Pinterest is the fastest growing website on the internet – ever!

You can’t afford not to get in on the hottest thing since sliced bread.

Pinterruption is a fully online course that will teach you how to make the most of it.

You’re Missing Out On A TON Of Leads From Pinterest.

And that reason alone would be a great incentive to learn more about some creative ways to strategize and use Pinterest correctly.

But you’re smart, and maybe a little skeptical. How can a social media site based on images alone help you get more leads!?

• Pinterest has incredibly engaged users

• Pinterest’s users are 9/10 connected by Facebook

• Pinterest’s users are 97% women – a HUGE target market for business these days

• People on Pinterest DON’T have to connect with individuals in order to follow what they’re interested in, making the site ALL ABOUT CONTENT and less about building specific relationships.

Online Training Course

Pinterest could take you a while to figure out, or.. it could take nothing more than a brief Pinterruption!

Pinterruption has been designed to be comprehensive, easy to use, AND immediately useful.

When you put this training into place in your business..

• You will know how to integrate all of your social media networks into Pinterest, so that when you post, it aggregates and all flows together without extra work

• You’ll learn to use Pinterest for market research and really clarify what your customers want, so that you can adjust your products and services accordingly

• You’ll be able to turn Pinterest into a free SEO machine for your business, so that you can get really targeted traffic knocking down your virtual website door

• You’ll build a pinning strategy to make use of every minute you spend on Pinterest, so that you can make the most of this new tool in half the time

• You’ll be able to make your business blog, pinworthy – making sure every image is ready to show up on Pinterest, so that readers can pin your content right away

• You will learn how to share your boards with others that encourages them to market your biz for you, essentially creating an enthusiastic sales force behind the scenes

• Most importantly, you will generate the sales, leads and publicity that your business NEEDS from Pinterest!

I’d like you to stop and think about this for just a moment.

Pinterruption is a training course that is delivered all at once so you can go at your own pace. You want to get through it in a weekend? You can! You want to take your time and learn the content over a few weeks? That’s fine too!

You have unlimited access to the online forum so there is always support to help you through your Pinterest journey!

Pinterest Webinar from Pinterruption

Course Description

Module 1: Strategy in Pinning

In these videos, you’ll learn how to:

• Build an action plan that gets the most result for your time (this alone is worth the price of admission!)

• Pin for your audience (know what they are looking for before THEY do!!)

• Bonus PDFs: Content Ideas and Where to Find Good Content – a FULLY researched resource with over 100 ideas!

Module 2: Optimize Your Account for your BADASS Biz!

In these videos, you’ll learn how to:

• Literally OOZE your Brand using images (and understand why this is absolutely essential for your business!)

• Integrate your social media into your Profile and Boards (this is so easy but so many people don’t do it!)

• Create a pinworthy blog and website! (This is a two way street – make sure all avenues point to you!)

• Integrate Pinterest with your current website and/or Facebook

Module 3: Attracting your Target Audience!

In these videos, you’ll learn how to:

• Create SEO friendly boards, description and profile (It’s FREE – so let’s attract some traffic!)

• Conduct market research (yes, you can actually SEE what your peeps want and what they think!)

• Get targeted followers (it’s great to have friends follow you but let’s find some leads!!)

• Attract a slew of followers using a variety of strategies

Module 4: Advanced Pinning (not for the faint of heart)

In these videos, you’ll learn how to:

• SHARE Your Boards with Others (and get repinned over and over!)

• How to conduct contests that grow your email list (why didn’t you think of this?!)

• How to customize your Pinterest content for one or two VIP clients (they’ll remember this helpful gesture and sing your praises!)

• Use Pinterest for recommendations and testimonials

Plus, special bonuses!

Online forum with access to both your instructors, plus invaluable support from your fellow classmates

• Special Google Analytics video tutorial

• Ongoing updates so you know everything going on with Pinterest

• FREE membership and access to the class – for life!

Inside Pinterruption

Once you have logged into Pinterruption, you will have instant access to all the Modules (and associated training videos) and Bonus Content from the dashboard.

Conclusion

If you want to learn about how Pinterest can benefit your business and the strategies you can employ to funnel more traffic to your site and increase sale.. then I would recommend this fully online training course – Pinterruption.

Continue reading: Pinterest Training Course for Marketing, Branding and Business

(This post was sourced from FBinfluence – the best online Facebook marketing course. A course I have purchased and recommend).

Ask Yourself . . . What do you want to get from Facebook?

Why are you marketing on Facebook?

To help you sort through the many layers of Facebook marketing, there are 9 core Facebook marketing rules to consider as you create your Page.

#1: Give It a Human Touch

Highlight the team behind your Facebook Page.

• Your fans don’t want to connect with your brand or logo . . . they want to talk to YOU

• First names always

• Brands that allow their Page admins to have real conversations with their fans are much more likely to have active, engaging Pages

#2: Create Fresh Content

• Content = video, stats, quotes, audio, pictures, thoughts, questions

• Your content should educate, entertain, and/or empower

• Publish your best stuff

#3: Cultivate Engagement with 2-Way Dialogue

• Engagement is about getting your fans to take action

• Get fans to post on your Page, comment on your posts, click the Like button next to your posts and share your content

• Engagement is about showing up daily and taking an interest in your fans likes, interests, and opinions

Three No-Fail FB Question Strategies

1. Make It Fun: What was the last movie you saw? Two thumbs up or a waste of time?
2. Let them promote themselves: Do you have a Facebook Page? Post your link below to share with the group!
3. Keep it easy: One-word answers generate more engagement.

#4: Create Enticing Calls To Action Consistently

• Give them a reason to take action

• Discounts or specials are a great way to reward your clients

• “Hey, I really appreciate you being a fan. Thanks for coming on over. I want to do something special for you now.”

#5: Make Word of Mouth Advocacy Easy

• Customers trust their friends and other customers more than they trust a brand

• It’s human nature to gravitate toward the person you have a relationship with

• Fans love to talk about themselves – give them that chance!

#6: Encourage Fan-to-Fan Conversations

• Enhance your fans’ experience by creating a community that encourages peer-to-peer communication among your fans

• Showcase your fans

• Recognize your top contributors

#7: Focus on Smart Branding

• FB = Mini-site of your own Web site

• Create a bridge from Facebook to your website

• Spark familiarity with your brand – but ALSO add content that is exclusive only to your Facebook Fans

• Give them a reason to come back for more!

#8: Be Deliberate and Manage Fan Expectations

• Decide why you want to have a presence on FB

• Often, your vision for Facebook will be aligned with your overall company vision

• When you know your vision, you can better communicate with your ideal audience – You’ll have a clear direction

#9: Monitor, Measure & Track Your Activity

Make sure you have surefire methods in place that enable you to consistently track your Facebook marketing progress.

Great tools:

• Crowdbooster.com
• Hootsuite.com
• Klout.com
• Sproutsocial.com

Enjoy!

Continue reading: The 9 Core Rules of Facebook Marketing

In order to reach as many people as possible your business needs lots of fingers, in lots of pies (as it were). With so many social networking sites on the web, managing all your platforms is a tricky job for any online or social media marketer.

Remembering to post quality content regularly is near on impossible when you have so many other jobs to do. However, there are a number of automated social media tools that take the stress out of managing and monitoring all your social media platforms:

Tweetdeck vs Hootsuite

When it comes to a multiplatform social media dashboard, the two biggest players are Tweetdeck and Hootsuite.

If you’re looking for a one-stop-shop to manage all your social media platforms in one place, these are the automation tools for you.

The two dashboards are pretty similar in a number of ways:

• You can monitor multiple social media pages including: Twitter, Facebook Pages and Profiles, LinkedIn, Foursquare, MySpace and WordPress
• You can post directly out of the interface
• Users can share the same post across all platforms

The differences between the two however, are much more interesting. For instance, Tweetdeck is a desktop application. Users have to download the dashboard to their computer, which is often not possible on a company PC.

Hootsuite on the other hand is completely online and can be accessed from anywhere. It is this that gives Hootsuite its next benefit over its competitor. Any scheduled tweets will be sent – whether you’re online or not. Tweetdeck will only post if the PC is on, Internet is running and dashboard is logged into.

Automating your tweets and Facebook posts through either of these dashboards is ideal for busy marketers. You can schedule posts in bulk for weeks or months in advance, freeing up your time to manage other jobs.

Crowdbooster

While Hootsuite offers an insights feature, if you’re looking for clear and comprehensive results look no further than Crowdbooster.

This online programme will show you how many people your tweets and Facebook posts reached, as well as monitoring your follower growth, in a simple graph. You can also schedule tweets and Facebook posts from this interface, but you can’t monitor your home feeds.

Crowdbooster has three highly useful features for any social media marketer. Firstly, the website tells you the best times to post content on your social media platforms based on when your followers are most active. This is designed to help you get the most out of your posts.

Another key feature is your audience insights. This feature shows you the followers or fans that have Retweeted, shared and liked your content the most. A vital insight for all marketers, this allows you to thank the people that are lending a hand.

It also helps you identify your most ‘influential’ followers. These are the followers that have the biggest ‘reach’ i.e. those with the biggest online following. This information will help you target those followers, ask them for retweets and encourage them to follow you.

Finally, Crowdbooster will tell you if there are any mentions that you’ve not yet responded too. For large companies this is really helpful as it will enable you to manage your online reputation, engage with your clients and join in the conversations.

If This Then That (ifttt)

You don’t need to be widget whizz or a plug-in pro to automate the publication of blog posts, photographs or anything else to your social media pages. What it says on the tin, ifttt literally tells your social media pages “IF I post on my blog, THEN publish to Facebook” and so on.

There is nothing more time consuming than constantly posting new blog posts on all your social media platforms, messaging each and every new twitter follower and always uploading photos to each site individually.

You create unique ‘tasks’ based on the channels available such as Youtube, WordPress and Instagram. The website says there are over 300 list combinations. If This Then That checks for updates every 15 minutes and will automatically post them to your ‘THAT’ channel.

This is much easier than it sounds but it you’re a bit confused, ifttt has a number of ready-prepared ‘recipes’ for you use. These are tasks other users have created and you simply change the URLs and minor details so it works for you.

Your job as an online marketer is jam packed at the best of times, but by using just one of these automation tools you can save yourself a whole lot of time and effort. Once you’ve got to grips with the interface of your chosen tool, you’ll be able to focus your energies elsewhere; while still yielding results from social media.

Bird and Co Creative is a leading online marketing and web design company in Bromsgrove. Contact them today to see how implementing a social media strategy can boost your business.

Continue reading: Managing Social Media Like a Pro – Automation Tools That Will Transform Your Strategies

Finding People You Know

If you have already connected your Facebook account to your Pinterest account, it’s easy to find people you know. To find and follow the pins of your existing connections, just hover your mouse over your name in the upper right corner. This causes the drop-down menu to appear. Click “Find Friends.”

You’ll be taken to a page with all your friends’ names displayed. Just click “Follow” to follow them.

NOTE: When you choose to follow a specific person, this will have you follow all their boards and their pins. Alternatively, you can choose to follow specific boards only.

Follow Specific Boards Only

What if you only want to follow a specific board and not all of a person’s pins? You can do that and it’s a feature that’s useful if you only have some interests in common. Just click on their name, which will bring you to their profile page.

On their profile page, choose the specific board you want to follow and click “Follow” at the bottom of that board’s detail.

If, it at some later point, you want to follow all the boards of the individual, just go to their profile and click “Follow” from that page, instead of just on the board.

Finding Boards from People You Don’t Know

One rich source of images and ideas is boards by other people. People you don’t know. To find these boards, just click “Everything” along the top. A drop-down menu will appear with the topics of all the boards you might be interested in. Pick a topic.

A large feed of boards will appear. Click on a specific board to open the board. Click on a name to view that person’s profile. If you see a board or person you like, just follow them by clicking “follow” as shown above.

By selectively following people who pique your interest, you’ll be able to create a diverse, interesting and stimulating feed of pins for you on your home page.
That’s all it takes to start following people and just like it’s easy to follow them, you can remove a board or person from your stream, just as easily.

Enjoy!

Continue reading: How Following on Pinterest Works

While many business people consider Pinterest to be a small site, it’s really not. Its user base is already huge and it’s growing at an astoundingly fast face. Business owners simply can’t afford to ignore Pinterest anymore.

Over 80% of Pinterest users are women. Pinterest is a powerful tool for interacting with female buyers and decision makers online. Here are ten creative ways to use Pinterest for business.

#1 – Buzz for Your Product with a Photo Contest

Pinterest is a great platform for contests. You can use it in conjunction with another tool like Facebook to organize the details of the contest.

Host a contest for the best pin of pictures of your product or wearing your logo gear being used in the real world. People from all over the world will pin photos of your product in action or sharing your brand, bringing in more traffic and free branding.

#2 – Become an Authority on Pinterest

Much like on Twitter, Facebook and the blogosphere, one of the best ways to get attention is by providing high quality content.

If there’s an industry you know like the back of your hand, create content-based boards that give other people ideas and help solve problems. Keep doing this until people see you as an authority on Pinterest.

#3 – Shopping Lists

Create helpful shopping lists. For example, let’s say you run a party supply company.

You might create a Pinterest board for each different kind of party: Kids’ party, surprise party, office party, etc.

For each party, create pins as shopping lists. For example, a kid’s party would need a cake, party hats, noise blowers, confetti and so on.

Provide real value with your pins and if it’s appropriate you can slip your own products in there.

#4 – Add the Price Tag to Suggest a Gift

Have you noticed how some items on Pinterest have a price tag on them? You can do this just by adding the price in the description while using the $ symbol.
For example, if you say “This bowl only $9.99” the price tag $9.99 will appear on the image and it will also appear in the “Gifts” category.

#5 – Market Research

Use Pinterest as a market research tool.

What are your customers thinking? What do they want to buy? What are their hopes and dreams? What products are trending?

Figuring out the answers to these questions has traditionally been quite tough.

With Pinterest however, you have a live feed of exactly what everyone in your target market is thinking about and cares about right now.

#6 – Product Bundles

Use Pinterest to create product bundles. Group several different items together and promote the whole package as a bundle.

You can even put out product bundles on a regular basis. For example, if every week people know that you’ll have four product bundles out, they’ll subscribe to your feed to see if you release a bundle that they’ll be interested in.

#7 – Future Product Ideas

What kind of ideas is your company considering?

One way to let your users participate in the decision making process is to just throw up all the possible ideas on a Pinterest board.

If there are ten different products and ten different directions your company could take, just throw them all up there and let your customers decide.

#8 – Coupon Pinboard

A coupon pinboard can help you give value to your customers by helping them save money while giving you a chance to promote your own products.

Create a pinboard out of all the coupons and discount codes you can find in your industry. Slip a couple of your own in there as well. Customers who’re looking to cut costs will come, find your pin board and buy from both your recommendations and from your company.

#9 – Show the Behind the Scenes

How is your product made? What does your back office look like? Who runs the company? What ingredients or components go into your product?

Believe it or not, consumers are actually very curious about the behind the scenes of the products they purchase. One fun and education pin board you could create is the “making of” photos of your products.

#10 – Vision Board

Create a pin board of where you want your company to go in one, five and ten years. Use this to guide your decisions and boost employee moral.

What products do you want to be selling? What customers do you want to be serving? What countries do you want to operate out of? What size do you want your business to scale to? What should your office look like?

Paint a compelling vision of the future.

These are ten creative ways you can use Pinterest for business. Pinterest is an extremely fast growing website that’s only going to get more and more relevant as time passes. Are you ready to get involved?

Enjoy!

Continue reading: 10 Creative Ways to Use Pinterest for Business

Here are ten creative ways you can use Pinterest in your every day life, but don’t stop at these. If you have special interests or hobbies, use these ideas to generate other useful boards for yourself. With this visual tool, the sky’s the limit!

#1 – Foods You Want to Cook

If you cook regularly, chances are you’ll want to experiment with cooking new and exotic foods every once in a while.

Instead of having to come up with what you want to cook every night, just start pinning interesting food ideas. Then when it’s time to cook a meal, navigate to your Pinterest board and you’ll have a whole array of ideas to choose from.

You can even come up with theme boards for upcoming holidays and events. It’s a great way to brainstorm what wonderful concoctions you may want to create.

#2 – Places You Want to Go

Where do you want to go? Do you want to see the deserts of India, or the beaches in the Caribbean? Or would you rather explore some history in Rome?

Put all the places you want to go on a Pinterest board. This can facilitate a lot of discussion between you and your friends, potentially spawning a real trip. It can also be inspirational and motivational to get you to finally go.

TIP: Create a “Places I’ve Been” board and move places of your wish list to the places you’ve been as you check them off your list.

#3 – Home Decorating Ideas

How can you make your home look even better than it does now? People who sit down and try to design how a home should look often hit a kind of block. The creative juices just don’t flow.

Instead, you can just pin images of beautiful designs and beautiful homes as you go about your daily life. Once you’re ready to start decorating your home, you’ll already have a whole reference library of ideas that you think look great.

#4 – Gift Ideas

There are numerous ways you can use Pinterest for your gift ideas, depending on the occasion and/or recipient. Here are a couple ideas to get you started.

First, you can use it as a gift registry. For birthdays or for weddings, just use Pinterest to save ideas for things you’d like other people to buy for you. Smart, eh?

You can also use Pinterest as a running bank of gift ideas. When it’s someone’s birthday or when Christmas rolls around, just open up your gift registry and you’ll be able to instantly come up with gift ideas.

If you need input on a group gift or from the gift recipient, ask them to collaborate on your board. Let others in on the fun and come up with a great gift ideas.

#5 – Skills to Learn

What are some of the skills you want to learn? Use Pinterest to help motivate yourself and your friends to get involved with more activities.

If you’ve always wanted to learn public speaking, pin up a few images of great speakers. If you’ve always wanted to learn Salsa, pin up a few passionate dance photos. If you want to get inspired to decorate your child’s birthday cake in a fun new way, pin some ideas.

This will help get yourself moving towards learning those skills; as well as tell your friends what you’re interested in. You might find yourself a learning partner!

#6 – Show Your Art

Do you do some sort of art? Pinterest is the perfect place to share it.

Whether you make earrings or paint, whether you just draw for fun or are an amateur photgrapher, Pinterest is a fantastic way to put your art out into the world and share it with all your Pinterest friends and the rest of their members.

Think of it as your own little portfolio to inspire and get your artwork shared.

#7 – Pictures of Your Kids

Every parent loves to talk about and show off their kids. Pinterest is a great place to do it. You can create Pinterest boards of your kids in a number of different ways.

You could create a Pinterest board with a picture of your child taken once a month, so you can watch your child grow up over time.

Or create Pinterest boards with your child in a different place in each photo. You can even share pictures of their art and special projects.

There are so many ways to have fun with this and get the family involved too.

#8 – Share Your Office

What do you do professionally? A lot of people who know you personally would be curious about what it’s really like where you work, no matter where you work.

What does the office of an accountant look like? What does a CEO’s office view look like from their window? What does a Starbucks back room look like? What does a refrigerator factory look like from the inside?

No matter what kind of work you do, chances are there are people you know who’ll find it really interesting to see what it’s really like. Share some photos of what your workplace really looks like.

#9 – Event Pictures

Pinterest is a great way to share photos of events, parties and gatherings. With Facebook, only friends can see the photos. Also, people need to be tagged before they’ll notice most photos.

On Pinterest, the photos are open to all the world to see. People following you will have the event’s photos appear in their feeds.

You can have collaborators on your event’s boards, so everyone with a camera can upload and pin the photos they took at the event.

#10 – Your Life Vision

The idea of vision boards exploded with the release of the movie “The Secret.” The movie talks about how having a board where you put all your dreams and goals can help move you closer and closer towards your vision.

Ask yourself: Where do you want to be in your life in terms of your health, your career and your relationships? Pin up inspiring photos of each of these different areas of your life.

These are ten different ways you can use Pinterest in your personal life. Using Pinterest, you can share your life with others, inspire yourself, communicate ideas, post reminders and more.

Pin It…It’s Your Board!

There’s no right or wrong approach to Pinterest, so have fun with it. Share what you love, what inspires you or makes you laugh.

Enjoy!

Continue reading: 10 Creative Ways to Use Pinterest for Personal Use

Pinterest is an online photo sharing tool that works a lot like a virtual corkboard. Just “pin” up pictures of what you want to organize on this virtual corkboard and share it with other people, who may also want to pin up ideas for your event.

Here are some suggestions on how to plan an event using Pinterest.

Step 1: Create a Board

To create a board, click “Add” in the upper right corner.

Click “Create a Board.”

Enter your board’s details. If you are planning a public event and want to build interest for your event, choose a name that is very descriptive and something interested parties would be interested in.

For example, if you’re organising a business seminar, use seminar’s name and planned date for the event. Or if you’re planning your wedding and want to build up excitement, use the name of the bride and groom.

Step 2: Install the Pin It Button

Throughout the process of planning an event, you’re going to have to pin a lot of images. While you can pin each image individually by uploading it or pointing to a web address, the fastest method by far is by installing the Pin It button.

To install the Pin It button, click “About” then “Pin It Button.”

Drag your Pin It Button to your bookmarks.

This will allow you to use the “Pin It” at the top of your browser to pin photos from whatever page you happen to be visiting.

Step 3: Create Boards for Each Category

What are some of the most important things you need to organize and share in your event?

For a party, you might want to have:

• Entertainment

• Food

• Music

For planning a business seminar, you might want to have:

• Guest speakers

• Location (hotels, conference halls, etc)

• Food

• Equipment (microphones, projectors, etc)

Before you begin, brainstorm a list of categories that you will need to plan and then proceed to create boards for all those categories. That will make it easier to pin as you start getting into the groove of researching ideas. All you have to do is pin and keep going.

Step 4: Add Pins to Your Board

To add pins to your board, simply navigate to a relevant webpage and click “Pin It.” Choose the image you want to pin, then select its board and give it a description. If you plan to collaborate on your planning, make sure to list some pros/cons or reasons for wanting to consider the particular item.

Rinse and repeat until you’ve pinned up all kinds of interesting or useful photographs on your various boards.

Step 5: Invite Collaborators

Few events are organized by single individuals. Instead, most events are organized by people brainstorming. One of the best ways to use Pinterest is to have other people also add photos and ideas to your Pinterest boards.

To invite others, click “Edit” under the board in which you want collaborators.

Select “Me and Contributors” under “Who can pin?” Then add the names of the people who you want to participate.

Step 6: More Ways to Use Pinterest for Planning Your Event

There are so many ways you can use Pinterest to help plan your event. You can …

• Help brainstorm ideas. For example, if you’re picking flowers, you can pin 30 different kinds of flowers that you might consider. Take a vote or simply get some feedback if the end decision belongs to you.

• Create a photo guestbook. Pin a picture of everyone who is attending or who you want to attend.

• Create to-do lists. For example, you could create a Pinterest board that has only photos of things that you need to buy before the event.

• Activities. Use the Pinterest board to show people what kind of activities they might expect.

• Brainstorm. Use a Pinterest board just for sharing wacky ideas.

• Share photos after. After the event, have everyone pin up their photos. It’s much more efficient than hoping everyone will tag everyone in their Facebook uploads.

Pinterest is a powerful tool for planning, managing and hosting an event. Use it to help make the whole process smoother, easier and more creative.

Enjoy!

Continue reading: How to Plan an Event Using Pinterest

Do you have a backup at all?

As a blogger that is something I have in the back of my mind at all times – backup, backup, backup.

Why Backup?

Preserving and protecting your website is critical. Without a proper and secure backup, all your hard work can be gone in a flash, leaving you to start over from scratch and risk losing business in the meantime. That’s a headache you don’t need.

How do I know this? Because it happened to me. Not just once. Twice!

BackupBuddy is what is referred to as the 3-in-1 solution because you can use it to backup your database or site, to restore your site should that become necessary, and to easily migrate your site to a new server or hosting environment. Using BackupBuddy puts you firmly in control of your own site.

Perhaps one of the most important things to realise is that BackupBuddy is flexible, powerful and easy to use. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to use any step or feature of BackupBuddy. But if you find yourself confused, support is only a click away at the BackupBuddy Support Forum.

In addition to the professional staff and the wealth of information already available on the Support Forum, you will also find extensive documentation in the PluginBuddy Codex.

Installing BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy can be uploaded, activated and used just like any other plugin. BackupBuddy includes support for WordPress single sites and WordPress Multisites.

Uploading BackupBuddy on Your Self-Hosted WordPress Site

• You can upload BackupBuddy on any self-hosted (non-Multisite) WordPress site just like any other plugin

• You can use cPanel to upload the plugin to wp-content/plugins directory and then extract it

• You can extract the BackupBuddy zip file on your computer and then upload the BackupBuddy folder via FTP to your wp-content/plugins directory

• You can use the WordPress > Plugins > Add New > Upload feature to upload the zip file

Activating BackupBuddy on Your Self-Hosted WordPress Site

You can activate BackupBuddy like any other plugin.

• Visit your WordPress –> Plugins area

• Activate BackupBuddy

• Your BackupBuddy is now installed and ready to use on your self-hosted site

Installing BackupBuddy on a Multisite

Installing BackupBuddy on a WordPress multisite is different than installing the plugin on a single self-hosted site. If using BackupBuddy on a multisite installation, use the following guidelines:

Uploading BackupBuddy on a Multisite Installation

• When it comes to Multisite, you upload BackupBuddy as if it were any other plugin being uploaded to Multisite

• You can use cPanel to upload the plugin to wp-content/plugins directory and then extract it

• You can extract the BackupBuddy zip file on your computer and then upload the BackupBuddy folder via FTP to your wp-content/plugins directory

• You can use the WordPress > Plugins > Add New > Upload feature to upload the zip file. This will ONLY work when you’re logged in as the Network Administrator on the top Network site

Activating BackupBuddy on Multisite

Activating BackupBuddy on Multisite is different from activating BackupBuddy on Self- Hosted Sites.

There is only one official way to install BackupBuddy on a Multisite, which is the strongly recommended NETWORK ACTIVATE method.

The NETWORK ACTIVATE Method:

• Log in to the top Network site’s WP Admin login area as a Network Administrator

• Go to WordPress –> Plugins area

• Click the “Network Activate” link under BackupBuddy on the Plugins page

• This will enable BackupBuddy for all sites in the Network

• This will allow ONLY the TOP NETWORK ADMIN to be able to backup all sites in the Network

• Each site admin (the user level below TOP NETWORK ADMIN) can still export and backup their own single sites

• Anyone with admin (regular OR super/network) access can now backup the ENTIRE MULTISITE through their non-Multisite login in the Multisite site where BackupBuddy was activated

BackupBuddy Settings & Options Overview

Getting Started

BackupBuddy is the all-in-one solution for backups, restoration and migration. The single backup zip file created can be used with the import and migration script to quickly and easily restore your site on the same server or even migrate to a new host with different settings.

Whether you’re an end user or a developer, this plugin will bring you peace of mind and added safety in the event of data loss. The backup, restoration and migration processes easy, fast and reliable. Throughout the plugin you may hover your mouse over question marks for tips or click play icons for video tutorials.

Please configure the following items on the BackupBuddy Settings page before getting started:

• Email notifications – This will enable status email notifications

• ImportBuddy & RepairBuddy passwords – This will allow you to download these scripts

Backup & Restore

• To access the Backup & Restore page, in your dashboard navigate to BackupBuddy > Backup & Restore

• Here you will see your Backup Options – Database Backup and Full Backup

• Go ahead and click on Database Backup or Full Backup so you can see how the Backup process progresses

Malware Scan

When you click on the Malware Scan menu item under BackupBuddy in your WordPress Dashboard, BackupBuddy will immediately begin to scan your site for malware. When the scan is complete, you will see the results. If you have any questions about the results or receive warnings, contact your hosting company or visit the BackupBuddy Support Forum for guidance.

In addition to other notifications, you will also receive a Blacklisting Status assessment. Being aware of the results of this assessment is very important – you don’t want your site to be blacklisted anywhere!

Server Info

To assess your Server Configurations navigate in your dashboard to BackupBuddy > Server Info. Here you will see several charts with data and visual indicators to let you know if everything is working as it should.

Ideally, all of your settings will have “green lights.”

Scheduling

BackupBuddy has the ability to schedule your backups. Using this feature will ensure that your site backups occur on a regular basis (based upon your settings) without you having to remember to conduct the backup manually.

If you want the added security that comes with a scheduled backup, you will definitely want to configure this section!

Be sure to give your backup a name, such as “Full Backup Weekly”, in case you decide to schedule different types of backups or backups on more than one day.

Select which type of backup you want to schedule – Database-only or Full Backup (your entire WordPress installation).

Select your backup interval – how frequently you want to back your site up with this type of backup.

Establish the date and time of the next backup. Note: Backups are triggered when someone visits the site at or after the scheduled. If your site is not visited frequently enough, some scheduled backups may not occur. Of course, if you visit your own site daily to make sure it is functioning properly, that will trigger the backup.

Another of the great features of BackupBuddy is the ability to send your backup to a remote destination for safe storage.

Select “Add Remote Destination” and you will see a window with tabs for your different remote destination options. You will need to configure the settings for your desired destination based upon your account settings and information from these third party services.

At the time of this writing BackupBuddy can currently send your backups to any of the following locations:

1. Amazon S3 Cloud
2. Dropbox.com
3. Rackspace Cloudfiles
4. FTP Servers
5. Email Address

Remember to click “Add Schedule” to save your settings.

Settings

As stated earlier, the essential settings you must set are:

• Email notifications – This will enable status email notifications

• ImportBuddy & RepairBuddy passwords – This will allow you to download these scripts

In addition to setting your passwords, you will also find other settings under “General Options”

When in doubt, leave the default settings as they are. Remember, you can always hover your mouse over question marks for tips and explanations.

Under Settings you can also set a maximum number of archived backups to store, the maximum size of the archived backups. You can also manage your remote destination settings from this page.

There may be times when you will want to limit what is included in your backup. If so, you will use this settings area under the BackupBuddy > Settings options.

The Three Types of Backups

There are three types of backups you can make with BackupBuddy:

1. Database Backup

2. Full backups of all the files and the database

3. Full backups of all the files, with some exceptions

Database Backups

The WordPress database stores all your post and page content, theme settings, plugin settings, WordPress settings, and almost every other setting and text content specific to your site. When you select the Database Backup, you are only backing up the database, not all the other files included in your WordPress installation.

BackupBuddy allows you to make backups of your WordPress database at any time you wish, either manually or automatically.

BackupBuddy full backups include database backups.

TIP: BackupBuddy recommends backing up your database on at least a weekly basis, since your database changes much more often than your files and folders. A good rule of thumb for determining how often to back up is to ask yourself how much you’re willing to lose in a worst case scenario.

Full backups of all the files and the database

This is the option chosen by default when you choose the Full Backup option. A Full Backup by BackupBuddy includes your entire WordPress database and also all your WordPress files and folders in the backup (as well as any other files in the WordPress directory by default). All your themes, plugins and any other files and folders you wish will be backed up in a Full Backup. In fact, a Full Backup backs up your entire WordPress installation.

BackupBuddy allows you to easily exclude any folders you wish from your WordPress full backups. This can come in handy when you want to make a backup of your entire WordPress site without your 10GB junk folder, for example.

This exclusion feature is especially important when your host restricts the amount of disk space you can use at a time, or to speed up backups if you have a low PHP runtime limit, by having BackupBuddy only backup the essential files that you absolutely need for a proper backup and restore.

TIP: BackupBuddy recommends doing full backups every 2-3 weeks, since your actual files usually change only when you add or upgrade plugins, themes or WordPress.

Full backups of all the files without the database

You may have a need to migrate only files and folders without the entire installation, or you may simply want a smaller zip file to store off site. It’s up to you in the end: whether you want a database only option, a full file and database backup option, or a full files only option.

TIP: If you are making full backups without the database, you should have at least one separate BackupBuddy database only backup.

Types of Restorations and Migrations

With your database or full BackupBuddy backups, you can do several things when it comes to recovering your important data.You can restore your existing site in case something happens to it, restore only the database or move your entire site to another directory or server.

The BackupBuddy plugin comes with a tool called ImportBuddy which allows you to restore your database, entire site or migrate (move) your entire site to a new server. To get this tool click the ImportBuddy button within BackupBuddy to download importbuddy.php.

This importbuddy.php file is what works on a server to restore WordPress and your site, without even installing WordPress first!

Download the ImportBuddy tool importbuddy.php, from your BackupBuddy control panel and then upload the importbuddy.php file, along with your backup, to any place where you want to restore or move your site.

Restoring your database

You can restore your WordPress database using importbuddy.php and the BackupBuddy database backups you made with BackupBuddy.

You can upload your Database Backup file, with the importbuddy.php file, to your site and navigate to importbuddy.php in your web browser to follow the directions to restore the database. For example: http://mysite.com/importbuddy.php. This will open ImportBuddy, which will then walk you through the steps.

If you wish, you can also extract (unzip) your BackupBuddy Database Backup zip onto your computer and then upload the extracted database .sql file using your control panel, like cPanel or PHPmyAdmin.

Tip: Database restores are important time savers if something in your database gets messed up and you do not want to restore everything from a full backup just to get to your database.

Restoring your entire site

You can restore your entire site by uploading your BackupBuddy Full Backup file and the importbuddy.php file to the directory on your hosting account where you want to restore your site.

Navigate to importbuddy.php in your web browser.

Example: If you uploaded to /myuser/public_html/importbuddy.php the URL to ImportBuddy will be http://mysite.com/importbuddy.php.

The importbuddy.php file will then go through your BackupBuddy Full Backup file, give you several options to perform the restore, give you details of the process, status updates and restore your entire website from your backup file.

Tip: Your BackupBuddy full backups are designed to restore your site to a previous perfect edition of itself, like going back through a time machine. With the most thorough and powerful backup option on your side, the BackupBuddy Full Backup, feel free to work on and make changes to your site to try out new things. Your BackupBuddy Full Backup will help you in case anything bad happens.

Migrating (moving) an entire site to another directory or server

BackupBuddy makes moving your entire WordPress site to another server easier than any other WordPress moving solution out there.

The same way you use an entire site backup to restore your site, you can use the importbuddy.php file to migrate your entire site to another hosting server.

Simply upload the importbuddy.php file with your BackupBuddy Full Backup file to your new directory or server, and run the importbuddy.php file from your browser. BackupBuddy will then walk you through all the steps to move your entire site to the new directory or server.

Tip: BackupBuddy Full Backup is your best friend when you’re changing hosts. With a BackupBuddy Full Backup, you don’t have to worry about relying on your previous host to help you with your backups or to help you with the move. Many hosts or other tools skip key parts of the migration process (such as migrating serialised data) resulting in a damaged migration that may cause problems now or months down the line. BackupBuddy takes into account everything so there won’t be surprises later.

How to Backup, Restore and Migrate

Making backups with BackupBuddy is extremely easy. You go through the same procedure whether you want a Full Backup or a Database Backup only.

Creating Backups

1. Click on the “BackupBuddy” tab in your WordPress admin area (for single sites) or WordPress Network Admin area (for Multisite installations).

2. Click on “Backup & Restore” tab.

3. Click on either the Database Backup option or the Full Backup option and watch.

That’s it! Your BackupBuddy will then be saved on your server and shown in the same Backup & Restore area. (You may have to refresh your screen to see the listing once it is complete.)

You can navigate away from, and back to, this backup page while the backup is progressing without affecting the backup.

Restoring & Migrating Backups

Restoring or migrating backups requires you to follow three simple steps:

1. Download the file importbuddy.php from your Backup & Restore area.

2. Upload that importbuddy.php to the directory or server where you want to restore or migrate to (for full backup restores), or where WordPress is currently installed (for restoring only a backed up database).

3. Upload your BackupBuddy backup to the same directory as your importbuddy.php file.

That’s it! Simply navigate to the importbuddy.php file in your web browser to start the restoring or migration process (eg, http://mysite.com/importbuddy.php). BackupBuddy is, without a doubt, the easiest way to move entire websites to new servers!

Multisite Backups

BackupBuddy now backs up, restores and migrates your entire WordPress Multisite setups. Multisite support now comes built in with BackupBuddy, so your single BackupBuddy package already includes Multisite support.

BackupBuddy with full Multisite integration allows you to do many things not found anywhere else, including the following:

1. Backup your entire Multisite files, folders and database

2. Backup only your Multisite database

3. Backup only your Multisite files and folders

4. Backup specific sub-sites within your Multisite

5. Restore your entire Multisite

6. Restore only specific sites into your Multisite

7. Migrate your entire Multisite onto another directory or server

8. Duplicate any sub-site within your Multisite

9. Migrate any sub-site into any other Multisite

10.Convert any sub-site into a self-hosted single and non-Multisite site

11.Import any single site BackupBuddy full backup as a new sub-site into your Multisite

With Multisite support, BackupBuddy gives you extra power as a Network Admin, and gives each of your sub-site admins the necessary (and limited) powers to focus on backing up their own sites only (this can be disabled by the Network Admin in settings).

So whether you have a single WordPress site or a WordPress Multisite, BackupBuddy has you covered completely.

Tip: A BackupBuddy Full Backup on a Multisite backs up all your WordPress files and sites, including all the specific media files for each of your sub-sites in your Multisite. Extracting such a backup zip file on your computer will allow you to find any specific media file for any specific sub-site in your WordPress Multisite.

BackupBuddy Features

The following are some of the hundreds of different BackupBuddy features available to you directly via the easy to use BackupBuddy interface.

BackupBuddy Core and Multisite Features

• Backup full sites

• Backup databases only, without the files

• Backup files only, without the database

• Save an unlimited number of backups on your server or keep any specific number of backups while deleting older backups

• Exclude specific directories to save space

• Reminder emails

• Enable or disable zip compression

• Log everything or log only specific things – helps with support and diagnosis, and to keep records of everything BackupBuddy does

• Limit the size of all saved backups. This allows you to save disk space by deleting older backups once a specific size limit, as specified by you, is reached

• Perform integrity check on all backups to make sure your backups are perfect

• Built-in server settings scanner

• Premium built-in World Class Malware scanner by Sucuri offered free with your BackupBuddy license

BackupBuddy Multisite Features

• Backup entire Multisites while keeping all Multisite information perfectly intact

• Export any Multisite sub-site as a full single standalone BackupBuddy backup – this exported BackupBuddy file can be used to migrate or restore that specific sub-site as a single separate site

• Import any single site into your Multisite, including any exported Multisite sub-site

• Duplicate any Multisite sub-site to create an exact clone of that site with a different name

• Give Network Admins the full power to backup anything on the Multisites

• Give sub-site Admins enough power, securely, to backup their specific sub-site as a full backup

• Give sub-site Admins enough power to duplicate their sub-site as a separate new site on the Multisite

Automatic Schedules (for BackupBuddy Core and Multisites)

• Schedule full backups

• Schedule database only backups

• Choose any time interval you wish for full or database backups

• Have as many schedules as you wish, as many times as you want

• Remote Send to multiple remote locations

• Get email notifications of all such schedules

• Full security to allow only Network Admins the ability to schedule backups on Multisites to keep hosting and server resources under control

Remote Send Features (for Automatic Scheduling in BackupBuddy Core & Multisite)

• Remote send full backups OR database only backups OR file only backups

• Dropbox support

• Amazon S3 support

• Rackspace Cloudfiles support

• FTP support

• Email support

• Keep unlimited backups or keep only X number of backups, while deleting older backups

BackupBuddy Tips

Backing up your entire WordPress sites should be the most important thing you do, after creating and setting up your site, of course. Since BackupBuddy allows you to have the most complete backup solution in the most secure and easy to use backup interface, there are several tips and suggestions I can recommend to help you with your backup tasks.

Here are some of the tips I follow on a daily basis, and some important things to keep in mind when you try to do anything via BackupBuddy:

1. BackupBuddy Full Backup files contain the exact same database files that BackupBuddy database only backup files are comprised of. If you’re making BackupBuddy full backups with the database option (which is enabled by default), you do not necessarily need to make database-only backups as well.

2. BackupBuddy backup files are saved as standard zip files – you can extract them to your computer using any zip extraction program on any operating system.

3. Since BackupBuddy full backups contain all your files, you can extract your BackupBuddy Full Backup and find only those files that you need to extract, replace or compare.

4. All BackupBuddy backup and restore/migrate operations include Advanced Logging on each and every page. Whether you’re doing a manual backup or migrating an entire Multisite Network from one host to another, BackupBuddy Advanced Logs will show you each and every step being performed on the same pages as the actual backup or migration pages.

5. Your BackupBuddy Advanced Logs do not visibly show any passwords or sensitive information, so you do not have to worry about sharing such logs with support or on the customer forums.

6. BackupBuddy Full Backups for Multisite include all the specific database tables for all your sub-sites inside your WordPress Multisite. Since BackupBuddy supports and works with single database WordPress Multisites, all your theme options, plugin options, WordPress options and actual post and pages content is stored in the single WordPress database backed up by BackupBuddy.

7. BackupBuddy Full Backup includes all the files and folders specific to your sub-sites in your Multisite as well. Have any specific files gone missing or become damaged on any sub-site? No worries. Simply extract your BackupBuddy Full Backup, and copy that specific file onto your server like any other file.

8. Keep in mind that the email remote send option will email your entire backup file, whether database only or a Full Backup, to your email address as an attachment.

If your BackupBuddy backups are large in size, these can quickly eat up your email storage limits or get rejected by your email server due to large attachment sizes. BackupBuddy provides several other remote send options like Dropbox or Amazon S3.

Common BackupBuddy Mistakes

BackupBuddy is there to help you fix mistakes with your site, so it’s important to try not to make mistakes when you’re dealing with BackupBuddy. Of course, we all do make mistakes from time to time. Here are some common mistakes.

1. Uploading importbuddy.php into a directory different than the backup file. Your backup file should be in the same directory as your importbuddy.php file, and both those files should be in the directory where you want your site to be. In other words, don’t put the files in a subdirectory if the site is to be on the root domain.

2. Uploading importbuddy.php without the backup. Restoring or migrating your data requires both the importbuddy file and the backup.

3. Restoring an entire BackupBuddy backup file only to restore the database. If you’re trying to restore your database only, restore your database from a BackupBuddy database only backup.

4. Sending large BackupBuddy backups to your email account. While it may seem tempting to have your BackupBuddy backups emailed to you regularly, consider this: each backup can be several hundred megabytes in size. Your email account may be restricted by an attachment size or the amount of storage it may have. Have only small backups sent to your email (such as database only backups), and anything large sent to something like your Dropbox account.

5. Keeping BackupBuddy backups only on your main site. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to keep your BackupBuddy backups on the same site that you are backing up. Send your backups to an off-site service like any FTP server or your Amazon S3 account. That way, if your site goes down, your backups will not go down with it.

6. Relying solely on your BackupBuddy database-only backup. Your BackupBuddy Database Backup is just that: a complete backup of your database. It does not, however, contain any of your WordPress configuration files, themes or plugins. Many times people will lose their entire site and only have a Database Backup. While they end up saving their site’s content, they lose their theme, plugins and any changes to they’ve made to their theme.

Only the BackupBuddy Full Backup will contain all the files and the entire database in order to fully restore or migrate a site. Even though I suggest making BackupBuddy database backups more often than BackupBuddy full backups, I still recommend that you make at least one BackupBuddy Full Backup from time to time.

Additional Resources

While BackupBuddy works perfectly on most systems, many times you may have a question or two to make BackupBuddy work on your specific host. You may also run into issues related to restrictions imposed by your specific server or WordPress and plugins setup. In such cases, the best thing to do is to do some research, ask others who know about BackupBuddy about it, and to find out what others would do in your specific situation.

Luckily, you can do all that via the official BackupBuddy Forums and Codex.

The following are some of the most important resources you should keep in mind when you have any questions related to BackupBuddy:

1. BackupBuddy Forums

This is the biggest and most vibrant resource and community on the Internet dedicated to backing up your WordPress single sites. This is what you would also call the BackupBuddy Core forums, aimed mainly at single site backups and restores/migrations. If you’ve any question, chances are it has been addressed on the BackupBuddy Forums.

2. BackupBuddy Multisite Forum

BackupBuddy Multisite Forum is a separate, dedicated forum aimed at helping you with BackupBuddy questions related specifically to your Multisite installations. This is the largest and most active resource on backing up WordPress Multisites online.

3. BackupBuddy Codex

This is what some people call “the BackupBuddy manual”. It consists of extensive documentation about BackupBuddy questions, solutions and issues. It lists all the different sections of BackupBuddy and what they do. This codex is updated regularly.

4. BackupBuddy Frequently Seen Situations

This is the BackupBuddy area where all the questions about specific backup or restore/migration steps are collected and answered.

5. BackupBuddy Errors List

As mentioned before, there are hundreds of thousands of different server configurations in the world, and BackupBuddy tries to be universally compatible with all of them. While this is not a small feat to achieve, some situations do result in some extra steps required by you to make BackupBuddy work perfectly in case your host has some specific limitations on your server or account. The Errors List outlines all the issues BackupBuddy may run into and all the error numbers BackupBuddy shows in different situations. You can find out why BackupBuddy is showing any error message here.

6. BackupBuddy on-screen help

Available on every BackupBuddy screen, your backup and import/migration steps include helpful tips and clear status updates on what’s going on, what to do and how to do it.

7. BackupBuddy on Google

Tens of thousands of WordPress site owners use BackupBuddy to backup their sites regularly. You can search on Google to find many other BackupBuddy users and see what they have to say.

Enjoy!

Continue reading: How to Backup your WordPress Blog with BackupBuddy

Here are some practical tips on how you can be more secure on Facebook.

How to keep your account secure

Think before you click. Never click suspicious links — even if they come from a friend or a company you know. This includes links sent on Facebook (eg: in a chat or post) and links sent in emails. If one of your friends clicks on spam by accident, that link might be sent to all of their Facebook friends. Remember to never re-enter your Facebook password or download something (eg: a .exe file) if you aren’t sure what it is.

If you don’t know what it is, don’t paste it into your internet address bar. Pasting unfamiliar text into your address bar could result in events and pages being created from your account or other spammy actions.

Pick a unique, strong password. Use combinations of at least six letters, numbers and punctuation marks; don’t use words that can be found in the dictionary. When in doubt, change your password. You can reset your password by going to your Account Settings page, located in the Account dropdown menu at the top of every Facebook page.

Never give out your username or password. Never share your login credentials (eg: email address and password) for any reason. Individuals, pages or groups that ask for your login information in exchange for discounted goods (eg: free poker chips) shouldn’t be trusted. These types of deals are carried out by cybercriminals and are in violation of Facebook’s Payment Terms

Log in at www.facebook.com. Sometimes scammers will set up a fake page to look like a Facebook login page, hoping to get you to enter your email address and password. Make sure you check the page’s URL (web address) before you enter your login information. When in doubt, you can always type “facebook.com” into your browser to get back to the real Facebook site.

Update your browser (eg: Internet Explorer). Current versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer have built in security protection, like warning you if you navigate to a suspected phishing site. Facebook supports:

• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari
• Google Chrome
• Internet Explorer

Run anti-virus software to protect yourself from viruses and malware. You can learn more and download this software for free here:

• For Windows
• For Mac OS

How to reset your password and make sure it’s secure

If you’re not logged in, you can reset your password by clicking the Forgot your password? link on the Facebook login page.

If you’re already logged in, you can reset your password by going to your Account Settings page, located in the Account drop-down menu at the top of every Facebook page,

When choosing a new password:

• Use a combination of at least six numbers, letters, and punctuation marks

• Don’t pick a word from the dictionary

• Don’t pick something you’ve used as a password on another site

How to log out of “Keep me logged in”

The option to log out of your account is located in the account dropdown menu at the top-right corner of Facebook.

• Click the arrow at the top-right corner of Facebook

• Select Log Out

• From the Facebook log-in page, uncheck the Keep me logged in box

Note: If you sign on to Facebook from a computer or mobile device that you share with others, make sure that you log out of your Facebook account and quit the browser (eg: Firefox) when you’re done using Facebook.

How to change the password for your login email address

Remember that anyone with access to your email accounts can request a new password for your Facebook account. One way that you can make sure the email addresses listed on your account are secure is by changing the passwords to your email accounts and making sure that each password is different.

To change your login email password (eg: your Gmail password):

• Go to your email account

• Find your account settings

• Change your password

Spam

Adware

Some programs claim that they can give you special features on Facebook like seeing who viewed your profile (timeline) or picking out your own profile (timeline) theme. Most of these features don’t exist, and these programs require you to download software that can cover your profile (timeline) with ads, make your pages load slowly and compromise your security.

Facebook ads will never appear as banners in the center, top, or left column of Facebook pages. If you’re seeing ads in these locations, or ads that flash or play sound automatically, you probably have adware. To remove it, review the add-ons or toolbars that you’ve enabled for your browser and disable any plugin that promises special browsing abilities (like profile/timeline themes or seeing who’s viewing your profile/timeline).

To disable browser add-ons:

Mozilla Firefox

Tools > Add-ons > Extensions

Safari

Safari > Preferences > Extensions

Google Chrome

Window > Extensions

Internet Explorer 8

Tools > Manage Add-ons > Toolbars and Extensions

It is also recommend that you clear your browser’s cache before accessing the site again.

Known Adware programs

The following are programs that claim to give you special Facebook powers, but actually cover your News Feed and profile (timeline) with ads:

• Facetheme.com
• Pagerage.com
• Profilecraze.com
• Social-plus.com
• Facicons.com
• Facecoolsmileys.com
• Iminent.com
• Buzzdock.com
• Connectbar.net
• Elriel.com
• Dropdowndeals.com
• Pagemood.com
• Sweetim.com

Click and Share Jacking

What is clickjacking?

Certain malicious websites contain code that can make your browser take action without your knowledge or consent. For example. clicking on a link on one of these websites might cause the website to be posted to your Facebook profile (timeline). Never click strange links, even if they are from friends. Also be sure to notify the person sending the link if you see something suspicious.

How do I remove clickjacking Likes from my profile (timeline)?

If you clicked on a link and your account automatically liked pages, you can remove these connections from your profile (timeline) by going to your Edit Profile page (click the Edit My Profile link underneath your profile picture).

Malicious Script Scams

What is a malicious script scam?

In a malicious script scam you are asked to copy and paste text into your browser’s address bar in order to see something interesting or surprising (eg: who viewed your profile/timeline).

This “code” is actually a malicious script. Instead of showing you what was advertised, it uses your account to create events and pages and send your friends spam.

Stay Safe

Spammers often advertise surprising things (eg: the opportunity to see who viewed your profile/timeline) to try to lure people into their spam traps.

• Never click on suspicious links, even if they’re sent by your friends.

• Never copy and paste text into your internet browser address bar if you are unsure of what it is.

• Use the latest browser version.

Malware

The Koobface Virus

Koobface is a computer worm that targets Facebook and other social networking websites. It spreads on Facebook by posting spammy messages on behalf of people.

These messages contain a link, which will prompt you to download and install a newer version of Adobe Flash player (see screen shot below). However, this download actually contains a malicious file that, once opened, uses your Facebook account to continue posting this malicious link on your behalf, thus spreading the virus.

Who can be affected by Koobface?

Right now Koobface only affects Windows users. If you use a Mac, you’re safe from this type of attack.

What does Koobface do?

Once your computer is infected:

• You might receive pop ups asking you to install “security software” which is fraudulent.

• Websites you visit through Google might be replaced with fake websites, making money for the bad guys.

• If you develop websites, passwords to your website can be stolen by the virus.

What can you do if you think your computer has been infected with Koobface?

• To detect and remove Koobface and other malicious software that may have been installed on your computer, run a full-system scan with an up-to-date antivirus product.

• Reset all of your online passwords

What can you do to protect your account from Koobface?

Here are a few simple suggestions for keeping your account secure:

• Only download software from websites you know and trust. Always check and verify the URL.

• Enable a firewall on your computer.

• Make sure you have an up-to-date web browser equipped with an anti-phishing blacklist.

• Use up-to-date antivirus software.

• Get the latest computer updates for all your installed software.

• Be careful when clicking on links that you receive unexpectedly from your friends.

• Make sure you’ve setup a security question on all of your online accounts. This will come in handy if you ever lose access and need to prove who you are. You can set a security question on your Facebook account from your Account Settings page.

Phishing

Sometimes spammers create fake pages that look like the Facebook login page. When you enter your email and password on one of these pages, the spammer records your information and keeps it. This is called phishing.

When someone has been phished, their account will often start automatically sending messages or links to a large number of their friends. These messages or links are often advertisements telling friends to check out videos or products.

• If your account is automatically sending out spammy messages or links, secure it here.

• If you think your friend’s account was phished, tell them to change their password and run anit-virus software on their computer.

Phishing happens when someone is tricked into downloading bad software or entering their login credentials (eg: email and password) on a fake Facebook login page.

• When someone has been phished, their account will often start automatically sending messages or links to a large number of their friends. These messages or links are often advertisements telling friends to check out videos or products.

• If your account is automatically sending out spammy messages or links, secure it here.

• If you think your friend’s account was phished, tell them to change their password and run anit-virus software on their computer.

“Please send money” scams happen when cybercriminals buy phished user credentials (eg: login emails and password) and use them to log in and take over these accounts (eg: change the passwords and contact information). This often starts with your email account. Then, once someone is in your email account, they can request a new password to your Facebook account.

• With “send money” scams someone else is actually logging in to your account, sending personalized messages or chats to your friends, claiming that you are stuck in another country and asking for money.

• If your account is being used for a “send money” scam, secure it here.

• If your friend’s account is being used for a “send money” scam, file a report.

Many phishers attempt to trick people with fake offers of free, rare, secret or exclusive in-game items (eg: coins, chips, gifts, etc.).

Beware of:

• Messages with misspellings and typos, multiple fonts, or oddly placed accents.

• Messages that claim to have your password attached. Facebook will never send you your password as an attachment. Learn more about spoofed emails.

• Mismatched links: When you hover over a link, look at the status bar (at the bottom of your browser window) and make sure the link actually goes to the link shown in the email.

• Messages asking for your personal information. Facebook will never ask you for:

• Your account password

• Your social security number or tax identification number

• Your full credit card number or PIN number

• Messages claiming that your account will be deleted or locked unless you take immediate action.

When in doubt, type www.facebook.com into your browser to get to Facebook. We also recommend checking official Facebook pages or app pages before clicking on any promotions.

Spammers and scammers sometimes create phony emails that look like they’re from Facebook. These emails can be very convincing. Even the “From:” field can be spoofed to include “Facebook” or “The Facebook Team.”

These emails might look like:

• Notifications about friend requests, messages, events, photos, and videos

• False accusations that you are abusing the site

• Warnings that something will happen to your account if you don’t update it or take another immediate action

One way to check if an email is actually from Facebook is to look for a link at the bottom of the message directing you to unsubscribe or edit your Facebook email notification settings. To test this link:

1. Right-click the link and copy the URL
2. Paste it into your browser
3. Make sure it starts with “www.facebook.com”

Note that this link isn’t included in all correspondence from Facebook. For example, if you contact Facebook about an issue, the email response you receive won’t include an unsubscribe link. If an email looks strange, don’t click any of the links in it or open any attachments. Note: Facebook will never send you a password as an attachment.

If you think you received a fake Facebook email, let Facebook know.

Hope this post gives you some good security tips.

Happy and safe Facebooking!

Continue reading: Facebook Security Tips

The Social Media Guide  has gone through three major design (WordPress theme) changes over the past few years.

In the very beginning I was using a magazine styled premium WordPress theme called Yamidoo (read my review here). Then for the past three years I was using a theme called Yamidoo Pro. 

And now, I am happy to announce the latest redesign – Manifesto.

These themes are the creation Pavel Ciorici and the awesome team at WPZOOM.

The Social Media Guide reloaded

I hadn’t planned to refresh my theme and was very happy with the one I was using.

I was actually browsing through the WPZoom theme catalogue the other day when I noticed Manifesto.

There were a number of design similarities it had with Yamidoo Pro that I picked up on immediately (such as the featured slider), but the main thing I was drawn to was the homepage.

It allowed for the presentation of heaps more content (via different categories), that was previously hidden away in the archives of my older theme. First time visitors are now presented with more content to read, which increases the chances of people reading content they might not have previously come across.

The colour scheme and overall user interface felt much cleaner, sharper and more modern.

Time for an upgrade – I had to have it!

Previous Theme (Yamidoo Pro),

Current Theme (Manifesto),

You can read about the features and specifications of Manifesto and the 50 other premuim themes over at WPZoom.

Upgrading

The upgrade process was very simple – here’s what I did,

• I uploaded the new theme but didn’t activate it

• I installed and activated a plugin called Theme Test Drive - Theme Test Drive WordPress plugin allows you to safely test drive any theme on your blog as administrator, while visitors still use the default one. It happens completely transparent and visitors will not even notice you are running a different theme for yourself. Best part is you can even set the testing theme options (if it has them) in the Admin panel while you are testing the theme.

• Customised and configured

• When I was happy for it to go live I activated it

If you have ever wanted to learn about WordPressbut didn’t know where to start, you can do so here.

Enjoy!

Continue reading: Premium WordPress Theme Manifesto