28th Mar 2014 | cPanel, Web Hosting, Websites
We are very pleased to offer high-speed, reliable hosting… but you wanted more. Our customers were telling us that they wanted cPanel.
cPanel is a ‘control panel’ that lets you set up all the features of your website hosting and email. It is used but a lot of hosting companies. We have it with the added twist of an improved user interface. (For those of you familiar with cPanel, it used to be a trip back to the 1990’s.)
This is available now, for less than £2.50 per month for our basic package (which is more than enough for most websites). If you are a multi-site guru, you might want our deluxe package, which starts at less than £4.40 per month.
These even include email.
To get them, before they appear on our main web host site, just go to: https://cloud-genius.com/website-hosting/ and choose the required hosting in the right-hand panel. (If you are on a mobile device, the hosting may be below the main content of the page.)
Once they appear on our main page, we will have to put the price up, so get in now!
28th Dec 2013 | General Information, Web Hosting, Websites, WordPress
For some reason (and believe me, I am not complaining) business has been brisker than usual over December. It seems to be that it is a time when people start thinking about the New Year and new beginnings. So, just before Christmas, a friend of mine set me a challenge. “I have a bit of a blog on blogspot.co.uk (Blogger) and I would like it on my new WordPress website.”
[ss_screenshot width=’300′ site=’https://saintlaika.com’]Challenge 1 was the more than 6000 posts. (He and his community has really used his blog.) Now, I could see how to import the items, using WordPress’s import facility but then he said, Challenge 2 ‘…and I need the old blog forwarded to the new one.’
I did say that I would have to look into it. That is not necessarily what I was thinking, but…
Fortunately, there is a BRILLIANT plug-in for that from rtcamp.com.
Not only did this allow the forwarding of his old blog to the new website, but it mapped all the articles on the old site to the new one!
So, if you were to click on:
https://revjph.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-renativity-of-saint-laika.html
You would end up at:
https://saintlaika.com/2013/12/24/the-renativity-of-saint-laika/
The exact right article on the new blog.
So do not fear that you are trapped into your old Blogspot account – it can easily be moved to a shiny new WordPress website. I even managed to import 6000+ posts and 40,000+ comments. (His site has had over 3,000,000 hits!)
What did you do over Christmas?
Whatever you did, have a Happy New Year.
NB Sequences explained in this article do take longer in real life 😉
27th Nov 2013 | General Information, Salesforce, Web Hosting, Websites
Here at Cloud Genius we use our own products… this means that we have a website developed in the way that we would develop one for a client. We use Salesforce in a way that we would set it up for a client. We use the same (excellent value) website hosting that we use for our clients.
Cloud Working, in the Salesforce sense, means that we do it all online. I could be based in Timbuktu or Brazil and I could still work on Salesforce (as long as I had an internet connection). Similarly, I could configure Salesforce for charities and small businesses. I can even offer support through remote-control software. (This is where I temporarily take control of a client’s mouse and keyboard to show them things. They have full control to block me at any time, but it means that I can offer support instantly, rather than visiting their office. This is a lot greener – far fewer travel miles.)
One thing struck me as ironic:
Why is it, when I can do all my work through the web, that most Salesforce consultancies are based in London? (with its inherent sky-high rents and living costs)?
Cloud Genius Ltd is different.
We practise what we preach. We do not ignore the world outside London.
We are proudly based in Wales. (The header picture of rolling hills is from a few miles away from our office.)
We will come to visit you to discuss your needs and deliver training.
The rest of the time we can do everything while in (the rather beautiful surroundings of) Wales.
All our work is cloud-based. We do not need a server room, or expensive air conditioning. Our data is protected in far more ways than if we had it in our office.
If you are in Wales and you have database needs, especially if they are customer relationship based, give us a call.
…and I forgot to mention. The lower running costs of working in Wales can be passed on to you!
7th Nov 2013 | General Information, Web Hosting, Websites, WordPress
Dear reader,
I recognise that not everyone wants to sign up with our website services straight away.
Perhaps you want a free WordPress.com website and do it all yourself – to get going and try it out.
I have been writing a guide to help you do this.
The guide is completely free of charge. Just click the Download button.
Download
This guide will get you started using WordPress on WordPress.com.
With WordPress.com you will notice certain limitations. For instance, you cannot add new plug-ins. (These are extras for your website that add functionality, like contact gathering, search engine optimisation enhancements, conversion of your WordPress site into a membership site, etc). Where these functions are present in WordPress, they tend to be less powerful than third-party versions. You are stuck with what WordPress lets you have (which, to be fair is pretty awesome).
With our WordPress sites hosted on our high-performance servers you get a lot more flexibility. The other thing you will find is that when you start paying for WordPress.com’s paid-for extras the costs start mounting up, quickly. So, when you are ready to upgrade to our servers, just contact us. We can transfer your pages and posts from your WordPress.com site, put it on a personalised domain. (Compare our cost for a domain name of around £6 per year to WordPress.com’s)
Most important thing is that you get started and Happy Web Publishing!
John
Download
PS This guide is a work in progress – as WordPress evolves the guide will need to evolve. You may feel that I have missed out something. Just email me at info@cloud-genius.com (click on the link) and I will get back to you. Your suggestion will help shape newer versions of the guide.
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.
29th Oct 2013 | Transferring, Web Hosting, Websites
Are you fed up with the hosting of your current provider?
The bad news
In the ‘old’ days, transferring a website used to be a matter of copying files to your new hosting. Updating the interweb (OK techies, re-pointing the DNS and possibly transferring the domain registration) and away you would go.
These days things are not so easy. There is usually a database to transfer. More often than not it will need some sort of alteration. If this is done badly, it will corrupt your database. I have used a number of utilities that are supposed to do this automatically, but often they either do not make all the changes necessary or they break the database or (in some cases worse) they send out notifications to all your subscribers about all your historic posts!
The good news
I can do these transitions for you remarkably quickly, as long as you have all the various usernames and passwords. Even if you don’t (for instance, your existing provider does not want you to have all the passwords), I can often help you gain access and do the transfer for you. This may take a bit longer. I pride myself in doing this with minimal (a few minutes) or zero downtime.
I love WordPress for my clients, but can transfer a number of other content management systems (e.g. Joomla!, Drupal.)
Once you are with us, we will give you all the passwords, etc. that you need in order to transfer away from Cloud Genius. Strangely that does not often seem to happen. We do not believe in chaining you to us. We want you to be free to leave but happy to stay.
See you soon!
John.
