Webmaster Resources

WordPress Updates – Protect Your Blog From Being Hacked

I was browsing the internet and saw something that got my attention. It will grab yours too, trust me. I’m talking about WordPress security and vulnerabilities here, and there’s much to say about it, so I’ve started a new category where to post.

The very first and most important thing you need to do to help your blog stay safe all the time is to keep it updated to the latest version. That’s the most safe (at least that’s what they say). Every time a new bug/security hole is found, the platform gets updated with a fix and then the bug is published. In short words, everybody knows about it.

If you don’t want to mess with ftp and downloads and so on, you might want to use a plugin that does your updating automatically. This way you’ll always have your WordPress blog up to date. I don’t remember the name of that plugin because I don’t use it, but if you wish to install it, do a simply search on Google or on wordpress.com site and you’ll find it pretty fast. I don’t use it because I don’t like having too much “foreign” code on my server… you never know what can happen to your database or whatever. Therefore, I prefer to update it manually.

Oh … and by the way, I was talking about plugins. When you get a new plugin, make sure it’s a safe one. Don’t install any plugin just because the owner is saying on his website that plugin will help you do this or that. Maybe use a test blog to check the plugin, or maybe get a software engineer to analyze it carefully. This way you’ll know it isn’t a threat for you or your business.

Author: Peter Jacob
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Beading Necklace

Don’t Get Hacked! Here’s a Few Tips on How to Secure Your WordPress Marketing

The most influential marketing tool today in the internet world is believed to be WordPress, but it is usually abused. Even better, it can be utilized outside blogs where you can even build your own site by using the WordPress platform. However, there are some security measures you should know, or you run the risk of being omitted from Google.

1. You must verify all your plug-ins before placing them on your site. Plenty of third party plug-ins is sometimes created by unreliable people. They create because they want to try to take your blog or your website from you. Some of this plug-ins has been banned by Google to protect you, but if they see you reusing them, they will take you off the search engine too.

2. Make sure you use a new version of word press. This is because all software has errors and these errors are mostly corrected by the newer version. If you use the newest version, you can avoid these problems. We must understand, however, that even the latest ones can have mistakes as well, so we have to be careful. Before downloading the newer version you should do some research about it first. Look for potential troubles that others have learned. If a lot of this trouble has been found, don’t download it anymore.

3. An admin user feature is available in WordpPress but hackers know about this. This feature allows doing any administrative job on the software. Create an admin privilege by using management feature. Having done that, log out and then go back in and delete the old user admin. The latest admin user should not be the same as the original

4. Make sure that your password protects your software WordPress when you download it. This will provide you extra protection against hackers. Please note, however, if your password is weak, hackers will be able to break through it. So combine your passwords with letters and numbers to be safe. The harder your password is the harder hackers will be able to hack through it.

5. Hackers that assault your website will require entrance to the file table names. Using the marketing software of WordPress lets you change the names of your table to avoid being hacked.

This security measures can be very useful to your WordPress marketing security. This will save you time, money and worries.

Author: Winson Yeung
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: US Dollar credit card

Maintaining WordPress to Be Secure and Hack-Free

There are a lot of reasons that you need to be updating WordPress or other content management systems, and it seems that there are more and more updates being released almost daily, and at least once a week most of the time. The developers release all of these updates to ensure that your Wordpress blog and website remains secure. You should also have the most up to date plugins to maintain complete security.

The methods are usually pretty simple, but for most people they aren’t going to have the technical prowess to ensure that the proper updates are being installed, what to look for in the change log reports, or what has been changed from the last update. You have to make sure that everything, the theme, plugins, WordPress version, work together without any quirks, and this is often times a difficult task with the sheer amount of updates released just for WordPress alone. Once you add in all of the plugins, themes, posts, pages, forms, you can easily see why people have the need to outsource this work to another company – especially if they have more than one WordPress blog.

There have been many times where I have gone to update one of my personal WordPress blogs, only to have the plugin absolutely break every part of the website that I was using. It broke the other plugins and none of them worked anymore. It also broke the sidebar, all of the widgets disappeared and started throwing out PHP errors on the website. The update also changed the way comments were displayed, so the thousands of comments that I had accumulated about the services I provide and help I was providing people were completely lost. They were still in the database, but it took me a long time of having to write out a new theme, with widgets, and wait for the plugins to be released in accordance with the newest WordPress update. This all adds up to one excellent reason to leave these worries up to another company, so you can focus on the parts of your business that you excel in – growing it, and working with your customers… basically, running your business.

If you have been having second thoughts about outsourcing this type of work to another company, you should rest assured that the firm you choose won’t be competing with you, and the costs involved really are minor compared to the amounts of money you will spend if something happens like I just described for you. Having a good website maintenance company in place will help you avoid these situations.

Author: Anthony Herman
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Import duty tariff

Website Walkthrough – 5 Ways to Make Your WordPress Hack-Proof

Having your blog hacked or worse, stolen right under your nose, is a nightmare. Sure, WordPress improves its standard installation security with every new version it comes out with, but new versions are not invincible and they’re not impermeable. Bottom line – you need to do what you can to help make your WordPress hack-proof.

This website walkthrough shares 5 ways you can make your blog more secure. Shall we start?

1. Upgrade your WordPress. Hate the thought of saying goodbye to WordPress 2.6? Don’t. You need upgrade to the latest WP version, and you need to do it now. Don’t worry; it’s easy. Just look for the Upgrade button in Tools or your dashboard.

2. Update your plugins. Anything old is a security risk. Keep your plugin versions up-to-date.

3. Delete the default user. In this case, it’s Admin so bin this. Replace it with a new user (naturally, this user has admin rights) and create a nickname for this user. That way, the username on public display is not the same as yours.

4. Limit the access to wp-admin. This restricts .htaccess of your wp-admin to your IP. The downside to this security measure, though, is that you will need to update the .htaccess folder whenever you move to another area. You may need another website walkthrough for this; but obviously, this step is out of the question for you if your IP address is dynamic.

5. Install the plugin Login Lockdown. This plugin records the time stamp and IP address whenever someone tries to log in to WordPress and fails. It works great at preventing attempts to discover your password through brute force attacks. If attempts to log in by one IP range exceed the maximum number of tries allowed, the plugin automatically disables the login function.

Of course, there are many more ways you can make your blog hack-proof. This website walkthrough only covers the basics and the ones that are easiest to do. Feel free to look for more! When it comes to website security, it’s better to go over-protect than be sorry.

Author: Gina Sue Corcoran
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital pipeline

Hack Attack – Just How Secure is Your WordPress Blog?

People with Internet and web experience of all levels have worked to make sure that their websites, web service accounts and browsers were as safe as they could be from computer hackers. However, the hackers practice an old baseball saying which goes, “If you want to be a success you have to hit ‘em where they ain’t.”

The weakness that the hackers have found is the WordPress Blog. Many may have never considered a blog to be worthy of a hacker’s attention, yet with the way that advertising and marketing dollar potential have soared, that’s what sets a hacker off on their hunt for a victim.

The hacker attacks on WordPress Blogs take the person who wants to come to a particular blog to a different site that’s full of ads, many of them obscene and many of them virus filled, which obviously does not present what was the assumed landing point blog in the best light. One hacker attack, no matter how quickly it’s spotted and dealt with, can destroy all the work that the owner of that blog has done. If it’s a blog full of content with years of archive material, a hacker’s attack will turn all of that work into worthless untrustworthy words.

The attacks launched on WordPress Blogs by hackers get even worse for the blog owners. Google, for example, when (not if) their robots detect something suspicious about a WordPress Blog will include the following in the search result for that WordPress Blog.

“This site may harm your computer.”

If a person clicks on that phrase, which appears as a link within the search result listing, they will be taken to a page that will repeat the warning of harm to their computer and suggest that they go to another site or blog that came up in their search results.

Even if a WordPress Blog owner catches the damage quickly, the time it will take to repair that blog’s reputation will be costly at a variety of levels. People will remember the warnings of computer harm no matter how strongly it’s presented that all with that WordPress Blog is well. A loss of blog traffic will mean a loss of ad revenue. In many cases this could mean the loss of advertisers since many affiliate ad programs require a specific level of traffic activity.

WordPress Blog owners make the mistake of thinking that since the warning signs that their blog has been hacked are so obvious that they’ll be able to catch the problem before it becomes a major disaster. They would have to be proactive rather than reactive and monitor their WordPress Blog every minute of every hour of every day. Just five minutes under a hacker’s control can destroy the connection that WordPress Blog had made with the thousands of people who visit it at any point.

While WordPress does the best they can with security updates, that’s still just a reactive option for the WordPress blog owner. There is a proactive step every WordPress Blog owner can take to prevent hackers from destroying the work and reputation of their WordPress Blog.

There are some smart and easy steps a WordPress Blog owner can take to better protect themselves and their work from hackers. According to James Stein, whose Internet and program experience spans 15 years, education combined with the proper easy to understand guidance can allow every WordPress Blog owner to avoid the horrors that hackers can create.

Stein points to a product like WordPress Secured which teaches how to close the many open doors WordPress Blogs contain which hackers exploit. It teaches how to find a blog’s softspots and strengthen them. Users discover how to protect their important avenues of ad revenue. Stein says that WordPress Secure makes the blog owner not only more secure but more smart and aware about their blog. This idea becomes a stronger defense against hackers versus the old way of one plug-in after another.

WordPress Secure also includes a special feature that made this product stand out in Stein’s eyes called BadBot Killer. This program stops the scanning bots that seek out a WordPress Blog’s weaknesses that are the welcome mats for computer hackers.

Stein says, “Thanks to a program like WordPress Secure, WordPress Blog owners can gain the knowledge they need to build an effective defense against hackers even before they try to strike. It’s the perfect example of how knowledge is power.”

Author: James Stein
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Electric Pressure Cooker

Vlogging – Getting Started

Want to have your own TV show? Do you have the need to spread your wisdom to each and every member of the Internet-connected community? Do you just want to stay in touch with friends and family? Now you can. Vlogging, a social, personal/amateur/professional broadcasting opportunity is the latest in online interactive technology with a community. Have a good idea? Put it on the web, talk about yourself and join the revolution.

To get started you must have an idea or, a spark of an idea or, a little bit of curiosity. It doesn’t take much. Produce a few minutes of video by using a digital camera or a still camera with ‘movie’ feature, edit it or don’t and post it online and see what happens is more the rule of thumb. Sure, it can be grandiose with corporate advertising, field reporters, proper credits and a script. Your vlog can also be ‘home-video’ style entertainment of you sitting in your bedroom eating a bowl of cereal. The numbers don’t lie- people want to see the intimate details of other people’s lives. As we get farther and further removed in our own worlds with little reason to leave the laptop, people are coming forward with their lives published and broadcasted for all the world to see.

Here are some suggested resources for videophiles who want to start vlogging:

For tools, training and tutorials: Freevlog.org and Node101 are excellent examples. Freevlog/ Blogger is the leading weblog tool on the Internet. Anyone can view your site, whether they are registered or not (unlike MySpace). You are able to completely design your own blog. There are free tutorials and immense amounts of help to assist you in getting started. Freevlog wants you to join the community of vloggers, making it easier for you to get your skills together on the technical side. Recommended: how to hack your own blog and a basic HTML guide.

Blip.tv for free hosting, support, advertising options and promotion. This site features hundreds of channels to give you an example of what is out there in the Vlogosphere.

WordPress – WordPress is a free blog software that has more features than Blogger. It has the ability to label your postings using categories, making it easier for viewers to search around your site. WordPress has the advantage over Blogger if you are more technically oriented. If you know xHTML/CSS/PHP, the software can be customized and encourages creativity. WordPress requires a mySQL database space on a server. Adding links is simpler than on Blogger and published faster.

Feedburner – provides media distribution and gets your media out there in the Vlogosphere to audiences for blogs and RSS feeds. The services Feedburner provides helps bloggers, vloggers and podcasters promote, deliver and profit from the content you upload onto the web.

FireAnt is an application website you can use to list your vlog, attract viewers and subscribe to channels. It unifies content for easy viewing, transforming all formats (Quicktime, Windows Media, Real, Flash, MP3, and more) for hassle-free video watching on your computer.

“Clearly, given easier solutions, consumers will be far more likely to edit their videos,” said Sharpe Partners interactive agency’s CEO Kathy Sharpe. “And those who edit their video are presumably more likely to share it with others, which will expand this market even further.”

Author: Dr. Mark Clayson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable pressure cooker

Blogging Wars – WordPress Vs Blogger Part 1

There’s a war going on in the blogosphere, and it has nothing to do with bloggers dissing each other on their respective websites. The war is about control of the blogosphere by several great, many good, and tons of terrible blogging platforms. The average newbie now has “too many” options to choose from, and the battle for blogging supremacy is hotter than ever.

At my website and blogs, I’m always asked the question “Is WordPress better than Blogger?”. The answer, of course, is “Yes”. But to really understand why, it’s important to look at both blogging platforms side-by-side and see which one you really need.

You also need to understand that there are different versions of WordPress, the earliest now termed as “WordPress” at WordPress.org, and the hosted version similar to Blogger now termed “WordPress.com” which is of course available at WordPress.com.

For Part 1 of this article, we look only at the self-hosted version of WordPress. Here’s the comparison scale:

1) Ease of Set-up And Use

Yes, it’s much easier to set-up a blog with Blogspot.com and get your own Bloggger account. You can be done in 10 minutes flat. Once you’re set-up you can start posting immediately. If you want to add a designer’s touch to your blog, there are also tons of blogger templates available for free.

Installing WordPress however can be a major headache if you don’t know what you’re doing. Since you’re going to host it on your own account, you’ll need to download the installation files, upload them to your server, set-up a database, and run the configuration script.

However, if you know which hosting account to get, you can choose one with Cpanel included. With Cpanel, you can do a one-click installation, upgrade and removal of your WordPress platform. There are tons of different hosting plans to choose from, so get one that fits your needs.

2) Customization & Advanced Use

Blogger doesn’t allow categories. You can’t sort your articles into different focuses, unless you know how to hack the platform. With WordPress, not only can you add categories, you can also display each category differently on your main page. In fact with the correct plugins you can even turn your WordPress into a magazine-like portal.

Publishing with Blogger can be a pain in the ass. It can take forever to post articles, especially if you’re making changes to the entire website. With WordPress, publishing is much faster, although if you load your system with all kinds of bells and whistles it can be just as frustrating.

With a Blogger account, you can get additional features like “Shout Boxes” that improve interaction on your site. You can also get pretty themes and nifty little tools that you can add to the core template files. However, that’s as far as you can go with Blogger.

With WordPress however, the sky is the limit. As cliche as that may sound, not only can you get themes, additional “plugins” and advanced tools, you can also extend WordPress to far beyond just a blogging platform.

The talk today is about using WordPress as a complete, user-friendly Content Management System or CMS. Unlike complicated predecessors like PHPPostNuke, B2, Mambo or even Joomla, WordPress is user friendly. Plus, the availability of source codes in this open-source system coupled with a strong community makes it possible to use WordPress as an article management system, classifieds system, direct-selling site and even a paid membership site.

4) Copyrights and Ownership of Content

I started with Blogger and I won’t say that it’s bad. But after a while I started to get frustrated with Blogger, and here’s why: Google Owns Your Content

Google has the authority to shut down your account without warning if they don’t like what you’re blogging about. You don’t have absolute control over your own blog. With WordPress, you own the domain name and the blog is hosted on your own account. You have full control over your content.

With the self-hosted version of WordPress (not WordPress.com), you’re free to write about anything you want, and use the software in any way you want. Yes, Blogger allows you to publish to your own domain, but they still own the database that holds your content! Don’t forget that!

5) Search Engine Optimization and Traffic

There’s this propaganda that since Google owns Blogger, they tend to favor Blogger accounts. I won’t say that this is illogical, but from my experience, there’s no such favoritism.

I’ve heard as many stories of getting indexed fast and ranking high in search engines from both WordPress and Blogger users. As long as the content is good, the spiders will come.

When you post in Blogger, you can only “ping” a limited amount of sites, whereas with WordPress on your own domain you can ping as many blog directories as you want, and start getting more traffic.

As a conclusion, I would say that WordPress is only slightly ahead in terms of optimization for search engines, and building large amounts of traffic.

6) Money-Making Potential

There’s no doubt that it’s easier to get started with Google Adsense if you have a Blogger account. In fact you can now apply for Adsense from within a Blogger account. Not entirely surprising considering the fact that both are owned by the same company.

With WordPress, it can get tricky. The default installation is not enough. You’ll need a couple of plugins and even a better theme to really maximize the Adsense potential. However, this seems to be getting easier and there’s even “Adsense revenue sharing” plugins around that allow you to share ad revenue with other contributors and writers for your blog.

When you start using WordPress to build your Adsense websites, you’ll soon discover what I mean. It’s something you need to experience for yourself. I can tell you one thing though – when you go WordPress, you don’t go back.

Author: Gobala Krishnan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Pressure cooker

How To Build A Quality Internet Blog

Although there are millions of blog on the net already, it is still possible to take advantage in building one in order to build traffic and promote your website.

Even if you can setup a blog in minutes, it takes some time to make it work well and optimize it for the search engines.

As for everything on the internet, search engine optimization (SEO) is of paramount importance if you want to achieve the goal of getting traffic from the search engines, especially Google.

Their crawlers are indexing new pages everyday, but the position you will have in their SERPS is up to how much your pages were optimized for a certain keyword. This applies for blogs as well, so it is important to understand how to build a search engine friendly blog.

A good starting point when building a blog is to get a quality script to install on your website. There are many open source and commercial solutions, but probably the most successful and good one is Wordpress. You can download a copy of this script on http://www.wordpress.org , and install it in minutes.

The installation process is quick and hassles free. Once you have your Wordpress copy up and running, you need to start optimizing it properly. You can start using their default template, otherwise you can find a good one on many specialized sites.

In order to perform SEO on wordpress you will need to install an hack like the one called Optimal Title, that you can easily find on google. This will help you to optimize your page titles, but the result given by this script is not good yet for a perfect optimization.

In fact, you should avoid putting your site name at the beginning of your page titles, otherwise you are risking to have all your pages filtered as duplicate content by Google. Henceforth, you need to manually tweak the script to make it view blog titles only in the header.

You can easily do it by editing the code basing yourself on the hack readme. In the same way, you can make descriptions and keywords meta tags look properly using common SEO rules. As a final note, if you are building a blog to make money from targeted advertising as Google Adsense, I would advice not to put it in the beginning, since it would make your page be full of ads rather than actual content; so first of all think to build your traffic, then to monetize it.

For more informations on blogs, how to setup them or on how to promote them with enhanced tools such as blog pings and innovative marketing techniques, you can visit my company website.

Author: Alessandro Golkar
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger