In Business Since 2001 We accept Paypal
Home for Writers for Publishers Article Directory Article Search Contact
Directory of Ezines  
Products & Services
Article Distribution
Ghost Writing Services

Multiple Traffic Streams Report
Redneck Product Creation

Article Marketing Ebooks now available at: WritingPuzzle.com

Site Navigation
Home
+ FAQ

FAQ

+ Contact Us
+ Article Software

Use one of our Software Plugins to receive Articles from our site:

WordPress Content Plugin

Article Dashboard Content Plugin

+ About Us
+ Ebooks
+ Blogs
+ Social Media
+ Extra Pages
Search Tools
+ Search Our Articles
Article Directory
+ Authors
+ Articles
thePhantomWriters Blog
Get RSS Feed

Did Google Finally Kill Article Marketing Forever?
Early Indications Are That Google Farmer Update Loves Quality Syndicated Content
Detailed Insight into the Cooks Source Magazine PR Debacle
Increase Your Profits From Google Page One
Understanding How To Be Successful With Article Marketing
Temporary Issue with Article Distributions
Computer Upgrade
New Service Upgrades in Place
Are You Paying Too Much For Traffic? Increase Clicks 40-Fold With This PPC Strategy
How To Use Disinformation To Foul Up Your Competition In The SEO Game
Recommended Sites
Live Marketing Chat (Free) Saturday 8pm EST
Register for Notifications

 

 



Are Your Websites Secure Or Is The Back Door Wide Open?

Copyright (c) 2010-2012

One of the topics that all of us online business people are aware of but usually don't feel totally on top of is website security.

Coming from a background of having spent over 20 years in the U.S. military, and having spent four years as a software tester, I have a greater awareness of the need for continuous vigilance in this area than your average marketer.

I also know that you can never make your websites or your computers completely secure. Instead, you can only do things that reduce the risk.

Given that you spend a lot of time, money, and energy, building your online business, it only makes sense that you set aside time periodically to review security related issues, and to look for problems that can be easily minimized.

Here are a few easy "fixes" that you can implement today that will increase the security of your online business.

1) Delete outdated scripts that you no longer use from your server. Many of "the bad guys" have studied the exact same scripts that you use to power your websites, and they know where the backdoors and vulnerabilities are. They know exactly which file will allow them to create all kinds of havoc.

If you have old programs on your server that you are not using, simply delete them.

2) Update older scripts that you are using. Often, the reason that updates are released for a script IS to patch a vulnerability that the developer has become aware of.

YES, upgrading can seem time consuming, and it can be tempting to skip an update, and just wait for the next one. When you wake up one day and can't access your server, or all of your websites have been defaced or erased, you'll see the wisdom in ALWAYS keeping the scripts powering your websites completely updated.

If you are as non-techie as I am, you simply hire a trusted programmer to perform this task.

3) Change the default setting when installing scripts on your servers. Many scripts have default passwords, and default locations for critical directories that make these scripts work flawlessly. Since everyone obtaining a copy of these script have these settings, you probably want to change them, and you also may want to rename certain directories.

4) Secure your web logs. Many web hosts have a standard location for the website's logs and statistics on each hosting account. The files that allow you to access, read, download, and manipulate this data often aren't secured. At a minimum, password protect that directory.

The danger in someone readily accessing your logs is that they can see the names and paths of the files on your server, including your download pages and the file names of files that may actually be for sale products :-(

There are not only people who search on your product name, looking for unsecured files - there are also people who enjoy posting those links on sites where this type of information is shared.

5) Put an index page in every directory on your server. If someone surfs to the domain name of one of the directories on your server, and there is no index page in that directory, they will get a directory tree... showing them all of the files in that directory, and allowing them to simply click in a given file name to access it.

Servers can be configured to prevent this, but for many people, the quickest and simplest way to protect their directories from prying eyes is to stick an index page in each directory.

6) Give your download pages hard to guess names. Don't use urls like YourDomain.com/ProductName/download.html Instead you want to give download pages names comprised of a random sequence of letters and numbers, perhaps stick them in directories not even associated with a given product, or use a "download guard-type" script that gives each customer a unique download link and protects your files.

There are a lots of other things that you can do to easily close common holes in your website's security. This article barely scrapes the surface, and is intended more to make you aware of the problem, and to get your thinking about it. Make regularly reading articles and reports on the topic a part of your education in how to operate a successful online business.


About The Author:
Willie Crawford has been operating an online business for 13 years and believes that too many online marketers simply pretend that problems with website security don't exist. For a really eye-opening report on website security, get the recordings of an interview Willie did with a leading web security expert at: http://timic.org/CloseTheDoor

Follow "The Phantom Writers" on Twitter (@phantomwriters)
to be notified when new articles are made available.


VOTE ON THIS ARTICLE
Needs Work >> 0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 << Excellent Article

Tell our authors what you think about their article.


Top-Level Category: Business Online Articles || Related Categories: Business Offline Articles and Internet Articles

10 Most Recent Articles Written by Willie Crawford

How To Have An Endless Stream Of Highly Qualified Free Leads (Part 2)
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2011-07-26 | Word Count: 854 | Page Views: 410
In part-1, I mentioned how to publish on Kindle to create free leads. Now here's the rest of the strategy to easily get several books on your topic working for you as lead generators.

How To Have An Endless Stream Of Highly Qualified Free Leads
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2011-07-24 | Word Count: 675 | Page Views: 358 | Votes: 3 | Rating: 4.00
Do you dream of having so many customers that you can be very selective, and can choose only the ideal customers to work with? Well, it's not a dream... for me and many friends who have also discovered "the secret!"

Follow The Experts Who Do What They Teach
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2010-11-02 | Word Count: 897 | Page Views: 906
As I'm sure that you realize, not all online marketing experts are the same. Some are only interested in your money, and they know that the quickest and easiest way to get it is to sell you "the dream." Many so-called experts have never done what they teach. They come online, survey the landscape, and decide that teaching is easier than doing.

How To Profit From Really Inexpensive Website Traffic
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2010-10-28 | Word Count: 1200 | Page Views: 814 | Votes: 1 | Rating: 5.00
All online marketers eventually realize that a steady flow of targeted traffic is the very life's blood of their online business. At that point some decide to focus on generating free traffic via methods such as article marketing and search engine optimization. That's how I generated most of my website traffic for many years.

How To Earn An Online Living As A Writer
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2010-07-27 | Word Count: 373 | Page Views: 953
Since 1996 I've written over 1600 articles. These articles have provided me with a decent living in numerous ways. Here is how I've used the articles that I've written:

Your Internet Marketing Virtual Vending Machine Route
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2010-04-13 | Word Count: 1456 | Page Views: 926 | Votes: 1 | Rating: 5.00
When I'm being introduced at seminars and tele-events, the emcee often points out that I have over 1600 websites. This usually grabs the attention of audience members who have to wonder why I have so many websites, and how I manage them. So, let me enlighten you.

A False Economy I NO LONGER Practice Do You?
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2010-03-15 | Word Count: 676 | Page Views: 910 | Votes: 1 | Rating: 1.00
Many of us go out and buy some of the best software and hardware tools available. We read about some tool that could easily DOUBLE our business, or TRIPLE our productivity, so we wisely purchase it. After the purchase is made, the whole process goes sideways...

My New Top 10 Free Website Traffic Generation Methods - Part 1
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2010-03-10 | Word Count: 885 | Page Views: 1286
In 2008, I wrote an ebook that revealed my most effective methods of generating free website traffic. As online conditions and technologies change, I feel it's now time to update that ebook. However, instead of revealing my new top 10 free website traffic generation methods in ebook format, I'm going to do it in a 10-part article series.

The End Of Dumb Affiliate Marketing
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2010-02-09 | Word Count: 921 | Page Views: 924 | Votes: 1 | Rating: 5.00
One of the saddest things that I witness day after day is affiliate marketers who really struggle to make sales. They send out email after email, promotion after promotion, yet often make very few sales. This is not only sad, it's also needless "practice bleeding." Making affiliate sales is easy when you know the secret. It's even very scientific and does have fairly predictable results.

How To Profit Wildly From Attending Live Internet Marketing Events
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2010-01-12 | Word Count: 1551 | Page Views: 760 | Votes: 1 | Rating: 5.00
Since attending my first Internet marketing seminar in December of 2002, I have attended at least 50 other seminar, conferences, workshops, bootcamps, or cruises with groups of marketers. I attend so many events because they help me to grow my business exponentially by networking face-to-face with my peers. Attending live events, provided you choose carefully, is well worth the meager investment usually require for admission. However, there are certain thing you need to do before, during, and after an event to gain the maximum benefit. Here are some of the things that I do and consider important in getting the most out of your seminar experience.

All of Author's Articles on this site:

Most Recent "Business Online" Articles

Sell Yourself, Not Your Products or Services
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2012-01-02 | Word Count: 989 | Page Views: 2754 | Votes: 5 | Rating: 4.00
Sell yourself, not your products or services. The point we need to make is that your products and services will change over time as your business adapts to the realities of the marketplace.

Work From Home - Make Money Online With EBay Store
Written by: David Miller | Distributed: 2011-12-12 | Word Count: 2105 | Page Views: 351 | Votes: 1 | Rating: 2.00
Find out how to present your items, as well as other key factors to profit from your eBay Store.

Bring Your Photography To Life With Stunning Video
Written by: Adam Harding | Distributed: 2011-12-12 | Word Count: 684 | Page Views: 456
I want to let you in on my little secret. It is about how I bring photographs to life by creating professional video slideshows that look like they cost hundreds of dollars.

Leveraging the Social in Social Media
Written by: Enzo F. Cesario | Distributed: 2011-09-21 | Word Count: 907 | Page Views: 394 | Votes: 1 | Rating: 1.00
Social media marketing is about the conversation, not the pitch. Having conversations with people is nice, but the goal of a brand is ultimately to get people interested in spending their time or money on the brand, after all. What does having this conversation accomplish, and just how does a brand use that conversation to get the critical conversion from conversation to customers?

Blog Writing - Finding the Right Person
Written by: Enzo F. Cesario | Distributed: 2011-09-21 | Word Count: 884 | Page Views: 630
There are a host of articles and sites covering advice on how to address various topics, but one area that doesn't get a lot of attention is what "person" to write the blog in. Each linguistic person has its own strengths and weaknesses, depending on the message that needs to be covered. Ultimately, most will simply write in whatever person is most natural to them, but there is some merit in taking a bit of time to think about the implications, advantages and disadvantages of each.

That First Impression: Title Considerations
Written by: Enzo F. Cesario | Distributed: 2011-09-19 | Word Count: 860 | Page Views: 355
While it certainly isn't as much work as crafting the body of a superior article, selecting a title for a piece is definitely an important element of the entire process of content creation. Here are some thoughts on crafting a perfect title.

5 Tips For Writing Great Content For Your Blog
Written by: Lee Dobbins | Distributed: 2011-09-16 | Word Count: 987 | Page Views: 404
If you want people to come back to your blog over and over again, then you need to provide great web content. This may seem like an impossible task if you aren’t a natural born writer. Here are 5 tips that will help even the least experienced writer create blog content that will entice even first time visitors to become frequent readers.

Understanding Cloud Computing for SMBs
Written by: Audre Hill | Distributed: 2011-09-16 | Word Count: 449 | Page Views: 512 | Votes: 2 | Rating: 5.00
The buzz about cloud migration, or taking your business to the cloud, is all over the internet. But the geek speak and sales hype make understanding the cloud difficult for small and mid-sized business owners. Read this to clear up your cloud confusion.

Dynamic Content: Using Analytics to Write Your Blog
Written by: Enzo F. Cesario | Distributed: 2011-09-16 | Word Count: 873 | Page Views: 425
The role of web analytics in setting useful metrics for a site has been discussed in-depth in any number of places, but this is far from the only useful function that web analytic practices can offer. As in any field, a little thinking outside the box can offer extensive rewards to the creative researcher. Perhaps most usefully, creative cultivation of web analytics can help conquer blogger's block and help a good writer come up with some unique angles for content they thought they had peaked out on.

Social Media Marketing Tools – Putting Your Finger on the Pulse of the Web
Written by: Enzo F. Cesario | Distributed: 2011-09-14 | Word Count: 856 | Page Views: 343
Social media marketing is the home of successful brand promotion, and finding the right mix of tools to take advantage of it has become the defining issue of the modern brand. Knowing the focus of each of these tools and the best way to use them is the key to bringing all this power under control and using it to help promote a brand to its full potential.

Most Viewed "Business Online" Articles

Attracting Readers to your Book
Written by: Alastair Hall | Distributed: 2006-05-18 | Word Count: 708 | Page Views: 42520 | Votes: 9 | Rating: 2.11
One of the common and obvious ways to market a self-published book is having your own website. The harder part is how to attract your target audience and then convert the sale.

How To Make Visitors Bookmark Your Site
Written by: Cheryl Miller | Distributed: 2006-10-10 | Word Count: 536 | Page Views: 34815 | Votes: 13 | Rating: 2.38
When visitors bookmark your site it is a sign that you have built a great website and are pleasing them. Visitors think highly enough of your site to want to return and possibly tell others about it. You are not only increasing traffic from your existing clientele you are encouraging new traffic by means of viral marketing.

Treat Online 'Guests' With Respect
Written by: Rick Sloboda | Distributed: 2007-07-27 | Word Count: 472 | Page Views: 27199 | Votes: 25 | Rating: 3.76
Does your website show your customers lack of respect? Review the following checklist to find out.

How I Got 70,000 Useless Visitors To My Site In One Day! (One Internet Marketer's Analysis of Social Bookmark Traffic)
Written by: Titus Hoskins | Distributed: 2007-11-06 | Word Count: 1545 | Page Views: 23761 | Votes: 8 | Rating: 2.13
Is social bookmark traffic useless? Is it even worth cultivating for your site? Can it be used from an online marketing perspective? Read to discover one Internet Marketer's analysis of social bookmark/media traffic...

Successful Article Marketers Help Readers Solve Problems
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2008-10-29 | Word Count: 816 | Page Views: 18812 | Votes: 23 | Rating: 3.26
Every week, I have the opportunity to speak with people about the benefits and challenges of using article marketing to promote an online business. Article marketing is about getting your sales message in front of potential customers and to get links to your website. Many interpret this to mean that an article should directly promote a website within the article, but that approach is wrong and will reduce one's success using this methodology.

Tips For Building Your First Website
Written by: Benny Tsabba | Distributed: 2007-05-30 | Word Count: 1511 | Page Views: 14634 | Votes: 9 | Rating: 2.00
New people are coming online everyday. And many of those people desire to turn their spare time into spare cash. So begins their journey.

Successful Forum JVs and How To Get Them
Written by: Diana Barnum | Distributed: 2006-06-15 | Word Count: 648 | Page Views: 6635 | Votes: 11 | Rating: 2.18
The forming of common alliances, also referred to as a joint venture (JV), happens nearly every day in the business world. One of the most popular means of linking people up online of so that they can work together on their projects is via forums, where people of all levels of business and expertise post in common threads.

Increasing Productivity In Your Online Business
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2006-06-14 | Word Count: 1407 | Page Views: 4327 | Votes: 32 | Rating: 3.72
Running an online "empire" of approximately 1600 websites and blogs, selling a variety of products, services and ideas, I have to be much more productive than the average person in a "regular job."

Who Else Wants to Know How-To Write an Effective Advertisement?
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2011-08-25 | Word Count: 1431 | Page Views: 4296 | Votes: 22 | Rating: 2.59
Webmasters struggle everyday with the question of how they should advertise their website. There are so many advertising venues; it is hard to know which is the right venue or the right combination of advertising venues.

A Recent Issue Of Playboy Revealed...
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2010-01-19 | Word Count: 1658 | Page Views: 4214 | Votes: 1 | Rating: 4.00
If you have ever spent money trying to use article marketing, and you failed to generate any measurable success with your articles, then this article will show you why you most likely failed to see your articles generate a solid return-on-investment for your online business...

Highest Ranked "Business Online" Articles

What Kind Of Backlinks Are Best At Helping Your Website In Google?
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2009-11-09 | Word Count: 439 | Page Views: 1819 | Votes: 5 | Rating: 4.80
I was in the Warrior Forum, and someone asked what kinds of Backlinks are worth pursuing. This is my answer to that query.

How to Keep Your Article Content Fresh and Interesting
Written by: Craig Ritsema | Distributed: 2006-08-29 | Word Count: 699 | Page Views: 2155 | Votes: 17 | Rating: 4.18
Webmasters everywhere are constantly on the lookout for fresh and interesting content for their website. Along with these content qualities is the requirement that it be unique. Everyone wants their website to stand out above the others in the search engine results. So what is the trick for you to keep a steady supply of this quality content coming your way?

Is Your Business 'Out Of Site'? Employ The Ultimate Marketing Tool
Written by: Rick Sloboda | Distributed: 2007-01-09 | Word Count: 445 | Page Views: 2200 | Votes: 19 | Rating: 4.16
With the rapid expansion of the digital economy, the web site is conceivably the most powerful marketing and sales tool you can employ. Find out what a web site can do for you.

How To Use Your Race To Get Rich
Written by: Herbert Harris | Distributed: 2009-07-07 | Word Count: 1407 | Page Views: 2572 | Votes: 40 | Rating: 4.05
Amid recent news reports that there continues to be an ongoing and substantial gap between the net worth of Whites and other racial groups, it is easy to be distracted and overwhelmed by the raw data. However, I am immediately reminded of a quote offered by an economic expert from the past... "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics!"

Secrets of Domain Parking - An Innovative and Easier Way to Make Money
Written by: John Khu | Distributed: 2009-02-27 | Word Count: 484 | Page Views: 1392 | Votes: 7 | Rating: 4.00
Using a good domain parking services to monetize expired domain names seems to be a neglected aspect with a number of domain names traders. Domain parking is also an unfamiliar concept to many inexperienced domain name traders. Read this article to better understand domain parking and how it can be of benefit to you.

Expired Domain Gains - Simple Ideas to Create an Income Base
Written by: John Khu | Distributed: 2009-07-31 | Word Count: 549 | Page Views: 3231 | Votes: 14 | Rating: 4.00
You can use a number of simple methods and plans to create a solid income base that earns a monthly ongoing income base. For many expired domain entrepreneurs (both full-time and part time), expired domains offer an opportunity to supplement their current income with money earned out of dealing with expired domains.

Sell Yourself, Not Your Products or Services
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2012-01-02 | Word Count: 989 | Page Views: 2754 | Votes: 5 | Rating: 4.00
Sell yourself, not your products or services. The point we need to make is that your products and services will change over time as your business adapts to the realities of the marketplace.

The Most Important Ingredient for Info Product Success (is You)
Written by: Judy Murdoch | Distributed: 2008-04-15 | Word Count: 981 | Page Views: 1428 | Votes: 13 | Rating: 3.92
Last week I was attending a conference and mentioned to someone I help small business owners create information products. The other person was very friendly until I said "information products." Then the temperature in the room dropped about 10-degrees

How To Build A Website That Will Rank Well In The Search Engines?
Written by: Fred Schebesta | Distributed: 2007-04-23 | Word Count: 1064 | Page Views: 2129 | Votes: 9 | Rating: 3.89
Redeveloping your website can be a real challenge when you assume your web designers and developers understand search engine marketing. Unfortunately this is not usually the case. Most designers are great at making pretty pictures and developers are great at making great technology. But pretty pictures and great technology don't necessarily give you great search engine results.

How to Prosper Beyond Virtual Real Estate
Written by: Kamau Austin | Distributed: 2006-10-17 | Word Count: 1263 | Page Views: 1593 | Votes: 7 | Rating: 3.86
We explore virtual real estate (VRE) sites as sites primarily embedded with Google Adsense(tm) or Yahoo Publisher's Network (YPN) ads.







Article Reprint Rights
Creative Commons License

This work is
licensed under a
Creative Commons
License


You are not required to show the creative commons license notice when you reprint this work.
Article Publishing Tools
Print Article
Email-to-Blog
HTML Source Code
Text Newsletter Format
Link Back HTML

Blog Publishing Tools

Internal ID: #7317
Article Statistics
Word Count: 722

Total Views: 834
Views This Month: 30
Views Last Month: 51

Article Rating: Not Yet
Votes Cast: 0

Author Overall Stats:

Times Viewed Overall: 117486
Author Rating: 2.67 of 5
Votes Cast Overall: 926

More Articles By Author:




Follow Willie Crawford on Twitter Article Title Search:

Widow Search
Right Blinker
Google
Yahoo!
Zuula
Bing
Cuil

Last Distribution Date:
2010-02-02 12:30:00






All Articles are Copyright © 2001-2012 of the Defined Authors.

All other material and images on this site are:
Copyright © 2001-2012, ThePhantomWriters.com

Local Marketing Consultant