Just this week I have encountered a complete rip off of one of my new clients. I am redeveloping his website for him and it’s almost ready to go live. All I have to do is contact his current ‘website designer’ <— that’s in quotes because I’m being ironic (humorously sarcastic or mocking; “dry humor”) and request he releases the domain to my tag.

He’s replied with a £45 bill for doing the release. Now I realise he’s losing a domain, and I realise that some people do get charged for domain transfer, but come on… £45?

It’s a .com domain so it’s not as straight forward as a .co.uk domain, but even so I think that’s a bit of a rip off last stab attempt to get some money back.

What are your thoughts? Pay or Not Pay for domain release?

He wrote a plugin for me that powers this thumbshot of my ecommerce Car Torch website:

Car Torch
Car Torch is a website I set up to sell Car Torches – clever little rechargeable 12v LED torches that sit in your cigarette light power socket and are charged ready to go when you you need them. They come in a range of colours and have a range of accessories. And yes, the site is live and accepting orders, go on, you know you want one!

It’s simple to simple to set up, just start with a domain name

Think of a domain name and register it. (There you go, first bit done!) If you need more info read my article on domain name registration

Hosting and WordPress

Set up your hosting package and install WordPress. If you are at all unsure about where to host, my advice would be to use Hostgator. They have great customer service and they have a brilliant install app called Fantastico which will install and set up WordPress for you.

Install some plugins

For www.cartorch.co.uk I have used these plugins:

WordPress Shopping Cart Version 1.3 | By Tribulant Software CC | Visit plugin site

Google XML Sitemaps Version 3.2 | By Arne Brachhold | Visit plugin site

StatPress Reloaded Version 1.5.21 | By Manuel Grabowski | Visit plugin site

WP-Ads Version 0.2 | By Nick Brady | Visit plugin site

Contact Form 7 Version 2.0.7 | By Takayuki Miyoshi | Visit plugin site

Slideshow Gallery Version 1.0 | By Antonie Potgieter | Visit plugin site

The shopping cart plugin is obvious, the sitemap plugin is so you can register with your content with Google, StatPress is so you can monitor your traffic, WP-Ads is so you can place advertising on the site and Contact Form 7 is so your customers can get in touch. The Slideshow Gallery isn’t necessary but it’s what I did the animated header graphic with.

You might have your own favorite plugins so use those instead, and any others you feel you need, but you really don’t need many.

Start setting it all up

If you are an old hand at WordPress then you will know how to configure the initial settings, for those of you who need a refresher or have never configured WordPress, take a look at this article on How To Boss WordPress Around

Stock your shelves

The shopping cart is easy enough to set up, but I’d recommend starting on the Configuration page and going through the options carefully. One thing that I must point out here is if you are going to use PayPal, make sure you change your PDT and IPN settings as documented here. For any settings you aren’t sure of there is a docs section for the plugin on the Tribulant website.

You will pick up how the plugin works as you go along and it’s fun to mess with the settings and see howit affects the site. Go on have a play, but if you are doing a lot of testing (submitting posts/pages then updating them) it might be an idea to set your blog to:

I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors

In the privacy settings just in case you end up blacklisted for ping spam. Remember to undo this setting when you start adding product for real.

Does WordPress work as a shopping cart?

I have to tell you, hand on heart it does. We all know how good WordPress is at being indexed, and because the shopping cart creates posts or pages for the products Google will index the site very very well.

Can I prove it works? Yes I can, do a WHOIS look up for cartorch.co.uk and you will see I registered it in November 2009, just12 days ago as I write this post:

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 11-Nov-2009
Renewal date: 11-Nov-2011
Last updated: 12-Nov-2009

Now, take a look at the pages Google has indexed already:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=site:cartorch.co.uk

I’m helping this along with a Google base feed:

Car Torch Google Shop

And (at the time of writing) I’m also running an Adwords campaign, this is just to try and capitalise on the Christmas rush and I may not keep it running all the time. An Adwords campaign isn’t necessary for search engine penetration, but will help your traffic in the early stages.

So off you go, set up your own WordPress store and see how easy it is, converting the traffic to orders… now that’s the hard bit!

Thumbnail graphics provided by Thumbshots.org

Thumbshots
Thumbshots.org serve thumbshots to thousands of sites every month including some of the world’s largest Web directories, portals and domain registrars. Whether you’re searching for a car, flowers or photos, thumbshots will help you find it quickly.

Well it looks like things are going to get a major shake up soon when version 2.7 launches, if these screen shots are anything to go by the admin interface is going to be radically altered – and we all hope for the better.

Proposed new dashboard in WordPress 2.7

The changes aren’t just confined to the dashboard it looks like the whole admin infrastructure is changing, for a complete list of what’s going on take a look at this blog post over at WordPress.org

The

1. Thousands of 3rd party plugins – majority of which are free
   See the official plugin directory
2. Thousands of 3rd party themes – mainly free, but for a small cost you can by some amazing premium designs
   See the official theme directory
   
3. WordPress is written in php with MySQL database back end meaning you can host your blog on 99% of the webservers in the world.
   php is a dynamic web language
   MySQL is a fast full featured database
4. Easy to use well thought out admin interface
   WP-admin dashboard screen shot
5. Constant development cycle
   Download the latest build from wordpress.org

PART ONE: wp-security-scan plugin

Download: WP Security Scan

Author: Semper Fi Web design

Cost: Free

Once you have downloaded and unzipped the plugin upload it to you plugins fold and activate it in your plugins menu in the admin area of your blog.

When the plugin is active you will get a new tab in the top menu like this:

Here is what each tab will tell you

Security Tab

This tab is a ‘dashboard’ for the plugin, it reports to you all of its findings. One of the plugins features is to help you rename the ‘admin’ user and it will report to you here in red if the admin user exists. The way to rename this user is listed on a page called Change WordPress Admin Username. The other items it reports on are:

• WordPress version: 2.6.2 You have the latest stable version of WordPress.
• Your table prefix is not wp_. Your WordPress version is successfully hidden.
• WordPress DB Errors turned off.
• WP ID META tag removed form WordPress core
• “admin” user exists.
• The file .htaccess does not exist in wp-admin/.

Further down the page is a table reporting more system level information which includes:

• Operating System
• Server
• Memory usage
• MYSQL Version
• SQL Mode
• PHP Version
• PHP Safe Mode
• PHP Allow URL fopen
• PHP Memory Limit
• PHP Max Upload Size
• PHP Max Post Size
• PHP Max Script Execute Time
• PHP Exif support
• PHP IPTC support
• PHP XML support

Scanner Tab

Clicking on this tab brings up a list of files and directories which it checks that they all have the correct permissions state. If it’s correct the line is highlighted in green – if it’s incorrect then it is highlighted in red. The correct permission status is displayed so you can change the permissions accordingly.

Password Tool Tab

This is a neat facility which it gives you the ability to check the strength of your passwords. A field is displayed on screen and you are invited to type in a password, a graphical bar indicator progresses as you type, alongside words telling you the strength of the password.

Another nice touch is it automatically generates a random strong password which you can just copy and use.

Database Tab

It seems there are two major vulnerabilities in WordPress the first is the auto-generated ‘admin’ user – this is a security issue because every WordPress blog will probably have this user, therefore a potential hacker already knows half of a Username and Password pair. The second issue is the name of your tables in your database. By default when you install WordPress it auto prompts you with a table prefix of ‘WP_’ if you leave it as this then a hacker also now knows all your table names. This is a simple one to combat because all you need to do when you install is change the prefix to something else then install. This won’t prevent a hacker from getting in but it will make it more difficult.

If you have already installed your blog the Database Tab has the answer. Clicking on the tab presents you with a field populated with your current table prefix. Here you can now change it to something else, but as the big, bold, italic letters say:

Make a backup of your database before using this tool

Support Tab

The support tab is under construction but is a place where you can link back to the publishers changelog and documentation.

Conclusion

My conclusion of this plugin is it highlights the two most over looked vulnerabilities in WordPress – the admin username and the table prefix. Both vulnerabilities are fixable and this plugin shows you how to do it. What’s more having these highlighted to you will teach you to install more securely in the future. Some of the info that the plugin reports will go right over most bloggers heads but so long as you don’t get bogged down with the unimportant stuff you should be OK.

[rating:3.5]

Overall I would give this plugin 3.5/5

Killer feature: the ability to change the table prefix in one go.

<UPDATE: as I’m writing this the ‘vaporware’ has materialised, but it’s rubbish, so back to square one.>

So, without intentionally doing it I haven’t posted on my blog for about two weeks. This has meant two things have happened, the first is my stats have taken a nose dive, where I had been getting a nice upward stats gradient, I now have a graph that looks like it’s got heart failure. The other thing that’s happened is I’ve become very disillusioned with it all. It’s taken me two weeks to try and solve three parts to a puzzle, OK that’s not two weeks solid – I have to do my web development too, but come on… it shouldn’t be that difficult and it wouldn’t be difficult if I hadn’t had to rely on others for help and their services.

Also because I was concentrating on putting my three piece jigsaw puzzle together I had neglected to think up any future posts, again adding to my feeling of blog fade. It’s amazing how quickly you can go from full pelt to full stop in your blogging life and it seems to be when you start adding other people and their services into the mix. Now I realise that outsourcing is the right thing to do, but from my first attempt I can tell you it’s bloody difficult. If you get the right people involved at the start then you are very lucky and here’s a tip once you do find them, hold onto them.

I started writing this post about Blog Fade but I realise it’s about a wider issue. Now that I am two weeks along I’ve still got my jigsaw in pieces around my ankles, but they are now in the right order. I have realised now that what I set out to achieve wasn’t the right course of action, for example one of the items I wanted to produce would have landed me with requests for support further down the line so I’m solving this now with an off the shelf product that already has a support network. So my wider issue is a lesson learned really, I need to plan further ahead, I need to realise when to let go of an idea that isn’t going to work (instead of spending days on research), I need to be aware of the issue surrounding the execution of my ideas and I need to stop feeling sorry for myself when things don’t go my way.

Now that I have cleared my mind of what hasn’t worked in the last few weeks, I have to ask myself ‘Where am I now?’ Well actually I’m no further forward, I still have the same challenges as I had at the beginning, but now at least I have a starting place. You see even though I haven’t achieved anything tangible, I now know what isn’t going to work and what can’t be done, therefore I also know what will work and I’ll focus on doing that instead. I’ve had a two week false start but I’m on track now, I’ll soon have my jigsaw finished… and when I do, I shall superglue it together, nail it to a board and hang it on the wall from a great big hook – safe in the knowledge that I shan’t be doing that again!

In a way it’s good that I had this minor meltdown it’s given me a little more positivity in what I’m doing. I’d love to hear from you if you’ve had a blog fade episode too, please leave a comment below and be an inspiration for others.

1. Set the time to your local time zone

You do this by clicking on:

–> Settings

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/options-general.php

On the General Tab scroll down to the Time Zone section. Alter the pop up to correspond with how far out your time is with the server time

2. Alter your tagline to a good keyword rich slogan

While on the same page as above, in the Tagline section alter ‘Just another WordPress Blog’ to a meaningful keyword rich (but brief) slogan.

3. Alter your permalinks structure

You do this by clicking on:

–> Settings -> Permalinks

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/options-permalink.php

Click on the radio button next to ‘Custom Structure’ and type /%postname%/ into the field, this will set up good SEO links based on your blog title.

4. Update your Ping List

You do this by clicking on:

–> Settings -> Writing

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/options-writing.php

Your ping list is the list of services that your blog announces itself to when you make a new post, by default you have just one service specified (http://rpc.pingomatic.com/) however I suggest adding these also:

http://audiorpc.weblogs.com/

http://www.imblogs.net/ping/

http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2/

http://pingqueue.com/rpc/

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://www.bloglines.com/ping

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

5. Set your comment options

You do this by clicking on:

–> Settings -> Discussion

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/options-discussion.php

Choose your options carefully because these choices configure how you want comments to appear on your blog. These options will also give you email notifications of when a new comment is made.

6. Alter your admin username

You do this by clicking on:

–> Users -> Admin (in the Username column of the Manage Users list)

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/users.php

The Admin username can not be altered, and if you blog under that login, your posts are credited as being authored by ‘Admin’. This isn’t ideal, so on this page you have the opportunity of entering your First Name, Last Name and Nick Name, then (once you have saved) you have the options in the pop up menu of being publicly displayed as a variation of your name or nickname. Alter this pop up menu depending on how you want to brand yourself.

7. Activate Akismet plugin

You do this by clicking on:

–> Pugins -> Akismet (click activate then follow the prompts)

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/plugins.php

Akismet helps you fight comment spam, it is the default spam fighter plugin but a quick search will find others. Akismet requires an API key from WordPress.com the online version of WordPress. You will need to visit the link that activating Akismet prompts you to and sign up for a free account, make sure you opt for the username only option otherwise you will end up creating an online blog. You will be sent an email with your API key this is a string of numbers and letters approx 12 characters long. Copy and paste this into the Akismet configuration.

You have now completed all the initial steps to setting up a WordPress blog, no doubt you will need to adjust settings in the future but now you can get on and choose your theme and start blogging!

The problem doesn’t actually lie in the WordPress coding, it seems to lie within the settings of the webserver that is dishing out your files. Fortunately there is simple answer to this and it lies in doing a quick edit in your .htaccess file.

It seems that some hosting accounts have SecFilterScanPOST enabled and this is causing the problem.

Alter your .htaccess file by adding these two lines of code:

SecFilterEngine Off

SecFilterScanPOST Off

Now try to upload your picture again and you should find it working.

Please note: I’m not a webserver techie and I have to hold my hand up and honestly say that I’m not sure why turning off these two options makes the difference. I do know that they were on for a reason – that reason may be because it’s a default install and they can be either on or off without making any difference, or it could be that it’s a critical bit of set up that really shouldn’t be turned off.

So here is a shout out to anybody with webserver knowledge to join in the comments on this post and tell me what’s what with these settings. So please follow this post’s comments in either the comments RSS feed or subscribe to the comments below.

As with any of our advice the usual disclaimer applies: back up before you do any alterations and be aware that you do the mod at your own risk.

1. Write at least two posts

Promoting your site is a given, no promotion, no traffic. But the traffic will only flow one way and never return if all your readers see is stale content. You need to write at least two articles a week, more if you can (if you can’t try and get guest articles from your peers) and post them a day or so apart. TIP: better traffic spikes will come from posts that appear at the beginning of the week – there is an assumption that news is ‘freshest’ at the start of the week. A great resource of tips and how to’s to help you improve your writing is www.copyblogger.com

2. Check for broken links

Links that end in a 404 page will lose you traffic so fix any incoming or internal links that are broken. A good plugin for checking your posts is Broken Link Checker. An awesome plugin for managing incoming broken links is Redirection it allows you to take an incoming URL and map it to a new post via 301 redirects. It’s the only way to preserve traffic to your posts when you change a site structure.

3. Check your Webstats

You know in the movies where you see the big macho hero choosing his weapons before he goes off and does something amazing, and he picks up a big gun, looks at it lovingly… then puts it back and picks up an enormous gun, snorts a laugh and nods his head in approval? Well your website statistics are that enormous gun. Your site stats are where you find out who is linking to you, how much traffic you are getting and what pages your visitors are looking at. The stats can tell you your most popular pages and therefore you will know what kind of content your audience is hungry for. There are many stats packages around, your hosting will come with some and there is of course Google Analytics. I’m currently using WordPress.com Stats which is a great plugin because it causes no extra load on your server and hey, who else but WP knows enough about WordPress to produce good accurate stats? A word of warning: only check your stats once a week, checking stats is like weighing yourself when you are on a diet, check to often and you don’t see any progression. Check once on a regular basis and you get to see the movement.

4. Plan future posts

Doing step three will make this step a breeze. While you are checking your stats, look out for your busiest pages or notice when your busiest times are (and note what you did to produce the extra traffic) and plan your next posts to extend your popular content. If you find your popular posts aren’t really where you thought your blog was going, don’t dismiss them and blindly push on, be sensible about it and let the market lead you, as they are the only experts in all this.

5. Don’t give up!

In every bloggers life there are moments of despair, moments where you think “Argh F**k It! This is going nowhere” if you are like this then you are probably checking your stats too often! Everyone is in the same boat here, don’t assume that others are getting more success than you, some might be, but others definitely won’t be. Just keep going and don’t give up. If you feel isolated then join a community, I’m in the Blog MasterMind coaching program and there are forums and communities to help keep me going – you can join too and I strongly recommend that you check it out.

6. Do Back up!

I will continue to harp on about this for probably the life of this blog, and even beyond, I might even have it etched on my Tomb Stone:

RIP
Ian Blackford
Blogging Rocket Webmaster
(*Snigger* I can RIP – I backed up!)

Get a back-up plugin, set it on a schedule to back up at least once a week and then forget it – job done. A great plugin for this is WordPress Database Backup

7. Take a break!

There is a lot to blogging, a lot more than people realise and if you do all the above every week along with your blog promotion and digesting information from others you are going to need a break. So don’t beat yourself up for a taking a little time off, switch off your computer turn on the TV – go on, I bet there is a good film on!