Why Anger Is Bad

When most of us think of anger we think of violence and pain. We think of a loss of control and emotional turmoil. Anger can be a devastating force when it’s not controlled. Just like anything else, anger in the hands of an undisciplined person can be dangerous.

We can all name someone in our lives who has struggled with anger issues. Maybe you’ve struggled with it yourself, I know I have.

I’ve always been someone who has been blessed/cursed with strong emotions. It is both a blessing and a curse because although I am sometimes capable of feeling positive, enriching, empowering emotions on a deeper level, I’m also much more susceptible to negative, debilitating states of mind as well. It often takes great discipline and constant maintenance of my mind to remain productive. Maybe you can relate.

Anger, specifically, is such a strong emotion that it has to be controlled. And it is because it can be so difficult to control that we see it in such a negative light. Many horrible things have happened and are still happening every day because of anger.

So How Can Anger Be A Good Thing?

First of all, you have to realize that anger is a natural human emotion. It’s there for a reason…it has value.

Anger in itself is not inherently bad. It is simply a force of power, an internal combustion engine that, if channeled and controlled, can actually become a prime mover and a catalyst for positive change in your life.

Sometimes, all a person needs to break out of their self-imposed prison and better their life is to get mad enough about where they are to do whatever it takes to change. All of us have the power to change inside of us, but a sense of complacency born from fear of change often keeps us from even trying.

Healthy anger can break us out of that complacency like few things can.

One of my favorite movies is “The Pursuit of Happiness”. There’s a scene in that movie that I’ve embedded below that I think really illustrates the kind of anger I’m talking about.

In the above scene, Will Smith’s character gets mad, not in a destructive rage kind of way but in a controlled, empowering kind of way.

He recognizes something in himself that he doesn’t like, a limiting belief system. And he realizes in that moment that he’s imprinting his son with that same limiting belief system, stunting his emotional growth. The anger he feels with himself compels him to do what’s necessary to make it right.

Making A Choice

Like most things in life, you don’t have a choice about whether you feel angry or not. But you do, and always will, have a choice about how you react to it.

Most people take one of two paths. They either run away from it, repressing it as long as possible until it finally boils over at inappropriate times. Or they make a habit of giving full vent to their frustrations, fuming and spraying their anger all over any poor soul who happens to get in their way.

Both approaches are devastating to personal relationships.

It’s much more difficult to choose to discipline yourself and learn to channel those feelings into constructive activities like personal change, or art, or business, to use that energy to build something rather than destroy…but it’s worth it.

Hope you enjoyed the post…

Leave me your thought in the comments.

Shawn Smith

We are going to be releasing our brand new $800 matrix tonight at 12:00am EST and it’s going to be pretty wild. This matrix is going to pay $3,200 a cycle, so we’re going to see a lot of money made in a very short time when this launches.

Things are really moving already from the excitement…in fact an extra $1,700 in upgrades has come in for me in the last 36 hours as people are preparing for the big launch.

I shot a quick video below to show you some of my back office so you can see for yourself that this thing really is working – I’m currently the number 2 recruiter and was featured in this month’s leader spotlight.

I shot this at about 4am  so I could get it out there before the launch, so it might be a little rough

(Click the small button in the lower right hand corner of the video for full screen)

If you haven’t joined us yet in Ultimate Cycler, now’s a great time to check it out. You can get started for an easy one-time $25 with no recurring monthly fees, so pretty much anyone can do this.

click here for more info

…And if you’re already a part of our Ultimate Cycler team, make sure you upgrade tonight when the new matrix goes live so you don’t miss out on any commissions.

See You At The Top,

Trisha

Listening – A Skill Too Often Overlooked

Active listening is a skill that is often seen as antiquated in today’s society. These days it’s all about action, it’s the information age. These are the days of multi-tasking and smart phones, texting and FaceBook, sending you thousand of jumbled messages every waking second of your life. Listening…who has time, right?

In reality however, whether you know it or not, you’re listening skills have a huge impact on your life.

In Business

If you’re on this blog, it’s probably a safe assumption that you are involved with or have an interest in home businesses, network marketing, internet marketing, etc. Internet marketing can be a very cold and impersonal business. Everyone seems to be moving away from personal interaction and are looking for ways to automate their business so they don’t ever have to talk to anyone.

Automation is great when it’s done right…but it’s a lot more effective when you’re willing to put in a slight personal touch. When you’re building an online business, you’re building a team of people, real people, who are trying to better their lives and become successful. These are people who want to be heard, who want to be understood, and it’s really not ok to just sign them up and cut them loose.

So if you want to build your business the right way, the way that will create loyalty and long term success, you need to listen to what your prospects have to say. Really listen to their needs. Hear what they say, but more importantly hear what they don’t say. Be genuinely engaged and invested.

It’s ok to have a list of pre-written questions you wish to ask, as long as you actually listen to the answers and don’t just jump to the next one without any consideration for what was just said. People pick up on this and it’s a big turn off.

In Personal Life

It’s in one’s personal life that the benefits of good listening skills really become apparent. Show me any healthy relationship and I’ll show you 2 people who have learned to listen to one another deeply on a consistent basis.

Listening really effects every area of our lives. Becoming a good listener is about learning how to focus. You have to be able to tune out the distractions and totally engage in what is right in front of you…a necessary skill to succeed in anything in life.

Learning to listen is a process of forgetting ourselves so we can focus on other people. It’s natural to be caught up in our own thoughts and feelings because they scream the loudest. But to really learn to listen and build the character necessary for success, those things have to be silenced so you can begin to focus on what’s most important.

It isn’t always easy, but becoming a good listener can make a substantial positive impact on your business, family and life.

Shawn Smith

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Leverage – “Strategic advantage; power to act effectively”

Have you ever wondered how it’s possible that one person can start a home business and skyrocket themselves to massive success in less than 6 months, while another person struggles for years barely making ends meat?

The answer lies in a concept called leverage.

What is Leverage

For the purposes of a home business and specifically internet marketing I would define leverage as:

“The strategic application of other people’s efforts to accomplish that which could not otherwise be accomplished.”

Basically, what that means is that you can’t do it all yourself. If you want to create massive success in your business…if you want to quit your job, pay for your kids’ college education, buy a new house, get out of debt, whatever your goals and dreams are…you’re going to need help.

You’re going to need to learn how to leverage the efforts of other people to help you accomplish your goals.

How To Get Leverage

In the world of internet marketing, leverage exists in its most basic form as systems and training created by other people. Many people try to build their business on their own, the hard way…always trying to re-invent the wheel and never really getting anywhere.

It’s easy to do. It’s easy to get caught up in the technical details of things and end up spending all your time trying to figure things out that you really shouldn’t be messing with anyway. That is valuable time wasted…time that could have been spent doing things that will actually make you money.

The answer is to learn how to leverage systems that will take care of what is beyond your current expertise – and training that will teach you what you need to learn quickly and efficiently. Most of us aren’t experts, and pretending to be one will only end up hurting your business in the long run.

The fast track to success lies in leveraging the systems and training of experts to slash your learning curve to pieces.

Where To Get Leverage

Not all systems and training are created equal. If you’re new, you’ll probably get value out of just about anything you find. I remember when I first got started online I had no clue what I was doing. I was so lost I remember actually Googling “what is internet marketing”. I just had no concept of what it was even about.

Then I stumbled upon a little training based program that was just starting. It was a terrible program and it didn’t even last 6 months, but I remember devouring that training and I ended up learning a lot.

But how much further along would I have been if I’d found a real, solid opportunity with top notch cutting edge training and highly converting already done systems, rather than a dud of an opportunity that was destined for failure?

I can’t stress enough the importance of getting in the right program, with the right systems, and the right training early on. It can be the difference between making your goals a reality in 6 months…or becoming stressed out, burnt out and quitting in 6 months.

click here to see the system i leverage

To Your Online Success,

Shawn Smith

If you have a WordPress site you may have noticed performance issues the last week or so, or you may have been unable to login at all.

If you haven’t heard, there’s been a massive brute force attack on WordPress going on for the past few days now (it’s April 16th today).

A brute force attack is where an automated attacker hits your login screen with thousands of different username/password combinations trying to gain access. This particular attack is on a massive scale (see how massive here).

What To Do About It

1) If you are unable to login at all to your WP dashboard, contact your hosting provider and let them know what’s going on.

2) Change your passwords. A strong password is your first and best line of defense against brute force attacks. Your password should be so long and complex that you could not possibly ever remember it yourself…basically, if you’re still writing your passwords down it’s time to move out of the dark ages

Please get a password manager service like Roboform or Last Pass (I use Roboform). A password manager creates strong passwords for you, then saves them so you only have to click 1 button to log into any account you’ve ever created from the beginning of time.

If you spend any amount of time creating accounts online (if you run your own website, this is definitely you) a password manager will be your best friend. Roboform saves me hours upon hours of time and frustration…I honestly don’t know how I could do business efficiently without it.

3) Delete the “admin” user. Most brute force attacks target the admin username because they know thousands of WordPress users never change the default settings. It is extremely easy for a hacker to obtain all your usernames anyway…but the fact is probably 99% of these attacks are automated attacks targeting the admin username.

Here is a tutorial I found for how to delete your admin account. Please follow the directions carefully so you won’t delete any of your posts.

4) Install a login security plugin. By default WordPress allows unlimited failed login attempts. This means a hacker can sit there and attack your site all day long trying hundreds of thousands of password combinations, tying up your website resources, until they finally crack your login.

A login security plugin will automatically lock out an attacker after a specified number of failed login attempts.

Try one of these login security plugins:

Limit Login Attempts

Login Security Solution

If you’d like to try a more robust security plugin that includes login security as part of their tool suite, check out these plugins:

Better WP Security

Wordfence

5) You can also set up some king of 2 step authentication for your login screen. You can ask you hosting provider to do this for you on their end, or try Google Authenticator.

6) Always make regular backups. If you have a website, please back it up. You can never be 100% safe from disaster and having a good backup strategy is like having home owner’s insurance…if the worst should happen, you’re still covered. One of the most popular backup solutions is Backup Buddy, but there are many others.

Be Security Minded

Website security is everyone’s responsibility, and the best strategy you can have is to stay informed and adhere to best practices.

1) Learn how WordPress recommends protecting your site.

How to Harden WordPress

2) Stay up to date with the latest security vulnerabilities and exploits.

Sucuri Blog

3) Watch this webinar from the folks at Sucuri that goes into the most common WordPress vulnerabilities and how to fight back.

Here’s another really helpful and informative webinar from the creator of the BulletProof Security plugin: Watch It Here

A Few Words In Closing

I find it extremely unfortunate, annoying, and disappointing that we have to worry about cyber terrorists destroying our hard work and derailing our lives…but that’s the world we live in.

If you have a website that’s important to you, you need to take steps to protect it.

Website security is a big and complicated topic and for most of us with small websites, it’s simply too much to take on alone. Thankfully, there are many experts out there that offer their security services to small business owners like ourselves at a reasonable price or even free in the case of many plugins.

If you have a WordPress blog and have not done anything to secure against the ongoing brute force attack happening right now, I urge you to do so immediately.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably put more hours into your website than you can count and it represents a significant investment and asset to your business.

Hopefully you’ve received value from this post. If you have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment (and we always appreciate a share)

Thanks for reading and happy blogging.

Shawn Smith

What is Ultimate Cycler?

Ultimate Cycler is a home-business program created by Peter Wolfing that’s been designed to be easy to get started with and quick to get you into profit.

It’s a 2×2 cycler with a direct member-to-member compensation plan that allows for 100% instant payout on commissions. There are 4 matrix levels to earn from, but your out-of-pocket expense is only a 1-time $25 with no monthly fees or admin fees.

Those are some pretty impressive highlights…but let’s dig a little deeper and really break it down.

The Compensation Plan

If you’re reading this review right now, it’s probably safe to assume that you’re interested in how this program can make you money, right? So first things first, we’ll start with the comp plan.

“I’ve experienced the power of this type of comp plan first-hand. There was one company in the 25 years I’ve been in this industry that allowed me to see $5,000 days…and it was this exact same comp plan right here…”

It all starts with a 1-time $25 to get into your first matrix. This is the only payment you will ever have to make, everything else comes out of profit. This $25 payment gets you access to the back office, all the products, the marketing system, etc, etc.

Your matrix has 2 levels consisting of 6 spots (2 on the 1st level, 4 on the second). Your second level is your payline. So when a slot is filled on your second level, either by your efforts or someone else’s, you earn 100% of those commissions…or in this case $25. So each $25 matrix is worth $100 ($25 X 4). When all 6 spots are filled, you cycle out and have the option to activate another matrix and get paid all over again.

There are also 3 higher level matrixes ($50, $100, and $200) which all function the exact same way. You do not have to pay any extra money to upgrade to these higher levels if you don’t want to either, just pay for it out of profit. Of course the fast track is to position yourself in all 4 matrixes right away, but the option to start at the $25 level and work your way up through profits is there if needed, which is great.

The fact that this is a 1-time pay program with no monthly fees, only costs $25 to get started, and pays 100% instant commissions means people will jump on this and you can easily start seeing multiple cycles per day.

If you’re new to compensation plans, all of this might sound a bit confusing. But don’t worry, I assure you it’s simple once you get it. Here’s a comp plan video from the owner Peter Wolfing that goes over everything in detail. Watch it a few times if you need to…however long it takes for you to really get how powerful this comp plan really is.

Click Here Now!

The Products

The guys at Ultimate Cycler know that in today’s world, mobile is king. With the current times in mind they’ve developed a product base that consists of a variety of mobile apps that range from motivation, to money management, to Christian inspiration. These are apps that can truly help you improve your life, delivered straight to your mobile device 24/7.

Unlimited access to these apps are included free with your 1-time $25 enrollment fee.

Peter Wolfing also specializes in internet marketing and lead generation tools and he’s provided some of his most popular offerings for free to Ultimate Cycler members. Among these are a lead scraper and a phone broadcaster. I’ve actually paid nearly $400 for similar products in the past.

All things considered, you get a ton of value for $25…

Click Here Now!

The Marketing System

Pretty much every opportunity these days comes with some sort of “turn-key” marketing system. Usually this only consists of a single capture page and maybe an autoresponder system…not much to look at.

Not only that, but quite often there’s an extra cost (sometimes monthly) to use these systems too. And if you don’t already know how to build your own sales funnels…you’re pretty much stuck footing the bill if you want to make anything happen.

Fortunately, Ultimate Cycler breaks this trend by actually offering their members a feature rich marketing system for free. The Ultimate Capture Page system comes with several different capture pages that highlight different aspects of the opportunity, which link up to matching landing pages to keep things consistent.

They also provide an autoresponder system with pre-written letters automatically formatted to add in your information so there’s nothing you have to setup.

One of the nicest features I’m happy to see included is a tracking system that can be used to track views to your pages, clicks, and opt-ins all in one place. You can even customize it to track individual ads. This is an extremely helpful feature if you’re doing different types of advertising and I was surprised to see it included in a free system.

I’ve used other integrated marketing systems before, and what usually happens is it’s too confusing to set up. I will get a ton of questions about how to set up this or that and people still end up doing it wrong and wasting their marketing efforts and dollars.

This system is not confusing to set up. They have a 12 minute video walking you through the whole system and honestly it’s not really even needed. It literally takes about 2 minutes to set up.

This is a big, big selling point because a lot of people are new to the computer and can’t handle a ton of setup. This system is built with ease of use in mind.

Click Here Now!

Leadership

One of the main concerns when joining a new program is whether or not the leadership is there to sustain the business long-term. Many online opportunities spring up every year, and for various reasons, most of them fail within that same year.

But I know the owner of Ultimate Cycler (Peter Wolfing) personally, and I know the kind of track record he has.

Peter has been building online businesses and marketing tools for the past 14 years. In that time he’s proven beyond doubt that he knows how to build programs with staying power, and that he is committed to the long-term success of his projects. He is the owner of a 14 year old company with a solid track record and an A+ rating with BBB.

My Experience

From my personal experience, I’ve found that Ultimate Cycler is one of the simplest programs to build that I’ve ever come across. The 1-time $25 enrollment fee ensures that pretty much anybody can afford to join…and the 100% instant commissions makes it really easy for people to get into profit right away.

I was able to see 4 figures in my first 5 days and help 24 other people make money by that time as well. My fifth day with the program was a $500 day, and my 14th day was a $925 day. Our team has a ton of momentum building and things are getting really exciting!

Conclusion

Ultimate Cycler is, at its core, a simple program built for the masses. It’s very easy to get started, very easy to get into profit quickly, and has the leadership behind it to go the distance.

I highly recommend this program and I invite you to come join our team and experience the momentum firsthand…

Click Here Now!

Remember I’m here for your support as well so feel free to contact me with questions or concerns.

Trisha Smith

This concludes my Ultimate Cycler review. If you received value from this post, please leave a comment below and click those sharing buttons down there. Thanks

Best WordPress Security Plugins 2013

Security is an issue that many WordPress users are completely unaware of. Up until recently I never gave it much thought myself. I just never knew it was something to be concerned with. Thankfully, I woke up before it was too late.

Sadly though, many many people aren’t so lucky. Every day WordPress sites are hacked and destroyed. WordPress is particularly attractive to hackers because it is so popular. If they can find a vulnerability that they can exploit on a massive scale, there are literally millions of sites they can target.

After spending a great deal of time researching and trying out various security plugins and services, I thought it would be nice to put that information together in one place for anyone else who might be going through the same process.

Overview

A good WordPress security strategy is about layers. There are several essential elements that need to be implemented and together they will help ensure your site’s safety. No strategy is ever totally bulletproof, but with all these layers working together you can bounce back from even the most vicious attacks with relative ease.

The 4 layers of WordPress security that I’ve found to be absolutely essential are:

1) Backup
2) Prevention
3) Monitoring
4) Repair

NOTE: Although implementing the best WordPress security plugins is an important part of the process to secure your site, it is not the only solution. In this post we will also look at some other services and strategies as well. It is important to note that plugins can introduce security holes themselves. There seems to be a general consensus that the WordPress core is actually quite secure and it is in fact the introduction of third party themes and plugins that often pose the greatest security threat to your website.

Remember also that too many plugins can slow down your site’s performance. If you’re concerned, there’s a great plugin called P3 that will scan all of your other plugins and tell you how much they are slowing down your site.

1) Backup Your Site

Backing up your WordPress site is the first line of defense and the most important thing you can do to prevent disaster. There are many backup utility plugins out there with varying features and effectiveness.

Code Guard

Code Guard is a service that will backup all your WordPress files and your database on a daily basis. What sets Code Guard apart though is that they also monitor all of your files for changes so that if a hacker does gain access to your site and begins altering files, you’ll know about it quickly and can nip it in the bud.

Code Guard has changed their pricing structure a few times but at the time of this writing they have 3 tiers: $5 per month, $99 per month, and $299 per month. The plan that’s right for you will depend on how many sites and how much data you need backed up. For most people the $5 plan will work fine.

You can connect your site to Code Guard’s servers with their plugin or via FTP.

If you opt for the plugin, Code Guard will automatically backup and monitor your entire root directory. If you decide to use FTP you will be able to specify what you want backed up and you can even opt to have it backup the entire home directory of your site. All backups are stored on Code Guard’s servers.

Note that Code Guard often improves their site and services so, depending on when you read this, this information may not be totally accurate.

Code Guard also has excellent support. I have asked several questions via email and have always gotten prompt, cordial, and knowledgeable answers.

Vault Press

Vault Press is one of the most popular backup plugins around. Vault Press only backs up your themes, plugins, uploads and database. In most cases this is fine because all of your irreplaceable data (posts, pages, images, settings, etc.) are contained within these locations. If you have a lot of static pages that you’ve uploaded to your servers outside of WordPress however, you’ll need to back these up another way as Vault Press will not.

What makes Vault Press special is that it does it’s backing up in real time. This is a neat feature because it gives you the peace of mind of knowing that the most current version of your important data is always backed up. Every time you make a change to your site, be it a new post or simply changing a dashboard setting, Vault Press is notified and backs up the changes. All backups are stored on Vault Press servers.

Vault Press will run you $15 per month for the basic service, which only includes real time backups. If you want extra features like security scanning, it will cost you.

Back WP Up

Note: If you look at the reviews page for this plugin, you will see that their are mixed reviews. Most of the negative ones pertain to specific versions that have broken the plugin. If you decide to use this plugin, I recommend checking the reviews and noting what people say about the current version first.

Back WP Up is a very versatile plugin that will produce a local backup your files and database that is stored on your own server. But Back WP Up will also allow you to send those backups to an FTP Server, Amazon S3, Google Storage, Microsoft Azure (Blob), RackSpaceCloud, Dropbox, SugarSync, or your Email

This is a very important feature because keeping your backups stored only on your own server is a recipe for disaster. If something catastrophic were to happen (which is exactly why you’re backing up in the first place) there’s a good chance the backups stored on your server would be lost along with the rest of your site. Storing copies of your backups offsite is critical.

This plugin will also perform several other functions like automatically optimizing your database (which should be done regularly either automatically with a plugin or manually with PHP My Admin).

This plugin comes from the WordPress repository and is totally free.

Backup Buddy

Backup Buddy is another very popular back up solution. Backup Buddy has a lot in common with Back Wp Up. It will allow you to schedule full or partial backups of your files and database that are stored locally. You can then have those backups automatically sent out to Dropbox, Amazon S3, an FTP server, Rackspace Cloud or to your email.

They also include a free malware scanner from Sucuri, who are know for their excellent security services. You can scan your blog for free anytime your like with Sucuri’s Site Check, but having your backed up files scanned automatically for threats is a great hands-off way to help alert you quickly if there’s a problem.

Backup Buddy is a premium plugin and one of the most popular options of its kind, so you can expect an intuitive interface, solid functionality, regular developer upkeep and quick, helpful support. I submitted a couple of questions to their support forum recently and was surprised by how quickly and thoroughly they were answered.

Backup Buddy costs $75 per year for a 2 site license.

cPanel

If you’re using Host Gator then your cPanel has a backup utility built right into it. With this tool you can backup individual databases, your home directory (all your files), email forwarders, or do a full site backup, which includes all of the above. I like to keep a current full backup of my site that’s no more than a week old at all times, which I then store in 3 separate places.

The database and home directory backups download straight to your computer. When you click the button to generate a full backup however, it is stored in your home directory and then it gives you a link to download it to your computer from there.

It’s important to remember to delete old backups from your home directory that you don’t need anymore, as they can add up quickly and will take up a lot of space. You can do this through the file manager icon in your cPanel.

Unfortunately, cPanel doesn’t allow you to schedule automatic backups, but it only takes a few minutes to do it by hand.

To restore a backup, simply navigate back to the backup utility and use the restore functions on the right side (see image above). Just browse on your computer for your zipped backup file and upload it to your site. Remember that this will overwrite any existing data and replace it with your backup. It cannot be undone.

Full backups can’t be restored this way however. To restore a full backup you will need to contact your hosting provider and have them do it for you.

Also your backup files will be in a gzipped format, so you won’t be able to view them on your computer without a third party program. If you ever need to view or restore the individual files of your home directory backups, there’s a free program called 7-Zip that’s able to unzip these files for you.

You can’t restore individual files through the cPanel interface, but once you have access to them you can easily ftp in the ones you need using an ftp program like File Zilla. Incidentally, using an ftp program is another easy way to backup your website files straight onto your computer.

2) Take Preventative Measures

The next step is to have a prevention strategy. From what I’ve found there really aren’t a lot of plugins and services offering security breach prevention. Most offer scanning services that will alert you if a breach has occurred, which is nice, but it would be even nicer to stop the breach from happening in the first place.

Bulletproof Security

Bulletproof Security is a very well respected plugin that uses .htaccess rules to help prevent people from being able to hack into your site. It’s a complicated plugin that does a lot (most of which I honestly don’t understand).

Due to the complexity of what the plugin does, the user interface does leave a bit to be desired. It isn’t quite as streamlined as you’re probably used to, but the developer has done a great job of making a complicated process fairly simple for a novice user to implement.

The support for this plugin is also top notch. I asked several very long winded questions that were always answered promptly and completely. By far one of the best support experiences I’ve had.

The core version of the plugin is free but there is also a much more comprehensive premium version ($49) that does many many more things, all of which are completely over my head

6Scan

6Scan is another plugin that offers WordPress security solutions in the form of prevention. What makes 6scan special though is that it adapts to your website’s environment, rather than just providing a general set of security walls. This definitely makes it one of the best security plugins for 2013.

6scan is constantly updated with emerging threat data and (depending on your version) it will actually plug new security holes as they are discovered. This is especially helpful when you have additional plugins installed that are not updated by their developers frequently. If 6scan sees that one of these plugins has a security vulnerability, it will often fix the problem right away instead of you having to wait months for an update to come from that plugin’s developer, if it ever comes at all.

The plugin has an extremely streamlined, easy to navigate settings menu. I suspect that 6Scan probably does a lot of exceedingly complicated things, like Bulletproof Security does, but it does it in a way that any WordPress user, of any skill level, can implement with ease. That’s what I love most about 6Scan, the user interface is as simple as it could possibly ever be. It really is a completely hands off security solution.

It seems to me that the 6Scan developers are wanting their plugin to be a truly all-in-one security plugin as well. They have recently implemented a login security feature (very important to have) and now even include a backup utility.

6Scan’s backup feature automatically does a full root folder and database backup once a day and stores them off site on their secure servers. It only keeps the last 15 backup sets, but that is more than enough. If you want to keep copies of earlier backups you can simply download them to your computer any time before they are scrubbed from the 6Scan servers so you can keep them forever.

The way it’s going, I think we can expect some really great things from the 6Scan team. They’re already doing things that no other security plugin does and they’re constantly improving the look and functionality of their product.

There are several pricing options for 6scan, but most people will go with the $9.99 per/mo version, which will automatically find and fix new vulnerabilities automatically. In my opinion, this plugin is well worth the price for those of us who aren’t WordPress security experts and are looking for an automated security solution.

Update: 6Scan has changed their pricing since this post was written. You may need to visit their plans and features page to see which version is right for you, or if it's worth the price at all when weighed against the competition. I'd also like to mention that there are several negative reviews about this plugin, though the overall rating is high. I'm still recommending it, as my own experience has been good. I'm assuming most of the negativity comes from the fact that if you only download the free version to start, they will tell you what's wrong with your site and encourage you to upgrade to fix it. This is a tactic also used by computer spyware so I think people are confusing the two.

Support with 6scan is very good as well from my experience. I had a minor issue with the plugin recently that was resolved within a few hours of my submitting a ticket, so I’m impressed.

As far as the effectiveness of 6Scan’s security measures when compared with BPS, I can’t really say. Only a security expert with the knowledge to evaluate the code of each plugin would know. As far as the average end user experience goes though, 6Scan has my vote.

Better WP Security

I’ve never personally given Better WP Security a try, but the sheer scope of its feature set and ambitious design warrant a mention anyway. Better WP Security is a free plugin found in the WordPress repository and it is another plugin that shoots for all-in-one security.

This plugin seems to make a lot of edits to your site and should be used with caution. The developer states several times throughout the plugin description and FAQ pages that it is extremely important to do a full backup of your site before installing this plugin as it may break existing sites.

If you are interested in installing this plugin on an existing site, I recommend you read through the description and FAQ pages thoroughly first.

Login Security Solution

As I mentioned earlier, login security is a must have feature for your WordPress site. By default WordPress will allow an unlimited number of failed login attempts, allowing attackers to utilize automated brute force attacks to try and crack your login info. I was told by the developer of Bulletproof Security once that any password can be cracked, given enough time.

The answer to this problem is to limit the number of failed logins an attacker can attempt in some way. Typically, login security plugins will automatically lock out an attacker for X minutes after X number of failed logins attempted within X number of minutes. You set the values for X.

The good ones will also hide login error information so attackers don’t know which piece of your login they got wrong. They should also send you an email notification with details on the attack.

As I mentioned earlier 6Scan has these features built into it, so if you’ve decided to use that plugin there’s no need to install additional login security plugins.

If you aren’t using 6Scan however, then Login Security Solution is my #1 recommendation hands-down.

Login Security Solution works a bit differently then similar plugins. Instead of locking out an attacker outright, it will slow down response times more and more, eating up the attacker’s resources. It accomplishes the same goal, just in a slightly different way.

Login Security Solution has all the features you would want in a login security plugin and even has some you wouldn’t think to ask for. My favorite feature: it will actually immediately boot out an attacker if they do manage to break in after X number of login attempts.

It also includes a minor feature that will log out users after X minutes of inactivity. Not really that important unless you’re using your website on a shared computer and forget to log out, but it’s nice to have. 6Scan does not have this feature.

3) Monitor for Attacks

Monitoring is an important part of securing your WordPress blog because if an attacker does gain access to your website and do some damage, you want to undo that damage as quickly as possible.

One of the most common reasons your site will get hacked is to insert malware that will infect your visitors computers. This can get your site blacklisted by the major search engines very quickly so having an early warning system is critical to getting your site back to normal before it’s too late.

Site Lock

Site Lock is a service that will scan your website once a day and alert you if anything is wrong. They are a well respected brand and they have contracts with some of the major hosting providers like Host Gator that give massive discounts for those hosting provider’s customers. You can get Site Lock to monitor your site for as little as $2 a month (depending on the size of your site).

Sucuri

Sucuri is one of the most respected names in website security around. Sucuri focuses mainly on removal services. If your site is infected with malware, you can call Sucuri and they will clean it up for you and get your website back up and running fast. They are pretty much the go to solution for website clean up.

However, Sucuri also provides monitoring and prevention. They will scan your site regularly, like Site Lock, to make sure you are notified quickly of unauthorized changes and you can also choose to install their plugin which provides preventative measures via a web application firewall and 1-click hardening.

If you only have 1 website to secure, Sucuri will run you $90 a year. Really not a bad price when you consider all you are getting.

Sucuri also provides a free scanner that anyone can use at any time to scan their site for threats.

Code Guard

I mentioned Code Guard earlier as a backup solution but they also double as a website monitoring service. Every time Code Guard preforms a backup they will also check that backup for malware and most importantly check for any changes to your files.

By finding and alerting you to any and all changes made to your files, Code Guard actually has the potential to discover threats that the scanners might not. A scanner can only recognize a threat if it has seen it before. Here is a snippet from Code Guard’s website to help explain what they do:

“Other website security products scan for known malware traces. State of the art malware is polymorphic: the code rewrites itself with each replication in an effort to evade detection. Studies have shown that other scanning products are at best 40% effective.

Unlike other products, CodeGuard does not look for bad code patterns. CodeGuard looks for changes and reports them to you so you can understand whether they are good or bad. You are empowered to know what’s happening. Because CodeGuard identifies all changes, it cannot be evaded by self-modifying code, and is even effective against zero day expoits, malware that has never been seen before.”

4) Repairing Your Website

Hopefully you’ve been making regular backups. I cannot stress enough the importance of a good backup strategy. If there is no other option but repair however, then once again Sucuri is your best bet.

What I Recommend

With all of these plugins to choose from, which ones are the best? Well, they are all great products and I can’t necessarily say “this one is better than that one”, but with bang for buck in mind, I like the following combination.

1) 6Scan – 6Scan is one of the best wordpress security plugins you can get in my opinion. Even though it’s a paid plugin ($10 per month), it’s a small price to pay for all it does. This will give you an automated backup solution, login security protection, and real time customized preventative measures.

2) Code Guard – It’s always a good idea to have more than one backup strategy in place. Code Guard is a good choice for that. For $5 per/mo. they provide an intuitive service that not only automatically backs up your files and database, but also monitors your site for unauthorized changes and scans for malware.

3) Site Lock – If your site is hosted with one of Site Lock’s partners then it might be worth paying the extra $2-$5 a month for their scanning service. Although not terribly necessary, it can help alert you quicker if your site has been compromised so you can take action before you get blacklisted.

Best Practices

Although the plugins and services we have discussed are great helpers in the fight against website disaster, they can’t do everything for you. You still need to take care of your website and try as best you can to limit the risk of disaster. Below is a list of best practices you can follow to help your WordPress blog live a healthier and happier life.

1) Always keep your WordPress version, plugins and themes up to date. There’s a reason for those little update notification icons you keep seeing in your dashboard…don’t ignore them. Like your PC, very often these updates carry important fixes to newly discovered security vulnerabilities.

If you ignore security updates you are leaving open windows for hackers to climb through and ransack your website.

2) Take care in your plugin and theme selection. Not all plugins and themes are created equal. One of the most exploited WordPress vulnerabilities is poorly coded themes and plugins. You should almost never download plugins that are not found in the WordPress repository.

Obvious exceptions are premium plugins and those offered by other well respected companies. Just don’t go installing random plugins from unverified sources. They’re out there and they’re dangerous.

The same goes for themes. Do yourself a favor and invest in a quality premium theme with great support. There are many, many…many themes. You can find a short list of some of the best near the bottom of this post if you’re interested.

3) Before you install any plugin updates, it’s always a good idea to backup your database just in case something goes wrong. You can do this via various plugins, phpMyAdmin, and cPanel (visit the backup section above).

4) Before installing a major WordPress core update, it’s a good idea to make a full backup of your site (files and database). You might also want to adopt the habit of waiting 1-2 weeks before installing new WordPress updates for 2 reasons.

One, is to let others test it first and give WordPress time to iron out all the kinks. And the 2nd reason is to give plugin developers time to test and release compatibility updates of their own. Yes, there may be important security updates in there, but a couple of weeks usually won’t hurt and it can save you a heap of trouble.

5) Change your cPanel password. Email isn’t the most secure mode of transportation so it’s always a good idea to change the initial cPanel password your hosting provider emailed to you. Remember, all the WordPress security measures in the world can’t help you if your cPanel is compromised.

6) Change your administrator username from the default “Admin” to something obscure (not your actual name). 99% of brute force login attacks use the username Admin to try and break in because hackers know that thousands of WordPress users never change the default. By leaving your username as Admin, you are basically giving away half of your login credentials.

To change your username you will actually need to create a new account with admin access and then use that account to delete your old admin account. If you have any posts associated with your old account, make sure you elect to have those posts moved to your new account or they will be lost.

If you’re comfortable using phpMyAdmin, you can use it instead to change your username without actually deleting your original account. A tutorial can be found here.

7) If you’re going to make posts using your admin account, make sure your publicly displayed name is something other than your username (you want your username to be a secret). To change it, simply navigate to the “edit profile” section of your WordPress dashboard and look for the drop down box labeled “Display name publicly as”.

8. Check out this WordPress hardening article found in the WordPress Codex for tons of other tips on how to make your WordPress install more secure.

9) If you need to FTP into your site, use SFTP instead. SFTP encrypts all your transfers so that if someone is listening in on your connection they won’t be able to get any information. If you are using File Zilla you can accomplish this by going to the site manager and adding your site (see image below):

a) In the host field type your domain name.

b) In the port field you will need to enter the port used for SFTP. You can get this from your hosting provider. If you are using Host Gator, enter 2222 into the port field.

c) In the protocol field choose SFTP.

10) Keep updated antivirus software on the PC you access your website from. All of this website security will be for nothing if you have a keylogger on your computer that simply steals your login info the next time you sign in to your blog. There are many antivirus options out there, both free and paid.

Cnet is a great place to go for antivirus and other technology reviews before making a purchase. Personally, I’ve had good experiences with an antivirus program called Webroot over the years.

Conclusion

When it comes to the security of your website, it pays to do your due diligence. The plugins and strategies outlined in this post will go a long way to helping you keep your data safe and secure from disaster.

Hopefully you’ve gained a lot of valuable knowledge about how to protect your WordPress site. This concludes my review of the best WordPress security plugins for 2013.

Let me know what you think in the comments below…what are your favorite security plugins?

Thanks for visiting!

To Your Online Success,

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Godaddy Nameservers

Godaddy is always the best place to purchase a domain name, but it’s not necessarily always the best place to purchase hosting. For this reason, many people will often buy their domain name with Godaddy and then get a hosting account with Hostgator.

When you do this however, you need to take additional steps to connect your domain to your hosting account, which is probably why you’re reading this post right now.

The Steps

Step 1

Login to your Godaddy account and navigate to domains =>> domain management.

Step 2

Navigate to your domain details screen and look for the nameservers section. Click on Set Nameservers.

Step 3

In the nameserver popup box, first tick “I have specific nameservers for my domains”

Next, you will need to enter your hosting account’s nameservers. You can find these in the confirmation email that your hosting provider sent to you when you first signed up for the account. If you don’t have this email for whatever reason, you can also find this information in your cPanel.

Step 4

Wait for your changes to resolve. It usually changes over within a few minutes but it can take a while sometimes.

You are done

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One of the main reasons you may want to have a forwarding domain is if you are marketing an affiliate link and you want your marketing to appear more professional; or if you are marketing with methods that don’t allow affiliate links.

An alternative to using a forwarded domain is to use shortening links such as tiny url or bitly. For me personally though, I usually never click on a shortened link unless it was sent to me by someone I already know and trust, since there is no way to see where the link actually goes and they are often used by unsavory individuals to cloak harmful links. Plus, if an advertising source doesn’t allow affiliate links, chances are they won’t allow a shortened link either.

So let’s get started. If you don’t already have a GoDaddy account you can sign up for one here:

GoDaddy

Forwarding Your Domain

1) Assuming you now have a GoDaddy account, the first step will be to login. Once you are logged in you will need to navigate to domains from the main menu and the to the domain management section.

2) On the next page, click on the domain name that you wish to set up forwarding for.

3) On the next page you will see a Domain Information section. Scroll down until you see Forwarding: Off. Click on the Manage link.

4) Next, a screen will pop up with a box to enter the url of the web page you wish to forward your domain to. Enter your link into the box, excluding http://. Click OK and you’re done!

5) Wait a few minutes and type your domain into your internet browser to make sure everything is all connected and forwarding to the right web page. It usually doesn’t take more than 15 minutes or so but can take up to 24 hours.

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Lead Skimmer Review

Lead Skimmer is a new system from Global NPN founder Geoff Stephen that is designed to be a free lead generation system that can be used to generate leads and income in 2 ways. The first is by marketing Lead Skimmer directly as a premium business opportunity and the second is by using the system to generate leads and sales for your primary business.

The idea is that you can use their system to produce free leads for any opportunity you are marketing because every time you generate a new lead through Lead Skimmer‘s patented Skim 3 software, that person will then pass leads up to you through their marketing efforts, all without anyone every buying a thing…but how does it work?

How Does Lead Skimmer Work?

The free system works like this:

1) You sign up for free under your sponsor, check out the system, and start promoting your “Lead Skimmer” capture page.

2) You get your first lead. That lead is passed up to your sponsor, as are the next two.

3) Next, you get your fourth lead. This lead and every lead hereafter are yours to keep…yay!

4) This fourth lead also starts your first “lead line”.

5) Within each lead line that you own, you will keep every qualifying lead (every person’s first 3) down through infinity.

Here’s a short video from creator Geoff Stephen that goes over how the system works in detail:

What About the Premium Version?

The above explanation is how the system works when all members are free members. But what happens when someone upgrades?

If you were to sign up for Lead Skimmer and decided to opt for the premium version, you would be automatically qualified to start generating lead lines. This means you would never have to pass up any leads to your sponsor to qualify.

This is a great incentive for upgrading because if you are indeed marketing with the Lead Skimmer system, even if you are only using it to boost leads for your main company, there will inevitably be some people who like what they see and decide to upgrade to premium; and it would be a shame to miss out on all those commissions.

So how much does it cost to upgrade?

Upgrade Options

There are 2 options for upgrading to a premium membership, should you choose to do so. Upgrades are done through the Lead Skimmer back office, which you get access to when you sign up for the free version.

1) The first is in the form of a one time $44.95 payment.

2) The second option bundles the premium membership as a free bonus when you join Lead Skimmer’s sister company Global NPN at the director level ($39.97 per month).

The director level is the lowest membership level required to receive the free Lead Skimmer bundle. There are however 3 additional levels beyond director. Any of these 3 levels will also get you the bundle, if you decide that a higher level of membership is right for you.

Although option 2 is a monthly cost instead of a one time cost, it can actually save you money when you consider all of the services that Global NPN provides.

Global NPN specializes in internet marketing tools and they have an impressive suite of offerings such as ad tracking, hosting, autoresponders, website building tools, tons of training information, etc. It’s a great option to consider if you’re looking for a complete and low cost internet marketing tool suite to help you run a successful business online.

Lead Skimmer Compensation Plan

But why should you upgrade? How much can you earn and how does it pay?

Do you remember those lead lines we discussed earlier (watch the video above if you don’t know what I’m talking about). Every lead that gets passed up to you becomes your personal referral which means you will receive commissions if and when each of them upgrades to a premium membership.

But remember, there are two ways to upgrade.

1) If your referral chooses option 1 and pays the one time $44.95 to upgrade, you will earn $25 of that sale.

2) If your referral chooses option 2 and decides to sign up with Global NPN at the director level for $39.97 per month, you will receive $25 per month residually from those monthly payments (assuming you are also a Global NPN member at the director level).

Below is another video from Geoff Stephen touching on the money making potential of Lead Skimmer:

Autoresponder Integration

Lead Skimmer also provides full integration with AWeber and Get Response, as well as Global NPN’s MailMarketer Pro, which is included at no extra cost with Global NPN’s director level membership (see upgrade option 2 above).

Bottom Line

The Lead Skimmer system is about leveraging your efforts. You can make money by building it directly as a business, use it as a compelling front end offer to generate more leads and sales for your primary company, or some combination of the two.

Either way, you end up multiplying your efforts through the power of lead lines, potentially producing 3 times the results with the same amount of effort.

So, does Lead Skimmer really produce free leads?

Lead Skimmer can and will greatly increase your optins as it multiplies your marketing efforts by leveraging the efforts of your leads. One lead can potentially turn into hundreds on autopilot as they continuously pass up to you through your lead lines. And all of this happens without anyone, yourself included, ever having to buy a single thing. So yes…Lead Skimmer can indeed produce free leads.

To Your Online Success,

Trisha & Shawn

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