Yesterday WordPress released it’s latest update with the release of version 3.1.1. Too many will ignore it like happens every day when they log in and see plugin updates. I know because I work with numerous bloggers when they have problems.
All too often the problems are created because they did not take the time to update when notified.
This was understandable with the earlier versions of WordPress because it often was a technical challenge to keep your blog and plugins updated. You had to use FTP and upload, then activate plugins and new versions.
With the latest updates if your blog is set up properly on a quality host it is very simple to update. With the advent of widgets and child themes it is no longer a problem when you are doing updates.
Doing updates and having the proper security plugins added can make your blog much more secure. Ignoring the updates can be fraught with peril.
This would not be a problem if there were not cretins out there that just love to take advantage of those that do not keep their blogs updated. For them it is fun to come in and wreak havoc on your site.
So today’s question is are you keeping your blog updated? Yeah it can be a pain but not as painful as trying to fix it after the fact.
Leave your comments below.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.
It would be nice if you did not have to worry about the security of your blog but that would be an ideal world. It does not work that way unfortunately. Here are just a few notices I have received this month from WordPress Firewall for this blog.
I get one of these just about every day. Often more than one as they try multiple times to access it. Yep every day someone is trying to access my blog and not just this blog but all of the blogs I have. That is why it is important to protect your blog.
Here are 7 ways to improve your blog security
1. Password and login
You should not have a user of admin and always use a solid password. Your password should have upper and lower case letters along with numbers and symbols. It should be a unique password for each blog.
Now I know this can be a pain in the @ss but you can use a tool like Roboform that will track your passwords and logins. This tool also will generate passwords for you. Definitely the first step in securing your blog.
2. Making data base extensions not wp_
If you use the standard installation WordPress always has the extension of wp_ added to all of the data base tables. Using a different extension will make it harder for the cretins to find your data base tables to attack then. Changing this is easy when you install a blog directly.
Just change the table prefix in your wp-confg.php file when doing your installation.
If you have already installed the blog or used Fantastico here is a guide you can grab that will walk you through the procedure to change all of your table extensions manually – Securing Fantastico Installations.
3. Install the WordPress Firewall 2 plugin
WordPress Firewall 2 is a security firewall plugin for WordPress. It was originally developed by SEO Egghead, and has been revamped by me.
This WordPress plugin investigates web requests with simple, WordPress-specific heuristics, to identify and stop the most obvious attacks. There are a few powerful, generic modules that do this; but they’re not always installed on web servers, and usually difficult to configure.
Install through your dashboard or you can download it here.
4. Install WP Security Scan plugin
This plugin scans your WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions. Except for the data base this will primarily make sure that your server permission settings are secure.
Install through your dashboard or you can download it here.
5. Install Antivirus for WordPress plugin
AntiVirus for WordPress monitors malicious injections and warns you of any possible attacks. This looks at some of the injections that are common.
Install through your dashboard or you can download it here.
6. Install WordPress Exploit Scanner
This plugin searches the files and database of your website for signs of suspicious activity. It will not stop someone hacking into your site, but it may help you find any uploaded or compromised files left by the hacker.
Install through your dashboard or you can download it here.
7. Install WordPress Database Backup
Now this is not for security but or when you have a problem. Hopefully you never need it but… Much better to be prepared because despite taking action to stop bad things they still can happen. You need to be prepared for that possibility.
Here are two posts that cover in more detail how to use this both to back up your blog and to help you fix your blog of the worse happens.
Would be nice if a post like this was never needed but unfortunately it is. My Eagle Scout background taught me to “Be Prepared” and if you apply this seven tips you should be.
At the worst you will be able to recover from the cretins if necessary.
Do you have any additions that should be added here? Leave your comments below.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.
Blog commenting can be an effective way to generate back links and attract traffic to your site. Previously, I have discussed using a feed reader to find on topic blogs to do that and then taking part in the conversation. You can read about that in a previous post at “Finding blogs to comment on“.
Sometimes it can be hard to find quality blogs that are on topic to comment on.
Here is another way to find great blogs to interact with that doesn’t need to take all of your time. Before we continue first this warning.
When blog commenting actually take part in the conversation and add value to the post you are commenting on. Don’t stop by and leave crap.
If you don’t add value no one is going to follow your comment back to your blog. You may get a backlink but most bloggers that can actually help you get new readers will spam your comment.
I definitely will.
Smart bloggers are active on Twitter and tend to share other bloggers quality posts. You can use this to your advantage to find great new blogs to take part in the conversation.
Here is how you can add this to your arsenal of tools and not take all of your time. After all we all have limited time.
First you should be using a Twitter app that allows you to create filters like Tweet Deck does. (At least as long as Twitter keeps allowing it, but that is another topic.)
When you find a quality blog, follow that person on Twitter and put them in a special column so it is easy to see what they are mentioning.
Take a few minutes a couple of times a day to go visit the blogs they are mentioning if the title interests you.
Here is where your titles are important. After all you are only going to check out the titles that catch your attention. Make sure your titles are catching others attention too.
If you like the post and can add to, take the time to comment on it. Retweet it to your followers. Add that person to your Twitter followers and to your special column.
Now you can see what that person is retweeting and if they point you to quality posts you keep them in your special column. If not or if they are posting crap (it happens) just remove them.
Do this on a regular basis and you will gradually expand your reach and be surprised at some of the things you will find and how rapidly you can expand your reach.
As long as you are adding value with your comments, this can be a very effective way to attract more readers and find people to network with that are in your niche.
A few minutes a day can greatly expand your reach.
How do you find blogs to comment on? Leave a comment and let me know.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.
Closing out the month of February and this week I decided to change a couple things up. As a rule I don’t link to the “big guy’s blogs” that are super well known even though I regularly read them. Most people are already aware of them and I prefer to focus on the second tier.
Occasionally there is something there that I just feel you need to see. It won’t be a regular thing but this week there was a post that I needed to highlight.
Also have not previously linked to a post that is primarily a podcast but really enjoyed thr content on one this week. Lets start our travels there.
Our second stop is to Pro Blogger for a guest post by Stefanie Flaxman. Now I am not a grammar Nazi and often disagree with super strict grammarians but there are some excellent points in this post to pay attention to. Check out “Eliminate 21 Reputation-Crushing Writing Mistakes from Your Blog“.
And for our last stop this week but certainly not least lets stop by Income Diary. Load speed has become a factor in the way Google ranks your content so this is a post from Michael Dunlap titled “15 Ways To Speed Up WordPress“. Definitely some things to consider there.
That is it or this week but I will be back with more next week.
Let me know which ones you liked and if you found a good one this week leave it in the comments below.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.
Regular readers know that I love getting questions and answering them. It is one of the ways that I can provide content that I know people (or at least one person) wanted addressed.
Now sometimes it is easy to get an answer and other times it is more opinion than fact. I do try to make it clear which is which. So today’s question will be answered as opinion to make it quite clear.
I have a new question for you. I have searched the web and do not find any new data on this:
For SEO purposes does it matter which side you put your sidebar on? I noticed yours is on the right is there a reason?
One of the reasons for opinion is that Google leads the way and is not exactly open about how they rank things to say the least. They give hints but you need to try different things and see what actually happens.
Now on this blog and probably on most of my blogs the sidebar is on the right. Not necessarily for SEO purposes although a while back before css became prevalent and most were using standard HTML there was supposed to be an advantage to being on the right.
The thinking was that spiders read top to bottom and seeing all of the items in the sidebar first made your content less important.
With css it is easy to avoid that through includes so that your content shows higher in what the spider reads. Is it true? I really don’t know and truthfully don’t care until I see something credible telling me I should.
The reason I use sidebars on the left on some niche sites is because that tends to be the first place people look and after testing find that it gets the most subscribers. As on those blogs the primary thing I am using them for is to get them on a list. That is my most wanted action form the page so I put the opt in box in the best hot spot.
For blogs like this and most of my blogs getting my content read is the most important thing so I use a right sidebar. That way the content is the first thing to grab some ones attention.
So sorry I really have not answered the question and not sure there is a definitive answer that I have found. But at least I gave you my why on where I put sidebars on different sites.
Got a question or an opinion on this or anything else about blogging? Let me know in the comments below.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.
One thing that starting the Sunday Goodies has done is to make me extend my reach. more. Sharing with others can be a great way to do that.
The majority of new blogs I find that end up being featured come from someone’s recommendation. Usually on Twitter but it does take some effort. (I know a big surprise.) But I work hard to keep it to a minimum.
So how do I keep expanding my reach?
When I find a good blog post on a new blog to me, I add the author to my Twitter account. Not just an add but they get moved to a category in Tweet deck for the people that I want to highlight so I am less likely to miss anything they tweet.
Monitor that person and see if they recommend other quality content. After a week or so you have a real good idea if they are active in retweeting others or not. If all they do is self promote they get removed.
The reason is that people that write content I like tend to interact with other quality writers on the same or similar topics. Some I know already, but often their recommendations lead me to another quality resource that I can follow too.
This again leads me to add that new person the same way and keep expanding my circle again and again.
I add their blogs into my feed reader the same way. Usually someone that has a post that gets my attention the same way continues to add quality content.
Occasionally though you find out that the post that attracted me was an aberration. About 10% of the time it fits the “even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while” scenario and then it is easy to remove the feed from my reader.
After all the biggest thing I strive for is to save time yet find quality resources. Expanding the people I truly pay attention to on Twitter and add quality blogs to my reader makes it easier to extend my reach and build a quality list of people to interact with.
Spending a bit of time each day can really multiply over time and you will never lack for quality content to help your Twitter followers or to find blogs to take part in the conversation.
Beats the tools that just find blogs to comment on because you build a constantly expanding list of others that are on topic. I find it leads to more traffic from those blogs when you do comment because instead of searching for keywords you have found blogs that resonate with you.
Odds are your content will resonate with those readers too. This leads to more traffic and an ever expanding reach for your content to people that are already interested in it.
That’s my thoughts. What are yours? Leave your comments below.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.
Yes it is a pain in the you know what to moderate your comments but if you are not you are part of the problem.
Yes it is a rant day and I am pissed. Was out most of the morning and came back to get on line and sort through comments that had come in. There were quite a few but all but two of them were spam.
Not the type of spam that the plugins can catch though. Someone took the time to come comment that was not on topic but was obviously a copy and paste job.
Same basic comment showed up on 4 different posts on 2 different blogs. This person spent probably at least an hour adding comments on blogs doing this copy and paste crap.
I could tell by the timing of the comments. Now all of the ones left on my blog got marked as spam. From the topics of the posts the person was using software to find specific topics and decent pr blogs to post to.
Now I don’t have a problem with people using software to find places to comment on if they actually take the time to add to the conversation on the post. I’ll even give them a do follow link through comment luv to their last post if they add value.
Copy and pasting their blurb aint adding value. So they wasted their time at my blogs. Because I see this all the time though some must be allowing their comments or they would have quit doing it a long time ago.
So the question becomes are you being lazy and letting that crap through onto your blog?
Someone must be or this would not be a continuing problem. I do end up adding the ips and banning them when I find people like this but really don’t like to have to do that.
So if we all start moderating comments and not letting these idiots get back links then it will stop.
Back to the original point are you contributing to the problem by allowing this crap or are you helping to make it worthless so that it will stop.
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.
Was planning to do this last Thursday but the internet God’s interfered. My modem went bad and it takes forever to get a new one from Verizon. So after being off line at the house for a few days I am at last back.
So here is the deal. Tuesday instead of the normal Thursday as it is Christmas week. I will be doing a conference covering how I set up my blogs and some tips and tricks for finding topics for your blog posts.
It is my present to the regular readers. It will take place at 8pm est.
Over the last few weeks on some of my blogs I have started using images for my blog posts to enhance what I am writing about. Here are the top 5 reasons I am adding images. Although not a Top 10 list I will present them in ascending order like Letterman does. Drum roll please….
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#5 – Sets my stuff apart – An image can add value just in giving your post something extra that a lot of people won’t take the time to do. It takes extra time (that work thingy) so most won’t do it. Going a step beyond what most do will set you apart.
When you are old and bald you need every advantage you get .
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#4 – Images can create curiosity – You only have a few seconds at most to catch some body’s attention and people are naturally drawn to pictures. Curiosity may have killed the cat but satisfaction brought him back. Now you need to produce that satisfaction in your post to keep the curious coming back.
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#3 – Can use the alt tag on them for my keyword – Yes, a geek to the heart but being able to easily add an extra keyword into my post excites me. Not really, but every little bit I can do to rank my posts higher for the terms I am targeting is important.
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#2 – Lots of the new themes I am considering pull images – Have been looking at sprucing up a couple of my blogs and some of the ones I really like pull images to the front page as highlights.
If I want to use that type of theme it will look better with images. Probably was the number one reason I started it but only the number 2 reason on this list.
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And now the number one reason….
#1 -Images can be the impetus for creating a unique twist - This may only be a good reason if like me you write your post first then go look for an appropriate image. Quite often, when I go looking for the image I find something that allows me to make a unique twist out of what I have just written.
The article I recently did on finishing things good enough is an example. The post was written but when I went searching for the image by keyword I found the almost clean plate.
That image triggered the idea to relate it to getting your kids to clean their plate and how it was always close but never perfect. The point I was trying to make in a perfect analogy.
Those twist are great at setting your post apart. Do that and it is easy for others to recommend you. The blogs I regularly recommend all tend to have a unique twist or slant to them. Hopefully mine does too and you will recommend it to others. (Hint, hint hit the retweet
About the author
Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.
After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.
If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.
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