Shelly says…

The latest release (2.7 at this writing) has many security upgrades. And if that doesn’t concern you, then maybe Google blocking your site will. (Because they will.)

Starting several months ago, Google started going through the blogs they index. They found that any installations older than version 2.3.3 were subject to a TON of injection/spam/hacking attacks. (If you didn’t know, if someone hacks your site, and you’re on a shared server, you are compromising *everyone* on that server – not just you.) So they began issuing a warning that most browsers pick up, where if someone visits your site, instead of seeing the blog, you get a page with a big red banner that says something about the site having been a source of bad content that’s harmful to your computer, and you cannot get around it. In the last 4 months, I’ve had to “fix” 4 client sites due to this very issue. You have to go through a process (usually a few days, but I had one case that took 6 weeks) to get your site back up and running again.

I’m not kidding about this either. It’s not meant to scare you, it’s just a fact that you should be aware of. The security releases on any blogging platform (not just WordPress) are, indeed, very important.

If your WP installation is older than 2.3.3 it’s definitely time to upgrade. And don’t worry – you don’t *have* to upgrade every time there’s a release. WordPress puts out a new version about once a year. They are *constantly* trying to improve it (I currently have version 2.8 from the subversion repository – they began work on it last month.) The little releases in between each one – read your dashboard. Many are just bugfixes or aesthetic improvements. You don’t have to install them. However when they release a *security* fix – THAT is the one you need to pay attention to.

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Now quick, go check to see what version WordPress you are using.

Second, blogging is one of the fastest ways to get the attention of the search engines. Having a page rank shows your customers you didn’t open your business doors yesterday and you may be around tomorrow. If your blog has new, relevant content regularly, you will rank higher faster.

Ok, blogs are great. But let’s face it, blogs require regular attention. You have to keep posting to make it worth anything. You have to pretty much daily, approve comments and delete spam.

If you are finding that this sounds like you:

• I’ve tried blogging but just can’t think of anything to blog about?
• I’ve started a blog but just don’t have time to keep up with it?
• My blog is, um….. ugly!
• Blog? What blog?
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If any of that sounds like you, then you may want to give me a call.

That was her goal, to connect with like-minded individuals. Word spread like wildfire about this guru of savings and within a few short years, Amy was able to retire. She simply took her newsletter that she had been sending out and compiled her articles into 3 books (she later compiled the 3 books into one called The Complete Tightwad Gazette). She now spends life with her 6 teenagers living on a farm in Maine.

Blogs are popping up all over the internet. From what I hear, it’s like 1 per minute. That’s a lot of blogs. I’m sure that means there are a lot of good writing out there, as well as a lot of crap being written. I would like to stay on the side of good writing. Amy obviously did things right. Here are some of the reasons I think she succeeded:

1. Amy didn’t have the internet “experts” to distract her from her vision. She only had what was around her and her passion. She wrote about what she knew, which is what made her the expert.      

a. As a blogger, are you writing about your passions or are you writing what the experts are telling you that you should be writing about?

2. Amy didn’t write to get rich. She got rich, but that was secondary. Amy wrote because she wanted to meet others that shared her passion. She regularly included letters from her readers in her newsletters.

a. As a blogger, are you writing to share your passion, or are you writing to make money?

3. Amy stuck to one subject in her articles. She didn’t pretend to be an expert on everything. She showed the steps that brought her to the conclusions she made so others could follow the steps and come to their own conclusions. She wasn’t a “know it all”.

a. Is your blog all over the map as far as subjects go, or are you steady on one course?

4. Amy was human. Once someone questioned her because she took a muffin away from a free buffet to eat later. This made her honestly question herself whether she was ethical by taking it rather than eating it there. She asked other’s opinions. In the end, she regretted her decision to take the muffin.

a. We all make mistakes. You don’t want to look incompetent in your blog, but you do want to be approachable.

5. Amy was the first.

a. With so many blogs out there, it’s hard to be the first, or even original. That means you absolutely have to be the best. There’s no room for mediocrity.

My first thought was, “Oh, no!” I have been upgrading blogs like crazy lately. How can I tell these people their blogs need to be upgraded again?

There are two things you need to do before you upgrade your blog. First, back up everything. Go all the way into your database and back the blog up from there so you have a copy of your posts and comments.

Second, disable all your plugins in case one has a conflict with the newer version of the blog.

It’s a good thing I do back up. I just upgraded my blog to V2.5.1. It erased everything – my password, my settings, it even set my theme back to the original theme. The worst was that I did lose all posts and comments.

Expect that this will happen to you and be prepared. Just make sure you do the upgrade. It’s important.

The WordPress Blog says, “If you are interested only in the security fixes, you can download these corrected copies of
wp-includes/pluggable.php

wp-admin/includes/media.php

wp-admin/media.php

Replace your existing copies of these files with these new copies.”

But if you haven’t upgraded to 2.5 yet, then it’s best to upgrade all the files at once.

If you have a WordPress blog and you need assistance with upgrading it, shoot me an email using the form on the left.