Who Are the Best Article, Blog and Ad Distributors

Hopefully you have realised the importance of writing articles to attract people back to your website, but where do you publish these to get the best results??

The aim is to be on the first page of Google's search page, right? Because lets be honest many people don't usually go to page 2, 3 or onwards. By being on the first page you automatically get entered into the circle of trust with the customer, because if Google like you enough for you to be on THEIR first page then you must be alright!!

So which sites can get the required result of being on the first page of Google?

Man you are full of good questions today!!

Now I am fully aware that there are other search engines, but the simple fact is that about 70% of all searches are done with.... Google. So I am not dismissing the others, it just makes sense to talk about the one the is most used.

There are too many to mention, so I will just mention the big 3. The FREE 3.

EzineArticles: Is the Big Daddy, The Don, The Godfather of them all, and hence the most powerful! Publishing your articles here will undoubtedly get you listed on the first page of Google even with a competition force of up to 10,000 similar results. Know you don't get this fantastic result for no reason, your work will be scrutinised by a real person to check on the authenticity and quality of the work you produce. I have always said that you should not try and sell in your articles, but I will say it again. DO NOT TRY AND SELL IN YOUR ARTICLES. Affiliate links are NOT allowed so don't try and be clever and throw one in. Just point people back to your site, in the authors box at the bottom of your article you can put something like, "Did you find these tips on the above article on XXXX useful? You can learn a lot more about how XXXX can help you XXXX here. And you can get access to a FREE report"

I would also suggest setting up a free blog at Blogger.com or WordPress.com. Again strictly no selling is allowed in body of your article. But the huge positive to using this large site or online publication is that because of its amazing page rank people WILL get to see your articles, which should get them back to your site, on your list and then hopefully bought into an affiliate product.

GoArticles.com: Is another site that has a great page rank with Google, and is perfect for a new starter in internet marketing that doesn't have a website because GoArticles will allow you to link directly to the merchant website.

UsFreeAds: Is a great site for a fresh new starter with no website! Given the simple, but very important fact, that Google loves UsFreeAds should let you know using this is only going to be a positive for you my friend. Most of your ads will show up in 7 - 14 weeks on the first page. And the main advantages of UsFreeAds is that direct linking to merchant is allowed.

Now don't panic because you don't need to be an A grade English literature student to be good at article writing, you don't need to have a heart attack at the thought of having to do all this writing. There are options here!! You can pay someone to do it for you, you can buy them, or you can just read 4 or 5 different article and do what Bruce Lee did with martial arts. He took out the best bits from each different style, left out the bad bits and made his own martial art - Jeet Kun Do. You can do the same with article if you are running short of ideas.

To get your inspiration on what to write on you could just simply do a review Article, on a book you have bought or read recently, a movie, a piece of software you have just purchased, some real life experience that you have gone through highlighting what you liked and what you may have disliked. People love honest reviews like just as much as Winnie the Poo loves honey. I was going to use.. like a fat kid loves cake, but I didn't want to offend anyone!!!!

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Article Marketing Automation Made Easy

Article Marketing Automation - The Time-Oppressed Entrepreneurs Response

Article Advertising Automation might be the response to all those that don't possess the time and energy into creating a post marketing campaign operate. Write-up marketing could maybe be incredibly successful as a number of Internet entrepreneurs have witnessed first hand on the other hand it can become a lengthy drawn out process that may drive many struggling to arrive across the time needed to get your group off the ground.

It could be considering that you have received an additional occupation which you simply are nonetheless operating but trying to get sufficient revenue to enable you to depart. It could quite possibly be primarily provided that you'd like to invest your time along with your family members or out fishing, reading through a ebook, taking a hike or something else you'd instead do than get the job done.

One For those who are trying to get a complete lot of labor accomplished inside a modest window of time, there's Post Advertising Automation.

1 of quite possibly the most irritating and time consuming components of undertaking post advertising is putting your post in enough places to obtain the utmost quantity of exposure. Write-up advertising is easy and low-cost to complete but is extremely time consuming trying to get revealed in all of the locations you'd like to become.

That is specifically where Post Advertising Automation comes in and aids you. Post Advertising Automation is usually a network of impartial online sites and blogs which have agreed to distribute article content for other Article Advertising Automation network members.

The outstanding factor about that is with the massive measurement on the growing network (at more than 2,000 members) you will be acquiring an added and more bigger number of online sites and blogs might be supplying you with a significantly bigger amount of hyperlinks for your sites.

Post Advertising Automation is not only perhaps the most time successful and price successful way of post advertising around, it's developing naturally. It is able to getting you ranked to the hugely first web page within nearly three weeks (and they offer coaching to accomplish this). It'll not only distribute your articles extensively, it'll supply you relevant content for your own web web sites and blogs.

How Article Marketing Automation functions is proper right after you have either written an article or had 1 written for you, you submit it to the Article Marketing Automation network...and that's it. It is nothing complicated, just that straightforward. What happens next is your post will likely be distributed to relevant web web sites giving you exposure, hyperlinks, and constructing your authority and traffic.

Article Marketing Automation comes with training on how most beneficial to make use of the network and get the most out of your efforts. They will show you how you may see dramatic will increase in your ranking over the next two and 3 months. They want you to be productive. They need to have you to be successful for this network to perform The much extra good results you encounter, the more others will encounter as well.

Article marketing is a exceptional and straightforward way to break into Web marketing and to get yourself that independence you not just crave but deserve. Write-up Marketing Automation gives you with much extra chances at success in a very quicker time-frame and will give you a significant network of individuals to assist you make it to the leading.

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Is Ezine Advertising Legitimate? Read My Case Study

An 'ezine' can be a lot of things but it's basically just a big mailing list. Maybe it's a mailing list of a fitness guru or a mailing list that basically sends updates to people who frequently visit a particular website. You're probably already on some electronic newsletters or mailing lists already. The one thing an ezine cannot be is something is readily available via the web. An ezine should only be available through email.

Ezine advertising is one of the most cost effective ways of reaching a highly targeted niche. The following case study should help you get an understanding of how Ezine ads work:

My Case Study

In this one example, I paid $400 for sending emails to an ezine with approximately 90,000 subscribers. Now $400 sounds like a lot of money but to get this sort of exposure through advertising on PPC networks like Google AdWords or Yahoo Search would have cost me anywhere from $2-$3,000.

My $400 investment resulted in approximately 900 views, 400 opt-ins to my own ezine and then 20 sales of a $47 Clickbank product I'm an affiliate for. I more than made my money back and have an additional 400 users on my own mailing list.

Solo Ads

What I've found that works best is the solo ad. A solo ad is an email that the ezine owner sends out to the list that you're written. You control the subject line and the contents of the email. The case study I'm sharing with you was a solo ad. I use solo ads to lead to an opt-in page and once people on the ezine have opted into my own ezine I send them the ad to my own product or an affiliate product.

Finding and Approaching Ezine Owners

The best way to find ezines is to use online resources that collect ezine names, subscriber stats and provide you with contact information for the ezine owners. Some ezines will have clearly defined rates and for others it will be up to you to negotiate the rate yourself by contacting the owners.

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How Do I Get MY Articles Noticed Over the Competitions?

Once you have developed your web site you need people to actually go to your site,

But how are they going to know you exist? (Especially when there will be so many other people trying to do the same).

How do you compete against the masses?

One of the FREE methods of getting people to know you, and hopefully getting to like and trust you is by you providing up to the date, valuable and good content that will help THEM. There are so many methods from writing Blogs, Articles, Press Releases and Classified Ad's. All these methods need to have links back to your website, they cannot be used to sell, just to give valuable information and get people back to your website. Your website or sales page is where the selling happens, NOT in the above methods. Their only purpose is to drive the traffic/ the people back to your website or sales page. But for this article I will simply focus on Articles writing.

Google is absolutely in love with article directory sites and has Ezinearticles.com at the top of its list.

Why??

Because this is an area where the public can get new, fresh content relating to whatever subject they are looking at, whether that be Golf, motor racing, keeping fit, pets, affiliate marketing etc etc. I won't go on because the list is endless!!

Google also loves the classified ad sites UsFreeAds, for Ad writing.

Even though I am talking about Google there other search sites out there, but the most popular and most used is.... Google, so it's make sense to focus on this one.

If you post an ad for a Classified Ad, a message for a Blog or an article on any of the above sites, in the way I am going to describe to you below, It WILL show up on the first page of Google's search pages within 7 - 14 days days.

OK so the initial part is to do the writing, now comes the part of getting YOUR efforts noticed over the competition.

(Now before you start having a heart attack and thinking to yourself, 'I hate writing', there are people on the net that will do it for you, there are programs that if you submit one article can spin 50 versions of that same article, there are things already written where you can get idea's from.... so take a sigh of relief and carry on reading)

Right so how do you optimise your info over that of your competition?

If you were to log onto Google's search pages and type in any search phrase in quotes "" what you will see is a list of numbers and pages that bring up results relating to what you have put in, directly underneath the box where you typed in your request.

If you use short term phrases, such as 'Car Racing' you will find the numbers will go into the millions (about 4.2 million to be precise), which for you to compete with is WAY too many my friend.

But if you expand out your search phrase from, 'Car racing' to lets say 'How to race a car' you will find the figure fall from the millions to 8790. That's right that's less than 9 thousand. Now that's more a level playing field. Ideally you would need the figure to be under 5000.... BUT hopefully you get my point right?

You ARE going to show up on the first page of Google within 7-14 days, and for FREE.

Hopefully you are starting to see your little cake take some shape, we have got the filling and the cake made, now just to add the icing to the cake... so to speak.

The title of your article is the key to getting it read, so make sure your phrase you used in your search box is included in your article title! Just like what the papers, magazines do all the time!! But if it's not possible to get that as the title it has to be short, sweet and to the point. It has to grab the attention of the reader, enough for them to want to read more about it. Makes sense don't you think? If your title is boring why would people chose your article over the thousands of others? The final part to this 'cake' is to make sure the information you provide is relevant to the title.

Don't sell a lemon cake which is boxed up inside a chocolate cake box!!

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Internet Content-Control Software

The cyber world is a big world, and this world is a free one. This sounds like a great thing, as the Internet can help you find and gather all the information you need, on any topic, and for free. Not only can you find a lot of useful content online, but you can also find a lot of interesting, creative content here. Videos, music, photos - only the sky is the limit! However, there are two sides to every coin, and the same rule applies to the online world. What this means is that despite the fact that the Internet comes with many advantages related to it, there are also a lot of downsides to using this great tool. The same way you can learn something new and useful everyday by browsing through web pages, you can also come across information that is not valid or appropriate for the age of the viewer.

Content Control

Anyone can publish content online, and this is both the biggest advantage and the biggest downside of the Internet. Taking into account that one of the prime misconceptions people have about the Net is that everything that online is true, this can be quite a problem. Note that not everything you read on the Internet is true, especially when it comes to content coming from websites with a bad reputation. You should always do some research before you take advice from a site you found online, and double-check the information you came across.

If you, for instance, want to remove a mole, you should never just go for the first piece of advice you see on a forum. On top of it all, this is not something you want to do at home, but it is always better to go to your doctor's and discuss this. However, this is not what most Internet users do nowadays, and because of this, it is very important to make the Internet safe for everyone who uses it.

Content-Control Software

There are many websites that are adult in nature, and parents are bothered by this as they often struggle to find a way to protect their kids whilst they're online. It is not just kids and teens that aren't safe online, but adults also may be victims of frauds, wrongful information and many other things. This is why the existence of software that will control online content is so important, and more than useful in many situations.

This is how the software works - it blocks the content a specific user is not supposed to see. There are different levels as well, at which content is blocked, and this can include blocking content nationwide. This means that the government can block the information they don't see ethically fit. Aside from this, your Internet service provider also has the power to block any content they disapprove of. Further on, blocking unwanted content can be done within a company, allowing the owner to block a certain type of content to its employees. Finally, people living within a household can block adult content or any similar type of content in order to prevent members of their family to access it. This is a great solution for parents who want to make sure their children don't get into any trouble while online, as well as ensure their kids are safe from all the dangers the online world brings.

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Factors That Impact Internet Security

The Internet is replete with innumerable benefits that aid modern living. One can now communicate and stay in touch with a friend or family member, in real time, from across the globe. Internet banking and shopping has taken off and considerably improved their services and security offering significant conveniences for everyone. But on the flipside, the Internet can also bring security risks that can increase exponentially if you do not make sure that you protect yourself from the prevailing threats online; especially since it's as simple as installing the latest antivirus software.

There are various factors that impact internet security but if you have the latest antivirus protection program installed in your computer system, then it will keep you safe and secure from the security threats that come almost on a daily basis via internet.

Listed below are some factors that internet security:

Spyware

Spyware is a collective term that includes malware threats such as Trojans, adware, pop-up advertisement, modified cookies, key-logger and the like. Spyware does not include virus threats which are engineered to replicate themselves rather than spying or stealing information from computer systems. Basically spyware is configured in a certain manner to keep an eye on your online activities and uncover the security flaws. And that t is the first and foremost step in ensuring that your computer system is ready for stealing the vital information. With the help of spyware, computer hackers can steal sensitive information from your computer system-such as email and social networking user-ids and passwords, banking information, etc. And to keep your system safe and secure from spyware you must avoid free anti-spyware as many times it has been seen that most of the free anti-spyware programs turn out to be a spyware itself.

Spam Mail

Spam mails are not very dangerous; however, some of them may contain malicious links to websites and have some sort of embedded virus threats made using java-script or other similar programs. Once you click to browse or download (only if it contains downloadable files) your system can get severely affected with the embedded virus or even a spyware. And to avoid getting into these kinds of trap you must use the latest virus protection program along with the trusted email websites like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, etc., as they provide protection from spam mails by giving warning message as soon as you try to open an email from the spam or junk mail box.

Identity Theft

Hackers can steal sensitive information like credit/debit card details using numerous methods; and once they get access to it, they will use it for making online purchases using your credit/debit card details. In this situation only a well known antivirus software can protect you as most of the popular virus protection software comes with amazing features like offline scanning and protection, detects advanced threats, protects all emails from viruses, protects archived files and perform deep scans.

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New ISP Promises Privacy But Until Then Use The Best VPN Service You Can Find

The best VPN service providers will still be necessary to keep private data private until this new organization gets their idea off the ground: An ISP that will protect their customer's privacy as far as the law allows. Nicolas Merrill plans to field just exactly that through the non-profit Calyx Institute. His claim is that all technical and legal measures will be brought to bear including data log limiting, connection encryption, and demanding warrants for any data being requested by an agency.

He's Fought Them Before

So he really knows what it takes to insure for his customers privacy. While huge internet companies like AT&T and Verizon happily complied with any requests being made by law enforcement officials, with or without a warrant, Merrill was fighting the good fight for his Qwest customers. He was one of the first ones to sue the government claiming he wasn't handing anything over without a warrant...and he won. Later, Congress made it legal for the NSA intrusions without a warrant. But you still need the best VPN service possible...he still has a long ways to go.

Plans In The Works

He has a goal of $2 million to reach in order to get the project started, and as of this writing he had reached a little over $55,000. In a statement on the CI website he said that since inception, massive amounts of interest has been expressed from angel investors and private capitalists, and presently is operating on a travel grant generously provided by the Ford Foundation. The business model will implement end-to-end encrypted internet connections, and there are also plans to offer cellular service with the same privacy privileges. He told Cnet that intentions are to keep prices highly competitive at around $20 monthly, no caps, but pre-paid annually. As fantastic as all this sounds, still, you will need only the best VPN service available...

I'm Not A Big Time Criminal

Think you aren't worth looking at because the worst that happens on your internet connection is that your teenaged daughter downloads a Lady Gaga MP3, or video? Well, you may already be under surveillance...by your ISP and the RIAA...without anything like a warrant or true justification. When the invasions of the SOPA and PIPA bills were exposed and the threat averted, the RIAA promptly went to the internet providers and asked them to implement a program that looks almost exactly like the ones defeated in Congress. Huge reason to enlist the aid of the best VPN service available.

Think What You Want

Well, at very least it's time to discuss those MP3's with your teen daughter...and get the best VPN service. Between the authorities having access without warrants, now the ISP employees will. Government agencies with supposed high ethical standards have been exposed to have abused these kinds of powers before...and if this data is easy to obtain, the abuse is highly likely to happen again.

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Penetration Testing, As Part Of Information Security Audit, A Must And A Boon

For the smooth functioning of a company, computer networks and internet connectivity is a must. But with these requirements, is associated the risk of getting hacked or inviting virus from different sources. The ability to provide a secured system of protection from unauthorized entry, relives the companies of huge mind racking troubles.

Reams and reams of pages of information and innumerable data are located in the computer systems and servers of some companies. Not only are these important for the day to day functioning of the organization, but also they have a bearing on the working of many people. Such data protection is mandatory for the organizations and for this, they will have to entrust their system in the hands of a competent information security audit agency.

By doing a detailed audit of the security system in the network, the agency comes to know about the loopholes that might be present. In a computer network, there are a number of points of entry because there are a number of computers and these are being used by people for different works. Moreover, the link is also present to the servers. Despite of sufficient antivirus, or malware protections, it is possible to breach the information security cordon.

When the audit is done, the experts in the agency work with the method of penetration testing. In such a method, these experts use their know how to first try and enter into the given network by ethical hacking measures. Any network is penetrable and this is what these experts believe in and they try to find as many possible entry points as they can find. With the penetrability tests, the agency comes to know about the possible modifications and the points at which these modifications are required.

Most of the companies dealing in information security are nowadays adopting these measures so that the baseline assessment of the security of the computer network is done from the outside. The penetration test is a simulation of the hostile network attacks which are done in a covert manner by possible hackers or virus makers. By means of such tests, the information security personnel are able to know about the points of vulnerabilities and potential entryways into sensitive data in the given IT infrastructure security system.

The information security audit is done by means of port scanning, vulnerability identification of operating system, web application, antivirus, and other components of the networks. Then the audit is analyzed and reports of penetration testing are put under scrutiny. This helps in charting out an organized network security system. The expenditure, blue print of security programming, and operational procedures of the future securities are laid down for the benefit of the client companies.

By means of the information security audit, companies will be able to lay bare their existing system. This will also lead them to rethink their information security strategy and give them an opportunity to upgrade it or renew it. Without the proper assessment of the security system, it is not possible to know if it is weak or is providing adequate protection. With advanced means of data theft being rampant in the IT world, the line differentiating the risk and protection is quite thin. With proper information security audit and its correctional measures, it can be a boon for any company depending on computer networks.

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The Importance of IT Security Rules for Information Management

Many people dismiss corporate IT rules as something trivial but such regulations can be determining for the safety of important and sensitive business information.

A big number of business operations are moving to the computing and web realm. Just think about the number of operations and transactions that require a computer and internet access. The fact that such methods of communication and corporate interactions are gaining importance and popularity makes it imperative for companies to introduce strict IT rules that all employees follow to the final letter.

Following specific procedures and adhering to corporate IT rules will minimize the chance of a security breach that will result in major financial losses for the company.

Hackers are becoming exceptionally skillful. They are constantly attacking new networks, in order to gain access to sensitive information or to financial resources used in web transactions. A failure to follow corporate IT rules will simply provide hackers with an opportunity to attack and to cause a lot of damage.

Today, cyber criminals are actually perfectly trained and well-organized. Dismissing such threats leads to unexpected negative results that will be difficult to handle and overcome.

A failure to adhere to corporate IT policies may also give the competition some advantage. Most market sectors are seeing intense competition. Corporate information is much more valuable than other aspects of the business. A security breach will often give malevolent individuals access to information that will put an end to a company's success.

A virus seems like a minor threat in comparison to all other dangers listed in the article. Still, it can cause a lot of problems.

Corporate IT rules allow specific types of online and computing behavior. Some of the bans are created precisely to minimize the chance of having a virus in the network. Viruses can shut down corporate operations for a long period of time. Some of them may even destroy vital information that is determining for the company's success. Software damage is another problem to having a network virus.

All of these dangers make it imperative for employees to stick to IT and computing rules. Although some of the restrictions may appear rather simple and deprived of any logic, they are designed to prevent the appearance of a specific threat. We are living in a world of communication and information exchange. Thus, information is a highly important commodity that should be protected in a professional manner.

Strict corporate IT rules can make all the difference between company success and a major fiasco. The web world is full of dangers and the fact that it has turned into the primary communication channel has made it even more unsafe. All of these factors turn corporate IT security rules into a prerequisite for the success and prolonged existence of a company.

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Internet Crime Prevention Tips

In spite of the fact that most of us think that we would never succumb to something similar to this, Internet crime is very real, and something we are faced with each and every time we start using the World Wide Web. Fake lotteries, spam messages offering you thousands or even millions of dollars, fraudulent promotions, and identity thefts - all of these might seem unreal, but this is exactly why so many people fall victim to Internet crime. If you would like to avoid being the victim of any type of Internet crime, read on to find some great tips on how to prevent the most common Internet crimes.

Spam Messages

If you own an email address, there's virtually no way you haven't received spam messages. Furthermore, there's been research which claimed that more than 90% of email messages sent throughout the world turn out to be spam messages, as well as that only one person in 12 million answers spam messages. So, remember to never open or answer any spam messages or any email messages that sound too good to be true; never disclose any information about yourself such as name, address, phone and credit card number and so on; never give out your email address to anyone who asks for it; always have more than one email address. By following these tips, the chances you will be tricked through spam messages will be greatly reduced.

Fake Lotteries

Most of us would like to win the lottery and stop struggling to make ends meet every month. This is the main reason why many people persuade themselves to believe in fake lotteries. First of all, you have to think if you have even entered a lottery before you believe you are the lucky winner. Aside from this, be aware that no lottery will ask of you to make any upfront payments in order to be awarded the grand prize. Federal law says that you are not allowed to enter any lottery programs in foreign countries via email or phone, so this is another great reason to steer clear from email lotteries or online lotteries in general.

Online Payments and Credit Card Fraud

Online shopping has become very popular today, and most of the online purchases are made with credit cards. If you are using your credit card online, make sure that the site you are using is trustworthy. Do this by researching and finding out everything you can about the site in question. What's more, if you are asked to give out your credit card information via unsolicited emails, never agree to do this.

Summary

In a nutshell, if you are using the Internet on a regular basis, be it for business purposes, shopping online, or even simply having fun, you should always be aware of the following: use the World Wide Web responsibly. Much like the real world, the Internet is full of scammers and people who are always on the lookout for new victims and you should do everything in your power to avoid being caught in these traps.

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Securing WordPress User Accounts? Try Two-Factor Authentication

According to the folks from WordPress, over 60 million people have chosen it to power their space on the web. That's a pretty impressive number and well deserved. I've been using WordPress since it's earliest versions and goodness it's been a great ride. Sadly, popularity also makes it a bigger target for nasty people like hackers.

It really doesn't matter what you use WordPress for - a profitable venture or just a place to share your creativity. I bet if you lost your site today you'd be crushed. That's why you should take precautions to avoid it as much as possible, or at the very least minimize the impact.

If you go to WordPress.org's Codex, there is a list of things you can do to help you close some loops and tighten the security of your site. Among the items in the list is to secure administrative access.

This can be done by password protecting your wp-admin folder. It requires no extra cost other than a few minutes of your time to set up and it is often effective enough.

Another method I've tried lately is using a plugin called Duo Two-Factor Authentication. Here's how it works. When you log in to your WordPress powered site, it'll present you with another authentication screen this time, you are given the option to approve the login either through an app installed on your cell phone or by entering a numeric code sent to your cell phone via text or a phone call.

Sounds super high tech right? And it is, but the plugin developers have made is easy to integrate into WordPress. There are a few easy steps you need to take.

You first install the plugin. Next, sign up for a free account at DuoSecurity.com. You'll receive an email with your logins. It took us a while to get that email so you may have to be patient when you first sign up. Once in, you set up an integration so you can receive the necessary application keys. When you are given the keys, simply paste them into your site, select who you want two-factor authentication to be turned on for.

Next time you log in, you will be asked to set up your 2nd level authentication. That will require some answering of your phone or checking your cell for text messages as the system verifies and links your phone to your user account for this website. Once you're done with that, you're set.

If you're concerned about the number of steps needed to log in every single time, don't be. Because they've made it quite seamless and easy especially if you have the app installed on your phone. All you need to do is just hit approve and you'll automatically be logged into your admin area.

I find it very interesting to see the information of people trying to log in to my site using my account. It'll probably be even more satisfying when I get the chance to hit Decline to lock people out. Thankfully that has not happened at time of writing.

Next time you want to secure your administrator account on WordPress, give two-factor authentication a go. There are other plugins in the repository other than Duo that you can check out as well - by the way, I don't represent Duo or earn anything from sharing their product here. Just a happy and very impressed user.

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Dumpster Diving For Gold

Dumpster diving is the legal practice of searching through trash, whether it be commercial or residential, to find valuable information. This may sound like a sick thing to do, but many companies have dealt with serious data breaches as a result of someone braving the smell of trash. What do dumpster divers look for? The following list will give you an idea:

Phone lists: Useful for conducting social engineering attacks. Memos: Can give someone an idea of what is going on within an organization, such as new product plans. Calendars of events: A possible intruder can find out travel dates, or future events that will keep employees away from their systems so that gaining access will be easier. System manuals and packing material: Finding these items will give an intruder an idea about the systems that are in use, making preparation for the attack easier. Printouts: Source code, customer lists, account names and numbers, employees, network maps, and utility bills will give an intruder valuable information that can be used in a variety of ways. Disks, tapes, and CD-ROM's: These types of media usually contain sensitive information that is rarely if ever wiped clean before discarding.

Before discarding information in paper form, it is always a good idea to shred the documents. One thing I like to do is to throw away half of the document in one trash bag and the other half in another bag just to make sure that no one will put them back together. One thing you can do to make it harder for someone to read personal information is to use a black marker to mark through names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. This adds security when shredding.

All system manuals and network plans need to be taken to a professional shredding service, or contact a mobile shredding service. These type of documents do not need to be in the wrong hands, as they will make the intruders job a lot easier.

All media, whether it be cd-rom's, tapes, or disks need to be wiped clean before being thrown away. Software that can do this is abundant online. Another way to make the information unreadable is to physically destroy the media. Breaking them into several pieces will ensure that no one will access the information. If you aren't the physical type, simply running a magnet over the disks or tapes will usually do the trick.

For the individual, common sense will usually take care of most of these issues. Simply running a marker over your personal information and shredding it will deter most criminals, since they seek the easiest route to the information. As explained earlier, discard documents in several different bags. This will make putting two and two together more difficult.

Changing Your Password To Improve Your Website Security   How To Keep Users and Data Safe On The Web   Reality Overtakes Fiction: We Are Already at War, Albeit Electronic, But War All the Same   Protect Your Privacy With Reputation Management   An Explanation of CISPA for Small Businesses   

WordPress: Hackers Are Trying To Get Into Your Blog

If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog using the default username of "admin" with the Administrator role, you've already given a hacker half of the credentials needed to get into your blog.

Case Study

One day I was checking the click log on one of my affiliate accounts to see which web pages were sending traffic to my offer. I noticed hundreds of entries from a handful of IP addresses over the course of a couple of days. They looked like mini denial of service attacks.

In an attempt to figure it out, I installed a plug-in called Bad Behavior. It blocks link spam, fake robots and other malicious activity. In reviewing the log, I noticed repeated entries from a malicious bot attempting to login with the username of "admin". The passwords being used were common words like abc123, 12345, test, password, password1, qwerty and even jesus.

If you're guilty of creating WordPress Administrator in such a manner, it's only a matter of time before a malicious bot gains access. Always create usernames and passwords at least 8 characters in length with a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and a few extra characters such as a period, dash, underscore, asterisk, plus or equal sign.

Creating a New Administrator

You can create a new user and assign it administrator privs, then be sure to delete the old Admin user. When you delete it you'll be asked if you want to transfer the posts created under that name to another user. Assign them to the new user. If you don't, they will be deleted. The other option is to change the admin's user name to something else.

Changing the Admin Username

Once a user has been created, its username cannot be changed from within the WordPress Dashboard. Changing the display name in the user profile does not change the username. It can only be changed at the database level by updating the user_login value in the wp_users table where the user_login = "admin". This can be done from within your web hosting control panel via phpMyAdmin.

To find the right database to update, use FileManager or FTP to get to your web server. In the root of your WordPress installation, open the wp_config.php file. Scroll down until you find the define statement for the DB_NAME parameter. It will include your hosting account user name followed by _wrdp and then a number. That number is your database number.

Regarding the Bad Behavior plug-in, it will create a log file of all blocked activity. Needless to say, if there is a lot of activity, the log will grow very rapidly. At the time of this writing, there is no way within the plug-in to clear the log. It can be emptied manually by deleting everything from the wp_bad_behavior table using phpMyAdmin. Another option is to use a database plug-in like WP DBManager to empty the table.

Changing Your Password To Improve Your Website Security   How To Keep Users and Data Safe On The Web   Reality Overtakes Fiction: We Are Already at War, Albeit Electronic, But War All the Same   Protect Your Privacy With Reputation Management   An Explanation of CISPA for Small Businesses   Top 5 Reasons to Check Website Security   

How To Protect Your Digital Information Products From Online Thieves

Once you put your digital information product out into the world, how do you stop people from ripping it off? After all, it's just a file that can easily be copied, and your download link is sitting right there on the Web for anybody to find it. There are software programs that you can buy to protect your work, but there are also some really simple and free methods that are quite effective.

Protecting Your Download Link

What's to stop somebody from simply copying your download link and giving it to a friend - or sharing it on a social media site? You can prevent this by saving the page with a new file name or changing the URL on a regular basis. It's probably enough to do it weekly or once every couple of weeks, depending on how many downloads you're seeing.

Save Your File In WinZip

You can protect your files from coming up in searches by zipping them. This is why so many info products that you buy come in a.zip file. Give it a long, weird file name. In other words, don't call your Internet marketing.zip file something like, '10 Proven Ways To Make Money Online!' Instead, make it a series of random letters and numbers so that keyword searches won't find it.

Password Protect

A sure way to protect your info product is to password protect it. When you give people the download link, you also give them a password to use. Before downloading, they have to enter it in. This keeps your digital product from being shared on torrent sites. Nobody can access it without your password. You can protect your product even further by changing the password often. That way, someone can't just share the password with others along with the download link.

License Coding

The above methods are simple. They hide your digital product and make it hard for people to share it. But the only truly fool-proof way to protect your products completely is through license coding. With license coding, you can put a piece of code into your product that tells you who has it. When you see people who haven't bought the product owning it, you can disable their copy.

You can use license coding also when people ask for refunds. Give them back their money and then disable their copy of your product. They won't mind because they weren't happy with it anyway, and it keeps them from spreading it.

The One Advantage To People Ripping Off Your Work

This is a little off-topic, but I thought I'd mention it here. Sometimes it's a good thing when people are sharing your information products. If your product has valuable information that shows your authority in the niche, along with a link back to your site, sharing works like free advertising. Just as long as it doesn't cut into your profits, that is.

Changing Your Password To Improve Your Website Security   How To Keep Users and Data Safe On The Web   Reality Overtakes Fiction: We Are Already at War, Albeit Electronic, But War All the Same   An Explanation of CISPA for Small Businesses