I received a mail from one of my clients tonight about a notice she received, supposedly from her “email service provider”. The subject of the mail read, “The settings for the yourname@yourdomain.com mailbox were changed”. Being that I am the only one that can change settings on my client’s email server, I knew there was something wrong.

Turns out that this is a scam that has been going around since at least October of 2009. A quick Google search turned up an article on the Symantec site that gives all the details. Basically, the details are as follows:

Subjects: (one of the following)

• The settings for the [TARGET EMAIL ADDRESS] mailbox were changed
• A new settings file for the [TARGET EMAIL ADDRESS] has just been released
• For the owner of the [TARGET EMAIL ADDRESS] e-mail account
• A new settings file for the [TARGET EMAIL ADDRESS]

Email Body:
Dear user of the [TARGET DOMAIN] mailing service!

We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox ([TARGET EMAIL ADDRESS]) settings were changed.
In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:

http://[TARGET DOMAIN]/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=[TARGET EMAIL ADDRESS]&from=[TARGET DOMAIN]&fromname=tslreplenish

Best regards, [TARGET DOMAIN] Technical Support.

The one thing that isn’t visible in the example above is that the link in the email points to a different address than what is visible in the email. This is a classic low-tech trick used by spammers to hide the true location.

Domains observed in this campaign include the following:

• bertdffe.co.uk
• bertdffe.eu
• bertdffm.co.uk
• bertdffo.eu
• bertdffw.co.uk
• bertdffw.eu
• oikkkkua.eu
• oikkkkua.eu
• oikkkkuf.co.uk
• oikkkkuh.co.uk
• oikkkkuh.eu
• oikkkkuy.co.uk
• oikkkkuy.eu
• polikka.eu
• polikki.co,uk
• polikki.eu
• polikko.co.uk
• polikko.eu
• polikkp.co.uk
• polikkp.eu
• wsasdec.co.uk
• wsasdec.eu
• wsasdep.eu
• wsasdev.co.uk
• wsasdez.co.uk

okqwah.com.pl – this is the domain encountered last night, I’m sure there will be a wide variety of them to follow.

What to do if you get an email like this

1. First and foremost, do NOT click the link in the email.
2. Notify your web host and/or site manager (My clients should always let me know when they’ve received this kind of email.) I also request that they let me know if they have clicked the link. In the event that it’s not something that’s been identified before, we need to make sure it’s not being generated from an infected file on the server.
3. Change your email password, regardless of your prior actions… it was probably time to change it anyway.
4. Delete the email from your email client and/or mail server.

When in doubt, ask! I would never send such a mail to a client without my personal contact information. I normally conduct such changes while on the phone with my clients, so an email like this should automatically raise red flags.

Thankfully, my client knew better than to click a link in an email like this, and automatically forwarded the email to me to research. If you don’t have someone like me helping to manage your business on the web, you may want to consider contacting me. This is exactly the kind of information that is easily obtained through any one of  my telephone consulting lines.

For the past couple of weeks, webmasters all over the globe have been scrambling to update and protect their WordPress self hosted blogs. It all started when a couple of rather large, well known blogs were having issues with their permalinks displaying odd characters, rendering the links useless. Further investigation revealed “hidden” admin accounts (meaning that they existed, but were not visible in the WP dashboard).

I was originally made aware of this issue on Twitter, as people started spreading the word about a vicious worm that was working it’s way through older, non updated installs of WordPress. So, as usual, I went surfing for some trustworthy information. The best description of what happened can be found in Lorelle’s blog.

In my opinion, the most important thing to know about this worm, is described this way by Lorelle:

Once the worm has infected your site, surface fixes do not remove the “back door” the worm injects into your database and system, as happened with Robert Scoble. Once infected, upgrading does not fix the issue, so those reporting they were now infected after upgrading, were infected before upgrading. Versions after WordPress 2.8.3 are safe, but upgrade to 2.8.4 anyway as it included other fixes.

Since this worm works it’s way so deep into your database, you have to approach the clean up in a very specific way to avoid updating with the worm’s ‘backdoor’ in tact.

“How To Completely Clean Your Hacked WordPress Installation” by Smackdown is a good article on how to reinstall WordPress after being hacked, but take care to keep your export limited to the post content and comments (and Pages), not the entire database as the hack goes into the database.

Once I was armed with the information I needed in order to understand what was going on, (Thank you to my Twitter friends, and especially you Lorelle!) and what to do about it… it was time to go through each and every site I run and/or manage for my clients. A daunting task, to say the least.

Most of the sites I manage were only a version behind, being that 2.8.3 wasn’t that old. There was one that I had to update from 2.7.1, and even one that I had to update from 2.5! That last one was in the most danger of falling victim to the worm, so I took special care with it, as updates from the 2.5 series had given me trouble in the past. (The introduction of “Tags” sometimes made upgrades from 2.5 rather difficult and laborious.)

Below are the steps I take when updating WordPress self hosted blogs. There are a couple of tricks I’ve learned along the way that I hope help some of you in the rare occasion that you too come across a difficult upgrade. First and foremost, find the WP Codex upgrade instructions here, bookmark them, and visit them every single time you upgrade.

Upgrading your self hosted WP blog

1. Back up the database. One of the first plugins I install with a new WP is the WP Database Backup plugin. Not only does it make backup of your database “one click easy”, but I can schedule it to send me daily backups of my databases! (You can choose whatever interval works best for you.)

2. Save a copy of the WP files currently in use. Why? If I’ve made manual edits to the core files, I can just pull them from the old files.

3. If you are doing a manual update, you must remember to deactivate all your plugins. This is especially important if you’re updating a version prior to 2.7! I forgot to deactivate mine on the oldest blog, so before I ran the database update, I simply removed my plugin folder and replaced it with the bare bones plugin folder from the new version. After I had run the update, I uploaded my plugins again, and activated them one at a time. Worked out fine.

4. With WP versions 2.7 and up, you can then simply press the “Update Now” button, and allow the blog to update itself (it will automatically deactivate your plugins, so no need to worry about step 3 above). This works, most of the time. If your server or browser times out, then you have to do it manually. See these instructions for a manual upgrade.

Trouble shooting issues after an update

1. I use WP-Affiliate on the older site, and after the update, the links produced by the plugin were returning a 404 error. If this happens, simply go to your “Settings > Permalinks” and save your options again. This cleared up the issue of the WP-Affiliate links not working. (Anytime an update results in a problem with your links, this is a good step to take, as it oftentimes fixes the problem… just needs a lil reminder.)

That was really the only issue I ran across, with over 20 WP updates, two of which were old enough to be in danger of being effected by the worm. All in all, WP really does make it pretty easy to maintain a healthy blog by keeping it updated. If you’ve run into issues updating a WP blog, comment here and perhaps we can figure it out together. I will add to the troubleshooting section of this article with any issues brought to my attention.

I’ve recently learned that when it comes to using Internet Social Media, resistance is indeed futile. You just can’t get away from it, it seems… and I’m not sure that we should even try anymore. After getting involved with using Twitter for the past couple of weeks, I’m shocked at the invaluable resource it’s turned out to be.

Yes, it can be overwhelming, but once you’ve collected the right tools it’s something you may be surprised to find yourself relying on more than email. Check out the video below just to get an idea about the volume of usage that Social Media is attracting.

I recently started a Twitter account for myself, and a retail client. I manage different accounts using HootSuite, a site that enables you to access and manage multiple Twitter accounts through your web browser. I’m able to group the people I follow into their own panels to make it easier for me to grab the “news” I want more effectively, and through the use of filters I’m able to search out mentions of whatever I may be interested in. These things are essential, and some are not possible through the Twitter.com site you create your account on.

Instant Gratification

Just a few days ago, when I couldn’t understand why my laptop wasn’t updating, and I couldn’t access my Gmail… I found the answer on Twitter. It only took a quick scan of my Twitter homepage to see that people were talking about Gmail servers having gone down. Another quick scan revealed that the Dell sites had gone down too. Within seconds I had the news I needed, with little to no effort on my part.

If you’re having a hard time deciding if Social Media is something you should get involved in, I’m including some interesting articles for your consideration below. In the meantime, just ask yourself this: If one of the 14 million visitors to Twitter.com in the US alone (Nielsen Online, March ’08) searches for your product or service… will they find you? What are people saying about you or your business on Twitter? Perhaps it’s time you found out.

The New Age of Communications

I can see social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn eventually replacing some of the ways we communicate now. Personally, I’ve decided that I’d rather follow someone on Twitter than add their RSS feed to my reader. Call it a result of growing up in the “instant gratification” generation. It’s fast, it’s what’s happening right NOW… and it’s gone and out of my way just as quickly. It’s less work for me. It saves me time, and I don’t stress out over the amount of unread RSS feeds in my Google Reader.

Email? Why, when we can send a Tweet that we know will go directly in front of our audience? Direct mailing campaigns will soon be a thing of the past. PR agent? No need, I can handle my own PR in a live stream. Monitoring the chatter about your company gives you new insight into public perception. Customer service? Why rely on emails that have to fight through spam filters when your customers can get your attention immediately? Not to mention the credibility you can build for yourself and your business by communicating with your targeted audience live.

Be the company that grabs (and holds) their attention

In today’s economy, customer retention is so very important. Being an active participant in social media sends the message to your client base that you’re interested in keeping the lines of communication open. How many people have you stopped doing business with simply because they weren’t listening to you, or they were difficult to contact? Why not be the person in your field of expertise that your target market goes to for help?

“Word of mouth” advertising has never been as powerful as it is on Twitter right now. Recommendations in the form of a RT (re-tweet: when someone forwards your message to their entire followers list) can spread your brand, and your profile all over the world (quite literally). Why would you want to put yourself at a disadvantage by not using what social media has to offer you?

Twitter articles of interest:

• Getting Started in Social Media
• How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands
• 6 Ways Businesses Can Use Twitter
• How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business
• Track RSVPs to your Events Through Twitter
• 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
• 4 Ways Companies Use Twitter for Business
• Twitter to roll out commercial accounts this year
• Hints of many business models in Twitter 101’s case studies
• Nine Twitter tips for business
• 16 Examples of Huge Brands Using Twitter for Business

*Twitter bird by Mirkku

I came across a great article today, a humorous take on what NOT to do when dealing with a graphics designer. 8 Ways to Drive a Graphic Designer Mad gave me a great laugh with my morning coffee. Please remember, when reading this article, it’s sarcasm! Doing those things will indeed drive someone like me absolutely over the edge. Seriously.

Some thoughts and explanations about the items mentioned from my personal point of view:

Microsoft Office
I’d rather you used a plain text document to send me your textual content. This is really easy, Windows users can just click on their “Start” button, and choose to open Notepad! Save your work as a .txt file, and it makes a very easy to send email attachment!

Without getting too technical, this just makes it easier for me to copy and paste your content to my programs without all the bloated coding that Microsoft products put into the document. When I have to clean up coding like that, or *gasp* type your content over myself, it winds up costing you more due to the time it takes to do so.

Recommendations made during a consult
When it comes to working on your site, I have no ego. The recommendations I make are not due to some personal preference of mine, they are the result of years of experience and analysis into what provides the best outcome and experience for your site’s visitors. Learn about Usability here. For example, the fonts used on your site can be related to usability issues. The colors used, and the layout of your site can be related to the psychology of sales (as well as usability). Rewording something within your content may be related to search engine optimization.

Photos and/or Artwork
If your content includes photo and/or artwork, I prefer that you send them to me in their original digital format. High resolution, large files are best. I will adjust them as necessary. Burn them to disk if necessary, and send them to me that way if email zip file attachments won’t work. Remember, with digital photo and art files, bigger really is better!

Deadlines and Do Overs
As part of our initial consultation, I ask you what your time line is. I base my decision on working with you on whether I feel you’re providing me enough time to complete your project to the best of my ability. If this timeline changes at any time during our working relationship, you need to tell me ASAP! The contract we established in the beginning was based on your original time line, changes to that will change or in some cases nullify your contract with me, so keep that in mind.

Anything I create for you is subject to your approval. The approval process consists of my sending you different versions of my work for you to choose from, then I adjust to your specifications. (Two “adjustments” per piece are included in the standard contract. After that, there are additional fees for further changes.) Once we agree on a completed version, any additional changes require that we agree on additional compensation for my time. I consider changes to your content after completed versions are approved by you to be “maintenance”, and as such would be included in your maintenance contract if you have one.

Not sure? Ask me!
Usability, search engine optimization, and obtaining the desired result from your site’s visitors are some of the main reasons I make the recommendations that I do. If you don’t understand the “Why” behind something I suggest, please ask me to explain. I’ll be more than happy to do so!

* All icons used in this article’s images were collected from IconBuffet, for free.

I’m both a web master and an IMVU content developer, or as we say on IMVU, simply a “Dev”. I just giggled to myself as I was checking the Google page rank of the sites I manage when I realized that I was feeling the same anticipation as I do when the new IMVU Dev Tiers are updated at the beginning of every month.

Google’s PR is a measurement of a site’s “relevance” within it’s search results for the keywords assigned to each site. Google uses a mysterious “algorithm” in the spiders it sends out to crawl the sites it finds on the web. The way I present a web site through design and content is always geared toward making sure the Google spiders, and other similar Internet “Robots” find a lot of relevant content to index. This involves a lot of research and analysis, as the factors used in calculations (the algorithm) are ever changing, to deter the unscrupulous from “gaming the system”. It’s very important to watch the trends in ranking, if you want to compete. (My own personal, and very simplified summary, minus the “tech-speak”.)

As a web designer, I’ve been analyzing the Google PR of my sites as a regular activity. Search Engine Optimization is something I’m constantly working on within ALL the sites I design and manage, and the Google PR is only one of the gauges I use to measure my progress.

On IMVU, the Tier Levels are a measurement of your activity in the community, and your percentage of sales in comparison to the other developers. Reviews of your products, the amount of new items you’ve submitted, and the total number of items within your catalog are also factors in the Tier calculation. Since, much like the PR calculation, your progress depends heavily on the comparison between you and your competitor’s activity… you’re dealing with variables that change every month. There is much debate within the Dev community as to what, if anything, IMVU does to deter “gaming the system”.

As an IMVU developer, I find myself less concerned with what my competitors are doing in regards to the factors involved in the Tier calculations. I suppose it’s the difference between obvious monetary benefit, and artistic expression. I design and manage web sites as a web master as my main income, whereas I develop content for IMVU as an artistic outlet. While there is potential to turn my IMVU catalog into an additional stream of income, I’m still new to the site and have yet to see enough success to consider that a viable notion… for now. Of course, enjoying that additional income in the near future is a current goal of mine. *smirk*

Overall, there is very little difference between Google PR and IMVU Tiers from my perspective. Monitoring my progress in both is how I remain focused on my goals, both short term, and big picture. It’s interesting to me upon reflection that I watch these trends and monitor all the factors involved as a matter of habit without even realizing it.

What are your goals, and how do you monitor your progress? Something I must remember to ask all of my clients. I look forward to hearing your thoughts so remember to leave a comment! *smile*

Grooveshark is a cool new site that I heard about on Twitter (thanks, @TimothyFitz). While I was playing with it’s massive resources of music to listen to while I work, I found a WordPress plugin for it that allows you to add music to your posts, and a playlist to your sidebar.

I’m a strong advocate of keeping music OFF of web sites in general, but especially on business blogs. I (and most surfers who are shopping on the Internet) find music on retail sites obtrusive, and off-putting. Depending on your field, it could even damage your credibility. I’ve learned over time, though, that there are some businesses that would actually benefit from offering their visitors music on their sites. Musicians are one painfully obvious example. *smile*

Offering music as an option on your site when it provides an obvious advantage to your visitor is different, however, than the deafening forced attack of sound when one loads your site. If I can’t find a mute button that allows me to turn off the auditory terrorist, I immediately (if not sooner) close such pages.

This plugin is recommended for WP 2.5.x and higher due to DIV tag issues in the widgets with older versions. Installation was as easy as upload and activate. When you’re typing your post, you simply scroll below the new post area to find your “Add Music” options.

All in all, it’s a great plugin, and I would imagine that it’s going to be very popular with music blogs. Who knows, I may work for a musician some day, and I’ll be glad to have this lil treasure in my stash! I’ve included the song list I was listening to as I blogged, below. I’ll be using Grooveshark a lot while working in my graphics programs… it’s the best application that I never knew I needed!

Edit to add: I did notice one thing… adding the music widget (which DID work)  to my post made my “share” links disappear. So, FeedSmith Feedburner links won’t appear on the posts you use the Grooveshark music widgets on… I’m so glad they offer the link to the music as an alternative!

Songs I blog to: A collection of Alice in Chains: Song of the day

Hmm… seems that removing the widget didn’t bring my links back… Guess I’m off to debug yet MORE code tonight!

The topic of hosting involves many different aspects; reliability, customer support, pricing, add-on features, programming, and allowable installation of PHP and other popular marketing scripts.

Today, I’m going to focus on ONE topic, traffic, and the effects it has on your web site’s hosting. The simple one word answer here is ‘Bandwidth’.

By definition, Bandwidth is the measurement of data, and the speed at which it flows through the phone lines, cable or DSL lines to transfer information to and from a web site via your computer.

In relation to your web site hosting, Bandwidth measures this flow of data transfer, otherwise termed ‘Traffic’. In plain English, it’s the number of hits you receive to your site; pure volume multiplied by the file sizes included on your pages.

So, if you have an all text based web site, you would be able to receive more traffic, at lower bandwidth numbers, than you would if you have a ‘graphics’ intensive page, which would naturally have higher file sizes that are being transferred from your site to your visitor’s browser.

That’s great Ginger, but how does this effect my hosting?

Well, that depends on your host, and the package you sign up for. For example, most hosting services set an limit on the amount of bandwidth they include with your fee per month. Depending on the nature of your site, (graphics intensive vs. lower file sized pages), you should be able to predict how much bandwidth you will need.

Case in point; my design site is definitely what most would consider a *graphics intensive* web site! I can tell you that most of my pages there are over the recommended file size of 24kbs. From my stats logs, I can see that I receive upwards of 150,000 hits to my site before I reach a total bandwidth of 2GBs, which is usually the maximum limit you’ll find on lower scaled hosting packages.

If you know, or predict that you’ll see more hits than that in any given month, you may want to consider shopping for a hosting package that offers a higher maximum of bandwidth allowed per month.

Hosting companies that limit your bandwidth, charge an additional fee when you exceed your limits. The average additional cost I’ve found through my research is approximately $3USD per GB…

FYI= 1 GB = 1,000 MB
1 MB = 1,000 KB

So, if you have a bandwidth, (aka ‘data transfer’), limit of 2GB, that would equal approximately the same amount of data you can store on 3 CD’s. *whew*

For a more detailed explanation of byte measurements, read Figuring Out how Big a File is.

If you’re building your first web site, and have no idea how much traffic you will generate out of the gate, I would recommend starting with a basic web hosting package. As your site grows in popularity, and your traffic increases, you can always talk to your host about upgrading to a package with higher bandwidth limits.

From my own experience, brand new websites usually take about 3-6 months of solid promotion before bandwidth becomes an issue. Remember to use a host that provides in-depth statistics reports, and monitor your web site activity regularly. Watch for trends, and base your judgments on your results.

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This article was originally written over five years ago, for my original “Web Design” site, and remains © 2009 GingerWench.com. Reprinting is allowed under these conditions.

The information is still relevant today, with a few updates listed below.

Bandwidth is not as much of a concern for hosting as it used to be. For example, Yahoo Hosting offers unlimited bandwidth for around $10/month. Godaddy, on the other hand, offers a variety of packages based on bandwidth and server space; you can host a small site there for around $5 every three months. However, unlimited bandwidth with Godaddy will cost you around $15/month.

I include hosting of your sites when you contract me for monthly site maintenance. When you contract with me to maintain your site on (at least) a monthly basis, I will host your site for you at no additional charge, with no bandwidth limits. If you don’t require my web site maintenance services, but I design your site for you, I will host your site for $10/month. Please note that I do not offer hosting for non clients.

After you contract me to do so, yes, I can move your site to my hosting or any hosting service of your choice. You will need to provide me the information required to do so, but please only do that once we’ve agreed to contractual terms. I prefer to work with sites that will be hosted on my server due to my familiarity with it’s functionality, and my confidence in it’s security and programming. My agreement to work with another host depends solely on my familiarity with them.