I can give you a head-start with your website by -

1. Arranging domain name registration and website hosting packages that cost you around $100 AUD per year.
2. Providing a successful website and content management system that you can update by yourself from anywhere in the world without needing special software or programming skills. Free lesson generally included.
3. Optimising the website for search engines, so it will be indexed quickly and enthusiastic customers will find you easier.
4. Choosing, modifying, customizing or designing an appropriate theme for the website.
5. Creating a website that will grow with the rapidly changing speed of technological advances (ie an automated upgrade system for the internal website software).
6. Taking quality photographs to be used on your site and for other advertising.
7. Enhancing and optimising those photographs for the Internet.
8. Assisting with writing the content and marketing promotional script.
9. Registering the website with the major search engines…and installing software that automatically notifies these search engines when certain content has been updated or added.
10. Arranging an automated newsletter delivery system if needed.
11. Installing a system to monitor website traffic and determine where the existing traffic is coming from, thus enabling YOU to know what is working with your website and be able to capitalise on this knowledge.
12. Organising other software including flash picture galleries, shopping carts, countdown timers and almost anything else that might be needed.
13. FREE Internet advertising on The South Gippsland Website, South Gippsland Pictures and South Gippsland Information
14. Recommending ways to establish or launch your new Internet business with a ‘bang’.
15. Teaching you how to maintain your website and add content yourself. (A FREE lesson is generally included in each package or you might like to join the website building classes in Foster).
16. Getting the job done quickly, efficiently and professionally…usually within 2 weeks!

How Much Will All This Cost Me?

• A splash page (that’s a single page containing your most important information) including a contact form, will take an investment from only $250 (includes a FREE domain name and website hosting for 1 year).
• The price for a full business website generally starts from around $1500 AUD (which may or may not include a website photography package – see below).
• As the pictures displayed on a website tend to be the MOST important single element that distinguishes quality and professionalism, we also provide a website photography package for $600 which includes up to 2 professional on-site photo shoots and gives you a complete set of super high quality digital images that can be then used for other advertising, printing, billboards, business cards, websites, brochures and promotional material).
• An E-Commerce website (with products and a functional and safe shopping cart) starts around $2200,

…but a FREE consultation with a client generally allows greater flexibility and a much better estimate.

Website Maintenance

• If you have an existing website that needs attention, I can help you get it ranked higher in searches, make it look appropriately professional, add extra features, update your website technology and write some compelling website copy..and more…
• Maintenance is currently charged at $40 per hour or $300 per day. If you anticipate regular changes, a maintenance contract can also be negotiated.

Whatever decisions you make for your own website, you will find helpful articles, useful ideas and good advice here to help you along the way. Find out when new information is added by registering for our email newsletter and free E-Book …and I am always available for a chat via our contact page if you’d like something more specific.

All the best,

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After doing some study on the methods Stephen Pierce (who is a highly respected internet marketing multi-millionaire) I just wanted to put up this video as an introduction to the three basic ways money is generated online.

Hope this helps you understand the basics of how to make money on the net … and by the way … I highly recommend his training programs and books, some are even FREE … just go HERE to find out more.

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Want A Crash Course In Web Design Instead?

I’m currently writing an online course to show you in a concise, EASY, step by step process, how to SAVE MONEY by building your own business website, just like this one you’re on.

A professional business website takes me, on average, 80 to 100 hours to produce from start to finish. If your intention is to save money and you also have lots of time, then using the information I’m preparing for you is GUARANTEED to work, BUT, it won’t get done unless you make a commitment to following the steps and putting the information into practice.

Let’s be honest, if you’re NOT an action taker…
…this course will NOT work for you!

My students pay $195 for a class that teaches this material in a total of 15 hours over a 5 week period. Sharing this valuable information is EASY … it is up to you to do the work and to use it!

In the meantime, take a look at this video. It might help you get started all by yourself, just like I did 3 years ago. You see, all the tools you need to build your own website are FREELY available on the internet right NOW, if you seek it out. Taking a shortcut by using a blueprint (that works) to design your own website without wasting time gathering all the information you require, will just help make it easier and much quicker.

If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up to receive advance notification to find out when the CRASH COURSE IN WEB DESIGN is ready to be released to the public.

Hope this helps to get you started…

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Don’t Want to Pay A Web Designer To Do Something Your Could Do Yourself?

Want To Know How To Create Your Own Business Website?

Don’t Enjoy Your Job And Want A NEW Career?

Want To Make Some Money Building Websites For Others?

After teaching “Build Your Own FREE Website Classes” for the last year, I’ve seen first hand the huge need there is for business owners to have all the tools they need to BUILD THEIR OWN BUSINESS WEBSITE in the quickest, easiest and MOST professional way possible without having to hire an expensive website designer!

They want ALL the steps to be given to them in a concise, easy to follow format while retaining control of their own content and BE ABLE TO MAKE CHANGES whenever they want.

GREAT FOR THE SELF EMPLOYED – If you’re a BUSINESS OWNER, ”the crash course in web design” might be just what you need to take control of your online business future.

We KNOW that the internet is the way of the present and the future – I have never been so busy in my life – and the money that can be saved (or made) by being able to make your own website is often worth thousands of dollars. Let’s face it … the internet is a very lucrative industry.

Show me a web designer who is quiet and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing!!!

These days, I can pick and choose my clients according to various factors and even sack existing clients who don’t pay their accounts on time.

PERFECT IF YOU WANT TO LEARN WEBSITE DESIGNING – If YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A LUCRATIVE NEW CAREER, the ”the crash course in web design” will be just want you need to get started QUICKLY and EASILY – just like I did.

In fact, with this information at your fingertips, you’ll have your first professional website up much quicker AND BETTER than I ever did.

Just go to http://thecrashcourseinwebdesign.com/ to find out more.

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If you can take professional quality photographs yourself then you already have a head-start. But, even then, you need to know how to work with those images to enhance them for use on the Internet…and change the file sizes so your web pages load quickly.

The websites below specialize in pictures for websites and other advertising material and this list might come in useful if you need to get some inspiration as well.

Stock Photography Websites – Paid

http://www.fotosearch.com/

http://us.fotolia.com/

http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/home/home.aspx

http://www.dreamstime.com/

http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php

http://www.stockxpert.com/?ref=bow

http://www.luckyoliver.com

Stock Photography Websites – Free

http://www.bigfoto.com/

http://www.picfindr.com/

http://www.inmagine.com/

http://www.everystockphoto.com/

http://yotophoto.com/

http://www.sxc.hu/

http://www.123rf.com/

http://www.imageafter.com/

Local Photographs From The Prom Country, Bass Coast and South Gippsland Regions Of Australia - you can find a great store of locally inspired pictures over at ‘lifegames’ Photography. Completlely FREE to use if you just keep the small watermark intact.

LATE EDIT: I’ve just come across this fantastic resource from Paige, with a huge list of places to find images online. Highly recommended!

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A website will ‘work’ if five very important things occur -

1. You use appropriate keywords and phrases (the most likely ones people would search for to find you).
2. You get as many appropriate websites (related to your industry or location) to link to yours as possible.
3. You make sure that Google can index your website properly (don’t use flash based sites, iframes or excessive images, because search engines can’t read them).
4. The website is updated with fresh quality content and technological advances.
5. You promote your website and ‘drive traffic’ towards it.

Functionality, quick loading, ease of navigation, relevant and useful content and testimonials also add to the appeal of each site.

A website is almost useless and a waste of money if these things are not present.

If you already have a business, a product a service or just some good quality information to share with the world, the Internet could well be the place to expand your horizons.

Start with a well-structured website and quality content…if you can’t write your own marketing script, get a professional to do it for you…make it compelling and your site visitors will be keen to come back for more!

MOST IMPORTANT, make sure it contains the words that potential customers searching for what you have to offer, would type in a search box.

I wish you all the very best with your Internet Adventure,

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As it is much better to keep a consistent theme in all advertising media including website, internet, business cards, brochures, flyers, product catalogues etc. I get more and more jobs doing …

… and my customers are delighted.

Make your enquiry on the contact form if you would like to know more.

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• Website Prices

If you live anywhere in South Gippsland including Foster, Fish Creek, Meeniyan, Koonwarra, Sandy Point, Yanakie, Leongatha, Korumburra, Mirboo North, Dumbalk, Welshpool, Yarram, Archies Creek, Kernot, Dalyston, Port Albert, Hedley, Wonthaggi, Agnes, Inverloch, Venus Bay, Tarwin Lower, Port Welshpool and Port Franklin, then I might be able to assist you.

Below, there are some links that will take you to local websites constructed for businesses, tourism industries, personal purposes, clubs or organisations, for you to check out…and there’s some very important advice that you need to consider before you even begin…along with a short list of what I can do for you!

How Much Is It Going To Cost? The prices of a complete business website generally starts from around $1500 AUD, a quality splash page with your most important information and a contact form can be set up properly for around $350, an e-commerce website with shopping cart and products is often estimated to start from approx. $2200, but a FREE consultation with a client generally allows greater flexibility and a much clearer quote. Check out the websites below and then phone (03) 5682 2862 or use the contact form to find out more.

• Prom Country Aged Care – Nursing homes, respite care, aged care facilities in Foster and Toora, South Gippsland, Victoria.
• The Crash Course In Singing – Excellent vocal coach, musician and local celebrity doing fabulous singing workshops as well as private lessons.
• ‘lifegames’ Photography – a website that provides Stock Photographs of the local area.
• Organature – organic bedding, sheets, towels, mattress, futon, bed bases, clothing and much more…
• Insideout Clothing – providing clothing and accessories for the whole family, including online GIFT VOUCHERS.
• Phoenix Restorations – for antique and modern furniture restoration, unique kitchen design, paint stripping service and more.
• 7seas Estate Administration – Someone to help administer a deceased estate without the need of State Trustees.
• Foster Photography Club – a free site for a local camera club.
• Yarram Club Hotel – a friendly, country style pub with fantastic food, cheap accommodation and a great pub TAB.
• Stony Creek Go Karts – A new entertainment and function facility in South Gippsland.
• Four Corners Framing – (Leongatha) – a corporate site for a framing and photography business.
• Essential Body Basics – a local business providing a day spa, massage, hairdressing and other beauty services.
• Organic Cotton Mattress – Organic products for the bedroom, from cot mattresses, futons, slat bed bases, sheets, baby bedding, mattress covers, futon protectors an much more…
• Goals For Life – a self development site.
• Scene In South Gippsland – a business that sells locally produced postcards and ready-to-frame prints.

No matter what you decide to do, I wish you all the very best,

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As a web designer I often get asked what I think is the best way to get noticed on the internet, or how to get to number one spot in Google…good questions!

One of my clients today was approached by a company who claimed to be google…(that’s funny…if you ever want to get in touch with an actual Google rep, it’s quite difficult to find one…now google has phoned my client directly – I don’t think so!!!) and of couse they claimed to get my client to number one spot in both Yahoo and Google.

WHAT TO DO IF SOMEONE CLAIMS THEY CAN GET YOU TO NUMBER 1 – Be suspicious, be very, very suspicious….then ask, how much is this going to cost me? AND, do your research!

CASE STUDY

My client was emailed a Search Engine Marketing Proposal which was very well presented, used lots of graphs, comparison and flow charts and implements the use of google adwords…this company was called Yodel.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS – I checked out the Yodel website and my initial response left me feeling very impressed. Their website was also very well presented, the deal looked good on the surface with their commision charge at a seemingly affordable 5%. They also claimed to provide reports which could save most individuals or businesses a considerable amount of time.

OH DEAR! – As usual, I did a google search for complaints regarding any company I am considering dealing with and came up with these interesting customer reports.

I think you will find enough information on this page to make the same decision about Yodel that I did in the end.

YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF

Seriously, the quickest and easiest way to get to the top of search listings has always been to purchase google adwords…but you don’t need another company to do it for you, you can easily do it yourself. You can read more about google adwords here…

I have heard of people in certain industries who ONLY use google adwords for their internet marketing and don’t spend on other forms of advertising at all. With a large percentage of people using the internet to make their day to day purchases, this method seems to be quite feasible and cost effective.

WHAT IS GOOGLE ADWORDS? – Well, do you see the advertisements below (there are lots of different formats both in text and image style, this is just one example), every time someone clicks on any of these ads, three things happen -

1. The advertiser gets billed for a particular amount of money (depending on the amount of money they agreed to pay every time someone clicks on one of their advertisements – called ‘pay per click’).

2. Google takes a percentage of that amount.

3. I get a percentage of that amount as the website owner.

HOW MUCH DO YOU PAY FOR GOOGLE ADWORDS – The amount an advertiser pays depends on the amount they bid for a particular keyword or keyword phrase they are targeting. The total amount can also be varied according to a set monthly limit for those on a budget or those who simply want to test the effectiveness of the adwords system.

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT KEYWORD/S TO TARGET – First of all, I recommend you think of all the words a potential customer might use to search for what you have to offer.

You can also use the keyword tool below to get an idea how many people search for the terms you are wanting to optimise your website for.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

You can test all sorts of search terms and phrases and find other variations that might be even more appropriate and can see how many people locally or globally are searching with those particular words. I use this keyword tool regularly as part of my market research.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER INTERNET ADVERTISING – Check them out by all means. Perhaps different types of internet advertising works well in different niche markets, but I stand by the statement below…

GOOGLE IS THE BEST – When I check website statistics to see where my traffic has come from, google has generally sent in excess of 85%. I NEVER bother with yahoo, MSN or ask or bing or any of the others and you can see the stats from one of my websites as an example in the image below with the TOP 2 results both related to google.

GET TO NUMBER 1 WITHOUT PAYING A CENT

A website will generally find its’ way to number one in its’ targeted niche by having –

• a suitable domain name
• quality and relevant content
• appropriate use of keywords
• links to the site from other relevant higher profile websites
• updated, additional or changeable content.

For instance, my South Gippsland website employs most of the above methods with its’ domain name http://south-gippsland.com being pertinent to the region without even needing the .com.au extension. It contains quality and relevant information about the South Gippsland area in Victoria with good use of the most searched for keywords, some links from other relevant websites and the information and photographs are updated or added to every 6 weeks or so.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST – If you don’t have the time to write articles, get links from high profile sites and add extra content on a regular basis and your website is compelling enough, the easy and quick way to get noticed on the internet is to use google adwords – full stop!

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I have read other reports that say it is even more widespread than that too.

It then makes itself an admin and uses JavaScript to hide itself when you look at the users page. It cleverly clean up after itself and usually goes unnoticed while it apparently inserts hidden spam and malware into your old posts.

http://wordpress.org/development/2009/09/keep-wordpress-secure/

I noticed some alerts about website security and website hacking coming in through various places in the WordPress network over the last couple of months.

I’d recently had a bad experience trying to upgrade the software on my large photography website and had to revert back to a previous version because I lost significant functionality after that particular upgrade. So when I saw that a new version had been released, I foolishly avoided doing it!

DECLINING WEBSITE TRAFFIC STATS – Around the same time I remember noticing that my website traffic had declined on my major South Gippsland Website and one other, and when I say declined, I mean 50% less traffic than normal. I put that down to the recession!!! Silly me.

CHECKING YOUR ADSENSE EARNINGS REPORT – My Adsense earnings have actually increased significantly over the last 6 months. But when I checked my reports, I noticed that the earnings were really only coming from 2 of the 9 or so websites I use for this purpose, and only a few cents from each of the others. Ridiculous!

I checked the content on some of these websites at the time to make sure I wasn’t rendering duplicate content or breaching any of googles policies(which I wasn’t) and fixed up a few things that needed improving, just to make sure I was doing everything I could do.

I then put the problem (which was more of an annoyance than anything) at the back of my mind and focused on the wins with the other 2 websites.

RSS FEEDS OR EMAIL ALERTS NOT GETTING THROUGH – Over the last several months I’ve noticed my new posts are NOT being sent to me in email feeds even though I can receive them in my browser. I also noticed that posts that would normally show in google alerts completely stopped and have only just started happening again after I cleaned the websites.

UNUSUALLY LONG TIMES OF NETWORK DOWNTIME – I found that in the latter weeks of the worm attack, often when I’d go to publish a post or change content, the network would suddenly drop out. I made numerous support desk enquiries with my web host and the service would then be restored. In hindsight, I realised this was yet another symptom of a cracked or hacked website.

STRANGE NEW FILES OR IMAGES – Something like shortcodes.old.php or fotter.php (instead of footer.php) need to be deleted immediately. I am still in the process of compiling a list of some of the ones that have been used already, but the fix is to overwrite your wordpress installation, plugins and themes as recommended below.

FINDING MALICIOUS CODE – The wordpress dashboard always notifies us of the latest developments through the development blog, and after reading yet another security bulletin…

I still didn’t upgrade – UNTIL

…all of a sudden, when I was trying to edit one of my template pages (404.php) I discovered some very disturbing code which I know hadn’t been there before. It contained ‘md5 {eval (base64_decode‘. Now that’s NOT good.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FIND MALICIOUS CODE – Contact your system administrator, software developer, php coding professional or web designer if you don’t think you can handle the problem yourself. Your website hosting provider will probably suggest you do that anyway…it’s not their responsibility and they aren’t usually familiar with the working of your website. However, my hosting company were very useful in helping me restore backups from the previous week in case the bad php code was only recently implanted. That didn’t work so I had to delve deeper.

USE A GOOD SUPPORT FORUM – I went to the wordpress support forum and left numerous posts both requesting help and helping others with the solutions I had already found. You always get a better response if you ‘give’ before you ‘take’. True in all areas of life, right!

TRY GOOGLE SEARCHES – Put the main part of the code string into a google search box and find out what other people are saying about it. You can really learn a lot this way, find out how other people fix their problems, find out how widespread the issue is, what damage it has done and what damage it has the potential of doing.

Honestly, when I realized the level of destruction that this worm could cause, I was overwhelmed with a calm sense of terror (if that’s possible).

CHECK GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS – I read of one guy who discovered the worm by noticing his most searched terms were viagra related. His site had definitely been affected by spam generating hacks. Check in google webmaster tools (if you are registered there) to make sure your search terms relate to the KEYWORDS you want.

WEBSITE ERROR LOGS – The error logs give an great indication of where the problems might lie – obviously. Sometimes you aren’t even aware there’s been a problem until you check your logs.

TRAFFIC STATISTICS – Check what your visitors are searching for to find you. This is something you should be doing as a matter of good business practise anyway. Check IP addresses too (though the clever hackers don’t usually reveal themselves too easily), as I found a possible entry point for the problem from checking one of my stat counter logs installed in my dashboard.

GET ERROR 404 ALERTS – Over the past few months I’d been getting a ridiculous amount of Error 404 alerts requesting the strangest file extensions. The latest one that’s still coming in is ‘mirserver.rar’.

After checking through google searches, I found this post that explained it might be searching for security vulnerabilites, and at the very least, is using up your resources and bandwidth, so should be stopped.

I’m still unsure how I will deal with that but will continue to monitor my Error 404 reports with even more scrutiny.

I’m now receiving errors and redirections like this…

‘south-gippsland.net/protection.php?action=logout&siteurl=www.gokartsrus.com/images/info.txt?’ (some code removed)

…so I suspect redirections had previously been implanted but are no longer valid since the cleaning process.

CHECK THAT YOUR PERMALINK STRUCTURE IS CORRECT – Many people reported that their permalinks were suddenly broken and had strage code attached to them. Go to >> settings >> permalinks, and check what it says. Make sure it looks like one of the example structures. The one I prefer to use which is SEO friendly is /%postname%/.

MAKE SURE YOUR RSS FEED IS WORKING – Do that by going to ‘http://yourwebsiteurl/feed’. I have all my feeds run through feedburner anyway, so can check my subscriber stat, resync my feed at any time and check for error reports.

Through this epidemic, many people have noticed problems with their feeds. One of the websites I checked had a problem with its’ permalinks which stopped the feed from being read properly. I might not have even noticed it had been infected with ‘the worm’ if this issue hadn’t occurred.

CHECKING IP ADDRESSES – After noticing some reports of other people checking the IP addresses of the offending robot attackers, I checked my own statcounter logs and found an unusual IP from Saudi Arabia that had googled ‘wordpress blogs’ mulitple times to get to my website. It is interesting to note that I ONLY found this IP address registering in one of the two statistic trackers I use…so it seems to have effectively hidden itself in one of them as well.

BACKUP YOUR WEBSITE – I’m lucky with this one. I learned from other peoples mistakes to backup both the data on my computer and my websites.

But, I had always been deleting the old backups when a new one was done…not such a a good idea now this has happened! Keep all your backups if you can just in case something gets in and it takes a while to realise the problem…like this quiet and sneaky worpress worm has done.

Importantly you should run the backup website copy through a virus scan. As it turns out, I found one of mine was infected with a PHP Remote Admin Application which I found in the theme folder listed as remv.php.

UPGRADE YOUR WEBSITE, OVER-WRITE YOUR PLUGINS AND THEME – In many cases the worm adds code or a strange file to one or more of your plugin folders or themes. In my case it had attacked my images slideshow gallery plugin and category order plugin and created unusual files.

Anything like wp-inclodes.php instead of wp-includes.php or fotter.php instead of footer.php need to be deleted immediately. Delete ALL unused plugins and themes too as a precaution.

Make sure you know what you are doing before you randomly start deleting files and folders though please.

Doing a manual upgrade of your wordpress install by completely deleting wp-admin and wp-includes and then uploading the new versions are a MUCH safer way of upgrading. Same goes for plugins and themes. Don’t just over-write the files and folders, delete them completely (saving a backup copy of course) and then upload the new versions.

CREATE A NEW ADMIN IDENTITY AND CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS – I went into my dashboard and created a new user (myself), with a new name, new email address and password and made sure to give my new identity admin privileges.

I then used php My Admin and deleted the old identity as the worm had duplicated variations of my name and email address on the bogus admin users it had created earlier.

Not only that, I also noticed my passwords had been reset when I tried to access the websites through ftp. This happened several times so I advise you change your FTP passwords as well.

OTHER SECURITY MEASURES – Ths post about how to secure your wordpress blog contains a whole host of useful tips to protect your website from the more common hacking attempts.

ONE MORE THING – Over the last few weeks I noticed my laptop signal dropping out a few times every day and after trying numerous methods to reconnect, the ONLY way I could restore it was to restart the computer completely.

I am NOT sure if this is part of the worms activity expanding on to my computer as well, but since I’ve cleaned all the websites I’ve been monitoring, the dropping out has stopped…interesting and scary at the same time!

We’ve been lucky here. We caught this outbreak before it had the chance to expand and do even more damage. But I suspect most people are completley oblivious to its’ activity.

NEW INFORMATION – we were hacked again over the weekend of October 25th and 26th 2009. You can read more about it here.

This provides us with another great opportunity to ramp up our security procedures, skills and knowledge.

Here is some more VERY USEFUL INFORMATION about how to handle a hacking attack…

TURN THE PROBLEM INTO A BENEFIT – Use the problems as a springboard to help you learn more about internet security procedures.

There’s no benefit in going after the ‘bad guys’, they probably thrive on knowing they’ve made us annoyed or angry anyway.

My clients have been tremendously supportive. I’m also really grateful for the opportunity to gain more experience that can ONLY help me provide a more secure level of web services.

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• Website Hacking – the latest worm.

I thought it important to inform you of some dramatic developments currently happening in cyberspace. Website Hacking.

Just like viruses and worms on your computer, a website can be destroyed, abused or hijacked by individuals or robots that trawl the internet searching for security vulnerabilities.

THE BAD NEWS – There has been a dangerous worm that has invaded many websites over the last few months. Sometimes called the “wordpress worm”, (though that isn’t quite an accurate description as other website software has also been reported to have suffered), but this is the one WE have experienced directly.

Find out more here – http://wordpress.org/development/2009/09/keep-wordpress-secure/

As a matter of precaution and courtesy, at no charge to you (and without causing alarm), I investigated all the websites in my care and found that MOST HAD BEEN COMPROMISED (INFECTED), INCLUDING MY OWN.

If you have noticed a decline in website traffic, lower page rank or your adsense earnings have dropped off just recently, then they are the direct symptoms of this initial attack.

Read more at http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/old-wordpress-versions-under-attack/

How did this happen? There are many theories and I won’t expand on them here, but I will tell you what happened in most cases to the websites I have dealt with -

• New users were mysteriously added to your website and were given administrator privileges. Most were not even visible in your wordpress dashboard, but they existed never-the-less and had the capability to do anything. I actually had to go into our major control panel to find and delete these mysterious users.
• Upgrading to the newest version of website software (wordpress) and auto uprading plugins FAILED.
• Malicious code had been added to various scripts and files. I also checked for that code, used a decoding device to decipher what it was trying to do and changed or deleted it when relevant.
• Hundreds of thousands of websites are probably infected and most do not know.

THE GOOD NEWS – The websites currently in my care are NOW CLEAN and the software has been upgraded to the latest version of wordpress.

I was working almost non-stop for three days to clean up your websites behind the scenes. The first day – 20 hours straight. I only took emergency jobs during that time and notified everyone else they would have to wait. Needless to say, I have just had a crash course in website protection, coding, decoding and php which will help me be able to serve all my clients much better in the future. Phew…!

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR WEBSITE IN THE FUTURE – Update your website software as soon as a new security level version is released. It is advisable to sign up for notification of these releases here… http://wordpress.org/download/.

BUT do check that everything on your website is functioning properly after the upgrade, as occasionally a plugin or theme breaks that then prevents your website from working as it did before.

There are no guarantees that this or something similar won’t happen in the future, but wordpress still provide the best, most secure and easily updated system that I know of, providing you keep updated with each new release.

SPECIAL REQUEST – Please do NOT forward this email on to your friends. There is no need to cause more drama and this information might not even be relevant to them. If you strongly feel the need to forward this email, PLEASE read these instructions for how to forward emails properly…Forwarding Emails The Right Way. This is very important.

If you have any questions, problems, praise, or concerns, please leave them in the comments box below, as answering individual emails or phone calls will get too time consuming. Make sure you subscribe to further comments if you would like to be notified of follow-up comments I really appreciate your assistance with this matter. I’ll need some sleep as well.

All the best,

Elizabeth Richardson

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