In today’s issue, an upgrade warning to all who host their own WordPress blogs. How to upgrade your blog in a few steps. Easily change your admin username. Back up your blog to your Amazon S3 account. Back up your blog to your host. A scanner to detect how vulnerable your blog is to an attack. And plugins to secure and lock down your WordPress blog to brute force attacks.

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8 Critical WordPress Security Resources

1. Still Using An Older WordPress Version?

It’s not just you, alot of others are still running older versions of WordPress (WP). Recently, many have reported seeing weird stuff in their URLs, all of them running older versions of WP.

Save yourself hours of wasted time and agony by upgrading to the latest version of WP. If you don’t deploy a security update, you’re vulnerable to get hacked, just a matter of when.

Here’s more details to the hack warning at Wordpress:

http://shermanlive.com/go/hackwarning

2. Upgrade Your WP Blog Automatically OR Manually

Automatic or manual upgrade – your choice. But whichever option you choose, backup your database first. (Below, I share a few links to do this)

Personally, I prefer the control of a manual upgrade. Quite simple, really. 3 steps – replace the files, execute the upgrade, and finally… do the happy dance!

More details to upgrading, either way:

http://shermanlive.com/go/upgradewp

3. How To Easily Change Your Admin Username In WP

Why change your admin username? Security. Be default, WP sets up your login name as “admin”. Hackers know this, and it makes their job easy.

But changing it manually by editing your WP database is cruel and unusual punishment! Trust me, I’ve been there, done that, and got the lousy t-shirt.

Enter the “Change Admin Username” plugin…ta-da! Activate it and it adds a new menu item to your Dashboard’s “Users” menu. Input new username, click save, and it’ll do its magic to your database.

http://shermanlive.com/go/wpadminchange

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4. Backup Your WP Blog To Your Amazon S3 account

If you have an Amazon S3 account, you know how easy and affordable it is to store data and resources on it.

(If you want more details on Amazon S3, visit: http://shermanlive.com/go/amazons3)

With the “WP S3 Backups” plugin, you can easily and automatically backup important parts of your WP blog to your account.

http://shermanlive.com/go/wps3backup

5. Schedule WP Blog Backups To Your Host Server

If you’d rather backup your WP blog to your host account, instead of Amazon S3, this “DBC Backup” plugin will make easy work of this process for you.

You can select when and where your backup will be generated, including 3 different compression formats.

http://shermanlive.com/go/dbcbackup

6. Scan Your WP Blog For Attack Vulnerabilities

“WP Scanner” is a no-cost online resource to measure your blog security levels.

Their “Activator Plugin” verifies you own your blog, giving them permission to test it.

Plugin & Details:
http://shermanlive.com/go/wpscannerplugin

After activating the plugin, simply launch the WP Scanner to test your security levels:
http://shermanlive.com/go/wpscan

7. Secure Your WordPress Installation

There are certain files in your WP blog installation that could be easy doorways to hackers. This plugin, ”Secure WordPress”, helps to secure your blog with removing and adding select files to tighten your blog’s security.

http://shermanlive.com/go/securewp

8. Lockdown Protection From Brute Force Attacks

WordPress blogs are vulnerable to brute force attacks as there are no limits to how many times a user can use invalid login passwords before using the correct one.

This plugin, “User Locker”, will close this hole with a maximum number of invalid login attempts. Once this number is exceeded, the account is locked.

More details on how User Locker works here:

http://shermanlive.com/go/userlocker

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That’s it for this issue, my friends. Thank you for reading, and you can share your feedback and comments below or via Twitter.

If you liked this first issue, why not forward it to your friends, colleagues, family and anyone else that you think might enjoy it. Thank you for your continued support.

Until the next issue, here’s wishing you much health, happiness, prosperity – and security,

Sherman Hu

Wendy Y Bailey of DIY Tech Talk is a colleague and social media buddy on Twitter. She interviewed me about the use of WordPress for business, and expanded on topics ranging from purpose of a blog for business use, plugins – along with my favorite plugins, themes – along with which 3 I recommend, integration with social media, and how to rank well and be visible on Google with blogs.

In this conversation, I shared edu-taining strategies using video to be visible, outrank your competition, and build your brand and expertise – tune in to this part of the conversation! 

As always, I appreciate your feedback and comments on your takeaways, and your thoughts on this video’s content. Cheers!

Show Notes

 01:22 AngelaBaden : Great, great show!

 01:22 shermanlive-1 : Thanks peeps!

 01:22 shermanlive-1 : thanks Angela!

 01:24 AngelaBaden : That really helped, I was feeling rather stymied by what wasn’t going on

 01:24 shermanlive : good! rock and roll now!

 01:26 AngelaBaden : Will do! Will tweet you and andy

 01:55 shermanlive : let me un-password my show peeps – sorry

 01:56 shermanlive : ok, go ahead and refresh the page – there shouldn’t be a password requirement now

 01:56 shermanlive : !moderateon

 01:56 shermanlive : !topic DIY Tech Talk: WordPress with Sherman Hu – Interview Host: Wendy Y Bailey

 03:00 lisamariemary : Hi Sherman!

 03:02 shermanlive : HEY HEY LISA MARIE!!!

 03:02 shermanlive : let your peeps know we’re gonna party about … now

 03:03 lisamariemary : Will do!

 03:03 lisamariemary : Yes

 03:03 DaveMarshall : good here

 03:03 lisamariemary : Volume just right to me

 03:09 shermanlive : wazzup peeps!

 03:10 lisamariemary : Hey Tony! Man, I need to visit your forum!

 03:11 WendyYBailey : http://snipurl.com/diy-wp-wendyy

 03:11 WendyYBailey : that’s to join the webinar!!

 03:12 TonyBlake : Yes you do Lisa… LOL!

 03:13 TonyBlake : SHOUT!

 03:14 lisamariemary : Eeks – I know, I’ve neglected you

 03:15 lisamariemary : eeks, sound gone

 03:15 lisamariemary : what happened to the audio? is it just me?

 03:16 LifeCoachMary : I love the pictures of food!! Yummo.

 03:16 shermanlive : do u hear us now?

 03:16 AndreaC : I hear fine

 03:16 shermanlive : HEY LIFECOACHMARY!!!

 03:16 lisamariemary : No, maybe I need to log in and out…hmm…

 03:16 LifeCoachMary : sound isn’t synced to the phone…

 03:16 shermanlive : refresh?

 03:17 lisamariemary : All better! Ahh!

 03:17 LifeCoachMary : do you know what the link is for Wendyy’s snip.url?

 03:17 shermanlive : yes there’s a delay

 03:17 shermanlive : http://snipurl.com/diy-wp-wendyy

 03:17 AndreaC : No better to make a choice with the audio, either or

 03:18 lisamariemary : Audio’s all fixed for me

 03:18 AndreaC : lol

 03:18 AndreaC : whats “for” dinner?

 03:21 LifeCoachMary : Thanks…all this technology is very cool.

 03:22 WendyYBailey : I love SEO, especially the All In One SEO Plugin for WordPress!

 03:23 WendyYBailey : What questions do you have about SEO and WordPress?

 03:24 AndreaC : Besides using the SEO plugin what else do you recommend doing?

 03:26 WendyYBailey : What’s a trackback?

 03:26 LisaVanAllen : Thanks for asking that WendyY

 03:27 lisamariemary : LOL!!!

 03:27 LisaVanAllen : I was getting scared

 03:27 WendyYBailey : LOL

 03:29 AndreaC : would you only do one or the other – comment or trackback?

 03:34 LisaVanAllen : When my prospects google “LisaVanAllen” these days, they find pg 1 filled with info on a woman involved in a notorious lawsuit (NOT ME). Any way to knock her off and regain page 1??

 03:36 LisaVanAllen : Is that QAlias?

 03:36 shermanlive : http://www.qalias.com/

 03:37 WendyYBailey : http://qalias.com/af/wb01

 03:37 LisaVanAllen : Got any contacts for me??

 03:37 shermanlive : i’ll send U “TONY”

 03:37 lisamariemary : LOL!

 03:37 LisaVanAllen : heehee

 03:38 lisamariemary : lol

 03:38 LisaVanAllen : It was NASTY!

 03:38 lisamariemary : Squidoo!

 03:39 LisaVanAllen : Not yet… will now!!

 03:39 LisaVanAllen : Just getting started with video

 03:39 lisamariemary : And use blogspot and youtube, too – they seem to get in the SERPS fairly quickly

 03:39 LisaVanAllen : How FUN!!!!

 03:39 AndreaC : brilliant!!

 03:40 lisamariemary : Oooh, yeah!!! That’d be cool!

 03:40 WendyYBailey : You got the right one, baby!!

 03:40 lisamariemary : Awesome!

 03:40 shermanlive : TubeMogul.com

 03:40 LisaVanAllen : That is a fabulous idea!!

 03:40 lisamariemary : I love it! And it’d make a cute Squidoo lens!

 03:41 LisaVanAllen : THANK YOU!!!

 03:41 LisaVanAllen : Yup with R Kelly

 03:41 LisaVanAllen : NOT ME!

 03:41 LisaVanAllen : Yes… very white!

 03:41 lisamariemary : lol

 03:41 lisamariemary : lmao!!!

 03:42 AndreaC : So when I search Lisa Van Allen next month, hope to see this video

 03:42 lisamariemary : No problems with new version? I’m scared to upgrade

 03:43 TonyBlake : No probs so far Lisa… upgrade was easy and no probs

 03:44 lisamariemary : Groovy!

 03:44 TonyBlake : I’ve upgraded all my blogs to 2.7 and have yet to have a prob — and I have like 35 blogs

 03:44 lisamariemary : OMG, Tony – wow!

 03:44 LisaVanAllen : 35?!?!?!? Where do you find the time?

 03:44 WendyYBailey : WOOHOO!

 03:45 lisamariemary : Tony is super groovy!

 03:45 LisaVanAllen : Tony – can we be friends?

 03:45 AndreaC : http://www.ablakeforum.com

 03:45 TonyBlake :

 03:45 TonyBlake : @tonyblakelive

 03:46 WendyYBailey : What plug-ins do you suggest?

 03:47 TonyBlake : I love sharethis… makes life so easy

 03:47 WendyYBailey : plug-ins: sharethis

 03:47 WendyYBailey : plug-ins: twittertools

 03:49 WendyYBailey : post a digest of your tweets on your blog

 03:49 WendyYBailey : kewlio!

 03:49 LisaVanAllen : Loving this!

 03:49 WendyYBailey : Me too, Lisa!

 03:49 SelfMadeCelo : Another great plugin is “Lifestream” reads RSS feeds from a ton of different social sites (Digg, FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr, etc) and posts it on one page

 03:49 LifeCoachMary : Where do we find that twitter to blog tool? Very cool!

 03:49 shermanlive : “Share This”

 03:49 WendyYBailey : plug-ins:  podpress

 03:50 shermanlive : “Twitter Tools

 03:50 TonyBlake : lifestream is another cool plugin — it posts your twitter or a twitter digest directly to your blog as a post

 03:50 shermanlive : “Podpress” http://MightySeek.com

 03:50 SelfMadeCelo : @Tony, great minds think alike eh? lol

 03:51 TonyBlake : LOL!… didn’t see your comment

 03:51 shermanlive : http://WishlistPlugin.com

 03:51 SelfMadeCelo : I’m actually setting up Lifestream right now =)

 03:55 WendyYBailey : http://snipurl.com/diy-wp-wendyy

 03:55 LifeCoachMary : Are plugins easy to install, or is it best to delegate to VA?

 03:56 LisaVanAllen : Give me a call Wendy!

 03:57 LisaVanAllen : Answer Mary’s question about whether we should hire a VA for our plugins??

 03:57 WendyYBailey : Plug-ins are easy but do delegate to a VA so you can focus on doing what you truly love — coaching!

 03:58 LifeCoachMary : Thank you!! Now I know how my peeps feel not understanding all this language. Thanks for doing this!

 03:58 WendyYBailey : You’re quite welcome!

 04:02 WendyYBailey : http://tutorialu.com

 04:03 WendyYBailey : http://wordpresstutorials.com

 04:03 WendyYBailey : http://diytechtalk.com  

 04:03 WendyYBailey : GENIUS!!

 04:04 WendyYBailey : You might also have a web dev/project manager to handle that stuff too.

 04:04 LifeCoachMary : You make it sound not so scary…but I’ll probably still delegate.

 04:05 shermanlive : lol – good for you!

 04:05 LifeCoachMary : If we’re a newbie with plugins, what’s the one or two we should add first?

 04:05 WendyYBailey : http://elance.com

 04:05 shermanlive : odesk.com

 04:05 WendyYBailey : http://guru.com

 04:05 WendyYBailey : http://odefk.com

 04:05 WendyYBailey : lol  http://odesk.com

 04:06 WendyYBailey : Do you know joselin mane?

 04:06 LisaVanAllen : Joselin Mane is awesome!

 04:06 LisaVanAllen : So, so helpful!

 04:07 WendyYBailey : http://groupcoachingmastery.com is a Semiologic pro/WP blog.

 04:09 WendyYBailey : That’s way kewl!