I just finished helping a friend bring back a Sports Blog after a nasty hacker attack. Luckily, we had a backup of the database. Otherwise, we had little chance to restore the site. Here are a few tips to keep unwanted visitors from doing damage to your blog. Set your File Permissions Properly Use 755 for directories, 644 for plugins and core WordPress PHP files, and 666 for active theme files. You can check and change file permissions with your FTP client. Use the Login Lockdown Plugin Hackers know where to find your login page. The basic WordPress installation offers little protection against a brute force attack. Yes, the new WordPress revisions have started using hardened passwords. However, I still recommend giving yourself the added protection you get from the Login Lockdown Plugin. And, check your current or new password with The Password Meter. Just upload it and activate it….
Hide your Email Address from Spammers with a Simple JavaScript
Javascripts to hide email addresses from spammers have been around for a while but perhaps you missed this one. I have been using it more and more for my client’s HTML-based websites. If the email address is: joe@mydomain.com, most websites use: joe@mydomain.com That line of basic HTML is easily harvested by spambots. Within a few weeks, the spam will start trickling in. After a few months, there will be a flood of annoying spam emails. What can you do? Start with a fresh email address and use this small JavaScript:
Make your own eBay widget!
eBay’s new affiliate program, eBay Partner Network, is an excellent source of income for product-related blogs and websites. It takes some skill, however, to integrate eBay links and images into content and templates. The program offers several creatives that can be pasted into sidebar widgets. However, I found them to be slow-loading as well as poorly converting (to sales). I decided to make my own eBay Sidebar Widget. You can see an example of the widget (GPS on eBay) running in the sidebar just to the right. Does it make money? Yup, it does. That’s why it gets a prime position. I have outlined the steps below. The WordPress PHP widget and TWP auction code are free. Steps to make your own eBay widget 1. Download and install the WordPress PHP Code Widget. 2. Download TWP Auctions. 3. Upload the files twpauctions.php and twpfunctions.php to your root directory. 4. Go…
Squeeze More Income from your Blog with Slayer’s Custom Widget Plugin
The introduction of sidebar widgets in WordPress have resulted in a huge time savings. Gone are the days of pasting code into sidebar.php just see your layout go wacky. The capabilities of widgets in the basic WordPress installation are, however, very limited. By default, all widgets appear wherever the sidebar is loaded within your theme. If you are using widgets to display ads, you cannot choose on which pages the widgets appear. Slayer’s Custom Widget Plugin solves this problem. This plugin enables you to select which widgets appear on specific posts, pages, categories, author’s posts and tag pages. You can even configure where widgets are displayed per WordPress template using conditional tags.
New Amazon Movie & TV Show Preview Widget
Amazon has added it’s new movie & TV streaming service to it’s Associates Program. Associates will earn a 10% referral fee on all movies, TV seasons, and TV episodes such as The Office, House and Law & Order. The widget shown below allows Associates to add movie trailers to their websites. The first two minutes of videos automatically play at no charge to customers inside the widget. At any time during or after the 2-minute viewing period, customers can choose to purchase or rent the title to watch it in its entirety. The preview serves to drive higher conversions and increased referral fees for Associates.
Google launches AdSense for Feeds
After several years in beta test, Google has just launched the much anticipated ‘AdSense for Feeds’. When you next visit the Setup tab in your AdSense account, you’ll notice a new ‘AdSense for Feeds’ option. Features Optimized CPC and CPM ads Ads specifically design for RSS feeds Wide range of customization options Detailed stats on your feed audience and distribution Manage monetization of your feeds through your AdSense account
WidgetBucks launches Pre-Designed and Custom Ad Widget Skins
WidgetBucks has introduced pre-designed and custom ad skins for their well-known WidgetBucks widgets. Publishers have two choices – choose from a gallery of over 125 pre-designed skins to apply to new and existing ad widgets or use the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) tools to add their own unique look-and-feel to ad widgets The gallery of off-the-shelf skins map closely to WidgetBucks’ product categories, including entertainment (Batman, celebrities), tech and electronics (iPhone, GPS devices, XM Radio), fashion (handbags, flip flips), sports and outdoors (basketball, baseball), video games (Halo), and more. They are can be applied to six IAB standard sizes. The new skins only show up on WidgetBucks’ CPC widgets. CPM display ads will run without the new designs. DIY design tools include two basic applications — MS Paint and Notepad, both standard on PCs (one Mac Paint equivalent is open-source software Seashore). These tools give publishers powerful customization ability to enable very…