blogging – Mindflight

It’s pushing me into premature old age…

This is a cautionary tale for my fellow bloggers.

I had thought my art site, Rohvannynshaw.com, was fairly safe. I had set up a couple of passwords that did the whole numbers, letters and symbols thing. I guess my FTP password, which I didn’t think of much because I don’t really use FTP, was too easy to guess.

This opened the site up to scammers!

It started with the multiple spam comments a day. After I locked that down by requiring sign up for commenters, I still got a few. Then the spam through my contact form started. Then I found a couple of blog posts that I hadn’t written. I changed my passwords and deleted the content, figuring that would be the end of it. It wasn’t. Then a couple of users I hadn’t added showed up. I deleted them, changed the password again…

Then someone built a phishing page that was harassing hotels in Germany, using the hosting I was paying for. Then they took over my email and started using that to spam people, and locked me out…

So I contacted my hosting company to see what I could do.

It turns out that FTP password, which I rarely even thought of, was the weak link. It had been too easy to guess and had given scammers access.

So my entire site had to be deleted and now I have to start from scratch. I’m waiting a bit to see if anyone is putting any other files on my site or database, before rebuilding the site. As many gray hairs as this has given me, I’ve learned a lot. So here are some things you can do to prevent the same thing from happening.

Keep an inventory of all your passwords and make sure they are ALL hard to guess. You may want to keep a little book, hidden or locked up somewhere, as a master list that is not accessible online. That way you can change things on a regular basis and not forget anything. I have done this. I know people say never write down your password, but honestly that’s probably the safest way to keep it – just don’t leave it where people can find it.

Watch for spam comments, new files you didn’t upload, and new users on your site.

If you pay for hosting outside WordPress, know how to get into your database and your files list so you can check for new things you didn’t add.

Watch for blog posts you didn’t write. They may be hidden in the middle of the list.

Get two factor authentication if you can.

Keep your blog updated with any security updates or patches.

Run an antivirus (I recommend Spybot S&D) or use a Linux machine. That way, you aren’t as likely to be hit by keyloggers that will save your password.

If you have a security issue, go to your hosting service – a lot of times they can be helpful.

Back up your site in some way. That way you don’t have to start from scratch in case you have to redo it – like I did. I have my blog entries for my art site saved on Goodreads so I know basically what I had.

Stay vigilant! If something looks odd, investigate.

Keep blogging! Sites with few or infrequent updates are prime targets for scammers and hackers because they know they aren’t watched as well.

May the Source be with you.

via Daily Prompt: Age

Blog your way to a book

Tips for Self Publishing, Tips for Writers

Blogging can be a great way to get enough material to turn into a book. I have seen people stitch short stories into a book, poetry, anecdotes about life, webcomics of course, and several other topics. The excellent blog and website “The Art of Manliness” has spun off into several books, all of which are truly excellent reading.

I’ve done this too. In fact, my novel “The Dice of Fate” was largely published on a blog, in its rough draft form, before I polished it and made it into a full length novel. The short format of the blog was accessible enough that I wasn’t daunted by the writing, and I found that I’d written the whole story, in little chunks, in just over a month. It took a couple of months to polish and much editing, of course, but it can be done.

Your blog will give you the most bookworthy material if it’s all centered around a theme. For instance, if I were going to turn this blog into a book, I might pick two or three of my categories. For instance, I might pick “life,” “life and love,” “life hacks,” and “randomness” if I were making a book about my thoughts and observations.

I might pick “art,” “art tips,” “writing,” and “publishing” if I were making a book about art and improving your work.

Making your blog entries into a book doesn’t mean you have to leave them as they are, either. You can go back and edit them, restate things in a better way, expand on points, and more. It can be a lot of fun seeing how you’ve grown, and giving your original thoughts the advantage of your increased knowledge and perspective!

Then, when you have everything polished, you can self publish as well as make your work available as an ebook. This kind of book is a natural for that.

Don’t forget to have someone else (or several someones) read your new book to make sure it’s interesting, topical, and flows well.

Happy blogging!

Writing tip: Scintillating Articles

Tips for Self Publishing, Tips for Writers

This tip may be a bit basic but I think you’ll all agree that there are many authors who could use this advice. So, as a public service, I repost this tip:

It’s not so hard to write a fascinating, informative article or blog post if you organize it right.

All you have to do is use the “inverted pyramid” writing structure that journalists do. Basically, you start with an eye catching headline, hopefully relevant to your content. Then you write a short introductory paragraph outlining your main point.

After that, you expand upon your main topic, giving detail and supporting evidence. There is where you would use the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” of journalism to best effect.

If you want to make it really great, use interesting, descriptive words to draw your reader in and really illustrate your different pieces of supporting evidence.

When you are done, sum your subject or facts up again, make an interesting point about it or underscore your conclusion. This will keep the idea fresh in your reader’s mind. And it will make a coherent, very readable post!

There’s extra credit these days if you add an eyecatching picture.

Who knew you’d find something useful in high school writing class?