Welcome to Pete White's 'World Famous' ImAFish - based from Shrewsbury, UK - covering technology, photography, money making and life - on-line since 2001!

How to find the best CPA Networks

Mon, 14/05/2012 - 7:08pm — Pete

With the choice of 100s of CPA Networks how do you whittle them down to the best quality and value? How should you know which to sign up for and why not just join them all?

  1. Look for a trusted network -  CPA networks come and go, some stay for longer than others so look for a well established network with good positive feedback in Google. There are many forums for discussing CPA networks and its easy to search Google for content related to the network you are researching.
  2. Look for a CPA network that has experience in your niche - different networks have different areas of expertise, look for one that either has experience in your niche or in your wider sector. This will help match more relevant adverts to your content helping your conversion rates.
  3. Look for networks without automatic enrolment - networks that let anyone in are bad for the overall quality of sites. Networks that have strict guidelines are more likely to have better quality merchants and publishers.
  4. Look for networks with a lot of offers - look for a network with at least 100 offers so that you have the choice and flexibility in choosing advertising for your website.
  5. Look for networks with high payout percentage - it goes without saying that you want to get as much as possible from the adverts you run on your site so shop around until you find the best rates.
  6. Look for networks with good transparency on tracking - you want to make sure that every offer that goes through your site is tracked.
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Shrewsbury IT Firm Recognised For Their Work With Local Businesses

Thu, 10/05/2012 - 1:15pm — Pete

Shrewsbury based Information Solutions Limited have won an award at the Mayor of Shrewsbury annual awards ceremony. The award was presented by the mayor in recognition of Information Solutions’ “outstanding contribution to the community in the business sector”.

On receiving the award, company director Simon Atkin said: “It’s great to be recognised for the hard work we do in the town helping local businesses with their IT requirements. We’ve been helping local companies to improve their competitive edge with advanced information technology for the last nine years. Information Solutions also trade as The Web Orchard and we’ve been very involved with local creatives to add web development to our portfolio. We like to think that the services we provide are of great benefit to the town”.

Mayor Tony Durnell with Pete White

Presented by Mayor of Shrewsbury, Councillor Tony Durnell, the awards are held annually at the town’s Guildhall and cover categories including Business, the Environment, Tourism, Community and Youth activities. Shrewsbury takes civic pride in being an innovative and dynamic area for businesses.

Information Solutions have been providing IT Support and Services to businesses throughout The Midlands and Wales since 2003. They serve some of the largest - and smallest - organisations in the area from their offices in The Pump House, Shrewsbury. The company provides a wide range of services, from advanced ecommerce websites and advanced network installations through to computer maintenance and IT consulting services.

  

Chris Pritchard from shropshirelive.com & Pete White with their respective awards.

Simon Atkin with the award.

What to look for in an Air Purifier?

Sat, 21/04/2012 - 1:59pm — Pete

With the hayfever season quickly approaching its that time in the year where my throat won't stop itching, nose won't stop running and eyes won't stop itching. I've tried a lot of things over the years from various antihistamines, sprays and local honey.

What I found worked well last year was a good air purifiers in the house and I'm now looking for one in the office. There are many things to consider when looking for an air purifiers, here are some of the most important:

  • HEPA Air Filter - these trap upto 99.97% of polutants and are the most effective types of filter.
  • Carbon Air Filter - these are the most absorbant types of air filter and are very effective at removing nasty smells and chemicals from the air.
  • Air Ironizer - by releasing negative ions, particles in the air are more likely to clump together be filtered out.
  • Lasting Filters - many air purifiers require you to change filters every few months, when buying check how often you need to change filters and the cost involved.
  • Noise - many air filters include fans which can cause noise, make sure you check the noise rating when buying.
  • Electric Consumption - air purifiers can be expensive to run so check the energy rating when buying.

For a full range of air purifiers please click here.

Security Awareness

Thu, 12/04/2012 - 6:59pm — Pete

Security in any organisation is essential but is the security from your own employees often overlooked and letting you down? Threats can present themselves almost daily so its essential that your employees know how to react.

Some of the biggest risks include:

  • Laptops or mobile devices without correct access control can lead to loss of important data if stolen.
  • Not updating anti-virus or anti-malware sofware can lead to infection of one or more computers. Often once one computer on a network is compromised it can lead to increased infections on other machines.
  • Internet browsing and downloading files from the internet can reduce network bandwidth and loss of worker productivity.
  • Inproper control of flash drives or other removable devices can lead to data loss if lost or stolen.
  • Poor choice of passwords or use of common passwords can be easy for attackers to exploit.

Investing in employee training costs time and money however its an important step for securing your organization and its customers.

According to the European Network and Information Security Agency, 'Awareness of the risks and available safeguards is the first line of defence for the security of information systems and networks.'

Modern technology can only go so far to proecting your organisation and without good quality online security training it can be completely undermined if employees don't follow their role in the overall security plan.

 

Draw Something Pictures

Sat, 07/04/2012 - 1:24pm — Pete

Some of the best Draw Something pictures I've either drawn or have been sent:

Online Bingo: An Overview

Wed, 04/04/2012 - 5:06pm — Pete

Bingo is one of the most popular online games in the UK. In fact, the UK is the world’s largest online bingo market. There are approximately four hundred sites where you can play online bingo on the internet, and it seems a new one is launched every week. Online bingo is easy to play and no special computer skills are required. All that is needed is an internet connection and a desire to play. For new players free bingo is available at many bingo sites. There are sites that specialize in free bingo and most pay bingo sites offer free bingo games. Playing free bingo is a great way for new players to test a site’s game software.

Bingo is a random game of chance and players do not have to learn any complicated game strategies or confusing rules. Games are controlled by a random number generator. Bingo operators in the UK are required to have their software and random number generators tested to ensure that all games are fair and random. Bingo sites licensed in the UK offer players a high level of consumer protection.

Most bingo sites offer traditional 75 ball and 90 ball bingo games. In the US, 75 ball is the most popular bingo game while in the UK most players prefer 90 ball bingo. In addition there are 80 ball games available and 30 ball games known as ‘speed bingo.’ Players can log on to their favorite site and play bingo games from the comfort and privacy of home.
 

The Week it was Sunny in Shrewsbury

Thu, 29/03/2012 - 8:52pm — Pete

A few photos I've taken out and about this week in Shrewsbury.

Severn Magazine Issue 5

Tue, 27/03/2012 - 8:23am — Pete

Latest issue of Severn Magazine.

New Website For Shrewsbury Charity

Sun, 11/03/2012 - 3:09pm — Pete

Build IT International build schools, health facilities and housing; employing local materials and sustainable technologies throughout sub Saharan Africa and are based in Shrewsbury Shropshire.

After a period of fantastic success, completing their latest projects , Director, Andrew Jowett knew they needed to raise their profile to take the charity to the next phase. "I've always known how the Internet could be used as a powerful social tool, but I've been too focused on the work at hand to spend the time on it required" explained Andrew. For this reason he employed local web designers, The Web Orchard to create a complete online personality for the charity. "We're very pleased with our new website but it's been the extra attention to detail, promoting our activities on Facebook and Twitter that really gets our message out there. We can easily communicate with massive audience." said Andrew, adding "Please follow us on Twitter @build_it_int

Their previous website had lasted for a number of years however the short comings were becoming increasingly clear in an era defined by social interaction and interactive media. The Web Orchard's Chief Web Architect Pete White said “Build It International have some outstanding past and present projects and with their archive of content, imagery and videos we wanted to showcase as much as possible whilst maintaining an easy to use, informative website. Build It have a lot to say and we didn't want to overwhelm a visitor, so there's some neat design gone into their website to allow the reader to view the information at their pace.”

Since its launch in October the website has seen a 50% increase in traffic and has helped generate a greater awareness of the charity and the work it does. Charity Director Andrew Jowett added “We’ve been thrilled by the work The Web Orchard have completed for us, their attention to detail and service has been excellent”.

Find out more about Build It International at www.builditinternational.org
Find out more about The Web Orchard at www.theweborchard.com

Building the New Information Solutions Website

Sun, 04/03/2012 - 11:13am — Pete

It's ten times harder to build your own website. With a customers site you can find out exactly what they want, make suggestions of what they could do and come up with a specification covering the site plan, design, structure etc.

When building your own website however you already know what you do as you do it every day yet it seems a whole lot harder turning that into an appealing website. 

As with most of our projects we turned to our designer to put together the graphical elements. We've been slowly building on our marketing material over the past 18 months with folders, business cards and more recenltly our brochure so we had a good selection of branding material to base the design on.

Next we turned to our copy writer to help turn what we knew so well into content that would be informative and appealing to the reader. We spent a lot of time working through every paragraph to minimise the jargon and waffle.

Finally we needed to turn the design and text into a website. We went through several iterations with some of the finer elements, the block at the top that fades between services took us especially long to get right.

The end product we hope showcases the business in the way we want it to be seen, the balance between professional and business IT services works well and compared to the local competition we feel we've got a really strong offering.

Let me know what you think and find out more at www.info-sol.co.uk.