The average person watches online videos for about 100 minutes a day. Watching videos is one of the most popular activities on Facebook. You can tap into this market by creating video ads. You can create a YouTube or Vimeo channel and use video to educate and engage with your audience.
Digital assistants are still trending, and many of your customers are using them to make their lives easier. Features like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google’s digital assistant let people search the internet without even picking up their phones. In 2021, 20% of internet searches were voice-based.
To improve internet privacy, Google is on a mission to remove third-party cookies from its websites. Firefox and Safari no longer support them. This change will likely impact how your onsite ads and banner ads are displayed. Websites won’t be able to use tracking cookies to populate ads. Google and other platforms are working on replacement algorithms to place onsite ads while improving privacy. And cookies won’t officially be gone until 2023. You can adapt your digital ads by using keywords and advertising on sites that provide a logical context for your ads.
Houston Daylighting Built a Marketing Hub
A major manufacturer had provided a templated site for Houston Daylighting. But Doug Franklin wanted more control over content and more flexibility to expand his SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and educational information. Your Computer Lady built a new WordPress site which offers the ultimate in flexibility. 10,000 themes to choose from. 100,000 plug-ins for special features. Yoast Premium to guide SEO implementation.
YCL also created a customized form to encourage callers which leads to appointments which leads to sales. One of multiple funnels built into the marketing plan.
Staying Alive “Training Guardian Angels One Class at a Time”
Deanna Young provides certified classes for CPR, First Aid and Babysitting. All those guardian angels need equipment too! Your Computer Lady built a shopping cart offering AED equipment as well as masks. The cart was a bit complicated as the various AED machines come with multiple options. WooCommerce provided the solution!
Here’s the rule of thumb for when and where to back up data.
The more important the information
The more often you should back up and
The more distant those back up files should be.
I back up my QuickBooks data every 2 days and every time I do a lot of input. I don’t want to re-build or re-do a lot of entries. So the time it takes to do the back up is a savings compared to the frustration and time required to re-do the work.
If YCL does more than 1 hour of input on a website, we back up the site immediately. No need to risk losing that work!
Really important information like a password list, payroll records, client info, photos of grandchildren, etc. should be in 2 or 3 different places. Maybe a copy on a thumb drive in your office. A copy on Dropbox. A copy on iDrive.
If the thumb drive gets corrupted, you can pull from Dropbox or iDrive. If Dropbox crashes, you can pull from the thumb drive or iDrive.
Yes, even files stored on the cloud should have back ups!
Case in point, I store all of my passwords with LastPass. It’s a great software that I’ve recommended to many of you. A month ago CenturyLink had a nation-wide system disruption that affected the LastPass servers. I couldn’t log in!! The info was still there but I couldn’t get to it. Now I am exporting the passwords once a month and storing them in Dropbox.
I highly recommend that at least one of your back ups be automated. Sync everything with Dropbox. Use iDrive. Buy an external hard drive with back up software. Automating the process will save you time and give you protection even on those super busy days where little tasks get missed.
You can set up Dropbox to automatically sync files from your computer. You can use iDrive or Google Drive to schedule back ups.
Don’t wait for a disaster to happen. Plan and implement your system now for peace of mind.
GoDaddy announced 11/23 that they had had a major security breach involving their Managed WordPress hosting. Their notice was followed by one from WordFence, the security software we put on all of the sites we do maintenance for. See the emails below.
To protect my clients and YCL, I have:
I started these changes yesterday. I will finish today.
You need to visit your site a few times over the next few weeks and check to see that the site is functioning properly and that there is no unusual activity on it. YCL will continue monitoring via WordFence.
If you used the same password for the WordPress login that you use on other accounts, YOU NEED TO CHANGE THE OTHER PASSWORDS IMMEDIATELY. The hackers will be trying to use the user names and passwords they got at banks, Facebook, Amazon, etc. to see if they can use your password to access these other accounts.
Each password at each site should be unique.
GoDaddy announcement
We are writing to inform you of a security incident impacting your GoDaddy Managed WordPress hosting service.
We recently identified suspicious activity in our WordPress hosting environment and immediately began an investigation with the help of a third-party IT forensics firm and have contacted law enforcement. Our investigation is ongoing, but we have determined that, on or about September 6, 2021, an unauthorized third party gained access to certain authentication information for administrative services, specifically, your customer number and email address associated with your account; your WordPress Admin login set at inception; and your sFTP and database usernames and passwords. What this means is the unauthorized party could have obtained the ability to access your Managed WordPress service and make changes to it, including to alter your website and the content stored on it. The exposure of your email address may also present a heightened risk of phishing attacks.
We are taking several steps to protect you and your data. First, we have blocked the unauthorized third party from our systems.
Second, we have reset your WordPress Admin login credentials, sFTP password and your database password. Your website is still up and running, but you won’t be able to edit content until you reset your passwords.
Here are the instructions on how to reset each password:
• WordPress Admin Login, please visit: https://www.godaddy.com/help/a-26916.
• sFTP or data password, please visit: https://www.godaddy.com/help/a-40804.
• WordPress database password, please visit: https://www.godaddy.com/help/a-24573.
If you use the same password for other accounts, we recommend you change your password to those accounts and adopt data security best practices, such as choosing a strong unique password, regularly changing it, and enabling multi-factor authentication where available. We also recommend that you remain vigilant for potentially fraudulent communications sent to your email address purporting to be from GoDaddy or other third parties.
Finally, because the private key of your existing Managed WordPress SSL certificate was exposed, the certificate will need to be revoked. We are in the process of installing a free DV SSL certificate on your website for one year to minimize potential site downtime.
If you would like to continue using your existing SSL certificate product, please follow the directions below to rekey a new certificate: https://www.godaddy.com/help/a-4976.
If you have any other questions, or you need further assistance, please call (480) 505-8870.
For residents living in California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming, please visit https://www.godaddy.com/help/a-41004 for additional resources that describe additional steps you can take to help protect your information, including recommendations by the Federal Trade Commission regarding identity theft protection and details on how to place a fraud alert or a security freeze on your credit file.
Thank you,
Demetrius Comes
Chief Information Security Officer
WordFence Notice
GoDaddy announced this morning that they have been breached. Our team took a deep dive into the breach and found that GoDaddy appears to have stored passwords in plaintext, or in a format that could be reversed back into plaintext, which is not an industry best practice.
We confirmed this by signing into a GoDaddy Managed WordPress Hosting Account and verifying that we were able to view our own sFTP password. That means the attacker didn’t need to crack the passwords and could likely retrieve them directly.
According to GoDaddy’s own SEC filing: “For active customers, sFTP and database usernames and passwords were exposed.“
The attacker had access to GoDaddy’s systems for over two months before they were discovered.
We have published a detailed post explaining how customers are affected, and what to do. Please pay special attention to our comments regarding your own customer notification obligations, if your site(s) are affected by this.
Click here to read our post about this breach on the official Wordfence blog…..
One of the leading social media experts, Michael Stelzner, looks at the current status and the future of Facebook. What does this mean for your business? You possibly need to change your social media routine.
Want to create better visuals for your marketing? Looking for tools and tips to help you easily create visual content?
In this podcast, you’ll find a number of tools and apps you can use to design visually compelling content like a pro. You’ll also get tips to drive more visibility for your visuals.
Michael Stelzner interviews visual content strategist and found of Socially Sorted, Donna Moritz.