Work at Home Moms Articles – WAHM Articles

WordPress is a great way to build and manage a website. Like any online software though, there are steps you should take to secure your WordPress installation and keep it safe from hackers. Some are common sense for any website (secure website hosting and choosing a secure password) and others are specific to WordPress (such as the plugins recommended below). Here are seven steps to secure your WordPress website.

1) Pick a Good, Reliable, Secure Website Host

Where you choose to host your WordPress website can make a difference in your security. Two important things to look for are server security and backups for restore.

Choose a host who offers you php5 and runs it in suEXEC mode. With suEXEC you are able to lockdown your files more tightly. You can find more technical (very technical) details in Wikipedia.

Also look for a host who offers a reliable backup system and will restore your site for you free in the event of being hacked. Most hosts offer weekly and monthly backups at a minimum. Some hosts also do nightly backups and incremental hourly backups. I’m hosted on a server with monthly, weekly, nightly, and incremental backups. This means that if my site were to be hacked I could easily roll back to what it looked like 3 or 4 hours ago. I wouldn’t loose much, if any, of my content or other files.

2) Use Fantastico to Install Your Blog (or Change Your Admin Username)

If you install yourself with FTP and cPanel, you’ll have a default username of “admin” which is very easy to guess. By using Fantastico, you will be given the choice to pick a username and password that are unique. Plus, it’s easier than an install with FTP and cPanel. Either way, don’t use “admin” for the admin username. And don’t EVER use “password” for your password.

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My guest bloggers are amazing and they’re the ones that help me keep the WAHM-Articles blog going. If it weren’t for them I’d find fewer posts on the blog and that’s not what I want for the readers of this blog.

I’m thankful for each one of them and I’m so glad they’ve decided to take part and help me with this wonderful blog. I know I’ve learned a lot from each of them and I know that will continue into the future as well.

Just in case you’re not sure who my wonderful guest bloggers are, you can see my list below.

Sophia McIntyre – http://www.workathomespace.com
Tammy Embrich – http://www.onestopwebemployment.com
Michelle Shaeffer – http://michelleshaeffer.com
Amy Royce – http://itsabloggylife.com
Deb Bixler – http://createcashflowshow.com

If it weren’t for you five ladies, the WAHM-Articles blog wouldn’t be what it is today. We wouldn’t have the help you supply with your posts and we wouldn’t have the information our readers come to look for each day.

I thank all of you for your help and I look forward to many more blog posts to come!

Don’t let your email newsletter get tossed into the virtual trash can before it’s opened, or lead your customers to the wrong place when they’re ready to purchase. Be sure you aren’t making these three common mistakes.

1) A non-descriptive or vague “From” line

Don’t put “newsletter” in the “from” line. No one will know which newsletter it is! How likely are you to open a newsletter if you don’t know who it’s from?

Instead, use the title of your newsletter or your business name so people know right away who the newsletter is from.

2) A generic subject line

“May Newsletter” isn’t a very interesting subject line. Make sure your subject line grabs attention and provides a glimpse of what’s inside so readers will open it to read more. Try using the title of an article in the newsletter, a tip from the article, or an intriguing question. Watch your open rates as you experiment with different subject lines to see what your readers are most interested in.

3) Bad links

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Are you trying to figure out what to do with that new “timeline” layout that’s taken over your Facebook page?

Here are 5 easy actions you can take to leverage the new features we’ve been given by the Facebook overlords.

1. Use a Great Cover Photo

Make your cover photo attention grabbing and interesting. Consider changing it occassionally to keep it fresh.

Just touch the image with your mouse and a “Change Cover” option will show up in the bottom right corner. Click that and choose your new image. Dimensions are 851px by 315px.

What can you do with it?

Share photos of yourself/your business:

• products or portfolio shots
• speaking on stage
• working in your office
• with a client or group of clients
• with a coach or your mastermind group
• out networking or attending live events

Use a custom image collage or custom image:

• you can create one yourself with a tool like http://pixlr.com
• use a collage of your fans created with http://myfbcover.com/apps/texteffects/ (scroll down on the page to see it)
• find a talented graphics designer or virtual assistant to create one for you

2. Fill in Your “About” Box

If your page isn’t connected to a place, you’ve got about 165 characters here and if you put in a URL with http:// or www. at the beginning it will show as a live clickable link.

Tips:

• Keep it short and simple
• Don’t use a bunch of buzz words or industry jargon
• You CAN use a call to action in this box (such as “like my page to…”)

If your page is connected to a place, you won’t get to customize this space. It will automatically show your address and contact info. Just make sure it’s accurate and up to date.

3. Take Advantage of the Featured Boxes/Tabs

Instead of “tabs” we’ve now got boxes. Only four will be featured on your page but you can see all the boxes on any page by clicking the small arrow on the right.

Change the box positions to feature the ones you want noticed. If you have a great custom tab promoting a free opt-in gift, upcoming event, or sale you may want to feature it. You may also want to make some boxes not show up when someone first lands on your page (for example, if you’ve only got a few fans, you can hide the “like” box while you grow your numbers).

Just mouse over the box you want to move and an editing pencil icon will appear. Click that then click to swap it with the box of your choice.

4. Star & Feature Your Best Credibility Builders

With the two column layout of our pages, we can now “feature” some posts to make them show up as one column, stretching across the page.

Just touch your mouse over the status update, and you’ll see a star and editing pencil icon appear in the top right corner. Click the star icon to feature it.

5. “Pin” a Welcome or Offer on Top of Your Page

You can “pin” the status update of your choice to the top of your page for up to 7 days. You could use this to share a short welcome message or feature an upcoming event.

And there you go! 5 ways to get more out of your new Facebook timeline.

Got more time? Check out the “Milestone” feature and add important events in your company history — awards, honors, etc.

Michelle Shaeffer’s Twitter profile reads, “Helping entrepreneurs build visibility, voice and community. Homeschool mom, SyFy fan, voracious reader, lover of coffee.” That sums it up pretty well. You can connect with her at or get help with your blog at www.launchyourblog.com.

1. Be Consistent Like Clockwork

Are you blogging consistently? Set a weekly goal and stick to it.

Whether it’s one post a week or five, be sure you’re adding new content on a consistent and reliable schedule so your blog isn’t a ghost town.

2. Get Talkative

One of my favorite ways to attract targeted traffic is by getting active on other blogs—leaving comments and sharing posts on the social networks.

When you leave a comment, you get a link back to your website. If the blogger uses the CommentLuv plugin you’ll get two links back (including one to a recent post on your blog with it’s headline). The blog owner and other readers can easily find your blog that way.

Here’s a great list of blogs that have CommentLuv installed: http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/commentluv-enabled/

Or, you can use the CommentLuv search engine (it’s free if you opt-in to their mailing list): http://www.commentluv.com/buy-commentluv-premium/commentluv-global-search-engine/

3. Offer Free Delivery

Do you have an easy to find “subscribe by rss” and “subscribe by email” option on your blog? Offer your readers a free way to get your blog delivered straight to them and your readership will increase.

FeedBurner is my favorite way to manage my rss feeds, and it’s free. Get the details at http://feedburner.com

If you’d like to add a “subscribe by email” box but aren’t sure how, here’s a video tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytc4TxH03NI

These three strategies have been some of the most effective traffic generators I’ve found for my own blog.

Want more? Grab your copy of 101+ Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website!

Michelle Shaeffer’s Twitter profile describes her as: “Caffeine powered, Libertarian gal enjoying life with my kids and husband. Empowering entrepreneurs.” That sums it up nicely. You can find her at helping to simplify online business at MichelleShaeffer.com or serving up ideas for bloggers at DailyBloggingIdeas.com.

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” – Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

One of my personal challenges is that I’m not one of those naturally outspoken people. It’s part personality and part learned habits (nice girls sit quietly… the whole be seen and not heard mentality). Takes some work to break out of that thought pattern, but it’s worth it if you’ve got goals to reach.

There’s nothing wrong with a calm quietness or reserved dignity, of course! But sitting quietly and never expressing our opinions or sharing our thoughts certainly won’t help us build our businesses, change the world, or make history.

Are you afraid you might say the wrong thing, look silly, or get something incorrect? The more you speak out, the more likely it is that you will at some point. And that’s the perfect time for the polite manners to come out and allow you to gracefully learn. Don’t worry about it so much. It won’t be the end of the world. You might even surprise yourself with the confidence you find in what you know when you start speaking up more. You probably know more that can help and encourage others than you think you do.

Ready to speak your mind? Great! Here are some tips on how to build your brand and reputation through your online interactions, including blog commenting and social networking.

Gravatars/Avatars: You know the little photo that shows up when you leave a blog comment or post on a social network? It’s called your gravatar (for blog comments) or avatar. Set one up free at gravatar.com and it will automatically show up on many blogs when you post using the same email address that you used to register at the gravatar website. Use the same photo, or very similar ones, across all your networks and for your blog comments so people get used to seeing you and know it’s the same “you” in each place.

Link URL: When you comment on a blog, you get to enter a URL for you website. You don’t have to enter your main website home page. You can use your Facebook fan page, your Twitter profile, or your blog URL. You could link to your online portfolio or gallery page. Consider which one would be most engaging for someone who just read your comment to visit and use that one. (But don’t add extra links into the comment you leave unless it’s to a resource you’re sharing, or unless the post requests it.)

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What would your day be like if you could write better blog posts in half the time?

Does it take you an hour (or longer) to write a blog post?

Do you sit down to write and end up frustrated at how much time you’re putting into your blog?

Blogging doesn’t have to be that way.

You can blog well in less time if you know how to approach it and have a few of these strategies in your bag of tricks.

1. Be Yourself & Write What You Know
Trying to blog like someone else usually just causes frustration. Not only will it take you longer, but it will destroy your own creativity and voice if you try to fit yourself into someone else’s mold. It’s okay to “sound” like you!

Part of being you is writing what you know. If you’re blogging about a topic you know little or nothing about, expect it to take a while since you’ll have to research everything thoroughly before you publish. If you pick a topic that you know about you’ll find it much easier to write quality content quickly.

2. Let Go of Perfection
That crazy impulse that drives you to proofread and edit your post for the 37th time… you have to get control of it. Stop at the 36th proofreading run, okay?

It’ll save amazing amounts of time if you accept now that at some point you’re probably going to accidentally publish a typo, say something you need to edit later, or even change your mind about a stance you’ve taken. You don’t have to get it all right all the time. The world will not end if your blog isn’t perfect, I promise.

3. Practice Short & Be Flexible
Some posts might hit 1,000 words because the topic demands it and some posts will necessarily take more time and research than others. But not every post needs to be that long. Sometimes short and sweet can get your point across best. Practice writing shorter posts.

This will also free you to jump in and write a blog post when you’ve got the inspiration and a few minutes, instead of waiting until you’ve got an hour or two blocked off for blogging.

Allow yourself room to try different post lengths and styles.

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If getting your own website built and online for your work at home business was one of your goals this year, there’s still time! You can get your website online in an afternoon with these five easy steps:

1. Choose and register your domain name.

The first step is that you’ll need to decide what domain name you’d like to use. It might be www.yourname.com or www.yourbusiness.com.

2. Create your website hosting account.

You can take care of this at the same time as step 1. Companies like BlueHost and HostGator will handle both your domain registration and your website hosting account for you. It’s usually okay to go with their smallest package option. You can always upgrade later if you need to.

3. Install WordPress using Fantastico.

Once you’ve registered your domain and setup your hosting account, watch for an email from your website host letting you know that you’re ready to go. It will include a username and password for your hosting account’s cPanel where you can login and install WordPress.

4. Choose and install a theme.

WordPress makes it easy to get a professional website up and running quickly because there are thousands of free themes for you to choose from. You can browse themes at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ to see what’s available free.

You might also look at the premium themes from StudioPress and WooThemes.

Don’t let yourself get too stuck on choosing a theme. You’ll be able to change it later with a few clicks.

5. Create your pages and add content.

After you’ve chosen a theme, the next step is to add your content. You can do that under “Pages” -> “Add New” in your WordPress admin area.

Remember, your website will always be a work in progress and that’s okay! The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll be online and managing your very own website.

Want more help getting your website online? Grab your spot in Michelle’s online video course and learn how to build your own websites with WordPress at michelleshaeffer.com/wordpress You’ll get checklists, resources and more to guide you through each step in the process.

Michelle Shaeffer’s Twitter profile describes her as: “Caffeine powered, Libertarian gal enjoying life with my kids and husband. Empowering entrepreneurs.” That sums it up nicely. You can find her at helping to simplify online business at MichelleShaeffer.com or serving up ideas for bloggers at DailyBloggingIdeas.com.