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Why You Should Avoid Hotlinking

Posted on May 6, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Have you started using the new WordPress bookmarklet? It’s the “button” you add to your browser that basically turns the current webpage into a blog post. One of the new features is that it “suggests” embedding an image from that webpage … an image that doesn’t belong to you (in most cases).

Free Technology for Teachers defines hotlinking as “inserting a picture into a blog post through a URL rather than uploading the image file itself to your blog.” This is fine, if you own the picture. However, if you are bascially “stealing” someone else’s image, that’s when it becomes a problem.

So, don’t hotlink your images!

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Source: What is Hotlinking? – Why You and Your Students Should Avoid It | Free Technology for Teachers

Image source: geralt / Pixabay

Filed Under: Graphics, In the News & On the Web, Tips & Tricks · Tagged: ,
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Protect Your WordPress Site

Posted on November 22, 2013 · 1 Comment

wordpress-256-blackWordPress is a great content management system. But it can be vulnerable if you don’t take steps to safeguard it. Problogger covers a few simple, and not-so-simple, steps to make your site safer.

A few to remember:

Create Strong Passwords. You should be doing this anyway. And change the default “admin” login to another username.

Keep Your Site Updated. And clean up your site (i.e., delete plug-ins and themes you don’t need to reduce the hacking options).

Back up your site. Really. Do it soon.

Be Vigilant. Don’t leave your site unattended for long periods of time.

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Source: How to Protect Your WordPress Site Before the Hackers Lock You Out! || Problogger

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks · Tagged: , ,
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Learn WordPress.com

Posted on November 20, 2013 · Leave a Comment

wordpress-256-blackDo you host your blog with WordPress.com? WordPress has a great online resource with instructions on how to set up your blog, set up a theme and even how to go mobile. Get started with “Get Started.”

Of particular interest is the part about setting up your public profile and gravatar. This is how you can determine the photo that shows up next to your name when you comment on others’ blogs.

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RESOURCE: Learn WordPress.com || Get Started

Filed Under: Tools, Workshops & Training · Tagged: ,
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Online Marketing Mistakes

Posted on November 15, 2013 · 2 Comments

Sometimes trying to do things the easy way just makes things harder in the long run. This can be seen with online marketing, as this article in Copyblogger points out. The article features three mistakes to avoid:

  1. Going with “quick” solutions instead of self-hosted WordPress.
  2. Thinking that Facebook is a valid content marketing program.
  3. Buying all of your traffic from one source.

A friend of mine is dealing with the first — having to transition to a self-hosted WordPress site after going with a “simple” blog solution. Now she’s trying to figure out how to move her site to a custom domain and a self-hosted site that gives her more control over the site.

Short-term “simple” has turned into long-term headache.

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Source: Three Online Marketing Shortcuts that Take Too Long | Copyblogger

 

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks · Tagged: , ,
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Blogging and WordPress Roundup

Posted on September 20, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Some articles and posts to read/bookmark. Includes more on authorship and author rank (from last week).

“50+ Best WordPress Slider Plugin Collection – Feature Content With Style!” || Tripwire Magazine

“10 Responsive Slider Plugins for WordPress” || WPMU.org

“7 Ways to Manage Comments on Your Site (Without Losing Your Mind)” || Copyblogger. Includes:

  1. Moderate your comments.
  2.  Use a strong spam filter.
  3. Have a comment policy.
  4. Do your best to respond to questions from your audience.
  5.  Have limits on what advice you’re willing to give away for free.
  6. Don’t put up with trolls, bullies, abusive language or threats.
  7. Take care of your guest authors.

“Warning: Don’t Accept Guest Posts Until You’ve Done these 5 Steps” || ProBlogger. Includes:

  1. Always check the posts for Plagiarism.
  2. Proofread and Format the Guest Posts.
  3. Interlink the Guest Posts with Previously Published Content.
  4. Optimise Guest Post URLs and Meta Tags.
  5. Add Intriguing Images to draw your Readers’ Attention.

“3 Ways to Get More Subscribers for Your Blog” || ProBlogger.

“Add an Author Information Box to Your WordPress Theme” || Make Tech Easier

“How to Add an Author Info Box in WordPress Posts” || WP Beginner

“How To Add Author Avatar and Bio to Posts on WordPress and WPMU” || WPMU.org

“Author information in search results” || Webmaster Tools Help

“Google Continues To Experiment & Expand Authorship” || Search Engine Land

“Google Authorship Markup: How to get your picture in search results.” || KISSMetrics

 

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks, Tools · Tagged: , , ,
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WordPress errors and plugins

Posted on June 27, 2013 · Leave a Comment

A short WordPress roundup to add to the series.

I found this post to be helpful, “10 Most Common WordPress Errors (With Solutions).” However, the solutions are not beginner’s level.

Need more plugin recommendations? Check out “7 Must Have WordPress Plugins for Authors.” Includes:

  • Get Noticed with Social Author Bio.
  • Add Multiple Bylines with Co-Author Plus.
  • Plan Ahead with Editorial Calendar.
  • Add Pictures with Compfight.
  • Add Profile Pics with Author Images.
  • Optimize Your Site with WordPress SEO by Yoast.
  • Backup Your Blog Posts with WordPress Backup to Dropbox.

And on the topic of plugins for authors, there’s also “Top 6 Free Author Bio Box for WordPress.” This recommends:

  • Fancier Author Box.
  • Another Author Box.
  • Social Author Bio.
  • Advance Author Bio.
  • Better Author Bio.
  • WP About Author.

There will probably be more WordPress roundups in my future.

Filed Under: Tools · Tagged: ,
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Happy birthday, WordPress

Posted on June 6, 2013 · Leave a Comment

I completely missed the WordPress 10th anniversary! on May 27th, 2013 WordPress turned 10. Not bad for a little bit of software created in Houston.

Some recommended reading:

— Posted by Sandra Fernandez

Filed Under: Tools · Tagged:
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WordPress plugin & security roundup

Posted on May 22, 2013 · 1 Comment

I’ve been pulling together articles and posts about WordPress, because it’s my favorite content management system. Here’s a roundup for you.

For a change, I am going to recommend that you read a post about the “5 WordPress Plugins Your Blog Can Do Without.” For most of the recommendations, the author is telling you that you don’t need the plug-in (which may slow down your site), but just need to add the code where needed.

Some of the Best WordPress Plugins to Optimize Your Blog, at Zoetica Media. Includes: Backup Buddy, Akismet (spam killer), Feedblitz (RSS Management), SEO helpers, share buttons, commenting systems (LiveFyre and Disqus), mobile compatibility and a look at JetPack (one of the best collection of plug-ins available).

WP Social Plugin For WordPress – Easily Integrate Twitter, Facebook & More!, at Just Ask Kim. This looks at the WP Social plugin, with a video review.

The Complete Guide To WordPress Security Pt. 1 and The Complete Guide To WordPress Security Pt. 2, at For Bloggers By Bloggers. This series reminds us that plugins ad themes are one of the most-used method to hack into WordPress blogs. 

The 30 Best WordPress Plugins, at PCMag.com. There are some good suggestions in the list, including Akismet. However, I’ll let you know in advance that the article is set up “photo slider” styly, so you’re going to have to click through 30 pages to see all the recommendations.

How To Set Up A WordPress Back-Up, at For bloggers by bloggers. The post covers WP Time Machine, Backuper, Host cPanel, and (my favorite) Manual Save.

Free Resources to Help You Build Your Next WordPress Site, at Six Revision, includes some good recommendations on themes and design resources.

10 Essential WordPress Security Plugins For 2013, at Problogger. The post covers WP Login Security 2, WordPress Firewall 2, WP Security Scan, and Sucuri WordPress Security Plugin.

WordPress Backups: Don’t Make These 9 Mistakes on Your Blog, at Problogger. Of course, the first mistake is not making any backups. The second is to not make a complete backup. Read the whole thing, there might be one or two you hadn’t considered. I know I learned something new. 

Do you have any to add?

Filed Under: Tools · Tagged: ,