by Jonathan Bailey on April 24th, 2013
Earlier this month, WordPress users across the world (as well as users on other platforms) fell victim to a massive brute-force attack on their sites.
The hack, or attempted hack, used a large botnet (a network of compromised computers doing the bidding of someone else) to repeatedly try and guess passwords on WordPress sites to gain administrative access to them. From there, the botnets would take over the sites and attempt to integrate them into a new bothnet, one made up of high-powered servers with better connections to the Web.
For most sites, the hacking attempt was pretty harmless. If you don’t use the original “admin” account and have a password that is easily guessed, you were most likely safe from the attack. Rather, the attack was an attempt to cast a broad net in hopes of finding the low-hanging fruit, sites that can be trivially broken into.
But while your site is probably fine as long as you took even the most basic precautions, there were still repercussions. The weight of thousands of attempts to login put a strain on many people’s servers, especially if the server had many different WordPress sites. This resulted in websites slowing to a crawl and even shutting down, including ones not directly affected.
But while the worst seems to have passed for now, there are still some lessons to be learned from it and it’s important to grasp them before the next wave hits.
Because if there’s one thing that’s for certain, there is another wave coming. Read More
Categories: Blogging Sense, WordPress Tips
by BP Guest Blogger on April 23rd, 2013
Most bloggers know that a slow site can lose them a few viewers here and there, but very few are aware of just how essential speed can be, both for driving traffic and for presenting yourself in a positive light. According to a national survey conducted in 2010, about a third of viewers will abandon a site after waiting up to five seconds for it to load. And slow loading times are not only frustrating for users; they also make your site appear less polished, modern, and dependable.
Fortunately, there are many ways to increase your site speed: some are sweeping changes that require commitment but yield great results, and others are small alterations that, when implemented, will accumulate into a significant improvement. Read More
Categories: General
by BP Guest Blogger on April 23rd, 2013
When looking to boost the appeal of your website, it can be difficult to decide whether you should focus on updating old posts that have had a lot of hits, or whether you should be generating new content. Ultimately, the decision comes down to the kind of site you run, and if you can successfully combine older posts that still have relevance with topical, optimised content that’s going to stimulate attention on social networks. Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
by BP Guest Blogger on April 22nd, 2013
Link building is definitely one of the most popular activities in search engine optimization, and as is usually the case, it didn’t take Google long to catch on to tactics that it considered unworthy. While link building in itself is not “bad”, there are some aspects that raise eyebrows – at the very least. In 2012, the landscape was pretty much changed, thanks to Google’s actions against questionable link building. It has even been said that 2012 was the year when the world of link building changed forever. Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
by BP Guest Blogger on April 22nd, 2013
Questions and Answers sites have been around for some time now, and we have some very good examples of this in sites like Quora, Stack Exchange, and Answers.com. But what about your own site? How would a Q&A section fit in? Would a Q&A app be useful to help your visitors become customers?
Q&A tools come in many shapes and sizes, but one of the more interesting things about Q&A is how it can engage with random visitors to your page. Take a traditional web page, with an FAQ link and a Contact Us form. The only way a customer can get in touch with that site is by sending an email or filling in a form. If that customer has a question, they have to fill in all their details, and send them on. Read More
Categories: Blogging Tools
by Noemi Tasarra-Twigg on April 19th, 2013
Good morning! Here are the highlights from this week’s Job Board. Here’s to hoping you snag one or two!
Grant writers in the Henderson, NV area, listen up! A small business is looking to get a health & fitness grant, and they need someone qualified to write it up.
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Categories: Jobs
by Jake Rocheleau on April 18th, 2013
Digital online conferencing for collaborative meetings has never been easier. Agencies and startup teams have the ability to communicate with each other regardless of their physical locations. This means it is possible to work with a myriad of designers, developers, writers, and managers from all around the globe. Webinars provide the tools for people who need to communicate efficiently over the Internet.
It can be a tough process getting accustomed to how it all works. But I am hoping to present a few resources for newcomers to quickly learn the ropes. You will need to spend time practicing the software and learning all the various interface components. But it can be a fun and meaningful way to communicate with people from the comfort of your home or office space.
Read More
Categories: Blogging Tools
by Noemi Tasarra-Twigg on April 12th, 2013
Good morning, everyone! We apologize if you’ve been experiencing some issues with the Job Board. The tech team is on it, and we’re hoping things will be back to normal ASAP.
Here are the highlights from this week’s ads. Good luck!
Are you a passionate copywriter who can get your emotions across with your words? If you can speak in truth and love, aiming to influence people positively, GetStoried wants you!
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Categories: Jobs
by Jonathan Bailey on April 10th, 2013
Earlier this week, Ars Technica ran an article about CMA Communications, a rural ISP that, for a time at least, began to display banner ads on all websites a customer visited. This move angered customers, who already paid for their Internet access, but it also was earning the attention of webmasters who were having ads injected into their sites, often covering up existing ad spots.
Though CMA Communications appears to have abandoned the project, it brought site manipulation to the limelight in a major way. It was the first time an ISP, supposedly an impartial intermediary, was interfering with customers’ Internet traffic for the purpose of injecting ads.
But just because CMA has stopped doesn’t mean that your site gets to your visitors exactly the way you intend. Unwanted site manipulation has been a problem for webmasters for some time and it may get a lot worse.
Though most bloggers know to check their theme on multiple browsers and devices, all of that tweaking and fine-tuning may be for naught if intermediaries, either with or without user permission, alter your site and give them a different experience.
So what are your visitors actually seeing when they come to your site? The answer may be more complex than you may realize. Read More
Categories: Blogging Sense
by Jake Rocheleau on April 8th, 2013
Anybody who is familiar with blogging and writing online will know about cloud hosting. There are smaller solutions which offer free storage space like Dropbox. However often times this is not enough for transferring large files between computers and sharing with colleagues remotely. It can be worth the effort to pick out a serious cloud hosting platform to manage your data and share with other team members.
I want to recommend a list of ideas for getting started with cloud file sharing. The ability to store backups of your files online has only come into mainstream technology over the past few years. These newer cloud solutions could not have existed 5 or 10 years ago, or at least not at the same storage level capacity and Internet connection speeds.
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Categories: Backups
5 Lessons from the Recent WordPress Attack
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