How many times have you seen the panicked tweets of people who’ve had their blogs hacked? Ever wondered what you should do if it happened to you? Today, I’m talking to an expert in dealing with hacked WordPress blogs, Michael VanDeMar. Listen, learn, and then be careful out there!

How He Knows

Donna: I know you have a popular blog post that describes how to completely clean your hacked WordPress installation. In fact, it’s even been linked to as a resource by WordPress themselves (twice) and by the well-known WordPress geek Lorelle VanFossen as well. My question is, how did you become so familiar with hacked WordPress blogs? How do you know how to clean one?

Michael: I went through a period a few years back where I was getting hacked every other month, and on multiple sites. Usually it was because I didn’t follow one of my bestest friend’s advice*, and would procrastinate on upgrading. As it is I learned by necessity how to quickly and effectively clean up a blog, and have used that knowledge to try and help others as well.

Protect Yourself

Donna: So, everyone agrees that the best way to prevent getting hacked is to keep WordPress upgraded to the latest version. What else should we all do in addition to that?

Michael: Up until the most recent versions of WordPress, every single version that was released wound up having relatively serious security holes in them. Now that WordPress itself seems to have plugged all of those, there are 2 main ways that a WordPress installation can get hacked:

1) Insecure hosting environment. Unfortunately this year some of the bigger names in hosting have had security issues, and almost always when they were discovered, it was WordPress that was attacked by the hackers, and in many cases unfairly blamed for the security holes. You should always investigate your host before buying a package, make sure that not only are they safe, but check out how they responded to problems in the past. Those that owned up to them and addressed the issue, instead of repeatedly issuing denials that anything was wrong, are probably the ones who take security more seriously.

2) A virus on a computer belonging to someone who has ftp access to the web server. Although this is more rare, it does happen. Certain FTP programs store their passwords in plain text, which means anyone who can read the files on the computer can see what those passwords are. If a person is using one of those programs, and their computer gets a virus, there are viruses that will read those passwords and ftp up malicious files to the host. The solution to this, aside from using strong virus protection (or switching from Windows to Linux), is to not store your passwords in your ftp program.

There are some plugins that can sometimes help catch certain types of hacks, and you yourself wrote a very handy script designed to check the last modified dates on files located on the server and alert you of any change, but unfortunately there are ways that hackers have found to get around most of those (although of course they still help in many situations).

What About DIY?

Donna: I know you often clean hacked WordPress blogs as a service. In what situations would someone need to hire you to clean their hacked blogs? Can’t they just do it themselves?

Michael: Yes, many people can, and the guide I wrote was intended to be a DIY type of instruction manual for people to do just that. However, one of the main attractions of WordPress in the first place is that it allows people with almost no technical knowledge to be able to build and maintain their own websites. With one-click installation and built in upgrade functionality, you don’t even have to know how to FTP files to your server to be able to have a WordPress blog. Cleaning a blog (at least, cleaning one properly) involves actually going into the sql and looking inside the php files themselves. For many people that is unfamiliar territory that they would rather leave to a professional. Plus, getting hacked is scary. Some people who might even have some basic web development knowledge feel better having someone who is more familiar with the ins and outs of dehacking a website handle the job.

Back Door Access

Donna: Ok, I’ve actually been asked this question a few times, so I thought I’d let you answer it here. If I do get hacked, can’t I just upgrade my blog and everything will be ok?

Michael: Unfortunately in most cases that will not help the situation. When hackers get into a WordPress installation they usually modify more than just the core WordPress files, which is the only thing that gets overwritten when someone performs an upgrade. Theme files and plugins will get extra code injected into them, whole new pages that act as back doors to the site will get added, and the database will have malicious code inserted into it. The only sure fire way to make sure that everything is good is to start with a blank slate, and rebuild the files, retaining and carefully scanning only those files that cannot be gotten from fresh, clean sources.

Do The Happy Dance

Donna: Do you do a little dance when satisfied clients tweet how great you are?

Michael: Yes.

It’s Not Your Momma’s Cleaning Service

Donna: Tell us about your hacked blog cleaning service and how someone should get in touch with you if they need to hire you.

Michael: If someone does have issues with cleaning their blog, or has hired someone else to do it but still keeps getting hacked, I am available for hire to do cleanups. When I do perform cleanups myself, in most cases they are complete wipe and reinstalls, as I suggest doing in my guide, retaining only those elements that can’t be replaced with fresh downloads (the uploads folder, customizations to a theme, and the database). For all of the elements of a hacked site that I do retain, I carefully scan them by hand and then put the blog back together in it’s original condition. There are many, many places that hackers can hide malicious code in your installation, and none of the automated or scripted solutions out there will find them all. When I scan by hand, I don’t just look for specific lines of code, I look for broad matching patterns in all of the places where back doors and virus droppers can be hidden. I have written some tools to help me with this, so I can be both thorough and relatively quick at the same time, but I still need to visually examine the results to be able to determine what is malicious versus what is simply suspicious.

I actually finally added a contact form on my blog. If anyone is interested in my services, the contact form on my blog is the best way to get in touch with me.

Care To Share?

Donna: Is there anything else you want to share with us? About WordPress hacked blogs or the meaning of life, even?

Michael: I can’t think of anything for this one.

Disclaimer

Donna: Disclaimer: Michael is my best buddy, so yeah, that may make me favor him, but what it really means is that I know his work. I’ve seen firsthand, many times over, how he painstakingly makes sure he misses nothing. He spends much more time being careful to ensure that every single detail is handled than anyone I’ve ever met. So if I tend to favor his work, it’s not just because he’s my best buddy – it’s because I know my best buddy’s work so well. That, I believe, is the best kind of endorsement.

* “bestest friend” = me. Why does my advice go unheeded so often, and for so long? Don’t answer that!

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Post tags: hacked, WordPress
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ShopperPress

ShopperPress is a fully featured shopping cart theme for WordPress, suitable for selling all types of products, services, and digital downloads online. Includes 20+ store designs, new video tutorials, unlimited installations, lifetime free support and upgrades.

Coupon Code: BABYBOY

DirectoryPress

DirectoryPress turns a WordPress blog into a powerful online directory website with lots of features, import tools and built in payment gateways. Recently updated, and includes 20+ directory themes, unlimited installations, lifetime free support and upgrades.

Coupon Code: BABYBOY

Classifieds Theme

Classifieds Theme is a powerful, secure, SEO friendly classifieds theme for WordPress with lots of professional features and extra classified website designs. Recently updated, with new designs! Includes 20+ extra classifieds designs, unlimited installations, lifetime free support and upgrades.

Coupon Code: BABYBOY

CouponPress

CouponPress turns any WordPress blog into a professional coupon code or voucher code website with lots of coupon site features, in minutes! Recently updated, and includes 20+ coupon website designs, unlimited installations, lifetime free support and upgrades.

Coupon Code: BABYBOY

RealtorPress

RealtorPress is a turn-key ready “out of the box” real estate website solution for both individual realtors and real estate companies. You simply install, select your template, add or import your real estate property and you’er ready to go.

Coupon Code: BABYBOY

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Post tags: niche, themes, WordPress
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WordPress is not only a great blogging tool, it is a great content management system. By using the countless free themes, plugins and widgets available, the possibilities of this software are limitless. I have seen WordPress used for everything from a simple blog to a restaurant’s online presence through to a realtor’s online portal. WordPress can be a simple and cost effective solution to getting your business website online fast.

So how do you take advantage of this great, free tool? With just a little time and careful thought, it can be a simple process. There are three essential steps to take. First, you need a domain name. Second, you need a hosting account and third, you need to install WordPress to said account. Lets break those three steps down a little, so you can get on your way to using WordPress today (and yes, it really is that simple!).

Registering a Domain Name

First you need a domain name. The domain is what you enter in your browser to find your website, ‘google.com’ for instance. To ensure your website appears in relevant search engine results, you need to take care over your choice of domain name. You will need a domain that accurately reflects your business and the services you offer. For example, if you were creating a domain name for a florist in New York City – nycflorist.com or newyorkcityflorists.com would both be excellent names to choose. Of course the perfect domain name may already be taken, and you may have to give the matter some careful thought. Most domain name registrars will offer a domain name lookup facility to help you check the available domains.

Find a Web Hosting Provider

With your perfect domain name secured, you now need to look for a reliable hosting provider. Web hosting, or simply hosting for short, is the service that powers your website and your email, it is the engine of the whole setup. It is common to purchase both hosting and a domain from one company, as most providers offer the two services in tandem. You should be looking for a hosting company that firstly supports WordPress. Most hosting companies will be more than happy to host WordPress. Also be sure to check out online reviews of the company. What are people saying about them right now? While a company may look perfect on the surface, dig around. There are plenty of online web hosting review sites, where actual customers rate their providers performance. Don’t be swayed by the bells and whistles of an organization’s marketing department!

Install WordPress

The third and final step is to install WordPress. ‘Installing’ WordPress refers to the act of uploading the WordPress files to your hosting account, and then configuring the setup. For technically adept users the process can be simple, but for novice or intermediate users, you may want your hosting company to install this for you. Such a service is usually available from hosting companies who specialize in WordPress hosting. Using an instant or auto installer from your hosting company, you should be able to have WordPress running on your website within a minute or two.

And from there? Well that is up to you! A myriad of free themes, plugins and widgets exist that you can use to customize the look and feel of your WordPress website. Hundreds if not thousands of free themes exist, which allow you to alter the appearance of your site in seconds, with hardly any technical experience necessary. Plugins and widgets are used to add additional functionality to your site like integrating your latest twitter comments to your site. And if you cannot find precisely what you want there is a thriving after market of designers and developers who will happily help you construct something unique. Using websites such as Elance, you can outsource such development work to developers across the globe, sometimes at rock bottom prices.

About Stuart Melling

Stuart Melling co-founded 34SP.com in October 2000. The firm has particular expertise in WordPress hosting. As business director Stuart is responsible for the development of new and existing hosting services; from pricing and marketing to the direction 34SP.com products take. A keen cook, Stuart spends his spare time perfecting and trying out new recipes at home.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: online presence, web hosting, WordPress
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A quick explanation of CommentLuv: Basically, it’s a special comment feature that rewards people who comment here on the site with a link to their most recent blog post. The plugin grabs it automatically and does all the work without the commenter having to do anything special. The links are still nofollowed, so there’s no incentive for spammers, but hopefully commenters will get some real traffic from interested visitors to this site. Cool, huh?

Anyway, that’s not what this post is about. This one is about showing you how easy it is to give the commenter’s CommentLuv link some special CSS styling. I wanted to do this because I noticed that the post links didn’t stand out as much as I wanted them to. I wanted to put a little extra space between your comments and the actual CommentLuv latest post link, and I wanted to italicize it as well. So, I dug around in the source code for a second and realized that the plugin was using a class called “cluv”. That’s all I needed to know. Woot!

So, if you want to style your CommentLuv links, just go to Appearance / Editor and edit your blog’s stylesheet. Scroll down to the bottom and add the following line:

.cluv {margin-top:10px; font-style:italic;}

Save your edit, and that’s it! You’ve now added a little extra space between the comment and the link, and you’ve italicized it as well. Of course, feel free to style them any way you want. That’s just an example of what I did.

Let me know if you get any traffic from your CommentLuv links when you comment here. I really hope I can send some your way.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: commentluv, CSS
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Themeforest

Themeforest offers a dizzying array of themes to choose from, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one I didn’t like. This one might just be my favorite of them all.

iThemes

iThemes has some very nice themes, with two that are different, in that they have the ability to be extremely flexible (Flexx and Builder).

Woo Themes

Woo Themes are a favorite amongst many WordPress aficionados because it offers monthly membership to get new themes each month. You can still opt to just buy a theme without membership, however, and they are always giving free themes with each purchase, so good deals abound here.

Kadom

Kadom Themes hit my radar because I was trying out one of their plugins. They don’t have a lot of themes, but the ones they have are crisp and clean.

Templatic

Templatic changed its name recently but that didn’t distract from the quality of the themes. I like the wide array of “types” of themes that will work for many niches and business models.

Elegant Themes

Elegant Themes are not only outstanding, but the yearly price for complete access to all themes is ridiculously awesome.

Solostream

SoloStream has a more “classic” array of theme choices than most, but sometimes classic is just what someone is searching for.

WPRemix

WPRemix is really just one premium theme, but it comes bundled with over 50 layouts to choose from, so it’s an interesting and useful package.

Headway

Headway is less of a theme and more of a framework. This is for the do-it-yourself’er or designer who wants to create their own designs, but with an awesome place to start, and options designed to make the process easy.

Thesis

Thesis, like Headway, is a framework, that lets you create whatever design you want, while still starting from a powerful base. It also is designed to make the creation process easy, with options built in.

Those are my favorites. If you’re looking for a special theme, or like me, just like to browse for inspiration on rainy days, these are great places to find extreme themes and incredible inspiration.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: premium themes, WordPress
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But try remembering even those two things when you write posts for several blogs. If you’re anything like me, you never remember and you end up digging through old notes or View Source on blog posts to see what the format is. Don’t you wish you could just jot down a note on the WordPress admin dashboard to remind you of those little things? Guess what?

There’s a plugin for that!

Actually, there may be several, but the one I use is Dashboard Post-It. Here’s how it’s described:

Adds a simple ‘Post-it’ widget to the Dashboard that allows you to leave yourself or other authors a note. The plugin can be configured and moved around as any other Dashboard widget. It will accept plain text or (sanitized) HTML.

If you own a multi-author blog, this is a great way to make sure everyone remembers all the little rules you have. If you’re a blogger who posts for someone else, let them know about this little plugin. It can make things easier for everyone.

Sometimes it’s the tiniest things that increase productivity and keep us from tearing our hair out in frustration.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dashboard, HTML, plugin, WordPress
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I’m really excited that the Southeast United States is getting its first WordCamp ever! Woohoo! I’ll be speaking on SEO for WordPress there, so it would be just kickin’ if I could get to meet some of you there. It’s going to be held September 27-28, 2008 (yep, like 3 weeks away). The cost is only $25, so it’s well worth it! There will be lots more info posted on the official blog soon, but you can get the first bits of info there now. That blog will be updating pretty rapidly over the next couple of days so check it out now and then.

You can register here, and I’ll remind everyone about it later, in case some of you forget. I’d really, really, really love to get to meet some of you, so I’m hoping lots of you will go.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Birmingham, unconference, WordCamp, WordPress
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Update: If you like this post, you should check out my 10 favorite WordPress premium theme sites post, as those will contain lots of awesome non-blog styles.

Remember the post I wrote a couple of months ago, titled When Is A Blog Not A Blog? Well, I was reminded of that post when I started thinking about a new site I’m about to begin working on. You see, I plan to use WordPress to run the site, but I don’t want the site to look like a blog. It won’t be date-oriented, like a blog is, and in keeping with the idea of having it be more like a regular site, I want it to have a non-blog look as well.

Not all WordPress themes have to look like blog themes. In my quest to find just the right look for my new site, I realized that there was a “style” that could be useful to others looking for the same thing. Generally speaking, that style is called “magazine style” or “newspaper style”, but I find that some of them could be referred to as “corporate style” as well. So rather than trying to put a specific name on this, I’ll just refer to the following styles as the “non-blog look”. That work for you? Good.

The next thing you should know is that I chose my favorites to present here, but each of them is a premium theme, which loosely translated, means they aren’t free. Still, the features and options warrant their cost in my opinion. Sometimes, it’s necessary to spend a little. (And just for those of you who absolutely won’t spend money on a theme, I’ve included a link to a review of some free non-blog themes at the very end).

All prices subject to change, and I may not know about it *

Flexx $79

Click here to view more details

Flexx is by far the most flexible and most awesome premium theme I’ve seen. Frankly, all you need to know is that with just a few clicks of your mouse, you can change the layout to any one of over 1000 different possible layouts. You decide how many columns you want, where you want them, where to put special widgets, how to organize the menu, etc., just by clicking your mouse. Seriously, it’s so cool, it’s unreal! So the screenshot below is just ONE of over 1000 possible looks! Lots of other way cool features, too, like flash-like rotating headers, seo friendly, and plug and play graphic changes.

WP Remix $75

Click here to view more details

WP Remix comes with:

• 20+ Custom Layouts
• Multiple Page Templates
• 5 Homepage Options
• 10 Sub Page Options
• 2 Product/Portfolio Pages
• 2 Event Listing Pages
• FAQ Template
• Testimonials
• Multi Level Drop Down Menu
• 1, 2, and 3 column Pages
• SEO optimized
• Image Gallery
• Newsletter form
• and on and on and on

The screenshot only shows one possible layout, but the layout options are almost endless.

Revolution and Its Iterations $79.95 each

What can I say about Revolution? It comes in various flavors and each is wonderful and highly flexible.

Original Revolution:
Click here to view more details

Revolution Magazine:
Click here to view more details

Revolution News:
Click here to view more details

Revolution Sports:
Click here to view more details

Revolution Tech:
Click here to view more details

EggHead $49

Click here to view more details

This theme has a very nice admin options area that makes it easy to customize the text for each section.

Features:

• 8 color schemes
• 2 layouts
• Dynamic menus
• Easy ad placements

Egghead works well for a traditional web site look.

That’s it. I haven’t yet decided which I’ll choose, but I’m leaning heavily towards Fjord09 at the moment. Anyway, as promised, here’s a link to a good review of 11 Free Magazine Style WordPress Themes for those of you who insist on free. (I insist on free at least 99% of the time, so I totally understand).

*

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: plug and play, regular site, web site look
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I discussed installing WordPress in Part Six of my series, and discussed WP themes in Part Seven, but if you are looking for more details, then Caroline’s ebook may just what you need. The ebook is called How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress.

Here’s the outline of the ebook:

Chapter 1: Getting and Installing WordPress
Chapter 2: Basic WordPress Administration
Chapter 3: Installing a New Theme
Chapter 4: Setting up Adsense On Your Site
Chapter 5: WordPress Plugins
Chapter 6: Creating Your Site Content
Chapter 7: Final Thoughts
Appendix 1: Uploading Using FTP
Appendix 2: External Resources

If you are looking for a good free resource on setting up and using WordPress, this might be just what you need.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Adsense On Your Site Chapter, Basic WordPress Administration Chapter, Caroline Middlebrook, ebook, Getting and Installing WordPress Chapter, New Theme Chapter, WordPress, WordPress Plugins Chapter, Your Site Content Chapter
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Want to know a little secret? My most profitable site is not a blog. It’s just a regular site. You know, the kind that has existed for years, long before the word blog was invented. I almost never update it. I hardly ever even think about it. I certainly don’t post daily or weekly like I would do with a blog. But if I had to do it all over again, I would build it as if it were a blog. I still wouldn’t update it very often or think about it very often. But when I needed to, it would be oh so much easier to do than it is right now. So unless I plan to do some extra-special, hoop-jumping, programming wizardry on my next site, I’ll create it using WordPress as if it were a blog.

But it won’t be a blog.

It will be a regular site that just happens to use WordPress as its foundation. And you probably should too. In the old days, I would have recommended something like Drupal or some other CMS (Content Management System) to you. And then you would have asked me 5,000 questions about how to use it. Keep in mind that a CMS is supposed to make life easier for non-programmers, but just using them can be a daunting experience.

WordPress is pretty darn easy to use. It might not be as easy as 1-2-3, but it’s not much harder than that. And it actually comes enabled with an option to make it work more like a regular site than a blog. It’s not completely designed for it, and some tweaking needs to be done – usually to your theme (design) – but it doesn’t take much tweaking.

Normally, when using WordPress as a blog, any time you write a new post, you are writing just that – a post. But you can also write pages instead of posts in WordPress, and these are handled differently than posts (they aren’t displayed in chronological order for example). And if you tell WordPress to use one of those pages you wrote as your home page, it will! So if you want a 10-page site, write 10 pages and assign one of them as the home page. Easy, right?

Like I said, it’s not quite as simple as that, and the biggest issues almost always center around making changes to the theme you choose. Frankly, unless you’re ready and willing to learn about HTML, PHP, and CSS, I’d probably recommend that you hire someone to make the theme changes for you. Since you might be doing that anyway in order to get a custom theme for yourself, it probably won’t cost you any more than you would have paid in the first place.

You might want to check out this Essential Keystrokes post, as it gives yet another view of someone who went through this process. You might also want to check out Drikatruu Jelly. That theme is one I’ve already mentioned that I like, and the site shows you how you can use it as a template for a WordPress CMS. If you are feeling like tackling the project yourself, it might be the way to go.

So if you want to build a site, but you don’t want to be a blogger, you might want to consider using WordPress as a CMS. If you plan to create some mind-blowing site that requires lots of custom programming, then this probably isn’t the way to go. But if you want to just a build a regular site, put some pages up, maybe throw some affiliate links around, and then let it stand on its own, this might be a great way to make that happen. When you do need to add a page, or change something you’ve written, it will be a breeze to do it through WordPress’s admin panel. And over the years, that ease of use will be something you’ll come to appreciate very, very much.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CMS, Content Management System, HTML, mind-blowing site, profitable site, regular site, WordPress
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