necessary. Doing business nowadays (online or not) requires email — whether it’s for customer correspondence, receiving invoices from distributors, or sending a quick memo to employees.
2. It’s professional. Having a custom email address that includes the domain name is much more professional that using a free email service. It tells people that the business is legitimate, not amateur.
3. It reinforces branding. Associating a business with something free, like ThisIsMyBusiness@Yahoo.com, shares half of the branding with another company. Surely, your customers don’t want to advertise for Yahoo!’s email service every time they send an email message. Also, people are much more likely to remember a business’s name if it’s in the email address.
4. It’s flexible. Your customers can create the email addresses they need. For example, if your customer’s site is CoolExample.com, then he or she can create email addresses like Info@CoolExample.com and Sales@CoolExample.com.
Best of all, we have professional email solutions starting from pence per month! Have a look at Cloud Genius Web Hosting. If you have any problems, we can help you set it up. We are the experts! 🙂
17th Jul 2013 | General Information, Web Hosting, Websites
[ss_screenshot width=’300′ site=’https://webhost.cloud-genius.com’]Special Promotion
Money off!
Our servers are faster than ever.
I would have said that our servers are HOT, too… but that would have given the wrong impression.
Our partner’s website hosting servers are going through an ongoing programme of replacement. They are now faster than ever before.
To celebrate, we are offering money off all products until the end of the August bank holiday, 5 August 2013.
Spend over £40 and get 10% off when you enter the code HOTSUMMER at the checkout.
To cash in, go to: webhost.cloud-genius.com
