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WordPress Plugins – What Are Their Security Risks

WordPress Plugins – What Are Their Security Risks?

The WordPress platform owes a lot of its popularity to the availability of thousands of plugins that perform any function a site owner may need. Simply put if you need to do something there is probably an existing plugin to do it. But what are the security risks that come with installing WordPress plugins? I will tie these threats to the central principles of information security which include Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability.

Confidentiality – Goal is to prevent the disclosure of information to unauthorized individuals or systems

Integrity – Goal is to ensure that data cannot be modified without detection

Availability – Goal is to ensure your site is available when someone tries to access it.

Plugins vary in code size from very simple to very complex. 99.9% of plugin users do not have the time or expertise to do a security review of the code prior to installing a plugin. That means you are at the mercy of the developer that nothing malicious has been programmed into the plugin that could affect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your site. For this reason it is best to stick with WordPress plugins that have a large user base and come from more trusted sources.

Plugins are primarily developed by individual developers or very small teams with limited budget for testing. That means if you are an early adopter of a plugin you are the equivalent of a beta tester so it is wise to avoid being on the bleeding edge of adopting a new plugin version unless there is a security vulnerability in the old version that is actively being exploited in the wild. Otherwise you risk something going wrong with the plugin that could negatively impact the availability of your site. For this reason it is important to have a viable backup of your site prior to installing a new plugin or upgraded a currently installed one.

When you install a WordPress Plugin you are installing an application. That means you should careful consider whether you need and intend to use the plugin regularly. Each plugin installed required additional site administrative overhead in the form of applying upgrades to ensure you are running the latest version. For this reason it is important to only install plugins that will be activated on your site and plugins not active should be removed to eliminate a potential source of vulnerability.

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Why is WordPress Blog Better than Blogger

Why is WordPress Blog Better than Blogger.com?
Here, we are comparing WordPress Blog with Blogger.com and out of these two, there is only one winner that stands out. These are the two most well-known blog hosts in the blogging community. Both of these hosts provide free hosting services for quite some time and it is their unique features that distinguish the better one. It is their services and features that influences our decision to choose which blog host. Thus to start the competition, their features will be compared to come up with the winner.
Free and Tailor-made
Both are free blogging hosts and allow the users to create as many blogs as they want. With optional paid upgrade, users can utilize additional features to improve their blogs.

Principle
Blogger is Google-owned while WordPress used open source project. WordPress offers more flexibility and reliability as compared to Blogger, and it is very useful especially to more advanced blogging community.

Themes
WordPress and Blogger both offer a variety of brilliant themes for the users to choose according to their own theme and needs. Themes are useful in giving a blog its uniqueness as compared to other blogs, and even the fastidious users managed to find a theme that suits them from these two hosts. Both of them provide features that allow users to design their own web page.

WordPress has limited customization compared to Blogger in terms of additional coding. Blogger allows access to coding allowing more customization than WordPress. However, WordPress counter this weakness by allowing the users to change themes as often as they want in an instance. WordPress are constantly upgrading their themes based on feedbacks from users which enables users to select from a larger variety of themes.

Speed and easiness of blog creation
WordPress only requires 2 steps in starting up the blogging process and can be done within a couple of seconds. On the other hand, Blogger needs 3 major steps with longer time required to start blogging. WordPress wins over Blogger with it simple and fast start-up.

Defense against spam
Automatic Spam Protection in WordPress is a reliable protector against spam for published blogs. However, Blogger only protects against spam in the process of blogging, and not for published blogs. Thus, WordPress is better.

Feedbacks
WordPress offers notification of feedbacks from the visitors. This helps the blogger as feedbacks are a source of improvements. Blogger on the other hand do not provide such service.

Import
WordPress has importing feature which allows the users to import their previous blog posts in other hosts such as Blogger to WordPress. Apart from this, there are a few other importing options as well.

Page management
Page management enables users of WordPress to post up as many pages as they want in a blog post. Blogger again do not have such a features.
Additional features
WordPress has added features such as Words, Spell-Check and Autosave which are similar to those in Microsoft Word. This allows the users to edit their text blogs and check for mistakes without the need to read the whole post after writing. Autosave is important when power failures occur as it allows users to save the work and not losing everything. These features are definitely a convenience to the users and provide security over their works.

It is an easy win for WordPress over Blogger with their features which provide simple and easy to understand steps in creating blog posts. WordPress definitely has advantage over Blogger in terms of attracting larger number of users due to their unique features not provided by other web hosts.

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How to Set Up a Purchased WordPress Website on Your Hosting Server – Part 2 of 2

How to Set Up a Purchased WordPress Website on Your Hosting Server – Part 2 of 2

In the fist part of the article I described why Bob purchased the WordPress website, how to transfer the domain and the setting up of the domain on his hosting server. Part two will take a closer look on how to install the WordPress websites database and configure some important WordPress Website settings.

1. Upload the WordPress Database files

Let’s break this part down into 3 simple steps:

a) Create the WordPress Database and access information

b) Modify the WordPress Database content

b) Upload the WordPress Database (cpanel)

a) Create the WordPress Database and access information (cpanel)

You could restore the database directly, but for this exercise Bob will also explain why he created the WordPress database himself. So here comes the tricky part. When you want to access the WordPress website, it will first try to connect to the WordPress database. The corresponding access information is stored in the wp-config.php file, located in the root directory of the new domain. You can look it up in the WordPress directory files you got. Therefore, you will need to change the following three variables inside the wp-config.php file:

/** The name of the database for WordPress */

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘bob55_ akkingb’);

/** database username */

define(‘DB_USER’, ‘bob55_ akdbadm’);

/** database password */

define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘xxxxxxxxxx’);

The DB_PASSWORD parameter I got is encrypted and of no use to me, therefore the connection will fail. To get around this problem bob will show you a little trick; Bob reused an existing user (and password) already assigned to another WordPress Database.

First he created the WordPress database, akkingb (in cpanel > Databases > MySql Databases) and added the EXISTING user to the new database(Scroll down to MySQL Users and add the user bob55_ akdbadm to the database he just created, bob55_ akkingb, and assign ALL PRIVILEGES.

Now you only needed modify DB_NAME parameter, copy the values for DB_USER and ‘DB_PASSWORD from the wp-config.php file of your EXISTING WordPress Blog, and the connection will work perfectly;-)

So, download or extract the wp-config.php file for your new WordPress blog, change the parameters and upload it again.

b) Modify the WordPress Database content

There is some information in the WordPress Website that you can either modify later on, when you have managed to access your new WordPress blog or change it directly in the WordPress Database file. I prefer to do the latter, as it is quite simple and a nice time saver when configuring the WordPress Website.

There are a few generic values that are used in diverse places so if you do a find/replace (all) it’s a matter of minutes to get this done. I will tell you what tables are affected, so you know where to look and change it manually, but you can simply do a global change too:

wp_options table – Change values of:

– ‘admin_email’, –> your email.)

– Path prefixes: home/uuuuuuuu/public_html –> home/bob55/public_html

wp_users table: Change value of user_email field for the admin user so you will be able to have the password reset send to your email

That’s it!:-) The user_email is especially helpful if you do not know the WordPress website’s admin password. Simply request the password to be reset and you will get the password send to the email you chose;-)

c) Upload the WordPress Database (cpanel)

The important point here is to name the WordPress database sql file correctly. When restoring via the cpanel it will use the database according to the WordPress database sql file name. Do NOT add a database prefix, as this will be assigned automatically, and should be your hosting server ID; in Bob’s case, bob55. Hence, Bob named his file akkingb.sql, and the resulting complete database name will be bog55_ akkingb.

Bob had problems with WordPress Database restores when the file was not zipped in the correct format. The restore either did not run at all or broke at any point. Therefore it’s a good idea to get the free Gzip file compression utility. For more information go to gzip.org. The syntax is “”C:Program FilesGnuWin32bingzip.exe”” DBname.sql”” and this will convert the DBname.sql into a DBname.sql.gz file.

To restore the WordPress Database, in cpanel, go the Files > Backup Wizard, select “”Restore”” > MySQL Databases, locate your local restore file, akkingb.sql.gz and click “”Restore””. Now a new browser window will open up and the DB restore should start within seconds.

You know that the restore should have terminated correctly if you see the whole WordPress Database file on this page. You can verify the DB creation also through the cpanel > Databases > Php Admin panel. All your databases are listed on the left hand side.

We are almost done!:-). You should now be able to see your new blog and enter the admin panel yourdomain/wp-admin.

2. Configuring your WordPress Website

Any WordPress Blog configuration is different, but following letsl name just some of the WordPress Website settings..

* WordPress SETTINGS*

General:

Membership: Anyone can register
Timezone
Writing:

Remote Publishing: set both values active if you want to use external publishing tools
Privacy: I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Bing, Technorati)
Permalinks: you may want to change to i.e. /%category%/%postname%/ OR /%postname%.html, or any other values you use in your other blogs
All In One SEO Plugin

Use noindex for Categories: false
Use noindex for Archives: true
* WordPress PLUGINS*

Akismet Configuration: Enter YOUR Akismet API Key
Remove or add any other Plugins
*OTHER setting and configurations*

Copy your robots.txt to root folder or install the KB Robots.txt plugin
Monetizeation like AdSense, Amazon, will require even editing he corresponding theme files or configuration through plugins,…
That’s it, your WordPress Website has been moved and setup on your hosting server:-). To see the life example, go to kingkoilmattresses.net.

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About Woo Themes – A Premium WordPress Themes Developer1

About Woo Themes – A Premium WordPress Themes Developer

Overview of Woo Themes

Woo Themes is a premium WordPress theme developer offering dozens of themes that function on self-hosted WordPress websites (not wordpress.com sites). All themes are guaranteed to function correctly with WordPress 2.8 and all versions that came out after that. Earlier versions of WP may not work properly with all Woo Themes.

There are currently 77 themes offered by the site and all of them are professional quality and well designed. Of course, you get what you pay for, so this is one of the best but also one of the most expensive premium WordPress theme developer services in operation today. They are probably more suited to professionals rather than hobbyists or personal bloggers.Most Popular Themes

The top 3 all-time downloaded Woo Theme themes are (at the time this article was published):

Fresh News: offers a variety of color schemes and can be used as a blog page or a homepage. 3 homepage layouts come with the package.
Gazette: professional, upscale theme with some unique features, layout options, and color choices.
Busy Bee: supports ad space and tons of multimedia features right out of the box and offers a super stylish, sleek appearance.

Woo Themes are easy to customize and offer great features:

Custom Sidebars: You can create new custom sidebars for placement throughout your website using an easy-to-use panel.
Shortcodes for creating buttons and columns within a page or post (this is very cool):
Create custom navigation menus with a very easy-to-use panel (no coding knowledge required).
Built-in SEO panel: You can configure the search engine optimization for your site easily in themes developed by Woo Themes (without knowing any coding).

Pricing & License Model for Woo Themes (at time this article was published)

This is one of the more complicated things about Woo Themes as a premium WordPress theme developer. You can opt to purchase a single theme or a club membership which gives access to all themes. There are several options no matter which way you go.

The options for purchasing a single theme include:

Standard Package: your chosen theme plus 2 bonus themes. The license permits you to use the theme on as many websites as you want and you receive lifetime access to updates for all three themes. One-time fee is $70.
Developer Package: your chosen theme plus 3 bonus themes and PSD file. The license permits you to use the theme on as many websites as you want and you receive lifetime access to updates for all four themes. You can make any changes you like using the PSD file. One-time fee is $150.
Enterprise Package: select themes are Enterprise themes which include advanced features not found on other themes. No bonus themes are given but you do receive everything else that comes with the Developer Package, including the PSD files. One-time fee is $200.
The options for joining the club include:
Standard Subscription: unlimited access to all the themes plus at least 2 new theme releases every month. Access to support services and all theme updates is included. No PSD files for themes used. One-time start-up fee is $125, then the monthly club fee is $15.
Developer Club: the same terms as the Standard option, but you have access to PSD files for all themes. One-time start-up fee is $200 and monthly club fee is $20.

Woo Themes uses a private service for payment processing which accepts all major credit cards plus Paypal as long as you are paying in U.S. dollars. If you are signing up for a subscription service you will not be able to cancel the subscription on your own. You have to contact the company before the subscription is set to renew in order to have it cancelled.

PSD Files with Woo Themes Purchase

PSD files are included with select membership packages. See the information under Pricing & Licensing Model above to see what packages include these files.

All image logos are intended to be samples and there is a simple process on the site where you can replace this with your own logo. You don’t need Photoshop or any other program to do this!

Technical Support with Woo Themes

All support is handled through an open support forum where Woo staff answers questions and help resolve problems with installation or functioning of all themes. Like most other premium WordPress theme developer services, Woo Themes will not answer questions or resolve problems through email or telephone.

Access to the support forum and basic technical support continues even if you cancel your subscription. You also receive updated versions and corrections to your purchased themes, even if you are not a current club member.

History of Woo Themes

Learning about Woo Themes as a premium WordPress theme developer service is a study in how technology has changed the modern world. This is a true international company that started up with three passionate web designers all living in different countries. Today, their service has expanded some and many of their themes are designed by some of the top professionals in the industry.

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How to Make WordPress Themes2

How to Make WordPress Themes

Many blogger swear by WordPress as the best platform for blogs, websites and content platforms to publish content, pictures, videos etc. Though popular for blog, people are using WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS). WordPress is open source and the best thing that makes it an absolute favorite with web developers and bloggers is that you can incorporate plugins effortlessly from your WordPress admin panel. You can get these plugins by doing a simple Google search or through the official WordPress site.

You may have seen several WordPress themes and may feel that even you can develop such theme. For those who want to know how to make a WordPress theme, here are some pointers:

1. Designing a theme does require hard work and patience. It is always better to know html or php and the good thing is there are many resources online that can tell you how to learn them.

2. Go to an html and php tutorial website online and find how to use tags, codes and plug-ins. If you are a novice, go to a tutorial site that shows you to build a WP theme right from the beginning teaching you the basics of html and CSS. For those who already know these, you can also go to tutorial sites that show you how to build themes assuming you know these two programming languages.

3. HTML is the most important language, which is absolutely necessary needed to make WordPress theme. So make sure you learn those basic HTML commands and coding. You can make use of Microsoft Frontpage or even Dreamweaver to experiment with HTML codes.

4. Styling a webpage and jazzing it up is the next thing to do after you become familiar with html functionalities. This is where your CSS(Cascading Style Sheets) knowledge come in. When you know CSS, you will know how to make a stylish WordPress theme with colors, fonts, pictures etc.

To sum up, in order to know how to make a WordPress theme, you have to know to create the CSS template which is nothing but HTML and CSS combined. In other words, this is an HTML page stylishly done with CSS. So learn the four following things to make an attractive WordPress theme, yourself:

1. Gain knowledge about using HTML codes and tags2. Learn CSS3. Use the above two to create the CSS layout.4. Convert this CSS layout to form an attractive WordPress theme.

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WordPress Blogs – The Quickest Way to Make Money Online

WordPress Blogs – The Quickest Way to Make Money Online

Blogs are one of the best and easiest ways for you to make money online. You can set a blog up within minutes, get in indexed in a couple of hours and then turn your attention to traffic generation and earning.

Many people turn to free blogging platforms to host their blog, not realising they are putting the fate of their business in the hands of another …

Whereas it may never happen to you, it has happened to other people. The free blog companies will delete your blog first and ask questions later if they think you are even slightly in violation of their terms of service.

This can be a serious problem – your earnings could disappear over night along with some very valuable data.

You can mitigate against this problem by hosting a WordPress blog on your own domain. The costs of this is minimal. A domain will cost you under $10 a year and some webspace is well under $10 a month.

Yes, this is some investment, but you end up looking professional and have complete control over your blog. You can install additional plugins that will allow you to earn even more money from it. You have more flexibility and can do anything you want with the blog to make it your own. There is no big corporation staring over your shoulder making sure you tow the party line.

Whenever anyone sees a free blog the instant assumption is that it is an individual blogging. When they see a domain name and a self hosted WordPress blog they no longer know that – it could be a company, a guru, or anything.

This obviously puts you in a better position of establishing yourself as an expert in the field and in earning.

Once you have created one WordPress blog that is earning you money, it is very quick and easy for you to create more – you have the domain name and webhosting so you can start creating an empire of money making blogs.

Through this, you are on the road to financial freedom.

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Free Hosting vs Paid Hosting

Free Hosting vs. Paid Hosting

If you’re just starting out in the webmaster arena then you’ll probably either already be debating between a free host or paid host or you will be soon. A lot of new webmasters aren’t too confident with what there doing and feel that they may not know how to do anything which is one of the reasons why people choose using a free host. There are tons of free blog hosts out there which allow you too create your very own blog on their servers for no charge at all. This means you could potentially make money without ever spending a dime of your own money, but there are downsides to using a free host.

Sure most people talk about how new webmasters should use a free host because it will allow them to test out how to run a blog and will give them valuable experience. Now this is correct in the fact that the person would learn what it takes too run a blog, but then once they do feel confident with blogging they’ll want too move on to their own domain. Now the problem with this is that you won’t be able too take your blog with you and therefore you’ll need to start from scratch from again which isn’t always fun. This is why I recommend starting out with your own paid hosting right from the beginning. For the price that it costs for a domain and a small blog hosting package nowadays there is no reason too be using free hosts.

It will cost you no more then $20 too get your first domain and first months of hosting paid for and from there you can begin making your blog and you actually will own it. On a free blog host you don’t really ever own your blog, but with your own domain and hosting you’re the complete owner to your blog and nobody will be able too take that from you. Free blog hosts have the possibilities of closing down in the future and then all of your hard work would also be lost.

I tend to not enjoy leaving my blogs in the hands of someone else and I personally have never used a free blog host and never will. When you have a successful blog on a free host not many people really care and your monetization methods are slimmer for private advertisements. Private ads are a huge part of blogging monetization and without the option you’re cutting yourself short. When you have a blog on its own domain then you’ll easily be able too sell links, banners and more once you get traffic.

The benefits of coughing up $20 to own your blog is well worth it and can save you from lots of headaches down the road. You never want too leave your web properties in the hand of someone else and by using a free blog host you’re doing exactly this. Now for children and teenagers I understand using a free blog host, but if you’re an adult and serious about giving the online world a chance then you shouldn’t be scared about paying $20 for a domain and hosting as this will be the least of your investments.

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