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Why You Need CoSchedule

April 27, 2016 By Jen Kehl

March 1st, with a partner, I started a contributor based website for parent’s with special needs called Break the Parenting Mold.

It all started easily enough; we had a great idea, a built-in web designer (moi), a built-in editor (my fabulous partner) and a lot of amazing bloggers with even better content.

What we didn’t realize was that as content came in, it would come in with special needs of its own. Posts would need graphics, writers would send bios without images, and Kristi and I would need an effective way to communicate all of that with each other.

And that didn’t even include scheduling posts, sharing them to social media, and having an effective workflow!

Enter CoSchedule.

We had been functioning with about 15 Google Docs, a few Google Sheets, email folders and a lot of IM’s back and forth.

We needed something new. We needed CoSchedule.

I had been hearing about CoSchedule for years. Many bloggers I know, who schedule multiple times a week used it, but it always seemed too robust for what I was doing.

The features I knew about were:

  • Ability to schedule posts and drag and drop them to new locations as needed.
  • Ability to schedule social media sharing from within the scheduled post.
  • Ability to integrate with WordPress.

Well that barely scratches the surface. After watching the CoSchedule Demo I realized that CoSchedule would rock our workflow!

Here is a screen cast I made of how CoSchedule works for us.

 

These are the things I do with CoSchedule:

  • Enter posts
  • Attach Author
  • Attach Categories
  • Schedule posts or put them in unscheduled state
  • THIS PART IS SUPER IMPORTANT – I Create a list of tasks, that are attached to each post that need to be done before a post goes live, and after
  • Schedule social media shares for each post
  • Re-share old posts on social media
  • Create stand alone tasks that need to be done outside of posts
  • Create stand alone notes that tell my partner Kristi things we need to do
  • Create stand alone social media posts that can post to our page OR a group
  • Drag and drop any type of post into a new spot
  • See EVERYTHING in one place!!!!

I would not be exaggerating if I said that CoSchedule has changed our lives. It has helped us organize and saved us hours of work. It has also enabled us to spend more time doing the things that will help us to make our site more productive and all over more excellent!

You can get a 14day free trial for CoSchedule?by clicking here. And I promise you won’t be disappointed, it was the best decision we made.

 

 

This is CoSchedule overview video by CoSchedule, you will learn more about other ways to use it here.

 

*There are affiliate links in this post, only because I LOVE CoSchedule so much. I would never endorse a product I wasn’t 100% behind.

Filed Under: Plugins, Social Media, Tutorials, WordPress

Those Facebook Follow Threads Could Be Killing Your Engagement

April 20, 2016 By Jen Kehl

Why I won't

Are Facebook follow threads a good idea?

In the blogging world, one of the big races is to get to x amount of followers. Round 1 is 500, round 2 is a 1000, and so on until you hit the ever elusive 100,000 or more!

Then it happens, you get to 1000 and you’re scratching your head. And frankly getting pretty ticked off at Facebook, and asking all of your blogger friends “How is it possible that Facebook only showed my post to 26 followers today?!”

I’ll tell you how it’s possible.

We all know Facebook is run by nasty little algorithms, and as much as we want to despise them, we have to like them too. After all, they are the reason we see posts from people we like in our feed, and not from that skeezy guy you dated for 5 minutes in college but didn’t want to hurt his feelings by ignoring his friend request.

Based on how you react to the news in your feed, Facebook judges what it thinks you want to see and what you don’t. And the more you interact by liking and commenting, the more Facebook understands your behavior.

So you see, you really want Facebook to use algorithms.

Unless of course it means Facebook is only showing your post to 1% of your page followers.

[bctt tweet=”You really want Facebook to use its algorithms. Unless it means only 1% of your followers see your content.” username=”jenkehl”]

Then you have to wonder what you are doing wrong.

Unfortunately something all of us bloggers do, could be the reason your posts aren’t getting out to people who genuinely want to see your content.

It’s called the Facebook follow?thread. It’s basically a like for like. And if you are trying to grow from 1 follower to 1000, chances are you are doing a lot of those.

You may be making a crucial mistake.

Facebook pushes your content out to readers based on the amount of your current followers engaging in your content. We see this number on our Facebook content as reach. Reach can be composed of actual page followers and friends of friends of followers.

Facebook determines engagement levels by showing your content to a small amount of your followers and seeing how they engage.

There is no way to know if Facebook is showing your post to actual followers (people who genuinely liked your page for its content) or people who just liked you in a Facebook follow thread.

Facebook is testing your followers’ authenticity.

If it?tests your content on non-engaged followers (people who don’t interact), it will deem your content un-interesting and therefore won’t show it to friends of friends, etc. This is your post that gets 1% reach.

Or, Facebook could happen to show your post to a decent amount of genuine followers, who engage and share, and that post has a reach of 34,765 when you only have 1000 followers!

This random sampling?is?why one post can see a ton of engagement and another can die, for no apparent reason. It’s all about the authenticity of your audience.

[bctt tweet=”Facebook’s random sampling of your followers could mean the difference between a post thriving or dying.” username=”jenkehl”]

You may love your blogging friends, and want to see them succeed, but if you are following them to help their numbers out, and not following to actively participate in their content, you may be hurting them more than you are helping.

The best possible thing you can do to increase your reach is to create engaging content that is true to your brand and share the heck out of it. If people like your content and choose to follow you, they become a genuine follower who can only increase your reach.

If you’re a blogger how can you help your fellow bloggers?

I won’t be doing anymore Facebook follow threads outside of my niche.

But I can tell you how you can help your blogging friends gain that reach.

Try a social share thread instead.?

A Facebook social share thread should include a link to a Facebook post you would like to see more engagement on. Your fellow bloggers should click thru to the post, then like it (or some other reaction), possibly leave a comment, and obviously the holy grail would be a share.

[bctt tweet=”Help out your fellow bloggers with a genuine Facebook share. A simple Facebook page like can hurt more than it can help.” username=”jenkehl”]

The only genuine way to grow exponentially is to build a following of genuine followers. Interesting, engaging content is the best way to make that happen!

Need some help with your social media strategy or reducing your bounce rate? How about some help?determining what you need and what you don’t, I am always available for a free consultation!

Why I won't be doing anyFacebook Follow ThreadsAnymore

Filed Under: Social Media, Tips and Hacks Tagged With: Algorithms, Content, Facebook

Facebook’s New Algorithms Aren’t Really Algorithms at All

February 15, 2016 By Jen Kehl

 

Facebook?s Big Announcement Last Week New?Algorithms?

We all know that Facebook’s top-secret algorithms effect who get’s to see our content on Facebook, and for bloggers and content marketer’s it is no small frustration.

Most of the time, we are convinced that Facebook won’t work for us, because we can’t unlock the great mystery.

And then Facebook up and changes their algorithm, just when you thought you might have a handle on it, ?and you are left wondering how that effects you.

Lucky for us, Facebook actually announced it’s change, publicly, and was kind enough to break it down for us.

 

What hasn’t changed?

What hasn’t changed is Facebook using its algorithms to make assumptions about what you?want to see in your news-feed based on engagement. (Likes, clicks, shares, and comments.)

What they are doing is giving the engaging behavior even more weight. And based on the behavior, it is deciding what to show you on the top of your news feed.

If a post, that is like other posts you have liked, seems to be like other posts you have liked, you are more likely to see it at the top of your feed. (wow, that’s a lot of likes!)

And if a post is getting a lot of engagement, Facebook is going to assume even more people want to see it, and push it out to more Facebook users. This is how your engagement numbers can be so much higher than your followers.

If you live up to Facebook’s expectations, you may?see your engagement go up. If you don’t get the clicks and like’s that Facebook assumes you will get, you may see your engagement go down.

 

What has changed? It’s not really an algorithm!

Facebook is using real users to determine what people really like. They are no longer assuming that just because you “liked” a post, you actually liked it.

They have enlisted over a thousand Facebook users to rate their experience on Facebook, and share what content they actually like and what they don’t like.

How many times have you clicked like because you wanted to be nice, but that you didn’t actually like like it?

On the flip side, how many times have you read something, enjoyed the content, but didn’t engage?

So Facebook is having actual users give their feedback about what they want to see and what they don’t. Instead of only little algorithm bots deciding the fate of your Facebook posts, real people are going to have a go!

 

Here’s why you shouldn’t care.

Facebook’s intention is not to crack down on bloggers trying to share genuine content, ?they want to cut-down on clickbait.

Facebook has?been actively cutting down on the use of click-bait. You know:
10 Things Entrepeneurs Must Know
Big Businesses Hate Him
What We Found Was Shocking!

However, people just got better at writing click-bait because it worked!

Facebook upped their game.

Now, Facebook is going to use the input of real people to help determine if people are being baited to click, or if there is genuinely valuable content coming from that page.
What does this mean for you?

If you create quality content, you are already winning.

Assuming you are already writing quality content, even without huge engagement, if you are posting content your followers actually like, you should see an increase in engagement.

More than ever, the new Facebook algorithms will benefit bloggers,?it’s time to do the happy dance!

via GIPHY

 

We are winning. And those who seek to manipulate you are losing.

What could be better? Now you can spend more time creating and sharing good content, and less time worrying about what Facebook is going to do about it.

Facebook said that most pages won’t see a drastic change, but?if your content is valuable, you may see an uptick. And let me tell you, one week later, I can tell you that I have seen a drastic change.

I have under 1000 followers, and this is my reach for this week. I didn’t even post on a trending topic.

Screen Shot 2016-02-14 at 4.38.08 PM

 

 

Give them what they want!

I think I know what kind of content my readers want to see, and although I felt I was sharing that, I wasn’t seeing the numbers line up.

Since the change I have seen a drastic change, and have shared as much in Facebook groups. Many other Facebook page owners have mentioned seeing the same kind of statistics.

This is good stuff people!

[bctt tweet=”Facebook’s new changes?are a winner for bloggers! #SocialMedia “]

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Facebook, Social Media

The Best Image Sizes for Social Media

January 25, 2016 By Jen Kehl

social_right_size_facebook

Bookmark this page!

You probably already know that social media is the best way to promote your site.

But did you know that each social network has a size it prefers for its images?

Of course they would never make it easy by making sizes universal, so you have to keep a cheat sheet, like I do, of all of the preferred sizes for each site.

You may also wonder how you can use different sized graphics for each post.

Here are some tricks.

  • Facebook and Twitter’s images are very close in size, so you could really use one for both.
  • You can use the Yoast plugin to upload a Facebook and or Twitter specific image.
  • If you have uploaded your Facebook and Twitter image to your Yoast,?in your post, you can choose the featured image as your Pinterest.

Use these tips and all of the relevant images for your blog post will be covered.

Social_sizes_Pinterest

 

Here is a screen cast showing how to use?PicMonkey to create social media images.

As of January 2016, these are the preferred sizes. (Remember they do change!)

  • Facebook ? 1,200 x 628

  • Twitter ? 1,024 x 512

  • LinkedIn ? 800 x 800

  • Google+ ? 800 x 1,200

  • Pinterest ? 735 x 1,102

  • Instagram ? 1,080 x 1,080

Some Resources

  • Omnicore’s Social Media Cheatsheet
  • Visually’s Social Media Cheatsheet

 

I’d love to hear from you! Let me know what other tutorials you’d like to see!

Filed Under: Tips and Hacks, Tutorials Tagged With: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Sizes, Social Media, Tutorials, Twitter

6 Easy Steps to Create a Drop-Down List of Categories in Your Main Menu

January 18, 2016 By Jen Kehl

For some reason, one of the things WordPress does not make easy, is creating a drop-down list of categories in your main menu.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to do that.

Before we start, make sure you are on your Menu page, by going to Appearances>Menu.

Category_Menu

 

Now here we go!

1. Make sure you select the correct menu to work on by choosing from the drop-down, if you are not sure which menu is your primary menu, just look closer, it will say next to your menu which is your primary. (After you choose it, don’t forget to hit select!)
2. Then look towards the bottom of the page, and click on the box that says “Custom Links

 

Category_Menu_2

 

3. Place a Pound Sign, inside the box that asks for your URL , and for the Link Text, write Categories (or whatever you want to call this menu item).
Click “Add to Menu.”

Category_menu_3

4. Now choose the categories you want to be included in your drop-down category list.
Click “Add to Menu.”

You don’t have to add all categories, however, you can add categories you would like to have as “sub-categories” to another item, we will talk about that next!

category_menu_4

 

5. Now that you have added your categories to your menu, they will all appear under the category. BUT they aren’t drop-downs yet!
Now you have to drag the categories to the right, just slightly, and they will settle there as “sub-items,” now they are drop-downs!

If you would like a sub-item, of a sub-item. For instance, you have a category called Recipes, but you also have categories called; breakfast, lunch and dinner (and don’t forget dessert!). You can drag the breakdowns of your recipes, underneath the category of recipe, and those will fly out as a sub-item when someone hovers over it!

Menu-Category_5

6. The most important part. Don’t forget to click Save Menu!!!!

I have done it, and when you are creating a category menu, it’s a lot of work! Don’t lose that work, click SAVE!

This is also a good time to make sure you have been working on the correct menu. At the bottom of the page, the box that says “Primary Menu” should be checked.

 

Menu_category_6

 

So there’s the quick and easy tutorial?that gives you 6 easy steps to create a drop-down list of categories in your main menu!

Please feel free to ask any questions! And don’t forget to contact me for a consultation if you need one!

 

[bctt tweet=”The easiest way to add Categories as a drop-down item to your #WordPress menu! “]

 

 

Filed Under: Tips and Hacks, Tutorials, WordPress

Adding Clickable Images Using Jetpack

December 7, 2015 By Jen Kehl

Jetpack is one of the most versatile plugins you can use on your WordPress site.?I?think every blogger can benefit from this plugin.

Jetpack does the work of 10-20 plugins in one. And because it is built by Automattic, the folks who build WordPress, you can be sure that it will be compatible with your site.

One of the great built-in features of Jetpack is the Image widget.

A very popular question I get is how do I put this bio – or image – or website logo into my sidebar?

And the answer, my friends, is the Jetpack Image Widget.

Once you have installed Jetpack, this widget will automatically show up in your widget list when you go to?Appearance>widgets in your dashboard.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to add a clickable image,?that links to anything, in your sidebar. Please read through the whole tutorial before giving it a try!

BBD_jetpack_image

 

  1. Go to your dashboard Appearances > Widgets
  2. Find the widget that says Image (Jetpack)
  3. Drag that widget into your primary sidebar.

 

Next

BBD_Jetpack_image_2

  1. Go to Media>Add New
  2. If you have your image* handy, just drag and drop it in the box. If it’s easier, click “select files” and navigate to the image you want to use.
  3. This is where you will see that your image has uploaded.
  4. You need to click the edit button.

 

This box pops up when you click the edit button.

bbd_jetpackimage_3

 

Put your cursor inside the box that says URL.

Now here’s a little trick. While your cursor is in that box you need to highlight the whole line. I find highlighting in this box a little tricky, so I do this:
Place your cursor anywhere in the line and press Command A, that will automatically highlight the whole line. And from there you can click Command C to copy, or do it the way you are most used to.

In the end, just make sure you have copied that URL.

 

With the URL saved go back to appearances>widgets and open the Image (Jetpack) widget by clicking the little down arrow.

 

bbd_jetpackimage_4

 

  1. Give your widget a title. This isn’t always necessary, some people let the image do the talking. So the title is optional.
  2. This is where you copy the URL from your image. So put your cursor in the box and click paste.
  3. Align your image. There is rarely a case for any other alignment than center, so I always choose center to be on the safe side.
  4. This is where you put the URL you want your image to go to when it’s clicked. In this case I used my Twitter to match the image I chose.
  5. ALWAYS remember to click, “open link in a new window/tab.”

 

Now save your changes inside the widget, and refresh your blog page. You should see the new image and when you hover over it you should see that it links to another page!

 

*A word about your image.

For best results, please determine what size is the best size for your sidebar. While this widget will size an image down to fit, it cannot make it bigger. Also, by using an image that is bigger than what you need you run the risk of slowing down your site.

 

What other quick tutorials can I help you with? Do you still have questions?

Filed Under: Tips and Hacks, Tutorials, WordPress Tagged With: Image in Sidebar, Jetpack, Tutorial

SEO For Bloggers

August 23, 2015 By Jen Kehl

seo for bloggers

 

Last month, I went to a fairly hugemongous blogging conference. Besides getting to meet many blogging friends in real life, which was a lot of fun (read getting to see a bunch of middle age folks singing karaoke like no one was watching) the most valuable thing?I got out of the conference was the session I did on SEO by Jessica Woodbury.

The beauty of Jessica’s session was that it reaffirmed what I already knew about SEO for bloggers, and gave me clarity on how to apply it.

The best thing she said? Bloggers are already doing SEO better than anyone else!

So, what is the skinny? What do you need to know?

The most important thing to know is write naturally.

Google is constantly changing the way it reads sites. It’s little spiders are getting smarter and smarter. They know when you are trying to pull the wool over their eyes, and they are not going to like you for it.

So if your goal is to have your post rank higher than someone elses, write naturally and follow these six rules:

  1. Try to make sure your keywords are in your title. I know, duh. But as a blogger, often times, we use pithy titles, metaphorical ones. We rarely say it like it is. So don’t worry! If you can’t put your keywords in your title, then you can, and should, do these next things instead.
  2. Update your permalinks. Caveat*never update permalinks that are already live! If you cannot put your keywords in your title, make sure to put them in your permalinks. For instructions how to do that seem my post on using Yoast SEO.
  3. Change your SEO title using the Yoast SEO plugin. If you can’t have your keywords in your title, and you want your post to rank higher, change the title that will show up in the Google search results by using the Yoast SEO plugin. This will NOT effect how your post looks on your blog.
  4. Make sure your word count is at least 600 words and contains your keywords. (I know you’re like, duh, try and keep me to 600 words)?There’s a lot of info going around that says your post only needs 300 words to make Google happy, well times change, and those little word munchers are hungry. Unless you make your posts 600 words or more, they aren’t going to think you are yummy enough to feature on that first page. And don’t forget the reason they came! They want your keywords! It doesn’t have to be an exact match to make them happy, remember, write naturally, which means make sure your keywords happen organically, don’t force it!
  5. Do some Keyword Research. If you have never done keyword research before, this is probably the time to try. You may be more successful by using a variation of what you were thinking, but wouldn’t know it if you didn’t research it. I found the easiest way to do it was by using the Google Keyword Planner.
  6. Show?Google you are the authority when it comes to this topic. Whether you are writing about divorced cats living in Tasmania, or famous rock bands of the fourth century, the way to tell Google that you are the Boss of This Topic is to use links. Links can come in a few forms.
    • Links to other blogs and websites writing about the same content.
    • Links within your blog back to posts that are about similar content.
    • And most precious, links from other blogs back to your site. (As Jessica mentioned, don’t be afraid to ask for a link. Maybe a blogger you know just wrote a post on divorced dogs from Tasmania and your two posts work well together, linking to each other’s posts helps both of you!)

One more thing.

It’s all about the Bounce. Google doesn’t want to see people show up on your page and then leave right away. I’m pretty sure you don’t want that either. And it’s a multi-edged sword.

Bounce tells Google that although you are trying to prove you are the authority on this matter, the people arriving on your site don’t think so. After a while, they’re gonna take the bouncers word for it.

Make your site user-friendly, make sure that when a visitor arrives they know what to do the minute they get there. That if the post they land on isn’t the one they are looking for it’s easy for them to find something they will like. Make it easy for your readers to stick around, and it’s a win win for your site and your SEO.

Try these tips and you’re guaranteed to see an increase in your search engine traffic! Let me know how it works for you, and if you’ve got a question, ask away!

 

Filed Under: Tips and Hacks, Tutorials, WordPress Tagged With: Blogging, Plugins, SEO, Tips, Tutorial, WordPress

3 Easy Steps to Setup Akismet and Eliminate Comment Spam

June 10, 2015 By Jen Kehl

setup akismet

I just got back from an amazing blogging conference called Blog U.

I was there in the capacity of “Design Lab,” which?was a brilliant idea by the conference creators to offer?a help desk for bloggers. They could schedule a 20 minute session and discuss any questions they might have.

I have been humbled hearing the feedback from the conference, and I have benefitted as well. I received?a clearer understanding of how many different levels of WordPress knowledge bloggers actually have, it reinforced my “assume nothing” position.

I wanted everyone I spoke to, to understand that it doesn’t matter what level of understanding you have. You are awesome. And it is amazing that you want to know, and you can know! You are so much more than you give yourself credit for!!

I often accuse myself (people can do that you know) of giving my knowledge away for free. But it’s that “teach a man to fish” mentality. There are so many things a blogger can do for her/himself without paying someone, with a uniterrupted hour and a good tutorial, you’d be amazed at what you can accomplish. And if there’s a really big problem, then you can come to me.

For some people getting into the backend of WordPress can be intuitive work, and they just dive in. While other people are unsure what to do, and have heard enough horror stories to make them scared to touch anything. I hope by reading this blog, you?will learn that you don’t have to be worried. And if you have backups of all your work, you are always good to go!

While at BlogU I noticed more sites than I would have thought, without active Akismet accounts. ?Some of those sites had turned their comments off because they had so much comment spam.

Akismet is probably the most important plugin you can have. This is the single most effective plugin for blocking comment spam. It is so perfect, it comes pre-installed with Jetpack*.

[bctt tweet=”Akismet is probably the most important plugin you can have. Take the time to make sure it’s activated!”]

But it doesn’t come pre-setup. So I am going to help you set it up if you haven’t already.

This is what you will see if you haven’t activated your Akismet:

setup Akismet

 

 

Akismet is one of those plugins that is purposefully?setup to integrate nicely with Jetpack and WordPress. To that end, you can locate it by clicking on Jetpack>Akismet.

setup akismet

 

It will open up this page:

akismet setup

 

WordPress, as Jetpack, already knows who you are. You should continue your login using the email that pops up unless you have a very good reason not to.

When you click on this link you will go to Akismet’s setup page.

It will ask you what type of plan you would like, choose “Basic.” Now here, you are lead to believe that you have to pay for Akismet. There is a sliding scale, you may slide it to $0 if you choose.

However, because they created this amazing and wonderful plugin that you cannot live without and will save you hours of heartache and strife, how about giving them a $1.00?

Once you enter the amount?you will be given an API key.

Your Akismet should now be automatically active!

If for some reason it isn’t, all you need to do is go back to where you should have Akismet open in your dashboard (or go back to your dashboard and click Jetpack>Akismet) and enter the API key, click Use This Key, and you are good to go!

*If you don’t use Jetpack, you can install Akismet, by going to Plugins>Add Plugin, it will show up right there at the top of the list. Install it and activate it,?from now on you will find it in Settings>Akismet. And then follow the same directions!

As always, I am here to help! If you have any questions?don’t ever be afraid to ask!

 

[contact_button]

Filed Under: Plugins, Tutorials Tagged With: Akismet, Plugins, Security, Tutorial, WordPress

Optimization, Vulnerabilities, Hackers, Oh My! An Explanation of the Crazy WordPress Events of the Past Month

April 27, 2015 By Jen Kehl

wordpress vulnerabilities

The WordPress Twilight Zone…

It has been a really busy month?for WordPress and WordPress users. It’s enough to freak a person out.

But don’t. I know how out of control you can feel when you rely on technology to take care of itself, and it’s been doing a really good job of it until BAM it’s not.

 

You know that saying, “A little information is a dangerous thing?”

 

March 11th?the WordPress SEO by Yoast vulnerability.

The news spread fast, and regular blogging folks like you and me were really worried. So worried, in fact, that WordPress decided to push the update themselves. Which meant your WordPress SEO updated itself automatically before you even knew what was happening.

That was awesome, only that “little information” made people even more sure it was a “huge problem” and I even heard people dissing WP SEO. Say it isn’t so!

Here’s how the vulnerability worked:

…an outside hacker can?t trigger this vulnerability itself because the flaw actually resides in the ‘admin/class-bulk-editor-list-table.php‘ file, which is authorized to be accessed by WordPress Admin, Editor or Author privileged users only.
Therefore, in order to successfully exploit this vulnerability, it is required to trigger the exploit from authorized users only. This can be achieved with the help of social engineering, where an attacker can trick authorized user to click on a specially crafted payload exploitable URL. (Hacker News)

 

In english? Basically the only person who could hack this vulnerability was someone who was already an Admin. Or someone who was tricked into letting someone be the Admin. And even so, no one would have had time. They found it so fast, it was as if it never happened.

April 20th A Dozen Vulnerable Plugins

You can pretty much bet you were using one of the plugins on this list: Jetpack, WordPress SEO, All-in-one SEO, Ninja Forms, Google Analytics, you name it, it was probably on the list.

This was another really weird thing….plugin developers use?information on WordPress code from what is called the WordPress Codex. If you have ever Googled a WordPress problem, and you wind up on a WordPress.org page, you are in the Codex.

The Codex is a great place if you understand code. It’s a scary place if you don’t.

Here’s the skinny. Code changes, which is a really good thing. Because the more code stays the same, the easier it is for hackers to figure out how to exploit it.

A few months back, the WordPress Codex was updated and changed a bit of code. The code fixed a possible open door. The problem was that developers were using copies of the Codex that still contained the old bit of code.

But.

A hacker would have to know about this vulnerability to use this vulnerability. But since WordPress was notified immediately, once again they pushed an update. Most of you had your plugins updated before you even realized what was going on.

April 27th Zero Day Vulnerability – WordPress

So, today. WordPress 4.2.1 was released to repair a vulnerability which allowed commentors to inject code that can take over a web server. Pretty scary. But the thing is, it’s WordPress’s job to keep you safe. And once again, they were on it.

In the course of the update, it also scanned for any malicious looking comments and removed those. So once again, you’re all good.

 

WordPress has got your back.

I’m a pretty big proponent of WordPress, as you have probably figured out. The truth is, as with computers, WordPress doesn’t make mistakes, users do. I know, harsh. Don’t throw anything at me *she says cowering* I’ve caused the white screen of death many times in my WordPress existence. Truth be told? It was never WordPress’s fault.

The people who work for Automattic (WordPress) are obsessed, really obsessed with WordPress. Many WordPress users are obsessed with WordPress and hang out in the WordPress forum just so if you have a question, they can answer it. For free. No one will ever let something slip in undetected because all day long they eat think and breathe WordPress.

WordPress vulnerabilities are going to happen. Hackers suck, and they aren’t going to stop trying to steal your stuff.

Don’t panic. I know it’s been crazy. But instead of thinking of the crazy as bad, think of the crazy as good. (That should be my motto.) The fact that it’s been one update after another means that everyone out there is looking out for YOU. Me too. I’m looking out for you too. Shoot me a line, day or night if you’ve got a question.

And don’t forget! If you have a backup plan and security you’re golden no matter what!!!

[bctt tweet=”You’ve entered the WordPress twilight zone! But don’t worry, they’ve got you covered.”]

Filed Under: Plugins, Technology, WordPress Tagged With: Backups, Plugins, Security, Self-Hosted, Tips, WordPress

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