Right now there is a worm making its way around old, unpatched versions of WordPress. This particular worm, like many before it, is clever: it registers a user, uses a security bug (fixed earlier in the year) to allow evaluated code to be executed through the permalink structure, makes itself an admin, then uses JavaScript to hide itself when you look at users page, attempts to clean up after itself, then goes quiet so you never notice while it inserts hidden spam and malware into your old posts. [via ma.tt]

I, myself, have numerous installations that were vulnerable up until a few hours ago. The work involved in upgrading can sometimes be overwhelming, depending on the number of custom scripts and outdated plugins that have not been recently updated by the author. I have been very comfortable with 2.7.x installations and haven’t seen the need to upgrade, until today.

Don’t wait — upgrade now.

I’m sending out an email to all friends, family and clients to encourage them to upgrade to the latest 2.8.4 version of WordPress without delay. I am burning the midnight oil and will make myself available this entire extended weekend, so don’t hesitate to contact me if you need help with upgrading.

Personally, I’m happy to announce that all my blogs are patched and ready to face the dangerous world of malicious scripts and malware that plague the digital age.

So, why am I posting this on both my blog and via Posterous?

Only to point out that if you stick to using hosting solutions, like Posterous, to take care of your blogging and other social networking tasks — you are free to spend your time focusing on developing content and browsing the Internet as if nothing dangerous is happening. But, don’t take that statement to the bank, as just a few days ago I read how Brian Mastenbrook basically infiltrated the inner-workings of Twitter and 37 Signal’s hosted Basecamp solution, due to code falling through the cracks of Ruby on Rails.

The Idea

TheRentables.com launched just recently and was created by a group of young renters who were fed up with the frustrations faced when trying to find an apartment or home for rent in any given geographic area. Not only do similar websites make users jump through hoops just to get a search started, i.e. creating a username, entering a bunch of info, and then dealing with an awkwardly complex interface, but most rental listing websites don’t take the very important final step of ensuring (as best as possible) that all properties listed for rent are actually available. Who wants to deal with following up on a place that is already rented? And what landlord wants to keep receiving calls for a property that is already rented out?

The Rentables team has developed a different approach by providing relevant, accurate, comprehensive, and most importantly, timely data on available rentals. Put simply, by their tagline, “Filter, Compare, Rent.”

Here’s a key feature rundown, as provided by Andrew, for TheRentables.com website:

• Real-time listings, based on actual availability status
• Google Mapping and Street View integration (all listings show actual address!)
• Image hosting and display for up to 4 photos of your property
• Filters that allow users to quickly find what they’re actually interested in
• Side-by-side comparison tool to make selecting the right property easy
• No registration, usernames, logins or passwords to slow users down

Design and Functionality

Upon arriving at TheRentables.com, visitors are greeted with a Google-esque style search interface. Simple, clean, and self-explanatory. Enter a location (e.g. Boston, MA) and click Go!

The actual presentation of data for the requested area brings the first task of “Filter” to the forefront. An integration of Google’s Map API provides for a great way to interact with locations via a few simple click and drag moves, while the left sidebar allows for narrowing results very quickly.

Each step is clearly marked numerically, providing a sort of road map for new users to follow. Once basic navigation and exploring is complete, the ability to mark “favorites” becomes a welcomed feature…as going through listings multiple times would be too tedious, even if the site is quick and simple to use.

When viewing an individual listing, an amazing integration of Google’s Streetview technology will quickly grab anyone’s attention. This one feature is what really made an impression on my first visit to The Rentables. I’ve had the chance to communicate via email with Schien Dong, who worked with the Google API to provide this feature for the website. He definitely has a passion for different types of API integration, geo-related applications, and, as he puts it, the enjoyment of “automating everything in my life” — he is also well on his way to developing a prototype web application to keep track of his current position using Skyhook and Twitter.

Each individual listing mini-page provides property information, owner contact info (along with quick-contact messaging) and even allows for sharing the rental with friends using the most common social networking websites. I did encounter a problem with the photo gallery portion of the listing, while using FireFox, where thumbnail photos would not replace the current enlarged photo. What is a startup without minor technical issues?

Upon finding a couple (or more) listings that fit your needs, TheRentables.com provides an outstanding side-by-side comparison tool to really allow for an easier decision-making process to take place. It is easy to quickly compare price, deposit requirements, and even whether or not pets are allowed. This all takes place in a newly-opened window, so it is simple to return to searching.

A brand new feature, just added prior to this review, was introduced allowing users to create Custom RSS feeds to see any new units posted. The RSS feed can be subscribed to with any reader, showing any new units matching defined search criteria (including map area). You can read more about this powerful feature at TheRentables.com blog.

Monetization and Expansion

For any new website startup, two of the most important factors come down to the ability to monetize (make actual money) and whether the concept is scalable or can otherwise easily expand to other geographic areas. Fortunately, based on my own experiences with these two tasks, it looks like TheRentables.com team is well on their way to accomplishing both.

In a quick Q&A, I asked Andrew about just how The Rentables would achieve proper monetization. His response was structured into the following three main components:

1. Charging a nominal fee for “featured” rental listings. According to Andrew, this component is already gaining ground with users in the Boston area and will continue to gain momentum as additional listings are added — as it will become more important for users to have their listings stand out among the crowd. This feature is currently priced at $10 per week, per listing.

2. Recurring revenue model with multiple-property managers. Property managers that are constantly tasked with listing new rentals can utilize a back-end system for The Rentables. Developed to allow for listings to be “stored” and ready-to-list with just 1-click. My experience as a Realtor® tells me this will be a great money-maker, as most property managers are experts in adopting new technology and streamlining processes of all kinds. At this time, storing rental unit listings is free and listings will be charged on a per-day basis, upon activation by the user.

3. Geo-targeted, relevant local business advertising. Since TheRentables.com already utilizes the Google Map API to plot listings, implementing localized PPC or display advertising makes perfect sense. According to Andrew, this concept “is just an idea at this point” and would aim to provide ads in a “non-obtrusive manner which may actually add more value for tenants browsing listings.”

On the expansion front, The Rentables Blog posted the following on July 9th 2009:

After beta testing our service in the Boston area, we expanded to cover New England. We’ve now stepped it up and gone national.

The Rentables now has listings all over the East Coast from New England to the Florida Keys. We’ve also launched our service on the West Coast and currently listing rentals in Washington state, Oregon, and California.

This is very good news, as it shows the website is on the move and will hopefully continue to expand at a steady-fast pace. Andrew has also mentioned a decision to pick up the expansion pace even more. On a side note, I’m also excited they heard my suggestion to add a RSS feed for their company blog, as I use Google Reader about 90%+ of the time. Now I just have to convince Andrew about the importance of having an actual RSS button in plain sight, as well.

Overall

As most of you know, my own company, AdsNational, deals primarily with online advertising and marketing, so I was happy to hear about integration of local business advertising. TheRentables.com team should definitely hash out an action plan for advertising integration as user volume increases in specific areas. Perhaps use a saturation model to determine when and how to throw a switch to start generating advertising revenues, as soon as a geographic area reaches a certain number of listings and/or users.

In addition, it is going to be imperative for The Rentables to expand out beyond the East Coast, which should take place rapidly after completing any additional tweaking and beta testing. I myself live in the San Francisco Bay Area and personally know people who are also frustrated with the lack of a quick, simple, and innovative rental search website. TheRentables.com will have to not only depend on gaining exposure from local partnerships, social media (including blog posts/reviews like this one), and local advertising, but will have to reach out to larger project management firms, Realtor®/MLS associations, and work with advertising companies to create online advertising campaigns — on a local and national level — to really achieve scale.

As with any startup, as long as revenue is greater than burn rate, persistence and patience is key to building a strong team, developing strategies, and continuing to innovate.

I look forward to watching TheRentables.com grow and the team succeed.

Su.Pr features include a Digg-bar like interface for stumblers and visitors alike, helping to promote your content to new heights. Within the admin interface, you’ll be impressed by the many features — including the ability to insert a snippet of javascript to keep the URL shortening and Google SEO juice on your own website or blog.

Plus, here’s a really great walk-through video of the Su.Pr interface, by Tim Ferriss of FHWW fame, as Tim has been using Su.Pr for quite awhile now and has some incredible results to show for it:

OK — how about some Beta invites?
If you aren’t already following me on Twitter — do so now at Twitter.com/Bubbo and then re-tweet this post using the following:

RT @bubbo New SU.PR Traffic Booster by StumbleUpon first look plus BETA Invites for using Su.Pr for this blog post! http://su.pr/1PqY8M

You can also just click here to automatically update your Twitter Status!

Then leave a comment below (include your Twitter ID) with a short note on why you are looking forward to using Su.Pr to get a lot more traffic for your website or blog.

Good luck! Visit Su.Pr to sign up, after I direct-message you the invite code.

Here’s the latest video of Matt in HD, featuring his bad dancing, along with the semi-bad dancing of many fans, in many inspirational locations throughout the globe. Over 20 million views can’t be wrong.

Back in 2003, when I built my first self-hosted blog at bubbo.com, I included a unique travel (or, Where the Hell is Mike?) section that could dynamically track my current position around the globe. You can still see it at http://michael.bubbo.com/upcoming but here’s a quick screenshot:

I’m thinking about adding a plugin to MichaelBubbo.com to achieve the same idea, due in part of the creativity and pure genius of Matt’s inspirational goal. I won’t be doing any bad dancing, but I would like to keep a visual journal of where I’ve been and where I am going. It would be neat to connect it with the built-in iPhone GPS feature, as soon as I jump onto the iPhone bandwagon.

I recommend you order a copy of Matt’s book, Where the Hell is Matt?: Dancing Badly Around the World, as you can still get the Hardcover Edition here for about $10 — well worth it for a reminder of true inspiration and passion for something that looks meaningless at inception, but turns into a world-wide phenom.

You can keep up with Matt’s travels at his website: wherethehellismatt.com

You can also download the great music from the video: for $1 from amazon.com

After doing some searching on Google for the best SEO practices and SERP related issues for Wordpress permalinks, I found there are literally hundreds of solutions or suggestions. Here’s how I found the best solution for your custom permalink structure. Some blogs advise using a plugin or even modifying core WP code (I would suggest you don’t).

Basically, the biggest hurdle I found is making sure your posts and pages do not succumb to the infamous “infinite” duplicate content bug, which occurs when Google indexes your post permalinks with and without a trailing slash (if you are using just /%postname%/) and whenever someone types ANY combination of characters into the category portion of your permalink (if you are using /%category%/%postname%/).

Hard to imagine that if you type domain.com/2008/your-post/ or domain.com/FAIL/your-post/ that Google may end up indexing both and therefore create the dreaded duplicate content scenario! But it’s true, try it on your own blog…and if you want more details on this, you can check out this blog post on permalink structure and duplicate content.

So, let’s get to the best solution for this annoying problem.

The answer is two-fold…first, your old permalink structure needs to be properly redirected to your new, better one. Second, your blog needs to handle each incorrectly spelled permalink URL by presenting the visitor with the proper permalink to the post or page.

Start off by downloading and activating Scott Yang’s Permalink Redirect WordPress Plugin (SVN is also available). Scott’s latest version of the plugin integrates a 301 redirect solution for any old permalink structures that you have stopped using — thereby saving all those potentially lost visitors. (This was previously solved by using another plugin, Dean Lee’s Permalinks Migration Plugin for Wordpress).

Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, (just follow Scott’s simple instructions — I’ve successfully used it with WP 2.7 installations without a hitch) go to Settings –> Permalinks in your Wordpress Admin panel and COPY your current Permalink Structure. *This is important whether you are using a Custom Permalink Structure or a Standard/Default WP Structure!* Now that you’ve copied your current permalink structure, select Custom Permalink Structure and enter your new permalink structure, with the following tips in mind:

For best SEO and SERP results, Google does NOT want a trailing slash and would like posts to end with .html — which is something I personally do not use, as some visitors may type in a permalink and forget to add .html! Instead, compromise by dropping the trailing slash and keeping your Wordpress permalink format short and sweet.

Top 5 Wordpress Permalink Structure Suggestions

/%year%/%postname%
i.e. www.yourdomain.com/blog/2009/post-name
My personal favorite, please note there is NO TRAILING SLASH after Postname!

/%postname%
i.e. www.yourdomain.com/blog/post-name
A very popular choice, Wordpress will automatically add a dash and numerical value if you use the same Post Title more than once (no worries there!). Again, please note there is NO TRAILING SLASH after Postname!

/%category%/%postname%
i.e. www.yourdomain.com/blog/category-name/post-name
Standard Blog issue, please note there is NO TRAILING SLASH after Postname!

/%postname%.html
i.e. www.yourdomain.com/blog/post-name.html
Google’s favorite, every blog entry post ends with .html

/%category%/%postname%.html
i.e. www.yourdomain.com/blog/category-name/post-name.html
Google + Standard Hybrid, every blog entry post ends with .html

Now, update your Permalink settings to your new WP Permalink Structure and then head over to Settings –> Permalink Redirect to update the plugin settings to reflect your recent changes.

In the Old Permalink Structures box, PASTE your previous Permalink Structure that you COPIED from the previous step. Your done. But, Scott has provided some really great additional features with the plugin — I suggest you take full advantage of them.

Here’s the rundown on the other features:
Feedburner Redirect — The Permalink Redirect Plugin will also automatically redirect your Blog’s feeds directly to your Feedburner feed, if you have one set up. (If you don’t… what are you waiting for? Sign up for Feedburner — it’s FREE, owned by Google, and just an awesome service.)

Hostname Redirect — This is another key to avoiding duplicate content syndrome. Activate this and all visitors who forget to add the WWW prefix to your domain/blog will be automatically redirected by the Permalink Redirect Plugin to the WWW version (no matter what page or post they are trying to visit)! By the way, for those of you using McLeavy’s Domain Mirror Plugin, this will NOT conflict and works just fine together.

Here’s a Quick Summary of steps (like the Wordpress 5-minute install)

• 1. Download Permalink Redirect Plugin
• 2. Follow Plugin Install & Activation instructions
• 3. From WP Admin, go to Settings –> Permalinks
• 4. COPY your existing Permalink Structure
• 5. Enter your new, better Permalink Structure
• 6. From WP Admin, go to Settings –> Permalink Redirect
• 7. PASTE old permalink structure into box
• 8. Enter Feedburner info & check off Hostname Redirect

Click Update Options and you are done! Congratulations.

• Also, for those of you who like to dig a bit deeper into the inner-workings of how this all happens, I’ve found another very useful resource, it’s an excellent tutorial on actually setting up 301/302 domain redirects, including old permalinks, by editing your .htaccess file manually (only recommended for advanced users):

  Domain redirect wizardry with .htaccess rules

If you find any other useful resources or tips on this subject, please leave a comment to let everyone know!