Website 1: Updated WordPress Version
This website owner updated their version of WordPress. A minor error in the administrative settings allowed a hacker to register as a user. Because the software was up to date, the hacker got no farther than joining as a subscriber. No damage was done, no reinstalling of files was needed, and no major overhauls were warranted.

Website 2: WordPress Was Not Updated
The WordPress admin for the second website did not upgrade their WordPress platform. The same minor error mentioned above allowed the hacker to register as a user. However, since the software was out of date the hacker was then able to change themselves to an administrator. They then added other fake users, hid new admins they created, and changed various settings. They also changed the permalink structure to redirect users to potentially harmful websites. An afternoon’s worth of work was required to completely sanitize the website to make it safe once again.

The Importance
Weeks ago, the WordPress community found a hole in the security and the issue was promptly fixed. Once it was resolved, an update was distributed. In fact, the past two software updates included this security patch. People who had not updated their software recently were exposed to the worm and a lot of website owners have been affected. They felt the affect of not staying on top of their updates. The rest of the community was more protected from the attack.

If you want to read more about the importance of updating your WordPress software, Matt Mullenweg wrote a good article on the WordPress blog.

Please let me know if you have any questions concerning your current version of WordPress or if you are confused about updating your version of WordPress.

Stay safe out there!

For me it raised an important question: whose blog is it?

His Blog
It should be noted that his blog is a semi-personal one and not a business blog like this. (However, since he makes part of his living through his blog I am counting it as part business/part personal.) With that said, though, the blogger is right. It is his blog. He can shut it down whenever he wants. He can decide to go in a completely different direction and start writing lemur-themed haiku posts. The same is true for this blog. If we decided to only write about the benefits of oscillating fans during the summer there is not much you could do about it. Or could you?

Your Blog
While the audience cannot completely control the website owner’s actions, the audience does have some power. They have a voice. As was mentioned above, their voices come in two primary forms: (1) commenting and (2) unsubscribing. Voicing displeasure on comments is a great way to provide feedback to the writer(s). In a blogging community (like a business blog should support), responding to feedback is vital to a blog’s health. If there is no response then that blog community moves on to step two: mass exodus. If large masses of people leave your blog then your revenue streams and/or marketing opportunities dry up. That is bad for business.

So, for me, the answer to my question of “whose blog is it?” is simple. The blog is both of theirs. That particular blogging community has part ownership with the final decision-making power lying in the hands of the writer himself.

And, if the blogger wants to go in a completely new direction. He will just have to understand that they might have to find a brand new audience.

I have two examples come to mind.

The Iconic Symbol
The first is with a blog post I did on Twitter a few months ago. I had a good conversation with some readers and got a few links coming to the website. Awesome… and then the junk came. Apparently, the icon was picked up on Google images… and a few bloggers liked the it enough to steal bandwidth hotlink the image. I assume a few of them did it by accident, but either way it was pretty annoying and required a bit of angling so they would not use my resources.

Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt Me
The second example brings us to today: our blog kind of got hacked yesterday. I believe it has to do with some of the recent blog post about web security. So far, I cannot tell that anything actually happened, but two “people” registered on the blog as subscribers. They/he/she did this despite my not having user registration access on the main part of the website. After a quick Google search I found that one of the email addresses is associated with a person who uses that newly acquired access to break into the website and do (presumably) bad things.

I guess I might have to try and increase the security on the blog. Between that and prayer, hopefully nothing bad will go down on the back-end of the website. Stay tuned!

advertising agency… won $1.8 million in damages after suing an author of a blog ?Äì known for its harsh and sometimes crass criticism of elected officials, business leaders and local media ?Äì for defamation.

Man wins $1.8 million in suit against blogger

According to the Observer, court documents state that the blogger called the head of the ad agency a

“failed lawyer” and “criticized one of the firm’s advertising campaigns.”

Man wins $1.8 million in suit against blogger

I know that you will never encounter a problem like this because you are providing information that is helpful and informational for your readers, but a little reminder never hurts.

Always be mindful about how your blog posts impact others. A negative-slanted post might

• damage your company’s or your own reputation
• detract from your blog’s overall message
• take a little extra cash out of your wallet

Here’s to happy and helpful business blogging!

This aspect of web marketing is its biggest hurdle and yet its biggest value. Why? It means that everyone cannot just swoop in, make a half-hearted effort and then subsequently succeed.

This gives small businesses owners, like us, leverage. If you are willing to commit your time and effort to steadily growing your online presence, over the long-term, it will begin to provide the results you are seeking.

Your Very Own Compound Interest
When dealing with savings, you add some money to your account on a regular basis. The interest then goes to work on your constantly-updated balance and increases your overall savings. Over a period of time, you will begin to see the realization of the compound interest.

Three factors determine your success: you adding money, the interest working on your balance, and time allowing the interest to build upon itself.

Your web marketing is very similar. When dealing with blogging, your job is to write frequent posts. Write posts that have good content and that do something for your audience. At first, one or two people will read your blog. As these few readers find interesting information on your blog, they will tell a friend or two. This process will continue upon itself, creating “compound audienceship.”

Similar to above, the key factors here are your effort (i.e. writing posts), your engaged audience telling others about something they read on your website, and time allowing the growing audience to build upon itself.

What You Can Do To Help Yourself
When dealing with savings accounts, there is not much you can do to help accelerate the growth. Mainly, you just try to find the best interest rate that will allow your money to grow a little faster. Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to help yourself out with blogging. None of these are quick fixes, but they will help your cause.

• Continue writing… do not stop.
• Engage your audience. Try to reply to their comments as much as possible.
• Read other people’s blogs and comment on them. Get involved in the community around you.
• Stay focused on your audience and write material that is oriented towards them.

If you want to read more about blogging being a long-term investment, check out my article relating blogging to a marathon.

The 3D Bar Graph Meeting image above is courtesy of lumaxart on Flickr. You can also find their work at thegoldguys.blogspot.com or lumaxart.com.

A couple of prominent web services have completely lost their data over the past few months and I mean everything!

Ma.gnolia
According to SitePoint’s podcast, Ma.gnolia, a social bookmarking site similar to Delicious lost their entire database. Every single person who kept their bookmarks on this website lost everything and will now have to rebuild their store of website bookmarks.

Journalspace
I also heard on SitePoint’s podcast that Journalspace, a blogging platform similar to WordPress(.com), lost all of their data. This means that every single member of Journalspace lost every single blog post. As any blog author knows, that is devastating!

Why & What You Can Do
Why did this happen? These websites did not back up their data properly. As a result, if the information was deleted on one (or two servers) then everything was erased. This is exactly what occurred in both of the aforementioned examples.

When it comes to your data (i.e. blog posts, personal photos, important documents, videos of the children) do not trust anything. Regularly back it up in multiple places.

Here is an example of how I back up this blog. I schedule automatic backups using an easy WordPress plugin called wp-db-backup. I save that back-up file to the computer in my office and then also back-up the entire drive to another location. With your data always err on the side of caution.

Do Not Be the Chalkboard
Essentially, if you do not back up your information, your data is no more than words on a chalkboard. All it takes is for someone (or something) to come by and wipe it clean and you have lost everything.

The chalkboard photo is courtesy of House Of Sims at Flickr.

A Classic Example
I came across this blog article discussing a “conversation” on Twitter between a reporter and a marketing expert. I am not going to provide my opinion on who is right and who is wrong. The important lesson to take away from this conversation is that your words and actions can haunt you.

Be careful that you do not get into a tirade on Twitter. Beware of bashing someone on your blog. Watch out for saying something offensive on Facebook. You should always be strategic with your words, but on the Internet this is even more important. Choose your words carefully because you never know who is watching.

Quick Tips
Here are a few tips on how to lessen the chances of writing those words you will regret:
1. Count to 10… or 100… or 1,000. Regardless of the duration of time, take a break and step away from the computer. This is a classic rule to follow, but it does work.
2. Check your ego at the keyboard. Remember that the social web is all about relationships. As a result, you run the risk of getting your feelings hurt once in a while. That is a reality; accept it, deal with it, and be prepared.
3. If you need, take the conversation offline. If it is something that is really important to discuss, talk with the other person on the phone or in person.

Your Thoughts
What other techniques do you use to reduce the chances of having a major blowout online? Have you ever done this?

The photo is courtesy of Arturo J. Paniagua on Flickr.

Well, I have to admit that I have known about this problem for a while; however, it is a tough habit to break.

From this advice comes this week’s lesson on how to write a blog. Avoid verbose blog posts. Essentially, do not use twenty words to make your point when 10 will work. Here are a few reasons why:

• Research shows that reading on a computer is significantly slower than reading print. Be respectful of your readers’ time and keep your article short.
• Attention spans have gotten shorter and people are not wiling to spend a lot of time reading.
• Today, the majority of people scan web pages rather than reading them. Long posts will reduce a reader’s ability to fully scan your post.

So, to heed the advice I received, I leave you with this: take care of your readers by keeping your blog posts short and to the point. Leave all the unnecessary fluff for someone else’s blog.

2¢ – Your two cents
Do you struggle with long posts?
How do you keep your posts short?
What other problems do you encounter when you write your posts?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I would love to get your two cents on this post.

Do you like the photo in this post? It is courtesy of m00by’s events on Flickr.

Social Media Predictions
Mary Fisher is a blogger at Spinfield. According to her bio she used to be a newspaper reporter, and you can tell in her posts. She does an excellent job writing and I find her posts to be both enjoyable and informational. In this post, Mary provides six predictions on the state of social media in 2009. Here are a few of her predictions along with some of my thoughts:

Blogging Goes Mainstream ?Äì In 2008, many companies still needed to be convinced that blogging is beneficial. In 2009, blogging will be recognized as an economical tool for sharing information about organizations and products.

I completely agree. I think blogging really is going to take off this year. Dare I say that blogging might even become fashionable in 2009?? I guess we will have to wait and see.

The Rise of Blogging as a Profession? – Gone are the days of having an intern or just anybody regularly post articles about your company. Writing quality and legal concerns demand an increase in writing skill and professionalism.

I am not sure about this one. I agree that professionalism and good writing skills are important for business blogs. My concern, though, is the emphasis placed on hiring an outside professional blogger to write for a business blog. I wonder how much transparency is lost by hiring an outside writer to handle a company’s blog posts.

Budgets will be Saved ?Äì Reflecting the economy, lower marketing budgets will require creativity on the part of marketing departments. Limited marketing funds will continue to shift away from traditional media to more economical social media.

I agree that social media marketing is great given our current economic situation because of its low-cost nature. Almost no money is needed to start a web marketing campaign.

The problem a lot of people will encounter when they attempt web marketing is the amount of work it takes to maintain a solid campaign. This factor alone will weed out a lot of businesses who are not truly committed to web marketing and are not willing to put in the effort.

Beginners Welcome
The beauty of blogging is that it really does not take much to start – just a blogging platform and a few thoughts. Therefore, the barrier-to-entry is quite low. All are welcome to the world of blogging. Becoming a better blogger, though, does take some work. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of posts providing advice to people who are just now entering the blogosphere.

Our blog, for example, provides information on how to write better blogs. Another such blog (ProBlogger) does the same. I recently read one of his articles that provides a summary of posts to help the beginning blogger. I included a few links here. If you are new to blogging I highly suggest reading them to help you improve.

Introductory Posts

• What is a Blog?
• 23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers – Is a Blog Right for You?
• How to Choose a Niche Topic for Your Blog
• Choosing a Domain Name for your Blog
• Blog Tools

Tips for Writing Content for Blogs

• Useful and Unique Content
• Post Length
• Granular (One Topic) Posts
• Using Titles Effectively on Blogs
• Scannable Content
• Basic HTML Tags
• More on Writing Content for your Blog

(Note: It should be noted that I first found this great blog post at ChurchCrunch before I had checked my Google Reader. Therefore, I am going to give ChurchCrunch a thumbs-up.)

2¢ – Your two cents
Did these links help you? Are you new to blogging? If you are new to blogging, what is the one thing that you feel you need to learn to get better? If you have been blogging for a while, what is one thing you would tell new bloggers to help them improve? Where else would you suggest looking for advice on how to write a blog? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I would love to get your two cents.

Do you like the photo in this post? It is courtesy of Nic’s events on Flickr.

Bloggers who I believe set great goals. These bloggers…

• want to increase their consistency and/or frequency of writing posts (Devakishor, Hardgainer Transformation).
• set a goal to write a certain number of posts per week (Slavi, Hardgainer Transformation, Daily SEO Blog).
• set a goal to learn more about their specific subject matter (Slavi).
• increase the amount of original content they publish (Devakishor).
• increase visibility through various social media websites (Devakishor).
• set a goal to start video blogging (Hardgainer Transformation) or write an eBook (Geek Entrepreneur).
• get more involved with other projects (Daily SEO Blog).
• write a guest post for three blogs (Geek Entrepreneur).
• I would love to see some more sustained conversation going on (Sean P. Aune).
• set goals to put more effort and time to become a successful blogger (MayUOnline).

Bloggers who might have set problematic goals because they seem to focus solely on the numbers. These bloggers set goals such as

• daily unique hit: 4000.
• daily hit: 6000.
• page views: 5,000 a month by November 2009.
• unique visitors: 1,000 a month by November 2009.
• increase subscriber base to 10,000.
• I am hoping to increase my average over this year, and though I am still seeing slight growth, it won’t be easy. I will again shoot for a 50% increase, and hope to do this through writing more general appeal posts that result in better search engine traffic.

My Disclaimer
Before I continue, let me provide a disclaimer. Most of these blogs probably have a higher following than this blog. They probably have a larger amount of traffic than this blog. Therefore, they could be considered more successful than this blog, so I provide these thoughts with a huge level of humility.

Are You In the Circle of Trust Influence?
Stephen Covey provides us with a great concept in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. According to Covey, you have a Circle of Concern (CoC) and a Circle of Influence. Our Circle of Concern contains our “wide range of concerns – our health, our children, problems at work, the national debt, nuclear war.” (pg. 81). In contrast to this is our Circle of Influence, which is a smaller circle inside the CoC. The Circle of Influence contains those concerns that we can actually do something about. (pg. 82). Where you end up putting most of your time and energy determines how proactive (and eventually effective) you are.

That was a long set up, but it is important to help explain why I liked the first set of goals and disliked the second set of goals. The former list shows bloggers who are focusing on their Circle of Influence. They are working to blog more consistently and with better quality. They desire to increase their knowledge in order to be better thought leaders. These bloggers are setting their goals on what they can really change (or influence).

The latter list concerns me because their goals deal mostly with items outside of the Circle of Influence. These bloggers are looking to the numbers game, which they really cannot change. How many hits are they getting? How many unique hits are they receiving? How many subscribers do they have? The problem is that the bloggers cannot really change these numbers no matter how hard they try. Their focus is on things outside of the bloggers’ ability to control.

One risk of setting these types of goals is that they can cause the blogger to become too generic for their own niche market. Another risk is perceiving their work as a failure if they do not meet those specific numbers. What if your blog had a huge impact on a small number of people. What if that small group of subscribers are truly devoted followers that are part of a community you lead? According to these goals, your impact on others and your community is strong; however, since you only achieved 3,000 unique visitors instead of 4,000, your efforts appear to be a failure.

2¢’s – Your Two Cents
So, I leave you with these questions. What are your blogging goals for 2009? Are your goals focused on the numbers or are they focused on what you can do to make your blog better? Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts, and why? Do you have any thoughts or experiences that support or disprove this post? How do you live your non-blogging life? Inside the Circle of Influence or outside of it? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear your two cents.

Photo courtesty of Carla216 on Flickr.