GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 22 - October 2012

With SEO I prefer to take my time. I like to do it slowly and get it right, rather than rushing in and being penalized. I also like try- ing new things to see if they make any difference and if they do, I try to implement them elsewhere. Are you still looking for a good link-building SEO company? Not at the moment, no; I’m just too wary of them. I found a lot of them wanted to charge stupidly high amounts for things I can do myself. I’m wary of SEO advice in general at the moment; I seem to find that one says one thing is the golden key to success, while another says it’s the worst thing ever. How are your Facebook pages performing for you currently? Facebook hasn’t been that great, really; the stats tell you how many people your posts have reached, which is usually a good indicator, but the actual traffic from it has been poor. There is definitely room for improvement. You said recently that Chrome was on top for you in the stats, with Internet Explorer and Firefox a distant second and third. Is Chrome also your personal favorite? Yeah, it is my favorite without a doubt. I like the various free plugins you can easily install and use. Also, I find Internet Explorer quite buggy at times, and Firefox uses so many resources it’s unreal. Literally every time we make a change to the sites, we check cross-browser compatibility, and the problems have always been in Internet Explorer. My opinion is if Microsoft stopped putting Internet Explorer on their systems as a default program hardly anybody would bother using it. It is a known fact that you have four dogs and a goldfish. Why so many dogs, and why only one fish? Please tell us all about your pets! I bought a lovely little female Shetland sheep- dog puppy just less than eight years ago, called Ellie, and when she reached maturity, we decided to breed her. The idea was we would sell the puppies and keep one. However, when she whelped she only gave birth to two puppies, and one of them wouldn’t feed from her mother, and had to be bottle fed. We came very close to losing her as she was so weak, and then suddenly after a long, grueling and very upsetting week or so, she begun suckling her mother. The two puppies became known as Max and Mollie (Mollie was the one who wouldn’t feed) and they were virtually inseparable. It was hard to decide which to sell and which to keep, especially given Mollie’s traumatic first week in the world. So I decided to keep them both and ended up with three dogs. Then at the begin- ning of 2011 an old lady near me got a Shihtzu puppy that she looked after very well, and he was really well trained. However the lady became quite ill, so I started “looking after” him for a week or so. He’s lived with me permanently ever since but she still visits him regularly. As for the fish, he is another animal I decided to “look after” for a few weeks. My fiancée’s brother has learning difficulties, and he won a goldfish on a fairground. He didn’t understand how to look after it, or that it needed to be fed. So I offered to look after him for a bit. Over two and a half years later he’s still happily swim- ming around in his bowl on my kitchen windowsill. If someone were visiting you, what’s the one place you’d def- initely take them to see? It would probably be Olivers Mount. It’s the highest point in my hometown and you can see all of Scarborough from up there. It’s a beautiful view. What’s your favorite vacation spot? Hmm, tough one. Out of the places I’ve visited so far, I’d say the Greek island of Crete. I find the Greek people are some of the friendliest around. Also there are so many amazing sites to see and it is generally just lovely. And I absolutely love their food! If you could have one “superpower,” what would it be? I’d love to be able to fly – to just be able to go wherever I wanted, and be “free as a bird.” What’s your all-time favorite movie? I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry – it is by far one of the best Adam Sandler mov- ies ever, and so hilarious, but also has a great story of two best friends who do ANYTHING they can to help the other one out. If you were casting a movie with yourself in the leading role, who would play your romantic interest? Mila Kunis – she’s ab- solutely stunning. I’d probably cast a full movie just to get away with giving her a quick kiss. If you’re reading this, Mila, call me ;-) If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be? Peter Kay – He’s my favorite comedian and would liven the table up with some laughs. Richard Branson – I have a great deal of respect for him for all he does. He’s a very successful businessman, but has motives beyond earning money. He works hard on humanitarian causes, and investing in clean energy, and also most importantly, job creation for the future. Brian May – One of the best musicians in the world. I’d love for him to teach me the guitar solo from “Don’t Stop Me Now” after we’d finished eating. Yoshihiko Noda (Japanese Prime Minister) – I’d love to chat with him to try to ascertain why Japan still continues to slaugh- ter whales and dolphins on such a large scale every year. Also, to maybe educate him on the importance of these animals in our ecosystem. Adam Sandler – My favorite comedy actor – in fact, probably my favorite actor full stop. He’s also quite a womanizer in films, so he may help me with tips when I’m casting my film with me and Mila. What are three things that nobody knows about you? 1. I can run 100 meters in 12.9 seconds. 2. I was once a standard-bearer in the 60th Dutch Liberation Day parade representing the entire British Sea Cadet Corps. 3. I once went solo parascending in Cyprus at the age of 12; best part was it was free, as I won the ticket in a karaoke competition. 53 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series