The Dark side of Dating sites!

Come to The Dark Side, We have cookies Shirt -- Cafepress (Click image to check it out!)

You Don't know the Power of the Dark Side on Dating sites!

When your looking for that special someone you probably have been on several different sites.  It however is nothing compared to some of the things I've seen.   I'd get emails with the heading:

• Someone sent you a Flirt
• Someone's Trying to Get in Touch With You!
• A Zoosk member would like to chat with you on Zoosk
• A Zoosk member sent you a flirt on Zoosk!
• Someone wants to meet you!

These are a few of the emails I would get from time on these sites.   Some times it is a legit email and other times.   You have to wonder who comes up with the email.   Most of the time you get emails from people with phone numbers and email addresses they usually use "/" to avoid the filters on the said dating sites.   Now here are a few observations from not being scammed on dating sites!

Ways to tell you it's a fake profile!

It doesn't make much since but these people who send you some stuff makes me worry.   For example here are my tips to know if this is a spam and probably just a scam email in the same process.

• Gives out the Email address the first email!
• Gives out the text number to text them on the first email!
• They claim to be living in another country in the first or few emails in!
• The person profile isn't complete!
• The picture on the profile is super hot!

These are just a few observations that tell me a profile is either fake, but it isn't the only indication.   Usually if I am curious I will still use one of my many email address specifically designed for the spam catching emails addresses.  Just to see if this is a real person or not.   You can usually tell by checking out the email headers.  If you ever want to know for sure this is the best possible way to tell if this email is coming from Germany, Africa, or Some other country besides the one you are on.   It just takes a little patients!  Hope this helps you out!

Paul Sylvester

Amazon Affiliate Link

Why I use Google Affiliate Network!

Google Affiliate Network Summit 045 (Photo credit: Affiliate)

There's More than one way to skin a cat!

When all said is done, you have a big selection of affiliate networks that you can choose from.   You might even wonder which affiliate network is the best for your situation.   In this blog post, we will talk about some of the things that you can do to choose which one might be the best for your situation.   Not all Affiliate networks will be the same but this will at least let you understand which ones are right for you.

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers (affiliates) and merchant affiliate programs. It allows website publishers to more easily find and participate in affiliate programs which are suitable for their website (and thus generate income from those programs)

[Wikipedia]

Finding what works for you!

There are so many different networks you can use that you may have trouble knowing which one will work for you.  I will say before we go on that I do not know every single affiliate network but I have tried all the major affiliate networks and I will give you my opinions on each of them.

 Google Affiliate Network -- I've been using this network from the get go, I will say that I've had some modest luck with this network.  I've made some money with network because of Glasses USA (Affiliate link).   I've always got paid for my commissions and they do actually care about your website and helping you get your commissions.

Commission Junction -- I've tried this network and gotten some commissions from this network but it hasn't really been a good relationship for me.  I didn't really feel like they had my own website in mind.  I had to apply for all the merchants and never really had any luck with merchants wanting to have their advertising on my site.

Linkshare -- Another good network that I didn't have any luck with.   I know they have a wide variety of things that might be good for you but I really didn't find anything that fit well with my website.  It always seemed to be more about page views then commissions.   They would always be someone wanting to be on my site that was unrelated to my blog.   I really didn't feel that was a good fit for my website.

Linkconnector -- I recently signed up to find out which programs they have on this site.  I haven't been on their long and have already been offered to be part of merchants that are unrelated to my blog again.   These sites that were offered are nice for blogs or advertisers who is related in one way or another.   I bet these guys don't even check the website they are offering to.

 Mal-Advertising!

Malware Advertising is something that I have come to understand just a little more and thus it is always going to be a problem for the affiliate networks because someone will come along and offer a service but are rarely understood because of the nature of advertising.   I am not saying that every time you sign up for a new advertiser that you are going always going to have one when you sign up but that doesn't mean you shouldn't at least do your research before you start using their ads.   I've been happy with my selection of using Google Affiliate networks but I would love to hear which ones you use and why.   Just leave a comment and tell me and others who you recommend.

Paul Sylvester

 Related articles

• Report: malware pushed by affiliate networks remains the primary growth factor of the cybercrime ecosystem (zdnet.com)


• Top Affiliate Marketing Company for January 2012 is Experience Advertising Affiliate Management OPM (prnewswire.com)


• Affiliate Industry Preview: Google Affiliate Network's Dan Greene (revenews.com)


• Cashunclaimed.com Launches New Affiliate Program with Commission Junction (prweb.com)


• CPA Affiliate Marketing Is A Great Way To Make Money Online (blogpronews.wordpress.com)

Why Auto blogs aren't the way to make Money!

Image via Wikipedia

What is an Auto Blog?

Autoblog is a neologism and misnomer used to describe a particular type of website which uses software designed to automatically add content in a blog format.[1] The owner of an autoblog is generally referred to as an autoblogger. Engaging in this practice is called autoblogging.
Autoblogging does not require a site owner to create original web content. An autoblogger merely installs the necessary software, and configures its settings to collect the type of content desired. The automated software handles the rest.

[Via Wikipedia]

Autoblogs are basically just programs designed to publish other people's stuff. Now I am not going to explain some stuff that you might not know. Plugins for Wordpress like WordPress Magic, WP Robot, MultiPress Content, Commission Cheat, and  other autoblogging software are sometimes considered Auto Content Stealing programs. I know more about this then people who are just starting off.  I'm here today to talk about these programs in detail.

Make Money While You  are Sleeping!

You've probably heard that one a lot or Hidden Secrets to commissions in advertising. Most of them do somewhat what they say. I was using one in particular for almost over a year and I didn't see any noticeable amount of money coming in from having that run day in and day out.

I've even seen those advertisements on YouTube and other video places claiming that you could make Millions and not do anything more than install a plugin that takes just 10 minutes install.   These programs however most of the time cost money and that is where the catch is.   I have no problem paying for something that works but most of the time if you claim I can set it and forget about it, I just say no thanks.

Does these work?

I know most of you who are asking this question, and probably saw something on another website and you are quite curious as to if these work or not.  I will give you the short answer "NO", they aren't really a scam because you make money but you really don't make money like you've seen on the advertisements.   You basically just make enough commissions to pay for the product in one year.   I may have made more but you get the gist of that.   You also have to remember that you have to have a really high Google PR to even get the traffic that is needed to make any kind of money.

Just creating a new domain, will not help you because it will have no Google Juice for quite some time and that is if you get any at all.   Most of the time, Google looks down on this type of stuff and stops you before you even get going.

Is this Stealing content?

Most of the time you aren't really taking anything that you shouldn't but that doesn't mean you could be doing that.   Most Auto Blog plugins will allow to you pick what you want to use as content and it will publish what you tell it.  The content that you will most like get are from like Amazon, Clickbank, Commission Junction, and other such Affiliate programs.   They usually allow you to use their content for your website and thus you can use them on your site.   The Kicker to this is, Google and other SEO, they will rank you lower just because of that.   They consider scraper sites to be nothing more than spam and thus you might go down in ranking if your not careful.

How do I know?

I created a Website called "unlocked cell phones blog" trying to test this out.  I created that last year about this time and set up using WP Robot, as my autoblog plugin.   After that year was up, I checked my Amazon Account tracking ID and guess what.   I only made "$56.45".   As you can tell I pretty much made what I put into it, I bought the software for $75 and I got half that back.   I made a little more money on my other Domain Tech-linkblog.com but I couldn't tell you for sure if it was all the plugin or if some of those was because of my old content.

Recommendations!

Here is what I recommend, if your really wanting to do this, do as much research as you can and know this.   There are websites that are specifically designed to waste your time to prevent you from finding your answers.   I know if you look on Google and others you will see that you find all these Glowing reviews and people who are just posting Videos of this type of stuff so they can make a little money.   You really have to go 3 to 4 pages in to find some truth in these AutoBlogging software.   You will find your answers if you ask the right questions and search for what makes sense.   I will not say I am totally against Auto Blogs, but I am not going to waste my money on another one of those in the future.  I now know that making money overnight isn't always going to be possible without at least working for it.

It's not how you do it but what you do that can make your blog a success.  You never know if your going to write the best article in your life or the worst article but until you try.  This I hope has told given you what you have been wondering or asking.   I'd love to hear your comments and your experiences, I might be the only one who hasn't done so good but I'm willing to bet there are others out there.

Paul Sylvester

 

Related articles

• Blog or Bot? (dave-lucas.blogspot.com)


• CB Autoblog (preciseinternetmarketing.com)


• Submit your questions for Autoblog Podcast #260 LIVE (autoblog.com)


• Update to WP Robot Autoblogging Software for Wordpress Adds New Features And Refinements (prweb.com)


• How to AutoBlog the RIGHT Way (williecrawford.com)


• Why I am not making money online (aaronchua.com)

Being more Honest with my Affiliate Links!

Google Affiliate Network Summit 035 (Photo credit: Affiliate

Testing the Waters!

A friend told me, a couple days ago that I should be telling my readers when I have affiliate links.  He said I would would get even more sales if I were to be a little more honest with which ones are actually the ones that I make money off of!   It would better help those decide if your going to be a a good blog or not.   I really didn't have much to say on the matter because I didn't know what to say. I am sure there will always be those who will not tell you.   I thought it was quite obvious when I didn't tell you but then I forgot I was hiding my affiliate links, not to be dishonest but to prevent programs and virus from taking away from all the work I have done.   I know there will always be people who will got the site directly and not give the site the credit.  I understand that, and somewhat expect that.

Honesty is the best Policy!

That being said, if you ever come to one of my posts and you see the (Affiliate links) or (Affiliate link) then it will be linked to this post.   So you can read about my honesty and understand that I am working really hard at changing.   Here is how this will work:

• Reviews -- I promise to my readers that I believe in the review of the product and that it is a recommendation from me.


• Reimbursement -- Hosting isn't cheap now a days, that is I put up my Affiliate links and also to try supplement my working income.


• If Gifted to me -- I will clearly state that in my post and my review will no be swayed by the free gift of the item.  If it sucks, you will know about it and if it is something useful then you will also know about it.  I may however have affiliate links for the item.


• Nicer URLS -- even though I have hidden the urls and you have to click the URL to go the affiliate site in question, it is because the URL aren't really neat and tidy.   If you feel offended because you can't see URL then please feel free not to click those links.  (I wouldn't want to see http://www.amazon.com/blah/blah/blah/blah/etc, anyways and I bet you don't either)


• Gift Cards -- If you are wanting me to review a certain item and it is on Amazon or some other place then I will gladly accept a gift card through email(First name @ this domain).  However if it is something else please don't hesitate to email me.


• Review UNITS -- Same as Gifted cards, if your wanting me to review an item but don't know where to send it.   Please email me and I'll discuss with you where to send it.  (First Name @ this domain)  Please bear in mind that I may not give a nice review, so I make no PROMISES and there are no expectations.

Prove to me!

I've done the unthinkable and stopped hiding all my links on this site.   So if you want me to continue to do it this way,  I will need to see a positive out come.   I was making money hiding sites links and not telling people about them being affiliate links.   Now I don't want to see a drop in sales and money by being honest.   Help support my love to blog and being able to read about the stuff that matters to you.   Just like Glasses USA (Affiliate link) matters to me because I have to wear glasses everyday and I can't afford to go buy some really expensive pairs of glasses.   They have been the one source for me, when I need to buy new glasses.  If you find a post that you really think is good, then don't be afraid to share it on Facebook or Twitter.   Those are one ways to show your support of my blog.

Nothing shows support like sharing a post!

Paul Sylvester

Related articles

• The Best Way to Monetize Your Blog with Affiliate Programs (leccoworkshop.com)


• Eight Ways to Make More Money as an Affiliate (blogworld.com)


• An app provides Amazon affiliates with quick access to earnings reports (intomobile.com)


• Is Affiliate Marketing Right for Your Business? (openforum.com)


• Serious About Affiliate Marketing? Then Don't Miss These Tips (famousbloggers.net)

Techniques to remove malware from your domain!

Image by Sam Howzit via Flickr

Websites and domains!

I recently had to help my favorite club remove some malware off their website.   My club, Starfleet-command Quadrant One website, was one of those sites that didn't see this coming.   As a website owner, I've seen many of things come and go but experience has taught me that it will always come back.  I will be watching for this again in the near future but hopefully it won't come back!

The back story was something that I have to at least talk about because this is how the site got infected.

One reason that this site got infected was by being hosted with the same hosting server.  They were both using the Goddady shared hosting account to display their webpages or forums on the internet.   Thus Godaddy, with their infinite wisdom tried to explain it away as that.    I don't know if I buy that reason or if there was something else that might of been the culprit but I do know this website had urls redirects and such to malware sites.  I much rather keep with Hostgator, then have Godaddy anyways.

Another Reason is that it was probably some kind of key logger, or something that was sending back the important password information to a Command and control server and thus the website owner was infected or someone in the organization that had access to the account was unintentionally allowing a hacker to gain access to the website.

Removing the Malware off your Site!

Nothing in the world is ever going to be easy, but it is necessary to get into the guts of the website.   Your probably thinking, websites don't have guts.   You'd be wrong, when I thought about having to go through each part of the code and remove the html malware redirects that is what I mean by guts.      Many people will come to understand that as a programming language but I like to think of it as a doctor who does surgery to remove an infectedc limb or something like that.

So I'm going to give you a few areas to look at if your having this problem with Malware being on your site or domain.   It won't always be the same place for the same infection but it will at least help you find it and remove it.

.htaccess -- This is one place where they will first make changes to redirect traffic to the domain that they want your visitor to. If you have had much experience with what it does.   It is a good time to learn what they do and how to use them.

index.php or index.html-- This is something that the hackers have learned to use but most often is over looked.   This is something that I haven't seen before until now.   Certain browser will display the virus or malware warnings and others will not even see it or have any problems!   See example for more information, because I couldn't do a better job then them!

Check Subdomains and subdirectories --   This is something that is also needs to be looked at.   even if they aren't showing the signs of being being infected it is always a good idea to at least make sure they stay uninfected.   Check them for the .htaccess and index code and remove what you need or change it to where it should be going to in the first place.   I found the .htaccess redirect code all in subdomains and sub directories on the one that I helped to remove the infection from.

Change ALL passwords -- This is a MUST, if you've been infected then your passwords are at risk of being the source of the infections.   Change your FTP Password, your log in information password, and anything associated with the site in question and possibility the subdomains passwords.

Limit the number of people with the new passwords -- if your like me, you don't want to many people to have the ftp password and thus you should consider only allowing a select number of people having it.   Like the organization I have, they have people left and right who use it to upload files and stuff that is needed.   It also might be required to just have a server that is used for nothing else but to upload files for publications and other things like that.

Disclaimer

Nothing in the article is a must do or will get rid of your site being blocked by Google and other such search engines but it will at least give you a place to start looking to find culprit and maybe get your site running again quicker.   I will not make any guarantees that this will fix the problem or that it will solve your problem 100% but this is to be used as a tutorial on where to look and what you should do to prevent re-infections with malware.

 Paul Sylvester

SUPERAntiSpyware

Related articles

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• Never ever search for a domain name at Network Solutions! (xemion.com)


• Malware Analysis Quant: The Malware Profile (securosis.com)


• Dangerous Malware Link Spreading Through Facebook Chat System (techie-buzz.com)


• 75 Million Unique Malware Samples By 2012 (homesecuritysource.com)


• Getting rid of Malware - Stop the Spy who enjoys your Information and Information (microphone-film.net)

No SOPA for me thanks!

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

Stop Online Piracy Act!

If you've been living under a rock lately, then your probably haven't heard about SOPA(Stop Online Piracy Act) and it just worries me.   It is like we would be living in China and that would mean less liberty for us bloggers and people who are the ones who may accidently infringe on copyrights.

SOPA(Stop Online Piracy Act) expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.

[Wikipedia]

I don't like that you will not be "Innocent until proven guilty" but you will be "Guilty" with having a chance to fix the problem.

I will be Protesting January 18th!

On the 18th, I will be blacking out my website, and you will see a screen on how you can help.  This is an attempt to show Congress that I am not happy with this bill.   I will support any website that wants to join me in t his.  I believe this bill will not make piracy go away and thus this bill will do more damage then good.   Some of the websites that will be doing this are:

• Reddit


• Cheezburger sites


• MLG(majorleaguegaming.com)


• and more

What will you do on the 18th?

I am showing my support and would love to hear what you i will do on the eighteenth.   Will you do your site like others and black it out or will be talking about it all day?

Paul Sylvester

Related articles

• Resistance is Victory: SOPA And PIPA Sponsors Caving In To Opposition (mountainrepublic.net)


• WRUP: Bowl of SOPA (joystiq.com)


• SOPA Shelved, for Now (davidscommonplacebook.wordpress.com)


• Rupert Murdoch critical of White House stance on SOPA (digitaltrends.com)


• SOPA Blackout (mentalitysmind.co.uk)

 

Email Oppurtinities that seem Phishy!!!

Subject: Service manager position. Job ID 1278757758

Subject: New employment opportunity. Vacancy ID 1278793388
From: Xyla Cleveland <lopes_vivian@diamond-sky.net>
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:29:22 +0100
To: (hidden)

Our company Diamond Sky, which is dynamically developing with every passing year, is going to offer you the convenience of various perspectives on the prospective position of a service-manager.

We are acting as concierge services in  7 highly-developed countries of the world. Our managers provide assistance in different spheres of business and leisure such as:
- booking of air tickets
- hotel bookings
- car renting
- search, hire and design of conference halls
- search, purchase and delivery of presents

As a result of our managers` assistance our clients are exempt from spending their personal and business time. Due to the fact that the services we deliver are in great demand all over the world, we expand  the stuff and we invite you to participate in the contest for the position of the Service MANAGER and to join, become a member of our company.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES of the service-manager are mentioned below:
-work with clients
-processing of orders of our clients
-processing and updating of our database of services

Position Requirements:
- efficiency in processing of orders
- responsibility in carrying out your duties
- good communication skills

We are constantly looking for diligent individuals, at all levels, to join our winning team, across all our concierge services divisions.
At Diamond Sky, we distinguish ourselves as a high performance organization with hard-working people who provide quality service to our customers. We believe that one of the most important functions of management is to provide employees with the possibility to develop their talents to the full. The benefits are job satisfaction for our employees enabling them to make a positive contribution to the success of the company.

If this position seems to be interesting to you, you fit the requirements and would like to become a member of our company
send your resume  and your contact phone number to vivian_lopes@xxxxxx and we will contact you.

My Wife got this email and I wanted to talk about how this looks phishy!!   After doing my research about this company, by going to their website. You’ll probably thinking they have a website, well it isn’t a very useful website just a page that has nothing clickable or even any phone numbers or where they are actually located.    This is why I suspect there is more than meets the eye.   I wanted to warn people not send your resumes to people you have no way of verifying because like anything else if you have done your homework, you will have found my website.  This is most likely a way to get your personal information from your resume,   like you name, your email address and you home address and other sensitive stuff.   Since there was no way to contact them directly I would advise caution when you find emails like this and the possibility of a job.   It seems like more and more these scammers and other nefarious people will lure you into giving out your personal information in hopes of landing a job to help pay off your bills and other such necessities.     If you get this email, I would just delete it and do not even consider this a viable source of a job opportunity.    My Wife got 3 different emails from the same place, I also did some searching and I found the website in question was recently made June 29, 2010. Stay Safe and remember do your homework before you jump into anything like this!!


I get my glasses from GlassesUSA. They have a Satisfaction Guarantee and evenPrescription Sunglasess for when your out doors. Give them a try, and I know you'll like them!

Piratebay is back up after a Day

After the Swedish police demanded the website be taken down on Aug 24, 2009.   I am quite surprised not a lot of websites talked about this.   As you can see they are back, after being down for about a day.

[ad]The court ordered the site’s major bandwidth supplier, Black Internet, to disconnect TPB from the Internet or face penalties of 500,000 kroner ($70,600). The ISP complied, saying that it had no choice but to uphold the law.

[via Torrent Freak]

Although Piratebay got another Provider, I am unure of what the courts will due because anything they do now will show just how foolish they are.    As you can see the shirt is quite funny and I am really interested to see what will happen in the coming months to years.   This is a combined effort from several different networks to take down Piratebay.     Some of you who are having trouble getting to this site should clear your cache.   You should be able to get to that site with no trouble.

Please Link to my site emails

From time to time I get emails asking me to link to there sites because of one thing or another. I have no problem linking to sites that I think have valuable information, but when I get email to link to sites that are really new I have a problem.

[ad]In the email he talks about how his business got scammed out of 6,000$ dollars and how he just created the site four weeks earlier due to how out raged he is that his business got scammed for so much money.

As you may have noticed this site that still remains unnamed because I am uncomfortable with adding the link to my site. Now I won't say anything bad about [intlink id="4110" type="post"]creating a site[/intlink], and I am sure it was something like the [intlink id="1417" type="post"]Check cashing scam[/intlink] I came across a few months ago and talked about.

So I wanted to talk about how to get people to come to you site:

• Submit your Site to search engines --  This is the first step to getting people to find your site.   Some sites to submit to for free are Pingomatic, Ask.com, and Yahoo.   These are the three that I suggest starting off to have Search engines finding your site.  All other search engines will come to your site over time.


• Create informative posts --  This is also very important creating posts that people will link to your site is the most important step to building your website.   If you create posts people have heard about on other sites your site will not be put on the front of Google searches.   If you don't have links coming from other sites, you will not get any search engine visitors to your site.


• Don't ask to be linked in the early stages of a new site --  That is just asking for web owners to ignore you and not link to your site.   if they see it is a new they will not want to support it because of the possible spam retribution that will happen with Google if they are a spam site building links.  This is why it is more important to build your links naturally and not beg for links.


• Link to other sites --  This is sometimes called the "Buddy system".   Linking to sites will most likely cause the site to link back and sometimes throwing out links to sites also help you build links to your site.

Although these are just a few ways to increase readership and visibility towards your website population.   You can find more ideas and information ways to build your website at Seobook.com, which has some great ideas to generate links to your site.

Adblock No more!!

If you are a returning visitor to my site you may notice that Adblock Plus isn't blocking my advertising.



Let me start off saying I use Adblock Plus and enjoy it when it comes to those Annoying Pop ups and Pop unders that happens when you visit sites that aren't that bright.  Even those annoying ads that come and speak to you saying you have won something.   These types of ads I am so glad to block.

When it comes to my site, I have worked hard on creating this content and it will help me pay for the server and domain name.   I fully understand why people want to block ads but on the flip side I also know about how they can help support a site.

Often times, I turn Adblock Plus off for places like HULU to make sure they stay free.   This is one way I can support having free shows is watching ads because there might be something I could be interested in.   This is how I show respect for advertising publishers.

I know how hard these places have worked to get people to use there service and respect the idea of having the service paying for it through ads.

I have learned how to prevent Adblock Plus from blocking my site and I intent to keep doing it.    As you know these ad blocking programs tend to break the site from showing properly.   This is one reason I decided I should bypass Adblock Plus and I will be doing more later on to tweak it.   I however won't be doing those annoying ads on my site, that is just tactless, in my eyes.  These ads will not be POP UP or POP UNDERS.  They will not be to flashy and annoying, but they will be there.

I ask if you like a product on my site to buy it to show your support, this will keep the site running.   I hope you understand, and thank you for your patronage.

Securing Your Wordpress blog

In the last few blog post we talked about:

• How to Setup your Own Blog, The Easy Way


• Picking the Hosting Provider & Setting up your Domain


• Setting Up Wordpress

This post we discuss securing your Wordpress blog and creating even more of a Wordpress Firewall, as I call it.   You don't know what bot or person might be lurking around your blog to get access to installing malware or worse off taking control over your blog for there own nefarious reasons.

Photo by: Terry Mun

Now since you have installed Wordpress and have it working now what do you want to do blog?  Blogging will be coming later in this series but for right now we want to take a good look at removing your Default Admin user.   Like the default routers admin profiles and password this makes it even easier for a hacker to try to find out the password.  Although You should never use a simple password.   You should always use numbers and letters in random order to make a really strong password and have it at least 8 characters long.  The longer it is the better off you at preventing unauthorized access to your blog and your blog posts.

Prevent access to Wp-admin and or image directory from bots.  This can be good you can also use this in combination to disallowing every IP but yours to help prevent people from gaining access to your pictures or you admin login page.   This is all preference and how secure you want to control access to admin page.   I feel if you have good security in place you should be in good shape.   If you don't have a permenant or static IP and have a rotating IP you can however increase your security by password protect the wp-admin directory from unauthorized people.

I've also been using a few plugins to help protect your admin page from hackers, they can help prevent unauthorized access by limiting how many times you can attempt an a login:

• Login Logger - keeps track of recent logins to Wordpress for all users, as well as all failed logins. It records username, time, IP address and how long since each login attempt as well as time since last active for each user.


• Limit Login Attempts - Limit the number of login attempts possible both through normal login as well as (WordPress 2.7+) using auth cookies.  By default Wordpress allows unlimited login attempts either through the login page or by sending special cookies. This allows passwords (or hashes) to be brute-force cracked with relative ease.

I have talked about [intlink id="3698" type="post"]Wordpress security plugins and other things[/intlink] you can do to better protect our Wordpress blog.   I would suggest looking at that and make sure you harden your security for Wordpress so that you don't have a problem with hackers.   Although these are just a few you should go check out the Wordpress article from the creators of Wordpress and also consider using some of those recommendations to keep your Wordpress blog secure.

On the next blog post we will talk about Blog themes and how they help your audience.   We are almost done but do stay tuned.

Setting up Wordpress

In the last few blog post we talked about:

• How to Setup your Own Blog, The Easy Way


• Picking the Hosting Provider & Setting up your Domain

Now we can talk about setting up Wordpress, although this probably won't be a long topic.  I feel it is necessary to help people feel less stressed in setting up a blog.   Most of my family don't have a clue how I set mine up, and I am thinking they are uncomfortable because this is foreign to them.   I intend to try to easy everyone's stress levels by explaining it in a more relax atmosphere.

As most people will know I started my blog 3 Years ago, and haven't stop blogging sense.   Some would call this what a blogger does.   I call this an experience, because what I've learned over the last three years is priceless.  As you can tell when I started my blog I was clueless about how to blog.   Over the 3 years I've learned a lot and a glad to be part of the blogging community.   It's been a long process but a really fruitful one.

Photo by: Terry Mun

Now I am wanting to pass the experience onto new users on.  Most people will expect a website management to be hard.   Creating a website even harder, here I will talk about installing it.

One way to install Wordpress is through some Hosting providers website tools they offer to install Wordpress for free.   They basically use a script to install Wordpress.   Usually they are a version behind the last release of Wordpress, now since Wordpress has also integrated upgrades you can easily upgrade after your install the older version.

The other way is just as simple, You can install it using an FTP upload.  Now I am so glad Wordpress has a tutorial for this.  I had to use it at least once in the three years to install Wordpress.  You would however have to download the Wordpress zip file and make a sub directory, calling it WORDPRESS and extract into that then upload that whole directory to either your main or sub directory.   If you'd think it is hard, I would argue it isn't.    This way only took me 10 minutes at best to upload and install.

Anyway you choice is a quite a simple setup, If you follow the instructions and tutorial step by step.   There should be no problems.   Although no matter how good you are there have been problems in the past with installation and that might need to be dealt  by the hosting provider technical support.   Each hosting provider should have a way to contact them to resolve and you should not hesitate to call them for technical support they are there to make you succeed.

In the next blog post we will talk about Securing You Wordpress Blog and why.

Picking The Hosting Provider & Setting your Domain

In my Previous Post we talk about the process I am going to use to guide you through it. So we already see what we need to do. In this Post we need to talk about Hosting and Domains.

When it comes to hosting a website it all depends on who you want to go through. Here are a few Hosting Providers that I recommend:

• Hostgator ($4.95 a Month)


• FatCow (Yes that is a Hosting Provider. Starting as Low as $5.50 a month)


• IxWebhosting (Starting as Low as $3.95 a month)

These three hosting providers have programs to help you install Wordpress.   For those who want to understand what a Hosting provider does, these are basically servers who host your blog content. They all have their own way of helping the customers.

They each will have a different way of setting up Wordpress so you may have to look around their site for the specific details, but that is coming up in a future blog post. I will be walking you through using Godaddy.

Photo By: Terry Mun

Now you've picked and bought who your hosting provider is. Now we need to pick your domain. Most all hosting providers I have recommend can also buy domains for there customers. So depending on the Hosting Provider you pick can help speed up the process.

Once you have a hosting provider with a server, you now have to buy a domain or I like to call it a brand-name. You should have a list but if not you can still make the list. This process of trying to find the right domain name can take the longest because some of the domains or all of the domain name on your list could be taken by another person. So you will need to go through the list on your web browser and put each one in at a time. For this example, I would recommend just using a [Listname]”.com”, working your way down to the bottom. See if it is taken if not this domain may be bought creating a new list of available domains that you might want to use. Just remember the domain might not be there much longer so You will have really short period of time before it could be taken by some other person.

Once you eliminated the ones that are used you can now figure out if your want to use one of the unused domains for your brand-name or if you want to start another and see if you can't find a better one. This step is can usually be the ones that take the longest because there is a high chance the first list is usually no good but not always it just depends on what your brand-name is going to be.

Once you've picked the domain that you want use, it is time to go back to the hosting provider you choice and go about buying the domain. Each Provider is different some will charge you a setup fee for the domain others will be free.

Lastly You'll want to make sure the domain is linked to your hosting server. The way you'd do that is go to login into your hosting account and checking the DNS Settings, or some host providers call it CNAME Records. This tells the Domain name that if you type it into the browser to go to a certain IP. This is where your hosting your provider provides and will most likely be part of registration confirmation.

On the Next Post I will talking about Setting up Wordpress.

How to Setup your own Blog, The Easy way

Over the weekend I had a chance to talk to my sister who was interested in having setting up her own blog. She didn't know a thing about setting up her own blog and asked me to walk her step by step. So I thought I would also walk my readers through this whole process and help you set up your own blog to.

This process will take approximately an hour to two hours, each step will be talked about in detail through a series of blog post. This shouldn't not take long for anyone to do, depending on the speed of your internet. In fact if you follow my directions, it should be really quick and easy. No mess or fuss.

• How to Setup your Own Blog, The Easy Way


• Picking the Hosting Provider & Setting up your Domain


• [intlink id="4118" type="post"] Setting up Wordpress[/intlink]


• [intlink id="4122" type="post"]Securing Wordpess[/intlink]


• [intlink id="4135" type="post"]Picking your Blog Theme[/intlink]

So now with that being said, I would like to talk about domain names. If you want to have your own domain you have to make it unique. It should be something personal and go with what your looking for. Do you know your domain is almost like a brand-name? Just like Nike, Adidas, and McDonald's people who hear that come back with the knowing that no matter where you are in the world. This also goes for your Domain, before you start this think of a what you will be blogging about and make a list possible domains. This is always the first step into creating a blog. Now I must warn you this process may take long or it might be short. Some or All of those domain names you come up with may be taken or they may not. The Most common name extensions can be seen through Wikipedia.
Now with that said on my next post we will talk about Picking your hosting provider and Setting up your Domain.

Computer Security : How you get infected with Malware?

I have had several people how they get infected in the past few weeks and I have scoured the internet to try to come up with some answers.   There are several ways to get infected and we will discuss them all here.   In case someone wants to get a better idea on how to avoid these commons ways of infections

What is an Exploit?

This by nature is the first thing we need to discuss because exploits are most common with Malware due to the fact that they like to use them to gain control over an Application or computer.

An Exploit is a piece of software, a chunk of data, or sequence of commands that take advantage of a bug, glitch or vulnerability in order to cause unintended or unanticipated behavior to occur on computer software, hardware, or something electronic (usually computerized). This frequently includes such things as violently gaining control of a computer system or allowing privilege escalation or a denial of service attack.

[Via Wikipedia]

Now it can come from several vectors that I know of and it doesn't just have to be one but has to have several different programs running to happen.   You see malware authors like to write code to crash your system in a way.   Just like a Remote Code Execution, when they run the code it does something to the computer to make it install software without the users knowledge or permission.  When Remote Code execution happens it is most commonly used to take control over a computer process where the program is located in memory or on the hard drive.

Opening a PDF

As you explore the internet you may come across sites with PDF's that are there to hide there true nature.   Just like the H1N1 Virus that is epidemic in the US,  Malware authors are using PDF to run a number of possible exploits on people computer.  There are a number of exploits that can be used in PDF and even examples for those who want to understand it even more.   It however means you should turn off auto-load PDFs in your browser.  Any browser will auto load PDFS without having to open a new session it will load in your browser without as much of a warning.

Fake files name

I don't know what else to call this but you get an email with what looks like it is a picture but that isn't always true.   For example you would get a email from a friend and it says it is a document and may look like documentname.doc.exe  which will also use an ICON that looks like a document and may fool you.  See the Hidden File extensions that need to be fixed in Windows 7 for examples of what I mean.

Fake Codecs

Codecs are a necessity to view videos but most often are not real.  [intlink id="2991" type="post"]Fake Codecs[/intlink] are a way to get you to install malware when you actually think it is a codec.  Install fake codecs can lead to trojans, virus, or even key loggers.  I've talked abut this from time to time but figure it would be good to remind people about this.

Installing Fake Antivirus Software

Sometimes you may get to a [intlink id="3964" type="post"]site that may look like it is a real antivirus[/intlink] but it in reality is a [intlink id="3713" type="post"]scam and will scare[/intlink] you into buying there product.   Sometimes the [intlink id="3114" type="post"]Scareware will say you are infected and send you a file to run to help protect you,[/intlink] if that ever happens don't run it.   You should never run programs from sites that you have never heard of.    Always go to trusted vendors first or at least Google for the product name before you install any questionable software.

Website tries to use web Browser exploits

Just like WebAttacker uses scripts to try to exploit several different known exploits in IE and other such Browsers.   This is the most common way to get virus or trojans to be install into a computer.   That is why I will always recommend getting away from IE and running Firefox or some other low profile web browser

Windows Up to Date

It is very important to keep you Windows System up to date. That said you got to understand that if you don't keep your system up to date there will always be an increasing possibility of getting an infection. Due to the fake that malware authors right after Patch Tuesday will know exactly how to exploit a system that hasn't updated there windows system to current. Install Service packs and other patches is the one way to keep malware authors at bay.

In one of my next posts I will recommend software to use to help prevent some of this or even how to disable some of the most common exploits.   If you like this post please feel free and tell you friends so they may also learn more about Computer Security.

[ad#SUPERAntiSpyware]

Michael Jackson Malware on the Rise

In the last 24 hours the spammers and scammers have begun to distribute spam with the guise to:

[ad]
• Harvest Email Addresses --  This seems to used to ask users to respond to the email to get "top secret" information about how he died.  Security experts believe this is an attempt to verify email addresses for future spam attempts.   Although it isn't wise to reply to people you don't know about it at least has very little risk with your computer for the time being.


• Fake Codecs and Hidden Trojans --  Seems this is the main thing they are doing right now to get personal computers on their networks.   So you should never visit a site you don't know about without having an Anti-virus software and A firewall to better protect your system.


• Extortion Ware -- This one is very interesting, and According to Webroot.  You should avoid sites that you don't know anything about.   With News of anything major you should keep with the trusted news sites.  This one looks to be the bad guy type.

These seem to be a common ploy with scammers and spammers who want to get money from you in one way or another.   I have been watching the Google searches and haven't seen any malicious sites but I could of missed one here and there.

You should always have an [intlink id="2205" type="page"]Anti-virus and Firewall[/intlink] available to help protect your system from these types of attacks.   If you had some kind of protection to better protect your computer.  Remember no one can stop computer infections but you.

Wordpress Security Tips -- For the untrained :

I was reading over at Malware Diaries, about a hacker that doesn't secure his exploits.  What gets me is that I am so surprised that he did that, then I thought about it and I read what Trend Micro had to say about it:

Creating a website is indeed a big task but, considering the present threat landscape, monitoring it and keeping it secure from attacks is a bigger one.
Website administrators have the responsibility to keep their systems malware free, secure web server files from unauthorized access, and keep their website clean of malicious codes, for their own sake and most especially, their visitors’.

[via Trend Micro blog]

[ad]Now admittedly Trend talks about the [intlink id="3578" type="post"]Gumblar[/intlink] and how they compromise websites with either a FTP password stealer or and SQL Injection.  These are a common practice with hackers and thief to get the credentials to use your server for their means.   So I wanted to talk about some things you can do to better protect your Wordpress blog.   Since I have a Wordpress Blog this was something I know about.

• Wordpress Security Scan --  This is a great plugin to help you identify and also suggests how you can fix them to prevent a hacker from getting in the first place.


• Block Wp-Folders from being Indexed --  This can be done by going to your robots.txt file and making sure it says:



Disallow: /wp-*



• Protect your Wp-admins folder -- Attackers can use brute force attacks to without much waiting to get access to your Wp-admin page so you should:

1. Login Logger Plugin -- This is good to see if anyone is trying to login and keeps a log for those instances where you might need to block a certain IP in the .httpaccess file section.


2. Limit Login Attempts plugin -- This has a set amount of login before that IP is locked out for a certain amount of time.  You can have it set to what you want an hour or more, it just depends on your preference.


3. Bad Behavior -- This is a good little plugin to help with spam such as referral spam and comment spam. I've been using it for the past few months and my referral spam has dropped drastically to almost Zero.

These are just a few things I've done to help protect my blog and protect my community and users.   I will not disclose everything because I have to keep those bad guys from getting in but I have I hope started you in the right direction.   I would also suggest using something like [intlink id="2646" type="post"]Roboform[/intlink] that comes with a password generator to use that with your wordpress login password.  This will also help prevent from gaining access easily.

New address cnuncn.com, old Yahoo email

In my Previous Email about yahoo [intlink id="3330" type="post"]email accounts being use[/intlink]d and then their contacts being deleted.  I recently came across another post about this email but with a new address so I go to the site and see and It looks like the old one:

It looks like this site was registered on 9-27-08 and Looks like the other site nekcn.com:

[ad#cricket-right-ez]As you can see this looks like the other one, both of them are Chinese websites.  I have heard from one or two users that this is a Scam website trying to scam you out of money.  I am also sure the scammer just started doing this with the emails due to my previous post about this site. I wouldn't purchase anything on these sites. I have created a Forum area to discuss Email scams like this one and warn others of new scams like this one.   I hope you warn the person who sends this out that they have been compromised and should reset there password.  This is one way to gain control over your account.

Remember there are sites out on the net that [intlink id="3407" type="post"]would like to get your email account or your Facebook account [/intlink]and spam people.  The reason being is that contacts people have with each other are more likely to get through the spam filters to the person.   The Email reads:

Dear friend:

What are u doing these days?I am going to recommend a Eshop to you.Yesterday I found a web of a large trading company from China,which is an agent of all the well-known digital product factories,and facing to both wholesalers,retailsalers,and personal customer all over the world. They export all kinds of digital products and offer really competitive and reasonable price and high quality goods for their clients,so i think you will make a big profit if you did business with them.And they promise they will provide the best after-sales-service.If you are interested to do business with them,in my opinion, you can make a trial order to test that.

Their Web address: www.cnuncn.com or www.nekcn.com

[Via Yahoo Answers]

In case someone has a question about this, please feel free to post to Forums and someone will answer it.  It is a good idea to install [intlink id="2205" type="page"]Free Anti-virus and Firewall[/intlink] software to better protect your system.

Careless Facebook profiling can lead to Identity Theft!

I just got in contact with a old friend from High school and another friend of mine suggest the new friend. I was looking at her profile and couldn't believe what I saw:

As you can see this is not good I was amazed at how many people are giving out there birthdays and who they are married to to friends and family. So we heard about how people are claiming they need help or are in need of desperate money. This is nothing new, as you know people are having hard economy times and people are using the social engineering to scam people out of money.

I feel that I should warn people the important necessity.   You shouldn't be broadcasting your DOB and who your married to to your friends, just in case they get hacked.

Recent activity indicates that identity thieves are hacking into trustworthy profiles before selling on the login details to interested parties. This information is used by spammers to target legitimate users, posting misleading links on their "walls" – personalized message boards.

[Via Computing.Co.UK]

This deservese a little mind and a lot of understanding.   By the spammers hacking into facebook accounts they have the chance to scam or spam people with links to possibly have a virus or trojan installer.

[ad#ad2-right]For example This one blog talks about the Virus:

Symantec's Norton Antivirus software has flagged this as a "high risk" Infostealer.Gampass virus. More info on this particular Trojan vius is here. (Note: Symantec warns the risk level is "low," since it originated in 2006, but this new Facebook email is a new iteration of the same virus.)

You might be inclined to click on this link because it's from a friend, but they did not intentionally send it to you -- and yes, their Facebook photo is attached, too.

[Via Sync-blog]

Now I went searching through my friends list and also found this little bit of information.  As you can see this one is asking for people to use there account to scam people out of money.  They could use this to find out even more information of the Other partner and make you believe your talking to the real deal.   Saying they need money because they are stuck over seas or something like that.   I've seen this on other blogs where people have sent money to "friends" but are actually people who are the scammers.  Then if you send the money you are out of luck with your money and possibly your friends to.  I am sure there are more but this is prime examples of what you shouldn't do and why.

So what can you do to prevent Identity Theft and/or being scammed?

[ad#cricket-right-ez]

• Roboform Review — A Password Manager that will help protect your passwords from key loggers and other such phishing sites.    I strongly recommend it to to all who are security minded. (Never use the same password for all your accounts)


• Are you worried about your identity? -- This is good information in checking out sites that might be questionable.  You can find out what type of site it by using your brains.


• Old Phish Become New again -- This is blog post about twitter and what may happen if you did give out your password.   This is a good example of why you never should give out your password to third party websites.


• Twitter Spammers a getting more smarter -- This is also good example of what happens when you see become friends with someone who isn't real.   You could be the next to be spammed and/or impersonated.

If you follow some common steps you to could prevent from being the victim or getting your Identitiy stolen.   Some things to remember is Never tell anyone your Birthday the whole date like someone did on twitter a few days ago.  It's nice that they are growing older but that gives people that much more information to use to steal your money or your idenitiy.   Think before you give out any personal information like Age, Married, who your married to and anything that might be used to be able to access your account or your impersonate you.  Remember only you can prevent from being scammed or lossing your identity, you wouldn't want to have to pay for your mistakes.

Understanding Adsense for the Beginner

So you have a website and you'd like the site to pay for itself. That can be arranged it however depends on your website performance. You see you won't make a lot of money if you don't have several things going for you. I thought I share with you my experience with making money through Adsense. As you saw, I made enough money to pay for the website for 5 years. It isn't hard to make money it is however very difficult to keep getting the money. Most people don't know the tricks to making money with Google's Adsense.

I'm here to help you out a little with understanding it and getting even more money from your adsense.   So here we are 3 months into to putting Adsense seriously on my site and let's take a look shall we:



As you can see I started off quite slowly as I figured out how to best do it but gained momentum after that.    First Month I made $17.19 and the Second Month I made $45.57, the last month I made $64.99 totaling $127.75 leaving me with 16.75$ from the few previous months that I tinkered with Adsense.   So where do you start?  I found that to be the hardest part, because of the complexity of where I could put the ads.   I tried having strips breaking up the text in my blog post that really didn't get me hardly any clicks.  Then I started to incorporate the Adsense into the posts.  I learned how to do it through a great blog post and I'll talk about that later.   Here's what you need to know right now though:

[ad#ad2-right]
• Create good content --  This goes without saying that if you don't have good content people will never find your site.   There are a multitude of ways to create content.   Some of the most useful for me is How-to, finding a Niche, and Also just blogging about what you passionate about.   These will often draw people to your website.


• Gjaylaramieet people to link to your post --  This will help with search engines because they do some math to figure out if your a real site and how trustworthy your site is on the internet.


• Use Microblogging --  It is well known people use Twitter, Friendfeed, and others a like to tell people what they post about.   It can be great place to help promote your blog and get people to come more and more to your site.


• Try not to annoy the users with Ads -- This is the most important if you want people to come back to your site you should make sure you don't send people away from your site.  People will not want to come back if you annoy them to much.   So it is essential that you keep them happy.


• Find a good blog theme -- A good theme helps bring people to your site by making it easier to read and find what they are looking for.  You might also consider making a sneeze page to keep people coming back to your site.  This will help your readers and make it more of your own.  You might also want to buy a theme for your blog sooner or later.

With These tips and tricks you too could be on your way to having a great blog.   I would be willing to bet that soon I will be triple that amount if I keep up with what I am doing.   I hope you tell people about this blog and let people know how good this blog is for you.   Remember only you can prevent virus infections.